I'm Officially Cheap

So Catazonia may be taking a step down, but I think this house fits me better. Here's the post from my old blog on why I moved from paid hosting to Blogger:

I started this blog almost five years ago. Since I was finally on my way to being famous, I wanted to do it the right way. I got a domain that I thought was clever, and I paid for hosting.

This blog really revolved around my derby career, and over the past year and a half, without a true commitment on my part to derby, the blog has languished. Priorities change, and at this point in my life, it's not a priority for me to pay for web hosting on a neglected vehicle of fame. I'm not a very private person though, so I do want to keep a place for me to practice my exhibitionism.

Therefore, Catazonia is moving. I've already uploaded everything to Blogger and pointed a couple of other domains there. Very soon, catazonia.com will be pointing to Blogger also.

I still have some work to do on the new site, but it's good enough. See you on the other side, or in one of the other places where I tend to exhibit.

Never Mind

Remember last week when I was all excited about my most recent bout? Yeah, never mind.

I skated in about five jams before I was ejected. Yep, that's me...the low block. That low block was actually a swift kick to a skate. Just what you'd expect from a mature, experienced skater.

Instead of going into the history of me and my former league (which is already documented here), I'm going to delve into the ancient history of me and my uncontrolled emotions. It all started when I was called into the office in fifth grade for laughing at a classmate during a school program. Yes, my class was on stage in front of the entire student body and parents, and I laughed out loud when somebody forgot their lines. Mostly because I knew everybody's lines. I was a smartass punk when I was ten. Anyway, our principal caught me afterwards, told me to come see him in the morning, and spent what seemed like an eternity explaining how I should learn to control my emotions. Either that was too much for a fifth-grader to comprehend or I've spent the past thirty years rebelling against that first trip to the principal's office.

In high school, my emotions often got the better of me on the basketball court. I can't tell you the number of times I was ejected from games from technical fouls. I remember most clearly throwing the ball directly into the stomach of an opponent because I was tired of her rubbing her flab all over me. I mean, really, that's just disgusting. When you enter my egotistical world in such a fashion, you get what you deserve.

Surprisingly, there weren't any outbursts during my tackle football stint. Maybe I didn't feel as noticable. I wasn't the smartest or the fastest or the best rebounder or the best blocker. I didn't stand a foot taller than everyone, for the most part. When I go unnoticed, it's easy for me to stay that way. When I stand out like a sore thumb, it gets a little dicey.

So as you can imagine, my derby career has been one lesson after another in controlling my emotions...lessons I usually fail. I don't regret anything, and I don't see any reason to apologize for being myself. I do wish I wouldn't have let my team down, but I have a few more chances to redeem myself this season before I decide to move on yet again. Maybe I was born in the wrong roller derby era, and my heart really belongs to the spectacle it was thirty years ago instead of the sport it's trying to be now. Does anybody know where I can get involved in that? ;) Yeah, never mind.

I Love My Old, Foreign Car

OK, so my car's not that old, and it was made in America...but I have been driving it for almost six years, and it does say Hyundai on it. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about both of those things, and sometimes I commend myself for changing my habits and standing up for a different way of life.

See, I grew up thinking that cars should be replaced every couple of years...mainly because my dad drives like a bat out of hell, and maybe a little bit because his dad owned a (foreign) car dealership, and also because my parents COULD replace their cars when they got tired of them. I still don't know how they did it on their salaries back then, but they did. When I started driving, I had that "gotta have a new car" mindset and a lot more funds. Just for fun, here's my car history:

• 1981 Ford Mustang (handed down from my father...I've got some good stories about this one!)
  


• 1989 Nissan Maxima (totalled this one in a ditch...wheeee!)



• 1993 Isuzu P-up (cheapest new thing I could find...hate it when I unexpectedly destroy things!)



• 1995 Isuzu P-up (this one had s-weet rims and custom pink pin-striping...should have never gotten rid of it!)



• 1998 Isuzu Rodeo (the biggest piece of crap on the road...I'm surprised I didn't die in this thing!)



• 2001 Nissan Frontier (upside down on the Rodeo...had to go cheap again, damn!)

and here we are now with the 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe! Sometimes I can't believe I paid off a car, and I'm not sick of it yet. I hope this car lasts five more years! I love this car! I need this car, because we have a house payment that goes up every year due to a crooked appraisal district and a daughter in private school due to my concern for her soul and her safety.

Somewhere inside us all, I think there is a place that can ignore the ads, and the media, and our friends, and anything else that tells us spending our hard-earned money is a good thing. A good thing is being happy with what you've got. A good thing is being able to provide EXACTLY what your family needs...nothing more, nothing less. A good thing is living the simple life. So my car is not new and it's not very pretty anymore...but it's a good thing.

Random Things

Creeping Beauty tagged me, so here's 10 random things about me. I'm going to stick with the facts instead of my idiosyncrasies...

1. I detest my current job, yet my library continually has the highest scores of any department for student satisfaction with services. I guess I'm pretty good at faking it.

2. I have worked in many different types of libraries, but never a public library. Thank God!

3. If I had to choose between being a rodeo volunteer and playing derby and choosing one would mean losing the other for life, then I would choose rodeo.

4. I would have tried out for banked track derby in Austin when I finished playing football if I had not gotten pregnant. And I was living in Houston at the time.

5. I played tight end for a full season but only caught 2 passes because my skinny ass was too busy filling in as right tackle for the fat linewomen that couldn't move their feet fast enough to block.

6. I completed an application for Survivor in 2001 and never sent it in because I tore my ACL. One of these days, I WILL BE on a reality show (ok, that might never be a FACT...whatever).

7. I served 417 people at my wedding. I'm talking about plates of food, you pervs.

8. I dated a guy that was shorter than me for way too long.

9. I skated in a department store commercial when I was around 10 (along with my sister).

10. My grandparents had a vacation home in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, so for several wonderful years of my young life, my family skied for Thanksgiving and Spring Break. Oh how I miss that!

I'm not tagging anyone specifically, but if you feel like doing this, go right ahead and return the favor of a few seconds of amusement.

Check Out My Video...

I finally uploaded the video where I tear my ACL playing tackle football. If you want to watch, I'm lined up at tight end on the right side with a wing beside me that runs a pass route. I fall back to block the defensive end, then just fall. Before I fall, you can see my knee doing its Exorcist impersonation. When I get up, our two shortest coaches help me off the field. I also included my post-game commentary where I confidently proclaim I will play on it next week (HA!), and my husband telling me to hurry because my fan club is starving.

Good stuff! It's easy to have a sense of humor about it five years later.