Chucking the two month gap and starting current

I was about to write a bunch of mini, retroactive updates to fill in the gap of the last two months, but then realized that I lack the motivation. How about a summary?
SW Regionals with BCBC: Went in super excited about playing with a team that seems to find the delicate balance between playing hard, loving and supporting one another, and having ample amounts of dance and makeout parties. It was a bitter-sweet experience, though, because I hardly played at all. I wasn't called in to play more than 10 points the entire weekend. We lost in the game-to-go, but the victors decided not to go to Natties so they gave us their bid. Even though it wasn't exactly how people wanted to get to Nationals, they were still excited b/c many of them hadn't been to the big show before.
Nationals with BCBC: I had considered not going given my underwhelming experience at Regionals, but was reassured that they were going to do open subbing at Nationals to try to get back to the team's roots of loving and respecting each player. So, we made our way to Florida with a limited squad. We played pretty daggum well, I think. We hung closely with a lot of the top ranked teams. I got plenty of playing time, and there was much team love. I'd wished some of the other teammates could have made it, but c'est la vie. We played hard on Saturday and managed to break seed. We went from 16th (last) to 13th. Not too terrible. Saturday we had a sexy farm animal party for Halloween. It was awesome! We dressed up like various sexy animals and made a makeshift barn on the beach. We also made sexy farm-related drinks in gallon jug size. They included the Farmer's Daughter, Tractor fuel, Sunny Side Up, Free Range, and Cock of the Walk. Respectively, Vodka Cran, Root Beer/Gin, Screwdriver, Grasshopper, and Margarita. Good times. Sunday we watched the finals. Chain Lightning from Atlanta was playing in Open. I had to fly back before it was over, but I heard they played awesomely and won! Huge.
To Cali the next day:The very next day after FL, I had a flight to fly to L.A. where I would rent a car and drive to San Luis Obispo to visit Jason White. I made it to the airport with all of my worldly possessions, got my sweet PT Cruiser and headed North. Spent a few days in good company chillin then made my way back to L.A.
Hawaii/Hopu: I got into Honolulu on Friday then started a 3 day tournament that evening. Excellent fun, beach camping, frisbee, etc. Got to see lots of old friends from Hawaii. The theme was Clue, so I found a hot little red velvet dress to be Mrs. Scarlet. Yes! I played with Caliaskawaii; an amazing group of hilarious people and solid athletes. I had a great time. Among my many accomplishments were hickying the hell out of Batman, tackling someone with a wine bag, putting biofreeze on someone's genitals, and walking around in my underwear (green with silver dollar bills) for most of Sunday. I am such an adult. The last day of the tournament, Monday, I played on the beach in the morning and had a job interview in the afternoon. Of course, at this point I had lost my voice COMPLETELY from too much travel and a good deal of partying. To Be Continued...

End of Summer in GA is closing in...

Things are rolling along as things are apt to do. Haven't really walked any dogs lately. Been working for Grimes catering once a week, with the occasional wedding reception. P.S. I look dumb in a tuxedo shirt and cummerbund. Busty, short people are not meant for such things. Also, sales repping for Will at Spin, Inc. It's easy enough filling orders and handling customer service. I remember now, though, why I hate sitting in an office all day. Other than that, it's a good job. He doesn't throw fits when I, say, leave for a week, two weeks at a time to travel and play frisbee. :D

The bulk of my time and thoughts these days are dominated by the upcoming club season and moving back to Hawaii in November. I finally heard back this week that the UPA nationals director will allow me to be considered in-region so I can play for this awesomely-fun team Brown Chicken Brown Cow (BCBC) out of Southern California (Hawaii is in the SW region). It took a long time to cement because though I maintain residence in HI, I am spending time here in GA for the summer. Anyway, it worked out. So, YES! I've gone to two tournaments and one "retreat" with BCBC. The first was Discos Calientes in Chico, CA. Had a great time. Talked about the trip in previous post. The most recent trip I flew out to Cali for two weeks. I got into San Fran on Thursday night and stayed with Heather Barton (college roommate) for one night. THANKS AGAIN, HEATHER! Then rented a car to drive down to San Luis Obispo where some BCBCers were meeting up to have a "practice weekend." I had some ride share people along. They were three hippie dudes that offered me mushrooms instead of gas money. HA! A practice weekend turns out to mean watching Army of Darkness, cucumber martinis, 8 am Saturday morning pickup, random boners(not mine), going to the beach, cuddling on satin sheets, and playing wii with new and old teammates. I had a lot of fun, to say the least.

