Write-up (also in my blog):
So I have been delaying it but I will post a little write up from NOLA Jam:
Thursday:
-Our crew (Mike, Doug, Nadine, me) left in the morning from our area in PA and trucked it around 12 hours with many pee breaks and jacky breaks along the way in Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama
-Tennessee: Too much country music. Even McDonald's was blaring country in the bathroom. Oh but we stopped over at a random Subway and got sandwiches and I struck conversation with the kid behind the register. He asked why we were going to New Orleans and I asked him if he was familiar with "Hacky Sack". He replies: "I could show you a thing or 2 about Hacky Sack".. WOW. So we took him outside and Mike, Doug, Nadiah, and I did a little demo. He said he wanted in, so I gave him some main footbag websites, like .in, the Facebook group, and Anz Tricks, and my contact info. Then we continued toward our destination, Alabama.
-Somewhere along the way, we got breakfast at a Waffle King, much like a Burger King but with no burgers. We bought some hard ass animal tattoos and put them on our necks. Doug had a tiger, Mike had a mean dog (which he later gave to Johnny), I had a shark, and Nadiah got a pretty butterfly
-Finally made it to the Alabama camping spot.. but.. it was closed with a gate and a sign that read "Closed on Wednesdays"… Fuck. So we drove over to some rednecks at a camp fire nearby and asked if there was a different camping spot or if that was the one we were looking for. Redneck replies (deep southern redneck accent) "Take a left at the gate and you can drive in that way. You'll see it, you'll drive through some pine trees 'n shit then you'll be inside." The "pine trees 'n shit" really stuck with me. Anyway, so we do go back down and try that road.. We certainly did find it… and there certainly were some "pine trees n' shit" ..but it certainly wasn't a road. The redneck told us to straight up drive through a part of the forest and essentially break into the camp ground. Hell, it worked and we set up tents and camped out that night.
Friday:
-Woke up early to some awesome new southern bird calls/songs that I'm not used to. Spotted my first Pileated Woodpecker that morning. So stoked. Kenny Shults would understand…
-Pack up and get on the road.. through Mississippi, where we got sunflower seeds. I forgot how awesome those are. They're my new thing, I think.
-Finally arrive at Mark's house and met his kids and did a little shredding on his new shred slab in the back yard.
-Mark has an amazing family. Kids, wife, and pets.. well maybe just Snuggles, but still. And the depressive dog that won the "Most likely to shoot up his school" award wasn't bad
-Mark, Doug, and I threw down some good links.
-The crew showed up soon afterward and I met some new faces and saw some old ones, as well. Great meeting new players and seeing some old ones again.
-House Party! Gumbo, Jumbalya (that's spelled wrong), Gumbo, and crawfish pies. Jesus, Mark and his family make some amazing foods. Feeding bunnies carrots out of my mouth…
-Nadiah was queen of the tether ball pole. She messed up several different opponents. People hands were hurting, and Mike's balls were hurting.
-Great game of 4 square with some people.
-Drew stepped in dog shit. Barefoot. Nice one, guy.
-Mark asks me to come along to pick Ken and fiancé up from air port. We had a fun chat in the car on the way there. Nice to see Ken again, for sure.
-Good night!
Saturday:
-Good morning! Bright and early! Off to watch Mark play a jazz gig at a beignet & coffee shop
-Dropped off entire crew, but Nadiah and I decided to go park the van with Mark and help him carry anything. No parking anywhere, and I mean anywhere. Mark said it would be a miracle if he got to his gig in 30 minutes (when he was scheduled to perform).. just then, he pulled the most bad ass thing I think I ever witnessed. He pulls up to a parking lot with a big police gate blocking any cars from entering. The gate reads "Parking Lot Full: No Entry" (or something like that). Mark gets out of the car, moves the gate in front of hundreds of people, and drives in and finds 1 of 2 last parking spots. Bad ass.
-We made it there on time. Mark started playing. Outstanding. I filmed the entire first half of the set. Then kicked with some others just doing single tricks for the audience. I hit Popping Far Osis, Double Blender, Gyro Revup, Whirling ss Cloud Kick> ss Whirl, and some other cool stuff. Fun to just jam while Mark was jamming. Mark ket saying that he was just waiting til he was finished because he was really excited to shred.
-Finished up the set and Mark led us to the Holocaust Memorial, where we shredded for a while. HORSE was held there (I'm uploading the final round of HORSE right now. It will be on BSOS.it sometime tomorrow). My match with Rory was really close and a lot of fun. We have pretty similar games. After everyone played and was eliminated, it was down to Ken and me. Ken took me down, but I got him 2 letters. I could have played much smarter. Oh well, it was fun and I took 2nd place!
-Poboys and then more poboys (pork at the shred spot then catfish later at the restaurant)
-Night on the town. Went to Bourbon st with everyone and walked around, got drunk, listened to live bands, got kissed by a drunk hobo who pissed his pants- WHAT???
-Anyway, we went home, I showered HARD to get the hobo herpes off of me, and we went to bed.
Sunday:
-Circle competition day.. Woke up early'ish for a morning pee but the toilet seemed overly full, so I tried plunging it, but it just made the water rise higher and then it started spilling out of the john. Michelle fixed it eventually, once both of our sock were soaking wet with toilet water. Full-blown flood avoided.
-Don't have a ton of highlights from here, since we mostly held circle.
-Had a really awesome teachy circle with Johnny Breakdown Sarah. Such a nice dude. I taught him Atomics and Zooming. He hit hit first Taps BS & BSOS and he also hit Osis> Spinning Clipper bs. He's going to get good.
-Circle!!! I think I put up a fight for Ken, and all of my other competitors. I played almost as well as I could have. One string killed me. I went for Scorpion's Tail> Mobius, but it was off balance, so I saved it with a few Far Oses… then dropped after 3 Osis saves. I should have just dropped on the Mobius and got a pass back. Oh well, it was sick and I had a blast.
-Took 2nd place in Open Circle!!! Only my second time making it to final circle.. Last week was my first, but I got 4th place and played really badly. This time was my 2nd time getting to Open Circle finals and I got 2nd place! I was so excited, could hardly believe it.
-Had a few more circles with some other people. One that was really fun was a circle with Mark, Mikie, Johnny, and Anton. We made it a "New tricks circle", where our goal was to hit new tricks. I got a few and so did everyone else, or they got close. I remember Anton hit his first Assassin, and Mark footed Alpine Mobius.
-Restaurant. Lots of fun, great food. Mark let us try his crawfish and showed us how a real Nawlin'er peels and eats them. Doug was being a prick and used the rest of the ketchup, then I asked for more from the waitress and Doug takes it before I can grab it and puts an excessive amount on his plate. Bastard. I put some ketchup on his arm later, so that was revenge.
-Rory performed surgery on his burger and cut the middle out of it, but he ended up just getting the top bun and a pickle. Rory's reaction was hilarious, so hilarity ensued. Really fun/funny dinner.
-Back to Mark's place.
-Everyone went out that night, but Nadiah and I just wanted to relax and not have crazy noises everywhere that night, so we hung back at Mark's place, which was nice of him to let us do. We passed out before everyone came home.
Monday:
-We packed up our shit, said our goodbyes, and headed out on the road. Drove straight through the night and into Tuesday morning. What a drive. Next time, we all agreed, we're flying there.
But… I wouldn't have changed any of it, even if I could.
My nights back home haven't been the same since NOLA Jam… partially because left my pillow and a blanket at Mark's house.
Check out some mausoleums.
