Moxie

[Moxie]

Short session today. Maybe another one later on, and hopefully I'll meet up with at least one of the guys in town tomorrow after I get off of work. I kind of wish I weren't the only one doing the calling to organize a session every week/weekend...

Last night I made sure to do legover>legover x10 (without dropping should be assumed) and pickup>pickup x10. I tried just practicing high straight sets from clipper, but they are still not quite there. At all. yet.

Today I did legover>legover x10 and pickup>pickup x10 again. I could see the improvement just from yesterday, so that was really satisfying. I still move around a whole lot because I'm thinking my sets aren't straight up so I move my body to compensate. I'd like to work on that some too. I also did a really nice (for me) set of clipper drills. They felt really controlled.

I’ve had a few unpleasant experiences with footbag people recently. I don’t quite get it, because if I’m offensive/mean or in any way deserving of that kind of behavior why would you call/e-mail/IM me in the first place, or even do it multiple times? I’m sure that people can find me to be rough around the edges, and yes I do have a fair amount of pride. But if I hurt your feelings, I’m the first one to apologize and try to not do that again. If you don't feel bad after being unreasonable and mean to me, don't bother talking to me again because I'm really sick of it. I wouldn’t take that kind of treatment from a close friend, and I’m certainly not going to take it from someone who doesn’t know me well.

And if you feel that you’re one of these people, please don’t respond to this subject in my blog; this is a place where I want to feel comfortable. Hmph, end of that rant.

The weather is absolutely beautiful today. I made sure to look up a lot while walking around outside. When you visit or move to a new environment everything is new and fresh so you appreciate it and the beauty just stands out. After being in a place for a long time it's really easy to overlook these same things. So I'm trying to hold on to the "new" feeling as long as possible and appreciate where I am. I'm sitting on my futon mattress (yes, they are great) on my floor (yes, they are even better with frames ) with a window on three out of four of my walls in my room with the sunlight shining in all of them. One of the windows has orange, yellow, and red roses and this dark red flowering tree next to it. Yesterday I found a bunch of snails sliming around so I moved them off of the walkway to my house so I wouldn't accidentally smash them the next time I walked by. I might go to a drive-in movie with Tom tonight.

Edit: AJ just called so I'm going to go kick with him for an hour.

[Moxie]

Heck yeah, footbag is fun. That session went so well. We both did a bunch of strings which were full of legovers and pickups. I tried guay stuff a fair amount and it didn't work so well, but it was fun. I hit whirl on my strong side about four times. I tried flip a good amount too. When I point that toe (weak whirl and "bad ankle" ) it hurts right around the Achilles tendon in the back of my ankle. I'm not sure what it is. It feels like a joint does right before it cracks. But the discomfort is in the flesh not a joint. I'm going to try stretching it tonight and see if that helps. Anyway, I hit about 8 strong drifters and maybe three flip. Not mid string or to anything else, just by themselves. Strong was great, because with at least four of them, I continued with a good string after I hit it. I tried stepping on both sides. Not anything out of it, but it was really good for me. My flip side got much better today too. Oooh, and I was talking with AJ about setting the bag differently for when he tries gyro mirage because he's really close to it, and he really wants to have it (I can't hit, but it's really fun being able to make good suggestions that help someone who's better than I am) and I showed him what I meant. Then I was like, "Hey, that was a really good set" about my own example. Then he was like, "Do something out of it then." So I tried spinning clipper. I was SO close, I had it on my foot about four times. Then I hit it to mirage>toe stall>hand. Then he was like "Great! Now, other side." It's so nice playing with another footbagger. I footed the other side a few times and then it was time to go. We played for about an hour and forty five minutes. It was SO fun.

AJ's style used to be really bouncy so he's working on that a lot these days and it's showing. He also realized today that he has to re-teach himself clippers so he'll be able to do Osis and Dyno more easily. That will help his drifters too because he was setting from clipper in a direction that made it way harder than it needed to be. His strings are nice and long.

He told me that tomorrow there's a free lock picking class in town. But it starts at 4pm and that's when I get off work. So I'm going to see if I can make it work out.

I was in the wrong with thinking that I am the only one making an effort to get together to kick in town. It turns out that last weekend while I was in LA, Nate and AJ kicked. This summer should be fun. But I would also like to go on a small trip in Ca. and hopefully visit/play with some new/different people.



Edit: I forgot, Illusion Bsos! It was kind of fluke-ish because my flip Illusions are horrible, but it still happened and I think it was clean.

[FootbagginBum]

Props on the spinning! Practicing those will make your sets much straighter.

If you do journey through the summer, you should come here...I have a couch too But seriously, theres a shitload of shredders getting going here that would be so impressed to see a girl at their level.

And, I think your edges are anything but rough...quite smooth... but I think I already probably said more than I should

Anyway, shred on you sick shredita. Peace.

Bum

[Moxie]

And, I think your edges are anything but rough...quite smooth... but I think I already probably said more than I should

Not what I was wanting out of that.

