Nannette Martin

By now, most of my Active Rain friends know I'm all about green and all about sustainability and of course, all about the Urban Chicken Movement. If you don't get "Why chickens?"...come see the movie and find out more. What is very interesting about this whole thing is that one of the darkest villians in the above film, has had a change of heart. Where before he couldn't wrap his brain around the urban chicken movement, he decided to be a big man and watch the film. So now, Mr. Chuck Bennett will actually be at the above event this Friday evening to talk about chickens or anything else you would like to talk about.

Here's the latest blurb about this event. We hope to see you there. I'll be there to support C.I.T.Y. - Chickens In The Yard. Come say hello! It's a great Friday-Family-Fun-Friendly activity that won't break the bank.

It has been in the news recently that trace amounts of prescription drugs are turning up in our water supply. Some of the sources of this contamination comes from following the old advice to flush prescription medications down the drain.

While some drugs are in the water because they are excreted by humans into the sewer system, many are there because people are disposing them directly down the toilet.

This is a national concern. No one knows what trace amounts of these drugs ingested over the years can do. While we have fairly good water quality in Salem, we need to all make an effort to keep it that way.

I was really happy to see that there will be a Prescription Drug Turn in Event at the Salem Public Libray this Saturday, March 13, 2010 between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm. It will be a drive through process and you enter on the Commercial side of the library. There are signs to help you find your way.

As a REALTOR® committed to sustainable practices, and a bearer of the National Association of REALTORS® GREEN designation, I always looking for ways to be a better steward of the planet and secure a better future for all our children and their children to come.

I'm hearing of so many types of things in our community that are expanding as a result of more people wanting to do their best to take care of our earth and our future. I will be sharing about these activities and opportunities as I hear of them.

There is a new era of social responsibility as we look at the bigger picture and that is exciting! The bigger picture is created by the brush strokes of many small efforts that are combined.

Dropping off your expired prescription drugs, at a turn-in event such as the one in Salem this Saturday is one way we can make the world a better place and make sure our drinking water stays drinkable and safe.

I awoke to grey sky, wind blowing, rain sheeting down, and today, I'm showing houses. You might say, "Oh no! Schedule for another time..." But this is Oregon, and if I did that...well, you can only imagine I'd have to find a new career.

Mailmen have nothing on me!

The fact is, I actually LOVE showing homes under these conditions. Sure, I get a little damp. I even might begin to resemble a racoon when my mascara runs, or Sasquatch when my hair explodes into a frazzled mess, but remember this isn't about me. It's never about me.

I have found the best way to discover how a house functions in heavy rain is to go visit it in heavy rain. You can learn a lot about a house when you see how it "handles its drink," so to speak. Drainage, gutters, roofs, all get to show their stuff, for good or for bad, when the rain comes down.

Yippee! Thank you Mother Nature!

My clients appreciate my enthusiam to show them homes during the rain and assume I have fins and gills. But really, I just have a trusty pair of polka dot rubber boots, a rainproof jacket, and umbrella... They always become excited along with me, about looking at homes in the rain, once I tell them we will be able to gather additional information about the place that they wouldn't be able to witness first hand.

It truly is the Silver Lining of Showing when you are Active during the Rain.

WOW! What a night!

We made it to watch the Cherry City Derby Girls of Salem in their bout against Sick Town Derby Dames of Corvallis.

After finding out our family friends twin daughters had just had their 15th birthday, I decided that taking my daughters and the the twins to the Roller Derby here in Salem, just might be the way to celebrate. But actually, this event, presented by The Culture Shock Community Project, actually did become a cultural event. The twins had two visiting French Exchange Students who went along with us. So it was me and six girls ages 13 to 16 who braved this new experience.

We had no idea what to expect and that was half the fun. We arrived an hour before the bout began and found the parking lot nearly full, the line to get in BLOCKS long, and a very eclectic group of people. Obviously, Salem, OR is ready and willing for Roller Derby. We all saw people we knew...except the French Exchange Students, who pretty much had wide eyed wonder through the entire night... "Vee do not haf einything like dis in Fraaance!"

Welcome to America! Land of the Free, Land of Roller Derby!

I'd have to say the night was quite educational as well. For those unfamiliar with the sport, a great event program explained Roller Derby Basics, and before the bout, they had some girls exhibit the basics, how to score, what counts as penalties, and a brawl. My daughters and their friends especially enjoyed the make believe cat fight. We also got to watch a pre-game video that expounded on Roller Derby basics. And if that wasn't enough, we were told if we had any other questions to ask some of the random girls on roller skates zipping through the crowds to explain more by saying, "Talk Derby to me!" Everybody loved that. Men especially seemed to really be entertained by that phrase... hmmmm...

