In other news: DERBY!

If you need tix just give me a call. I know some of you have already contacted me, and I’ll be in touch today. Otherwise, just let me know and I’ll hook you up. I won’t be skating this one, but the Old Money Honeys and I will be working the bout. I only have to work for the first half, so I’ll come and find everyone when I’m done rockin’ the merch table. See you there! (Please pray, dance, think, wish, whatever, for no rain!)

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who’s posted a comment, phoned, or emailed me these last couple of days. Y’all’re sweeties! (How’s that for a contraction?)

I ended up not going to work today, just because I’m a little anxious and nervous and what not. I don’t think I’d get much work done, being this distracted, and I was nervous about making the trip. I really am feeling much better today, just a little anxious. Now watch me not have any “episodes” with the monitor on! Sheesh. Still, though, at least they’ll have a good idea of what my heart is up to. The docs are pretty sure it’s not heart-related, but want me to wear the thing as a precautionary measure.

I hope it doesn’t rain today, because I really want to skate. 1) It’ll make me feel more normal, 2) the monitor will track my heart during it’s normal range during exertion, and 3) it’ll take my mind off worrying about stuff and get me out of the house.

The doc said the monitor was supposed to be discreet. Um, not so much. The wires and stuff under my shirt don’t show so much, but the recording device is a 3″ x 5″ x 1″ box clipped to my pocket. It has a foot and a half long cable sticking out of it that the individual wires connect to. And the face of the recorder is a big clock. It’s like I’m the medical Flava Flav or something, but you know, digital.

I’m really not worried about it being a heart thing, though having to have all the heart tests is a little disconcerting. What I’m worried about is that it’s something else that’ll elude the doctors for a while and I’ll just have to deal with spontaneous hyperventilation and dizziness. I’m trying to keep my imagination under control, and just wait patiently for the blood tests to come back. I don’t even know how long to wait for those. I suppose if I don’t hear back after several days, I’ll phone them up to ask, but for now, I just have to sit tight.

Dude. I wanted a vacation, but not like this. I think I’ll spin some wool for a bit. That’ll take my mind off things. Anyway, thanks again, everyone, for your support and good thoughts and all that! I’ll update here as soon as I know anything else. Good thing I’m not going near an airport for a couple of weeks yet They might be suspicious of all these wires dangling from my person.

I always knew I was a bit dizzy

I’ve been out of work for a couple of days. What I thought was a stomach bug (causing nausea) has turned out to be something else. Not sure what. But the nausea went away pretty quickly, but the dizziness, (minor) hyperventilation (not the TV kind), palpitations, etc, have lingered. I had an EKG today, which looked normal, but just in case, I’ll be wearing a heart monitor. I pick it up tomorrow, wear it for 24 hours, then when I get it taken off, I have to get an  Echo Cardiogram done, just to make extra sure.

I also had some blood drawn to test for thyroid, electrolyte, and whatever else they can think of.

So, deep breaths. I’m supposed to go about my day as I normally would, so I’m going to work tomorrow, after getting the monitor put on, and I’m going to practice in the evening. I won’t do contact, as I’m sure the monitor is pretty expensive, and I don’t think I’m covered for derby-related breakage. But if my heart is doing wonky things, then I need to know if I can skate. The “attacks” or “episodes” or whatever you want to call them, don’t happen when I’m working out or skating, but they’ve come when I’m doing other normal things, like sitting watching TV, or driving a car (that one was scary), or riding the T, or sitting at my desk.

We’ll figure it out. I just hope it’s something simple like “you need more iron, veggie head” or “have a banana, your potassium’s low” and not “never skate again because if you do you will fall over and explode.”

Fingers crossed, please.

I’m a real BEEEEEEEE!

