Weddings, Work and Roller Derby in Diary

All my entries seem to be about the same topics…sorry for being boring.

Wedding Stuff
I went wedding dress shopping on Saturday. First off, I went to a shop that several of my friends all raved about. They made it seem like it was an enormous warehouse full of hundreds of dresses at super bargain prices. So I spent an hour driving there, only to find that, yes, it’s bigger than a normal wedding dress shop, but they only had a small selection of dresses in each size and wasn’t anywhere near as exciting as I’d been made to believe. I looked through all the ones in my size and didn’t find a single one I liked. I looked through again and still nothing. On the third go, I was determined to try something on as I’d travelled for an hour to get there and eventually took three. Two were disappointing, the third one was quite nice. It was a mermaid style, which I’d previously dismissed after trying one on because it didn’t suit me, but this one actually looked quite nice. Also, it was strapless which I had also dismissed because 1) I was scared of falling out of it, but it was actually quite sturdy and definitely wouldn’t fall down and 2) I’ve never liked getting my shoulders out for some reason, but discovered they don’t actually look that bad in the right dress. So, although there was nothing that I fell in love with, it definitely gave me pause for thought, which can only be a good thing. I then spent an hour driving back home and thought I’d try my luck in a shop one mile away from my house. They said I was lucky as they normally have back to back appointments on Saturdays but I’d just caught them at the right time. I tried on three dresses and found one that’s the front runner so far, and it was well within my price range as well. Another strapless one, I mentioned that I’d never really worn strapless dresses before and she showed me some boleros if I wanted to cover my shoulders. There was one really nice one with cap sleeves and it went really well with the dress, almost looking like an extension of the dress itself. So I could put it on or take it off depending on how confident or cold I was. So there we are, I now think I’m looking at a strapless dress with a bolero, either in mermaid or A-line style. And I don’t need to travel for an hour, there are plenty of options close to home. The search continues!

Me and Jay both have the next two weekends free so I’ve persuaded him to do some wedding shopping. I asked if he wanted to go and look at some wedding rings but he said he wants to buy them online because he hates shopping. I also hate shopping, but certain things you have to see in real life. Wedding rings have to fit properly; my engagement ring came out slightly too big because he bought it online and I couldn’t try it on. So I was showing him some rings online last night, asking him what profile, thickness and width he wanted, and he was staring at his hand saying “I don’t know, I’d have to see what it looked like on my hand.” Exactly my point! So we’re going to Birmingham’s jewellery quarter on Saturday to try some on.

He’s also said he’s going to make the invitations himself. I’ve been asking for months if he’s come up with any designs but he hasn’t got round to it yet. We’re going to have to start sending them out soon so if he doesn’t pull his finger out, I’m going to end up doing it myself. I’ve done literally EVERYTHING so far, I hope he helps me with some of the things…

Jay and his depression
Jay is back from Tenerife. The first couple of days he was there, I was getting four texts a day. The next couple of days I was getting two. Then one. And the last two days he was there, I didn’t hear from him at all. I texted on the last day to say I was glad he was coming back as I might get some conversation out of him, and it was like the floodgates opened. He had been becoming more depressed since he got there, spent most of the time in his room on his own, had to take two anti-depressants every day and wishes he had only gone for four days instead of seven. He said it was caused by all the alcohol he’d been drinking; because he was on holiday, they all went a bit crazy with the drinking, but that made him depressed and the only thing that made him feel better was more alcohol. Luckily he recognised this and said he was going to take a break from it when he got back; I guess this is how alcoholism starts. When he got back on Monday, as I hadn’t spoken to him for a week and I’d been busy every day, I had a whole week’s worth of stuff to fill him in on so I was talking rather a lot, and he was just replying with “Hmm. Yeah. Uh-huh.” And looking at the TV. When I asked if he was actually listening, he shouted at me to f**k off, he’s tired and I’ve just been complaining about things for the last hour. I had maybe complained about a couple of things, including having a terrible week at work and a bad day at roller derby, but I also told him about a few good things, including the first time I ran 5km without stopping and finding a good wedding dress. I went out to roller derby training and left him to it and, when I got back, he was in bed and seemed all chirpy and chatty. I suppose he just needed a couple of hours to himself. Hopefully he’ll start to recover now he’s home, going to the gym again and not drinking.

Roller Derby
We had a mini tournament for our B team in Oxford on Sunday. Seven people on rotation instead of 12 and games lasting 20 minutes instead of an hour, playing two games per team. We lost both games quite spectacularly. I jammed a couple of times in the first game and played about 75% of the game. In the second game, our line up manager told me I wasn’t jamming again (which I was pleased about as it was REALLY tough) but also that I was going to play one jam on, one jam off and everyone else playing every single jam, so I ended up playing 56% of the game and others played 100% (stat sheets were released afterwards, I wasn’t actually counting…!) Wonderful. What I heard was “You’re so sh*t I want you on the track for the minimum time possible, which means that no one else gets a rest.” I don’t know why she thought I was the weakest link, we lost the second game by even more points than the first so, hmmm, was her decision a bad one?? There are some photos, here are some of the best ones where I sort of look like I might know what I’m doing.

This one’s just funny as it looks like Rachel’s having a little rest on the track.

Me chasing down the jammer.

Holding off the jammer (I’m Bomb Shell 1138)

Jamming and being hit :o(

Grabbing a boob.

Holding the jammer and punching a boob.

Smacking a bottom. (There’s a lot of groping in roller derby…)

Hitting a jammer (or maybe she’s hitting me, who knows? Probably the latter.)

You cannot pass!

Work Stuff
Remember all the trouble we were having with our deputy supervisor at work, and our boss said she was so close to firing him and was definitely going to demote him, and I got excited because I might have a chance at moving up the ladder? Yeah, not going to happen. She had a three hour meeting with him, where he complained about us, saying we don’t respect him as a supervisor (Is it any surprise?? He doesn’t do any normal work, never mind any supervising.) and he wasn’t happy that we were all talking about him behind his back. So, she decided to wipe the slate clean; anything he has or hasn’t done previously has been swept under the carpet and we’re starting again from scratch as if nothing has happened. So he’s got away with it all, not even an official warning… I’m not going anywhere here, I wish I knew what I wanted to do with my life so I could get out of here!