Scary but illuminating
As a young man facing two years to his Ph.D. in clinical psychology, I find biographical sketches of men and women fascinating, especially when pathology rears its ugly head and the etiology of said pathology is contained within the story. So, as close to the plot of a horror movie as the following link is, it is none-the-less interesting.
Fred Phelps is, indeed, a monster. Yes, Fred Phelps of God-Hates-Fags fame. In short, if you don't know who he is or what he does, he runs the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas; really less "church" and more family cult (the members are at least 80% related by blood or marriage -- and are only 51 to 75ish people strong). This is the church that picketed
funerals of people who died from AIDS,
Matthew Shepard's funeral (he was the gay man who was tied to a fence post and killed), and, most recently, has taken up picketing the
funerals of killed Iraqi soldiers because their deaths are God exacting His wrath on the U.S. due to its acceptance of homosexuality. Great man, huh? The link is a story that was released as public record due to a court case against a newspaper, a reporter of which was writing a piece on Phelps. It chronicles the senior Phelps and the way he chose to raise his children. It's horrifying and sickening and explains a lot about the man.
My wife can kick your wife's ass
While most of my friends would agree with the above statement without much proving or debating needed, I have further evidence that the statement is true.
Bly, my loving and somewhat petite wife, who is as feisty as they come and quite sassy, who has had her mouth busted by an elbow during Ultimate Frisbee years ago, and who more recently suffered by taking a forearm to the teeth from yours-truly at my niece's birthday party while running an inflatible obstacle course (she left a large bite mark
in my arm), has completed her first practice with the
Ghoul Scouts.Yes, that's right, I'm married to a burgeoning rollergirl.
Athens has its own
Women's Flat Track (Roller) Derby Team. How cool is that? We watched almost all of the episodes of Rollergirls on TV. It was about the derby teams in Austin, Texas. Bly looked into local teams or opportunities, but the closest was in Atlanta and she just couldn't put the time needed into driving there and such.
On Sunday they had an open skate during which members of the team usually go skating and practice a little, but most of the team was at the Pride Festival in Atlanta putting out the word about the team. This is at the skating rink sort of beside Lowe's on the Eastside. From downtown, take a left at the Hwy 78/Gaineschool intersection and you'll see it (like you're going to Krystal). One guy who is involved and who knows some of the women on the team was there and we talked to him some about the team. He is practicing to be a referee, but didn't have much info about the team requirements. We paid six bucks total (CHEAP!) to skate from 2:30pm to 5pm, but we only stayed about an hour. It was super fun to rollerskate again (on box skates!).
Last night, Bly went to her first "private practice." These are actual practices that the team has twice a week at the rink. The woman that runs the skating rink is their strength and conditioning coach. She was a professional speed skater back in the day, apparently. She made them skate on the carpet for ten laps, fall down over and over again, sprint, skate with hands on knees back and forth, and skate by pushing your feet in and out without lifting them (sort of in-and-out, in-and-out) ten times back and forth down the rink. Bly said it was hard and tiring, but she liked it enough to do it again. She had a wicked blister afterwards, but once she gets her own quad-speed skates she should be better off.
So far, the most difficult thing about joining the team, or trying to join the team is coming up with her rollergirl name. They use aliases while skating and many are puns or humorous. Push-up Brawl, Miss Mary Jane, A. Pocalypse, Miss Fortune, Miranda Riots, Paine Mansfield, etc. I like Blyelzebub (instead of Beelzebub) or Edie Gein (instead of Ed Gein), but Bly doesn't like either of those. So, does anyone have any names to throw Bly's way? If so, comment away!
