Things that make me laugh

Everyone needs a good laugh every once on a while. I even have a bookmark folder on my browser entitled, Things that make me laugh, I thought I'd share them with you.

Hope you get a good laugh too.

http://itmademyday.com/

http://thereifixedit.com/

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

http://epicwinftw.com/

P.S. Some of you may recognize these links from your own blogs, I just wanna thank you for sharing these with me.

looking for inspiration

I have the need to write, but no idea what to type.

I want to say something witty and inspirational, but only come up with drivel.

So now it ends with one last sentence,

Happy RamaHanaQuanzMas!

Facebook works

When facebook is working, it works well. I was browsing through it yesterday. If you added your high school information, you can click on it and search through your class mates.

Well I was bored yesterday before Jake went to work I was searching through my high school and found an old friend. We sat next to each other on graduation night. And now we live close enough to meet up. So this Saturday we are going to meet in Huntley and catch up on the last 15 years. When I find my grad pic I will post it here along with an updated one.

One more year has passed

Well, here it is. December 9th. 34 years ago my mother brought me into the world. It's hard to believe, but it's the truth. Now how old does that make you feel?

Where were you in December of 1975?

Numbers

11 months ago I became an aunt.

8 months ago I was laid off

6 months ago I was in a motorcycle accident and Jake ruptured his ACL

4 months ago Jake got into the VA clinic for his knee

1 month ago I met with my dislocated worker program counselor and finally got the ball rolling for my future in a health care field.

2 weeks ago I had a job another job interview that went no where

1 day ago my roller derby team started the 2010 season, the third season for the league.

Trying

I hate that most of my blogs have started with trying to explain that it has been a month since my last post.

Jake and I have been busy doing nothing. My temp job came to an end. I was accepted to the dislocated worker program, had my first interview yesterday. I have class to go to the last week of Oct. Jake is doing much better in therapy than his therapist expected. Hopefully that will mean he can go back to work sooner than the doctors say.
This is Jake's knee 3 days after surgery.

I have been completely released by my doctor to return to my normal roller derby activities, with no restrictions.

An update on the Extreme Home Make Over, the show I helped out on will air on Nov 11th.

That is all I really have for now.

Be Extreme

Well, for those of you who don't know, Extreme Home Makeover is in Northwest Illinois. They surprised a local family on 09/09/09 and the demolition and build got on the way while the family was whisked away.

Our friend Bret and his son Josh were called in as contractors to help build the roof. I was lucky enough to get a spot on the volunteer roster and will be working from 12am to 8 am Tuesday 9/15. I doubt I will see any air time, but this is a once in a lifetime event that I am proud to be apart of. As soon as I know the air date I will update you.

Always running, but getting no where

Hello everyone, I hate to say it again, but I am sorry I have been away so long.

We have been running in all different directions lately and at the same time it seems as if we have done nothing.

Since Aug 3rd, (the date of my last post) Jake has had his knee surgery and has started physical therapy. I have been continuing my own therapy for both my hand and my knee. I have been given permission from my doctor to start skating again, though I have not yet been released to start my fall drills. I am glad to be back on skates, but I feel as if I am starting over from the beginning. I have not yet been able to participate in a full practice and I hate myself for it. I feel as if I am letting my team down. I am one of the veteran skaters on our league and I can not even set the right example for the newbies. The only thing I have going for me is the fact that even though I have not been able to skate, I have made more practices as a retired/injured skater than a lot of our active and bouting skaters.

Last weekend my Divas hosted the last home bout of our 2009 season and now we start the training for our last away game against the formidable Chicago Outfit's B team. I won't be skating, but will be available to do stats or whatever the girls need me to do.

Two weeks before, Aug 15th, our local ALR chapter hosted our first ever car and bike show. Jake and I got up and were down at the Forreston grade school before 6am to start the set up. A great time was had by all, we learned a lot and hope to be able to do it again next year.

On a more personal note, the job hunt is still going, and we are fighting with Jake's retirement for the disability pay that they approved over 3 weeks ago. One can only hope something starts falling into place for us soon.

Where has all the time gone?

Remember as a kid time took forever? School stretched on and seemed to never end, then one day it was suddenly summer. Summer was always fun, though it did get boring and you couldn't wait for school to start again?

Well this year has flown by so quickly. It is hard to believe that eight months ago I was given notice of my pending job termination, then in March I was given a two week notice. Well, I have now been unemployed for 4 months. It has gone by so fast, yet so slow. All the job possibilities that were passed on to me I did not get. ( I have a suspicion it is because of the numerous doctor appointments and physical therapy sessions I am currently going through.)

