Ugh, practices are becoming my own personal hell. Not because derby has ceased to be fun, but because I am, once again, sleeping horribly, which means that practice is beyond difficult for me as I do not function well when not sleeping well. Also, my boots are working their way to being shot and I can't afford new ones. I will be looking into things such as doubling up my socks and whatnot to keep my feet happy until I can save up the cash for new boots.

Otherwise derby is derby as usual. We are working on a roster for our September bout, but we seem to have lost several people and have no idea when they will be back, which puts us short. Hopefully we can borrow some skaters from another nearby league without too much difficulty, otherwise it's going to be a very rough bout. After having my lovely derby wife Aeon Fox show me how to properly complete a front to back transition on my skates I almost succeeded in completing one last night after just a few minutes of practice. Yay. And that, is derby news...

Dixie

Marketing/Ranting/Rambling/IDK

So it just randomly occurred to me that I need to learn how to become a blog marketing guru overnight so that I can convince people that I am an awesome enough skater that they should sponsor me or just donate money cause they love me so I can get new skates. Yes, I realize that this sounds very conceited of me. I am also an only child and had entirely too many people in my life tell me that I am awesome and amazing at everything. LOL

In all actuality, I just need to learn to write about things other than practice and whatnot on a derby themed blog so that I can generate more hits and followers. Maybe when I'm not working a job that forces me to ask off months in advance for every event I want to attend and penalizes me for asking for time off by cutting my hours I will have more to share. In the meantime, please stay tuned for more of my stupid/goofy/silly/angsty rants that may not be derby related and my weekly(ish) updates on derby in my life.

Love,
Dixie von D.

eating pizza and blogging

Practice last night was HUMID and the floor started to squeak...omg...I was dehydrated and dizzy real quick. The I sucked it up, got over it, and skated til I was ready to puke. We are gearing up for an open house/recruitment event at the end of this month along with bouts in September, October, and possibly December against the Albany All-Stars B team.

And then we will be on to next season. I am starting to try to get things ironed out, but I need venue info and our events planner handles a lot of that so I've dashed off a note to her and will keep working on what I can do for now.

Also, I tried something last night at practice that seemed totally impossible for me to have done when I started skating. We will set up an obstacle course with cones to weave and dodge, things to jump and whatnot and up until now I have always just jumped and avoided the obstacle because I never thought I was going to clear more than the basic jumping requirement. Our obstacle is a cheap wooden hockey stick that is balanced on two cones that stand no more than a foot high...if that. For me, I was convinced there was no way I was ever gonna clear it. Last night Coach Pistol Whip finally goaded me into trying it. First try I cleared it (mostly I think) but had a crazy bad landing. Was informed that it was "badass". My second try I actually jumped too late and barked my shins on the hockey stick. And then the drill was wrapping up so I have shelved that trick for another time, but I will clear that stick and stick my landing damn it!

Dixie

nothin new

Wow...I've really gotten lax about keeping up with things lately. Of course, we are also experiencing a summer slump within the league so that certainly doesn't help matters. Playing freeze tag on your skates is awesome though. :)

I am working on planning schedule for next season and hopeful that we will have our flooring/bouting space issue worked out so we can have home games more frequently. Also, one thing I don't like about derby is board meetings. LOL Although ours are generally pretty low key affairs that don't have tons of drama. I am looking forward to practice next week and am really kind of annoyed at my job because they prevent me from going to the Freshie practice to help out and meet the new girls. Grr. And that's my derby life right now....

Dixie

Bout day recap...sort of...

So we had a bout Saturday night against Enchanted Mountain Roller Derby. We thought we were OK with our roster, only to realize a couple days before that we weren't so much. So we went into the bout with 9 skaters. That made for a lot of hard skating and some very tired skaters by the end of the night. Considering that setback the game was a good one and while we lost by an almost 100 point margin I don't think we played a bad game. I felt like we learned a lot and will be able to use what we learned in our next bouts for sure. Can't wait to skate again. D<3!

Dixie

pre-bout practice

So as lousy as last week's practice was...this one was the complete opposite. It was a night where the planets aligned, angels sang, and derby was played, bitches! I had a good night, did lots of scrimmaging to prep for Saturday's bout, got some good hits, am working out being an "anchor" that simply allows me to shove people or be shoved where I need to be, and even ran a full two minute jam. Granted, it was me and another girl who rarely jam and it was a slow jam, but I got lead jammer and fought my way through that pack repeatedly. I was NOT gonna call it off. We did good. And I smell...so on that note...shower time for me!! Derby <3!!


Dixie von D.

rant

I know that I write a lot about being better and doing things to get myself there, but have struggled with the motivation to do what I need to do for a very long time. I'm still trying to push myself and go where I need to go in order to succeed, but when I constantly feel like the worst player on a team and berate myself even while others are cheering me on it just feels hopeless. I don't want to give up on roller derby, but I'm scared that derby will give up on me. There are a lot of "but"s in the previous sentences...which to me says that I'm making excuses. And I am. So I need to break that habit. I need to break the habit of simply vegging out all day long. I need to grab my sneakers, tuck my girls into a super supportive sports bra and start jogging, biking, stretching, or whatever exercise I can do that will help me. I need to get over my issue with being fat and slow and out of shape and feeling like people are judging me and just do it. Why is this so hard for me?