It all started in Mexico...

... when we traveled from one location to the next in a bus. The bus was nice and cool, and there was an American (dubbed) movie playing at the front: Drew Barrymore in a roller derby race. (We found out later that the movie was called:"Whip It".) Being the un-traditional American that I am, I said "what are they doing?" Matt goes in-that-annoying-I'm-so-shocked-I-have-never-met-anyone-who-doesn't-know-this-voice "You've never heard of roller derby?!?!?"

For his birthday, we went to see the NJ Hellrazors compete against the Scranton Roller Radicals. It was the dingiest roller skating rink ever--complete with unusual smells... It was surprisingly crowded and everyone brought chairs, except us. I guess they were regulars.

We learned the game just by watching, and it was surprisingly entertaining and fun! The first half Scranton was killing us. Just the size of their players alone was enough to intimidate. But then, after the half-time (and maybe after eating some of the cupcakes and peanut butter chocolate bars they were selling as a fundraiser) the Scranton team went down! Our leaner team players had more endurance to stay strong to the end and we won 254 to 203.

Matt's favorite player was A-Bomb, a 4'9" all muscle player. I picked Swiss Mischief to root for, but Divine Wreckage and Clara Form and Lethal Holloway were pretty good too.

Since we were so vicious, this is what kept happening in the first half: penalty box!

Only one injury and the EMS team was all about it. She was fine in the end, but everyone got down on one knee until she was up and walking. 

 Matt was so happy to get a picture with his hero, A-Bomb.

Because it was impossible to get good shots of the game in action, here's a video for you. Watch A-Bomb leap over another player effortlessly (last few seconds):

After this, Matt said we needed to get roller skates.