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wReck Derby Week Two: Fresh Meat Injury

March 14, 2013 by Elaine Griffin 8 Comments

The last few days I’ve been in kind of a funk. I’m not very excited about anything and I’m just tired.

Yesterday was week two of wReck derby, and I had zero energy. Zero. But I strapped on my skates in the afternoon and skated around my house. For practice and to try to get ahead of my nerves. I grabbed a 5 hour energy on the way to wReck, and pulled it together.

Although I’m still really nervous I’m skating ever so slightly better, but I just am not getting low enough. The lower I get, the more I feel pulling in my right quad. So I stretch it out good. Probably too much.

Then we moved on to knee stops. In these stops, you gently lower yourself onto one or both of your knees in order to stop and/or control a fall. They’re nifty!

As I go down into my first knee stop I pulled my quad.

Back in the day, I used to be an athlete. I’ve had plenty of muscle strains and pulls, but nothing like this. I felt my muscle rip. I could have avoided this if I had been in a lower derby stance when I went into the stop. I could have avoided it by listening to my body and taking it easy. It was frustrating, embarrassing, and it hurt like hell.

I spent the rest of the practice watching from the sidelines, icing, watching, taking mental notes on what to practice this week, worrying that I might not be able to practice this week, and trying not to cry.

Everyone was awesomely supportive, giving moral support, advice on how to care for it and not continue to re-injure it. I definitely feel the derby love. And although I’m disappointed in myself, I know what I have to do next week to come back stronger, and more confident.

My quad was really tight when I got home, so I hobbled in and put a heating pack on it, and took some ibuprofen. And drank whiskey and went to bed.

This morning it was so much better, and I dared say it was just fine. Until I sprinted across the dining room to the front door to wave to Ben on the bus. It was just a little minor pulling, though. Proof that I need to listen to my body, take care of it, and see what tomorrow brings.

And then, I will work on getting lower.

My Kids Help Me Grow and Learn

March 8, 2013 by Elaine Griffin 2 Comments

Lately I have been so stressed out. About a lot of things. My children seem to want to compound this stress.

Genevieve will not stop getting into stuff. Her new trick is putting things in the toilet. Washcloths, hand towels, cups.

Ben spends his days at school, apparently smiling always, complaining never. He hits my door running, complaining, nagging.

The two of them hug and love on each other, run around, scream, beat on each other, argue.

It’s exhausting.

I view this part of my life – their behavior – as bullshit. It’s hard for me to get through these perfectly normal situations with my children. I feel like I’m constantly at my peak tolerance level. I just simply cannot take anymore.

These feelings add to my stress, and it stresses my kids out.

They are the cutest little buggers. They are smart, sweet, and funny as hell. It’s so hard to remember when we are in the thick of it.

The last couple of days I have been so exhausted that my normal routine of wrap up work-prep snack-prep dinner-pick up the house after the boy gets home has been put on the back burner. After work wrap up and prepping a snack we have sat and watched movies. And played games. And snuggled. Last night we went out for dinner and colored, laughed, and actually had a relaxing time.

Are we at the point where we can go out to dinner WITH KIDS and actually enjoy our time out?!

It’s so easy to be overwhelmed with life and forget that at least sometimes, children can bring us joy. It’s hard to remember when you are knee deep in all the bullshit that kids bring, that sometimes you need to just surrender to it. See it for what it is. Kids exploring, learning, growing.

Doing this was actually relaxing for me. It was my own growing experience. I’m learning to let go and surrender to the moment. I love those little buggers. Bullshit and all.

Filed Under: Family, Uncategorized Tagged With: growing, learning, letting go

In Pursuit of Crazy Eyeris: wReck Derby Week One

March 7, 2013 by Elaine Griffin 10 Comments

So, wReck Derby started last night. In case you are wondering, wReck is a recreational roller derby, led by our local league, Ithaca League of Women Rollers (ILWR). We skate and learn the fundamentals of roller derby, without all the blocking and contact.

wReck Derby is aptly named because I was a nervous wreck most of the afternoon. I tried not to be. I woke up feeling confident and excited, but I let the stress of the day get the best of me.

