i went to the roller derby

One of the things that is great about having fun friends is the unusual entertainment opportunities that arise. A few weeks ago I received an email from a friend that invited us to go with him and his wife to the roller derby:

We could pack some drink/food/appetizers and drink/eat before and during the event. It would be just like a picnic but without trees, sunshine & fresh air.

Of course we were in. Who can pass up a good picnic without trees, sunshine & fresh air? Turns out that we weren’t the only friends that couldn’t pass it up…there were 10 of us headed to the Assassination City Roller Derby last Saturday night. I knew this wasn’t a normal sporting event when we stopped by the ladies’ room on the way in: And they did. There was also a lot of athletic primping before and after each match. My favorite part was the skater’s names and numbers:

Daisy Shoots 0.357 Stone Cold Jane Austen 3:16 Eve L. Genius IQ 200 Maulder and Skully Area 51 Claire Voyant 1-900

I might have to join the roller derby just to get a cool name. We saw two battles – Deadly Kennedys vs. Viva La Revolucion! (see, even their team name has excessive punctuation…awesome) & Bombshell Brigade vs. Lone Star Assassins. The action was pretty fast and furious.   It didn’t take too long to catch on to the scoring and I was amazed at how long each game lasts – 1 hour.   That is a lot of skating in a skimpy costume. Who knew that fishnet stockings could withstand that type of abuse? The last bout came down to the last seconds.   The Lone Star Assassins and the Bombshell Brigade were tied at 112 with less than 10 seconds to go. There was a lot of cheering, shouting and knocking down of beer pyramids. Not every sport has that either. All in all it was a really fun night.   The people watching was at a premium.   Even the mascot was unusual – he was on stilts and leaned over for this picture: He was even more frightening close up…