My genius idea

Work related post, so feel free to ignore. I have written before about our food pantry that we have available for students. I received an email from a faculty member recently asking if there was a way to order online and have things sent to the Mesa Market (which is our food pantry). It got me thinking about how during the pandemic, my coworker set up an Amazon Wish List for people to help stock the shelves. I had never set one up for my campus, so figured I'd give it a try. We have all non-perishable food and hygiene products in our Market, all of which is available on Amazon. I made my wish list of all the things most often needed by our students, and shared it with our campus community. Literally the next day, this arrived in my office. 

That tells me two things--my community is amazing and want to support our students, and that it was a good idea! People who have never donated before ordered for the first time, and I heard from so many that they were grateful for the convenience of being able to just add to their personal Amazon cart and have it sent directly to campus. There are so many people who want to donate, and while they always have the best intentions, remembering to do it is another story. This is easy, and easy is good. So...if you're interested in helping out, feel free to order from our Mesa Market wish list! All the items get sent directly to me at MCC Red Mountain, and get put on the shelves for our students. We have between 5-15 students using this resource every day, and they are always grateful!

Another bestie

I feel very fortunate at this point in my relationship with my teenaged daughter that she still wants to hang out with me. Did I still hang out with my mom when I was 13? I don't think I did (sorry Mom!). I know "bestie" is probably not the word to describe our relationship, nor should it be, but I'm very grateful to be in that period of time when she doesn't mind spending time with her mom. Knowing what high school was like for me, and how I would always much prefer to be with my friends (or stupid boys) than my mom, I do fear that those days are limited. But, even if that happens, I know she'll come back to me. It definitely did for me and my mom. I love having a daughter! 

 

I'm not really sure what was going on tonight, but Ava and I had such a good time. She hates this laughing picture, but I needed to save it because it was just pure happiness, and such a fun night hanging with my girl. She was laughing because there was this hand thing I couldn't figure out how to do. Two people use their thumb and index finger to each make half of a heart, and I couldn't get mine to work. Apparently it was hilarious to her. There was also this thing about how boys can't roll their eyes (per some people on TikTok), so we were recording ourselves trying to roll our eyes. We also spent a bunch of time scrolling through her TikTok feed and here is my takeaway--there is some really stupid stuff on TikTok, and most of it, Ava follows. Also, teenagers on TikTok swear a lot. My TikTok feed looks quite a bit different than hers, and I like mine better (even though it is also pretty stupid). I am just glad she's comfortable letting me watch her stuff. I trust her to make good decisions, so I don't mind if she sees the dumb stuff. 

Thanks for hanging out with me tonight, Ava! I hope you are never too cool to hang out with your old mom. And, if that day comes, that's ok too. Just be sure to come back to me when you realize how important it is to have a good relationship with your mom. You know I'm always here for you. Love you!

Besties

Ava and the sunset

If you were to look on Ava's phone, you would see a plethora of sunset pictures. I'm not sure I've seen anyone take a photo of the sunset as much as her. I mean, I know that the post just before this one was of me taking photos of the sunset, so I guess I might be where she sees it. Anyway, pretty girl. Pretty sunset. It's all pretty great. 

The sunset was where the fun ended though--then it was on to social studies. Sometimes I can be helpful to Ava when it comes to learning about how government works. I was wearing my new "Roe Roe Roe You Vote" shirt while answering her questions about some of the basic functions of the legislative branch, and other government institutions. I guess that 20 year old political science degree still comes in handy every now and then. 

The lovely view from up here

Sometimes you just need to take your camera up onto the platform to take some photos of the sunset with your friends. Tonight was one of those nights. This is the prettiest view around! Small group tonight, but those can be great nights too, 

These two are the cutest! Happy Trapeze Tuesday, friends. 