Yesterday was my first inter-league bout, even if it was just an exhibition, two twenty-minute period event. It was a million degrees in the sun, and still a million in the shade, since the rink is a giant concrete oven. But I didn’t pass out. Nor did I vomit. And I actually had a couple of jammer take-downs, of which I am exceedingly proud (even if this was NH’s first bout ever). I think I may have gloated over one of them, which is pretty funny, since normally I’m all “Oh, so sorry! Are you hurt?” It really is different playing against another league. You’re not afraid of hitting harder and actually knocking people down. I need to learn to hit harder at practice with my own league now. I think it’s a confidence problem, too. The skaters on my league are way faster than I am, so I know I can’t catch up to hit them, and they’re way better than me and blah blah blah. But NH are just as new as I am, more my speed, and I was able to catch them and actually be of some help to my team, instead of concentrating so hard to keep up with the pack and avoid getting knocked down. It was very gratifying to have the training finally click into place and to be effective. (Oh, I don’t remember the score… I think NH had 11 points, and we had 70 or 80 something… not sure. But we did, indeed, “bring the sting,” as they say.)
The festival in general was really fun, too. There were many cool vendors (clothes, jewelry, housewares, books, records, all sorts of stuff), some really great bands and DJs, too. It reminded me a little of how the River Rave used to be at Great Woods. Before the bout I kept thinking that we’d just head straight home afterwards, since I knew I’d be exhausted and heat-stroke-ish and lethargic. Um, quite the opposite actually happened. I did have to drink a million gallons of water, but once the bands and DJs got the party going, I couldn’t help but dance. I don’t really know how I kept going in that heat.

Anyway, sorry I didn’t advertise this better. I think many of you would have really loved this festival, even if it was in the hot hot heat. Next time, Gadget, next time.

Edit to add: I totally forgot to mention the best thing ever! The “Burly Q” burlesque troupe performed an homage to Frank N. Furter last night! They danced to the sweet transvestite song! Sparkly “lips” pasties!! I asked them before hand if it would be ok to do call back lines, and they were all “hell yeah!” so I shouted out a few. It was fun! Man, you all missed out!

FREE arts festival (FREE DERBY!)

Sorry for the last minute post about this, been meaning to post about it for ages, but summer has stolen my brain once again. Anyway, the IndieArts Festival is today in Downtown Providence. It is going to be pretty rad. And it is FREE!!! Providence Roller Derby’s Killah Bees are playing New Hamphire’s Skate Free or Die at 5:30, and I’m skating, so you don’t want to miss that. (It’s my first inter-league bout.)

Here’s the schedule for the day, as it’s a day-long event:
IndieArts Fest
Saturday, July 19th
1:00 PM – 11:00 PM
IndieArtsri.com
IndieArtsFest.com
Myspace.com/IndieArtsFest
FREE!!!

Main Stage:
Bank of America City Center

Master of Ceremonies: Diamond Dan White
1:00 PM – Zebras
2:00 PM – Alec K. Redfern & The Eyesores
3:00 PM – Cold War
4:00 PM – The ‘Mericans
5:00 PM – The Danger Danger Birds
5:05 PM – General Burnside’s Best Facial Hair Contest
5:30 PM – Providence Roller Derby
7:00 PM – FreshKills
8:00 PM – The Chinese Stars
9:00 PM – Swiss Chemistry Club (Tim O’Keefe & Hoska)
10:00 PM – Mahi Mahi

Fringe Stage:
Burnside Park at Kennedy Plaza
1:00 PM – Spoken Word Showcase with Christopher Johnson
2:00 PM – Poorly Drawn People
3:00 PM – Area C
4:00 PM – Channel Zero
5:00 PM – Make-Up Break-Up
6:00 PM – Badman
7:00 PM – RI2PN Dance Showcase
With Bella Curva, Doubleshift Dance Theatre, Evolution Movement Co, Hortense Gerardo, Eostre, Jennifer/Kathryn, Bald Soul and 401 Rockerz
8:20 PM – Triangle Forest
9:05 PM – BellaMinx Burly-Q
9:15 PM – Joey Beats
10:00 PM – Ty Jesso

Tunnel of Lumina:
Directly behind Bank of America City Center
1:00 PM – Films with Live Soundtracks
2:00 PM – DJ Dublin
3:00 PM – Nick De Paris
4:00 PM – Joel
5:00 PM – Gregor
6:00 PM – Morgan Louis
7:00 PM – Ted James
8:00 PM – DJ Flack
9:00 PM – Gil Kuruneri
10:00 PM – DJ C

Grant’s Block Stage:
Across From Tazza Cafe
(the Corner of Westminster & Union Street)

4:00 PM – Anthony Loffredio of Barn Burning
4:55 PM – Chris Rosenquest
5:50 PM – Matt Everett
6:45 PM – Chris Monti
7:40 PM – Ben Pilgrim & Mary Bee
8:30 PM – ACME Video Animation & Film Showcase

Le Tour de Fleece: Day 6

This is the first ball of two-ply that I’ve finished in the TDF. I bought the roving from a woman at the Apple and Peach Festival in Acushnet last September. If I could remember the name of her business, I’d post that, but alas, I lost the receipt ages ago. I have a hank of handspun that I bought from her, too… if I can find that in my stash and if the tag is still attached, I may update with her info. Because really, her color sense is really great.

