taraarmov

If someone told me 13 months ago that I'd join a roller derby team in LA, that I'd not get seriously injured within the first month of doing said roller derby, that I'd actually get better at it, that I'd meet a group of women of the type that I feared didn't exist in LA, that roller derby would take over my life and change my outlook on life and myself...I would've told them they were high on Drano shots.

I was raised by nerds...never did any group sports...or any other sport for that manner. I was a teenage punk in a conservative shitty agricultural town near Sacramento and I got a LOT of grief from the locals. To survive I grew a hard outer shell and let precious few in. I kept to myself. I was shy. Never was a popular kid. Met the man who's now my husband when I was 20. Spent the rest of my 20's in LA where I quickly found out that since I wasn't a botox'd bulemic bimbo I was going to be ignored. Went to art school and got into the animation business. Being shy didn't mean I wasn't straightforward, and my mouth got me into trouble with the pansy-ass no-backbone majority of animation artists. I scared them, so I didn't have many friends amongst them.

Then I got a job offer in Texas in 2003. Dallas. Hmmm. Never lived outside of California. The money's good. The job's even better. What have I got to lose? Not a damn thing. I kissed the husband goodbye and found a job environment that was condusive to me being better than I ever could be in LA. Man, I was seriously thinking of moving to freakin' TEXAS of all places! While I'm there I talk to a on-the-cutting-edge friend of mine back in California who says,"Been down to Austin yet?" Why yes, I have. "Do anything cool there?" Well, what do *you* consider cool, o master of the cutting edge fun stuff? "Womens roller derby".

Hmmmm. Interesting. Didn't know about that when I'd gone to Austin before. I do a google search on "Austin" + "roller derby" and I find the two leagues that are currently riding a very popular wave there. I'm game. I take a coworker with me for a weekend trip to Austin. We find the Lonestar Rollergirls' warehouse in east Austin on the night of their end-of-the-season awards ceremony. I look at the banked track. I look at the girls. The coworker is drooling over the girls. I tell him to put his tongue back in his mouth. I think to myself that if I were ten years younger I'd be ALL over this. I go back to California two weeks later.

2004 brings with it fond memories of Texas and loathing of LA until I read on Craig's List an ad looking for girls to take part in a new roller derby league in LA. WHAT?! How cool! So I email them saying that I saw the Austin league and I wish this new league the best. I get an email back from one of the founders--Thora Zeen--who says, "Come to practice!" I reply that I'm too old for this shit but thanks anyway. She comes back with, "No you're not! Come on down!" I thought to myself that I was insane. That I'd get seriously hurt. That I'm still too old no matter what this Thora girl said. But then I thought that somehow I'd regret not getting in on this while I can. What the fuck? I'll do it. I drive to the Valley on a cold January night to skate with women I've never met before. Then there's that whole I-haven't-skated-except-on-rollerblades-since-Xanadu-was-popular aspect. What the fuck was I getting into? Ah, just do it.

And that's when it happened. By the end of the first practice session I had with the LA Derby Dolls, I was hooked. I mean REALLY HOOKED. I skated like shit but I REALLY enjoyed it! The girls weren't the typical LA jigglefest...these were real women who had attitudes similiar to mine...WOW! I found My People.

Thank goodness!