...what is he doing with his hand?
Moxie
Health update
Haha, I'm glad I have that to look at every time I open my blog for the next month or two.
WARNING: This post might get boring very quickly. (pictures on the bottom)
Well well well... Today I went to the 7th place I've had to go to for my leg pain (that's kind of an exaggeration because I'm counting the places I had to go for X-Rays and MRI tests. If we don’t count them, I’ve seen 5 different people.) In my head before the appointment with the Physiatrist (fizz-eye-ah-trist) today: "Yes, finally, this will be the last time that I have to explain everything that has caused pain/problems, and everything that I've done to try to treat this over the last 5 months." Was she the last person that I'll have to see? You know me, what do you think?
Started: 6/5/05 after a session in SF I was walking to get some (really good) food with the crew and noticed that it felt like the patella (kneecap) in my left knee was grinding against another bone. It hurt. Over the next month (?) or so, I also started having problems with my hamstrings being really tight and a pressure in my lower back which felt like it needed to be cracked. But there's nothing there that should be cracked from what I know. After a bit, I went to a no-force chiropractor (meaning she did not crack my back, neck, or legs, but still did adjustments on them.) Eventually I saw an orthopedic surgeon (to see what was going on with the bone grinding stuff) who was recommended by several people in the area. He told me to go to a place to get an X-ray. When he read the results, he said that the bones were grinding and that I could either do physical therapy (PT) or have surgery to sand down the inside of the kneecap. I went to PT. I stopped seeing the chiropractor because I felt like the problems weren't being fixed by her. She said I would need to get an MRI done because the numbness in my leg and especially foot suggested that I had something wrong in my lower back. At that point I had also been seeing the PT, and I kept seeing the PT because I felt like it would help, and the knee grinding went away. But with that problem (which had stopped almost all movement that was not completely necessary- as in I would have people pick me up instead of walking the extra 60 feet to walk to the car with them) gone the other problems that I had been having (numbness in left foot, left thigh, a pain in the back of my knee, tightness in both hamstrings, and tightness in my very lower back when I tried to bend forwards) were more obvious and restricting than they had been before.
I went to an MRI place to get scans done late last week. The machine was so loud that they gave me earplugs before I lay down. It was just like I had seen on TV. I lay down and got put into a big tube. I'm not claustrophobic, and I'm glad, but it was still a little unnerving how little space there was between my face and the machine. Since it wasn't a scan of my head, but of my lower back, I was all the way in the tube. Oh, before I went in, she strapped me down so I couldn't move my torso/legs, then she gave me a little hand sensor to push in case I started to "freak out" during the tests.
Then, she the thing that made me nervous was that she said that most people feel more comfortable when they have a towel over their face when going in and she started to put one over my face. I told her "NO, thanks." Anyway, it was not scary to be in the tube. I was in there for about 25 minutes. Each test lasted anywhere from 30 seconds to 4 minutes, and between tests she would tell me over a speaker how long the next one would be. The sounds of the different tests (they all made different sounds) reminded me of the Strongbad Techno cartoon. Anyway, I happily fell asleep during the test.
Aaaanyway, since one of the many Dr.'s I saw recommended this Physiatrist (basically deals with chronic pain and injuries,) I went to her to have her read my MRI and tell me what was what. She examined me and told me what her speculations were. Then she read the results sent with the MRI pictures, which confirmed what she had thought. Then she looked at the pictures and it was pretty clear that I had a disc that was WAY the fuck out of place.
Results (Lamen's (Emily) terms): I have a disc in my lower back that is pinching a nerve that goes all the way from my back, down my left leg, to my left foot. Since I have had no major (or minor that I’m aware of) back injuries, this is probably something that I was born with. Usually, when people are born with this problem, it emerges in their 20’s and 30’s.
What to do: If I hadn’t been going to PT, and it wasn’t as out of place as it is, she would tell me to do PT. But since it’s not fixing the problem, she suggests I still do the exercises, but go to another Dr. who will give me an epidural. Why does that word sound familiar? Because that’s what pregnant women get to help with pain during labor. But in my case, the shot which goes in the back (but not into the spine or any nerves) is not a pain killer, but cortisone, which will be a “powerful” anti-inflammatory. The shots are usually given in sets of 3, spaced out by about 3-4 weeks at a time.