This yarn has way more yellow in it than you can tell here. because I wound into a ball instead of a hank. I need a niddy-noddy at some point, and soon. The next batch of yarn I’m spinning has way more lanolin in it than I expected, and I’d like to try to wash some of that out before I knit with it. It’s still coming out pretty good, though, despite my inexperience with sticky wool. It, too, is a two-ply. Behold:

The grey wool came from Rhinebeck last October, and again, I can’t remember the name of the seller. They’re the ones who sold their roving in cute nesty-like balls. I’m sure I have their name somewhere. You know, it probably wouldn’t take too much time to look all this stuff up, but if I put it off, I’m never going to update on the progress of this project.

I’ve decided that “spinning every day” means spinning for at least fifteen minutes. It’s a short enough time to commit to, and long enough to get a nice amount spun. Granted the two balls shown here were spun and plied on Sunday, when I spun all day, but still. The bit I have going on the bobbin right now gets added to each day, and I’ll have longer time on the weekends to get more done. Thus far I’m happy with my progress.

None of the channels we get show any coverage of the cyclists, but I check in each day to look at the standings of each stage of the race and what not. It’s the first year that I’ve actually paid attention and sought out information on the race as it progresses, so that’s a novelty. I’m not much of a cycling enthusiast, but it’s actually quite entertaining.

“But I don’t like spam!”

My apologies to anyone who may have found this blah blah blahg via le Tour de Fleece and who may have tried to leave a comment; I had to delete hundreds upon hundreds of spam comments due to a recent influx of the little devils, and I may have accidentally deleted a real comment. So, if you’ve posted and don’t see your comment, please feel free to post again.

Happy 5th of July!

Nothing special about today, but I didn’t get around to posting yesterday. I tried to embed this for to wish you all the best Independence Day in the only way I know how (with Muppets!) but I couldn’t get it to work right. I am YouTube deficient. But enjoy, anyway!

We had some people over for a bonfire and snacks yesterday evening, and the last guest left at 2am, so I’d say it was a pretty fun night! It was great seeing people I don’t normally get to see and sit around the fire (my favorite summer activity). We even found vegan marshmallows that were absolutely divine. They’re by Sweet and Sara. You need them. Do not try to resist them. They will rule you, and you will love them for it.

Anyway, I hope your 4th of July was as fun as ours!

Le Tour de Fleece: day 1

I fixed my bobbin problems and began spinning today to kick off le Tour de Fleece challenge.

I bought my wheel in October at Rhinebeck, and I spun one bobbin full of yarn, and then abandoned the wheel for months. The main problem was that I couldn’t remove the bobbin. I know. Lame. But in my defense, I didn’t know upon which bit to apply the brute force necessary to remove the bobbin from the flyer assembly, and I didn’t want to break the thing. I could take the flyer/bobbin thing off, but couldn’t figure out how to free the full bobbin and replace it with an empty one.

A few posts back and forth on the Ravelry spinning forum and I had the necessary information to get the bobbin off. It took me months to ask for help, while the wheel lay dormant, and then another few months before I actually put their advice into practice. I just have had so much going on this year that I never got around to it. Well the Tour challenge lit a fire under my bum and I had to fix the bobbin situation in order to participate.

A few tugs here and there and the thing came apart and I was able to change the bobbin. But then the yarn wouldn’t wind onto the bobbin, argh. Another round of Q and A on the forum, and I was good to go. It was a lubrication problem this time.

So, after my newbie setbacks, I’m ready to spin. I did a little bit this morning and was reminded of how much I love spinning. I can tell this is going to be a big thing for me. And with an outlet for to sell all of the delicious yarn I’m going to make, I won’t even have a stash problem (theoretically).

Happy Spinning!

You spin me right ’round

I have taken up the Tour de Fleece spinning challenge! The idea is that you set a goal for yourself, start on the 5th and finish on the 27th, spinning along as the cyclists do their thing. My goal is a two-parter:

1. Spin a little each day, using up my meagre stash and buying locally for the duration of the tour. There are some wool producing farms in Middleboro, I think, and will get my wooly fix from them.
2. At the end of the tour I want to have a few nice hanks to send to a shop for sale. I have an opportunity to sell some of my wares in a brick and mortar shop, and I don’t want that chance to pass me by.