#8 Play bubble soccer

Last week I played bubble soccer and I've had a hard time trying to blog about this experience. Maybe it was the dual fact that I was both trying something new but also doing something unfamiliar by playing on a team. Growing up I never was on any sort of team. I didn't play sports or care for debates and usually hated group projects as well.  I primarily stuck with solo hobbies like art, playing music alone or video games. I guess I never really had the confidence to try and when I did the fear of failing was too high to pursue anything like that. 

As an adult I'm more comfortable in my own skin. I know my limitations and can laugh at myself if I don't reach them. After all they're nothing but games right? I'd say I really started gaining that self worth through golfing. Now I'm a terrible golfer who's ecstatic just to make par. But I'm not going to let that slow me down. Half of that game is played in your head and being to confidently say I can make that shot. Or visualizing staying out of the trees and water. Then even though I hit into the sand, I know I can make it out in one swing. 

I drove way up north to play a drop in game of bubble soccer with a bunch of people I didn't know. The teams were a mix of both young and old male and female. I played with another stocky white guy, his girlfriend and a little asian girl. Against us we had an old lady probably in her late 60's and three pretty athletic tall guys. Being a heavier male actually was a benefit because I was harder to knock over and could bounce people on their heads with a little momentum. 

We armored up in our bubble ball suits ready to play. The suit slides over your head and has straps inside like a backpack. Once in your claustrophobic little shell you grab hold of to handles right next to your face. If that's not bad enough you can't really see out of them at all. It's like looking through 6 inches of saran wrap. To remedy that issue the ball is a bright neon orange. Each game lasts 3 - 4 minute rounds. Each team starts on their respective side and goes for it once the whistle is blown. The girls goal tended while I played defense and my chubby doppleganger went on the offense. I tried to knock over my opponents to clear a path to the tiny 3 foot goal. It was really hard to see, once you mix sweat into that ball it becomes a glossy mess. Also running and lugging that thing around wears you out pretty fast. I wish more workouts were this fun! I got blasted a few times doing full 180 degree rotations and landing on my head a couple times. Sounds dangerous but those suits are made to take impact and the only injury I could sorta feel was a tiny bit of whiplash. After our rounds we'd all slide out of the balls and play some dodgeball for a rest period. I honestly don't remember which team won or lost but had a great time playing. I think overall it could be a lot more fun with some close friends but none the less it was very enjoyable. 

Things I learned today:

Playing on a team isn't about your own faults or successes; you win as a team and lose as one

There are a lot of really fun ways to get exercise in without going to a gym

Groups of strangers can bond quickly over victories large and small

#7 Attend a 2 day music festival

Now I've been to a lot of concerts and I've been to a lot of festivals... I didn't realize it at the time but I never had been to a 2 day festival. It wasn't until after this weekend that I really started to think about it. Perhaps I was looking for a reason to share what an interesting experience I had. Overall it is my list and this weekend actually represents my 30 new things pretty well. Furthermore I also noticed that I've shared each of my new experiences with different people each time. This really makes me want to strive to stretch out to friends and others I've lost touch with. How cool would it be to share these memories with different people in my life?

Before I get into what an odd and spiritual awakening I had lets start with the basics. It all starts with an invitation to a concert. My Auntie Lis invited me to a two night concert in Walla Walla. Headlining was one of her favorite bands Mumford and Sons. The other headliner and the band that sealed my decision was my favorite band the Foo Fighters. At the time she asked there was a real possibility I could have been in Europe at the time of the show so I had to decline. It just so happened that those plans didn't turn out. Come five months later a little closer to the show and Europe plans dissolved my cousins couldn't make it either and had to sell their tickets. I got to be that lucky recipient. Well me and my old high school buddy Chris. 

