Before I start, I need to explain something my dad and I did when I was growing up. In elementary school my dad and I went on what he called explorations. The two of us (Jordan would join sometimes) would go do something we had never done before, and then go to lunch somewhere we had never eaten before. We went to this weirdo place called the Orange Show one time, another time we went and toured some battleship. It was always a lot of fun, and I loved spending time with my dad one on one.
So my dad and I had been talking about going to a roller derby match for awhile now, but I hadn't thought about it in a long time. Two weeks ago my dad emailed me and said go to this address, no fair looking it up, ask for 2 $13 tickets, and take a friend on the exploration. When I got there I immediately knew I was doing something with roller derby. But what? I was worried because we had jokingly talked about me trying out for roller derby, so I was afraid I was about to do some training thing or something. Luckily it was just tickets to go watch, and not participate, in roller derby.
I asked my friend Angie if she wanted to go with me as an early birthday present, and she said yes. We were both excited since neither of us had gone before. She also loves to people watch like me, so I had a feeling she would love it even if she hated the actual match. I knew there was a big following for it, but I had no idea it was so big. There was an entire standing section for people who hadn't gotten there early enough to find seats. Anyways, we get there and go straight to the bar for some beers, find seats, and started commenting on all the weirdos that were there.
Before the match there was a fashion show, naturally, and all the clothes were super weird! They even had a mens fashion show and all the men were shirtless which the women in audience sure loved.
After that the match got started. They had a demo so people who had never been before would understand what was going on, and then they were off! It was a lot of fun, but the best part was when they got a minor penalty. (Super confusing trying to understand what the difference was between a minor or major penalty and just a normal shoving against the rail was.) But when they got a minor penalty they had to spin this wheel to determine what they would have to do to settle the penalty. The first was a pillow fight. It started normal and turned into smacking each other in the face. Pretty awesome! They also had a tug of war, arm wrestling, and long jump. And yes, everything was done in skates.
Demo, complete with signs telling you who was doing what.
All in all it was a lot of fun! I'll have to bring dad sometime, he would have totally loved it! Thanks dad, and happy birthday Angie!