[Moxie]

I tried going to the Lock Picking class. I’m really excited to know that this school exists. It’s a house where some people live, and classes are taught for free in all sorts of things. The How to Grow Fungus’ and Tree Climbing classes caught my eye, I don’t remember what else is being offered. The house is based on the idea of anarchy and not relying on a paid establishment to gain knowledge. I would like it more if the guy had shown up to teach the class today. After waiting a while we found out that he decided not to teach this class or the last one because he has the feeling he’s being “watched.” I guess it goes with the territory.

[Moxie]

First, an apology for venting the way I did in my blog. Also, thank you to those people who sent me PM’s apologizing for things that they thought I was upset about, even though I wasn't. But one of the unpleasant situations did get resolved because of that post, so I guess I am glad that I posted it. Lastly, thank you for reading my blog. I love getting comments or just seeing that people have checked it out.

Footbag: I kicked tonight with AJ. We started out at the tennis courts at 10pm. The lights were out but he had gotten directions for where to turn them on. It felt so cold at first but as soon as we warmed up it was perfect. This was the best session I have had is a long time. Legover>legover x 21 (drop after 22) which is the most I've ever done. Also, later I had a 17 contact tiltless run with clippers, mirages, legovers, pickups, osis a few time (I don't like osis pluralized), and butterflies. My goal for tonight was to have fun and I did. Uh, lets see. AJ's DLO's are coming along really well. His strings are getting longer and he's very both sided with everything. He's working on pdx stuff a lot now. After an hour of playing at the tennis courts the lights shut off for the night so we headed downtown (a few blocks away) and played under a pretty nice streetlight for a little more than an hour. The cops rolled by a few times but didn't stop or even slow down for us. We were even playing (soft) music. I am totally down for late night sessions more often.

EDIT: If anyone happens to run across a pair of Women's silver (which looks more like a shiny lavender) 7.5 lavers for a decent price, please let me know. I don't need them yet but would like to have another pair to break in slowly.

[Moxie]

Today I was playing hack with the normal smoker’s corner crew. There was a new person playing who could doe toe stall>toe stall>toe stall, a wrap, rainbow kick (is that right?), clipper (but couldn’t stall it), inside stalls, outside stalls, and pendulum. So of course, I showed him what little I could and invited him to come out to kick with the guys the next time we have a session. He was really excited at the possibly of kicking with other people who could help teach him new tricks. So I got his number and will call him the next time AJ, Nate, or Matt and I kick. I really enjoyed the minute or two I spent showing him some basic stuff, it was so easy to link moves today. Even though there are only two more full weeks and then I have finals, I hope I can keep playing with AJ or someone else at least a few times a week because I can feel the difference and it feels so good.

[Moxie]

"Drunken hobos." That is how AJ described our playing tonight. I don't know what happened, we were both so off. We'll be kicking Sunday, hopefully it'll go better then.



...but it was still really fun.

[Moxie]

I messed around with toe flicks by myself today. I had tried them two real times before, but hadn't ever tried drilling them for a long time alone. I got much better = less horrible. But I had a ridiculous amount of fun. It was SO sunny and warm today. Santa Cruz is perfect.

My 21st birthday is 6/6. (next year it'll be 6/6/6 ) I would really appreciate a postcard or something if anyone's willing to send one.
That's right...I have no shame.

[Moxie]

Well I guess if I'm going to blatantly ask for birthday postcards, I should at least put my address up also.

Emily Kulczyk
245 Elk St.
(Beautiful) Santa Cruz Ca.
95065

Today was GREAT! I woke up late then went to work for a few hours. Next I went to a garage sale just because of the sign: "Mondo garage sale." I also saw "Killer sale" on a sign for a different house on the other side of town. Love it. I went to a bike show thing in town with my roommates. The jumps they had were huge. (I need to learn some skater lingo so I can describe better in situations like this one.) People took bikes and skateboards on them and I saw a good amount of really painful looking falls. You know when you watch a movie and skateboarders fall really badly and you get a slight satisfaction from it, it's just sort of fun to watch? I thought it would be different in real life because they would be more like real people who I know just got hurt. Nope, it was so fun watching them do huge stuff and sometimes fall in person too. There was free food/drink at the event.

Anyway, right after that I went to the Capitola beach to play footbag with AJ. We played for about three hours, I think. We met this little girl Anne; her picture will be on the website when it's done. More on that later. I did a long (for me) flukish tiltless string which was over 22 contacts. AJ did pdx mirage bsos and some good strings. This was the first time in a long, long time that I've played (and played pretty well) in front of a lot of people. The beach was amazing, only pictures will be able to do it justice. They will also be on the website, I hope.

After the fun session as I walked into my house, what doe my roommate say? Barbeque. What a fine ending to a good day.

I’m having a little trouble recently. Not really trouble, but something I’m noticing. I thought I was pretty liberal in Illinois. But now that I’m in California, I find myself feeling very traditional. That’s the best word for it, I think. Not everyone here is a hippie, but SO many of the people here think SO differently than I do that I feel like they’re just crazy sometimes. Is there such a thing as too open minded? I guess it’s just something to figure out.

