No one EVER remembered seeing this PSA. You tube has everything!

Labels: television

I may have talked about my summer job where I travelled the country counting seed packets at the end of planting season. I actually worked for the company for two seasons and while I didn't make a ton of money I did enjoy seeing the country at a young age.

I didn't make a ton of money because these people were cheap. While the company is fairly well known we were given insanely low maximums for hotel room and if you had to go over (which I did...I was without a travel partner for much of the time) it was deducted from your pay check. At one point I was in the same city as the Football Hall of Fame during induction week. I think I was at a Super 8 that cost close to $80, and that was about eleven years ago. We were assigned travel partners, but by mid-summer my first year of working for them I requested the San Francisco area and my travel partner opted to go straight home (presumably to do more "bump," a drug she'd raved about in the short time I knew her). This left twenty-year-old me alone, and without a travel partner my expenses increased but my hotel allowance stayed the same. I will save the rest of this story for later if you want to hear it. It's fun, and I look back on those two summers with much fondness. Don't tell them (they'll come back wanting me to reimburse them) but I would've done it for almost free since they covered gas, hotels, meals, and some incidentals. While I did have a cell phone (incredibly rare at the time, and it was parental issue, not company) I opted instead to stop at the various and sundry coin-op phones that you used to see. I ate at truck stops! I spent time in highwayside motels with vibrating beds and sweeping views of the coast and the mountains!

But I'm not going to talk about that today. Instead I'll talk about a small place outside of New Orleans called the Evergreen Plaza Inn in Metairie, LA.

My second summer I was paired with a good friend and we were sent South to Louisiana, the state I'd spent some time in my first year. I was newly 21 and ready to prove it in the French Quarter. After a weekend of such, L and I ended up in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie. I'm not sure why we chose the Evergreen--I think it's probably because of the hotel coupon magazines you see at rest stops (those things were a lifesaver--we stayed smack in the middle of the Quarter for $29 a night).

The front desk clerk was an albino version of Richard Simmons who wore thick glasses and clear polish on his fingers. Our room was by the pool and we could see no problems with this. Upon check in we noticed that one of the channels seemed to always show free pornography; we couldn't believe this and left it on all the time because we COULD. There was nothing titillating about this, it was simply an oddity that we embraced. The source of this pornography was a VCR in the business office; I found this out when I went to pay for another several days and saw Albino Richard switching the cassettes. At the end of our stay we were completely desensitized to sex.

We later found out that this hotel was a preferred spot for thug teens to throw parties. We were awakened in the wee hours by the sounds of hardcore porn (this time NOT from our own television) and the terrible noises created by Master P 9I am loathe to call it "rap," let alone "music"). Apparently there was a pool party also. We called the hotel office and the music only got louder. The hotel office really treated us in a way that led us to believe that the Partiers' comfort superceded ours. Luckily our stay in that area was done and we moved on.

There was also a weird supernatural event that I won't go into here, but I would not be surprised to find out that the seediness of this place thinned the veil between our world and the Netherworld.

More information can be found:
The hotel's official site
TripAdvisor review from 2003. Little seems to have changed.
A very bare Yahoo travel page, worth linking only for the sole review (close to the bottom).
The Google Maps view. Take a look at satellite view, zoom in to see the pure class.

Labels: travel, youth

Seriously.

If you're wondering why I haven't written about many shows lately it's because I haven't BEEN to many shows lately. I am always sleepy and, to be frank, cheap as hell and not into driving across town. Last night was D Striker, and the draw here is that he only does shows on Fridays numbered thirteen. Since I haven't seen a D Striker show in about three years I figured it was time to get back and see him again.

It bears noting that I am always tired on Fridays. Seriously--if I'm at home I'm asleep by 8. I just can't do the good times lifestyle anymore. I really wasn't sure I'd be up for the whole evening. I started at the Untitled show out at the University of Phoenix near the airport. This is what I love about Untitled--every space is a potential gallery. Afterward I decided to go see Mandy but still wasn't willing to commit to a full night out.

I ended up having the full night out. It was fun!

I won't go into gory details because they're boring, but aside from the smoke (I tried to spend a lot of time outside to avoid it) I'm glad I stayed through since Hands Down Eugene reminded me why they're so great (even breaking out "Full Blast"!)Casey Sanders joined Hands Down Eugene onstage to sing "Calls and Walls" and "The Bleeder." I haven't heard these songs in ages. All that was missing was Katherine. D Striker is always hilarious and fun. Caitlin Rose was new to me and I was very impressed.