Back to San Fran on Tuesday. Spent the week tooling around San Fran seeing random sights. I spent a lot of time in the Mission. There are some A-Mazing murals in the Mission. Simply mind blowing. Got to spend a few days with my other college roommate, Monica. She just moved to San Fran herself. Thanks, Monica! The final weekend we were at Labor Day tournament. Played on turf fields. They burn soooo bad when you layout. Didn't really play super great, but I did get my first layout D in the endzone. YES! Again, more good times. Lap dances, bust suffocations, mixed drinks in a can, dumplings, seeing Spetnagle and Edelman, more cuddling, arm through a mailslot, the circle-eye game whatever it's called, and general wonderful peoples. mmmmm. Life is good.

Moving back to Hawaii/Honolulu beginning of Nov. right before the tournament Hopu. I applied for a job as a manager for a new Green Energy Outlet store where I would get to test and choose all kinds of sustainability-focused products big and small. Fingers crossed! Don't know where I'll live, but those things always work out. Can't wait to see HI friends again!

Love you all. Be well.

Jenn

Summer in Atlanta

Sitting in the San Francisco airpot, delayed 7 hours, poaching off the First Class lounge WIFI, I figured it was a perfect time to update the ol' blog. Things have been going pretty smoothly in Atlanta. I got to play regular summer league games with my team Texts From Last Night until recently when the season ended. That was a good group of people. good jerseys. : ) I have been living comfortably with my roomies Nick and Rick. No trouble with that. It's a good space. Tiny like me. We have nice random traditions like shirtless Thursdays, and breaking into random karaoke.

I am up to 3 part-time jobs: dog walker, once-a-week caterer with Andy Grimes, and Sales Rep for Spin, Inc. They all add up to working full time-ish. This is how you survive a recession. You do a cluster fuck of jobs. Strategy! Other than that it's been what I wanted, a life of hanging out with friends and free time to read and wander and think. Plus, I have a bunch of new skill sets like picking up poop, chopping veggies the right way, and answering work emails for a small business. I've also been doing regular training workouts to play with the Southern California team, Brown Chicken Brown Cow. I must be getting more fit, I don't dread them like I used to. I played with BCBC for the first time this past weekend at a small tournament called Discos Calientes. It wasn't the full squad, but I loved the people that were there. In particular, Calle, Chazin, Fever, Whitey, and Jeremy. I found some true kindred spirits in those guys. They are affectionate, easy-going, conscious, intelligent, and HILARIOUS!

The tournament itself went okay. We played decently, but dropped seed. The best parts of the trip were the trip to the swimming holes surrounded by amazing rolling hills and black rock outcroppings, and the family we stayed with in Chico, CA. Our logistics coordinator found this family on Couchsurfer.com that was willing to take in our entire team. This family was amazing! A quick summary: The house (dubbed "the Castle") is a re-commissioned elderly care facility with a bird garden in the front filled with humming birds and finches flying around all day. In the backyard is an arena. Why would a family need an arena? Well, The father and mother, James and Hillary, aside from writing a book on medieval signs and symbols, also host a Medieval Martial Arts school! The father dresses up in real sword-fighting armor and does "battle" with participants. Our team was going to go to the party, but didn't go because watching James fight members of our team was wayyy better! haha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwPFvd57cak They also fed us breakfast and dinner both nights. This is all out of the kindness of their hearts! Sending out many good universe vibes to them. If you're ever in Chico, CA look them up!

