Another practice, blisters, and just that thang... learning

Sometimes everything is just great, just great, I'm hyper (most of the time) and I want to do everything. Yesterday I went to open skate and then stayed around for NYSE practice that Jonathan R lead. I had blisters when I started skating... 4 hours later, they were no better... that's all I can say on that matter. We all choose dumb things at times... my blisters choose to not go away... but dont worry, we will have words.

I am constantly feeling like I am catching up on skills, the past four years I developed a lot, but my prime focus was to teach and coach others, to develop teams and rollerderby in general. On many oaccations me being the most seasoned and skilled skater. And as I've said before, I don't mind, I love being able to coach and share all the derby with everyone.

BUT it is really amazing to be able to go to a practice and learn a bunch of new skills, well, at least take a stab at them. Yesterday it was fun, because we did a bunch of skills that were derived from speedskating, artistic skating and jamskating... and against my own better understanding, we scrimmaged for a bit.

Yeah.... I am hurting today, from using a bunch of unkonwm muscles and from a nice hit I got that really sent me flying... happens... it happens...

So far this month I have skated for about 36 hours (including my outdoor skate) - and I've gotten better at feeding myself. I've started to cook at home, at this point I might be making a little too much pasta, but yesterday I made crepes filled with mincedmeat sauce. Freaking amazing in my mouth after practice. 

Two weeks til Champs

Gotham Allstars practice today - things that were mentioned: buttplugg and pullout after 10-15 seconds...

At times I want to cry, because it is hard. And then I laugh, really hard, because those amazing woman around me are all on my team. 

Pink hair and NYSE getting THIRD

I woke up this morning wearing a gold lamé dress and my hair pink with golden jewlery stuck in it. Sometimes things just don't end up the way you plan them to be, and for the past few months I've tried to be more carefree... I guess this really shows success...

I even felt slightly hung over, and when checking my e-mail I realised that I missed dodgeball with NYSE. I was still in time for the GGRD/NYSE combined on-skate part of practice. Most of the dudes were in Tacoma an dcurrently GGRD are in off-seson, except from us Allstars... so it was not really the busiest. We ended a little early to grab food before we sat down and watched NYSE play.. .and that was the rest of the day... I watched mens derby with a bunch of people and I enjoyed it. I still have to say that "come on my chest" is a thought that pops up ever so often... sooo much chest to chest action... at times in the Puget Sound/NYSE they skated so close chest to chest I think they were about to ask each other out on a date. At least they seem to have enought time to share some real intimte time...

NYSE ended up third - so we celebrated that with some nice cava...  SO many CONGRATULATIONS to NYSE, you guys did awesome and it was great to watch you. Being able to skate with those guys really have given me a new and more positive look on merby, and it has been superfun. And it was fun to watch Southern Discomfort... GO England! Derby truly is sreching allover the world...

And then I went home, L-train through Bushwick while Maven was falling asleep on my shoulder. I am for once starting to feel like I have my feet under me in a very long time. I think I'm starting to feel like I'm home.

Night ending with listen to all sorts of music together with Vish and eating ice-cream... yeah... it is life!

Insomnia is for sure still something that I have to deal with, and at times I think we might have a korean waterghost in the apartment... 

Coaching Junior Rollerderby and MRDA Champs

Today I asked Gotham juniors, and it was so much fun. I never coached junior, well, in a very long time, so it was a great experiance. It's funny, when I got there Mick said to me: Oh, the big kid is coaching the smaller kids. And it might be that way, I am a real big goofball... it was a little odd coaching at first, since I really have not been coaching since I left Sweden a few months ago. But coaching juniors is pretty much like coaching anyone. Maybe their attentionspan is a little shotrer, but then half of the derbyplayers I know seem to suffer from ADHD or some simular attentionspan deficency. It is what it is....
I did my favorite off-skate and the warm-up I used to run with Stockholm all the time, I havent either coached such a small group in a long time, it sort of reminded me of when I started coming over to Sweden, and all leauges only had 7-15 players at practice.

After coaching I went over to a friend and watched NYSE play their first game in Tacoma at the Man Champs. They did good and won with alsmost 200 points... it's cool to see two of your coaches play, and some part of me want to tease Buster about going to the box so much.

So today been full of derby, and I am still watching the men play, my first coach from Jet City plays on Puget Sounds, so it's fun to watch them play Bridgetown (Portland) that I also slightly know some players on.

As I*ve said before, I adore derby, womam, man and junior... the rollerderby I play will always be closest to my heart... but at the same time... the more derby, the better. Tomorrow NYSE will be playing the Gatekeepers, so it's gonna be real exciting.... I am sooo down for watching more roller derby!

Life with rollerderby in Gotham

Practice is amazing, I love to feel that I'm feeling more and more like I'm a part of the team. It is always hard to come to a new team, and trying to become a part of the hivemind, is not the easiest task I have taken on. i knew it wasn't going to be easy, but it's been soo great and I've learned a ton.

