. . . makes you stronger? Really? I’ve always thought that what doesn’t kill you is more likely to just make you not dead.
This week I took some time off from goofing around the office to goof around the largest state in the union. Texas’ proximity to Mexico makes it the perfect vacation destination the week of swine flu and Cinco de Mayo and you never know when they’ll decide to secede again, so I was due for a visit. My roller derby team, The Dirty South Derby Girls, also happened to book two games over the weekend, one in Houston and one in Austin. Having heard that Austin is where all the “cool kids” live these days I invited my best friend, Antoinette, to fly down from Raleigh to live like a cool kid with me for a few days in Austin and an afternoon in San Antonio trying to remember the Alamo. What could be better than five days, three cities, two roller derby bouts, one best friend ever and no responsibilities? Well, maybe eating migas for breakfast everyday, devouring my own weight in queso at every meal, and stopping to snack on cupcakes out of a silver stream trailer (go for the “Michael Jackson,” a chocolate cupcake topped with cream cheese icing) would be a close second, but never fear, I did all of those things too.
We arrive in Houston Friday night and stay in a magical land known as The Woodlands near the venue for Saturday night’s game. The Woodlands (which I learn during my visit actually petitioned the state to ensure that the word “The” appears in front of its name on all maps) with it’s strip malls that resemble cathedrals more than they do a building in which to put a Pet Smart or a Steinmart, is not your obvious backdrop for roller derby bout but that’s where the Houston Roller Girls invited us to play their all-star team, Houston Hard Knocks Roller Girls. I won’t lie; the game could have gone better. All in all we were relatively evenly matched and the score went back and forth for most of the night with Houston pulling ahead in the second period to beat us by 26 points. I know most of you have no idea what this means in relation to the sports world so I’ll compare it to baseball. Since most roller derby scores reach the low to mid 100’s and it’s not uncommon for a talented jammer (the batter) to score 10 points (3 players reaching home in one hit) in a single 2 minute jam (inning), 127 to 101 in a roller derby bout is comparable to a 9 to 6 score in a baseball game. I probably don’t need to mention that I know very little about baseball.
Defeated but proud of the game we played on the track, thirteen smelly roller girls and our entourage piled into three mini-vans and arrived in Austin at 2am to a lovely motel under the interstate that proudly advertises that not only do they have air conditioning, but free HBO too!
Our arrival in Austin on Sunday morning brings me back to what doesn’t kill you. How do I explain the Texas Roller Girls of Austin’s all-star team, The Texecutioners? Back to the baseball analogy: imagine that your little league team is really really good. Imagine that maybe you are even the best little league team in the country. Now, imagine that your little league team plays the New York Yankees. Back home in Atlanta, we are the top skaters in the league, which is why we’re on the all-star travel team. In the nation we’re ranked around 26th out of approximately 70 leagues. Houston is ranked 21st. Austin, formally ranked 1st, now ranked 4th, are the grandmothers of modern flat track roller derby—really buff impossibly fast and robotically strategic grandmothers who kicked my ass.
At our Sixthman retreat a few weeks ago while talking about the future of the company, Andy said something that I was reminded of during my experience in Austin: “You can’t go into something for the wrong reasons and expect to get the right results.” I don’t think there is a person on my team that doesn’t just like to win, we freaking love it. We are grown women with real jobs and families who put our hearts and souls into a competitive sport and if we’re going to spend so much of our time on it then damn straight we want to win.
On Sunday night around 8:30 as my team celebrated our 11th point of the game shortly after Texas broke the 100 point mark, with smiles, hi-fives and “atta girls,” I realized that although the results aren’t exactly the thing of dreams we were there for the right reasons. Atlanta’s Dirty South Derby Girls lost to the Texecutioners 221 to 24 and I feel stronger than ever.
See you on the flip side,
Joy
aka Spazz Attaque #!!!