Bullet points

[batskeets]

Most exhausting weekend EVAR. It was worth it, yes, but I want a nap.

• I covered a Friday Happy Hour event with a few contacts from the local shopping guide I shot for. It was fairly low-key, and it wasn't a packed event, but it was nice to chitchat/network with these folks in an environment that wasn't completely overwhelming. Also, the lady doing floral for *my* First Friday event in October is a bloody genius: she used pea shoots in an arrangement for the happy hour. Everything she makes is a surprise.
• Oh, yeah, and I'm hosting First Friday at my studio in October! I'll post more details in the none-too-distant future, but I'm interested to see how it pans out.
• Friday night was dinner, drinks, and late-night shenanigans with friends from out of town. It was eventful, but in that good way.
• Saturday morning scrimmage was fun. I love being able to say that. Getting compliments on my derby play still feels weird, and I think I'll continue to be skeptical of it until I hear it from people who aren't my skating peers. (i.e. non-Freshies)
• On a more positive note, I did juke around a team skater pretty awesomely while jamming, and had a much-better-than-me Freshie say that my jamming looked good. She may have even used the word, "exciting." So, hey, that's pretty excellent.
• There was a skater BBQ in the afternoon, which didn't exactly turn out very BBQ-y, given the rainy weather, but it was nice to hang out in a social context. We already see a lot of each other by virtue of the practice schedule, so it's easy to forget that part.
• Saturday night was a 30th birthday party for one of the aforementioned friends from out of town, so that meant a low-key but well-attended party. A smattering of conversation, a bit of impromptu booty-shaking, and good times were had.
• Sunday was brunch, with homemade breakfast burritos! Also, it feels funny to be out at brunch with visiting friends and tell them that you’re, “checking your scores,” when the closest you usually come to being a Sports Fan is going to the occasional baseball game with your dad. Thank you, WFTDA East Region Playoffs. ;p
• Endurance practice in the evening was surprisingly good. I felt like crap after drinking two nights in a row, so I expected it to be awful, but it was unusually easy to snap into really good skating form, so it felt easy. Then again, after the brutal endurance practice we had *last* week, I think just about anything would've felt easy. ;p
• After practice, some of us from the Birthday Party Squad reconvened to play board games, and I got to break out my copy of the Battlestar Galactica board game. It's a great game, but trying to teach it to a cluster of people who'd never played it before was, erm, difficult. Once you understand how it works, though, it's *awesome*. We also played a game called Quelf, which was pretty amusing and would probably be even moreso with a few drinks in you.
• Yes, I was also wearing the Not A Robot t-shirt while playing the BSG game. Yes, that was on purpose. XD

So, yeah, good times, great skating, and I'm all out of extroversion. I'm taking tomorrow off, because it's going to be the last bit of calm before West Regionals this weekend. That probably sounds worse than it is, actually, but I do have to photograph part of it for that web site that pays me money to shoot for them, and I don't yet know what days I'll have tickets for. Hopefully, I'll get to sneak in an actually-restful weekend day.

I'll be relieved when Regionals is over after this weekend, and even moreso when Draft is done with 2 1/2 weeks from now. I feel like all I have to talk about lately is derby and work, and I know I've been doing other things, too, but those two things *do* have a way of taking over my entire consciousness.

Tomorrow is going to be awesome, though. Hot damn.

Remember when weekends were restful and rejuvenating? Yeah, me neither.