Liz Argall

I made it, but forgot to share it. I think it’s rather nice.

Cultivate and maintain the beginner’s mind.

I won’t be becoming a Zen Buddhist, although I must thank various buddhist/taoist texts as well as marshal arts instructors for giving me this vocabulary and encouraging this practice. I will be trying to maintain joyful, curious, playful intensity where I have it, and trying to return to that place for activities where I have forgotten it.

I’m glad I spent an hour getting my calendar in order (even if it’s a little bit scary to see September filling up).

Dear Ms Moon shall be performed on the stage for the first time on January 26 in Portland – I must book bus tickets! I love what the Pulp Stage did with Maxima Vrugleplex, so I am very curious to see what they do with one of my favorite short stories. If you would like to join me tickets are still available.

Yesterday was a nice, gentle, thinkey kind of practice from Mike Hammer. I certainly felt more graceful afterwards.

A big takeaway is that I need to work on my left foot in crossovers. I kick back when I should be pushing sideways. Which might have been feedback I’ve heard before (certainly I try to avoid kicking back wherever possible), but I have new ways of approaching/understanding the problem now (focusing on the angle of my foot).

I loved getting tips about hand/arm movements while skating and that makes me feel more fluid. My hands get to say hello to my opposite knees and it makes me feel… well… groovy is the word that comes to mind and stays lodged in my mind (which I guess makes me dorky).

After practice Mike and I plotted out all the major events for 2013. It’s a full schedule, though it gets a bit quieter towards the end of the year.

In the evening I went to my first derby wife wedding. The cake had rollerskating ponies and glitter, the ceremony was adorable with promises to help each other and kick each other’s butt, and we watched both Sherlock Holmes movies. Congratulations Jess and Laurie!

A day without work on the novel! Decadent! Strange!

I make my own war paint.

Last night on my way to crit group I joked that I wished I’d brought a flashlight and pocket knife. West Seattle doesn’t do much in the way of streetlights. I have a flashlight app on my phone that works rather well and I used it extensively last night.

It may have got me into more trouble. The flashlight on an iPhone (ie the camera’s flash turned on the whole time) doesn’t have a lot of range. That means you can be tricked by the landscape and think things are going to get better, when really they are going to get worse.

Anyway, to cut a long story short

1. I am fine, but itchy and I’m pleased that I have strong ankles these days.
2. Googlemaps lies like a lying thing and presumes that any line on a map is walkable.
3. Some lines on maps are walkable right up until the point when they take you down icy gullies surrounded by blackberries where climbing back up would be more dangerous than continuing on down – and from what you can make out from the meters of visibility it’s about to get better and as long as there’s any kind of path I’ll be ok.
4. I have excellent hiking boots with a great tread.
5. When my path turned into a creek of unknown depth but making loud sounds of rushing water and the path behind me lost to a tangle of ice and blackberries I thought climbing the opposite hill with blackberries was my best option. It was not and I have blackberry lacerations on my arms, face and from ankle to hip.
6. It is unpleasant, feeling trapped in a dark gully with only an iPhone for illumination and a little bit ridiculous. Thinking “well this makes great material” helps to keep panic at bay. So does thinking of other difficult bushwalks I’ve got through. I tried three different ways of getting out of the gully, none of them worked.
7. Shoelaces freeze with surprising speed.
8. I have called someone and actually said, “I’m fine, but if you don’t hear from me and I don’t answer my phone in 20 minutes I am in trouble.”
9. Wading along the middle of the creek followed the path googlemaps suggested precisely (walking along the bank was impossible and occasionally just dangerous). The water was loud, had scary blind corners and small drops that felt enormous in the dark, but it was not too fast and the water never got more than half way up my shins. I am glad I have wading in creek experience. I was pleased by how well I could read the landscape when I had minute visibility.
10. My hiking boots remain remarkably comfortable and warm when full of water. They do not leak. They did not chafe afterwards.
11. I’m tempted to pretend that the blackberry scratches on my face came from my critique group, ’cause we’re all Beyond Thunderdome about our use of adjectives, raaaar.

All in all, it’s good to have adventures, but I think my keychain needs a flashlight…. and perhaps a machete.

Rat City’s Roller Derby season is about to start, so we kicked off the season in style at Belltown Pub. The season kickoff party raised funds for the Georgia Peaches Puppy Rescue, so there were many dogs at the bar and much in the way of squeeee. So many well behaved beautiful animals hanging out.

Thanks to Arkham Allie, Mike and I took part in the trivia competition. I think my greatest contribution was suggesting that Budweiser Superbowl beer in 2012 was Frito flavored and turning old choir jokes about sopranos into jokes about jammers. My favorite choir joke is about altos (I am full of altosterone after all), but I couldn’t figure out how to make it a good derby joke.

