First GSRG Bout Ever!!!

The day of the bout dawned overcast and drizzly. This is because I had family and friends visiting, of course - Thursday, Saturday and Sunday were sparklingly clear and gorgeous. But it's cool, I'm not mad... I spent the day being extremely chill and doing the few pre-bout errands I had to do. Wash sports bra, shorts, and blue-striped socks, check. Purchase fishnets at Target, check. Mend uniform which ripped a little during dress rehearsal, check. Clean out car so guests will have somewhere to sit that isn't old diet coke bottles, check.

I wasn't nervous as much as vaguely worried. Our 'dress rehearsal' run took a while to get started, and I wanted to make sure I was used to my new wheels, so I skated for the time that we were getting set up, which was about two hours, and afterwards I thought maybe I should have slacked more. But mostly I just tried not to think about it.

My sister, El Jeffe and G-Money came in on the 4:26 train from da cite'. I took them on the driving tour of scenic rich Montclair, and they ooh'd and aah'd appropriately. (Thanks guys.) Even my sister, who's seen it before. Then I tried to take them to Raymond's, but it wasn't open, so we went accross the street to the cafe that's also good but whose name I never remember. Raymond's is quickly becoming the Mama's Zu of Montclair - awesome food, never open when out of towners come in. (And that says most of what you need to know about Mama's Zu, which is in Richmond, VA.)

Then we hung out for a few minutes at mi casa, and then headed over to the rink. When we got there various Nightmares and B'n'Pers were hanging out outside. The rink staff wasn't letting us in until 7pm on the dot when the previous open skate session was done. El Jeffe was volunteering so he went off to do Eva Fangoria's will and get a nifty GSR Staff thingy.

So exactly at 7pm we moseyed in. I personally did nothing helpful during setup, and El Jeffe, who was supposed to be taking tickets, was relegated to the Relay for Life table. Which was kind of cool because it meant he got to see the first part of the bout with G-money and my seester.

I still wasn't nervous. I was just excited that our first bout was happening, and going so smoothly. Ok, we did get started a few minutes late; apparently the ticket taking process was kind of slow. (See what happens when you relegate El Jeffe to the Relay for Life table? Put the man where he can do some good! He takes tickets like a mofo, I'm sayin'.)

But then they started intro's, eeeee! JC B'n'P skated out for theirs, and then we skated out for ours, and it was the coolest feeling ev-ar. So, so, rad. And then a teeny tiny time later the bout started. I skated pivot and was in the third jam. I have to say, I thought I'd be nervous, I thought I'd be slow, I thought Layla Smackdown would knock me down a lot, but the whole first period passed in a glorious fun blur. I had a blast. I didn't get knocked down, I knocked a jammer out of bounds one time, and I assisted our jammer one time. It ruled.

And during the first break I found out my roommate and the woman who owns the house I live in came out too! Yay! That was really cool. El Jeffe and G-money and my sister were having a good time too. It was rad.

So, we established a strong lead during the first period, but during the second, JC B'n'P rallied and scored some points on us. I have to say, huge props to them. They were only skating with SEVEN girls, thanks to unforseen circumstances and some people who said they'd help out and then didn't, and they really skated heart and soul.

We had a bunch of refs from other leagues helping out, which was awesome too. We had a bunch of skaters go to the penalty box, and the cool part was the refs came over during breaks to tell skaters what they were fouling on and had to watch out for. I didn't get called out to the penalty box at all, and while I skated the least of anyone I still think that's pretty cool.

So the second period was tiring, and during the break Jenna von Fury insisted we stay on the benches and rest up and come hard during the third period. We did and it worked; our jammers were really tired but we scored a bunch more points. I can't imagine how tired the JC B'n'Pers must have been.

I can't remember much about specific jams or skaters. I was caught up in it, and getting ready for the next time I had to skate, and watching the crowd. I know Belle skated really well, as she always does, and I know Eva Fangoria had a brilliant jam as well. At one point Jenna Jammitin tried to check Jenna von Fury and von Fury just side stepped it and it was amazing. I know I was knocked out with two other girls at one point and hit my head and was happy that I had a helmet. I know I was checked a couple of times by Layla and Jenna J. and didn't fall, which was amazing.

We won. In hindsight it was not a fair fight at all, but I'm honored that JC B'n'P didn't give up at all at any point, and because they brought their A game the win didn't feel cheap. The victory lap was really fun. I'm really looking forward to September, when they're going to come for us with a vengeance.

I'm really proud that the bout went well, too. A lot of fans came out, there were no major catastrophes, and we cleaned up after ourselves and got out in good time. Hopefully we've started some buzz, and those people will come back for our fundraiser bout in June. I think it's going to be a great season.

Saturday of course I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, and I wasn't good for anything but watching TV and taking naps, and I'm STILL sore, but it's all worth it. Back to practice tomorrow night!