How does this change my life: It doesn’t, really. She said that I should avoid bending forward or backwards if it hurts, avoid sitting down for prolonged periods, and not to lift anything heavy. Duh. She submitted a form to the DMV to get me a temporary handicap parking pass (which I’ll also be able to use at school to park in the Staff lot.) If at any point I have a lot of pain for more than a very short time, I have an opiate-based pain killer.
Footbag: I explained to her exactly what freestyle and net are, and how my body moves with both, and how often I would play if I didn't have any physical problems. She said that playing either type of footbag won't change my condition for the worse, and the only bad thing is that in general I might feel tight, and that might change my ability to play a sport/walk around a store/do daily tasks. In that case, I should take a muscle relaxer. But I do need to stay active so that I can feel the difference if any of the treatments start to work.
WARNING: This post might get boring very quickly. (pictures on the bottom)
Well well well... Today I went to the 7th place I've had to go to for my leg pain (that's kind of an exaggeration because I'm counting the places I had to go for X-Rays and MRI tests. If we don’t count them, I’ve seen 5 different people.) In my head before the appointment with the Physiatrist (fizz-eye-ah-trist) today: "Yes, finally, this will be the last time that I have to explain everything that has caused pain/problems, and everything that I've done to try to treat this over the last 5 months." Was she the last person that I'll have to see? You know me, what do you think?
Started: 6/5/05 after a session in SF I was walking to get some (really good) food with the crew and noticed that it felt like the patella (kneecap) in my left knee was grinding against another bone. It hurt. Over the next month (?) or so, I also started having problems with my hamstrings being really tight and a pressure in my lower back which felt like it needed to be cracked. But there's nothing there that should be cracked from what I know. After a bit, I went to a no-force chiropractor (meaning she did not crack my back, neck, or legs, but still did adjustments on them.) Eventually I saw an orthopedic surgeon (to see what was going on with the bone grinding stuff) who was recommended by several people in the area. He told me to go to a place to get an X-ray. When he read the results, he said that the bones were grinding and that I could either do physical therapy (PT) or have surgery to sand down the inside of the kneecap. I went to PT. I stopped seeing the chiropractor because I felt like the problems weren't being fixed by her. She said I would need to get an MRI done because the numbness in my leg and especially foot suggested that I had something wrong in my lower back. At that point I had also been seeing the PT, and I kept seeing the PT because I felt like it would help, and the knee grinding went away. But with that problem (which had stopped almost all movement that was not completely necessary- as in I would have people pick me up instead of walking the extra 60 feet to walk to the car with them) gone the other problems that I had been having (numbness in left foot, left thigh, a pain in the back of my knee, tightness in both hamstrings, and tightness in my very lower back when I tried to bend forwards) were more obvious and restricting than they had been before.
I went to an MRI place to get scans done late last week. The machine was so loud that they gave me earplugs before I lay down. It was just like I had seen on TV. I lay down and got put into a big tube. I'm not claustrophobic, and I'm glad, but it was still a little unnerving how little space there was between my face and the machine. Since it wasn't a scan of my head, but of my lower back, I was all the way in the tube. Oh, before I went in, she strapped me down so I couldn't move my torso/legs, then she gave me a little hand sensor to push in case I started to "freak out" during the tests.
Then, she the thing that made me nervous was that she said that most people feel more comfortable when they have a towel over their face when going in and she started to put one over my face. I told her "NO, thanks." Anyway, it was not scary to be in the tube. I was in there for about 25 minutes. Each test lasted anywhere from 30 seconds to 4 minutes, and between tests she would tell me over a speaker how long the next one would be. The sounds of the different tests (they all made different sounds) reminded me of the Strongbad Techno cartoon. Anyway, I happily fell asleep during the test.Aaaanyway, since one of the many Dr.'s I saw recommended this Physiatrist (basically deals with chronic pain and injuries,) I went to her to have her read my MRI and tell me what was what. She examined me and told me what her speculations were. Then she read the results sent with the MRI pictures, which confirmed what she had thought. Then she looked at the pictures and it was pretty clear that I had a disc that was WAY the fuck out of place.