[FootbagginBum]

if you come to vegas, you will understand everything.

Great job playing in front of people, t's great competetion practice. Shred on.

Peace,
Bum

[Blackjack]

.

[Moxie]

Hey guys, thanks for posting.

Monday night I played footbag with AJ downtown. It was the worst session I’ve had with someone else since I’ve moved here (while not injured.) I played so poorly and after a while my knees started to hurt so much. So I stopped. But we met someone who was interested in learning some tricks so we got his number. Wednesday night I played footbag with AJ at the tennis courts. I started off so well, I wasn’t doing (trying) anything big, I was just not dropping it. Nice easy but longish strings. But I’m guessing that wasn't great for my knees because they started to hurt about 30 minutes into the session. They felt tight and painful again. I seriously need to start going to a Yoga class here a few days a week. After school's out for the summer I have a lot of things I want to do. I’m going to work hard on remembering to warm up very slowly next time. My 2’s are so strong again, but I haven’t worked on any 3’s so what little I could do before is gone now. Way to go, Emily. :p This guy Peter who’s registered on .org was supposed to come too but wasn’t able to. Neither of us has met Peter yet, so that should be fun when it happens.

Yesterday was so fun. I helped with my friend Matt with his bake sale. The proceeds will go to 34 Million friends. (www.34millionfriends.org) We managed to get the organization over $100 and we hacked all day in the process. My friend Reece took me swimming in the ocean for the first time. It was so cold I thought I wouldn’t be able to move at all. But after a while I got used to it; the waves were so fun. He made me dinner then I went back to Matt’s house and taught him and his friends how to play 4-square and they loved it so much. I want to bring Matt to Stanford on a Tuesday to play with Steve in a few weeks.

I’m going to play disc golf for the first time today. This weekend I’m going to Santa Barbara to play with Ted, Jeremy, Amelia, and Eric Palmer, who I’ve never met. Yay California, life is fun here.

[Moxie]

Such a nice weekend with good friends. I've driven about eleven hours and had three sessions in these last two days. I hit a few fun combos, but not anything worth mentioning. Grom's post gives more detail about who hit what over the weekend.

This post is salad.

[Moxie]

Four sessions in three days... I was a little sore when I woke up today but I have the feeling that tomorrow I'm going to be stiff in addition to sore. Today AJ and I played footbag for a long time and then Matt M. showed up too. I played for two good hours, then the last hour or so was just playing to play which was fun. Matt hadn't ever really seen footbag before, so he was easily impressed. It's always good for self esteem to have someone like that around. Matt can kick it a bunch because he has a strong hack background. His control will get even better when his crank is better. At the start of the session he couldn't do more than two toe stalls in a row but by the end he did five pretty easily. He also did about four outside>same outside stalls, three inside stalls in a row and managed to seal clipper on both sides. I was very impressed. He was motivating us to get a weekly session scheduled. He's an official member of the Santa Cruz Footbag Club now.

Sometimes I think that Modified is too far away. Maybe I'll just start posting on a local footbag forum.

Edit: Here's a picture from my drive back from Santa Barbara yesterday.

[Moxie]

My left knee is bothering me a lot even while I'm just sitting here with no weight on it. I hope it feels better by the weekend. Saturday and Sunday I work with Matt M. at the car place so we're going to play during the slow hours. This job is SO perfect. It pays well, is completely relaxed, and there is a tennis court about eight feet away from the door of the trailer so we even have a good surface to play on when it's slow. Sunday after work I'm going to the city to kick with Sunil and the city crew. Tuesday I'm going to kick with Steve and the Stanford crew. And I'll kick with AJ and Matt M. during the week at least a few times. Only two more days of finals and the summer is mine.

Trying to stay motivated,

[Moxie]

Today I had my last finals for the semester. After class got out, Matt, the 40 and 65 year old ladies from class and I went to the beach with to hang out until a BBQ another classmate was having. Matt and I played some hack and then that evolved into a decent footbag session. They women were so impressed that they both wanted to try. It was great. They said that it got their heart rate up to just to try to kick it so one of them wanted me to suggest a site to buy a bag so she can keep trying at home. Later in the evening Matt broke his record and did 18 toe stalls.

[mosher]

Emily, it sounds like you get to have alot of fun with a big variety of people.

It's great to hear how active you are being with footbag and in life.

Keep having fun!

[Jackbag]

Many congratulations on finishing your finals! You did an excellent job balancing school, work, footbag, and fun! That is not an easy task. So now that you are done with school you are going to drive out and visit right?

Don't forget to work on that one thing that Jeremy had you work on that you wanted to be reminded about (whirl>drifter, drifter>whirl, whirl>whirl, drifter>drifter), I can't remember.

To get you ready for Monday:

The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

*A

[CIC flurry]

Happy Birthday! I tried to see you online yesterday. Hope you had fun .