The trip over was great and actually the longest road trip I've had all summer. But I got to spend some much needed family time during the trip. For those of you that know me best you'll know that my family comes first and foremost. So to spend some windshield time with my aunt and uncle was a really cool moment that I don't get the rest of the year. The drive was smooth and traffic free enjoying the beautiful scenery that eastern Washington has to off despite raging forest fires in every direction. By the time we actually made it to Walla Walla it was a joke to see that my phone had described the weather as "dust" not rain, sun, thunder or snow but....dust. 

Getting into town was another level all in itself. The whole town was on board. This concert was bringing in all kinds of outside money and influence. Walla Walla was ready for it with arms wide open. The Mexican place we went to for lunch literally had revised hours from 10am to "late" in a hand made sign. The rest of the town was right there with them. There were signs everywhere welcoming the bands and tourists. The Tour's symbol spray painted on sidewalks and streets. Emblems in all the shops windows. They even shut down all of downtown to be a part of the experience with school buses shuttling people to and from the concert.  

Not long after getting the lay of the land my buddy Chris showed up meeting us in our hotel room. We wound back up downtown, which pretty much became a theme and meeting place for most of the weekend. We found a public house bar to grab some drinks and caught up. Again, the bar was in full swing, ready for the influx waiting for the barrage of people. They captured us right in their claws switching over currency to tickets so drunk patrons wouldn't think twice about paying $5 for a 12oz beer or $10 for a basket of fries. I was ready for the night and open to the overpriced options.  

After grabbing a couple drinks and a bite we started making our way to the concert. It wasn't very hard to find as you'd see drones of people walking in one direction. I don't want to fall into that blind lemming category but they seemed to know which way the show was. Once you arrived at the football sized arena housing the show we all kind of griped at the fact that there really wasn't anyone checking wristbands that were soooo clearly part of the show. Apparently there were microchips in these things that were never scanned and hardly any effort into inspecting that they were actually on your wrist. But the interesting part of the whole ticket experience was that they gave you a keychain that they claimed was very important. Theories ran high wondering what it could be. Was there a chip in the keychain that got you backstage if your were so lucky? Was it a gimmick to steal your information so you get spam phone calls on your cell phone for the rest of your life? Or was it actually just a keychain with nothing too special about it?

Turns out that the keychain was just a regular memento to hang your livelihood from. But it's unique shape and tag was part of the plan. After hanging out for a while in the crowd I noticed a booth with the keychain symbol on it. Taking it to the booth we found out that it was part of an interactive experience that your trade for a business card. With said car you go around town collecting stamps...four red, four blue and four black. Once you have all twelve stamps you may trade them for a key. A key which opens one of the trunks in the booth...did I mention there were old treasure trunks within the booth? Each of which contained some kind of prize. For some reason that night they were done passing out cards so I didn't get to be a part of the scavenger hunt. Instead I got something more interesting and life changing. 

After a while hanging out in the crowd I knew I wanted to move closer to the stage. The Foo Fighters were the first nights headliners and the main reason I went. As you can see from the image I really didn't get that close. But that was okay; the show was amazing and oddly enough the crowd was incredible. I've never been to a concert before where everyone was just cool and there to hang out. Everyone respected each others space and there was breathing room despite there being somewhere between 10,000 and 35,000 people taking each other's airspace. The Foos went off without a hitch and it was a great rock n roll show. They tore it up through most of their classics before breaking off into a classic rock cover band set. after a little Tom Petty, Stones and Queen they finished the show with their greatest hits and even a few neat cameos. Pulling out Mumford's horn section for their New Orleans song In the clear. Dave and crew rocked the whole night despite his broken leg. The frontman spent the night rocking out on his Game of Thrones style rock throne. I've never seen a wheelchair as extravagant as that spectacle. A dozen rotating strobe lights and guitar necks busting out of the bottom. Despite being held up the entire show I don't thing Dave spent one moment being settled. His entire body moved so frantically with exception to his leg being in a cast and held up. the rest of the band really go their time to shine as well. Each getting a moment for a solo or unique introduction to the crowd. It wasn't the best show I've seen from them and even the setlist was pretty similar to the last show I saw. But the Foo Fighter's continue to bring it and embrace that rock n roll persona to the extreme. 

