Surprises all around...

Not posting to my blog has been one of the side effects of this illness I can't seem to shake - since like December. I also haven't called my friends, cleaned my appartment and have had just enough energy to make it to work and derby practice in the evenings. It's also kept me away from Heidi's new baby Lucia much to my chagrin. So I finally went to the doctor and hope that it is truly a sinus infection and my "old self" will be back soon.

However, the big event this weekend was the Rat City Roller Girls bout. It was truly a "derby weekend" with volunteering on Friday and participating in the halftime show on Saturday. Jet City Roller Girls first demonstrated "the rules of the game" during the pre-show. We just "bouted" in slow motion. (Picture of me and Sassy Pants as pivots) We were also invited to play "Last Woman Standing" with Rat City (who just won the Western Region Championship - woot - bytheway) for the half time entertainment. The game is just like it says... you skate around and knock each other down or squarely out of bounds. The "last woman standing" wins. We had been practicing this for the last two weeks and though we had some great strategies (beside "don't get knocked out") it was packed as about 35-40 skaters started the game. I lost my trio of other skaters right away as the whistle blew and the hitting started. I tried to knock those I could and skate away from those I couldn't. I rolled on the outside line with one skate (trying to say in), one leg in the air and figured I was out and started to skate away when the ref yelled for me to "get back in there". So I did. To my surprise, as the dust started to settle and derby girls picked themselves up off the ground and skated away I found myself still skating. I looked across the rink and there was ONE other Jet City teammate, Selma Highkick. We made brief eye contact. It was enough for it seemed like the remaining 4 Rat City noticed me (it was like I screamed, HERE I AM) and I took off skating (for my life). I couldn't even believe I was the last JCRG on the floor! I did a couple of laps trying to shake them and saw my end as another skater had slowed down, with three on my tail, I was going out. And I did. But was an incredible SURPRISE and an incredible evening and our derby gals did so damn well! I was so proud and so thrilled to be part of such a fantastic group.

The other surprise of the week were all the blossoms on the trees. I awoke groggy one morning and noticed the tree in my neighbors' backyard FILLED with pink blossoms. Then driving home from skate practice, there were more trees on 80th with blossoms out. It's honestly almost spring! And it's still February! Woot! Woot!