I had a life altering motorcycle accident, then twenty days later Jake ruptured his ACL. So since May we have been in each others company pretty much non-stop. Now I am currently getting 9 hours a week away from home, my former employer has called a few people back to deal with a busy mail season, with the promise of termination in three to four months. I just hope something better comes along soon. All this togetherness is starting to wear thin on both of our tempers.

Bike update

Well, unfortunately, I have no idea what insurance is for. You pay your rate so that if something were to happen you would be covered and able to replace what you had. Well in my case that isn't the way it's going. I am not able to find anything that even compares to my old bike for the amount of money my insurance company is willing to pay me. So as of right now, I am going to be bikeless until I can find something I like for a reasonable price.

Taking it a step at a time

Well, yesterday (Friday 5/15/09) was the one week mark from my accident. There are so many people who can not believe that I have been let out of the hospital so soon. All I can say is if I had had my way I would have been out sooner.

The doctor finally let me free at noon on Tuesday. I was so happy, I kept telling the nurses I had to be out by Tuesday afternoon because I had a book signing to go to in Chicago. I made it and saw Sherrilyn Kenyon for the third time in three years. I just love her books.
Thanks Kalysha for driving.

On Wednesday I had the first of 4 followup doctors appointments, this one was with the orthopedic he checked out my knee, heel, shoulder and fingers. We are going to let the swelling go down and see how everything works next week before he decides on MRIs or not. The stitches he decided to leave in my finger for a bit longer and I go back to see him in a week.
On Thursday I saw the optometrist and the plastic surgeon about my eye and face. I broke my left orbital bone (eye socket). My eye is fine, all the muscles work, with my glasses on I have 20/20 in both eyes, the only damage is a small bruise in my eyeball. The plastic surgeon said everything is where it is supposed to be and I still have feeling in my cheek so that's all good. He then had his med student take the stitches out of my face and said unless I have any questions he didn't need to see me again.
My next 2 appointments are both on Wednesday one is with the doctor who attended me while I was in the hospital and the other is with the ortho again.

On Friday I had to take my bike to the doctor, apparently my insurance company wants an estimate on how much it will cost to repair the bike. The shop had to lift the bike off the trailer with a forklift and strap it to a dolly in order to move it into the shop. On a happy note, I found a new patch I am going to sew onto my riding vest, it says "Crashing Sucks"

Live from a hospital near me

Hello friends, family, and perfect strangers. I am proud to announce that yes, I am indeed blogging live from a local hospital. This weekend has been one heck of a ride. It started out nice enough, I got on my bike Friday afternoon and headed north to run a few errands. It was beautiful out and I wanted to save gas by taking the bike.

I got about 12 miles away from home when an older gentleman pulled up to a stop sign, stopped, then proceeded to turn left...right in front of me.

Yes I was wearing my helmet, and no I was not speeding. I had the right away and he had a stop sign. He stopped, then thinking the road was clear, turned.

I do not remember all of the events during the crash, I know I saw it coming and knew I would not be able to avoid it. I laid about 20 to 25 feet of rubber in a straight skid mark.
If you look in the above picture you can see the stop sign on the right. I hit the truck right in front of the rear driver side wheel. There was no way I could have avoided him. He was driving a huge farm truck. I was not thrown and I remember rolling onto my side and hitting the cut engine on my bike after impact. Then I was surrounded by people. Luckily this corner has 2 houses on it and there were other people out. Usually this intersection is pretty dead.

I was transported by ambulance to the hospital and have been there ever since. At least I am no longer on a liquid diet and I am allowed to get out of bed and walk around.

May is motorcycle awareness month, I know I will not be able to ride, or skate for a while, though this accident will not keep me from riding again. Please, please, watch the road not only for motorcycles, but also for pedestrians and bicycles, we are everywhere. I was lucky, I came out of this looking like I got into a bar fight, I was one of at least 4 motorcycle accidents this weekend two of them were fatal. I know mine could have been avoided if the other guy had truly been watching the road, another was motorcycle vs. deer, he lived as well, he was two rooms down from me all weekend. the other two were reported on the news.

for more pictures of my bike and the accident scene the next day click here.

