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.