Meow is what we call her in the derby world, but in her professional world she is Jessica (Jess? I don’t even know because although I do find myself in pieces of the real estate world, our paths don’t cross in that arena. Only in roller derby). Meow is an amazing derby player and also a great team mate. So, I reached out to her for my project.

This photo of her was taken at the former Happy Wheels (RIP). Hopefully one day we will get back to gathering in closed spaces with skates on, or to cheer on our friends in skates. But until then, I will continue to share a few more stories of these cool people I know who are trying to find their way in this new normal that keeps shifting….

Meow’n Em Down getting ready to do what she does during a closed Maine Roller Derby Scrimmage at Happy Wheels a few winters ago…

Name: Jessica Locke/ Meow

Occupation: Real Estate Appraiser

“ A lot has been challenging since COVID-19, but, probably the hardest part has been finding motivation. Typically, I'm highly self-motivated, complete daily checklists, etc but I find myself excusing more breaks (Netflix) from whatever I am suppose to be accomplishing. It's difficult to readjust my focus on what a "productive day" might look like now that I'm utilizing different systems/resources than before.

A silver lining to this situation is the amount of quality time with my husband, Josh. Honestly, at the beginning of shelter-in-place I thought we would end up fighting more but we really haven't. With nothing but time to share full and complete thoughts our ability to actually understand each other seems to have grown. Hopefully I didn't just jinx the whole situation.

I most look forward to being able to travel again. Particularly, we've had to push back going to see family in New York several times. It's emotionally taxing not to know when trips like that will be able to happen.”

***

Thanks Meowmeow! Looking forward to seeing you in real time again and hoping that also involves roller skates ❤️