Derby, derby everywhere!

We all know how obsessive derby girls are. We love what we do, and it takes over our lives. I have spent the weekend (which for me starts on Thursdays) immersed in derby goodness.
Thursday night's practice was great. I love seeing how much my fellow Toffutti Cuties are improving, and I love feeling myself improve. We did hitting drills. I can't say how much I needed to hit something this Thursday. I had come from a long week of feeling taken advantage of and abused at work (which doesn't happen often but SUCKS when it does happen). I walked in to practice and strapped into my gear and skates. I felt the weight of the week lift from my shoulders as I stood up and started my warmup laps. I was free! I was fast! Nothing can stop me!
Hitting drills were great, we were paired up and instructed to practice hits, some of us did little bumps just to get the feeling of hitting and being hit. Some of us are still working on confidence and so we hit gently. I was first paired up with Blueberry Crush. We are pretty evenly matched though I out weigh her by probably 100 pounds. She is more stable and has been skating longer. We did some good hits, but mostly managed to continuously get ourselves wheel locked and landing in ungraceful piles on the floor, giggling the whole way down. I loved every minute. If you're not falling, you're not trying right?
Then I was paired up with Cherri Chokehold (Sorry If I messed up your name Cherri!) We are also fairly evenly matched. We did gentler hits, but managed good form while doing so. More giggling ensued. I needed some time with my girls to cool off from a tough week!
Friday night was spent catching up on all my derby bloggy friends' blogs. There are a lot of great ones out there. See? ------->
Saturday night I ditched out on our weekly gaming session, and went to the WRD season opener at the Salt Palace. I volunteered to act as an NSO for the bout, which I love to do, and missed after the split from Salt City. I was placed in what must be the awesomest job for an NSO, Lineup tracker. I wrote down the number of the blockers and pivot and jammer for each jam and kept track of trips to the sin bin (penalty box for those who didn't already know). This job is awesome, because once you write the numbers down, you can just watch the jam as long as you are paying attention to who's in the box. The sad part was that I had to sit far away from my league sisters, who had come in as a group and sat trackside together. All told though, it was great. I went to the afterparty for a while, and talked with some of the ladies I hadn't already met. I was able to talk to some girls I had grown to love in Salt City who had left for one reason or another or had come to cheer former teammates on. I love it! There were a few hiccups for me in trying to get there, as there was a hunting convention and a Utah Jazz game (basketball for my out of country or state friends)both going on and little parking was available, all was expensive.
Did I mention that I love derby?
Love to the Black Diamond Divas and the Hot Wheelers, who played a great first game of the season, and to the awesome junior derby girls who played an excellent min bout at halftime! Can't wait to do it again.