Just another step

Well, I am now down to seeing just one doctor. Dr. M who attended me at the hospital looked me over, asked me if I have had any stomach pains or any other troubles, I told him nope. Gave him the updates from the eye doctor, plastic surgeon, and the ortho. He said great, and that he still believes the bruise they saw on the CT scan was a false alarm but because of the seriousness of my accident it was better to err on the side of caution. He advised me that if I wanted to be sure everything inside me is properly healed to wait at least 3 months before I resume my normal physical activity. So if it was only my insides I could be back to full hitting and skating in Aug. But because I am still having knee issues, it is going to be longer.

I also went to see the ortho this afternoon. I now am stitch free, though my finger really looks mangled. It will probably look better after all of the scabs have had a chance to fall off. In the mean time I am still wearing a splint because of the break.

Dr. A also checked out my knee, I do not feel it is stable, it keeps wanting to give out and hyper extending. So I am having an MRI done on Friday. My shoulder is still giving me some troubles but because I can lift my arms above my head I'm good for now. We didn't get a chance to discuss my heel. I will see how that feels for my next appointment.

I request a do over for May

I would like to hit the reset button for the whole month of May. I have no idea why it has happened but this whole month has been one bad situation after another. Sure it had a few bright points, but this past week capped it all off.

Most of you know that I crashed my bike on the 8th. Well this past week Jake and I made a trip to Ft Wayne/New Haven to see my parents and extended family. It was more to reassure everyone that I was ok and that no one needed to make any unnecessary trips to Illinois any time soon.

We left Sunday morning and had a fairly smooth trip, Jake even found the shirt I have been wanting to get since the accident for me. He found it at a truck stop, and it was even on sale. The first pic is what is written on the left breast of the shirt and the second pic is of the back of the shirt.We got there around 2ish and spent some time with my parents and grandparents before heading over to my aunt and uncle's to stay. They live in the country and have a few Amish families for neighbors. This was the view from our bedroom window.So far seems pretty nice doesn't it? Well on Monday our truck was backed into. Tuesday we got a nail in one of our tires. The jack that came with the truck is a scissor jack and is not tall enough, the base is real small and so the slightest bump can cause the truck to fall off it. Trust us, it happened not once, but twice.

Wednesday was really good.I spent the day with my mother and Jake spent it with my dad before we got together with most of my dad's family to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.

Thursday we headed home. We got home and went to derby practice so Jake and I could get the roster for the team we will be line coaching on Saturday. During practice Jake twisted his knee pretty badly and we took him to the immediate care today, Friday. He is now on crutches and has to go see our primary doctor in 3 days if he is still having trouble.

So if it is in anyone's capability, please...give me a do over, I think I deserve it.

Why do the sucky parts last forever?

Life is short, so play hard. The only part is that when you hit a speed bump in life it seems to take forever to get over it. Jake and I have been home for a week now and we have been on the go ever since.
I think Sunday is the only day we actually got to stay home all day. We had doctor appointments on Monday. I have a torn ACL and LCL and am now wearing a knee brace and I'm going to start physical therapy. I have to wear the splint on my finger until Monday. My hand and shoulder are still aching and it is hard for me to grip and hold with my left hand.

Tuesday we spent the day with a Veterans Administration representative getting Jake registered in IL. Jake then went to practice and I headed to Naperville to meet another author. Kim Harrison.
Today, Wednesday, Jake finally got to see an ortho and has an MRI scheduled. Each doctor he has seen has told him something different, one says miniscus, one says LCL, and the ortho thinks ACL. Lets hope the MRI sets everyone straight and all he needs is therapy and a brace like me.

Tomorrow we get to take the truck up to have the front end damage looked at and get an estimate, then practice for me and an ALR meeting for Jake.

Friday it's Jake's MRI. All this time I am trying to look for a job and be his chaufer because it's his right knee and he can't drive.

The saddest part is it is only Wednesday and I feel like it should already be Friday.

Le' Sigh

Well, because we are not able to find a bike that I like or one that even comes close to what we had for the price the insurance is going to give us, we are taking the check and applying it to bills. I am also going to be getting my own lap-top.

Once we get the settlement from the lawyer I hope to have enough money so that we will be debt free, a new motorcycle for me and a down payment on a house. Now obviously that will take a while because court cases do not go as quickly as we like, unless the decision is against us that is.

As of 7/6 I have not yet found a new job, but received a call from my former employer, you know the one that is moving to Florida? Well, they are hiring back some employees to help with the busy mail season, and I was called. So Monday I will be starting back part time, no benefits at all, except for a paycheck, which will probably be more than what I am making on unemployment. (but not much more) At lest this will get me out of the house and away from Jake before we kill each other.

