Oh shit!

Not what you want to hear as your hair stylist takes the foil out of your hair after a highlighting job. Sigh...such is my life.

Ah, well, it's fixed and I have a bouncy new haircut to enjoy in Vegas. RollerCon is going to ROCK!

Books and music go together like...

Spent the day skimming through my music collection looking for songs that would be good motivation to skate to. Of course, being a pretty typical woman, I couldn't merely do that and move on.

Instead, I got sidetracked once I noticed a song by Kate Bush called Wuthering Heights that I haven't listened to for some time. The song shares a title with a book by Emily Bronte. I stopped to listen to it and to think about how much I love the book. Then I thought it might be fun to look for other music in my collection with literary references.

Meanwhile, my original playlist is half finished...

This is what I've come up with so far. Can anyone add to my list?

Anthem by Rush
Basket Case by Green Day
Clocks by Coldplay
Cloudbusting by Kate Bush
Daddy by Jewel
Don Quixote by Gordon Lightfoot
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Metallica
Frankenstein by Edgar Winter
Ghost World by Aimee Mann
Goldrush Brides by 10,000 Maniacs
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
Guinnevere Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Hey, Jack Kerouac by 10,000 Maniacs
Home at Last by Steely Dan
I Am the Walrus by The Beatles
Kid Charlemagne by Steely Dan
Leaving Las Vegas Sheryl Crow
Misty Mountain Hop by Led Zeppelin
Mock Turtle's Song by Steely Dan
Moby Dick by Led Zeppelin
Nutshell by Alice in Chains
Orestes by A Perfect Circle
Prince of Tides by Jimmy Buffett
Ramble On by Led Zeppelin
Rivendell by Rush
Romeo And Juliet by Dire Straits
Sensual World by Kate Bush
Sister Moon by Sting
Sleep To Dream by Fiona Apple
Tales of Brave Ulysses by Cream
Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan
The Barricades of Heaven by Jackson Browne
The Battle of Evermore by Led Zeppelin
The End by The Doors
The Ground Beneath Her Feet by U2
Tom Sawyer by Rush
Troy by Sinead O'connor
Virginia Woolf by The Indigo Girls
White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? by Green Day
Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush

Learning to fly

I've been roller skating outside on the bike path all week, getting ready for RollerCon. Skating outside is much harder than it looks and I feel like I'm creeping along, sweating my ass off, but never really getting anywhere.

Disheartened at my lack of progress, I headed over to the Diva's home rink, The Skatin' Station, for a bit of Friday night fun. It wasn't too crowded, which was nice. I was the only adult on skates and several kids looked amused as I strapped on my pads and adjusted my newly stretched skates (aaaaah, bliss...).

Big difference from the bike path! That feeling of zipping around the rink like a cold beer on a hot day is addictive. I almost felt like a jammer as I weaved in and out around the slower skaters. Granted, nobody was trying to block me or knock me down, but for someone who could barely stand up on skates a few months ago, this was an incredibly empowering feeling.

Since the rink wasn't crowded, I eventually started to practice falls in the corners. After one extremely smooth right knee 180 (yeah, I was proud) I stopped to adjust my laces. A young girl skated over to me, very concerned, and our conversation went like this:

Girl: "Are you okay?"
Me: "I'm fine. Believe it or not, I fell on purpose. I'm just tightening my laces while I'm down here."
Girl: "Oh." She thought a moment and then added, "Why would you fall on purpose?"
Me: I was thinking, "Ah, Grasshopper, good question. And why would you put on a pair of roller skates and dare a whole posse of tough bitches to try to knock you down? And why would you get back up and do it all over again? Because it's the most fun you can have without breaking the law, that's why!" But what I said was, "Because the more you fall down, the more opportunities you have to get back up." Pearls of wisdom, I tell you, pearls of wisdom.
Girl: "Um, okay." And she skated away, but watched me for the rest of the night and applauded every time I did a fall.

I am such a rock star.

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Eighteen people respond to an offer to live in complete seclusion for three months in order to complete the novel they have always wanted to write. The writer's retreat turns out to be a sinister experiment that unlocks the participants' baser natures and reveals them in all their horrifying inhumanity.

Their host shuts off the power and heat, and leaves them with an empty pantry. Then he waits to see what will happen. No one actually writes anything, but each participant does share their personal stories--each one more disgusting and disturbing than the last. For example, one story involves a teenaged boy who decides to masturbate at the bottom of the pool. Soon, he is stuck to the filter and his intestines are being sucked into it. Another story is set in a police station where the officers have sex with the anatomically correct dolls which the social worker uses to help children talk about being abused. The phrase indescribably gross comes to mind, but Palahniuk does describe the scene, in vivid detail.

Instead of actually writing, each "writer" envisions the made-for-TV movie that will result when the story behind the writer's retreat is sold. Each person plays little tricks on the others to make their situation more horrifying (so it will play better on TV). The revelation of the real reason for the writer's reatreat made me gasp and then made me think. So, even though this book was over-the-top gross, both in sexual and gore-factor descriptions, I can't stop thinking about it. I recommend anything that inspires thought, but beware if you are squeamish or easily offended.