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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Everyone Loves a Parade

Sunday NHRD marched in the Manchester St. Patrick's day Parade. We had sun and WIND. What a day. It was slightly chilly and we were unable to throw candy or hand out ANY flyers, but we YELLED our brains out telling people about our season opener April 24th.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Manager?

As you all know, I have started a new endeavor in my life, it is called ROLLER DERBY. (Unless you have been living in a meat locker somewhere, I am sure you already know this). What you may also know is that, although I have been an athlete my whole life, roller skating is not something I have ever done before. Since, this has been a year of first, I have started trying new things within derby - stats was the first and now I am learning how to be a bench manager.

Hazardous Heat has been training me and last week was my first solo go at managing. I manged the Queen City Cherry Bombs... No pun intended but I had a blast. I felt like I knew what I was doing. I kept my cool the whole time. I never flipped out and that helped set the tone with the team. I am so pleased that other people noticed my level headed-ness (please check out the shout out I received in another blog: http://hazelgetscrunched.blogspot.com/). I have never really been known to be level headed so it is nice to know I was able to not flip out and maintain control and send people to the positions where they needed to be. If I needed someone else to step in they just said sure.

You should see the postings in fb:
Katie Mills THANK YOU Cherry Bombs for letting me manage! I enjoyed every single second. You guys rock!

Lisa DiLeo
i love when you manage, you stay so calm and keep it together so nicely. former teacher skills coming in handy :)
Fri at 12:07am ·

Julia Van Alst
you did a GREAT job!
Fri at 12:08am ·

Maura Branley
yes calm! ♥ me some DKB!!
Fri at 12:28am ·

Jena Cotreau
yup! another great job!
Fri at 12:48am ·

Jennifer Liskow Waltner
You're so zen it helps me hold it together. Awesomeness.
Fri at 7:40am ·

Katie Mills
You guys are so sweet. Thank you!!!
Fri at 8:03am ·

Keen On New England
nice job DKB!! i love how you delegated, "you, tell so and so they are this position next jam"
Fri at 12:36pm ·

Minda Henderson Shaheen
I thought you did a great job! Clear-headedness seems to come easy to you.
Sat at 4:50am ·

Heather Heatisis
what!! I have competition, where did that come from?I'm gonna kick your butt DKB--GOL(giggle out loud)-can we have a derby scrimmage for managers only?nevermind I gotta wait for my extra teammate to emerge
Sat at 9:15am ·

Sandra Morin Katie...you are the best manager I've seen! You are so calm and so cool, it's awesome. And that reflects on the team you're managing so they can stay focuesed . It's a pleasure to watch you guys WORK TOGETHER.

I have found something, in managing, that I really love... I also now have the sense of being on a team, not just on the league.

New Knee Pads

Okay, so for my birthday my mom gave me a check to buy new wheels. Well, I must have misunderstood the pricing on line from Bruised Boutique and they were less than I expected. Then Dee (Dee Stortion, owner and proprietor of Bruised Boutique) offered me a deal on the wheels I wanted, they were HALF off because they were discolored. Seriously, I don't care if the color is off, as long as they work... So, I had extra money to use and I wanted to get new knee pads.

When I first bought my gear, I hadn't even been on skates yet. With my previous knee injury (causing me to have screws in my knees) and 2 knee operations, I just wanted the biggest, bulkiest knee pads to keep me from causing any sort of injury to my knee. After many weeks of doing roller derby, I think my legs have toned up, my big knee pads actually got TOO big. The Large 187's ran out of Velcro and wouldn't stay where they were supposed to be. This isn't helpful when doing knee slides or anything... The pro about the big knee pad is that I could comfortably wear my knee brace without issue (that I know of).

So, with the extra birthday money, I was able to get a less bulky pair of knee pads... I got Pro Tec Knee pads. They fit more snugly and aren't shifting on my knees. The first time I wore them, Roller Kingdom had just buffed the floor and I wasn't sliding anywhere, they are now "broken in" and working great. The second practice I wore them, along with wearing my knee brace, I was trying to do a drill in a pace line and while skating my whole left leg felt like it was dead asleep. So, my last practice I skated with my new knee pads and didn't wear my brace. While I was kind scared to death, I felt safe with the snug knee pads and I actually felt like my leg had more flexibility...

Here's to my new knee pads - they freed my knee! I 'll keep you posted about the new wheels, won't know how they are until after our first practice at JFK 4/8!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Some new GEAR.... Post to come

I just wanted to share I got some new knee pads last night and some new wheels for when we practice at JFK... I am going to share with you a review of my new pads SOON and once I try out my new wheels, I will fill you in. Gotta say I LOVE BRUISED BOUTIQUE

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Sometimes Facebook SUCKS

I was a myspace girl until my friend Katy Cummings told me about facebook and I have been hooked... Well, tonight I wanted to just get rid of my whole facebook profile. I know that SOMETIMES fb just picks random people in cyberspace and suggests them as friends. HOW IN GOD'S NAME DID FACEBOOK SUGGEST MY EX BOYFRIEND WHO I HAD TO GET A RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST? I nearly shat my pants... Fb specifically thought that they guy who threatened to kill me should be my friend.

It kind of takes your breath away. I really thought that he was dead by now. Hell, when we dated he was a full blown drunk and then learned that if he did COKE he could drink more. Plus, his doctor told him as a teenager that he shouldn't drink hard liquor because it would kill him... so he continued to drink BEER.

Whatever, I don't think he is going to show up at my door step because I blocked him IMMEDIATELY but wtf fb... We are so fighting! If it wasn't for that dang game Sorority Life I would be so done with you....

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

No I in team

Last night we had a scrimmage with The Nutcrackers at the beginning of practice. I did stats for scrimmage. It was interesting to watch the scrimmage at the beginning of the practice because it is like HURRY up and watch and then jump right into practice. Whereas, the girls that scrimmaged are all warmed up.

We got through the scrimmage and started practice. It was an endurance practice. Yikes. I haven't really had much opportunity to build up my stamina and build endurance. I get nervous because my legs tire so easily.

We did a drill that was a team drill. One team did a pace line and the other team did a pack. The first couple of people that had to fight through the pack, I was ready to go. I was blocking people and I actually surprised myself, I kind of just looked over my shoulder and tried to block a few people. However, the speed of the pack and the amount of time/people going through the drill, I was just pooped and I got dizzy... So, I had to step out. I got a sip of water and got back in. Then, I attempted to continue the pack drill. I do think that Harmony Lix whipped me ahead of the pack. Well, I did that a little bit more then I got dizzy and pooped again. So, after getting some water I just continued to skate around the group. I hate that I can't keep up. This will come though, I have faith it will.

We did a relay drill where we ran on our toe stops, the duck walked, stopped however we wanted to then sprinted back. I was told by members on my team that a few times I brought the team back to the lead.. That is so awesome to hear because I feel like something just clicked!

The last drill of the night, we had to get back into our original group and was told that we had to do 40 laps as a team! I nearly shat my pants. Um, I was on a team of all veterans and amazing skaters. Immediately my team pulled together and moved me to the front and did EVERYTHING they could to make sure that we would do this all together. For close to 40 laps, I skated and then was pushed from behind and then literally pulled by Chicana. Seriously...
When those 40 laps were over, I got a little teary about how awesome everyone worked together to come to a common goal, completing 40 lapse TOGETHER. Amazing.

I know there is no I in team, but I am so glad that there is ROOM FOR ME!