Results (Lamen's (Emily) terms): I have a disc in my lower back that is pinching a nerve that goes all the way from my back, down my left leg, to my left foot. Since I have had no major (or minor that I’m aware of) back injuries, this is probably something that I was born with. Usually, when people are born with this problem, it emerges in their 20’s and 30’s.
What to do: If I hadn’t been going to PT, and it wasn’t as out of place as it is, she would tell me to do PT. But since it’s not fixing the problem, she suggests I still do the exercises, but go to another Dr. who will give me an epidural. Why does that word sound familiar? Because that’s what pregnant women get to help with pain during labor. But in my case, the shot which goes in the back (but not into the spine or any nerves) is not a pain killer, but cortisone, which will be a “powerful” anti-inflammatory. The shots are usually given in sets of 3, spaced out by about 3-4 weeks at a time.
How does this change my life: It doesn’t, really. She said that I should avoid bending forward or backwards if it hurts, avoid sitting down for prolonged periods, and not to lift anything heavy. Duh. She submitted a form to the DMV to get me a temporary handicap parking pass (which I’ll also be able to use at school to park in the Staff lot.) If at any point I have a lot of pain for more than a very short time, I have an opiate-based pain killer.
Footbag: I explained to her exactly what freestyle and net are, and how my body moves with both, and how often I would play if I didn't have any physical problems. She said that playing either type of footbag won't change my condition for the worse, and the only bad thing is that in general I might feel tight, and that might change my ability to play a sport/walk around a store/do daily tasks. In that case, I should take a muscle relaxer. But I do need to stay active so that I can feel the difference if any of the treatments start to work.
Last edited by Moxie on 15 Oct 2005 20:50, edited 1 time in total.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
Haha, yeah they are. I'm sorry you're dealing with emotional stuff at the same time as physical stuff. "It's harder to heal what we can't prove is broken." 
Ankles though- you'll feel good as ever before you know it.
Today I met AJ and Fletcher at the tennis courts. It was a beautiful sunset and a nice, relaxed session. I hit DATW first try and AJ was so excited because I had never tried to do that in front of him. He worked on his style and set height for a while which worked out very well. Fletcher hit more clippers than I had ever seen him hit, and hit a whole lot of butterflies consistently which was great. Plus his normal string length is getting longer. Good job, Fletcher!
After the session AJ and I had a half hour conversation which had a surprising outcome. Then I saw Rubin & Ed with Fletcher at the Guerilla Drive-In. It's getting a chilly out at night.
I can't wait for Halloween.
Ankles though- you'll feel good as ever before you know it.
Today I met AJ and Fletcher at the tennis courts. It was a beautiful sunset and a nice, relaxed session. I hit DATW first try and AJ was so excited because I had never tried to do that in front of him. He worked on his style and set height for a while which worked out very well. Fletcher hit more clippers than I had ever seen him hit, and hit a whole lot of butterflies consistently which was great. Plus his normal string length is getting longer. Good job, Fletcher!
After the session AJ and I had a half hour conversation which had a surprising outcome. Then I saw Rubin & Ed with Fletcher at the Guerilla Drive-In. It's getting a chilly out at night.
I can't wait for Halloween.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
Thanks Emily... that was a great quote.
I am naturally a positive person full of magic so the emo stuff doenst get ot me for long. Unfortunately the physical stuff isnt swaying in my favor. My entire right leg is out of order. I havent been able to get a chance to see anyone about it because my work likes to not give me any days off and its one of those physically demanding jobs.
I just want the pain running from ankle to hip to stop so I can play some foot sack.. and be able to walk up and down stairs! hehehe. Also, my wrist isnt properly attached to my hand, and once and a while it really hurts.. and this is one of those times.. so I cant play footbag and now its difficult to stitch! bah!
I am really glad to read you can still play though! Maybe someday we'll shred together!
