Derby Madness

Saturday night was roller derby - wahoo!!  A chance to get out of the house; watch some fast rolling, hard hitting competition; and spend time visiting with friends.  A great evening!  (Note: Greg and his fancy-pants camera provided the pictures for this entry - all my pix turned out grainy, probably because of the lighting (and only a little because it's a plain-jane point-and-shoot camera and his is super-spiffy).)

Greg and I went early.  Him, because he's one of the photographers for the event; me, because I want good seats and it starts filling up fast.  Because Greg's an "official" person, we can get in before the doors technically open.  So I was there by 5:45pm  - holding seats for 9 of us. I was really glad to see James and Stacy - having a couple extra people helped stave off the dirty glares, but not necessarily all the hopeful "are these seats taken?" inquiries.  Last night there was standing room only and they actually had to turn people away.  One of our group almost didn't make it in, but we were lucky.  It's a good sign for the sport - but for me, it meant that I arrived not a moment too soon, and could actually have been a little earlier for extra peace of mind.

Roller derby is always enjoyable - and Saturday's bout was no exception.  I think it's more exciting to watch than hockey.  There's more action, lots of shoving and pushing, and plenty of excitement.  No out-and-out brawls, but hard work and good fun.

The teams were well matched, so the score was close - first one team in the lead, then the other.  My team lost.  I was rooting for the green team.  For sports, that's one of the best deciding factors for me. (Just ask Sheri about the football game on Sunday.  I did pick the black team to win - because black goes with everything and New Orleans knows how to throw a kick-ass party (we should all know the good party-throwers, right? and the cool purple just doesn't overcome the freezing coldness of Minnesota).  But when she was giving updates using team names I got confused and cheered for a score by the purple team...  Now it's black and blue for the Super Bowl - I'm going to root for black.) 

 The next bout is the 6th of March - I think it's a little too early for Jeannea or Sara to be here.  One of these days their visit will coincide with a bout and they'll be able to experience derby Anchorage-style.  Yeah, baby!