The fun continued going through the program and reading some of the names the girls skate under. I'll let you go check some of those out at www.cherrycityderbygirls.com Some of the names are actually well, lets just say "interesting."

There were some pre-bout theatrics with a woman coming in on a horse with her face painted blue and white "Mel Gibsonesque" of Braveheart and she gave a rousing speech pretty much straight from the movie, but with a bit of Roller Derby thrown in there. Half-time was entertaining as well with Man Overboard performing and the An Daire Irish Step Dancers. (The Irish Step Dancers were a special treat!) www.andair.org

The bout itself was amazing! I got to see Flea Bitten Kitten 9 Lives do her thing as a high-scoring jammer. She was so good that my daughters informed me they have to get her autograph. Since they were way too young to go to the after party at Flipside Nightclub to meet FBK9L, I will have to visit Michaels Spinal Rehab (my chiropractors office) to get those autographs... not because FBK9L is there for treatment, but because she works there.

After Derby and after Dairy Queen, I delivered the twins and the French Exchange Students home. They glowed with excitement and were grateful for the experience. I just asked the French Girls, who are now on a 25 hour journey back to their country this morning, not to judge our entire culture based on their evening of Roller Derby. They laughed, their world view expanded just a little further by experience Cherry City Derby Girls on their last evening in America.

I never thought I'd become a Ambassador for Roller Derby. I never thought I myself would ever watch Roller Derby live here in Salem, and I never thought I'd expose my daughters to it...

But hey, isn't half the fun of life not knowing what comes next?

I'll have to remind myself of that when my daughters start thinking up their own Roller Derby names and plan for trying out when they are 21...which thankfully is many years away.

I'm still going to hold out on the skates and roller blades...

We are really looking forward to the next bout so we can go watch Flea Bitten Kitten 9 Lives and her teammates skate to victory once again.

Next week at the Pavilion is a Cage Fight, but I think we'll be sticking to Girls' Night in the future.

I watched Roller Derby as a kid on TV. I remember it as fun and exciting, but it became a fleeting memory along with things like Pet Rocks, Pong and that sort of thing. Frankly, I didn't think about it once over the years... That was until my daughters put the movie Whip It on the NetFlix Queue.

We watched the movie last weekend and we really enjoyed it.. For me it brought back a flood of memories of watching the sport as a kid. It also made me grateful my daughters never owned a pair of Barbie roller skates. (Though my 14-year-old tried to talk me into roller blades this very week...is there a connection? Um, I'd say so! But this was just the beginning.)

Last night, while driving home from showing a home in NE Salem, I saw on the Fairgrounds sign that Roller Derby was coming to Salem on March 6th. I actually, belly laughed outloud because I couldn't believe the synchroncity of it all. But this was just the beginning.

Anyway, just today, I went for my regular tune-up at Michaels Spinal Rehab with my favorite chiropractor, Geary Michaels, DC. His assistant Melissa Hulett is always a joy to see and when I asked her, "What's new with you?" I found out that Melissa DOES ROLLER DERBY.

I about came off the table! I was just tickled. Right there in Dr. Michael's office, was "Flea Bitten Kitten - 9 Lives!"

So how did Melissa get into Roller Derby? I just had to know. Well, she saw an announcement in the paper and went to the meeting. I asked if she had much roller skating experience and she said as a kid at birthday parties, etc....(Barbie roller skates? It was almost like Melissa was the character in the movie, except she's an adult, and doesn't live in Texas, or work at the Oink Joint.)

She tried out, has gotten so good, she is on the travel team.

She told me that Cherry City Derby Girls have a bout, here in Salem, at the Fairgrounds on Saturday, March 6. Tickets can be purchased in advance for $10 at www.brownpapertickets.com. At the door they are $12.

So if you are looking for some nostalgia and adventure this weekend, consider watching Flea Bitten Kitten - 9 Lives and her teammates do their thing on roller skates. They are going to whip it!

I asked if she ever get hurt. She said sometimes a few bruises and such. I guess if it goes beyond that, she is pretty lucky that Dr. Michaels can help keep her in alignment...

Who would have thought Roller Derby would come to Salem...

Now for me...do I take my girls to watch this and risk them being bitten by the Roller Derby bug?

What to do? What to do?