I mena, it's freaking hard to play against hte best of the best and always fighting to get better, but since I started to read a book about positive selftalk. I has gotten better and better. I really think that it have had a good impact on my gameplay. I just simply tell myself that only I cn take responsability of my own actions.

A great Sunday on skates and some thoughts about men derby...

This morning I woke up to NO coffee, taht is for sure not a great morning, I woke up, took a shower, trampled a small cockroach, emailed Abe and asked if I could join the Shock Exchange practice (that's the New York mens team) and took off to Crashpad to spy on Fresh Meat and help Bones with some paper filing. I met her on the subway and the great rson she is, she had COFFEE in a jar to share with me. Right then I knew it was gonna be a great day. After over an hour of filing paperwork for our rec leauge I ran into Abe who told me I was welcome to skate with the dudes. Yay, day was getting better.

To be honest, I've always have had very mixed feelings about men and their desire to play rollerderby. It's not that I have anything against mens rollerderby, I for a long time felt like rollerderby was something that I as a woman worked really hard to make what it is today (absolutley with help from male referees and volonteers). I felt that if men wanted to play a fullcontact sport, why couldn't they just play hockey or something else that men already had a really big presence in. I felt very entiteled to rollerderby, and there are several reasons to it, several things that are to personal to write about in this blog and some simple reasons as in that we live in a patriarchy. I don't hate men in any way, some men annoy me, so does some women. And to be honest, I don't mind playing rollerderby with men, most men I've played rollerderby with are delightful and amazing. They love this sport just as much as I do and work hard to push it forward, they recognize that women are what made rollerderby to what it is today.
What worries me is that it might get lost, the respect for women, but there are so many things that might get lost, and when it comes down to it all, "the more rollerderby, the better". I love to play rollerderby, and who would I be to take that away from anyone. Still I have to admit it scares me.

I had a great time skating with NYSE today, they are all really nice and cool dudes, some of them freaking amazing derbyplayers, and their size really does challange me, I am used to be able to push other players out of the way... not so much here. They have a different style of play, MUCH more backwards blocking, def a skill I need to work on more, and are all really hardworking. I had a great time, and they are going to MRDA champs next weekend. And I wish them ALL the luck, and some more in Tacoma... ahhh... good old Tacoma!

After practice i had a beer and then I went home and made a great pasta meal for me and Vish. Yepp, life is not bad at all... 

Back on Westside Highway

I met up with Snagge, who is a skater from Gothenburg Rollerderby that is travelling US for a few months, to skate the Westside Hightway that runs along the Westside of Manhattan. When I lived in NYC a few years back I lived down in TriBeCa and used to skate it almost every week. So it was a little of a memortlane sort of skate.
It was really fun, and quite brisk skate... I was already sore when I started, I am not sure if skating is the best way of gettting rid of tired legs... but I think it was worth a try...

Part of the skate was really awesome, and about as quiet and naturelike as it gets in NYC. I completly wanna go again before the fall takes over... not to talk about the winter... brrr...

Sometimes you just miss what you don't have...

I love NYC, but sometimes it's a city, it's a loud city, and it's one of the reasons why I do love it. The pace, the honesty, the drive to always go, go, go... it is also EXHAUSTING.

I wake up and feel tired, I have forgotten what the sound of no sound is and I feel like I am running, running and running and yet doesn't accomplish anything. Those days are hard, and I stand in the middle of the street and I'll shed a tear, and sometimes I guess it is fine to go home and sleep.

When I came to NYC I slept so much, I slept and slept and just couldn't get enought of sleep because I had let my life run crazy with me.

Currently my head is spinning, I have so many words that want to run through my fingers, to fill page after page of stories and at the same time I want to walk and sort all those pages out. I am turning page after page, and like a spellbook, each sentance seem to have a new meaning after every word spoken.

I love Gotham Allstars...

I love to play with you, and I hate to play against you. Gotham Allstars practice is the hardest practices I hav ever been too, and sometimes I feel like sitting down and crying, but at the same time I know it makes us all better. I just have to dig deep and try harder. everyone working so hard, this team is so amazing.

When we split up to scrimmage I always look at the ppl in the opposing team and think, damn WHY DO I HAVE TO SKATE AGAINST THEM? And then I look at the ppl on my team and think, DAMN, I GET TO SKATE WITH THOSE GIRLS! It motivates me to work hard and harder!

This week I went to practice leauge Monday and stayed for an extra hour after and played around with some skills, Open Scrimmage on Tuesday, leauge and Allstars scrimmage on Wednesday and Allstars practice on Thursday. Today I am just gonna watch playoffs and tomrrow I'm helping out with Gotham try-outs before I'm going to Scrimmage with Traitors.... yay... more rollerderby!