I am naturally a positive person full of magic so the emo stuff doenst get ot me for long. Unfortunately the physical stuff isnt swaying in my favor. My entire right leg is out of order. I havent been able to get a chance to see anyone about it because my work likes to not give me any days off and its one of those physically demanding jobs.
I just want the pain running from ankle to hip to stop so I can play some foot sack.. and be able to walk up and down stairs! hehehe. Also, my wrist isnt properly attached to my hand, and once and a while it really hurts.. and this is one of those times.. so I cant play footbag and now its difficult to stitch! bah!
I am really glad to read you can still play though! Maybe someday we'll shred together!
Vida Shredita
-
CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
- Joined: 28 May 2003 16:06
- Location: Chicago
Yay, thanks for the posts.
Thanks Vida, I think I made up that quote. But I guess one can never be sure about making up a grouping of words. That sucks to hear about your leg problems. I guess I missed reading about that, I just saw the stuff about your ankle. I'll go back and catch up.
Yeah, it’s the last one, Tom. Good eye.
P.S.
Watch your back, Sniikeri.
Thanks Vida, I think I made up that quote. But I guess one can never be sure about making up a grouping of words. That sucks to hear about your leg problems. I guess I missed reading about that, I just saw the stuff about your ankle. I'll go back and catch up.
Yeah, it’s the last one, Tom. Good eye.
P.S.
Watch your back, Sniikeri.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
Today I went to a session with Fletcher and AJ. I only played for about 45 min. I came home to Jason's 30th B-day BBQ. I was welcomed home with an assignment to go to the super market but welcomed home again with a margarita. When I was playing, I worked on pdx mirages and illusions for a little. I asked AJ if he had ever tried a pdx illusion before and he hadn't. He proceeded to hit it bsos. Fletcher's clippers are 20 times better than they were a week ago, and he worked on his illusions.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
Stuff that should have been a PM now is.
Last edited by Moxie on 16 Oct 2005 19:03, edited 1 time in total.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
Everything from the last few weird posts is working out well.
Today I worked until noon, came home to strawberry pancakes with butter pecan syrup (drooooool), and then went to freestyle with AJ, Fletcher, Amelia, and Jeremy. It was an unusually fun session. After a long time, Jeremy and AJ went to play net so Amelia, Fletcher and I had a skooling session. A while later, Amelia went to watch the net so Fletcher and I played forever and ever. Jacob (right?) came over to play for a while. His style was really neat, and the way he sets the bag around his crutches (he only has one leg and a small stump) and does knee bumps with his stump is really impressive. After the session, I watched Jeremy, Jacob, Sage, Mike, and AJ play net. After that, we had a casual freestyle circle in the grass which was neat because the net players played and did their freestyle tricks.
During the session: I didn’t feel like I was playing extremely well, but I played for a long time and hit several illusions on both sides (some bsos), flip ripwalk, drifter bsos, also just drifter>drifter, a few okay strings, a few strong side blurs, and my 1st through 5th flip blur. To cool down I did inside kicks (except for one that was a toe flick), and beat my record of 67 by hitting a total of … aww, crap. What was the exact number? It was over 130 and less than 145. Whatever.
I felt really good about that session. Plus, I was really excited that the hard core SC crew (the people who play every day or several times a week) all got to play together for the first time.
I had puppy envy the whole time we were at the park.
Today I worked until noon, came home to strawberry pancakes with butter pecan syrup (drooooool), and then went to freestyle with AJ, Fletcher, Amelia, and Jeremy. It was an unusually fun session. After a long time, Jeremy and AJ went to play net so Amelia, Fletcher and I had a skooling session. A while later, Amelia went to watch the net so Fletcher and I played forever and ever.