Depressed

Well yesterday was gloomy, rainy, filled with trips to the local clinic, and both good and bad news.

I had a physical therapy session at 12:30 and Jake had his ortho appointment at 1:30. The Ortho has finally decided he can bend his knee enough to see the surgeon (good news) so he will do that next week. I had an occupational therapy session for my hand at 4 so we drove home to check the mail. When we still did not have our insurance check we called the insurance company. Well our adjustor had told us Monday that the check had been mailed last Friday, he was wrong. According to customer service our check did not mail until the 7th (bad news), Tuesday. So the money we were expecting to go to the Dells on never showed up and we had to cancel our trip.

Well we now have to spend the rest of this weekend staying at home, using as little gas as possible so I can start my part time job on Monday, or until our money finally shows up.

Sorry I have been away

Well, I am sorry it took so long to return to you, We got the results on Jake's MRI. He has ruptured his ACL and torn his meniscus. The verdict is he will have to have surgery to replace the ACL. The good news though is the knee he injured is the knee he was rated for with the military and we go to the VA clinic this week. Hopefully the VA will pick him up and do the surgery.

I am just getting ready to start my 3rd week of physical therapy and was doing pretty good until this last week, they had me doing a stretch that was hurting too much so they had me stop it. My knee is still unstable but getting better and I go back to my ortho on July 1st.

We have also been arguing with our insurance over the price they are willing to pay us for my bike and what we can buy to replace it with the money the company wants to give us. We have been to so many dealers online and looking for private sales as well with no luck. So yesterday we drove to 3 different shops and found a 94 fatboy, (the picture is not the bike I am looking at but the same year, make and model) it is not my dream bike, but very close. If we can work the deal it could be mine. We just have to try and get the price down a little more.

A Moment in the

Cracker Barrel

A moment in the life of me...

Duchess Jane has a regularly occurring theme entitled 'Weather Report' and I thought it was such a fun idea. I now find myself thinking along the same lines, only I didn't want to use her phrasing so I present to you, "A moment in the life of me..."
Little Bistro, Beloit, Wisconsin.

Will wireless wonders never cease

Ladies and gentlemen, my I present to you, my new toy...

Coast to coast with an Illinois speed bump

June 20th 2009.
There is a national organization called the Military Vehicle Preservation Association (follow the link and click on the 2009 convoy link on the left hand side of the page) who are holding a convoy of military vehicles. The convoy started in Washington DC and is traveling the Lincoln Highway to San Francisco, CA.
Along the way they made a stop in the Land of Lincoln. The convoy is being escorted by local veterans as well as Motorcycle riders from all over the states.


Our local American Legion Riders are honored to be apart of the Illinois leg of the convoy. Our riders were supposed to camp out at the airport in Rochelle, IL tonight then set out with the vehicles in the morning. However due to the torrential rain falls we had yesterday the fields are flooded so our riders will leave from Forreston Sunday morning.




In preparation for the ride we hopped in a van and drove down to the airport to see what we could see, knowing that the convoy would not be there, we had hoped to see the vendors and get an idea of what was going to happen.





We arrived just in time to hear the new Governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn speak about his "Portrait of a Soldier" program. We also got to see the display. These are pencil or charcoal portraits of fallen soldiers from all over the state. We also got to see the inside of one of the governor's jets, before he left. It was very cramped inside. Glad I don't have to ride in it.

Unfortunately Jake and I will not be able to make the ride tomorrow so I won't have any pictures, but I bet it will be very cool. I just hope the weather holds.

Long week ahead

This is going to be a nice long week. Jake is getting off work tonight, 6 hours early so we can leave for Ft Wayne tomorrow morning. (this way he gets some sleep)

I am going to see my parents, and reassure them that I am fine. We are also going to be seeing my grandparents and extended family. Even though times are tough, I really need to get out of town for a while.

I will be coming back home in time for my league's expo bout on the 30th. We have invited individual skaters from all over our area to come down and skate. We threw everyone's name into a bag and pulled out 2 teams. Unfortunately I won't be skating, but Jake and I will be line coaching. So Scream Queens, go easy on me, it's my first time coaching from the bench.

New patch to sew on my vest

I am impressed

I would like to congratulate the people at pledge. Very rarely am I impressed with a product from t.v. Sometimes I see the commercial then buy the item and it does the job half as well as the advertisement.

