I am sitting on the couch with a beer and an ice pack and a bag of Cheez-Its, which sounds relaxing, but it isn't. It isn't relaxing because I have an enormous goose-egg of a bruise on my left shin, a friction burn through tights caused by my shin's abrupt contact with a swiftly-rolling skate wheel. It is a perfect little crescendo of pain, stinging and hurting and even tingling slightly; I have tried to numb it with the ice pack but that is only making it unsettlingly unpleasant.

The things I suffer for derby. At least (e:Zobar) got me this beer before he went to bed. But I am in a lot of pain, and know I cannot really move around on my feet until this subsides a bit, so I am distressed because I just remembered it's garbage night and our shit really needs to go to the curb and the truck will be by first, first, first thing tomorrow morning, and I can't do it right now, I just can't.

It was really excruciating when it happened. I had just executed a well-timed block, holding and pushing the opposing jammer to the outside line, but there were no refs to call it, and she broke free and escaped before my pack could come help me. I teetered off-balance for a second, and then an opposing skater from the oncoming pack smacked into my upper body and knocked me over and I don't know whose wheel burned me, but it hurt real bad. The jam was whistled, coincidentally, to a stop, and I sat on the floor literally bouncing up and down because it hurt too bad to sit still. I tried to get up and couldn't, and someone asked if I was OK, and I bounced a bit and said "It's a bruise" in way too high a voice, and I got up and sat down and got up and skated a lap and it hurt hurt hurt.

So it really hurts now, and is enormously swollen and discolored. I can put weight on the leg, though, so the bone's not compromised.

This is how I suffer for the sport I love. And I have to remember that i love it, and I do love it.
I am skating in the next bout, which is on January 23rd, and I think everyone should come and see me. Thinking of how much fun I am going to have on that night is getting me through at the moment. Because it hurts too much for me to drink my beer. And that's a tragic waste.

Remember that post aeons ago wherein I sent a photo of this vintage bar manual I got from my Gram? And we were all like, ooh, we should have Vintage Cocktail Night? And I was like... oh, everything in this book is awful?

We're drinking a recipe now, which isn't horrible. That's the best endorsement I can currently give it. (After two or three more I may change my tune.) It's called the Queen Ellizabeth.
The current debate is whether it's named for number 1, or number 2. (#1 reigned until 1607; #2 is currently reigning and is on the Canadian money, remember her?)
The book was initially published in 1934. So, there's that. I know QEII was born by then, but would she have been well-known enough to have a drink named for her? She certainly wasn't crowned yet, and thus wouldn't have been Queen yet, but...
Anyway.

The drink recipe has no actual units given, just proportions, which is fine. Except I don't know what a dash is unless it's salt. How to add a "dash" of absinthe is beyond me. I rinsed the glasses with it and then dumped it into the shaker, that's how I measured a "dash". Then I added a little more, because I like absinthe.

1 dash absinthe
1/4 Cointreau
1/4 lemon juice
1/2 gin
Stir well over ice; strain to serve.

It's not bad.

New Year's Eve, for us, is usually about exotic drinks. It's (e:zobar)'s birthday, so he gets to decide what we do. If he wants to stay in and watch Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, we do. If he wants to go to an (e:strip) party, we do. If he wants to go to a slumber party at his buddy's house, we do. If he wants to go for a hike around Goat Island at midnight in the rain, we do. So I'm not sure yet what we'll do, but I'm up for whatever he wants, because he always does whatever I want on my birthday. Also he's thirty today so that only happens once and that's awesome, and all.