In Which Connor Continues To Improve, And I Obsess About Roller Derby Some More

This morning I woke up and spent a few minutes before Connor woke up slogging through the vast morass that my e-mail has become; for those of you still patiently waiting for replies, I swear I'll get there.  Someday. 

Sorry-- I'm working on it!

After that I gave Connor a bath to try and soften up some of the hard, crusty, peeling dried skin all over his poor ear.  The skin keeps pulling away and cracking every time he touches or rubs the ear, making the area underneath bleed which is not a particularly good thing.  I was happy to see that his chest looks better today, though.

Connor seemed to feel much better today as well; he was able to sit up and wasn't nearly as congested, though he did still cough quite a bit.  He had a lot more energy, and only took two naps instead of sleeping the day away.  It's good to see him feeling better; he had me really worried there for a while but I'm sure he's over the worst of it now.  Hopefully he'll be back to his old self in a few more days.

In the afternoon Joanna came over and Jeremy and I took off for our respective workouts; we weren't able to find a skating rink open at the time we needed (since it's Columbus day) so he went to the gym while I did my skating outdoors at the park.  Jeremy really wants to try out some roller blades though, so I'm sure we'll hit the rink another time.  I spent about two hours skating up and down the hills of the bike trail, and then did some drills, falls, and stops.  Then Jer and I met back up at the gym and spent some time in the hot tub together before heading back home. 

Jer's being very indulgent of my newly developed roller derby addiction, which is extremely nice of him.

I think a major part of the appeal of roller derby for me is that when I'm on skates I am, for once, not automatically identified as a mom.  I mean, being a mom is what I do all day, every day.  That's how people view me, and that's the most likely subject that they'll bring up to start a discussion in the grocery store.  The vast majority of my daily activities revolve around Connor, and that's perfectly fine.  But I can't tell you how refreshing it is to have someone come up to me and ask me about something other than parenting a child with special needs. 

And believe me; roller derby gear makes people come up and ask you questions.  People under the age of twenty-five have absolutely no idea what you are doing and come up to ask you what the heck roller derby is, and people over the age of thirty-five remember roller derby in its televised, staged, brawling heyday and get psyched about it happening here (only now it has rules, people-- no elbowing in the face or clotheslining allowed).  Children under the age of five have no idea what roller skates are because they've only ever seen rollerblades, so they get really excited about them.  It's very cute.  But regardless of the age of the person I'm having a conversation with, when I'm rolling around on my trusty skates (and yes I did deck them out with skull-and-crossbones laces and-- to protect the toes-- duct tape with flames all over it) somehow my role as a mom doesn't seem to come up in discussion unless I choose to bring it up.  To tell you the truth, that's really refreshing.

While there may be a few moms out there who are totally, completely satisfied with being defined by motherhood and never need any life outside their children, I think the majority of us need some activity like roller derby to keep us sane.  Okay, so most moms probably don't go for extreme, full-contact sports as their saving grace.  Most moms probably take up knitting or Bunco or something.  Let me tell you, though-- derby is a highly effective way to get rid of some of that stress built up from all those doctor's appointments and dealings with the insurance company.  We're probably going to learn blocking and body checks this week at bootcamp, and I am majorly psyched about it. 

I'm wondering if I can get the other girls to yell things like "Your referral is denied because your child's enteral nutrition is not essential for survival!" right before I hit them.  I bet it would be extremely cathartic.

~Jess