For anyone who has pets that shed I highly recommend Fabric Sweeper (if you click on Fabric Sweeper, you can print off a $2.00 coupon). I saw it at the store and decided $5.00 was not so bad to give it a try. My only disappointment is that it instructs the buyer to throw it away when it is full. The company asks that you do not try to empty the fur. Well that is easily worked around. You can empty the fur out buy using a crochet hook, or even an ink pen, something small enough to get between the rollers and pull the fur out.

Let me tell you the fabric sweeper worked so well, the husband is the only one who has used it. He has cleaned off our couch, love seat, and bedspread. So far the only thing we have not been able to use it on is our wool blankets from Mexico, the sweeper grabs them.

HELLO...Hello...hello... o hell (random rant)

I am sorry if it seems as if I have fallen off the face of the earth lately, but sometimes I just feel like a huge hole has opened up at my feet. No I did not jump into it, I was pushed. And the worst part is a lot of people around me are being pushed or have proceeded me into this seemingly bottomless pit.

I envy those of you who have thus far only witnessed this recent rash of job losses from a distance. At first I was one of you. I had 2 friends who lost their jobs over a year ago and still haven't been able to find new ones. Then Chrysler started cutting shifts and laying off people, 2 more friends and their husbands went under the ax. Then it was my turn. But I didn't lose my job to a foreign land, I didn't lose my job because my company was loosing money, I lost my job because my company was greedy. They basically wanted to start over where they could pay new people 5 to 8 dollars less than the employees they were paying up here. (You know those annual nickel raises add up over the years.)

Then with in the last three weeks three more of my friends have been blindfolded and pushed over the edge. One friend was graciously given 3 days notice.

My question for the people in charge is, Who is actually going to do the work for you once you have gotten rid of all your employees? Do you honestly think you are safe? With your six figure income, how warm and dry are you in your house on the hill?

Life of a contusion part 2

This picture was taken Sunday night, about 10 hours after the day 3 picture in the blog post below. You can already see the bruise starting to green up.





Now take a look at Monday, more
green.




Now it is Tuesday and the bruise is only purple on the outer ring. Everyone at practice was impressed with it.

Today is Wednesday, and this will be the final picture I post on my bruise, as it will more than likely be the last day it will show up half way decent on camera. So there you have it folks, one week in the life of a derby bruise.

The life of a contusion

One badge of honor most derby girls look forward to is their first real bruise. Oh, sure we get little ones here and there, but for me if it didn't show up well on camera it really didn't count. So today I would like to share with you my first note worthy derby bruise. (Almost breaking my elbow in Sept 2007 doesn't count because I did that with only the help of gravity)

Thursday 4/9/09 we had a pretty good practice. We did a few drills before spending most of the evening scrimmaging. I was jamming against Redneck I had made lead jammer and Red was still stuck in the pack. I remember coming around to re-enter the pack for my first scoring pass, we were just about to the jammer start line when someone hit me, sending me into the inside of the track, causing me to fall. Now normally I would have called the jam off right then, but Red had not made it through yet so I had plenty of time to try and score. I jumped up and finished the jam. I didn't feel anything but the usual twinge in my knee. Later, after practice I told a few of my team mates my right thigh really hurt, and was tender. When we got home I was rewarded with discoloration, but it didn't show up well on camera.

This is a picture from Friday morning, less than 15 hours after the knock down.




By Friday evening the color was really starting to show. This next picture was bout 24 hours. In both of these two pictures I used an ink pen to give you something to compare the size.




Here is the most recent Picture which I think really brings out the color, but we haven't yet started to go green.
As the bruise starts to heal I will document the life and we will see just how long it takes for it to disappear from camera view.

Happy Birthday

Well, this past Thursday was Jacob's birthday, I won't go into numbers but he is a year older now. After our league meeting for the Divas a few of us went out to try and push posters and tickets at local bars. The first bar we went into was dead. I think there were maybe 8 people in it. So we talked to a few of the people, handed out a few fliers and made sure our poster was displayed. No one in our party had eaten since early afternoon, so we called up our usual place for Thursday night after practice cool down. Luckily they still had their fryer on and we were able to head over for food. When we got there and told Abby that it was Jake's birthday she checked his i.d. and then he drank tap beer for free all night and got to keep the huge glass mug.

We stayed there till about 11:30ish before we headed out. We decided to hit our old home location, now under new management and put up posters. That was fun, they had Karaoke and we sang our little hearts out. There was really no one else at the place so no one saw our debacle. All I will say is DD stands for many things.

