Roller Derby on Valentine’s

Hey  all.  Thursday evening here and thought I should check in.  For the most part all is well on our end.  This round of chemotherapy has been more difficult than the others we have done.  The doctors had told me as much that it would be, but until we’ve actually been exposed it is hard to know what to expect.  Next Tuesday we begin the second round of infusions.  I take chemotherapy everyday now, but it is in the form of a pill and I get the other 2 chemo drugs through the infusions every 3rd week.  Since every patient reacts differently to these drugs, we’re not sure still how I’ll react as we continue treatments going forward.  Fatigue has been a challenge this go round.  We’ve also had to change up our pain medications this turn a couple of times.  I think we’re staying ahead of the game for the most part and we’ll just have to see if I’ll react the same or not as we enter the second cycle of our treatment.  I’m confident we’ll dial it in correctly eventually.  My doctors and nurses have been great with response so I’m not worried.

I learned sometime late last year that my cousin, Amanda Qualitza Roahrig, skates for the local roller derby team in Indianapolis.  When I heard, my first thoughts were something along the lines of “roller derby is still around?”  I remember watching it on television as a kid and loving it.  It struck me as professional wrestling for women.  How awesome is that?  Becky had let me know that her season started in February.  I was so excited, I asked her to remind me when she knew the schedule so as I could be sure to attend. 

Late last week I was at Becky’s house finishing up a project, and she brought out and gave me a copy of the 2009 “Naptown Roller Girls” pinup calendar.   There are two teams in Indianapolis.  The Tornado Sirens and the Warning Belles both represent our fine city.  Amanda skates for the Warning Belles.  The calendar is awesome.  It has plenty of pictures of the team and a schedule of all of the bouts.  Becky told me that there was a bout coming up last Saturday at the fairgrounds.  She said she thought it was sold out, which didn’t surprise me, as I knew that I wasn’t the only person that dug roller derby.  Before I left her home I was able to talk to Amanda on the phone and she told me that if I was interested that she probably could score me a couple of tickets.  Without hesitation, I of course told her an emphatic yes and she made it happen.  It’s always great to have the inside connection.

On my way home, I called my mother to see if she’d be able to keep the kids Saturday night as I wanted to take April out.  She said sure and asked me if I had made big Valentine’s Day plans for that night.  Not even realizing that Saturday was Valentine’s Day but not wanting to look insensitive to my mother I simply said yep, sure do.  We did our basketball games Saturday morning/afternoon and got the kids loaded to go meet grandpa.  I met Dad and Randy in the afternoon and delivered the kids.  They were excited to spend the night with their cousins too.

April and I got to the fairgrounds and met Becky, Kelly (my nurse and Becky’s friend), Andrea and Dave, and Abby and Tony.  The bout is held in the Exposition Hall and they skate on a flat track that just happens to be concrete.  I haven’t been on roller skates since I was probably 12, but I remember falling on the old wooden rinks and thought it hurt.  It’s hard to imagine getting slammed to the ground by a blocker at full speed and having nothing but concrete  and some knee pads to catch my fall.  It was definately sold out.  I’m not sure how many people were there but it seemed like a few thousand anyways.  A very live crowd I might add.  The atmosphere was great.  Amanda’s husband, Dillon, sang the National Anthem and he was very good.

The bout was a whole lot of fun.  All skaters have a stage name and they all crack me up.  We had “Valerie Hurtinelli”, “Smacktion”, “Farrah Foxhit”, “Trash Gordon” and others.   Amanda’s name is “Joanie Loves Debauchery”.  One of the referees painted his face black and white like a skeleton and his name was “Boney Danza”.  I love it…too funny.  The player numbers were even unique, one skater was 37c and she might have been too.  Joannie’s was 4:00, that’s funny. 

All in all, the roller derby bout was a blast.  April and I definately recommend going if you can.  As I look at my handy calendar, next bout is March 21st.  I recommend getting there plenty early as all tickets are general seating and there are many seats that make it tough to see the rink.  I’m posting a few pictures of our evening.  Will talk to you soon.

Joel