The Weeping Angels, Arkham Allie, Jill, Mr Jill, Mike Hammer and Betsy Nails (me) were riotous, but hopefully in a good way. I was hoping we’d make the top 5, maybe the top 3, coming first place was exciting – the musical/movie knowledge of our team was legion.

It was nice to spend time with bodacious skaters. The season is starting, so there’s an amount of reserve that needs to be in place for bouts and scrimmages. Our interactions will just be color, number, instruction. Sometimes it gets a bit disorienting, now that I skate AND officiate at the rats nest, and sometimes I screw up the gear change. I think I might wear my pinks/labcoat at practice, just as refs wear their stripes at practice. It’s a definite costume change that will help me bring the awesome.

I wish I’d remembered to take photos at the pub. Cuuuute puppies and lots of smiling faces. Mr Arkham, I mean Justin McConnell, was taking photos and I’m sure whatever he shares will be better than my happy snaps with an iPhone.

I did take a few photos before we left. I wanted to dress up and I think the I09 article on RococoPunk made me want to do different things with my hair (not that I managed Rococo, but messy with absurd flair is a style I like to explore). I may have to purchase hairspray, keeping hair up with just bobby pins is tricky business. On the plus side I’ve discovered that I have enough hair that if I pile it up it will keep my head warm and I won’t miss wearing a hat. I see a future with more hairspray and lodging random ornaments – I do own a small disco ball, I think that would go with my purple sequin dress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1) Crows throw lumps of dirt on your verandah, but you have to wait for the soil to thaw before you can scrape it up.
2) Someone posts on Facebook that she can see the sun. You look over your shoulder, say ‘woah!’ and excitedly run outside to photograph the sky because it is blue.

Home from practice. We worked on crossovers, juking and other fun jammer skills. My skills are finally getting to a point where I can use more of my height to my advantage. I have a long stride and I can get a lot of power, can being the operative word. I used to put down a bit of power and go faster than I could manage, but my control and agility are slowly getting better.

I haven’t been T-stopping much, I’ve wanted to focus on developing my plough stops. But my stopping inability was getting ridiculous so I decided to do more T-stops this practice. I must have grown more muscles and balance, because my T-stops feel more natural now. I love the squeaky sound they make as I come to a stop and I’m feeling a little bit more in control (harder wheels probably help too).

I use my hands a bit too much when I’m going through the pack. It’s hard to resist, especially if you’re going fast and someone moves to close a gap. I’d rather use my hands than cause a terrible pileup (and on the plus side I am falling less and tripping less), but it’s still not a good habit to develop… even though the land of no minors makes the use of forearms less punishable. It’ll be interesting to see how no minors influences new skater habits. In the meantime I’ll try to use my hands less and continue avoiding ramming into people’s backs.

I was exhausted before practice, editing a hundred pages by reading out loud does that to me. But practice perked me up. I even did half an hour of foam rolling, stretches and balancing when I got home. My hamstrings are so weak, but I can feel them improving fast. I like what increased blood flow and a little adrenal chasing folks is doing for my brain. Sharing the derby endeavor with a bunch of kick arse women helps too :-)

Yesterday I managed to get up to page 302 out of 567 pages (don’t worry in book formatting the page count is lower). Slow going, but worthwhile. Most of the changes in this editing pass are tightening up language, correcting tenses and deleting the occasional paragraph.

I almost wimped out on my workout last night, but I crammed it in from 11:30pm to 12:30am. My body really is being re-trained and strengthened. I’ve noticed a difference in the wear patterns in my shoes! I don’t scuff the insides of my shoes anymore.

Now I shall charge into the day and read many words to myself.

What are you doing over here? There’s guest art by Erik Owomoyela over on the Things Without Arms and Without Legs website!

In other news I’m at page 254 of 574 of my novel. Reading it out loud is slow going, but I’m removing words that don’t pull their weight. Sometimes I even add words. I hope to be done by week’s end.

I must confess I’ve been a little bit distracted by the heatwave and fires in Australia. Back when I had more normal jobs I wrote the ACT Community Sector’s Emergency Preparedness Plan and spent a lot of time researching every kind of disaster in the context of the most marginalized and vulnerable people. I like NSW’s latest bushfire preparedness website, a lot of good information for anyone who might be near fires (which includes many suburbs).

It’s certainly been odd looking at bushfire/heatwave information while editing a novel that involves a major disaster. When I wrote the first draft a disaster happened while I was in the middle of writing the disaster section. It’s a little bit troubling.

Life is busy, but rewarding. I just got home from practice (Rat City scrimmage, I practiced being penalty box manager and scoreboard operator). Now I must scramble through my exercises (foam rolling, balancing and stretching) before I turn in for the night.

I was also going to write about soup, but I shall leave that for another time.