It’s really hard to skate when you have jello legs. And the floor we skate on sucks. There are all sorts of bumps, dips, rips, whatever. It was hard to get my groove. Like, really hard. I know next week I will be better, though. I will gear my mind and remember one quote that I heard a lot. “Stop looking at the floor – it’s not going anywhere!”

Of course I fell. Three times to be exact, and once flat on my ass. I wasn’t the only one, and I gotta hand it to the girls who came not knowing how to skate at.all, fell many more times than I did, and kept pushing right through. They all left with smiles on their faces, so I hope they come back next week and give it another try!

The things we went over:

Derby stance, and staying low while you are skating.
Single and double knee stops.
“T” stops.
Crossovers.
Other drills to improve our strength and balance.

Yeah. That’s a lot to go over when you are working on just being able to skate! But it was all good, there was lots of help, lots of encouragement, and good vibes. I learned so much, and I brought home a lot of ideas about how to continue to build my strength and confidence on my skates. I’m looking forward to building a workout plan today and getting going! Come on, you know me, of course I have to have a PLAN!

For today, it’s going to be some light cardio and gentle yoga, cause this mama is a little sore and a lot tired, but I know I need to keep my body going.

I will leave you with a little Joan Jett. This was my theme song for the night. Incidentally, one of the roller girls is blond Joan Jett’s doppelganger.

What should my theme song for next week be?

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Filed Under: Roller Derby, Uncategorized Tagged With: ILWR, roller derby, wReck derby

Social Media Has Blurred the Lines Between Personal and Professional

March 5, 2013 by Elaine Griffin 8 Comments

It is no secret that I have been essentially unable to keep up with both a personal and professional blog. I just don’t feel like I have a lot to say on The Laine List. My readers are losing interest, because I am too.

I think about the work I have done to create my brand. I’ve never been totally comfortable with having two online identities, but I wanted to establish trust and credibility in my work. Along the line, though, between cross-posting on blogging networks, and increased presence in social media, the boundary between the personal and professional has become elastic, and it seems unnecessary. Joining Pinterest and Instagram has been the tipping point for me. Everything I do, and everything I like is already out there. Anyone can find out whatever they want to about me.

From a professional standpoint, I want to focus more on creating my personal brand.

From a personal standpoint, I just want to be me. I want people to know *me.*

Another factor here, which when I began blogging, I didn’t think would be an issue, is I finally feel like I know how I want to focus my writing. Or, in bloggy terms, what my niche is. Of course I will continue to write about WordPress, social media, etc. The personal component I would like to add is working at home, and making it work. This is something that I think about and do every day, and I know there are others, readers of the EGD blog included, who are interested in learning about how to make it work for them. So, the personal meets the professional.

I do also want to talk about my Roller Derby adventures, and I think is another area where the personal can meet the professional. I discuss personal strength and confidence when I write those posts, and how is that not business related?

I anticipate wanting to write some of the more deeply personal posts at some point. I think those posts will be posted on blogging networks, but honestly at this point, I’m not sure I have it in me to write the deeply personal anytime soon.

I will not shut down The Laine List. It will remain, and the posts will remain, and maybe I will want to write something deeply personal and post it here. I will always have the option of coming back.

This idea is in its infancy, and this is really kind of a brain dump. I’m not ready to take this risk yet, but I’m seriously considering it.

What do you think? Is this a risk worth taking?

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Filed Under: Balance, Career, NaBloPoMo, Uncategorized Tagged With: blogging, personal blog, professional blog, social media

Great Risks and Great Rewards

March 4, 2013 by Elaine Griffin Leave a Comment

Today’s NaBloPoMo prompt is, “Do you believe the saying that with great risks come great rewards?”

I think this is terribly cliche. I also think it is terribly true.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my life did not really start happening until I started taking risks, and putting myself out there. It’s difficult to do, though, especially if you don’t feel confident, or if you are afraid of hearing someone say, “NO.”

When you take a risk, you are opening yourself up to gaining a reward, but it’s how we perceive the reward that is the key. Perhaps the reward is something tangible, like gaining a new client, or meeting new friend. How about the intangibles, though? Maybe the reward is in the gaining of confidence, or the acceptance of hearing the word, “NO.”

What do you think? Do you think great rewards come with great risks?