Ham sandwiches, a "murder of crows", cabbage juice

All kinds of rollergirls have all different strategies about what to eat before a bout ranging from "power drinks" to bananas and nuts and a zillion other things in between. I'm a pretty light dinner eater on practice nights and I use to have a secret formula to eating the day of a bout but I found something better. At the last bout, because we spent the whole day setting up the floor, laying out the space, etc, nuts, bananas, and granola bars just didn't do it for me. Cia, one of my team skaters, brought some sandwiches from QFC and I easily ate half of a store made ham sandwich. It was my "ideal" prebout meal but honestly gave me me "energy" since I was rather tried out. So I requested another store bought ham sandwich, ate a few bites, and felt great again. It's not magical food to help you win (because it sure didn't last night) but truthfully, the fancy stuff isn't going to make you win the game.

Today, the day after my bout, (where we got lost pretty hardily), I went to the Best of the NorthWest Craft Fair. It was downtown at the "Qwest" events center and seemed pretty massive. Today was part of my secret (read: drunk) New Year's resolution to "do fun and crafty things with my friend Glitter" - who was also a rollergirl. And though we love rollerderby, we find that we need other things in our lives like more art and crafts. We're both crafty people with very limited time. Looking at the website, I thought everything was going to be too pricey and break my budget limit quickly (of $100). We ate some veggie burgers for lunch and headed downtown in the wintry Seattle weather .

It was like many other craft shows but because it was a juried show was seemingly a more "refined" level of craft. Many artists were frustrated though. They use to have this event at Hanger 27, also where Rat City Roller Girls use to host their bouts, and the city kicked everyone out of this affordable event space to allow it to be renovated into a sports complex - which has now fallen through. Anyway, it wasn't a lively festive arts fair that it once was but one that would fit more in a suburban mall. Not that there wasn't great art - there was so truly fantastic stuff. There was an artist, Don McMahon, who was just as funny as his pencil sketches were. And though I tend to think of birds as "flying dinosaurs" (and I mean really, they are) I was taken by a "murder of crows" - which is what a group of crows are called (like a gaggle of geese). It cracked me up and it was completely different my other art work which is comprised of mostly photography, art by women and a series of "f*ck you" pieces. So at the end, we went back and got a framed print. It's already found a home on the wall. http://www.birdsonthings.com/drawings.php?offset=8

The day after a bout I usually feel one of two things - a derby hangover (from getting the shit knocked out of me) or a general hangover (from drinking too many beers on a nearly empty stomach). Today I didn't feel either except an ulcer and a jaw ache. The jaw ache came from one of my own teammates who flung her arm back (while clearing space for me when I was jamming) and hit me square in the mouth - most knocking me over. (I have four teeth dents inside my lower lip.) And then there is an ucler - which upon doing all of this research is caused by bacteria but agitated by STRESS (read: roller derby, being team captain, my new job and not being able to get to the gym much in the last week) and taking things like millions of Advil last year for my knee injury, comes into play. It's self diagnosed but I'm 100% sure that is what it is and it's completely aggrivated. One of the most wonderful people I've met in derby is a second generation organic/natural foods family store owner and she recommended all kinds of things include Aloe Vera juice and DGL (licorice pills to help digestion) to help with the symptoms. But in doing all of this online research I've also found that I need cabbage juice. It actually seems to cure ulcers - which is what I need because anything that takes away my love of coffee, drinky drinks and spicy food must go. But cabbage juice? Gross. I mean cabbage isn't that fantastic anyway - it's a pretty bland vegetable that good as coldslaw and in peanut stew - oh with tons of vitamin C and "vitamin U". Who knew? Do does anyone have a juicer?