Leaving NYC for Berlin

There is always a new destination on my road, I am always heading somewhere new, but leaving NYC I do with a very heavy heart! I love Bunny, OMG, Bonnie, Fisti and Justin here... they are just great people... not to mention my old Manhattan Mayhem teammates and all that!

I do also miss my friends in Seattle and my friend in LA, Chicago, Denver and yeah... all those increadble girls I have gotten to know via derby! But most of all miss my girl in Copenhagen, she is quite grand!

 Yesterday I hung out at Five Stride, and now I'm a proud owner of a pair of PURPLE Moxi skates, a five stride hoodie, gumball toestops and I also finally got those DARN Stingers... I cannot wait to try them out at Malmös next practice, but first I have a stop in Berlin, to attend EROC.

Practice in NYC

Practice with Manhattan Mayhem, fun off-skate stuff... I like off-skate stuff... I think I like anything that makes me sweat and feel alive. I miss this place, I miss it all... after practice I went over to Bonnie and OMG's and had Guinness, isn't it grand when your friends know what beer to feed you.
Yeah, I am a beersnob... it is ok... you can say it...

Team Amazon 2009

Krissy Krash really is an awesome friend, and we just have lots of fun together. She is hardworking and just a little hetroflexible, but I think that is just fun! We are great partners in crime, even if she litterally lives on the other side of the globe from me... but we are both proud skaters of Team Amazon...

That's all I wanted to say right now... I love Team Amazon, you have to be over 5'10 to skate for Team Amazon. And it's a yearly battle between the Amazones and the Anklebiters (who like to call themselves Shortbus) at both RollerCon and at ECE....

Another amazing skater on Team Amazon is Miss Evil, she is one of the coolest people I know. A tall drink of water and also a Team Legit skater, just coming back from a brooken foot. I go to spend a large chunk of this weekend with her too... yep...

I suspect Krissy Krash is gay

(is that a vagina you have on your shirt or are you just happy to see me?)

She seem to have homosexual tendencies, and then I saw an article in the Advocate, and they refered to her as a lesbian... I was shocked... Now I am not sure if I ever dare to share bed with her ever again...

By the way, Krissy Krash is one of my really great friends, we met at Battle of the Bank II, so I have Team Legit to thank for this amazing friendship (even if she thinks she is hetroflexible, I think she is gaaaaaay) and all the great times we have together

. 

Team Legit and LA Riettes - January 2011

Courtesy of Hellarad

Since I have been hanging out with Demanda aka T. McGuire, she reminded me that there is an online edition of Hellarad... and it was funny because my jeaggings and DeRanged aka S. Hayden are having a conversation... so here... brought to you by Hellarad from the WFTDA Championships:

As long as you skate...

... it doesn't matter if it's banked or flat...

Sunday Funday

Last time I had a Sunday Funday with Team Legit, I ended up with a tattoo on the back of my leg reading ''derby life'' but that will not happen today... we did do some serious work for a Hellarad article... but except from that I am just slightly buzzed and soon we are going over to the Doll House to watch Rat Citys Grave Danger bout one of the LA Derby Dolls home teams bout... yeah, somedays you gotta have some playtime OFF the track... I am sore!

Team Legit skates again.. .and this time to a win!

Team Legit wins over LA... flat trackers can bank it up... and it was fun, and we did it! I love skating on the bank track, it is so different, but different is good! A challange is always what I am up for! Yepp... ahhh... but I am jet lagged and tired, and now also bruised!

Morning skate with Krissy Krash

Waking up with the window open and the sun shining in, Krissy shook the shakes up for us and we put our skates on. Tip-toed down the stairs and hit the streets, grabbed some coffee and then just skates along the beach... yes... those are the days I wish I lived in California... Tonight Team Legit has practice at the banked track, but before that me and Krissy will come up with a thousand things to do... Maybe go to Forever 21 and dress up and take pictures, maybe go to Moxi and stare at skates, maybe get some food, some juice, some fruit...