After the tourney headed back to town with Jeremy and Whitey. Stayed in Palo Alto, cuddled it up, then took public transit back into town. At this point my phone died, because I had forgotten my charger and my plan for finding a place to stay was falling apart. Luckily, Katherine put me in touch with JAM in SF while I was pondering my situation at the public library. JAM came through with a place to stay last night. More good universe vibes to them.... And this morning I was far too casual about strolling through the Mission (Latino area of SF) and looking at all the murals and street art, and got to the airport too late. I missed my flight and am now waiting for the next flight. And here we are, full circle, at the 7 hour delay. Wish me luck! Be well, everyone. love.

Jenn

Gender Blender, New England & Settling into Atlanta

After stopping into Atlanta for a short break, I headed to the frigid North (65 F for the summer) of Toronto, Ontario. I went a few days early to visit with a friend of mine, Jamie, whom I'd met at Hopu Ka Lewa tournament in Honolulu. Sweet, fun guy. We had fun seeing the sites of Toronto. It's a pretty cool city, but not so different from any other big city. I was disappointed that no mounties or beavers were walking around. So much for stereotyping. Otherwise, it's a very clean city with that big CN tower in it. There's also a really long street (name escapes me) that has A LOT of cool shops and hippie stores. Good times. Eventually some other friends that I know from Hawaii joined up with us and we all had a great night at the bar getting sauced in Canada with some real Canadians and even a couple guys from Mexico. Once the group was assembled the next day we all headed to Fergus, Ontario for the tournament known as Gender Blender. Essentially, it's at the back of a park including a forested area where each team comes up with some theme and sets up an entire area with a game (usually dirty) and a blended drink to give out to the winners. Debauchery and memory loss ensues. It was a lot of fun! Met some great teammates and proceeded to have a great time at the pirate shit foam dance party, the strap-on obstacle course, the Double Dare station, failed keg stand, Price is Right Plinko, strip hang man, our own ro-sham-tackle station, and lots more that is a bit fuzzy. Even after all that we still came ready to play the next day and our team did really well. Sunday was more chill with a dance party.
After the tournament ended and we said our goodbyes to Jamie, Becky, Jess, Gilda and I all headed for Middlebury, VT where Becky's brother lives. We didn't plan to, but we ended up driving the whole 9 hours that night and got in at 3 am. yikes. To start the drive off right, the stuff that we had tied to the roof flew off onto the interstate and five lanes on racing cars all stopped to let us run out and collect it. Another notable part of the drive was going through customs where we couldn't stop giggling because what we said for where we're from, reason of visit and then our occupations, it sounded made up. Nothing more suspicious at the border than a car full of gigglers. "Where are you from?" "Hawaii" - "Hawaii?!" - "Reason for visit?" "Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Fergus." "Frisbee?! and Where the hell is Fergus?" "Ok, occupations?" Jess: "Grad student with solar cells." Becky: "Epidemiologist." Gilda: "archeologist for the military." Then me: "unemployed." We spent a couple days in Vermont hanging out on the brother and wife's small farm, hiking, and seeing Burlington, VT. Good times. Then, off to Maine through New Hampshire. VT, NH, ME are all beautiful, but they definitely all look very similar after awhile. Quick stops in a famous bar called Ebenezer's, and a small local place in Maine for lobsters. Eating a lobster whole instead of just the tail, is a very disturbing experience. I won't be doing it again anytime soon. After staying at Becky's friend's house we made our way to Boston (Bawstin) road the train, saw Harvard square and Harvard then to the bus station to take me to my flight for Poultry Days.
Poultry Days: met some new people, didn't play well, ate chicken, saw old friends. Flew home on business class, drunk before take off. Lots of complimentary cookies! YES!
Now I'm back in Atlanta. Things were slow the first week and a half or so, because I didn't have a job and other people work for a living during the day. eyeroll :p But, now that summer league is in full swing, I'm making plans with friends again, and I got my library card activated things are going pretty well. : ) Living with Nick and Rick is going really well. I live in a small room in the back. It works. I have an interview for a dogsitting position tomorrow. Don't know what to expect, but it could be a good source of flexible schedule and money for which to spend.

