EVIL! EVIL! EVIL!

"Torture, where in your life have you heard hundreds of people shouting 'Evil! Evil! Evil!' and stomping their feet for a bunch of gals on wheels? Isn't that awesome?'" And it was! CarnEvil won in 'final death' yesterday night at our first official bout of the season! It was amazing, close, fun, fun, fun. We were convinced that we had come together as a team and would win against the Hula Honeys but at halftime we were down by 21 points. The second jam of the second half, I scored 15 points as jammer and slowly, we started champing at the score... And the belief in our team became palatable - not only from ourselves but from the fans! Cia raced out of the penalty box and took out the opposing jammer with such malice in her eyes I thought she was going to spit on her, Luna held the front line like it was nobody's business, Suzi took people out with solid, clean hits (we were in the penalty box so much less), Mona Agony, new to our team, jammed like a champ...soon we were down by 7, then 6, then 1 point and time ran out! I was thrilled at our comeback - but then Honeys lost a point and we found ourselves tied!

The crowd was going nuts, people were lined up around the edges and I got back to the line to jam in "sudden death" to break the tied score (my teammates and I were dancing on the line waiting for it to start) - and we knew we had it. The whistle blew for the jam to start - me and the opposing jammer jostled for the line but CarnEvil held her as a got thru the pack. I got around to the pack again (where two Honeys who were in the penalty box) joined the jam - I managed to get around them and score 4 points - hulling ass - I looked up at the score board and finally slowed down with 3 seconds left. We had it! We won! And it was so fantastic! The crowd was going nuts! We hadn't won a single exposition bout last year; we had had our share of drama and we needed this win so badly. And it was fantastic.

The whole day was great: from setting up during the day, to skating your heart out, to the beer drinking with your teammates and others you just played. It's been a long year in the making - our first season! We finally had a venue (though we still can't serve alcohol) and our second time there we've nearly mastered our set up and tear down. Though we still don't have a floor (we're borrowing Rat City's), we're close to owning one of our very own. All of our teams have uniforms, logos, identities and we have a "booty camp" for new skaters that's full of potential. We do community work and sponsor non-profits. We'll most likely sell out our whole season and we have a whole host of opportunities to do some really fun and great things.

And I love it. Even with all of the headaches and frustrations, the high blood pressure, the long days and nights and nearly wanting to pull out your hair - I love what it's done for me and I love what's its done for so many other women - and communities! What a truly wonderful movement to be a part of...and at times completely overwhelming especially if you can get a whole crowd of people to cheer "Evil! Evil! Evil!"