Morning coffee

I've never been one of those people who feels like I need coffee every single morning. I used to drink it occasionally, but there were just as many days that I didn't. I would tend to only make coffee if I had extra time before work, maybe 3 days a week. I also used to prefer cold coffee over hot (still do) so would drink more in the summer months. When I was spending my days at home during the pandemic, working from home, I got into a more consistent coffee drinking routine. My routine changed so much during those many months, and while much of it has reverted back to more of what it was before that crazy time, the coffee has stuck. I also tend to use this same coffee mug every single day as well, despite the fact that I have 20 others in the cabinet. I picked this up when we went to Harry Potter World back in the summer of 2016. It's just the right size, and it has the most perfect handle. You know you're in your 40s when you have a favorite coffee mug. 

Anyway, I know this is totally random, but sometimes random is what this blog needs. After all, it's meant to capture our day to day life. It's finally the time of year that the mornings are lovely, and I very much enjoy getting up early and having coffee on my patio before work. That was another part of the pandemic working routine, coffee on the patio. I'm glad its that time again, minus the pandemic piece. Cheers! 

Ava's volleyball

Ava is playing volleyball again! I was trying to remember when it was that she was last playing on a volleyball team, and I think it was in 2020. We had just signed her up for the next season at the Y with the team she'd been playing on for a few years, when everything shut down. I was also wondering when it was that she started playing, and according to this super resourceful blog, it looks like it was summer of 2017 when she first went to a volleyball camp with Lacy. Shortly after that, we got her signed up for the team at the Y, where she played until everything shut down in March 2020. She was starting to get pretty good! She lost interest in volleyball after not playing for awhile, but this year, she said she wanted to join this school team with one of her friends. This is a recreational league that runs mostly through schools, with parent coaches, twice a week practices, and games on Saturdays. Her friend Lexi is the one that was planning to play, along with her sister who is in 7th grade. Turns out the entire team is 7th graders (and a few 6th) with the exception of Ava and Lexi. They've been practicing on Mondays and Fridays. Here is a random photo from practice (from Ava's Be Real, a new social media platform the kids are all using).

Ava has some really great friends at school this year, which makes me very happy as a mom. Middle school can be a tough time to make friends, but she has found a great group of girls, and fortunately they'll all be going to RMHS next year with her. Here are Ava and Lexi after a recent game--they're so cute!

Ok, so now for the real question--how is the volleyball? Well, do you remember videos of Ava's very first team at the Y? Well, that's about how these kids play. It's very much a league for beginners, and the girls on her team are all very inexperienced. Ava is doing well--she's doing well with her serves and is quick to go after any ball that's coming her way. The hard part is that the they don't really know how to pass, or at least, don't seem to be able to do it in a game. The teams they play are at about the same level, so it's pretty tough to watch. It has gotten Ava interested in playing again though, so hopefully this leads her to finding another team. She has talked about trying out for the Fremont junior high team (her school doesn't have sports but they can play for Fremont), and we're also talking about finding a club to join. For now, it's just fun for her to play with her friends, and have something to do besides school. Here are a couple videos of her serving in games. She's doing well, definitely the best on the team, but it's so hard to watch! 

Last birthday guest

The last of the 60th birthday guests arrived today, and we were 3 for 3 in keeping them all a surprise. I think that's pretty impressive! This weekend's guest was Herdlyn, a coach from San Francisco who we met through Ali. He was one of her coaches and catchers, and not only did we gain a great teammate and friend when she moved here, but we also got to meet some new coaches. He is another fantastic catcher and genuinely kind human. He can't usually come for long because he has family commitments back home, but we are always grateful for the time we get with him. He just has a unique way of coaching, and it seems to work well for all of us. When he arrived today, Nadia picked him up from the airport and we all headed over to George's. We went in through the back gate and Herdlyn knocked on the door. Here's the video. It was another fantastic surprise for George! 

 

We assured George that this was the last of his birthday surprises. He definitely felt like it was the birthday that never ended! He's never been a fan of celebrating his birthday, but we all want to celebrate him, so too damn bad. Of course I had to have a Roso Flyers shirt made for Herdlyn, and he wore it all weekend! It really is a great shirt, I think we need more. 