I can do this!

I seem to have failed as a blogger. Keeping this up is tricky, tricky. Let me try and catch up, assuming there is anyone left to read this after my textual absence.

So, I headed to Rimini, Italy for Paganello over Easter weekend. Awwweeesome. I spent a week at the tournament with my team Arrrrrr! (pirate themed, you know?) They were a great team, very spirited, talented, and silly. We played pretty well and enjoyed playing pirate themed games with the other teams. We made it a team goal to put our pirate tattoos on the whole tournament. We started out with 1500 and ended the tournament with only 200, so we must have done a pretty good job. :D The parties were fun, but not as crazy as I was hoping for. Even though I had a great time, I wouldn't call it the best value. You pay almost 200 dollars and they don't give you liquor or food (well, a little of each the first night, but not much). One thing that was cool, though, was going on a boat cruise the second night that had a playboy theme. I went in a sexy dress and a bathrobe in honor of Heph. Lots of dancing and debauchery, of course. Anyway, a great tournament, but I still think Kaimana in Hawaii is a way better value. Everyone should go! After the tourny, I had hoped to find some people to travel with but wasn't able to find anyone. So, I set off on my 6 day trip across Italy alone. I took the trains everywhere. First, to Florence, then Cinque Terre, Siena, and Rome. I was in a hurry to see as much as possible and I didn't have more than two days anywhere. It was rushed, but I'm glad I got to see as much as I did. Florence was such a beautiful city, overflowing with statues and domes. Plus, it had some of the best city views and sunset. Next was Cinque Terre, which a grouping of five towns built along the NW Italian coast. The small towns are all built up upon cliffs and tucked in among enormous olive groves. Numerous trails traverse between the cliffs and connect the towns. I was able to do a few of the hikes, and they were incredible. There was so much color! Not just in the green hills, but the towns especially. The typical colors on the buildings were: pink, moss green, mustard and rust. Amazing, simply amazing. I rode on the local trains there, had some local food (gelato, baked chickpea something, pizza). There was wine, too! Man, 1/2 a liter is so much more than I thought. So drunk. So quickly.

Next was Siena, another Tuscan town. It was pretty cool, and pretty old. At this point I was getting kind of lonely, and I don't think I was enjoying it as much as I would have liked. But, that's when I ran into two guys from Colorado who happened to play frisbee, too! Perfect. We traveled around the town that night and went to Rome together. They were a lot of fun, very silly. We tried to hit up a European soccer game, but proceeded to have an ultimately fruitless adventure no finding any tickets. The rest of the time in Rome was spent seeing the seemingly limitless supply of statues, fountains, and art. The Colosseum is prettty big, but not as big as you would think. So, a whirlwind trip then back to Hawaii for one month before I left again.

I finished up my work at the University, including The Sustainability Fest. That was a crazy day. We were up for 19 hours straight setting things up, managing the day-long event, and then the concert, then the clean up. It was a long day, but a good experience. The best thing that came of my time with the Sustainability center was that my supervisor said she would write me a glowing recommendation for any sustainability job I applied for. Bonus! On Memorial day I left Hawaii and headed to Austin, TX to stay with Tank and Cara. I had a great three days there seeing the city and all of its cool little quirks. Of course, my hosts were wonderful and were a lot of fun to be with. I also got to meet up with a friend of mine, Jeff, who happened to be in town. After that, a quick pop into Atlanta to drop my stuff off. There, I got to rest for a little bit before off to the next adventure.

March and April

Things are still pretty great here with Spring League, University of Hawaii sustainability projects, work, and general cruizin'. Spring League is in full swing. I think it's going well. People seem to be enjoying themselves, though I now know how teachers feel when they do a lot of thankless work only to have petty complaints just the same. Oh, well. : ) It's still fun, and it is kinda cool to be in charge. Unfortunately, I'm going to miss the end of the season because I'm going to be moving back to Atlanta a couple weeks before the end of season.