Jacob (right?) came over to play for a while. His style was really neat, and the way he sets the bag around his crutches (he only has one leg and a small stump) and does knee bumps with his stump is really impressive. After the session, I watched Jeremy, Jacob, Sage, Mike, and AJ play net. After that, we had a casual freestyle circle in the grass which was neat because the net players played and did their freestyle tricks.During the session: I didn’t feel like I was playing extremely well, but I played for a long time and hit several illusions on both sides (some bsos), flip ripwalk, drifter bsos, also just drifter>drifter, a few okay strings, a few strong side blurs, and my 1st through 5th flip blur. To cool down I did inside kicks (except for one that was a toe flick), and beat my record of 67 by hitting a total of … aww, crap. What was the exact number? It was over 130 and less than 145. Whatever.
I felt really good about that session. Plus, I was really excited that the hard core SC crew (the people who play every day or several times a week) all got to play together for the first time.
I had puppy envy the whole time we were at the park.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
-
Senor Grommet
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3394
- Joined: 18 Oct 2002 20:25
- Location: Greater Santa Cruz, CA
-
CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
- Joined: 28 May 2003 16:06
- Location: Chicago
Also, a friend just showed this to me. Look for Santa Cruz, California. I live like 10 min away from here.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
2 hour session with Jeremy and Fletcher in Jeremy's mini shred garage. I did some illusions on both sides, a few toe drifters on strong side, and worked on stepping sets and drifters... oh, horrible times with those. 
I didn't do anything great tonight, but I skooled a bunch so maybe it'll go better next time.
I didn't do anything great tonight, but I skooled a bunch so maybe it'll go better next time. "I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
Downtown session tonight. Two police walked by and didn't say anything to us, so that was a good thing. AJ brought us some cookies. I worked on ss butters and pdx mirages which can definitely use some work. AJ worked on illusions. Fletcher had a bunch of long strings, hit a lot of illusions on both sides, and clipper set ss mirages. Afterwards we walked to the main street in town and took in some of the Santa Cruz flavor.
I have a pen-pal in Spain now. I met him while he was in SF and a bunch of people were kicking. He kicked with us for a while and I wrote down "footbag.org" for him.
-"You live in in Santa Cruz?"
-"You've heard of it?" I was surprised that he had heard of it.
-"It's a famous for skate and surf. Really famous."
Sometimes I coddle people too much and I'm going to try to stop. I can see it becoming/being annoying or offensive.
I have a pen-pal in Spain now. I met him while he was in SF and a bunch of people were kicking. He kicked with us for a while and I wrote down "footbag.org" for him.
-"You live in in Santa Cruz?"
-"You've heard of it?" I was surprised that he had heard of it.
-"It's a famous for skate and surf. Really famous."
Sometimes I coddle people too much and I'm going to try to stop. I can see it becoming/being annoying or offensive.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
-
Senor Grommet
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3394
- Joined: 18 Oct 2002 20:25
- Location: Greater Santa Cruz, CA
i saw ripwalk>ripwalk off of Emily's foot tonight! I also think I saw her hit a clean blizzard . . . but I can't be sure. She definitely hit a phatty blur tho. And The best of all . . . paradox _ _ _ _ _ _ _! but Ill let her fill in those blanks in her own post. I was impressed.
My name: Jeremy Mirken, AKA Chocolatey Shatner, AKA jerk enemy rim.
I kick it with trunk chef elf and liz luck key my.
I kick it with trunk chef elf and liz luck key my.
Pdx _ _ _ _ _ _ _ = drifter, which was kind of flukish but still something that I think I can hit again in the near future... maybe tomorrow. Toe drifter is coming along pretty well on that same (strong) side. Flip toe is still far from a reality, much less pdx. I hadn't tried to hit ripwalk>ripwalk before so footing it was really fun even if I didn't hit it. Since when does Tilk on StarGate have hair? Anyway, Fletcher's friends from SoCal are in town so we all had a session today. There were two circles with a total of 9 people kicking at once. Yay! I'm so bad with names, sorry, so I'll just say it was Fletcher, his friends, Jeremy, Amelia, AJ, Dat (who drove in from SJ) and me. AJ hit his first whirl and then hit many more. He didn't seal it but hit grifter for the first time, I was very impressed. I think I'm forgetting something. I hit one clean stepping illusion for the first time. We went to Sri for dinner. Yum.
Wait a second, Stargate Atlantis? When did that all happen? Geez.
