When you reach a point where you're heavily involved in multiple activities, you inevitably have to play the "Juggle the Calendar" game. You will have conflicts, some things will be missed in favor of other things, and for activities that involve things like practice, study, and diligence... there will be a lessening of quality. It is unavoidable unless you are a lucky devil in possession of a Time-Turner or a TARDIS... or even a mad tricked-out DeLorean. Sadly, I am merely a poor muggle of slightly above-average intelligence, stuck in this singular time and place... and so I am fated to play around with creative and ever-evolving time management.
At the moment I am actively involved in 3 activities, and trying to work the 4th back into my life after a hiatus for much of 2010.
There is, of course, Roller Derby... which is the main focus of this blog. Derby involves attending League practices, Referee Practices, League scrimmages & meetings, and additional training opportunities that are offered like clinics and intensives, etc.
There are also social and community activities, opportunities for members of the league to get together on a casual basis for various things (for instance, a group of people went to learn how to do Olympic Curling today... last night I was part of a "Learn to Knit" extravaganza)
There are Roller Derby bouts, both home bouts and travel to skate against other Leagues. There is production leading up to a bout (my contribution since last year has been constructing seat covers for the Penalty Box to identify who from which team sits where). On Bout day people show up at 2pm or earlier to do things like set up the track, set up the Merch table, the lockers, the seating, hospitality (food), etc. We are grass roots to the core, we do it all ourselves, we all pitch in. Generally after the Bout there is an after party at a bar or club somewhere, so we show up to mingle, let off a little steam, rehash the day, and so on.
I am also in a Coven. No, we don't wear black robes and stand around a giant bubbling cauldron under the full moon sacrificing babies and chanting in tongues... that's only for Halloween ;) Seriously tho, the Coven has an interesting approach to how we practice... we come together at Full Moons (Esbats) and Sacred Points on the Wheel of the Year (Sabbats) and other moments special to Coven... and when we are apart we follow our own Path and honor Divine in our own way. Some members follow a Native American Path, some a Celtic Path, some a Buddhist Path, etc We embrace both our individuality and our unity.
Besides coming together for Esbats and Sabbats, we have business meetings once a month to go over things like the calendar of activities for the next few months, goings on in the Pagan community, planning and organization for activities we may be involved in (Coven has volunteered at Ronald McDonald House, Clean Sweep, Food and Clothing Drives, we've hosted a Health and Healing Fair, A Chocolate Festival, and have hosted Social Events like Craft Parties, Seed Planting Parties, and Camping Events). We are also expected to continue our Spiritual Growth through learning and study, so we will often present information to the assembled group, hold book discussions, and follow a basic "curriculum" of things relevant to a Pagan path.
I have been a member of RIT Singers since Spring Quarter of 1992. I had been encouraged to join since my freshman year, starting with my roommate AnnMarie, who was a member of the Chorus and would catch me singing in the dorm room. Problem is, I grew up with people telling me I couldn't sing. When multiple people tell you a thing over and over you can't help but accept that it could be true. It didn't stop me from singing, I just didn't sing in front of people if I could help it.
That changed when I was in Air Force ROTC, at Field Training at Lackland AFB, and a rather intimidating powerhouse Captain (in a petite black woman's body) overheard me singing in my room while I was cleaning up and made me go to the chorus room and sing with them. She would make me sing every time we crossed paths... that or do push ups. I hate push ups. So I sang. Even then, it took me 2 quarters back at RIT before I got the nerve to go to Singers. 18 years later (wow, 19 come Spring Quarter!), here I am.
Singing takes work. True singing takes work. It's proper breathing technique, it's counting rhythms and knowing intervals and knowing words and pronunciation of words and loudness or softness and how mouth shape changes the color and feel of a word. It's understanding how to phrase a line of music, and how one section flows into another. It's about listening to the other parts around you and matching their sound and becoming one voice... which is insanely difficult, trust me. I didn't have any kind of background in music growing up, everything I do know about singing and music is from Singers, plus 2 different opportunities to take voice lessons outside of Singers (giving credit where credit is due, when I first started with Singers Ed was generous enough to meet with me once a week and play through my parts on piano, I'd record them and sing along with them, and he helped me learn how to sing... so I did get voice lessons from him as well).
