back to the 80s...sort of

This weekend I finally made it to an SD roller derby. After a hellacious week of losing and breaking various "objects", having my dissertation taunted by mother nature and coming down with the jet-setting virus that seems to be plaguing all of humanity this winter, I felt I needed to get out some aggression by watching scantily clad fierce women knock each other around a polished floor. Better yet, last week coincided with my 33rd birthday, making a trip to Linda Vista's SkateWorld all the more relevant. Harkening back to the days of spandex pants, glitter and sheet cake, skating rinks are just made for birthdays.

Roller derby is awesome! These ladies are not only amazingly skilled skaters but they have an uncanny ability to balance the savagely brutal interactions required on the rink with graceful charm expected by all ladies (in some circles at least, see this site for more information on the topic http://bucket-o-hank.blogspot.com/2008/01
/conveyor-belt-etiquette-part-ii.html). This became all too obvious about 20 minutes after we had all gathered rink-side to watch the action when I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder and heard a polite "pardon me". I stepped aside and watched as a 6 foot 2 amazon with bleach blond cropped hair and two black eyes glided past me onto the rink. On the back of her jersey was written "Miss Evil #55". The scariest looking player however was donned "Riot". We got up close and personal while she was sitting in the penalty box for some offense she had committed.

The game is pretty simple actually as far as rules and scoring but it is almost impossible to watch the game and know what is going on, it happens so fast. There are something like 8 refs in the center of the rink, all showing different hand signals at any one moment and then one daunted -looking score keeper with a clipboard trying to interpret all of these. The final score of the game was 62 to 112 so obviously points were being scored often during the 20 minute halves but I don't think I observed one point knowing that it had occurred. But nonetheless, we were mesmerized. Next game featuring the SD Derby Dolls is March 15 and we will definitely be there!


After the derby we sauntered over to Padre Gold, a local upright establishment that featured free pizza and cheap beers for derby spectators. We met up with the hapless few who did not make it into the derby before it sold out and filled them in on the action they missed. Fortunately, Trace and Dev were among them and they had been drinking while waiting so their last two hours were in no way lacking for action. Luckily, we arrived just in time to catch Trace espousing on the importance of using the appropriate extinction coefficient when determining the risk factors associated with carnivorous land snails trapped on island-based continents.

After a few beers and more merriment, the OB members of our group started getting the twitch that occurs after 5 hours of being out of OB so we packed back into our caravan and headed to Tiny's, probably my favorite OB bar. There, Hank and Alyssa sent out the OB signal and within 20 minutes the place was crawling with our people.


Oh but the night was just beginning. We were in OB, the beer is cheap and the natives never sleep. Only slightly lesser well known is this, they have the ability to drink for consecutive nights without reprieve. I was determined to not let my 33 years and Fairmont Park residence status deter me. I had to keep up! So the next obvious stop once the bars closed was the Funplex where Hank immediately set up his strobe light, disco ball and fog machine (he actually owns a fog machine) and I was treated to my first ever late night house of fun dance party. WARNING: some of the moves you are about to see are trademarked. For permission to use these moves in your own place of residence, please contact the thriller dance team, p.o. box somewhere in OB.


Dancing lasted to 6am, well by then it was merely mellow toe-tapping but I can conclude that at 33, I still got it in me! and maybe they will even invite me back.
PHOTO CREDITS: All photos taken by Holly on Holly's camera. Thanks Holly!

.....and please stay tuned for my next entry entitled "Hank pimped my ride".