Rat City Rollergirls

Joe and I have been keeping ourselves busy. Joe had his work evaluation and did extremely well on it. Unfortunately, there is no raise associated with it, but hopefully he'll have opportunities to advance down the road that his current work ethic is helping with. He has also had some work tests and has had to switch his shifts up on occasion lately because of coworkers' injuries/illnesses. Meanwhile, I had my first job interview since being let go. Unfortunately, the position is only part time, is far from home, and doesn't pay very well. In fact, I would be making less money from that job alone than I make currently in unemployment. Still, I wanted the experience of a job interview, and it was actually kind of nice to get dressed up after so long of not having to.

We are continuing to experiment around the house with different placements of furniture, artwork, and other items, and it is finally starting to feel like some things are where they "should" be. For example, I purchased some Snapware containers, and used them to help organize some of our kitchen cupboards (some still need organization). Joe is happy that our family room now has a coffee table in it. I am hoping that we can find a good coffee table for the living room that will help pull the room together and make the couch and love seat feel less distant from each other.

Joe started reading the first Harry Potter book after much persuasion from me, and although he's not too far into it, I'm hoping he likes it enough that he'll continue reading the books, and then we can watch the movies together. After all, I have been so excited about the new movie that is out, and I would really like to see it ASAP. If I plan on watching it in the theater, however, I will probably have to go by myself or with a friend.

On Friday night, I went to see Earth Wind & Fire and Chicago play at the WaMu Theater underneath Qwest field (or so I was told that's where we were). I got the ticket for free from a church friend and had a great time. I wasn't around for many of the years that Earth Wind & Fire came out with hits, or I was too young to remember them, but I still recognized a handful of their tunes and enjoyed their stage presence and energy. The concert started with both bands coming out on stage all at the same time to perform together. It was really weird to see 20 people on stage at once, all performing and switching from one person to another for the "center" of attention. There was so much to see and enjoy. Then Chicago left the stage and Earth Wind & Fire performed alone. Once they were finished, there was a little break before Chicago performed. And finally, at the end of Chicago's performance, Earth Wind & Fire joined them on the stage again.

Yesterday, Joe and I were quite busy, but we had a pretty good day. We started out the morning a little earlier than I would have liked to, especially since I didn't get home from the concert until well after midnight, but we had a yummy reason to wake up. We made 2 packages of bacon and then headed to a breakfast potluck at the church. There was a really good turnout, and we had a good time socializing. Then we went grocery shopping before coming home. Joe pulled weeds from the back yard for about an hour, give or take, while I applied for jobs online. Then we relaxed a bit before starting to get ready for the Rat City Rollergirls roller derby game in Seattle.

We gave ourselves a little more than an hour to get to where we needed to be, but we didn't realize the Bite of Seattle was going on all weekend at the same place. Driving was chaos, but it wasn't too hard to find a parking place. However, after we parked and started to walk toward Key Arena, we ran into group after group of people standing in lines, talking, or enjoying various food, and it was after time for the game to start. So, unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to sample any of the food, but we had a fun time at the game.

Neither of us had ever been to a roller derby game before, but we watched the Rat City Rain of Terror take on Portland Axles of Annihilation. The Rain of Terror was severely beaten and we were kind of bummed until we realized there would be a second game shortly after the first one. The second game was the Rat City All-Stars versus the Carolina Rollergirls, and the quality of the action was far superior to the first game, which was a non-sanctioned game. The players had amusing names such as Valtron 3000, Anya Heels, and Wile E. Peyote. There was a brawl that was quickly broken up, one girl on the other team grabbed hold of another girl's teeny shorts and almost depantsed her, and the home team won. We were pretty hungry by the time the second game ended, but the Bite of Seattle was already over, so we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner before heading home and calling it a late night.