miss america 2011!!!!

Saturday (1/15) was the Miss America Pageant. One of my favorite days of the year! My love for Miss America goes back to an old family tradition where my extended family would hold their own Miss America Pageant each year and the winner had to wear her crown to every family event after, or she would lose the crown to the runner up. It was pretty intense. There have been jokes made at funerals when the family's Miss America shows up not wearing the crown. I was never old enough to compete while this family tradition existed, so now I've started my own.

This year decorations included a patriotic back drop for head shots and posters with all the contestants' official head shots and the state they represented. We all picked random states from a bowl and competed along with the pageant.

Some of the talents were a little more than tragic. I'm looking at you Miss Delaware! We had our own talent portion during commercial breaks involving pageant talents in the form of charades. Some real gems were ballet in a fat suit and naked guitar playing.

The entire room was rooting for Miss Virginia since she's from JMU. She made it to the top ten, but didn't make it into the final five. The 2011 Miss America is Miss Nebraska, Teresa Scanlan. We all thought she had a major stink eye, but I learned from the What the Buck Show, that it was just a false eye lash gone wrong.

(source)

In our own version of Miss America we awarded the top 5 with gold medals and Diane was the lucky one to have Miss Nebraska and she, too, got to be Miss America for the night.

"I think my reign is off to a great start." - Text from Diane the day after she was crowned Miss America. I agree completely. I can also check off number 9 from this list! I will leave you with our fantastic head shots. Tootles!

did i just join the roller derby?

Last Tuesday I went to Fresh Meat Try Outs for the Rocktown Rollers, Harrisonburg's roller derby team! If this sounds crazy to you and you never in a million years could see me joining the roller derby you need to catch up a little on my life and read this. It's been almost a year of fascination with roller derby and the day had finally come to see if my roller derby dream would become a reality.

I had no idea what to expect going into Fresh Meat Try Outs. The main information I had gathered was to wear something comfortable and to bring water.

I walked in the door of Funky's Skate rink and looked like a little lost puppy. I had no idea where to go and all the derby girls were putting their gear on. I was more than a little bit intimidated. I was introduced to Mama Meat who helped me gather up the gear I would need: knee pads, elbow pads, wrist guards, a helmet, and skates. I had to sign a form and then after some figuring out the proper way to wear the pads I was ready to go.

Four Fresh Meat were there for the try outs including myself. To start everyone was sitting in a circle on the track doing some stretches, one of which they referred to as the stripper and I found that amusing. While we were warming up they had everyone go around the circle for introductions- Bam Bam Brawler, Betty Crasher, Knasty Knitter, Jess. That last one just doesn't sound as badass.

After warm ups we skated around the track and were taught the official derby stance. I was struggling with all the effort in my tiny little body not to fall down and be the worst skater in the history of the roller derby. A girl in yellow and black striped tights skated up beside me and gave me some pointers. One of the girls even said I looked like a derby girl, but my skating gave away my secret that I was not.

I survived the skating with out breaking anything and then we moved onto some drills across the track. We had to step side to side, forward and backwards with out sliding on our wheels. We did lunges and then spider crawls back. We learned how to do proper single and double knee falls.

Following the drills the freshies all got to watch the vets scrimmage and learn a little more about how derby works. I knew the general gist going into this, but there is so much skill and strategy involved! It's exciting to learn more about the world of derby. I was surprised by what I was able to do or at least attempted with out even thinking twice about. "Skate and then fall and get right back up and keep skating? OK." I did it. Not well but I did it.

After the practice I joined some of the vets at the Dodger for drinks. I sat outside at a table with Brawlin Chain (the girl in the yellow and black tights), Snake Legs, and Blue Steele. I learned more about derby and it was nice to just meet people, which is hard to do while you're trying to avoid falling on skates. I also chatted with Jana-cide and Troch who are the ones who started the Rocktown Rollers 3 years ago.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how my roller derby career progresses. If nothing else at least I can cross off #3 from this list. I'll keep you updated on my progress and I'll leave you with something Jana-cide told me - "there's nothing better than looking over your shoulder and seeing a girl down on the ground because you put her there." We'll see if I ever make it to that point.

my twenty-ten.

It has been exactly 365 days since my first blog post. You can find it here. It was one of my New Year's resolutions for 2010. I know I didn't run a 5-k or use my snooze button less. Some of my other resolutions I can't remember if I did - how am I supposed to remember if I ate breakfast or kept my room cleaner? I'm assuming no on that last one. Writing a blog is the only resolution I kept for 2010 and I am content with that.

A lot has happened in the last year and I'd like to share a bit of that with you. There's going to be a lot of pictures and other gems. [Which means a lot of scrolling.] If you've got cooler things to do and just want to get to the juicy deets you can skip down to the bottom for my 2011 resolutions, but I'm just saying all the other stuff is probably cooler then what you'll find there. Here goes...

Things I did...

I won an intramural championship (or 2 or 3).

I got a new tattoo.

I snagged a super cute boyfriend.

I played tambourine at open mic night.

I graduated.

I went to my first homecoming as a JMU alum.

Here's some more stuff I did that I don't have photos of...

I streaked the quad, I cried at Toys Story 3 (all three times i saw it), I went skinny dipping, I got my first job and my first big girl apartment.

Trips I took...

I took some JMU friends to Pittsburgh. (photos taken here.)

I road some roller coasters at Cedar Point.

I went to Tulls Bay with my MGL loves.

I went to Richmond & got an official tour from Emza.

I went to Busch Gardens with O-team kiddies.

I had a romantic weekend with Steve... I mean I went to Deep Creek with my home pals.

I went apple picking.

Bands I saw...

(click on the band name for either a video/song I like from them & if they're on the same line it was one show.)

Spoon

Fun. | Relient K | Paramore | Bonus video of all three together!

Parachute

Butch Walker | Train | Bonus Butch Walker for you T. Swift fans!

Beach House | Vampire Weekend (This show was my favorite of the year!)

Jamie Lidell

Miniature Tigers | Freelance Whales (we didn't make it to DC in time for Mini Tiges, but the video is too good not to post.)

Morning Benders

Sara Bareilles

Steel Train | Fun. (I'm glad i saw fun. twice because both those videos are rad)

Looking back I had a ton of adventures in 2010! Not only did I do a lot I had amazing people by my side while I did it all. Even though a lot of it was great, I'm glad 2010 is over and I'm ready for 2011. I don't really have a list of resolutions this year like stop biting my nails or become a vegan. I already have this 24 things to do while i'm 24 list so adding more things to do seems silly. My resolution is to figure out how to be Jess Lonett in the grown up world.