derby day

so, some of you know and some of you don't, but last weekend i saw my first rolly derby bout. i had no idea that my response would be this: it was awesome. totally, totally awesome. it was an event of the harrisburg area roller derby team, so we had to make quite a drive, but it turned out to be totally worth it.

and because apparently it's required for every type of sporting event here, there was tailgating first (and photographic evidence that i am completely unable to produce a "tough-looking' face.

i will be working on that in case i really do end up moving to new york.

so, the general jist of roller derby - for those of you who don't know - is that the jammers (those skaters with the stars on their helmets) get a point for every player of the opposite team that they are able to skate past. the green team is the harrisburg team. it might not look like they're very good, because. . .well, it seems like they're really not. on the other hand, the team that they played from rhode island was pretty awesome. don't believe me? compare. . .

harrisburg:


Rhode Island (followed by lots of falling down by both teams):



you don't really have to know that much about roller derby to see the difference, right?

but, it was really fun. and i'm suddenly wondering why i lived so long in des moines and never knew that they had a roller derby team - which is apparently pretty darn good! in any case, we all know that i like getting to try new things, and it's even better when they turn out to be enjoyable.

or maybe it's just all relative, though - as nothing much happened during this (or really any other) week in graduate school. although it's kind of starting to hit me that this really is my last year. i mean, look. graduation day is only a little over two hundred days away. . .



but, yeah, until then, probably going to be writing papers and resubmitting my grant. oh. . . and finishing up that little "dissertation thing."

then after that, i can work on selecting my roller derby name :)