Ravings of an Irate Pirate

Recently someone said I had an agenda. This surprised me, but then I thought about it and yeah, maybe I do have an agenda after all! All people have one of some kind, and I have decided I will share mine with you, 100% bare and candid. First on the agenda is the promotion of the celebration of successes. Sure, you sound like an asshole if you go on too much about how well you did at something, but it is good to know and celebrate that you did something well! Others will celebrate with you and those who do not celebrate may try to cut you down. They are just being douche bags (they may have something that makes them pang with a bit of jealousy about your success). A big part of the Irate Agenda is to be true to yourself and your emotions. This is something that is huge to me. Whether I am playing my LARP or skating or just existing, I try to be just me and not necessarily fit the mold others may want to force me in to. I don't fit really anywhere, but then again, I fit everywhe...

I am going to only throw out a few pictures because we have a LOT that we took as a team and I really do not want to do three posts about Idaho. We arrived! We had food! We made friends.... ... who want to sit with us! We stayed positive! And were silly. I got to spend extra time with people I adore. Ate more food. Drove everywhere. Argued about who was better:Batman or Superman. There were some shenanigans. A little bit of this! And a lot of relaxing. We researched gross things during the after-party. Piper and I were not fully impressed And we slept it off in the lobby. We went to this place TWICE! We ate more food... And a little more.... Then we flew home with a lot to think about and more to remember.

Well Blog-o-verse, we knew when I started this thing I was bad at updates. Luckily we have had some adventures, so I have something to write about (finally). NH Roller Derby sent the All Stars team to Idaho for the 5th annual Spudtown Knockdown tournament. We went in with high hopes of taking at least one win and having close games, but that was just not to be. We experienced something teams have happen all the time; The Blow Out. Yep, we lost and we lost hard with each game. But, while losing, something wonderful happened. I have been on the All Stars team off and on since 2008 (2013 and 2014, I declined the opportunity to try out). For the first time (that I can remember) not a single person gave up on our bench, no one was blamed or shamed, everyone was given a chance to play and show their worth, every skater smiled and pushed hard, and no one was angry at the rest of the team. No insults at each other, no flung words at the other teams. We had... Zen Bench ! I mean,...