spoiled chinese girl

You're in a hotel room and whilst sleeping you fall off the bed and neck-first into the corner of the night-table? Like… 15 times?

Alright so I’m backdating a bunch of entries that I will be discussing the NAUCC (North American Unicycling Convention & Championships… or it means something like that) because I want to break my diary up into some nice managable chunks. Anyone who knows me knows I’m long-winded enough without the necessity of needing to cram 6 days worth of events into one blog entry.

So here I begin.

Friday night I was planning on seeing the Simpson movie on opening night, then spending some time with my best friend before crashing at his place then heading off early in the morning. Well the movie didn’t happen because I felt grumpy and we wouldn’t have made it to the showing I wanted to go to, so instead we hit up the bike shop where we settled up some bike repairs (yes I realize this is supposed to be a unicycle entry, shush up) and then to the bar, then to another bar.

So I somewhat stumbled home due to being tired and just ever so slightly tipsy. Not even. I just argue that I was tired. And me and Phil stayed up a good portion of the night and I think we finally crashed around 2am or thereabouts.

In the morning I had to go shift my car before 8am and somehow ended up doing it at 6am to a spot where I could park all weekend without getting ticketed or towed. And after that I couldn’t really go back to sleep so I decided to take a meandering walk down Roncies. Walked from Dundas & Bloor down to Queen & Ronccies before turning around, crossing the street and heading back. All the little shops that started opening at 7am were amazing because they were open. I was kind of hoping the hot yoga studio would have had a 6am or 7am class because I would have taken it just for the sake of being awake.

Phil ended up getting up and he headed off on his day of tubing at the Elora Gorge. I showered, grabbed a bagel and a muffin, some fruit and a giant thing of water, and hopped in my car at around 10:15am.

Start driving.

Continue driving.

I stopped once to make sure I had the right set of directions. (Realized I should have STUDIED my directions before just driving!) Border crossing wasn’t too much trouble. I didn’t have a signed passport which gave me just enough trouble to find a pen. I had to roll down my back window to prove I had unicycling equipment in the back. And it’s always amusing to see the attempt at non-reaction when they say “What’s going on in Saline Michigan?” “An 8 day unicycling convention, sir.”

And I basically drove from Toronto ON to Saline MI in 4 and a half hours, as predicted by my maps, and without any stops or breaks. I had eaten my bagel, and drank a can of Redbull, and that was about my intake until I arrived at the school most of the events were held at, where I then ate my muffin.

Basically passed out on the floor of the Bedford booth soon after arriving, tried to figure out who my roommate was on my own without any luck because I never bother researching who I’m staying with when I’ve only met them online. Got someone to drive me to the hotel so I could check in but left all my gear in my car meaning no swimming nor anything exciting or early registration.

Got myself back to the event. Found my roommate & introduced myself. Headed off to… lord knows if I can remember. The Bedford Experience was the only thing that got me there that day and it was cut down by more than two thirds of it’s original showing. Headed to the hotel for some unicycling after-party fun which included a lot of board games.

Hung out with my roommate over some beer, rum & coke & discussions over extraneous unicycling skill levels, tattoos and driving cross country. Passed out at probably 4am.

Hey y'all. I'm in Saline & Ann Arbour Michigan from the time I post this until Wednesday morning. Anyone who was at the Great Lakes BBQ and is pissed I didn't show up is free to message me and see if you wanna hang out with me anyways. I find it depressing that as soon as I check into my hotel I go straight to the business center to log into IAM.

P.S. I never did end up seeing Simpsons. I got drunk with my best friend instead.

So today was basically freestyle, freestyle, freestyle at NAUCC. Loads of groupings of people in all sorts of configurations. There’s solo routines, pairs routines, group routines, club routines… my head was spinning.

I also slept in because of the late night of chatting and boozing with my roommate (Jamey) which I remembered now was amusing in the fact that I swear, I was the only person to not have a clue who this dude was. Every time someone asked me who I was rooming with I’d say “Jamey something something” and they’d go “Oh Jamey! I know him!” and prattle on for a few minutes. I found it amusing.

Anyways, around 10am there was lots of loud knocking at my door. About 3 rounds of it. I gave up trying to get out of bed because I was just not about to do so. Then the phone started ringing. And ringing, and ringing.

And finally I gave in and answered the bloody phone. So now at least everyone knew I was alive, but not much in terms of being awake. That was fine with me. I was being requested to help configure a letter of recommendation for Jeff for his USA scholarship application. So I’m off to the races (not litterally) in showering and driving to the school to write up this letter and… the laptop bearer isn’t there. Ah well.

Finally we get to writing this letter and I don’t write very well in such a structured format. Rob asked me to write because he reads this blog and knows I can prattle on about near anything, but it’s what I’m interested in writing about and what can be flowed freely through my fingertips. Letters of recommendation require time and patience neither of which we had since these letters were required in mere hours where if it were me I would have taken days.

To add to our hurried approach, the Toronto freestyle group was performing soon and we all obviously wanted to watch! The Toronto Unicyclists club has been in existance for over 20 years, and this was the FIRST time the Toronto club had ever had a freestyle group/routine at any unicycling convention. To say it was a big deal is an understatement.

Our team had 6 members performing (plus two alternates) and because there were 6 people on the court it was considered a large group. (The absolutely smallest of the large groups however!) And I learned this day what I would carry with me throughout the convention.

Canadians, by nature, are LOUD. No matter where we went, you could always tell when there was a Canadian in competition, and you could always tell where the Canadian spectators were sitting. The group did AMAZING and I was extremely proud of them.

The expert routines blew my mind. The amount of gravity-defying that I witnessed was awe-inspiring, even though I really have no interest in freestyle riding. It still looks damn cool. Took as many pictures as I could cram in while still watching the event and wishing I had a longer lens.

At some point was back at the hotel to change or just relax for a bit, I’m sure I took a nap somewhere in there because I’d been not sleeping at all so far. The public show that night was awesome. Lots of unicycling, as to be expected, the MC’s were jugglers and comedians which was kind of cute. And the Flying Aces with their frisbee routines and hackey sack (I’m sorry, I just can’t call it foot-bag no matter how much you decide to hackey me for it later) And no matter who you are, Sem & Theresa’s show is pretty fantastic. Who knew the tops of bleachers could get you away from the dangers of the splash zone, and also safely ontop of a 14ft unicycle?

Back to the hotel for birthday parties, marshmallow catching and stuffing contests, and drinking a whole lot of seriously watered down coolers. (3.5% is NOT alcohol!)

I want to go see the Simpsons Movie on opening night.
And I don't want to be a loser and go alone.

So someone volunteer to come with me! I pay for my own ticket & food, and I have a tendency to not really share unless you order the same and I get to share with yours as well.

And no promises to anything after said movie date, because I have a 5 hour drive ahead of me the next morning and my plan is to leave at 6am.

But yes. I'm awesome and I leave my phone off during the movie, and I'll do my best to not smell!

Oh, and I'm in Markham personally. But I will drive to Toronto… or towards any location that is in the same direction as Detroit MI, as long as you let me crash at your place, or park on your driveway for the night.