Krissy Krash is my twin tower trouble

In a couple of hours I get to see Krissy Krash! I wonder if she will read this. Who knows, maybe she will take me home and feed me! It will be a suprise! And I really like suprises! Damn, the girl on the flight next to me smells terrible, like beefstew and sweat, but she's really young and should smell better.
I miss Malooney, she never smells like beef stew, she always smell like roses... Ugh, my sinuses are congested and I have a feeling this trip will be slightly painful!

Rollerderby makes me smile

Thinking about it, how rollerderby have affected my life in so many great ways, makes me happy. I am on an airport on my way to LA to spend time with friends and skate banked track. I just spent time in NYC with people that like, for whom I am.
Rollerderby has made me accept myself more, being proud of not being like everyone else. I owe so much of my confidence to rollerderby. I have never been fake, I have always tried to be myself, but that is differnt from acctually being able to look at yourself and be proud and happy for who you are.

Practice with the old team

Pie (captain my captain) made us do pyramid sprints, I think I might have died, just a little, but kept on going. It was so odd to skate on sport-court again, so grippy... I have gotten used to the slickness of the floors in Sweden... but I am about to get a pair of Stingers from Five Stride! I am soooo excited about it!

Gotta see my trouble twin tower...

 (rollercon 2010)

Krissy is coming to pick me up from the LA airport and I get to spend som trouble time with her before I reunite myself with Team Legit!

I love you guys... yeah

Yesterday I hung out with my former team-mates, and it makes me sad that I am not going to skate with them during 2011, it really breaks my heart. OMG, Bonnie, Fisti and Bunny are about the most awesome ppl in the world. I had some beers with OMG while she was mounting plates at the new Five Stride location and it is freaking ASSKICKING and awesome.

I love to play derby, it is one of the best things I ever took upon myself to do, and I did it well, really well, and I still do. And tonight I'm going to fly out to LA to reunite with Team Legit to once again play the LA Derby Dolls on the banked track... just hoping no-one changed their elbowpads to steel...

Trip it to NYC and LA

Hanging with the gang in NYC... and then heading towards LA for a team Legit bout... I am about to board and for a bit I can relax and not think about a thousand derby related things. I bought a dumb girly book that I will devour in a very not butch way...

Sometimes I hate rollerderby...

 (we are are all different, but beutiful together, i know, I'm cheesy)

...but it usually only lasts for a minute, for an hour and then I am over it because I remember all the great tings about it. Roller-derby is filled with strong-willed women that have lot's of opinions, and most of the time we are very much on the same track, but sometimes we are not. And then you have to negotiate, you have to find common grounds, you have to find solutions we all are happy with. Sometimes you have to give up and decide that just because you were not voting for a desicion, doesn't really make it a terrible one.

Sometimes I don't think we see how hard someone has worked for a thing, and we are to quick to the negative response, rather than a ''good job'' - now let's talk. I am a realist but I also believe in the good in womankind, I think that when we listen to each other and treat each other with respect, we can move mountains.

I have learned that the ones that come off as the strongest most of the time are the ones that need affirmation, that need to know that what they do are important. We think just because someone has a fast and aggressive response they need to be dealt with aggressively, but they don't... that is the last thing you have to do... those are things I have learned from derby, from life, but mostly from derby, because I have met so many different people and tough women with great ideas and visions.

When it comes down to it all, we just wanna play derby and have fun... we wanna fall into each others arms, sweaty and proud that we together build teams and leauges that no-one would have dreamed about 10 years ago... Welcome 2011, welcome another year of amazing derbyness....

Rollerderby, rollerderby, rollerderby wherever I look!

 (my last Rat City bout )

I seriously never get aways from rollerderby, I dream about it, I talk about it, I plan it, I write about it... It is all about it! I miss it but at the same time it is what makes me laugh and I have made so many friends playing derby, coaching derby or just thinking derby...

