June 4 - childhood self-portrait

I was in the 4th decade of my life when I discovered roller derby.

Of course, I'd SKATED before. Growing up in Kansas City, I'd attended enough roller skating parties -- for birthdays, church, and school -- that I could even tell you precisely where the blisters would form on my feet.

Eventually, though, people stopped having roller skating parties, and I stopped roller skating. Once I became a grown-up, I'd go skating about once a year, but it got to be too weird being the only childless adult on the floor with a bunch of kids. (Or so it seemed. I realize now that there HAD to have been other adults on the floor with me, but I spent a lot of my life being overly concerned with what other people thought. I wasted a lot of my life being ruled by that. It makes me have regrets, but since all of that brought me to here, I can't be TOO angry.)

In 2012, a co-worker invited a bunch of us to watch her skate in a roller derby bout. Long story short: I went and it changed my life.

Anyway, on Sunday, a group of roller derby skaters (both Fountain City Roller Derby and Kansas City Roller Derby) in Kansas City had an open skate fundraiser to send a team to a national competition.

It was a lot of fun and a perfect place for today's self-portrait, especially since I took it with an instant camera. Modern take on vintage stuff? Yep. Yep yep yep.