Day two was another beautiful, blue sky day in my happy place. I don't have many photos from the weekend, but here are a few of the group pics we took in our shirts. I should have asked Herdlyn to take off his hat in our photo together, you can't see his face! I really appreciate his coaching on my flying, but it's an extra bonus to get catch coaching from him. I've really learned a lot. 

I don't have many videos to share, but here's a layout to Herdlyn on his last night with us. I didn't make the return on this one, but he gave me some things to work on, so hopefully that is helpful. I've had such a tough time returning my layout lately, it's been frustrating. I also missed a split return on this same night, and that never happens anymore, especially with a catcher like Herdlyn. I'm not sure what happened--I got one hand on the bar, but it wasn't solid so I went to the net. It was moderately embarrassing too because I had a friend there to watch me fly that night. Oh well, I returned the next one and then got to do some catching too. The other exciting thing that happened tonight is that Jan had her first ever out of lines round trip! She has been very slowly and cautiously working towards doing returns out of lines, and today was the day! She worked on it quite a bit with Ryan, but because we got rained out that last night, she didn't get a chance to go for it. We were all so excited and proud of her--this is quite the accomplishment! 

I wish I had better video of this next thing, and I wouldn't normally share a video of the tv screen in the shed, but I was super proud of this. I thought my camera was running, but it wasn't, and I missed all of the Saturday practice. Such a bummer. Anyway, I threw Herdlyn my uprise shoot on Saturday afternoon. I get pretty nervous with that trick for a few reasons, but primarily because it's the one that I was doing when I sprained my ankle so badly in January. I had done a ton of them when Ryan was here, so I was feeling pretty good about the trick, and figured I should throw it to Herdlyn too. I did one and it was ok, not great. The second one--I totally messed up and peeled out of my uprise AGAIN! The same thing I did when I got hurt! Fortunately, it happened a little later in the swing and I went to the net much safer--plus the clam (the mattress thing that we use sometimes) just happened to be right where I needed it. I was a little shook up after it happened, and pissed at myself for screwing up. Here's a video of the miss...

But do you know what I did? I went right back up there and did it again! I was nervous as hell, but I knew that if I chickened out or put it back in safety lines, it would set me back. I can do this damn trick, I just got lazy and didn't snap into the position like I needed to, and that's what happens. The next one was one of the best I've done! The trick was clean and so was the return. I was very proud of myself (and super bummed my camera wasn't running)!

This concludes the exciting birthday festivities. Happiest of birthdays to an amazing person, and many thanks to Jan for letting us share in all the fun. HBD George!

Quiet week of flying

After the craziness of the first 10 days in September, we took it a bit easy this week. I'm sure George assumes his birthday celebration is over, but this is just a break in the action. The weather has been fantastic. George always says that it's right around his birthday that the heat starts to break, at least in the evenings. This is one of our favorite times of year to fly--we just survived the long, hot summer, and now it's time to enjoy the beautiful evenings--at least until it starts getting cold. I'm sure we'll be huddling around the fire pit before long. 

This awesome picture is from last week when Ryan was here. Tyler came out one night to film some video and take photos. Ryan has a Sony camera as well (a much higher model), so he let Tyler use his really nice lens to shoot, which Tyler was excited about. He sure would like that lens for himself, but it costs as much as his entire camera, so he's going to have to save up for that. The video he shot was fantastic, but neither of us has done anything with it yet. Hopefully I'll get to it one of these days. There are also quite a few photos, but it was a little too dark to get anything that doesn't need a bunch of editing. Tyler did send me this one great shot, which I love! Turns out he needed to turn in a photo for his photography class where he was using motion blur, which you can see here with the blurry photos, yet me in focus. 

On the day of George's actual birthday, our crew was pretty small and no one felt much like flying. We spent a long time on this mat before anyone decided to venture up the ladder. Even then, we only took a few swings each before calling it a night. I obviously love our nights of flying together, but sometimes its just as fun to just hang out and chat with my friends. Tonight was one of those nights. 