The projects at UH have been moving along nicely. Not too much has been happening with the Energy Team, but the Sustainability Bill is moving quickly through the House and it's almost passed. This would be a bill to fund paid internships to train people to do energy audits and waste audits, thus finding at least $2 million in energy savings on campus. The biggest thing going on right now is putting on the Sustainability Fest on April 22nd. I am the Volunteer and Logistics coordinator. Planning a large event is crazy balls, man. So much to think about...

Also, I'm going to Italy in 3 days for Paganello then some Italian traveling. I'm thinking...yeah, this will be awesome. Don't know what to expect, so all I can do is report when I get back. Then I'll have much more to say. Right now the bare-bones plan is to fly into Rome, then train to Rimini for the tournament, then visit Tuscany and Rome, cuz that's all I have time for. Regardless, it should be amazing!

I gave an interview for a local paper this morning. So, I might get quoted in the Sustainability series. That'd be cool. :D This weekend I'm going to a natural building workshop at an organic farm. I'm really looking forward to that, too!

I was thrilled with my birthday. My friend, Meg, took me to breakfast and then my friends here threw me a surprise birthday party! It was great, I felt so loved. I love love.

The beat goes on

Sorry for the time lapse, it's been a wild few weeks! So, Kaimana, Maui Hat Draw, Big Island, Italy, Spring League commishing, it's all been crazy. I have been so ridiculously busy, but in a wonderful way. It's blissful chaos.

Friends from all over started arriving into Hawaii before Kaimana, and it was really great to see everyone again. It brought back a lot of good memories. We had a nice pre-party down at Magoos with mostly Texas kids and a sprinkling of Atlanta and Hawaii folks. Solid showing. And from there the wonder of Kaimana began. Everyone made their way down to set up camp and gather for the first night. Most people were jetlagged and realllly tame. That ended up being fine, though, because after a few days of escalating party and play intensity we went all out at the last party. It was incredible! The whole area pulsed with energy and dancing and games and just plain debauchery! I spent most of my time dancing, but was able to work in a few body shots here and there and dominate flip cup with the Japanese team. The frisbee was great, too! I played with the Georgia women that came all the way over. We were Mahalo, Y'all! Many of the women I had never played with, which was great. Mostly, it was just really awesome to spend time with so many amazing people.

Next came Maui and the Maui Hat Draw. Spent a few days traveling around with some amazing Atlanta folks. Met a few new people that were a lot of fun, too! Chris O'Cleary and I took a side trip to see "one of the 10 most scenic drives in the world," the Hana Coast. It was amazing. Great bays, great views, great jungles, great waterfalls, great banana bread, great side-of-the-road shops, great company. Got to see Humpback whales breaching for the first time. And this one did 5 times in a row. That was at the nude beach, where later there was a drum circle and fire dancers! The Hat Draw tournament was a success. I was on an awesome team. Team Orange/Team this is serious. Great fun. The party was great too! Team South beat Canada and Australia in a boat race and then the Australians incited a shirtless dance party for several hours.

Shimmy and I headed to the Big Island after that. We did so many activities that I have trouble recalling them all. The highlights were definitely shave ice with ice cream, snorkeling with turtles in the freezing morning water, Hilo market, staying with Joel and his hospitality, kakaka waterfall park, what a 25% grade reallly feels like, and getting lost on a dark, active lava field trespassing, then finally finding a little bit of lava going into the ocean. Shimmy, you're a great travel buddy! I hope you had a wonderful time, too!

Then, after a wonderful, whirlwind vacation it was back to Honolulu. Things got crazy right away with research deadlines for university composting research and Earth Day celebration planning, doing LOTS of planning for spring league, and making plans to go to Italy for Paganello 2009. OH, and yesterday I finally finished my SCUBA certification. Hazah!

It's been crazy, it's been busy, but I love it!