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.

the best way to spread christmas cheer.

I've been a little grinch-y this holiday season, but have managed to squeeze in a little Christmas time fun! It started with a Lonett sib Christmas card photo sesh requested by Pegs.

The bro and I grabbed hot chocolate from The Artful Dodger then hit up Court Square to take these adorable photos. I've been weirdly into hot chocolate this year. His roomie, Stephen, snapped a few gems and that was that.

Other than that, watching Elf and a failed attempt at Christmas cookies, I hadn't really felt like doing anything Christmas-y. Until my friend posted this on my FB wall:

She recorded this catchy Christmas song with a friend and it got me in such a jolly mood! (click on the player to listen for yourself!) Then I went on a Christmas music downloading spree and decorated my little mini tree that had been sitting in my room naked (GASP!) since after Thanksgiving. She's really cute, and I just decided it's a girl right now, named Angelica. Yep here she is:

Now to get you through the next 4 days until Santa comes...OMG SANTA I KNOW HIM! I will leave you with my top five holiday jams this year.

Mariah Carey - Oh Santa! - girl knows a good Christmas song

Sara Bareillis & Ingrid Michaelson - Winter Song - so pretty! thanks Emza for introducing this to me!

Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick - how can you not love the Beach Boys?!

Pomplamoose - Deck the Halls - LOVE them.

Hanson - What Christmas Means to Me - the entire Snowed In album from 1997 is the best Christmas album ever. Shh don't tell *NSYNC.

Cheesey sweater photo and I'm out! Happy Holidays!

24 things to do while i'm 24.

I found this idea from a blog I read and you can check it out here. The girl who writes the blog, Elise, makes a list of things to do for the year on her birthday. The number of things on the list is however old you are.

I’ve been twenty-four for almost 3 months now and have had this list written on some scrap paper for awhile and am finally getting around to sharing it! Here it is, in no particular order.

1. Watch the sun rise at Reddish Knob.
2. Send Christmas Cards.
3. Try out for the roller derby.
4. Go on a trip somewhere I've never been.
5. Get a new tattoo.
6. Decorate the top of my desk.
7. Organize my OPA box.
8. Eat less fast food.
9. Have a Miss America party.
10. Open an Etsy account.
11. Experiment with video.
12. Get a haircut I like a lot.
13. Go to the National Zoo.
14. Get on a regular work out schedule.
15. Go to a Drive-In.
16. Find a favorite flower.
17. Get better at walking in heels.
18. Buy something from the farmers market.
19. Create a focus for my website.
20. See Katy Perry perform live.
21. Sew something from a pattern.
22. Find a place to volunteer.
23. Put yummy smelling candles in my room (and avoid starting a fire).
24. Do something nice for my parents not on a holiday, just because.

I'll keep you updated on my list when I complete them!

Yesterday I took care of #12:

third wheel saturday.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being a third wheel to my brother and Taylor.

They're bromosexual life partners and I loved every second of our adventures. First stop was Taco Bell, only the classiest for this date of course. After we were done eating outside of the box we headed over to Goodwill for some treasure hunting. I purchased some old picture frames and mirrors to spruce up my grown up apartment. I got some mason jars I'm going to use for crafting some Christmas gifts. More treasures I found were some old sewing patterns that are pretty groovy. I'm going to use some of the packaging to start my inspiration wall and I'm going to try to sew one of the patterns which is something I haven't done since my high school sewing classes senior year.

Next stop was the Pawn Shop. It's right down the street from me and I'd never been. I'm so glad Taylor suggested it because I found quite the gems, as you can clearly see:

Ordered from least to most embarrassing I purchased My Girl, My Girl 2, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Save the Last Dance (Special Collectors Edition!!), and High School Musical 3. Not pictured is Elf which I'm really excited about for this holiday season! If people judged me based entirely on my taste in movies I don't know that I'd have many friends. It's fine.

We finished up the third wheel date at Kline's, the best dates always involve ice cream. I'd say it was a successful Saturday afternoon of adventures!

my sunday adventure.

One of my friends is in a class that requires them to make a short film. Today they shot a dance sequence for it. This wasn't just any dance sequence, but an awkward home school formal dance sequence. The only instructions before showing up were to wear black and white and to be ready to be awkward. Andrew and I went in our adorable formal wear, I should've taken pictures, and he really excelled at being awkward. I was just an accessory to his awkwardness. There are some great shots of us prom posing it up.

Anyway we learned the dance sequence and I wish real life had choreographed dances through out it. That would make me smile a lot. This is one of my favorites of all time. It might just be because I love this movie pretty hard, or that it's so unexpected in this movie. For future reference if you ever need anyone to be in a cheesy choreographed dance number give me a call.