Humble beginings.

While cleaning up my house tonight.. I found something. It was my first pair of roller skates.

They weren't always that pretty black colour.. There were tan with bright orange laces. Traditional roller dome skates. I spent a couple hours taking the sheen off them and dying the leather such a pretty black. I was convinced and insistent that those were going to be the skates that I benchmarked in.

(First attempt at my derby persona.. Notice the pretty tan skates in the background.. )

Turns out. Not so much.. Which brought me to my new skates.

They were called the Jive monkey on roller girl.. Sounded fun.. and after moving to those things. such an amazing difference. They were so smooth and would glide like nothing. Then.. Tragedy struck. About 6 months into my derby career (and about 2 months after purchasing my new skates) there was a fire. And my skates and all my gear were in the middle of it. The fire fighters were able to quell the fire enough to get my skates and gear out of it. Water and smoke damage but no actual significant fire damage. I was lucky.. To make things even more lucky.. One of my fellow derby girls in the league worked for a fire restoration company. They were able to save everything except my inhaler and my mouth guard.

Approx two years later, I still use those same skates.. Sure the tape and laces and wheels and bearings have been changed many times but the main core plates and boot remain the same. How many people can say that one of their more precious items survived such a thing and that person was able to carry on to greatness with them.. Well.. Maybe not greatness yet.. I'm not quite there but I'm working towards greatness and that counts. I just don't know where that path will take me yet. Will I be great as a player? great as a ref? both? Will I continue as a core Nightshade or move up to someday take a core Belladonna spot? Only time will tell either way but it's the start of the path that matters. The destination will show itself when it wants to and when it's time.

Which brings me to tonight (A team try outs.. Eep! haha) and the reason I started this blog.. Does this world really "need" another derby blog? sure.. why the hell not? and this is my story from freshmeat to pylon, to speed bump, to player ref.