BAM. WEEKEND WON.
It's kind of funny how much your mindset can affect the things you do. I have to admit that I approached this past weekend with a fair amount of dread, at first: on Saturday, I had a photoshoot, a birthday get-together to go to, and then Day 1 of Travel Team tryouts (ack!), and then what could have potentially been two MORE birthday parties. Then, Sunday kicked off with Day 2 of TT tryouts, followed by a 5-hour shift at the shop I'm now working for. It all sounded very intimidating and exhausting, especially after what was a pretty high-pressure workweek.
But, I turned in nice and early on Friday, and when I woke up on Saturday, I thought, "you know what, I'll go and do all the things, and everything will be fine. I can make it through the weekend, no matter what."
The photoshoot turned out much lower-key than I built it up to be in my head, and involved one of my favorite makeup artists, and I really enjoyed working with our subject for the afternoon. On the way to Birthday #1, I realized that I'd be watching Star Trek and eating grilled cheese sandwiches with my best bros, and honestly, you can't get a much more comforting activity than that, for me. I wish I could've stayed longer, but it was just the thing.
I got to TT tryouts, and wanted to throw up a little, at first. Then I remembered that, hey, we'd done all of these drills at Thursday practice, and I did just fine at them, so I should just calm down and do the thing, and let the chips call where they may. Some skills didn't click quite as well as I wanted them to, but others went better than I expected.
Then, I went to the lower-key of the two birthday party options (well, if you can call karaoke "low-key," but believe you me, it was definitely the lesser of the two evils), had a couple of drinks to unwind, had a hell of a lot of fun singing my head off, and wound up staying out very late. I fell asleep thinking that I'd probably regret staying up so late when I had to get up for Day 2 of tryouts, but I told myself it'd be fine. I've played roller derby with a hangover, and I've played derby on not-much sleep before. I know what I'm doing.
So, I got up this morning, dragged myself away from bed, put coffee and a breakfast sandwich into my face, and scrimmaged with some of the best skaters in the world. It was not perfect, but it never is. But, I communicated a lot (which I'm normally not-so-great at, being a quieter person in genera), and had some great teamwork moments.
And then I got to my shift at the shop, did a stellar job of being extra-nice to people and keeping things tidy for the first 90-or-so minutes, and then my phone blew up with congratulatory texts, because I MADE TRAVEL TEAM. ACK! :D!!!!! I'm on the B-Team, but when that puts you among the Top 30 skaters in one of the top-ranked leagues in the world, the B-Team is definitely no small potatoes.
I may or may not have, quite literally, jumped up and down in the middle of the (fortunately, empty, at the time) shop, when that happened. XD
Anyhoo, I'm closing up shop now, and I'm basically feeling like I won the entire weekend. Granted, I'm bloody exhausted, but I can only imagine how things might've gone if I hadn't shouted down the anxiety demons with calmness and positivity.
Can't complain. Not even a little. :)
But, I turned in nice and early on Friday, and when I woke up on Saturday, I thought, "you know what, I'll go and do all the things, and everything will be fine. I can make it through the weekend, no matter what."
The photoshoot turned out much lower-key than I built it up to be in my head, and involved one of my favorite makeup artists, and I really enjoyed working with our subject for the afternoon. On the way to Birthday #1, I realized that I'd be watching Star Trek and eating grilled cheese sandwiches with my best bros, and honestly, you can't get a much more comforting activity than that, for me. I wish I could've stayed longer, but it was just the thing.
I got to TT tryouts, and wanted to throw up a little, at first. Then I remembered that, hey, we'd done all of these drills at Thursday practice, and I did just fine at them, so I should just calm down and do the thing, and let the chips call where they may. Some skills didn't click quite as well as I wanted them to, but others went better than I expected.
Then, I went to the lower-key of the two birthday party options (well, if you can call karaoke "low-key," but believe you me, it was definitely the lesser of the two evils), had a couple of drinks to unwind, had a hell of a lot of fun singing my head off, and wound up staying out very late. I fell asleep thinking that I'd probably regret staying up so late when I had to get up for Day 2 of tryouts, but I told myself it'd be fine. I've played roller derby with a hangover, and I've played derby on not-much sleep before. I know what I'm doing.
So, I got up this morning, dragged myself away from bed, put coffee and a breakfast sandwich into my face, and scrimmaged with some of the best skaters in the world. It was not perfect, but it never is. But, I communicated a lot (which I'm normally not-so-great at, being a quieter person in genera), and had some great teamwork moments.
And then I got to my shift at the shop, did a stellar job of being extra-nice to people and keeping things tidy for the first 90-or-so minutes, and then my phone blew up with congratulatory texts, because I MADE TRAVEL TEAM. ACK! :D!!!!! I'm on the B-Team, but when that puts you among the Top 30 skaters in one of the top-ranked leagues in the world, the B-Team is definitely no small potatoes.
I may or may not have, quite literally, jumped up and down in the middle of the (fortunately, empty, at the time) shop, when that happened. XD
Anyhoo, I'm closing up shop now, and I'm basically feeling like I won the entire weekend. Granted, I'm bloody exhausted, but I can only imagine how things might've gone if I hadn't shouted down the anxiety demons with calmness and positivity.
Can't complain. Not even a little. :)