After the show Chris and I hit the town. Although our buddy Nat was also in town for the show for some reason it was damn near impossible to meet up with him. If not for the sheer distance from his campsite to where we were it was a matter of timing just not sinking up with him. We wandered around the whole blocked off town grabbing drinks and just being out and about. The deeper we went into town the more crowded it got. After grabbing some late night pizza we went in search of more beers. Two or three places were at capacity and pushed us into a neat empty place called the Green Spoon. At the back of the restaurant there was a bar loaded with tequila. I'm in no way a tequila drinker but we made friends with the bartender anyways. Friendly people, instant access to alcohol and a good atmosphere. 

After hanging out a while we ended up meeting the owner of the bar Katie. She started giving us drinks and chatting us up eventually admitting that this was the last weekend the bar/restaurant was going to be open. In the meantime she was working at the Wine Valley golf course and asked if we were golfers. Both admittedly being business golfers she invited us to a tee time 6 hours from this moment. We figured we'd better get walking back to our hotel when she offered us a ride home from her dad. What a cool person, how often do you meet someone so open and hospitable in a strange town not knowing a damn soul. 

We woke up about 5 hours later with a text asking if we were seriously golfing or just making drunk plans. After a shower and a quick continental breakfast Katie had come and picked us up to go slug out 9 holes. We met her bosses and she got us an amazing set of clubs each, then we were off. Ego's aside, golfing from the ladies tees we had a great time. The course was incredible and life became so fuzzy at one point I didn't even realize how we'd gotten here. How did this happen? Where the Hell are we and who is this girl that's being so amazingly cool to us? In my typical golfing fashion I didn't really keep score and blasted my way out of sand traps with one shot mostly. It was a really incredible way to start off a weekend connecting all of the dots in so many ways. I mean how often do you spend the night seeing your favorite band under the stars. Adventuring out with one of your oldest friends turning perspectives sideways. Then spending the morning with an incredibly hospitable person showing you a beautiful eastern Washington landscape on a hazy Saturday morning? It was surreal. It was serendipitous; it was an experience that will not be easily forgotten. 

After our game Katie brought us back to town where we met up with Auntie Lis & Uncle Paul for breakfast. After recapping our night and morning with them and how this all felt like some movie playing in my head. How odd it was for all of these things and scenarios to meet themselves together at this point in time. My Aunt had mentioned that this is the universe is speaking to you. I couldn't agree more, this just felt so incredible and unimaginable how things turned out. All by being open minded and up for anything. Letting any experience be available to you and leaving your life, mind and body to go along for the ride. One of the things on my 30 during 30 list is writing a screenplay. I could most definitely see this weekend as a plot point for my movie.  

Once we had breakfast we hit the town again. Heading into town shops and music place called hot poop. We checked out this and that then wound up back at the hotel to crash again before the second concert. We ended up back visiting our new friend to grab a burger later that night. Katie explained to us that their restaurant was actually one of the best burgers outside of Seattle as you can see from this article. 

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/seattle/best-burgers-in-washington-state-thrillist-seattle

Sadly they closed up shop and you'll never get to know how damn good that thing really was.

We eventually made our way back to the concert grounds where we watched the Flaming Lips set. More performance art then actual music they had a barrage of confetti cannons and humongous balloons. Balloons that were filled with confetti. Balloons that tore apart into smaller balloons and even a balloon that said Fuck Yeah Walla Walla was ravaged by the crowd. Balloons shaped like butterflies, suns and rainbows. Perhaps the most impressive balloon was their signature lead singer in the balloon walking out onto the crowd. It was a spectacle and although I'm not really a fan of their music it was an impressive stage show and they had more songs I recognized than I thought.