Kaylin brought a few desserts, and we headed inside for a quick, impromptu birthday party for this amazing person. I've written enough lately about how wonderful and influential George has been, so I won't bore you with it again. Just know that this guy changed my life ten years ago, and I couldn't be more grateful. Happy 60th George! 

Random home stuff

This is more randomness with no real story, and not enough to make them their own individual posts. This part is just me and Ava laying on the floor, and her not wanting to be in my selfie (or like they call them on Ted Lasso, my "ussie"). This girl takes her own selfies 95 times a day, but she covers her face when I try to get her in one with me. What the hell? Tyler thinks it's weird how often I lay on the floor. He's like "you know we have a perfectly good couch." Yes Tyler, I know. Don't worry about it. 

This part is me bragging about how smart Ava is, and how nice it is to know how well the students in her school do on their state testing. They take these tests in April each year, and it's a great little reminder of how much of a smarty pants Ava is (and Tyler too, back when he had to take these). It's a little tough to see on here, but one of the page on the left is math and the one on the right is English. You'll see the blue graph is Ava's score, and she is in the "highly proficient" category for both. Yay Ava, great job! The bars on the right side of each page show the school, district, and state averages. You'll see that the school average is up in the highly proficient category as well, but then you see how depressingly low the district and state scores are. In the math test, both are are "minimally proficient," which is awfully concerning for the future of our community. I'm proud of Ava for how hard she's worked and how much she's learned at this wonderful school. I know it's not been easy, but she will one day be glad she had an opportunity to be in such a great learning environment. 

This part is me finally going to a few of Dave's senior softball games. They usually play out of town, but they had a tournament in Mesa this weekend, and I figured it was my best chance to see them play. I know he'd like me to go to more of their games, and he's always so willing to come support me when we have shows. But first, coffee, 

I ended up staying to watch two games, and then joined the team for lunch while they waited to find out when they were playing next. Turned out it wasn't going to be for a couple more hours, so that was it for me. They didn't have a great tournament, but I'm glad I had a chance to watch at least a few games. 

Since I talked about everyone else, I should probably mention Tyler too. I didn't have much in my photos with Tyler lately, but I did have a bunch of videos of him bowling. He took a summer bowling class for school to get one of the two PE credits he needs to graduate. Yes, he can take "online" bowling for a PE credit. It was actually quite a bit of work that he had to do online before he could even start bowling, and since then, he's had to bowl about 18 games or so. I've had to go with him a few times because he needed someone to film him. He is so over this class, and I'm over having to remind him to get the work done. Even though he's hated this class, yet he still plans to take bowling 2 next summer to complete his credits. That's how badly he doesn't want to take a traditional PE class. Something tells me he has no intention of joining a bowling league any time soon. 

Random work stuff

I'm mostly only posting this to give you all a break from reading about trapeze. My first two weeks of September were entirely focused on flying thanks to all the guests we've had, so I don't have much else to write about. There were a few fun things happening at work though, so I guess I could share that to provide a little diversity in the story this month. This fall semester has been fun so far, much different than last year. Our campus still isn't back to what it was before the pandemic, but there are more students on campus and there seems to be a new energy all around. Students seem to be ready to be back and many are eager to get involved. That always makes me happy! The things I do at work just don't make sense in a virtual environment, so I'm glad things are finally starting to get back to some version of normal. This week we are having our "Club Rush" event, which is an opportunity for students to learn about the clubs on campus. Unfortunately, we don't have many options for them at Red Mountain, but there are still plenty of ways to get involved. Clubs were one of those things that definitely didn't work well remotely, and we're working to build our clubs back up again. 

I have recently discovered a fast food restaurant called Eegee's, which is based in Tucson. They have locations all over down there, and they just started opening up locations around here. They have a bit of a cult following down there, primarily for their Italian ice desserts. It's my new favorite treat. They also do party packs, which is what I ended up getting to serve during Club Rush this week. It was definitely a hit! Here are two of my student workers, Blaine and Nicolette showing off the goods.  