Friday we spent the evening with friends playing board games, This had become a regular Friday night event a few months ago, but do to holidays, derby, elections, and work we haven't been able to play as often. Well our hosts for the evening have a 5 year old girl, who upon hearing it was Jake's birthday set off to make party hats for everyone. Jake was the first to get his hat, before she got distracted and forgot about everyone else.

Happy Birthday, Jake.

And yes that is his normal facial expression when there is a camera pointed at him.

Week one

Well, this is Wednesday of my first week of unemployment. All I can say is I really hope I get a job soon. I find I can not stay awake past ten or eleven at night and I am up by nine in the morning. This is very unlike me as I am used to getting to bed after midnight because of my work and practice schedules. Of course I was always up by 8:45 in the morning anyway, so the waking up part is not really a change.

Jacob's birthday is tomorrow, and seeing as how this was his short week at work he took Wed and Thurs off. What this means is that he got off work at 6 am Monday morning and does not have to be to work until 6 pm the following Monday night. So not only do I have a week of constant job hunting and pre-bout frenzy to cope with, add in a husband with pretty much nothing to do.

On the job hunting side things are kind of at a stand still. I am putting in applications everyday through the internet. I have updated my resume on Monster as well as with one of the local hospitals. On the Illinois skills match website (the site all unemployed persons must register with) I continue to match with no jobs.

The only bright side is that I interviewed on March 10th with a company (that found me on Monster) for a security position, another co-worker also interviewed with the same company about a week and a half after I did. Shortly after her interview she received a 'thanks, but no thanks' letter. I have not received any letter, I called the company and received the answer that they are still interviewing for the up coming class and that I will be notified when an decision has been made. So that means I am still int he running. Please keep your fingers crossed for me as this job will help to get rid of a great deal of worries that I currently carry.

Mark Your Calendars!

Buy Your Tickets Online Now!!

In this first picture we are doing our Divas! shout just before we take the track for the beginning of our first period.This is my intro lap

Here I am shoving the other team's pivot out of my Jammer's way
If you look at this last picture you can see the score.
Too see more pictures please visit Moosie's Flicker the pictures with the Divas start on page 6.

What a Weekend!

First of all I want to say a big thank you to the Fox Cityz Foxz. They hosted a wonderful night of derby action.

There were 4 teams playing Saturday night The Pushy Possie, The Paper Dolls, the Rollergirl Regiment (all 3 from the host league) and the Stateline Divas.

We played in a double header, where the Pushy Possie and the Paper Dolls played each other and we played the Rollergirl Regiment. The first two teams played a 20 minute period then we played. After a 10 or fifteen minute half time, the four teams came back to battle it out once more.

It was really great, the spacing out of the periods helped with keeping us fresh. I won't even pretend to remember the details of the games except to say there were some awesome jammers on all the teams, I have at least two bruises and I spent no time in the penalty box. I remember that the Paper dolls continued their undefeated status and the Divas won a very well matched game. The score was really tight through both periods with a final score 64 to 65. The final Jam was a nail biter we needed 3 points to tie and 4 to win. The Regiment lost their jammer to the penalty box giving us the advantage to get the job done.

As soon as I get pictures I will post a few.

Once again...why must you lie?

Today I walked into work thinking well, I only have 7 weeks left, but at least I know I have 7 weeks of income.

Well, 3 hours into my shift today I was asked to meet the Customer Service Manager in the conference room, along with about 7 of my co-workers. We all walked in to the room and were greeted by a HR representative and basically given a 2 week notice. Ah I love the feeling of being constantly lied to.

Sorry I have strayed

Alright everyone, I am very sorry I have not been around in a very long time. It seems as if the first two months of the year have flown by. What with me trying to get all my Derby merchandise and uniforms squared away for our first bout of the season and trying to find a new job, I have literally lost track of what day it is.

Each time I look at a calendar I can't believe it is already March. As I write this I can count that I have 10 days until my team plays the Fox Cityz Foxz. I have 7 weeks left at my job unless I land the one I am interviewing for. In that case I have no idea how long I will have at my current one before starting.

I have 6 weeks before our first home bout and we need our posters, tickets, programs and a whole slew of other items to the printer and out in the public eye way to soon for my comfort. All I have to say is when I put my name on the ballot for the creative director, I was conned. I only put my name up because I was asked nicely. Ugh, if I have any hair left at the end of the season it will be a miracle.

February

Well February is almost over already. The month is flying by so fast I can hardly keep track of the days.

