That’s what I thought when friend VR called and said she had tickets to a match for Saturday night of the Race City Rebels. Well, nothing else happening on a hot, humid July evening so I said sure, let’s go.  VR’s co-worker is on the team (#9 Rebel Yell) and invited her to attend.  Since the match didn’t start till 7:30 and was at Ellenberger Ice Rink (minus the ice) we had time for dinner and picked Chef Dan’s in Irvington.  If you’ve not tried out this place – shame on you.  It’s Mississippi/Louisiana cooking in the heart of Indy.  Check out their link: http://chefdansindy.com

We got to the Rink with a few minutes to go in the Naptown Roller Girls match and discovered without the ice, the Rink is very toasty, especially on a late July evening.  They did provide energy efficient fans: cardboard on a wooden stick.  We found a couple of chairs and started to peruse the crowd.

Obviously, our clothing color was wrong – almost everyone had on black, and we def didn’t sport enough tats. No matter, the crowd was excited and totally engrossed in the match.  We had no idea what was going on; all we knew was they were going around in a circle, trying to stay between the markers and the referees blew their whistles and made all kinds of hand motions. During a time out a fellow would skate out and re-tape the circle.  The Roller Derby Girls won by a large margin; we have no idea who the opponent was. At the end of the game the crowd jumped up and stood around the circle to get a hand slap from the teams.

There was a short break then the men’s team took the floor.  The acoustics were terrible, it sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher: wha, wha, wha. Plus, there was loud music playing so we were at a complete loss but determined to not use technology for information. Everyone jumped up again and got hand slaps as the teams were introduced. I wish we could have heard the announcer, the web site has a team roster and their names are very colorful!

During the men’s game we did figure out that there was one guy trying to get through a group of opponents and if he did it three times, it was a grand slam.  We never did figure out the scoring or any of the penalty calls. I think there were seven officials; it took that many to keep an eye on all the skaters.

I looked up the Race City Rebels after I got home and they have a handy FAQ on their website.  We weren’t too off in how we thought the match was played but I learned a lot more.  Check it out for yourself:  http://www.racecityrebels.com.

Just one more thing I can add to my Life List of things I’ve done.

Back when there was a cable ‘box’ I enjoyed the early years of HGTV. Since I’ve ‘cut the cable cord’ I get my remodel fix by watching PBS shows. When Son #1 asked me to pet-sit while they were on vacation I said sure – they have satellite and Netflix – win/win for me! I remembered all the fun shows I used to watch: Design on a Dime, Decorating Cents, Curb Appeal, and Holmes on Homes. Then I got a rude awakening – it was nothing but repeats all day or night long of the same shows: people looking for houses on a beach, in another country or less than 150 sq. feet; people flipping houses, people remodeling then selling a house, people letting brothers remodel and sell their house. . . . Not any of the quick and easy fix it shows from the old days.
I tried watching but after a few, it became apparent that there are plenty of highly opinionated, non-imaginative folks looking for a home. The price tags for these are incomphrendable to me. Guess things are different outside the Midwest. This was just another version of reality TV with whiners and it’s all about me participants. I was also very disappointed that when they did a remodel, the cabinets and fixtures were completely destroyed. You’d think in this day and age they’d reuse and recycle all of that. Habitat for Humanity would be glad to get those things for their ReStore facilities. I checked on-line to see why the changes and found out most of them are scripted and produced in Canada even tho the HGTV headquarters is in Knoxville, TN. The homeowners are carefully chosen and of course the hosts don’t do any of the actual work.
I suppose you can find all the projects you’d ever want on Pintrest with videos and instructions. Just search on YouTube and you’ll be able to learn to knit or crochet. Gone are the days when you learned these things from your Grandmother.
On my “free” TV there was a Live Well Network and it had some hands on, crafty shows. But the local station discontinued it so I watch it via my laptop now. I still watch This Old House but deep down, the Scott brothers are much better to look at than Norm and Roger!