After I left Sri I met Jennie and Jason at the Cold Water Classic's after-party at a club downtown. Spohr was spinning and did a mash-up of a Beatles song and a NIN song, it was SO SO good. When I first walked in, I walked through each room looking for Jennie and Jason and while I was walking through the crowded back room someone yelled in my ear (because it was very loud in the place) "Kick-Rocks!" Kick-Rocks=footbag to a specific group of Jennie and Jason's music friends.
Tomorrow: More footbag.
Hackum-Mania Gone Wild!
Edit: I didn't remember to talk about the special Friday night Guerilla Bike-In put on by People Power which is a bike organization in town. They had film shorts about bikes, including a trials clip which was fantastically impressive. I'm going to see if I can find a way to post it here. WOW. They showed a movie about the rise of cars in the country over the last 100 years. The feature movie was Still We Ride which I recommend to everyone, especially people who bike. It was about the mass arrests of the Critical Mass bike riders in New York. It's on video now. It showed a lot of the proven lies that the police told during and after the event. I liked it much more than the preview made me think I would. I met a few people at the event, hopefully I can tell one of the stories later on, and I saw some people I know, including AJ. Nate was there too but I didn't know it and I didn't see him. Small town.
James Randall is my mortal enemy.
Toe drifter is coming along pretty well on that same (strong) side. Flip toe is still far from a reality, much less pdx. I hadn't tried to hit ripwalk>ripwalk before so footing it was really fun even if I didn't hit it. Since when does Tilk on StarGate have hair? Anyway, Fletcher's friends from SoCal are in town so we all had a session today. There were two circles with a total of 9 people kicking at once. Yay! I'm so bad with names, sorry, so I'll just say it was Fletcher, his friends, Jeremy, Amelia, AJ, Dat (who drove in from SJ) and me. AJ hit his first whirl and then hit many more. He didn't seal it but hit grifter for the first time, I was very impressed. I think I'm forgetting something. I hit one clean stepping illusion for the first time. We went to Sri for dinner. Yum.Wait a second, Stargate Atlantis? When did that all happen? Geez.
After I left Sri I met Jennie and Jason at the Cold Water Classic's after-party at a club downtown. Spohr was spinning and did a mash-up of a Beatles song and a NIN song, it was SO SO good. When I first walked in, I walked through each room looking for Jennie and Jason and while I was walking through the crowded back room someone yelled in my ear (because it was very loud in the place) "Kick-Rocks!" Kick-Rocks=footbag to a specific group of Jennie and Jason's music friends.
Tomorrow: More footbag.
Hackum-Mania Gone Wild!
Edit: I didn't remember to talk about the special Friday night Guerilla Bike-In put on by People Power which is a bike organization in town. They had film shorts about bikes, including a trials clip which was fantastically impressive. I'm going to see if I can find a way to post it here. WOW. They showed a movie about the rise of cars in the country over the last 100 years. The feature movie was Still We Ride which I recommend to everyone, especially people who bike. It was about the mass arrests of the Critical Mass bike riders in New York. It's on video now. It showed a lot of the proven lies that the police told during and after the event. I liked it much more than the preview made me think I would. I met a few people at the event, hopefully I can tell one of the stories later on, and I saw some people I know, including AJ. Nate was there too but I didn't know it and I didn't see him. Small town.
James Randall is my mortal enemy.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
FINE. I thought he said “Hack-em Mania” which I thought was really funny. But everyone else says it was “Hack-a-Mania” which makes more sense. I guess…
Thank you to Jeremy who pointed out that I didn’t hit stepping illusion, but that I hit blurry illusion.
Today I worked from 8:30am to noon. I spent nearly two hours talking with a man I had just met (as in today). We talked about Santa Cruz culture, how it compared to my hometown and Chicago, religion, the government’s role with abortion, and many other issues that I don’t normally discuss with people I don’t know. Partly because they might not want to talk about issues for fun, and partly because I might not want to talk about those issues with strangers. For a little more than an hour, I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, but after that I started to hope he would just leave because it started feeling a little creepy.
