Saturday

Saturday morning Conor dropped me off at a local MEGAchurch because I took on an extra shift at work - it was close to my house, and I was only working a couple of hours. Conor went and got his hair cut, and had our battery checked out, because I killed the battery the other day. I'm blond, don't worry about it. We also came home to a leak in our kitchen, which was a bit of a panic. It turns out that when we turned the heat on the other day, we were defrosting our frozen air conditioner! Ha! We were out of freon, so it wasn't too bad of a fix. After that, we were ready to embark on our AWESOME afternoon!

Conor's friend Jeff is just an all-around awesome dude. He's from Canby, Oregon (home of my favorite ferry - you could literally throw a rock across the pond that the ferry takes you across!) and is a huge Mariners fan like Conor, which is how they met. Jeff is working out here in NC, so he's been showing us some great local activities to help us get to know the area. This weekend jaunt was a trip to the Carolina Rollergirls, and it was fantastic!

We picked up Jeff, his friend Daniel, and his roommate Saskia, and headed to the arena. I've watched a few rollergirl events on TV, and I saw the movie Whip It!, but I had no idea what I was in for. Right when we walked in the door (which was manned by the local church, btw), a lady asked if two of us would like to participate in the halftime dance competition - that lady had NO idea what she was asking! Jeff and Saskia definitely said yes! More on that later.

When you walk in the door, you can either sit in the bleachers, or you can pull up a seat on the floor close to the action. Conor and I brought folding chairs, so we sat right next to the action. I could literally high five any of the players! The bout soon started, and I immediately couldn't wipe the stupid grin off my face - it was so fun! It's hard to explain exactly how the bouts work, but if you're interested, go to their website and read about it - it's a bit confusing, but very cool.




If you know anything about Derby, you know that your rollergirl name is very important - here were a few of my favorites: Holly Wanna Crackya, Trudy Struction, Shirley Temper, Kama Suture, Billie Brawliday (who broke her wrist during the game!), Beth Row, Penelope Bruz (Jeff's friend!), and that is just some of the names from the Carolina teams! My favorite on the opposing teams was CU Afterclass - she really is a teacher in Georgia, and she was awesome! Even the refs get into it, check out this guys tights!



During the game, there was a super fan that had on skates, painted his face, had a big banner, and passed out free shirts and frisbees to screaming fans. At one point, Jeff got up to say hi to a friend, and the skull man threw a shirt that literally would have landed in Jeff's lap. Instead, the guy about 5 feet away jumped up and LEAPT through the air for his free t-shirt! I wanted it, but that guy definitely deserved it! This video was taken by people sitting pretty close to us - I have no idea who shot it, but Jeff sent it to Conor, so here it is - you can see Conor a bit if you look closely. Look for the jumper about 1 minute in, you can't miss him...



The girls get pretty brutal, and although each jam is 2 minutes or less, each one is action packed! Girls definitely don't mind breaking the rules and really smashing a girl, just to help the team - I swear, all I saw all night was girls going to "The Slammer," the penalty box!

Carolina lost the first game, and before the second game could start, we needed to have a little halftime dance competition starring Jeff, Saskia, and a sea of losers! Saskia really did give it her all, but Jeff killed it. I couldn't stop laughing - it's an understatement to say that Jeff is not shy. The competition consisted of three dance styles: the chicken dance, Thriller, and freestyle. Jeff brought some tangerines to eat during the rollergirl event, but ended up using it as a prop for his dances - it acted as a chicken egg, and was twirled around to catch the eyes of all of his adoring fans in the stands, and turned into juice (on accident) during his freestyle routine. Jeff in these pictures is wearing gray pants and a black hoodie - click on the pictures to make them bigger, I know they're far away. I was mostly laughing too hard to try and take better pictures.


Jeff clucking like a chicken.


Jeff's attempt at being a Thriller zombie.


Jeff during his freestyle event - I wasn't able to take a picture of what really made people love Jeff - his dashing rendition of the worm. Hence the juice - he forgot it was in his pocket!

After all the dancing, the crowd was given a chance to applaud for their favorite dancer. I can't even express to you the landslide that Jeff won by - I'm almost embarrassed for everyone else that tried. And here's the icing on the cake: Jeff won a year's worth of free coffee, which would be an awesome prize for the average person! Not so much for Jeff - he's completely allergic!!!


Well done Jeff, you deserved it!

The next bout was between the other Carolina team, and the Steel City Rollers from PA. This Carolina team was much more exciting to watch, and the game was really exciting - the Carolina team won by ONE POINT during the very last jam, and Holly Wanna Crackya rocked and scored enough to win!






After the last bout, the players skated around the track to high five, and everyone was very excited - what a great way to end the game!




I need every person I know to PROMISE me that they will go to a local rollergirl game. It was an absolute blast, it's appropriate for all ages, and I promise you won't be disappointed. Thanks to Jeff for introducing me to the Carolina Rollergirls - I can't wait to go to more bouts in the future.