omg

I totally just volunteered to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the roller derby bout.

If we sell out there will be 750 people there.

With no family of my own in Buffalo, and only one coworker willing to show up, I've still managed to sell ten tickets myself.

I skated my ass off at practice tonight. It was fun. Dress rehearsal! We have a girl in light bondage gear minding the penalty box. It's kinda hot. Also one of the refs showed up in a corset. I told her it takes fuckin' guts to skate in one of those. "Yeah, I'm not real mobile," she said, evidently reconsidering the idea.

I am probably far from the best singer in our group, incidentally. Diamond CrushHer sang the anthem at a Padres game once. Metal Mistress is also a trained singer. It has been ten years since I last took a singing lesson. Oh well. Most people agree they really don't care, and I don't think I care either. I may have sung before larger audiences, I don't remember. I just hope I'm not out of breath, as it'll be after our warm-up.

I have a zillion other things to say but it is past my bedtime. Goodnight.

housecleaning

I've given up on having a clean house.
I'm trying now to just have a reasonable house.
In fact, just a house that doesn't cause people to run screaming.
(Although, what I remember of our house when I was a kid... you know, my mom even put in her staff profile in the high school yearbook where she teaches one year that she had always felt that there were more important things in life than a spotlessly-clean house. We were a disaster, the four of us, and it's only once the older three left and only the OCD little one was home that the place got into any kind of shape. I don't recognize it now, not without the teetering stack of junk on the kitchen table corner and the absolute disaster-pile of junk on the counter by the door. So maybe I shouldn't freak out about this: I come by it honestly.)

Actually mostly what I'm focusing on now is getting rid of the things that would lead to awkward conversations. You know, like when you're a parent with children who are just at the curious stage, how you try to shelter them from things just so they don't ask awkward questions? Like, "why does Mommy make such funny noises when she and Daddy are wrestling in bed?"
I'm just going for that only the other direction. I just don't want to answer any awkward questions. That's all I can hope to accomplish with this housecleaning. Because honestly, I don't really want to know if my parents are Cool With whatever it is. We have a good relationship because the things we tell one another are edited and that's how it should be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2QRHTWyGNk

oh, p.s.: I have now successfully learned the tune and lyrics to "O Canada" because even though the bout mistress says there is only time for one national anthem, I have promised my teammate from Port Colborne that if we don't get to have it before the bout, I'll sing it to start the after party and I'll make everyone salute the flag. So there.

And why, why why why, is O Canada SO MUCH EASIER TO SING than the friggin Star Spangled Banner? The American anthem is torture. But I sound like I actually know how to sing when I sing O Canada. The tune, no offense, is a little cheesy, but you know, it's easy as hell to sound good singing it.