Whip it, whip it good.

Roller derby is an American contact sport, predominantly female, typically operates on an amateur (or unpaid) circuit, and has a strong do it yourself ethic which often features both athleticism and a punk third-wave feminism aesthetic.

-Wikipedia

Allison and I are movie-watching people. I'd say that on average, we watch movies four nights a week. In fact, Allison and I watch so many movies that we have even considered taking our love for movies to the levels of creating a website to review the movies that we've watched, and creating our own movie rental business. Movies are just such a great way to forget about work and snuggle next to the one that you love.

Allison and I are also money-saving people. We try our best to make a bi-weekly menu to coincide with a bi-weekly shopping trip to WinCo, we studiously read Dani's famous money-saving blog (dooleysdoodles.blogspot.com), and we constantly review our finances in coordination with a budget that we've created.

But those two hobbies are not good partners. Can you believe how much it costs to go to a movie theater these days? To put ticket prices in perspective, if Allison and I were to go to the local theater it would cost us $9.50 each, or $19 total. But, if we decided instead to spend a friday night driving down to Utah to visit our beloved Rikki, it would only cost us $18.27 (that's only one way, but once you add in Allison's Sour Patch Kids and my extra-large, extra-buttery popcorn I think it would even out for us to be able to drive back home).

Lucky for us, Rexburg is home to the Paramount Twin movie theater, which features movies that are too old to still be in the regular theater and too young to be out on DVD. At the Paramount Twin, $10 gets you two tickets, a Large popcorn, and two large drinks, and by the way, popcorn and drink refills are free (we like this deal)! We're able to fit this treat into our budget once or twice a month.

About a month ago Allison and I went to the Paramount Twin to watch the movie Whip it. We really didn't have too many expectations of it, but it turned out to be entertaining for me and possibly life-changing for Allison. After watching the movie Allison declared to me that she is going to join a roller-derby team. She spent that night researching, trying to find the nearest roller-derby team (2 hours away), thinking of cool roller derby names (AlliSIN was my favorite), looking for the best uniforms, and convincing me that she has the skills necessary to be the next best roller-derbyer. So I surprised her a few days later with a date to the roller rink. After a few practice runs, she did indeed impress me with her skills.

Using age generation software I was able to use the picture that I took of Allison skating a few weeks ago and transform it into what she would look like several years after joining her roller derby team.