My Mom Loved the Roller Derby!

Like daughter like mother, apparently. Last Sunday, yes Father's Day, my mom, the BFF and I went to the local roller derby bout. It was just as intense and fun and awesome as I'd remembered, and my mom loved it.

Fast hard-hitting action

There was even chocolate covered bacon on a stick to be had. As many of you know from my 'Possum Queen carny days, fried stuff on a stick is a rare treat for me, but surprisingly, I wasn't enticed to try these.

Along with chocolate covered breakfast meats, there was a local live band.

Saints of Sorrow

I didn't get too close for fear of being labeled a groupie. I'm much too old and dignified for that. So I pretended I was taking a picture of the guy in front's butt. The band was good, and even had my mom bopping along to the heavy metal beat.

Mom was so into the whole experience that she even wore one of my coveted home-team jerseys to the bout. I wore this one. And the BFF got me an entirely new one that night for my birthday!! Check it out!

Do you feel the mash up love?

So a great time was had by all. Including my seventy year old mother.

She visited for two weeks from Montana, and left two days ago. That, along with bylaw revisions, finaling in a writing contest and the wrap up of the two environmental field days I ran for 183 and 132 kids respectively, the final days of the school year for my Urchins,  and my oldest Urchin's dance recital tonight, I have been regretfully absent from my blog.

But that will change. All the lovely crazy that I can cram in will be here in future days. Though, I have vowed to take more time for my writing, so I may slip some more of that in here around all the lunacy. We'll see how that works.

So what have you been up to for the past few weeks? Inquiring mind (my own) wants to know!

Girl Rising - Watch it!

I just got back from a powerful film. Girl Rising.



I wasn't surprised by the information presented in it. These issues are important to me and I've familiarized myself with them for years. But the film brought them home in a very powerful and personal way.

They will be playing the film on CNN on June 16th at 9pm EST. I highly recommend it.

What was the most powerful thing you've seen or read that inspired you recently?

Wait. What?? Um, No. Just No.

Have you heard about this? I mean this even penetrated my environmental field day haze. Dunkin' Donuts is revealing a new breakfast sandwich this month.

Peppered egg, and bacon or a sausage patty between two halves of a GLAZED DOUGHNUT!!! Seriously. They're doing it.  This month. Check it out.

What's next, dipping it in guacamole and deep frying it?

I'm not sure what to say, so you say it for me in the comments.

Tomorrow Is D-Day A.K.A. EF Day

Yes, tomorrow is the first environmental field day of which there are two. 185 children, 10 teachers, and 26 parent volunteers will be under my charge. Only thing is I wish I could hide under the bed.

Conditions are rife with crappiness. It rained steadily all day today, which will render the state park where we're meeting into a muddy swamp. And tomorrow is the kickoff day of a week long hot spell with temperatures rising to 88 degrees with high humidity.

This morning I had three last minute back outs, and one last minute person wanting to come, which threw off my coverage and I had to scramble to reorganize.

So if I survive tomorrow, I'll be doing it all again next week. And that day they're calling for rain.

Last Week I Was In Paradise

No, it wasn't a tropical getaway. No, it wasn't my happy place. It was my writing group's annual retreat!

Three days of writing and talking and writing and eating and writing and laughing. All with other like minded crazy people writers.

I roomed with the fabulous Delynn Royer. We had a wonderful time talking shop and everything else under the sun.

I painted my nails- which is a well known fact that I paint them every year at the retreat and then anything else I get done is gravy. Unfortunately, the fingernail polish is all but chipped off already. It was a lovely shade of what Delynn insisted was taupe. Which I wouldn't have been able to name even if Sea Monkeys were ready to launch a deadly, soggy assault if I didn't.

So I got to put aside the huge science field day for a little while and focus on my writing again.  Which was heavenly.

What constitutes paradise for you?

Be Warned, Principal

If you don't give me the approved volunteer list for the school that is going on the science field day  I've been working on for months and put aside my writing for and made my unpaid full time job that we're supposed to be going on in exactly one week; I will give you THIS!!!!



