It would've been cool to see the Rakes tonight, but instead I will settle for crushing our derby nemeses, the Manhattan Mayhem. It's the semi-final match, so whoever wins gets to play Queens for the trophy next month. At least, I think we're getting

I'm on tour with my friend until September 10th.I thought I would have lots of writing time, but really, it's lots of looking-at-a-map time, which kinda sucks.Pictures should be up at the non-blog Scribble Faster sometime soon.

I don't know details yet, the specifics of when or where or what. What's ahead or what I would be giving up. But I do know two things:Thinking about it on the 5 train, heading to practice, I couldn't stop smiling; and,It would change everything.

fuck vegas. fuck vegas and 110 degrees and screaming girls raising a ruckus because it seems like they should. a highly scheduled ruckus, a stereotypically punk rock time. a ruckus that doesn't seem fun.

It would be great if I could wait until the first injuries healed before hurting myself again.Tonight it was falling during the third turn on the track. Every turn had felt wrong, off-balance, but I'd kept going because I'd gotten the lead, was half

Wednesday was a humid 95 degrees and we had practice, so I planned ahead. I drank water all day and brought bottles with me to the rink and was sure I was keeping myself hydrated. And not only because it felt like a hundered degrees out; I also was f

Tonight at 8:30 the Brooklyn Bombshells take on the Queens of Pain! Come out to watch me fall and cheer us on!Who do you skate for?BROOKLYN!

I'd set the alarm for 6:45am and packed my bags the night before, in between the rabble rousing, but still ended up awake and anxious at 6:20. I could hear Meg getting ready to go and knew that there'd be no sleep or anything else for the day,

We started off with brunch with the groom, but all the alcohol was making it hard for me to eat much of anything, so the waffles went half-finished. Nick and I’d gotten there late anyway. It was the warmest day so far, not raining for once, so thou

Sometimes all you need to get through and gain perspective is a little hair of the dog that bit you. For hangovers and other things.

We woke up freezing and hungover and walked under the impending rain clouds to the dining cabin where a beautiful waitress served us huge plates of delicious food. After coffee and eggs, everything was right with the world.

I was grumpy and tired and needed to check my email to assuage fears and be productive. The mountains weren't calling out to me, and I felt bad about that too. Too distracted, too preoccupied. So Meg and Kiara dropped me at the lousy coffee shop and

We had time to kill between brunch with the groom-to-be and the arrival of Wisconsin, so we followed Kiara's directions to the Celestial Seasonings factory tour, pointing out prairie dogs along the way. We’d heard about the Mint Room, where boxes o

My bus ticket was for Tuesday night, 7pm, which would’ve allowed plenty of time to get to Boston and get some sleep and have a leisurely brunch with Meg before we hit the airport for our 1:40pm Wednesday flight. But the forgotten keys meant that no

I left my keys at the rink. I didn’t mean to. You never do. It was a sweaty, exhausting practice and we were all a little loopy/ Plus, I had other things on my mind. Mainly, my bus trip to Boston the next day and my plane trip to Boulder on Wednesd

The Austin Hit List: or It's My New Favorite...Saying "Oh, you're my new best friend! Replacing my old best friend, Meg!" - me to Meg for doing something nice, like loaning me her cool zip-up hoodie or giving me a silver sheriff's starNew

Goodbye Austin! Oh, goodbye Austin, with your bright sun and your friendly people and your green spaces and your Whole Foods headquarters and your delicious ice cream and your swimming pools and your well-constructed cities, built for bikers and pede

We start early. We always do. But this time there's the added incentive of getting it all in, all the things we've been meaning to do and see and get to. This is our last day to do it all, and though we don't quite make it -- the Go! Team and Against

At the Flatstock Poster Art show we passed one artist who had a note on his sign, "Will trade art for Converse." I looked at the immense Converse bus packed at the back of the convention hall. "What's that about?" I asked, and he

Austin is a bike town, the city laid out to accomodate pedestrian and bikers and cars through major roads and bridges and side streets (even the buses have bike racks!), and since we hadn't been able to get a grip on the layout yet, we decided to ren

"I realized a little while ago," I said to Meg as we walked past punks and metalheads and hardcore thugs and pretty boys, "that it's really easy to be enthusiastic about things when you're young. The real test is whether you're still

We were exhausted from the bike riding and the sun and the staying up late and the fun, but we were troopers and there was more fun to be had. So we napped and got changed and got ready for burritos and music. Mike and Lynn were dedicated to the Emo

Today was the Alamo, because why not? We hit the highway toward San Antonio and rode it for 75 miles until we got to the beautifully cheesy tourist trap we expected. We refrained from asking about the basement, but wandered through the educational di

We'd driven by the SXSW madness the night before, but tonight we were driving straight into the heart of it. Meg wanted to see Year Future and the Chinese Stars, Mike and Lynn wanted to hit another show, then join us at Emo's for Some Girls. I wanted

As we waited in line to get our rental car, Sailor Mike called to say hello. I told him the story of the possible rock star I photographed on the plane while trying to take a picture of Meg. "Who was it?" he asked. "I have no idea,&qu