The other fun part about the day was that I got to see my good friend Cara! I've missed having Cara by my side every day, and always look forward to the days she comes back to visit. She took a full time job in our department at the other campus, and while I'm happy for her, it's just not the same around here without my "sister." I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but people tell us all the time that we look alike. I can't tell you the number of times that someone has asked if we are related...it's wild. We don't really see it, but we've heard it enough times to know that others do. She is a club advisor for our Adventure Association and was out recruiting new members. 

I wouldn't say we had a huge crowd. We had to do this inside because of the heat, and indoor events are never quite as well attended as the things we do outside. Also, there's just not a lot of clubs for them to sign up for, unfortunately. 

The club that has been popular is our new Gaming Club. They set up our new Nintendo Switch and had a lot of people hanging out to play. I think this will end up being our biggest club this year, which is exciting for the students who started it, and will help bring traffic into our Student Lounge.

I was hanging out during the event when I heard, "hey, don't I know you?" This is Lily, a good friend of Kathy and Joe's, and I guess she's taking classes at Red this semester. 

Well, like I said, not much point to this post, other than to give you a break from trapeze. I am looking forward to a fun semester, and I'm excited to see the new energy that seems to be around campus. It has been a long couple of years, and my work hasn't had the same feeling of satisfaction that I'm used to. I hope that this is the start to better days.  

100th birthday party

We all had a lot of big plans for our last night of flying with Ryan and Taeko, but unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. We got all set up, Rod headed up to the catch trap and caught a couple of tricks before the sky opened up. There was no flying after this rain--that was it for us. It was all good though, we had had about 7 days straight of flying, so everyone was getting a little tired. We also had other plans for the evening, and this just meant the party started earlier. 

 

Jan had asked Ashley and I if we could take care of the food and cake for a little post-flying birthday party. Dave bought a bunch of ribs and got them ready for smoking. I ran home from work today to throw them on the smoker, and he finished them up and brought them over for us. Not only is it George's 60th birthday, but Ryan also turned 40 a couple weeks ago! That means we're celebrating 100 years of pure awesomeness between those two people. Happy 100th birthday! Cheers to years 100, like this sign says. It got put on the line wrong, and we didn't care enough to fix it so it became the joke of the night. 

Jordan and Blair were planning to be part of the surprise this week too, but at the last minute, they had to cancel. They have so much going on right now that they couldn't make it work, but spent some time with us (and with George and Jan) on FaceTime. Can you imagine if they would have been here too?! 

With a little help from me and my vast photo collection, Ryan put together this amazing collage of photos for George for his birthday. Many of these photos were taken by Tyler when Ryan was here in January with Jordan. It includes photos of our entire team, plus Ryan, Taeko, Jordan, Blair, Efe, and Brian. All of the bests!

This video clearly is NOT me, but you have to see this amazing trick that Taeko has been working on. I think it's called a half in half out, and she did it with an angel return. It is truly phenomenal. It is so much fun to watch the two of them together, what a beautiful couple. 

And one last split catch from me, with one of my cleanest returns ever. What a week this has been! Many thanks, once again to Jan for making it happen, not only for George, but for all of us. We are so very fortunate. 

We said goodbye to Ryan and Taeko tonight, but this still isn't the end of the birthday surprises! There is one more surprise visitor coming next weekend. Stay tuned! 