Yesterday was my birthday

(this is NOT from yesterday, but it is Krazy Kris and Mad Maloony)

My birthday was amazing, my wonderful girl took me to a SPA and we just chilled out in different bodies of water, saunas and massage chairs. And then Krazy Kris came over to our place and we made pancakes and watched Inception. I was delighted!

Right now I'm thinking about rollerderby 24/7, and it is getting a little over my head, I just wish I could get something else into my head, but all I think about is: How can I find a place for Team Sweden to practice, how can I find a space for Stockholm to practice, how can I find a better place for us all to bout. What drills are best to run for who, what does this person need to practice, why does some people don't get things that are clear as water to others.... coaching is not easy... but it is really REALLY fun!

Rollerderby in Swedish Media today

(you can play a SPORT and be a little crazy, photo by Jules Doyle)

For you who speak Swedish Dagens Nyheter (Swedish Dayily News) just wrote a quite long article about Stockholm Rollerderby... Nothing out of the ordinary, for been doing research with the Stockholm leauge for a year, I think it's a little thin, quite basic and stereotypical article. Just the article that someone that has not really understood or been a part of rollerderby would write, with a focus on the fishnets, (and we all know how stupid fishnet burns are) party, lipstick, alcohol and sexy lingerie, not being able to capture that spirit of sisterhood, of love, hard work and inspiration to be someone together with a team, a leauge, a community... a family...

I love Stockholm Rollerderby, I been helping them in different ways since I started derby in late 2007, I have coached, I have dragged skates from Fast Girls in Seattle to some remote outdoor hockeyrink in Stockholm and given tips in many ways. I know that those girls have trouble to get a place to skate, if they could decide they would practice five times a week, and tear up the world. Sadly that is not their reality, I wish it was... but I guess we cannot have it all! Stockholm is a very cool leauge, and I love them all, the lipstick wearing ones and the ones who don't give a f***! I know that they work so hard, plan practices in parking garages, ice-skate and crosstrain when the city can't provide them with a training facility. Those girls dream of their own training facility, they dream of talking over the world.

They are mothers, nurses, paralegals, webdesigner, they wear sexy underwear or boxers, they listen to punk, hip hop, techno, reaggea, schlager or something i dont even know the name of, they are straight, gay, queer, crazy, mellow, funny, boring... but that is not the point, the point is that they wanna kick ass on roller skates and play a full-contact sport!

Sometimes I just get tired of how media have to analyze and stereotype rollerderby, we end up in the ''Life Style'' section of newspapers... when rollerderby is a competative sport... yes we go out and party after a great game... but so does most athletes I know... and I can tell you all one thing... I never met so many people that have quit smoking, gotten motivated to a healthier lifestyle, quit drugs ect ect... than just rollerderby girls... Rollerderby is a great motivation to become a better you!

The greatest thing about derby is that it is a teamsport where you can express your induviduality, but when it comes down to it all, working together is everything, accepting that we are all different, that we have different triggerpoints. It is fun... derby is something I love deeply, something that makes me laugh and cry...

Coaching Crime City

So yesterday was my first day of coaching Crime City, right now we are mostly working on basic skills, since they have their minimum skills test next Sunday, but basics are never ever wrong to practice. I introduced coffins to them, and who does not like lying around on the floor?

The worst part is that I am sick as a dog and feel TERRIBLE and would love to stay in bed and I am coaching today again... och yeah, I am! SO off me and Malou goes, on a train and back to Malmo from her mothers house in Naesved... yeah... you just google that place...

back in Copenhagen sans Coffee

I admit I am a coffee addict, it started while I worked as a barista at Fuel in Seattle, this is a lie, I think I have been since the age of 15, but Fuel turned me into what my dear ex would say ''a coffee snob'' but when it comes down to it all... at this point, I'll take any damn old coffee...

Earlier today I went to the Danish supermarket that is down the road from mine and Malous house, got some food, lots of milk (for my coffee) and walked home. And yeah... oh yeah! It happened, I forgot to buy the most essential, and that is coffee to go with all that milk I bought!

So the logic choice would be to go back, I have never been known to be logic, so instead I'm in bed feeling sorry for myself trying to write an article, plan a practice and work up the confidence to call for a job...

