Women's Jam Day 3

I woke up and my first thought was, "Ow."  Following this, I also thought, "Owowowowow."  And finally, I concluded with,"Ow."  I was sore as hell, and I was not alone.  I think every single woman who trained yesterday started the day with the thought of pacing themselves, and in the end, failed miserably.  Thankfully, after starting off the day with another whole foods breakfast, which included mochi because why not, there was a talk by Julie Angel, who wrote a book about the hidden history of parkour:  beyond David Belle and getting into the lives and motivations of the Yamakasi.  It was interesting, and after, I bought two copies of her book:  one for me and one for my library.

Then we went to UC Denver for breakout session workshops and free training.  For the first time, men were invited to part of the ladies' jam, and it was an interesting dynamic because the majority of practitioners were women.

There was a parkour dance company from London doing a workshop, which sounded interesting, and quite frankly less tiring than the climbup or the strength training workshops, so I chose that one.  It started off with a little talk about what th company is and does, then got philosophical about purpose and intent and motivation behind movement.  Then we did some theater games with movement, like levels of energy, acting like animals, pretending the air/surfaces were made of different substances, etc.  Then they introduced a few partner parkour/dance lifts, which I might be able to work in to mine and Bobby's partner acrobatics act:  cartwheel off of a low wall or from the ground but grabbing the base person's waist/legs as they grab the flyer's waist, a lift-spin arabesque, and another cartwheel off a wall but this time placing the hands on the shoulders of the base or waist of the flyer.  Then we had 15 minutes to come up with a short movement skit that included some of those movements and conveyed a story and emotion, but using no words.  What the workshop leaders didn't tell us was that we were going to perform in front of the rest of the jam.  Nikki, my partner, really did not want to, but we did it and had fun and it was fine.  Our skit was two friends who hadn't seen each other in a while meeting up and then playing.  It was simple and fun and everyone got what we were trying to do.

Then I did some more parkour in little spurts, in between resting and stretching and talking with people.  I learned a new vault, called a cowboy vault, which is halfway between a turn vault and a reverse vault and kind of looks like a wall-assisted cartwheel.

The original plan as to have a picnic in the park, but due to the rain and threat of further rain, we went to the Denver location of Apex Movement.  People went and got food on the way and some ate there.  My group decided to have dim sum.  I had never had it before, so I tried a couple things while I was out with them.  It was really good and now I have to find out if there are any dim sum restaurants near me.  Mostly I just drank green tea and chatted though, because I had dinner plans with my cousin Michael, who lives in Denver.

We got to the gym and I quickly said goodbye to people and got my stuff.  After loading it into Michael's truck, he and I went and ate at a burger place nearby.  It was really great catching up and filling each other in on family news and such.  Michael drove me to the airport and we said our goodbyes.  

Then I went and rearranged my life between baggage and carryon and proceeded to the check-in area, where one of the attendants making conversation with me mentioned he used to liv in New Haven, so of course we talked about New Haven pizza and the beach.

The first flight went to Washington, D.C. and was relatively uneventful, save for having to climb over the sleeping person in the aisle seat who would not wake up when I had to pee; parkour skills on a plane!

I am posting from my layover airport and I hope my next flight is just as easy and that the roads are clear so I can get home; pet my dog, and sleep until Bobby comes home.

Ovrall, the jam was fun, well organized (exact jam locations were posted along with organizer contact information and they made sure that everyone got rides to each location), and informative (great breakout sessions whose only drawback was the inability to attend them all simultaneously).  It was motivating and inspiring; there were all kinds of people there   (mothers and daughters, newbies, veterans, abled and disabled, young, old, all races), just coming together for a friendly, fun, non-competitive experience.  I was a bit nervous about going because life and injuries from other things have kept me out of parkour for a while, and I wasn't sure where I stood.  It didn't take too long to get into the groove of training again, though, and I am so glad that I went.  I saw a few old friends that I hadn't in a while and I made a few new ones.  Next year the jam is going to be in Boston, so as soon as they announce the dates I am putting in for the time off and marking my calendar.