End of the Season-Reflections

Well, this past Saturday my Roller Derby travel season came to an end in a most epic fashion. Thank you Hudson Valley Horrors for being such wonderful hosts.


Copyright 2013, Gregory Paret

It marked the end of an era as well.
My dear friend and long time teammate Atari Joykick is officially retired. It makes me happy to know she found so many wonderful things to celebrate in life while we skated together. I am filled to the brim with pride at the leaps and bounds she made as an athlete through her years. It makes me sad to think she will not be there to help forge more memories. It makes me sad that I cannot say "Heya E-man!" to her son at every practice and every scrimmage. But is makes me over joyed, overwhelmed, and completely full of pride to know I was able to share such an epic journey with such a wonderful, loving, and dedicated woman. She is my hero.

Tears of joy for being chosen MVP. Copyright 2013, Gregory Paret
Her last bout ever was last Saturday, and it was certainly emotional afterward. Even now I am thinking "Shit! What am I going to do without Atari?!"  But, there is no "without Atari". This lady.. she's rad, and she's stuck with me, and we are totally friends 'till forever.

This was also my last bout as a Queen City Cherry Bomb for a while. We'll get to that soon, don't you worry.

On the way to this bout as well as on the way home I got to also play with my Google Glass some more. It was nice to play again! It's been a while and with the XE9 updates, I am excited to be able to use ALL of the features!
Here are some of our adventure pictures!
I'm a great copilot!

Teaching Slick how to take pictures with Glass

Where we bouted!

Our Bench manager Jesse! It was his first time and he did great!

After Bout Dinner Time!
Bombs, family and friend dinner!

Great place!


Delicious

And Grace loved hers, too!

Blackened Jack Burger... so good!
We slept at a pretty 'meh' Days Inn and Motel. It was pretty darn ghetto, and had spiders... but we made the best of it. We slept "okay".
We looked up a place for breakfast and checked out fast.
Sunday Morning, Big Tomato Diner... Fashion!

Wall Paper!


Fancy dude

More wallpaper
Originally we thought of adventures for Sunday, but decided after a way too long breakfast to head home. Really, the food was good.. but it took forever. Like, we got there at 9:30am, and left around 11/11:30. *yikes*
If you Google the Big Tomato Poughkeepsie new york, you'll see a lot of pictures of that wall paper.


The drive home was relatively quiet, and relaxing. We saw some interesting sites... only some of which I managed to capture.

WHOA! Onions!

Quick stop at Rein's in CT for pickles.

Anyone ever skate here?

Beautiful Day

I love Airstream campers.
The way to Hyde Park NY and back, there was much laughter, great conversation, bonding time, and so much more. I love everything about my travel companions! Thank you a million times over to N Raging Grace, Trina Trioxin, and Brittany Romeo (AKA Slick Tracey) for a great trip. You all made it perfect.

Now I am home, and thinking of my 2013 Roller Derby season. Throughout this year there have been more ups than downs. I can safely say I'm still madly in love with NH Roller Derby and the sport as a whole. I was able to participate in a more than note worth charity event. I only wish I had more to give for them. Really, if you haven't yet, check out the St Baldrick's web page.
Hopefully I can share more reflections on this soon. I know, really out of order, but still.

As I said earlier, the end of 2013 is bitter sweet for me.

You see, because of the house hunting and buying that is happening now (right now) traveling is going to be tough (even within New England). All the available cash will need to be put into making this house our home. This means that 2014 will be dedicated to the Granite Skate Troopers. I am actually pretty happy with my decision. I hope to be able to help make 2014 a season to remember for GST. We'll see. And who knows, maybe I will be able to go for the mid-season draft? You never know.
Strength! Honor! Courage! TROOPERS!
I will always love the Bombs, of course.
And Skate Free or Die!
And NH Roller Derby.
This is my other-other family. And they make me feel complete.

And so, dear reader(s)... I will end with this weird video #throughglass (this makes me laugh so much).


See you all in a few weeks!


(All pictures, unless otherwise noted with copyright information, were taken through Glass)

Comments

  1. Joseph L. SelbySeptember 24, 2013 at 2:33 PM

    I look forward to watching all you accomplish with the Troopers next year. Kick ass!

    And *applause* for Atari.

    ReplyDelete

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