Caitlin Rose
>D. Striker
Hands Down Eugene
Ole Mossy Face

Labels: music, nashville

I guess I should blog about this, but I kind of don't want to.

I skated in my very first derby bout on Saturday night. It was fun, I was nervous, and afterward had a crushing sadness that I'm still struggling with. We'll get back to the sadness in a bit.

I was nervous weeks before. I thought about quitting. I didn't want to go to practice. I talked to everyone. I felt like a fool because after practice I was READY TO GO. Repeated this process about four times. I carb loaded. I ate right, practiced hard, visualised winning. I saw little signs that made me think we were going to win. I even dreamed that we won, although the whole thing was very disorganized and most jams were short a skater or two. I met with my teammates. I analyzed my skills and those of my teammates. I promoted the event, which was not easy for someone with the crippling social anxiety that I sometimes have. I emailed and texted friends. I ordered plus sized fishnets and a pink skirt. I painted my name and number on a swatch of t-shirt that mom sewed to my jersey. I made special panties with my team name on them. I put googly eyes on my helmet (if you watched the recent SNL with host Christopher Walken you'll get that). I helped set the track up until I was too sleepy to continue. I had the nervous poops. I pushed water. I showed up at the venue early, driving around the neighborhood so I wouldn't be TOO early.

So it began.

I was nervous up until we did our warm up laps, at that point all nervousness went away. As one of the weaker (probably the weakest) members of my team I was only in two jams. I'm not at all upset about this. I even told our bench coach that I would go in whenever she wanted but I wanted the win so I would put my ego aside for this event. I tried, I did ok, but I definitely could've done better. We lost by one point, but came from being behind 10+ points in the first period to
swapping lead in the second and third.

After it was all over it was very anticlimactic. Someone told me before it would be just like practice, only we've got costumes and there will be more people in attendance--and it was! I felt like I was nervous for nothing. Afterwards I talked with friends and had pictures taken (this took so long that I didn't help with cleanup and kind of felt like an ass for not helping, but dang it, I hadn't seen some of these folks in years).

Oh, remember the dream I mentioned above? Partially true. In my first jam we were short a skater. No, she wasn't in the penalty box; someone just wasn't paying attention and then the whistle blew and it was too late.

And here comes the sadness. While I don't blame myself at all for a one point loss, I do know that I could've done much better. I know I've done better in practice. No one blamed me, although one brutally honest skater gave me her opinion in a matter-of-fact way. I was not at all offended; in fact, I agreed with her, and was thankful for her honesty.

The after party was all right, I chose not to drink anything but water even though I should've been celebrating. On the way over I was feeling down and knew that to drink would only depress me more. I have a tendency to cry at extreme emotions and it was hard not to cry. I teared up a few times but couldn't really get away to get myself together so if you saw a tear I can assure you it wasn't just me sweating profusely from the hot weather. I cut out early with a teammate and her husband. We ate at a local diner and while we ate by the huge windows we got to see the Fan Fair fireworks--an ending to the evening that made me smile.

I woke up the next morning with the black cloud still over my head. I went to our open skate because I do love a good rink skate. Again, still sad and had to fight back tears when anyone would ask about the night before. I didn't feel like talking about it.

I'm still trying to figure out why I was so sad afterwards. Was it a result of not getting put in enough? No, since I was asked to speak up if I wanted to go in more, and I actually argued to be put in less (hey, I know my abilities and I wanted to WIN). Was it the build up only to have it be more mundane than I thought? Maybe. There's one part that's hard to talk about: after the other team's victory lap the hugs started, and I wasn't in those hugs. I suppose I could've been, but I'm not one to seek out and initiate hugs. Instead, I found my family who gave me hugs and congratulations. My sister even pushed me around the track.

Before this bout all the new girls would talk about the "fire" that they got after their first time. I kept waiting for the "fire" but it never came. Maybe this explains why I was so sad? I'd been with this for a year and a half almost to the date but I still didn't have it. I knew that this would be make or break for me, and it's looking more like a break.

It's sad to put a year and a half into something only to realize that you've not made the progress you intended, and to realize that you may have to just end it. And then it's sadder to realize that you've made a lot of friends in this

endeavor and that to leave means to lose a large chunk of those friends (and don't start with the "they're not really your friends if you lose them when you quit" because that's just unrealistic--when you lose the common thread that keeps you together then you pretty much drift apart).

So my future participation in derby is way up in the air.

Labels: roller derby