Dreams of Derby Glory

I officially started taking steps to becoming a lady of Roller Derby at the end of April of this year. That was the 1st time I put on quad skates since I was a little girl. Now don't let my opening statement fool you. I may be new to quads but I've been skating a long time.

One of my earliest memories is of ice skating. I must have been about 4 or 5 years old. I remember skating out onto the ice and they gave me a big orange cone to stabilize myself with as I made my way out to the middle of the rink. As you can imagine, if I could use a hazard cone as a walking stick, I was pretty little. For years after that I took ice skating lessons. I can't say I was ever very good, well at least at the figure skating part. I mostly liked to go real fast and shuck and jive through the other skaters.

Outside of the rink I fell in love with inline skating. I got my 1st pair when I was probably 9 or so. My sister and I had matching roller blades. Hell, my mom even got herself a pair. We skated everywhere we went. I'd often pull on my blades the moment I got home from school and I'd take a trip around the neighborhood just to clear my mind. In fact I was wearing a pair of blades the 1st time I kissed a boy. He was a jerk and a terrible kisser, but that's a story for another day.

I can't say I skated much in high school. Well, skateboarding was all the rage then and I tried my damnedest to get good at that but I just ended up breaking a few bones before I decided I wasn't meant to be a Skateboarder. For my 20th Birthday some friends got together and bought me a shinny new pair of Rollerblades. I started to get back into the sport but I didn't have anyone who ever wanted to go with me and sadly, my blades started to gather dust in my closet.

In early 2008, I had just moved home to Southern Oregon, my husband and I went to a local derby game at the Medford Rink. I really didn't know what to expect but the moment the 1st jam started, I was in love. I kept thinking, OMG this is amazing! I could totally do this! Why am I not doing this?!

Well the truth is I wasn't doing it because I didn't have any health insurance and I sure as hell wasn't going to put myself in harms way without it. So I didn't sign up and after that my life sort of exploded into chaos and my dreams of derby glory sank into the background.

Fast-forward one year later. I'd moved up to Portland. My husband decided to join me there. We'd found a nice place, I got a stable job and... Health insurance!

So, one afternoon I wandered over to my Friend Kerry's house and she tells me how she'd taken her God Daughter Skating at Oaks Park that afternoon. Apparently they'd run into some derby girls there and Kerry was thinking we needed to sign up. So we headed down to Oak's Park and started taking beginning skate classes on Saturday mornings...

Tears of a Clown

I know I haven’t updated in a really long time and if you’re one of the handful of people in the universe following my blog, I apologize. I have no real excuse. I’ve been busy but I’m always busy. That’s nothing new. I’m returning to the land of Blog now because I just have some things I need to get off my chest and I don’t know of another place to do it. I supposed I could write it all down in a diary if I need to vent but there is something about a public forum that makes it feel like someone might just be listening and empathizing with my plight.

I’ve never been depressed in my life. Not to say that I haven’t been sad or there haven’t been times when I was less happy but I’ve never understood the heavy sighs, gaunt faces and tired eyes of the depression sufferers in anti-depressant commercials. I’d have thought it was some kinda of melodramatic overstatement if I hadn’t also seen these things exhibited on my husband time and time again.

Growing up, my mother set a tone that a strong woman didn’t show her pain to the world. She suffered silently and to herself. She put on a brave face for her family and loved ones and never faltered. Not to say that my mother is a woman without emotion. She has always lavished affection on my sister and myself and is one of the kindest, thoughtful, most loving people I know. She simply feels that her role as a wife and mother is that of a rock in times of adversity. She believes that it just doesn’t do anyone any good to sit around crying about it.

This is how I was raised and how I have lived my life to date. Of course I grew up in the 80’s and not the 50’s so I’ve learned to wear quite a few more emotions on my sleeve than my mother would ever find acceptable for herself but at the end of the day, neither of us understand the concept of depression because it is just not something we have time for. Perhaps that sounds a little more snarky than I truly mean it. I understand that depression sufferers are afflicted with an emotional disease that they have little control over but there is a part of me that, on an emotional level, just sees weakness. I hate that I feel that way. I want to be more empathetic but I just can’t understand how people are able to burry themselves so deep in misery.

I believe my husband has been suffering from depression for most of his adult life. In fact I think his depression may have started at a surprisingly young age, so young in that it is a physiological part of him that is nearly impossible to dissect from the actually person. I believe he’s been depressed for so long that he honestly has little to no idea what real happiness is.

I've spent a majority of our nearly 9 years together doing everything I can think Of to make him happy. While there were brief periods of time where his smile was around more than his frown, they were always fleeting and in the end he was always the same sad boy I'd met nearly a decade ago.

Now I'm nothing if I'm not stubborn and I hate to loose so I've fought tooth and nail to pull him out of this funk. I've thrown everything but the kitchen sink at our relationship and I've run out of ideas. He did finally agree to see a therapist a few months ago and I think she has helped to awaken in him a desire to find happiness and to know what it is to shrug off the binds of depression but how close he's actually gotten to making any real progress is hard to say.

I feel like the worlds biggest asshole because I'm angry. I'm angry that my husband is still broken and that the world made him that way to begin with. I'm angry with him for not being strong enough to simply beat his depression into submission. I'm angry that I am helpless to do anything for the one person I love the most in this world. I feel like I've failed him and I just don't know what else to do.

Lovely

I found this online today. I just loved it so much I had to share.