At work it is now more noticeable than ever that we are moving operations. We were sent out an email stating if enough people do not start volunteering for unpaid time off they will start sending us home. That is always a cheerful thought, but the paycheck at the end of the pay period always keeps me coming back.

In my derby life we have a season of bouts set and contracts pending.
Jake's surgery went well, he is making progress faster than expected with his physical therapy and much to his disappointment went back to work today.

That is about all for now, I am still waiting to hear from the latest job testing/interview so keep your fingers and toes crossed for me.

Passion

Isn't it wonderful that the internet can bring family members together across hundreds of miles?

Recently an uncle of mine started his own blog, in his most recent update he posed the question, "What are you passionate about?"

I have spent the weekend pondering this question. It was rather interesting the times it would pop into my head. The way he describes passion leaves me feeling quite shallow, it makes me wonder why do I get up in the morning?

While I have many things in my life that I do, many people whom I love and support I am really not passionate about much.

At first I thought this was going to be an easier question, but the more I thought it over the harder it was to see a clear answer. I was going to answer my Roller Derby team is what I am passionate bout, but due to the economy I may have to give up the team. If I am unable to find a new job quickly the one thing I do for myself will have to fall by the side of the road. It would be hard to do, but I could live without it.

Then I thought of my husband, I do not know what I would do without him, but he is not what defines me, he is not the reason I get up every morning. After all is said and done, I have discovered there is really no one person, place or thing I am passionate about. I get up every morning because it is my hope that one day I will be givinn a reason to get up. I guess I am passionate about the fact that somewhere along this road, there has to be something better.

Darling, you look marvelous

After driving home late Friday night from our bout my Diva team mates and I got up early to make an eleven o'clock photo shoot with a local Photographer Tim Speer. He had a slasher/hack 'em up idea running through his head that he wanted to give a derby twist to. He called the Divas. So we all got dressed up and met him in an old factory.

The lighting and set up took up a lot of time but we had a blast talking and watching everything he did. Once he finishes with his touch ups and piecing together multiple pictures to form one complete view I will post an update. In the mean time here is an out-take shot during the light check.

Now those of you who know me. know that I am a big girl. I hate having my picture taken but thought this would be fun. I have also wanted to get a few derbyish pictures taken so that I could send them to my family members to show them how much fun I am having and how being a derby girl has complimented my personality. Well after the gory shoot Tim took the time out of his busy schedule to take a few individual shots for any of the girls who wanted them. I took advantage of the opportunity. All I can say is when I saw the shots just on his camera I almost cried. I have never seen myself as beautiful, but with the lighting and Tim's artful eye I saw myself as a strong, beautiful women this weekend. Once again, As soon as I have the finished product I will be sharing them with you.

Red White and Bruise.

This past Friday I was privileged to be invited to participate in what is called a red and black scrimmage. Basically girls from different roller derby leagues are invited to play in a hodge-podge game, where you are given a color to wear and that is your team. There is no guarantee you will be playing on the same side as the rest of your own team mates. There were four leagues involved in this game, The Stateline Divas were able to have seven girls play and five of us played for the Red and Fight team while two of our teamates ended up on the Black and Bruise team. The split was really well thought out, we had a good number of all positions on each team as well as a fair distribution of rookie skaters. Three of the Divas we took had never bouted before.

As with the other 2 times I have played the only time I even noticed the score was at the end of the second period when my team, the red team had managed to close the scoring gap to one point. It took us the first period to find out the stratagey that worked best for our group. In the end though the Black and brusie team skated their way to victory.

I can defintly say this game was a whole new experiance for me. I have never intened to be one of the star players, being content to simply do my job as a blocker or pivot. Friday was such a confidence builder. I had several really good blocks and hits, I was approached by many of the black team and told what a good player I was. I even had Val Capone from the Windy City Rollers (She announced for the bout) come up and tell me she hoped she didn't offend me when she made the comment that I should change my name from DD Hunter to Jammer Hunter. It was all so over whelming I am just so used to blending in I still can't get over it all.

This weekend was such a confindence booster for me in a time where I am finding myself more and more depressed everyday. This was just Friday, I will post Saturdays bright spots tomorrow when I have more time, right now it is off to bed so I can get up early for work.

The End

Well, the finish line is in sight. I was given my letter today telling me my last day of work will be April 24th. I hate to keep saying it but I knew it. When everyone said customer service would be one of the last departments to go I silently shook my head. I told only a few co-workers that once the busy holiday season was over we would be out the door. It's times like these I really hate being right.