1pm freestyle at Frederick St. Park: Jeremy, Fletcher, Amelia, AJ and I kicked. So did Fletcher’s friends Mark and Dave. Two new Santa Cruz people came too! Jessica (the girl who expressed interest in playing at the tennis courts- sorry Matt, no pictures) and Mike (AJ’s friend that I met the other night at the Guerilla Drive-In.) They both worked on toe stalls, inside kicks, and inside stalls the whole session. I was really impressed with how long they both worked on those solo. I tried a tried stepping a lot. I want to have stepping ss butterfly and stepping clipper. During the session, two guys rode by on their cruisers and one yelled something like “Have fun playing footbag!” and kept riding. Things are a'changin.
We also saw a guy who does trials on his unicycle ride by. Later we saw that was doing trials on the other side of the park. Mike came and played some freestyle in his thongs and hit whirl in a string! Good job, net player. 
Later on, Fletcher and AJ played net against Mark and Jeremy. Then Jacob came, and later Darlene too. Yeah, the scene here exists now for freestyle and net. How amazing.
After I left the session (I think it was way before people were done playing net) I drove over to watch some of the surfers at the Cold Water Classic. Inland was clear, sunny and warm, but on the beach the fog was so thick that the audience could barely see the surfers. It cleared up a bit and the waves were the biggest I had ever seen in real life (which isn’t saying much considering I grew up on a lake.) Maybe 10-12 feet. I really don’t know. I felt kind of foolish because I live in such a surfing hot-spot and I don’t know anything about it. I don’t think I’ve even watched surfing on TV for more than a few minutes at a time. I can see how people could get addicted to it quickly and deeply. It was beautiful on the beach today. The waves were hitting the cliffs so hard; I wish I had taken a camera so I could show you.
Thank you to Jeremy who pointed out that I didn’t hit stepping illusion, but that I hit blurry illusion.
Today I worked from 8:30am to noon. I spent nearly two hours talking with a man I had just met (as in today). We talked about Santa Cruz culture, how it compared to my hometown and Chicago, religion, the government’s role with abortion, and many other issues that I don’t normally discuss with people I don’t know. Partly because they might not want to talk about issues for fun, and partly because I might not want to talk about those issues with strangers. For a little more than an hour, I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, but after that I started to hope he would just leave because it started feeling a little creepy.
1pm freestyle at Frederick St. Park: Jeremy, Fletcher, Amelia, AJ and I kicked. So did Fletcher’s friends Mark and Dave. Two new Santa Cruz people came too! Jessica (the girl who expressed interest in playing at the tennis courts- sorry Matt, no pictures) and Mike (AJ’s friend that I met the other night at the Guerilla Drive-In.) They both worked on toe stalls, inside kicks, and inside stalls the whole session. I was really impressed with how long they both worked on those solo. I tried a tried stepping a lot. I want to have stepping ss butterfly and stepping clipper. During the session, two guys rode by on their cruisers and one yelled something like “Have fun playing footbag!” and kept riding. Things are a'changin.
We also saw a guy who does trials on his unicycle ride by. Later we saw that was doing trials on the other side of the park. Mike came and played some freestyle in his thongs and hit whirl in a string! Good job, net player. Later on, Fletcher and AJ played net against Mark and Jeremy. Then Jacob came, and later Darlene too. Yeah, the scene here exists now for freestyle and net. How amazing.After I left the session (I think it was way before people were done playing net) I drove over to watch some of the surfers at the Cold Water Classic. Inland was clear, sunny and warm, but on the beach the fog was so thick that the audience could barely see the surfers. It cleared up a bit and the waves were the biggest I had ever seen in real life (which isn’t saying much considering I grew up on a lake.) Maybe 10-12 feet. I really don’t know. I felt kind of foolish because I live in such a surfing hot-spot and I don’t know anything about it. I don’t think I’ve even watched surfing on TV for more than a few minutes at a time. I can see how people could get addicted to it quickly and deeply. It was beautiful on the beach today. The waves were hitting the cliffs so hard; I wish I had taken a camera so I could show you.
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk