ghosts are good company

oh oh oh oh oh

yesterday’s cosa nostra donnas vs. derby liberation front bout was… wow. my phone *and* camera died right before, so my photodocumentation is limited, but the number of enthusiastic squeaks i could make is very high. i had to borrow a phone to call and enthuse in jaci’s general direction.

i think i like skateland better than skateworld – the ambiance is much nicer… but we weren’t able to get rinkside seats, so it was hard for me to see well enough to keep score and stuff very well… also the benches we were on hurt my butt… so i worked very heard on my cheering, first sitting on my knees and then standing on the benches.

dlf took the lead early and kept in throughout the first half. this made me very happy. the game was pretty clean, considering… there was an instance where i think an oly roller was almost leap-frogging one of the dlf, but other than that i couldn’t see anything too overwhelming (did i mention that i’m nearsighted?).

the halftime show was great, although the seattle derby brats pretty much whomped the kitsap derby brats… it was my first time seing jr. derby and they certainly did it good. “she just went under the blocker’s legs! is that even allowed?” you don’t see that much… ever… in old person derby!”

oh my goodness the second half. oly came back fierce, ready to take the bout home. they were slowly gaining back points until there were just a few minutes left and olympia was finally up by… a lot. i had thought they had it sewn shut as they went into the last jam, but then – oh then – the seattle jammer (i’m pretty sure it was burnett down?) grand slammed… and then some. she picked the lead back up brought it home for my sweet revolutionaries, laving the mob joint in cinders with a final score of 99-97. hot.

also there was cake.

i decided to backpedal – um, skate backward – with my skating practice. i’ve been going to boot camp with the san diego derby dolls off and on, but having trouble there because i’m Just Not Good Enough. so i decided (on the recommendation of a skater who used to live in s.d. but has recently moved down from san francisco…) to try out the Adult Skating Lessons at skateworld. they’re shorter, cheaper, and more geared to people my level – and also a totally different kind of workout! we were doing a “scissor” thing around the rink, where you use your legs to move your feet out and in without lifting them up? and ow, my thighs. i don’t get this much of a thigh workout just striding.

so that hurts. but also, i managed to fall down and kick myself pretty hard in the inner-thigh. no wonder derby’s hardcore, if i can injure myself this much just on my own. i haven’t worn my skatetown shirt to the rink yet (it was a “paulie bleeker is totally boss” day, so orange – but different orange), but i hope to soon.

and i did actually skate backward today! woo!

there’s been discussion lately about “yo” as an organically developing gender neutral pronoun, but none of the discussion that i’ve seen really addresses race or class issues, which i find… fascinating… especially considering the demographics of the communities contriving other gender neutral pronouns so far.

(note my not addressing it either? i’m just bringing it up for people to think about what connotations “yo” has in their minds.)

i’m still an epicene “they,” myself, and damn anyone who tries to tell me that it’s grammatically incorrect. they seem like probably the people who would make sad faces at me if i took “it” instead, and if they want to find something 1) grammatically correct 2) not dehumanizing 3) that flows well in language, i welcome them to go ahead – and tell me when they’ve found it.

so it’s official-ish. i just submitted my application for the amsterdam program this spring. i’ll need to make sure that all of my other things are in, but we should be pretty much on track.

i’m petrified. i’ve been panicking about and procrastinating on this final step – the “give them fifty dollars and then not be able to edit your application” step – for weeks now. but it’s done. and maybe sometime they’ll call me and go “hey, wanna give us lots of money?” … and maybe they won’t.

i joined a new library system today, so that i could check out knit a square, make a toy. it is for absolutely brainless knitting, and is an awesome book. cubbie (and as such really, i, because i inherited his knitting books when he stopped knitting) had a copy, but then our delightful cat butter (who i miss soooo much) peed on it. it’s out of print, and only sixteen libraries in the u.s. seem to have it. handy that one of them is seventeen miles from my house.

speaking of knitting, i am now a ravelry member! i’m puckish there. they’re chugging through invitations fast, if you want to be a member but haven’t signed up yet.

tweedle dum. i’m sitting on a phone book, because my butt still hurts. i’ve been singing “my butt hurrrts,” to the tune of cute overload’s “i et too moishe.” i’m pretty sure that i fractured it on the right side, because… that’s where it hurts the most! i took this week off of (telling my temp place that i’m looking for) work, because it hurts to sit for a long time, but i need to go back to work next week because, hi, amsterdam? i have 1300 saved, and that’s not going to get me far. i should get one of those little thermometers for how much i’ve saved. i wonder where on the internet i could do that in a lazy fashion. i don’t think i care enough to code my own.

i think when/if i hope when the time comes for amsterdam, i’ll create a new blog here for that. because everyone needs many many blogs. and why did i buy myself a fancy domain and stuff if i’m not going to fill it up with stuff? cubbie has, unsurprisingly, stopped using his blog here – and that makes me feel lonely.

want a blog, people i know? i’ve asked you this before, i’m sure.

not too long ago, i posted about how fantastic my experience with the buffy musical on the big screen has been.

i went again for its second night in san diego, and it was even more awesome than the first – there had definitely been a lot of word of mouth at work, and the crowd was super pumped. it made me happy, and glad that i had sat in the front row and as such could see everything.

and it was good.

and it is gone.

the curator, if you will, of the buffy musical sing-a-long has been notified that “Fox has pulled the license for ALL their TV shows from theatrical exhibition.”

and that pisses me off, because these things have been bringing together some awesome community. usually i hate online petitions, but i signed this one.

in non buffy news, i can’t go skate tonight because of my broken butt.

grr. arg.

hoo boy, internets.

i have my first official Derby Injury*. i landed smack dab on my butt today, and yowch. it hurts a lot. i’ve been icing it, and tomorrow i think i’ll start with pain pills. it’s my tailbone, but my back has been hurty also. i’m hoping that’s just from new postures i’m learning, rather than also from the falling-on-butt.

mmm,yeah. so there’s that.

big news in my world lately is that eve 6, the band about which i obsessed for many a year, is reuniting. kind of. frankly, i’m a little confused – two of the members have been playing together in a band called the sugi tap, and now those same two members are instead turning their sights to a eve 6 reunification – with the blessing of the old guitarist to have someone new on guitars. at any rate, they’re in los angeles on the 26th, and i’m hoping i can get up there.

my grandfather is town, and that’s nice. we had dinner with him and my aunt, which – other than my butt complaining, and it’s started to hurt so much more since then – was healthy and tasty. food is so good.

i have been watching heroes** and ooh, i enjoy it. i am excited about this tv season, there is lots going on and it’s entertaining. i’ve never really followed tv like this before, so it’s weird.

my favorite awesome baby is walkin’!

*so, i’m the newbie in derby boot camp. this means that i’m re-learning how to skate, and building up my stamina, and then will join the boot camp folks in learning turns and stops and things like that. after people master those things they move up to training camp where they actually learn derby-type things like contact and (better) falling. so i have trouble calling what i’m doing derby, but it’s a start.
**and ugly betty and grey’s anatomy and private practice and pushing daisies.