Letting out my inner nerd

Yesterday, while I was pretty much still home bound, I was surfing the net. I came across a video snippet on MSN for The Guild. And I couldn't stop myself from sitting down and watching all of the first season and what has been posted so far of the second.

Now in the past I found Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog and fell in love with it. The creator of The Guild was the love focus of Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) I have to admit, these geeky little web shows are very entertaining. Why? I guess it's because they are so human.

Now even though I never was a gamer in the same sense as the cast of The Guild I have had friends who were and still are. Though my friends tend to do more table top games. I do however enjoy a good night of roll playing on line with various fan based worlds inspired by authors.

Even if you don't do the gaming thing stop by and watch one of the two shows linked above, you just might find yourself hooked as I did.

Back in action

This coming Friday a few of my teammates and I will be traveling to the Quad Cities (Davenport,Betendorf, Iowa, Moline, and Rock Island Illinois) to play in our first game of 2009.


So in between vacuuming the living room and mopping the kitchen I am making my jersey.
I am going to be on the red and white team playing with derby girls from the Rockford Rage, Cedar Rapids Rollergirls, and the Quad City Rollers. This is going to be such a great learning experience, not to mention a great game. I can't wait to get my skate on!

Normal temps today?

After almost a week of sub-zero temps, Northern Illinois is finally seeing what could be called normal temperatures again. With the air temp in the twenties I went out this afternoon and attempted to once again start my car. The little bugger started up on the first try. While this makes me very happy because I am no longer house bound it angers me that I had to miss out on 8 hours of work on Friday. While normally I would have no problems taking a day off work, it makes me mad that now because my car hasn't started since Wednesday morning I had to pour extra money into it to replace my frozen battery and I lost out on 18 hours of pay.

I just hope I will be able to put in some make up hours this coming week. As much as I hate my job, I do need the money. Oh, and on another note, I have decided, against my better judgment to go ahead and apply for a correctional officer position to work along side the husband. I have no idea if I will be able to pass the physical tests, but it pays almost double what I make now and they are hiring. Wish me luck.

Freeze your nose hairs

The high temp projected for today, Thursday 1/15/09 is a whopping -7 degrees. I can hardly wait. As it is we had to leave my car at work last night because at 9:30pm the sub-zero temp had sucked the life out of my battery.

At least I can say this is the first year we have had such a problem. I am just very lucky that Jake did not have to work last night and was able to come save my butt. Hopefully we will be able to get a new battery in my car tomorrow so I can go to work, practice, and get home.

May I have this Job?

Yahoo places little snippets in your inbox. Today I came across Australia Offers "Best Job in the World" I would really love to be chosen. I could really use a vacation, and the six month salary is more than the spouse and I make combined for 2 years. The only down fall would be, I don't see any roller rinks on the island.

A letter

Dear Mr President and President Elect,

I have read recently on MSNBC News that you are asking congress to release the reaming $350 billion for the bail out. While I have no qualms about releasing money to help the economy my question is, why are you giving the money to the lenders? They will only pass it out to people who will be unable to pay it back because they have lost their jobs.

Why not instead give it to the people who borrowed the money in the first place. If you were to do that the money would still get to the lenders. The tax payers who borrowed the money would use it to pay off their loans, thus giving it back to the banks. The money that is not used to pay off the debit would then be used to...oh my word, buy products, thus stimulating the economy.

So please, before you go handing out the money we were required to pay in taxes, please consider where the real help is needed. The banks would not be in the position they are in now if the working Americans had the money to pay off their loans.

Sincerely,
A soon to be out of a job tax payer.

Disappointment

This past weekend we rented the latest Narnia flick Prince Caspian I have to say I was extremely disappointed. I really enjoyed the Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. I watched that and even though I knew the directors had to cut a lot out I didn't really feel it as I watched. Sad to say I could really tell that much of the story for Prince Caspian ended up on the cutting room floor. More than likely even before the movie started filming.

Just the other day I was discussing books made in to movies with a friend, we commented on how much we enjoyed the first two Harry Potter flicks and how they were so true to the stories. The first movie was so captivating it inspired me to purchase all of the books. As the third move premiered, with a different director behind the camera I started to loose my excitement. Much of the story was being left untold.

I can say the same thing about Twilight. I went to see the movie and now I want to read the series, not only because it was recommended to me by someone who follows the same authors as I, but because I want to know exactly what it is that wasn't being portrayed in the movie.

Unfortunately after the first Narnia movie I bought and tried to start reading the whole story, but it was so dry and long winded I just couldn't muddle through it.