Up next was Mumford & Sons. I was pretty excited to see this band for the first time. With a unique sound and style their live performance was unmatched. Imagine a group somehow sharing the limelight and perfectly harmonizing with four singers. Each one with an incredible gift of being able to handle the spotlight as if they were all the lead singer. It was easy to see the camaraderie that they've built amongst themselves. I swear they must have played their entire catalog of music. It was fantastic, watching them switch instruments and even performing a cover of the Offspring's Walla Walla as an interesting surprise. They pulled folks from the other bands that performed that day in and out of their set. With the whole thing culminating in a giant sendoff with at least 15 musicians on stage with them fittingly playing the Beatles With a little help from my friends.

The next day we got breakfast at an incredible spot with fantastic food simply called BACON & EGGS. The place was an old converted 711 perfectly redone with a great atmosphere. Fitting end to a damn near perfect weekend. Recalling the road trip back it went by in a flash. This weekend, this memory, this short piece of the universe coming together, just felt so right.

Thanks for reading, I know this one was a bit more breathy but it really felt like this is what I was supposed to be doing at this point of my life. You very scarcely get that feeling where you are doing exactly what the universe wants from you. 

What I learned today:

So far I've done each new thing with a different person and would like to continue that trend

Be open to all possibilities and anything can come your way 

Music is the great communicator and can connect people on a whole different level 

No matter how bad you think you are at something it doesn't really matter if you're having fun 

Enjoy each of life's experiences great and small 

#6 Go to a renaissance fair

Today I finally went to a renaissance fair. Which I know seems like something I'd have done plenty of times by now but I've never actually gone to one before. I was lucky enough to get my buddy Nat to tag along. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to get anyone to commit to going along for the ride. I'd done a little bit of research on this one before finding the one that I wanted to go to. Turns out that one of the biggest and best was less than an hour away. This faire had everything I was looking to experience. Knight battles, jousting,weapons, fire juggling, magic, giant turkey legs and a bunch of people who are passionate about it, running the show.

For the most part it was kind of like a giant street fair with people peddling their goods but everything  had that old timey feel to it. There were tons of people in costumes and most of the vendors would make it fun by staying in character. A lot of them you could tell this was their passion; homemade goods and trinkets, art, leather, glasswork, jewelry some pretty cool things. Mostly it's the same stuff you'd find at any street fair except for one main difference. There were games with weapons! I mean how often do you get to shoot a bow and arrow? Or chuck a throwing axe at a large stump? Unless you just happen to have that stuff lying around your place and you also have tons of property where else are you going to do stuff like this? I shot arrows and I was terrible. I think maybe 3 of the 5 hit the bag with the target. None of which got anywhere near the target itself. Now my axe throwing was a different story. 3 of the 4 axes stuck one of which hit the bullseye and got me into the axe throwing competition. But thats later in the story.

After wandering around for a while we lucked out and ran up on the jousting tournament just in time. Also by happenstance we were sitting in the Queen's section. It's not everyday you get to experience pretend royalty. The knight's games were awesome. You had jousting games of accuracy, they had knights battling it out with these elaborate choreographed fights. Great stage presence that had me entertained for a hour in a half. The jousting itself was a little bit of a disappointment, as they only nicked themselves rather than go full bore knock each other off their horses. But I get it, nobody wants anyone to get hurt. Everyone needs to be safe to have a good time. I just think it would have been really cool to see someone get blasted off a horse.

Afterwards my other main goal was to eat a giant Fred Flintstone sized turkey leg. Which really ended up being a bad decision. I'm glad I tried it but woof that thing was a monster. Worst part of all it wasn't really enjoyable either. It was fatty, huge and tasted like ham. Plus it kept breaking off into lengthy pieces of gristle. It also didn't help that a group of ladies decided to sit with us while I'm trying to eat this mammoth meal with my hands...embarrassing.

After my meal we went to one of the beer gardens to watch a cannon show and partake in some adult humor. Again just like the knights battle the cannon show was a spectacle to see. Four miniature cannons that let off one of the biggest booms you could think of. The adult section was still a little too meager for my liking but there were some corny songs. I'd prefer more raunchy to cheesy but to each there own. A little more wandering around with some time to kill before the big axe throwing tournament until we did a big circle ending up back there.

