A looooong weekend...

I took Friday off because I was doing a small presentation and tabling at an HIV AIDS and Black Women Conference. I talked about the CAB a little and microbisides which, hopefully, one day will allow women to take control of their health and be able to do something to prevent AIDS (instead of having to trust men to do). I also went to a workshop about the web of violence and trauma (rape, slavery, police brutality, medical experimentation), and black Americans and how it makes them more susceptible to HIV infection. I had learned this at various points in my life - mostly thru literature and film but was reminded of it. I left at noon to grab lunch with a friend and go home and clean! I threw open the windows (it was starting to warm up) and shoo out the dust.

Early Saturday morning a carfull of us headed north to Marysville to volunteer for the MS Walk. About 11 Carnies showed up to volunteer at the first station. Half of us handed out water, jerky and oranges while another group of us went around the corner and flagged walkers the right direction. It was was super fun - partly because we spent most of the time entertaining each other and the othe part because it was nice to be doing something for the community that didn't involve raising money for our team... that would come later that night. We packed it up around 11 a.m. and headed back to our homes.

There was a merby (men's derby) bout later on Saturday coupled with a Tootsie Rollers (little derby girls) and a Brats (bigger derby girls) bout.  It was awesome to see three (ok, 2.5) generations of derby action.  Merby is exciting for about 20 minutes then you're like, Ok, they don't play by the rules, they're all about showing off, etc.  We left the bout early and headed to a bar night in Lynnwood - it started off shaky but ended up being a night of pure laughter.  There was a teammate who was a one woman show (but not that she's-so-drunk-I'm-embarrassed-for-her type of thing.)  We raised some money and had a great time.

Sunday-super-sunshiny-ball-in-the-sky, I outdoor skated with some teammates having a heavenly time.  It was beautiful!  I took a cat nap, watch bout footage, went to practice and came home - having had an incredibly long, but rather satisfying weekend - which admittedly made Monday rather disappointing (except practice ROCKED)... there's always Tuesday.  And if that doesn't make the week better, then there is a chance to play hooky some time... and enjoy the sun.

*Carnies at the MS Walk