Special birthday guests

We have had some very special guests in town for the last few days. Jan is on a mission to give George the best 60th birthday possible by surprising him with some of his favorite guests. This time, it's Ryan and Taeko! Ryan has been touring with Cirque du Soleil Alegria (which I was fortunate to see twice in Seattle earlier this year), but he has about 6 weeks off before the show heads to South Korea and Japan for the next year. It was pretty nice of Ryan to spend a week of his vacation "working" and flying with us--we felt pretty spoiled! It does speak to the impact George has made on some of our friends that they would choose to spend their time that way. George was definitely surprised when Ryan and Taeko showed up at his house at 10:30 on Sunday night. It all started to make sense to George why so many of us were taking it easy or resting on Efe's last day here. We all knew we had a full week ahead of flying with Ryan, and wanted to make sure we were rested up. They were getting to town pretty late at night (past George's bed time), but Jan managed to get him outside to be surprised when they showed up. She went outside to do something with the laundry, and came back in and told him she heard a weird noise in the pool. He went to check it out, and Ryan and Taeko came around the corner. So exciting!

One of the things I did for George (and the team) in honor of his birthday was to create a new logo and have new shirts made for everyone. I designed this logo below, and then I had baseball T's printed for everyone in our group, our guests and coaches. On Ryan's first night with us, I gave everyone their shirts and we all opened them together. They were a big hit! 

These photos and videos are from over the course of the first few nights flying with Ryan and Taeko. It was some of the best few days of flying I can remember in a long time. Ryan is quite literally my favorite catcher to fly to, and I feel so fortunate for any opportunities to learn from him. Not only is he an amazing catcher (I mean, obviously, he's a professional catcher for Cirque), but he's also a really great coach and fantastic human. 

I threw quite a few uprise shoots to Ryan, and my returns just kept getting better and better. I have never had the height on my returns as I got with Ryan this week. It was so exciting! I mean, come on, this photos is so great! 

Here's a look at the shirts we all wore in honor of George's 60th birthday. Many, many thanks to Jan for organizing all of this, hiring the coaches, and arranging their trips.

Pretty sure this is my favorite group photo we've ever taken out here. It might be a framer. The sunset, the team shirts, the super special guests, and our whole team is there! It's just about perfect. 

I'm not sure when we'll see Ryan and Taeko again, but it won't be for at least a year. Alegria is set to tour in South Korea and Japan, and after that, I think he said that they may head to Europe. Ryan is hoping to be part of the show for as long as he can, taking advantage of this well-earned opportunity. I remember when I first started following Ryan's adventures. I had seen his You Tube channel somewhere, I'm sure someone in the trapeze community shared it, and started watching videos of his time performing in a circus in Japan. He was with Pop Circus, traveling all around Asia, and is where he met Taeko. I had never interacted with him, other than following each other on social media, but that's how it is with a lot of people in the relatively small trapeze community. You never know if you're actually going to meet, but it's nice to make those connections. And in this particular situation, it was a great connection to make! When the pandemic hit, circuses around the world (like with all things) crashed to a halt. They were sent back to the US to wait it out. Ryan is from Texas, so that's where they ended up for some of the time, but then they moved to Santa Barbara to work at the trapeze school there for awhile. That's where we finally met in person for the first time. We didn't actually get to fly to him on that trip because he was nursing an injury, but his coaching was great and it was clear from the moment we all met him how genuinely kind he was. You've read the rest of the story before (if not, here it is), but that is sort of how our friendship with Ryan began. I've written about it many times before, but these friendships I've made through the years of flying truly are one of the best rewards of the entire experience. I'm grateful for the opportunities and the connections. I have learned so much from him in just the few days we've had with his coaching. Remember when I caught all of those double layouts from Jordan back in January? Well, there's no way that would have happened with out this guy coaching and encouraging me from the ground. 

There was so much great flying this week, but I'll only share a few of the highlights. The thing that makes Ryan such a great catcher for us as amateurs is that he has a way of putting you in the position you need to be in. He can make the adjustments needed to make everything work better. I have never returned as well as I do with him. Returns have always been the thing I've struggled with most, so it's such a great feeling to know I can do it right once in awhile! Amazing what a difference a professional catcher can make for my flying. Here is a split and a couple of shoot catches. The height I was getting on the returns was insane, and I was proud of myself for being able to handle it--and I even managed to have a few where I kept my legs tight and straight! This week has been so much fun, I wish it didn't have to end!