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...