It's REALLY Early, Why am I Awake?!?!

There's nothing like being up at 3:30 in the morning feverishly cleaning poop out of your daughter's clothes before the stain sets in wondering why does she always poop all the way up her back in your favorite outfit that you just put on her for the first time. Then returning to the bed to realize you are too wide awake to climb back into bed with your husband, two kids and both cats to lay there in the small amount of space left in your king size bed staring up at the ceiling for the next couple of hours, mind racing only wishing that you could just fall back asleep. I just can't bring myself to do it, so instead I decide to head to the kitchen to investigate what awoke me in the first place, something hitting the floor in the kitchen. Now I'm searching the floor for the push pin that held up the calendar that was finally knocked off the wall by the heater starting up which then pushed hot air up the wall thus knocking the push pin out of the wall causing the calendar to fall. When it happened and woke me up, I immediately in my head blamed it on the cats, the punchline being that it wasn't really the cats fault BUT the calendar does have cats on it, so in essence they are party to blame? The 3:30am out of bed, cleaning poop and searching for a push pin with sleepy eyes would not be complete had I of not walked outside to my car to get my laptop to write this epic tale of morning bliss to realize that I had left my keys in the door the night before as I rushed to get the kids in the house and to bed. I'm just feeling lucky right now that some hoodlum didn't see my keys in the door and take my car for a joyride, along with my purse and my computer because in this neighborhood, although in the middle of a very family-centric part of Santa Cruz, we tend to get hit by thieves quite often. (I know this is riddled with past/present tense issues and first person to third person changes, but it's too damn early to figure out how to write it properly, so I apologize.)

I have no idea how to even transition out of the above paragraph so I'm not even going to try, I'm moving on to the real reason why I'm writing on this cold and dark morning. The last month has been extremely eventful not only in my own life but in derby. Let's quickly recap my personal ventures, I went to Western Regionals, while there became amazingly ill (don't be fooled by the photo), sat miserable in the stands and watched some of the best derby I have ever seen, interviewed Hurt Reynolds from DNN (stay tuned for that interview) and thankfully made it home to wind up staying sick with some form of a flu/cold for the next month, yes month! Half way through that month my husband was terminated from Chili's for a complaint he received by a customer, let me spare you the details, bottom line it was utter horseshit. Silver lining? It was time for him to move on with his work life and we are taking this as a blessing and his chance to get his business started, something he has been discussing over the last year. We are tightening up the belt and making it happen. I'm also starting a new business venture, which I have yet to reveal to the masses, only a handful of my closest friends and family know about it, another thing you will have to await to hear about. I celebrated my 6 year wedding anniversary with my hubby (11 years together) we have truly made it through hell and back and we are pretty damn happy. We had a blast on Halloween weekend where Auggie dressed up as Indiana Jones and Lily was a ghost. And finally, I returned to full-time work this week, which marks my daughter turning 3 months (actually as of this morning), she is beautiful, fun and has an amazing energy about her.

Oh and unless you have been living under a rock for the last month, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series! The last time they won was the year my mother was born and this year was the birth of my daughter, interesting fact. We also realized that the day they won was 11-10-10 (or 110110), which is the binary code for 54, the last year that they won...as Mojo said, spooky. Here's Auggie doing his Brian Wilson impersonation.

In the life of derby, I will again tell you about how EPIC Western Regionals was. Although I was sick, I saw Oly and Rocky Mountain play for the first time, they truly epitomize where the sport of roller derby is going. If you want to play at that level, you need to be more than just a derby girl who casually practices. You need to transform yourself into an athlete and push the boundaries to join the rankings of teams of that caliber; Regionals sparked that inspiration in me that has been benched since my pregnancy. I also got a chance to see the Bay Area Derby Girls take home third place, which gave them the opportunity to compete at Nationals (I have a video clip of the last jam, I will need to get that up on the interwebs). While at Regionals, I interviewed Hurt Reynolds from Derby News Network for my first installment of interviews that I will be starting shortly with him, to be followed by an interview with B Train from Wicked Skatewear. And my recap of Regionals would not be complete if I did not tell you that I formed a new derby crush on Juliet Bravo with the Rat City Rollergirls. She is a truly great derby player who blocks with tenacity and pivots with confidence. I hope to see her play more in the future, so I can learn to play more like her.

What else happened in the last month? Oh yes, Santa Cruz Derby Girls ended their 2010 season with a double header at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium against the Silicon Valley Roller Girls. I was unable to attend the bout due to a family function but I heard the Harbor Hellcats played amazing coming out with a win and the Boardwalk Bombshells put everything they had out on the track and came close to winning in the final jam of the game. With the season over, I am coaching on skates once a week and taking any chance I have to be on skates to work on my skills to prepare me for the January 10th team tryouts. I passed my WFTDA minimum skills a couple of weeks ago and I will be taking scrimmage assessment on December 2nd to be eligible for team tryouts next year. I'm feeling like I am getting my groove back but will continue to take my time as not to cause any injury to my finally healed body. My plantar fasciitis is still a factor but it is much improved as I continue to do the necessary exercises. I have also cranked up my off skates work out routines, alternating between step class, cardio, weight lifting, plyometrics and stretching with the foam roller. As far as I'm concerned the 2011 season began for me on November 1st and I'm taking this shit seriously.

As I said earlier, my inspiration was sparked at Regionals, well it became a full on wildfire after watching Nationals last weekend. If you didn't watch, you missed out and the final game (a rematch really) between Rocky Mountain and Oly blew me away. It's inspiring to see women athletes pushing to these levels and it made me dream about one day being there myself. On a side note, there's a discussion going on on my Facebook page about some players from Oly playing in Nationals after just having babies, we're not quite sure the true story on it yet but I've decided to investigate the truth; I will let you know once I have gotten to the bottom of it. Not only do I want to know the real story to set the record straight but I'm going to use it in another writing opportunity I've been given, another thing I'm keeping close to my chest for the time being.

Right now there is a lot of change happening in my life, I'm welcoming it with open arms. I'm also extremely excited about the derby things I'm working on to share with my readers. And I cannot wait for the 2011 season to start and to really begin playing roller derby again competitively!

And just in case you were wondering, I think I finally figured out the recipe for getting the baby poop stains out of clothes - immediate attention and scrubbing with your hands a combination of soft soap and hydrogen peroxide - all poop removed and no stain to be seen.