Monthly Archives: September 2012

In Retrospect of Random Sports Month

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So Random Sports Month turned out to be a little bit more than a month, but I got to do some pretty sweet stuff: shoot a gun, play dodgeball, lose horribly at at beer pong, rock climb, and trapeze.  As always there’s so much more I wanted to do and skydiving is still very much on the list.  It’s always so hard to find the time.

Speaking of time… I just got a huge promotion at work which is going to take up the majority of my time for the rest of the year.  But fear not, America.  I’ll see you all in 2013. 🙂

September 24 – Flying Trapeze

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So, I finished off random sports month with the most random sport I could think of – trapeze.  I bought a Living Social deal for an Intro To Low Fly Trapeze Workshop by AWOL Dance Collective (www.awoldance.org)

I arrived at the warehouse, which is shared with a very open, very dangerous looking woodworking shop.  I had to follow a long and windy semi-enclosed pathway to the restroom.  There were huge power tools with unfinished projects sitting all over the place.  There was a carnival sign hanging from an overhead rafter.  There were piles of wood and sharp objects everywhere.  Just to give you an idea of how loose these guys play with safety, this is where I washed my hands.

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The class started and it was awesome.  Just a bunch of girls in their 20s looking for a different kind of workout or just looking to try something new. We started with a warm up and some yoga to get flexible.  Then, they lowered the trapeze bars and we all took turns kicking our legs up and underneath them to swing upside down.  The bar was pretty high and the first time I tried to kick my legs up gracefully, I wound up falling short.  Really short.  Well, I wasn’t gonna let that happen again, oh no.  The next time I tried, I kicked the shit outta that bar.  Like, kicked it so hard it left huge welts which later became huge bruises on both my shins.  I got you this time, BAR!

After we did a few upside down tricks, we started swinging.  We pulled the bar all the way back and practiced control swinging.  This was my favorite part.  The pictures did not turn out awesome, but I’m still gonna share them.

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Then, we learned ribbons.  I always thought these were so beautiful and graceful.  Turns out they are very smelly, actually.  And really freaking hard.  I was never one of the people that could climb the rope in gym class, so I didn’t really think this would be any better.  In fact, I was in the 30% or so that actually got off the ground.  Not very far off the ground, mind you, but off the ground nonetheless.  Booyah.

Here’s my teacher showing off.

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A friend and I went back to see a live show in November and it was crazy awesome.  I would recommend it to anyone.  It’s really cheap and really entertaining.

September 12 – Hot Yoga

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I’ve had a Groupon to do hot yoga for a few months (um, I guess since yoga month, naturally.)  I finally got to use it today.  It is for 10 classes, but I have to take them all within 3 weeks (spoiler alert: probably not gonna happen.)

The class was held at Hot Yoga For Life and they have two locations in the Portland area.  It was already pretty hot outside but when I walked into the studio, I was instantly sweaty.  It wasn’t sauna-like as I had imagined.  Just hot.  Effing hot, to be exact.  My feet and hands were slipping all over my yoga mat and I noticed the more seasoned hot yoga-ites brought large beach towels to drape over their slippery mats.  Next time, Abbie, remember to bring a beach towel (additional spoiler alert: probably not gonna happen.)

So, in summation, if you like heat and yoga then it’s for you.  If you like neither, steer clear silly.

September 10 – Dodgeball

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A good friend is a kickball/dodgeball fanatic.  He plays on several teams all year long.  He invited me to a pickup game tonight.  It was mainly people from the Recess Time League who were there to practice before the new dodgeball season really started.  I was the only one who was playing for the first time (since grade school.)

OMG, who knew there were so many rules?!  There were several times that I thought I was out but my team all yelled at me to stay in.  Okay, sure.  But… uh… why?  Apparently, if someone catches the ball after it hits you, you aren’t out.  If the person who threw the ball that hit you gets out before the ball hits you, you aren’t out.  If you block the ball with another ball, but it still hits you, you aren’t out.  This may lead you to believe that I spent a lot of time not being out.  Au contraire mon fraire.  I spent A LOT of time being out.

It’s really hard to try to hit someone without making it extremely easy for them to catch the ball and get you out.  I got my balls caught a lot (that’s what he said.)  I got hit with balls a lot (that’s what she said.)  And I even took a ball to the face (no joking, this is serious.)  I was looking right, and smack from the left came a dodgeball squarely on my face and neck.  My ear starting ringing and my eyes got blurry.  Some guy comes over to me and shakes my hand and apologizes for pegging me.  No problem, dude.  But why are there two of you?  I am still bummed I don’t have this on video.

So I got about 3 or 4 people out, and one of them was a really good player.  I caught a ball and got someone out while getting to bring another player on my team back in.  I am really sucky at throwing and kept getting my balls caught and got a bit frustrated.  When we left, my friend tells me that I did really good… for my first time… for a girl.  Fuck yeah.