For the tournament they had a children's round and an adult round. Point system worked like this: You get 6 shots 1 per target. 1 point to stick your axe in the stump. 3 points if you hit the bullseye and 5 points if you cut the string they laid across it. There was this one little kid that owned it! 2 strings cut 1 bullseye and another 1 stuck. For the adults it was a little more tricky. To pass onto the point system round you had to cut the string. I'm happy to say on my 5th shot I advanced to the finals. Only 5 of us out of at least 13 made it. From that point on I choked and wound up with a huge goose egg for my final score. Leaving me in 5th place. 

Overall it was a fun time and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. If anyone is interested I'd recommend it. Next weekend Aug 15th & 16th is their last running weekend. It's really only a shot drive out of Seattle.   http://www.washingtonfaire.com 

Things I learned today:

I never wear enough or any sunscreen 

Pirates were once called Privateers and were authorized by the Queen to steal goods from other ships

Sometimes more isn't a better idea - in this case a Queen sized turkey leg would have been enough

Competition is all in good fun - you'll never know you were better than 8 other people unless you try out 

Don't be afraid to invite you friends to join you, even if they might laugh. The ones who do end up going will have a great time together regardless and form memories the others missed out on

#5 Try glass blowing

Today I tried glass blowing for the first time. I wouldn't say reality completely lined up with expectations for this experience. I was really more of a glass helper. But it was something new that I've never tried before and at least a good moment to go at alone.

Walking into the building I was struck with a feeling of my 17 year old self again. Someone who embraced art and had it as part a part of his daily life. It really made me miss that creative side to myself. The building was the old Rainier brewery that has since been converted into a bunch of cool spaces. You really get a feel for the urban atmosphere and all of the artists that take up the space. There was awesome graffiti art sprayed everywhere that helped capture the essence. Inside the studio they had three big ovens going with a kiln with all of the molten glass in the middle. Around the bend there was an art gallery showing off a bunch of the amazing work that had been done there. There were chandeliers made of old phone booths and what looked like mining equipment stretching down to the ground. Incredible glass animals all over the place. Interesting abstract pieces that could have gone in a museum. As I waited for my turn I looked through books of glass art, observed others as they created their pieces and carefully picked out the piece I was going to make.

I originally was going to go with a beer mug; thinking that it would be so cool to drink from a mug that I created. But once I saw the finished templates it didn't strike me with the same passion. All I could think of was the fancy or odd glasses I have in my cupboard that I never drink out of because it's too awkwardly shaped or I don't want to dig it out. Instead I decided to go with a large egg. Something I can display proudly and have a decent little story to tell about it. The colors I chose fittingly matched the shirt I was wearing blue and red. Must have been feeling patriotic.

Admittedly, I didn't really end up creating the piece. I only got to help make it. Which is completely understandable. For the amount of people they had in there with the same zero experience level I had, it would be a safety nightmare. Not to mention all of the ignorant and lawsuit happy folks we live with in society today. What I did get to do was help my glass blowing artist make my egg. He let me rotate the mold in the oven. That was surprisingly difficult. Imagine a 6" melting ice cream cone on the end of a 5' stick that you have to keep turning so it doesn't fall off. I did get to blow the glass, albeit it was into a straw that was connected to the back end of the tube. He explained this is so the customer could see the glass expanding rather than being behind it. I also got to help shape it with a water soaked crucible tool. One of the really neat things that happened was purely by mistake, once the piece was shaped and ready to put on a base the guy dropped it! By some miracle it landed on the base but instead of topside up it wound up falling on its side. This leaves me with the only custom project with a sideways egg that no one else will have.

In the end my whole glass blowing "experience" took about 15 minutes. But what I left with was a refreshed sense of my artistic side, giving me back my passion to create again. Which I could never put a price on.



Things I learned today:

Glass needs to be 800 degrees to be pliable

It's equally important to put time into creating as it is putting time into living

If you don't ignite your passions you're only going to blow them out