Decisions, decisions

I've been performing at renfaires since I was 16. It started out with the Virginia Renaissance Faire and a couple of others. The only one we have here that goes longer than one weekend is all the way out in Tampa, but for the past two years I've made the drive every weekend during faire season. Every year, I say I'm not going to do it, that it takes up too much time, that it's too expensive and every damned time, I find myself at auditions once again. Not this year, however! I have *roller derby*.

They called me today. The director left a message asking if I'd be interested in coming back in my previous role. I haven't returned the call yet because... well, they've never called before to ask. o.O Just hearing the voicemail message left me all excited and wanting to plan. My character is already set; I'd just need to do a few tweaks. I already have all the homework I did during rehearsals saved in Evernote. Hell, now that I have a smartphone, I wouldn't even have to take the time to print it. I can just pull it up on my phone when they want to see it. Rehearsals are only half days on Saturdays. I could do that easily.

Performances are a different story. I'll lose eight weekends to that plus one Friday, with two days taken out to account for bouts. I was super stressed last year trying to do this. I had no one to carpool with from Orlando, which means I was stuck incurring all of the gas costs, all of the mileage, all of the everything. There is a girl I met through SCA that might be interested in doing it this year. I might have help on that, but I might not. There are also three faire people now working for Disney who may be doing faire if they can manage to get their weekends off. But it's still just so much work trying to do work, school and roller derby or work, school and faire. But work, school, roller derby AND faire? I might actually give myself a heart attack. (Even though my derby knee pads *would* be perfect for some of my more physical bits...) Plus, hopefully before the end of next faire season, I'll move out of honorary status, into official status and placed on a team. I suspect this is going to lead to me taking a larger role in the league, or at the very least practicing more often. Plus, when the eight weeks of performances hit, I will officially be unable to get any skating in on the side. No open skate, no Barber Park.

I'm crazy to even think of doing this.

Progress made

The recent change in practice time and location has made it a little more difficult for me to get some skate time in. I managed to make it before the end this time on Monday, though it wasn't enough time to even bother strapping on skates. I did get to watch the other girls from our fresh meat group scrimmage though. They look fantastic out there! I hope I'm doing that well after my second recruitment. It was difficult at times to spot some of the new girls versus the vets. I was so proud of them! So jealous, but so proud!! I drove home that night a bit sad about how little I get to practice now with midterms and school scheduling craziness but then, towards the end of the now looong drive, I started reminiscing about my first practice.

Do you know when I first started skating, I often couldn't even make it around the entire rink? I'd go along the wall (forever gripping the wall), make it to the next point where the wall ends, get off the rink, and rest. After a couple of weeks of skate classes at the rink, I'd often go a lap, rest, go a lap, rest. When I went in for my first derby practice, I had only been off the wall for a couple of weeks, and it was only just barely off the wall. I was still nervous about getting too far away from it. I remember being slightly terrified of our very first drill. All we did was skate and do falls at various cones. We were skating in the middle of the rink though, away from my precious wall, and I felt like I could barely move.

Perspective. I still suck, but not as much as I did once before. Remembering that compared to how I skate now is what's getting me through. Yes, I'm going through a second recruitment. But I'm going to nail it the next time around.