Grumpy Scrimmaging

Last night I was grumpy. So was the girl next to me, and the one in front of her. I don’t know why I was grumpy, I don’t know why so many others were grumpy but we were. We didn’t get much scrimmaging done, and that’s ok. Sometimes we big girls just need a laugh or two, we need to let go and play a little bit and make nice. So we did; we played cat and mouse and it was wonderful.

Cat and mouse is this funny little game where people lay in pairs all over the floor and a ‘cat’ chases a ‘mouse’. The mouse skates around erratically looking for a pair of other ‘mice’ to lay down next to, there can only be two people in a pair so the outside mouse now has to get up and evade the cat. If the cat tags them then the rolls reverse.

We have played this game several times and it’s usually funny, last night it was hilarious. Nik Yo Face had this awesome strategy where she skated between two sets of ‘mice’ only about 6 feet apart, I’m not sure she ever was the cat. People danced on their toe stops, and skated with desperation akin only to the possibility of actually being eaten. The whole group collectively groaned for whoever had to try and chase our light-footed ref and screamed encouragement at the unlucky soul trying to evade him. Newer skaters wowed the vets with daredevil evasion techniques and the vets teased each other mercilessly. Coco Crusher ended the whole thing by slide crashing into a wall and then shaking with laughter (a relief since we have a bout in a week and a half).

Being an adult is tough; there are days the world stomps on you and the onset of grumpiness can’t be helped. On days such as those it’s very nice to know that there is a place I can go and relive the grade schools years for 20 minutes. It’s nice to play, another of a billion reasons why I love Roller Derby. Even though two skaters ended up with ice as a result of a mere two minutes of grumpy scrimmaging I’m kind of grateful it happened. Because I got to play with my friends and that’s amazing.