What a finish!

Ok Ok, I am just buzzing with excitement (or maybe it's the energy drink I just consumed, and the fact that my Doctor has advised me against consuming energy drinks. Ever.). What an epic ending to a fantastic month!!!

First off, Shaw Cable attended my last lesson today. That's right. Shaw (basically the NBC of Prince Albert). Lisa, the "Diane Sawyer" of SHAW, contacted me last week, inquiring about my blog. I invited her to my last lesson to check it out. I didn't want to announce this on my blog prematurely because a) I wasn't sure if she'd ACTUALLY show up and b) I suspected it could possibly be a prank call from one of my "friends." Well guess what. She frickin' showed up - next stop...Ellen.

Kind of how my board looked. But not really.

Ok, so throwing a TV camera in the mix does add a fair amount of pressure to the finale (in which I'm supposed to land the trick). I'm not going to lie to you, I was pretty nervous. Last night, I practiced until my thumb started to bleed. A tiny smear of blood landed on the tip of my board. It choked me up...just a little - you know: blood, sweat, and tears and all that sensitive stuff. Then I realized how badass the board looked with blood on it.

I immediately texted Randy, "Thumb blood on my board. Badass."
Randy: "Rule is never clean your blood off your board...but didn't you just get thumb blood on MY board ;)

uh, right. oops.  

I went to work that day and mentally landed my trick at least 50 times whilst :) speech pathologizing. At lunch, I peeked in on my board (nestled cozily in my trunk). "We can do this," I whispered. A parking lot security guard (who has gifted me with at least 3 parking tickets in the last 4 months reading, "not in line with parking post." Are you kidding me?) glared at me suspiciously, "Don't worry about it," I snapped. Gawd.

On my way to 10 foot touque, I searched the array of PA FM stations (two stations, to be exact) for a kickass song to get me stoked. Ok, "Adia" by Sarah Mclachlan?? or  Meatloaf's, "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad." Ah man. Sucky. Screw the radio. I began belting out "Eye of the Tiger" with feeling (Ev loves to hum the intro when he sees someone running - cracks me up).

This is for Real!

At 10 foot touque, I was greeted by some of my favoritest people in the whole world: Randy, Ev, MY MOM (that's right, folks, my mom came - with a new hair-do - it looked frickin' awesome (that one's for you, mom ;)) and of course Lisa from Shaw. Lisa mic'd me up (this is big league) and proceeded to interview me. It wasn't so bad.  Randy surprised me with this sweet energy drink called...wait for it...STEAZE. Yep. It was Steazy. I took a gulp of that steaze and proceeded down the path. Boom. Landed my Tiger Claw. Just like that (Well...I'm lying. It took a few tries). My mom yelled, "That's my girl!" Randy nodded like it was no big deal - he was a believer. Ok...let's be honest - after actually reviewing the video footage, I could definitely see that my acid drop needs some work. Well, a lot of work. It was much more impressive in my mind. But, hey. I did just recently get the whole "acid drop" lingo straight. I landed it. It was legit. I landed a few more. My cheering section (Ev, Randy, and Mom) went wild (well, not "wild" but, you know, appeared mildly impressed). Some drunk lady on the Riverbank picked up my purse and threw it across the grass. For real - and it's a "Coach" (Gasp!). Damn. Where is my lawyer? As a grand finale, Randy and I did a tandem Tiger Claw. Ev missed it. He was on the phone. Boo, Evan. Lisa from Shaw got it. I hope. All-in-all - AWESOMENESS.  I did it. Done.

As month 1 comes to a close, I feel: stoked, energized, fortunate, nostalgic, confident, loved, funny, supported, excited, hopeful, proud, steazy, and legitimately happy. Whoa. And who says I'm not a touchy-feely kinda gal.

Here's what I have learned:
1) Longboarding is gnarly! It's a sport. It requires balance, coordination, guts, and overall athleticism.
2) I can longboard. At the beginning, I sucked. Now...less suck, more steaze. I went for it. It scared me. I almost broke my ass and ruined my sister's volleyball career, but it was worth it. Ryan would have dug it.  I will continue to longboard - I'm slightly addicted.
3) Although I am lacking evidence-based proof, I'm like 99% sure that at least a dozen new highways were constructed in my brain since September 1.
4) Writing is not only therapeutic, but fun. I laugh when I write. I laugh when other people laugh at what I write. I like laughing at myself and it's even more fun when people are laughing at me, with me. (got that?)
5) I still think about Ryan every day.
6) I met amazing people that I would have, otherwise, never have met. It was such a pleasure to ride with the kids from Team Touque. They are incredibly talented and hilarious.

And, last but not least, there's Randy. From day one, Randy was more than willing to help me accomplish my goal - he provided me with complimentary weekly lessons, a demo board for the month, 10 Foot Touque swag, and never-ending enthusiasm and positivity (as well as responses to every single lame text I sent his way).  I couldn't ask for a better coach! Ev and I can't wait to kiteboard with him this winter! In addition, I also had the opportunity to get to know Randy as a person.  Randy is unique - an individual, he's passionate about what he does, and he's full of life. Essentially, I happened upon another "Ryan" of this world. Lucky me.

OCTOBER CHALLENGE COMING SOON