Good to Go

 Today was a big Derby day for me - my first public appearance as a MissFit.  I woke up full of jitters and low on sleep, because I'd stayed up late working on a tutu, so I'd look like a proper derby girl.

We were part of the of a local radio station's Good to Go Commuter Challenge, a week-long project to encourage people to take non-car transportation to work.  Roller skates can be a great way to commute - although the charming brick sidewalks and the little dots on the curb cuts make a rough ride!

Uptown Normal has a shiny new traffic circle, and we expected it to be closed down for the event.  So we'd planned to do a few demonstration jams, and then hang around and talk about roller derby.   Instead, they closed off half the traffic circle.  Half is not 50% as good as "all" when it means that you're separated from the car-using commuters by a thin line of traffic cones.  So we did a couple of demonstration jams without any hitting - which was probably good for me, but was less exciting for the other spectators.

I was so nervous - and so excited - getting ready for this.   As of this morning I'd been to four fresh meat practices, and I hadn't practiced alongside any of the veteran skaters.  We've done a little bit of pack work, but never run any actual jams.  So I was kind of hoping I wouldn't be needed to skate, since this was an "I'm not a doctor, but I've seen one on TV" sort of moment. 

But I was also really hoping I could skate!  I put on boutfit-type clothes for the first time this morning:  the fishnets, the booty shorts, the knee socks - and I just couldn't stop staring in the mirror.  I felt like an athlete.  I've never felt like an athlete.  I've never been athletic.  But throw on some fishnets (and my awesome new track jacket) and I'm seven feet tall, I'm doing the awesome stuff people want to watch, and I'm part of a team.  Or at least I could play the first two on TV - and I think the third is really becoming real.