Team Legit is skating again!

  (Original Team Legit at Battle of the Bank II in Austin, Texas)

I booked my ticket to LA, I am going to NYC and then to LA to skate banked track with my ever lovley Team Legit! The roster is loking KICK ASS and I once again get to hang out with Krissy Krash, my troublemaking twin-tower!

I love Team Legit! 

We are playing in LA on the second to last weekend of January (Sat. Jan. 22nd: Ri-Ettes vs Team Legit) and then I'm throwing my ass on a flight back to NYC and then I will enjoy three days there before meeting a bunch of AMAZING European derby girls at EROC II in Berlin, Germany!

Ice-skating Rollerderby style

 (some of the Stockholm Rollerderby girls in full action)

So if you don't have an indoor place to rollerskate and it is negative 10 degrees celsius outside... you can always go ice-skating!
There are a whole bunch of drills you can practice on ice-skates that will help your rollerskating.  You can try things like:
- a single paceline
- one-knee falls (wach out, you will gliiiiiiide)
- cross-overs
- hockey stops
- one foot
- skating backwards
well, the list can go on, and on, and on... I sort of don't recommend hits or scrimmage practices... and wear you kneepads!! Since we roller-derby girls automatically throw ourselves on the knees when we fall... but also wearing writsguards, helmets and even elbowpads are NOT a bad idea.

Maloony tried to teach me some really simple figure skating jump, and apperently I do everything the wrong way, but some really amazing and fantastic Russian girl used to do it, so apperently hope is not out for me! 

Ice-skating with Stockholm Rollerderby

Well, not all of them, but a few... it will be fun, I just have to remember to wear kneepads!

On Friday I'll be coaching Crime City Rollers, and that will be awesome!

Happy New Year and Lesbian Boot Camp

(Jessica, Husse and Me at New Years Eve)

I went to my mothers birthplace for New Years together with Sarra, Krazy Kris, Jessica, Karin, Husse, Loony and Enoc (her name is also Lina, so we had to rename her since my birthname is Lina). Sågmyra is where my mother grew up and a tiny village in Dalarna and close to Bjursås Ski Center, Sågmyra also has a small ice-rink, cross-contry ski tracks and an outlet called Lager 157... 

I started the stay off with two days of downhill skiing, and that my dear friends, I have not done in at least ten years, since I was a competative snowboarder and thought skiing was quite lame. I must admit that I had a blast, and Loony was doing a great job for her first time ever on skis.

At New Years Eve we made dinner together, it was quite amazing, fish, meat and vegetarian in a great mix and had great wine and whiskey to go with it... and after food we all took out 80's outfits on and headed to the icerink. While we been eating it had been snowing about a feet and a half... and the lights for the rink apperently did not work at 23.30, so when we got there, we cleared out a small square of the ice, put out ice-skates on and played a fierce game of hockey with indoor-floorball sticks and a bandy ball.  We quit when Jessica fell on her hand and we went home to drink some more sparkling wine and play dice until we fell asleep in front of the fire... we are hoping for a sauna in 2011.

Oh, and the theme for the night was to wear Apres Ski outfits... and we had no speakers, so we put our iPhones into a bucket.. .and it worked... oh yeah! AND I learned great Danish words like ''Vornumse'' and we taught the Danes great Swedish sayings like ''Slicka upp i brygga''...

(Karin and our candy-bucket we turned into a speaker)

New Years day we were all a little hung-over, but most of us took a lap or two in the cross-country tracks... some of us longer than others.. I enjoyed it and once again decided that 2011 or 2012 is the year for a Svensk Klassiker. 

Day four we packed the cars, went shopping at the outlet and headed back to Stockholm....

It was the best ever Lesbian Boot Camp that it was named by Sarra and Kris... (we were all couples except from Kris and Sarra - Me and Malou, Karin and Jessica, Husse and Enoc )

 (This is right outside Sågmyra, taken from the cross-country tracks by Karin)