Now get your friggin' deal together. I don't need this stress!!!!!!!!

Help! I've Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth!!

Actually I'm clinging to the edge right now, and boy do I wish I'd done more upper body toning. (Old Skool readers of TiC know what my real motivations are for exercise.)

The environmental field day preparations are kicking my committee's ass. And since I'm a committee of one I think you can figure out the math. I haven't done any writing this entire month. I've put in at least 100 hours on this project so far. I gotta get some balance back. Right now it's shot!

I did have a nice mother's day. The Oldest Urchin, who's eight, wrote and illustrated a book for me. The Adventures of Batwoman and Batgirl (she and I). Batwoman and Batgirl are taking care of the Batcave while Batman and Robin are away on vacation. That includes the Super Bat Computer.

When all of the super villains escape from Arkham Asylum, the mother/daughter team take care of business! It's awesome.

The Youngest Urchin gave me a fantastic gift as well. Stevie Ray Vaughn was playing on the radio, and she asked if it was B.B. King. Her music education is sinking in!

So how goes it in your life? What's crazy/busy? What's awesome? How was your Mother's Day? Lay it on me!

This Couple ROCKS!!

These guys are frickin' awesome!



I love this clip!

You Know You're Getting Old When . . .

you recover from your motorcycle accident by lying on the couch and watching The Antiques Roadshow. After that eneded, Lawrence Welk came on and I was unable to find the remote. I had to send my five year old upstairs to have my husband rescue me from THIS!!!!



It almost broke me. (bone wracking shudders)

As they say, there's two kinds of riders; those who've laid down their bikes and those who haven't . . .yet. So yes, I took a small spill on my motorcycle on the way to my monthly writers meeting. I'm mostly okay, and the bike is fine. Just a cracked turn signal light and a few small scuffs.

I was going through an S turn under a train overpass, and a huge pick up truck hauling a trailer was coming the other direction. He took the turn wide and I swerved to get out of his way. The bike tipped too far and went over. I hit the pavement on my shoulder and did a Pete Rose slide across the asphalt.

As usual, I was wearing jeans, boots, motorcycle jacket with armor, helmet and gloves. (Though there's no armor on the front of the jacket.)  I put my foot  down to try and stop the fall, and am having some soreness in the knee, probably from the force and weight of the bike, my shoulders and neck are sore. And my left boob. Could have done without that.

The driver didn't stop, and I slid into the middle of the road, which could have been fatal if someone came around the corner behind me right away, and my cycle hit the bank. Another motorcycle rider was coming in the opposite direction. He pulled over and helped me out, made sure I was okay and that my bike still ran. Great guy. Harley rider. Salt of the Earth, as are most of them. 

So there's the abbreviated version of my accident. I'm still stiff and sore. I still ran the writer's meeting and went to lunch after. I'm nothing if not stupid hard core.

Of course I now have more fear in riding, and the thought has crossed my mind that it may be time to give it up. We'll see what I think in a week or two.

So how was your weekend? Hope it was better than mine.

It's Been A Heckuva Week

So, wow. Yeah. It's Friday and I haven't blogged in about eight days. Got lots of reasons. Wanna hear them? Here they are.*

 I accepted a part time job at a nursery school that begins in the fall. Big decision that I agonized over for several days.

I'm running out of time to get everything done for the huge environmental days I volunteered to help with and somehow ended up in charge of with no one else helping me.

I weeded the yard of an old friend who was diagnosed with ALS. She's been very self conscious and hasn't wanted me to see her since she is now unable to speak and had a feeding tube inserted into her stomach. It took much finagling and many emails to convince her. But she finally relented, which made me happy.

The blue-haired old ladies called a meeting of the New Year's Eve committee in the middle of the week to start planning for this year. They're going to kill me with meetings. But as I've mentioned before, little old ladies are my Kryptonite. I just cannot tell them no.

And tomorrow is my writers' meeting and I had to get everything ready to preside over that. 

Plus several other things I can't remember on top of the regular grind. So tell me, how was your week?

*said like David Allen Grier when he was on In Living Color as a blues singer