BCR-style thank-you letter: Ten things I learned this weekend

Various members of the Burn City Rollers post "Ten things I learned this weekend" notes on Facebook following bouts. That's what this is all about.

10. While DDG is my team, everyone I skated with from Auburn is also, equally, my team.
9. I cannot be thankful enough to Cho Cold for having her crazy idea to start a roller derby team. And I certainly can't be thankful enough for all the memories of practices where I felt like dying because of the strenuousness of the workouts. They really got me through that horrible last semester.
8. BCR has more logo and color changes than any team I know. But it is a successful ploy to sell more merch (at least to me)!
7. Amyn is ridiculously skinny. Really. I can't get over how much less of her there is, but how much more menacing she is on the track.
6. When I was benchcoaching, this weird thing kept happening: I kept looking at the track, thinking, "Wow, that skater on the other team really looks like Cho." ... "Oh, yeah, that is Cho." Either I'm not observant or just super-focused on the bench.
5. Even though Venna Viper, Super Combo, BTE, Babe E. Quakes, and Lucy Ferocious aren't a part of BCR anymore, they still are in my head. Their absence was striking. (And everyone else who moved or left, but especially them.)
4. 9lb Hammer is, like, 20 times faster than she was a year ago!
3. I've always been one to leave an afterparty early, but it was still really sad to not go at all. I woke up at one in the morning, thinking, "I should be leg-wrestling at The End Zone right now."
2. Mary Helley's enthusiasm while saying this bout was the first time she'd been on a winning team almost made up for my disappointment at being on the losing team. But not quite. I'd really have liked to win.

1. 9 and Amyn walking toward me at the VBC with a basket full of baby things from BCR was a rather surreal experience, and so heartwarming. I'm not much given toward sentimentality, but that gift meant, unexpectedly, so much to me. It said, "Hey, you haven't been in Auburn for nearly two years, and you're not skating anymore, but we thought about you. And took action." I don't take that kind of considerateness for granted. Thank you so much, all of you, for that, and for creating my love of derby.