And then, finally, we have the SCA. This is a General Hobby with a number of secondary hobbies contained therein. I won't list them all, because there are a LOT of things to do in the SCA and I'm not involved in all of them... but things I do as a result of the SCA include: costuming, fencing, calligraphy and illumination, beading & jewelry crafting, embroidery, singing, middle eastern drumming (tho not so much these last few years), heraldry (in my case, yelling things really loud for people so they can hear it... think of the "town crier" or someone who calls someone forward to have audience with the royalty, etc) and I'm sure I'm missing stuff.
There are meetings and practices for a number of these activities, there are events just about every weekend in one area or another (the Rochester group will be holding an event on Feb 26, info on the Rochester group, the Barony of Thescorre, can be found here: http://thescorre.org/)
To attend an event one is encouraged to at least make an effort to wear garb, as the SCA isn't a spectator event like the Ren Faire, you show up... you participate. So, you have to have something to wear, something to eat on, things to do (are you a fencer? need to have your fencing gear, armor, authorization. are you a scribe? got your paints, brushes, pens, ink, etc? and so on).
So in my case, here are 4 time consuming activities that demand my time. I took a break from the SCA to spend more time doing Derby stuff... and preparing my move to a new residence last Spring. I would like to become involved again, because I miss people and sometimes events are the only way I get to see them.
To be eligible to skate in a bout (as a Ref) once I pass assessments, I have to have 50% attendance. I can make 2 out of the 3 weekly offerings... the Sunday AM conditioning, and the Tuesday Ref Practice. I can't attend the Thursday League Scrimmages (which I need to develop my Ref skills) because RIT Singers rehearsals are on Thursday nights.
Coven meets every 1st Sunday of the month in the morning, which means I'll miss at least one of those Leagues practices each month.
Somewhere in all of that, I have derby rules to study and absorb and understand how to translate those into Penalty calls...
Somewhere in all of that, I have music that I need to learn and internalize...
Somewhere in all of that, there's housework to be done, a cat to take care of, untouched yarn and fabric and beads and wire and books and a camera and all of those other neglected creative outlets...
And in the middle of all that is me balancing on a pair of quad skates and juggling my life as it dances about my head.
Right now I am having a personal debate about tomorrow morning's practice. the Conditioning practice is BRUTAL. Calisthenics, plyometrics, core and strength training, and skating drills. It's all to make for better, stronger, faster skaters. Even trying to do half of what everyone was doing, I was still in a lot of pain that following week, and really wasn't back to walking like a normal human being until Thurs night. I appreciate that other skaters and refs were telling me that that's normal, that's expected, that's going to happen... my problem is I can't afford for that to happen. It impacted my work that following Monday and Tuesday; my legs barely wanted to support my weight, let alone having to move a printer or computer tower or something.
So, I'm extremely daunted by the idea of doing this training... but I want to do the skating afterwards. I'm still stinging from my little "wake up" call on Tuesday and I want to get better. My issue now is, I also want to go to fencing practice on Monday night. There's an annual event coming up in 3 weeks that I'd really like to go to, and I'll be expected to fence. Yes, I would like to fence... but moreso I'll be expected to (sidenote: one thing I forgot to mention is that within the SCA I've received an award of High Merit for Fencing... as a bearer of that Award and Title certain things are expected of me, legitimate and perceived. I am now seen as An Authority, one whom others must learn from, etc... which is kind of a crock because I was no different the day before I got the Award but I now have different Status... so it's no longer just about me having fun ~pout~).
Anyway, if I go to Coach aTOMic's workout tomorrow, I more than likely won't be in any shape to fence on Monday night... and I don't have $$ or time to travel to Buffalo or Syracuse to attend one if their practices. It's bad enough I'm even thinking of fencing at an event with only 3 practices under my belt (the last time I touch my blades was probably September, maybe). However, I'm still very frustrated that I'm not skating as well as I want to... and I need this conditioning, I need this practice, I need this torture. I need more skate time.
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