Why the Circus Has Been Spoiled for Me

This past weekend we went to Mondo Jugglefest up in St. Paul, MN. It's an annual tradition for us. We started going at the insistence of our friend Lon, who has been going almost since the beginning. It used to be in February, right around his birthday, which made for dicey traveling but we always went. About two years ago they moved it to April (thank god) and we find traveling much simpler. It's a great trip filled with great friends.

Our group, not juggling

Mondo is the reason that circus jugglers don't amaze me quite as much. The festival is filled with people trying out new tricks, showing off old tricks, and learning from each other. At any one time there are probably 800 things flying through the air. Not surprisingly, you have to sign a waiver just to be in the auditorium. I've been hit by so many IFOs (identified flying objects) I've lost track. A majority of them have been from my own hand sadly, but you spend some of the time on the look-out for juggling props.

I've seen hundreds of unusual tricks done at Mondo. I've seen people standing on other people's shoulders and passing clubs to each other. I've seen odd object juggling (imagine juggling a feather, a potted plant, and a toaster at the same time). Every year I find something that amazes me. The hard part is that now when I go to circuses or see street jugglers, I'm not quite as impressed. My poor mother tried to point me to a gentleman juggling clubs one evening. All I could think is that unless he's on a unicycle or standing on a balance board, clubs don't really count.

I can currently only juggle three balls and do some basic contact juggling. I would like to learn clubs as well. I don't put in the time to get good at any of them, but each time I go to Mondo I come away inspired. These things are learnable. I've seen them done.

Ranting

I have a rant that I simply have to get off my chest. It's from this weekend. Now first I should let you know that I had an amazing weekend. I headed up to Minneapolis for the annual juggling festival up there and had a ton of fun. I got together with friends for dinner on Friday night followed by some geek shopping at a games store. We ended the night with video games.

The next day we met more friends up at the juggling festival and I spent the whole day working on my contact juggling. I've picked up a passing trick but its still so rough that I'll have to work on it for a while before I'm ready to show anyone. After the festival and the raffle we headed back to our friends Lon and Lisa's house for dinner, good conversation, and more video games.

Sunday we headed out of town about 11 and had lunch with my brother and his family. They bought a new house in September and I had to admit that it was our first visit up to see the place. It was amazing. The decorating they have done is just perfect. My sister-in-law (and brother) have great taste. We ate lunch with them but most of the afternoon was spent climbing trees, playing card games, and just talking.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend. It was only spoiled by one thing. The one thing I have to rant about. The hotel. Jeff and I stay in the same hotel every time we go up there. This time was a bit different though. There was a convention of Minnesota Football Coaches at the hotel. I was a bit worried when we checked in but the concierge put us up on a private floor. You know the kind you have to swipe your key to get the elevator to take you to. Yeah, swanky. Except that when we came back on Friday night we were shocked, and a bit disheartened to see all three rooms adjacent to ours open with the coaches drinking beer in the hallway. Now normally I wouldn't have a problem with this, but it was nearly 1 in the morning. Gone was the idea of a quiet night.

I put in my earplugs and tried to get some sleep. No dice. My anxiety had already kicked in. About 1:30 they decided to head off to a different party (woohoo) but the damage had already been done. I lay in bed from 1:30 to 3:30 in the middle of a massive anxiety attack. From 3:30 to 5, I simply forgot how to fall asleep. The anxiety had passed, I was just too tired to sleep. I finally dropped off for about an hour and a half but was up again at 6:30. This time I just stayed up. I was exhausted on Saturday but still had a good time. It just makes me angry though.

My mother would shush us children in hotel hallways at 9 o'clock at night. "Be respectful, people may be trying to sleep." She'd say to keep us from running and yelling past rooms. It was the same in the morning. We were always taught to be aware of how our behavior affected other people. We were quiet to be nice to them. I'm slowly learning that a large portion of our population was never taught this valuable lesson in common courtesy. Jeff called the front desk one night on a group that were yelling to each other down the halls after getting home from the bars at 2 am. That one had woken me up from a sound sleep with earplugs in. Another night we called the desk about the room above us where the group was blaring some sort of thumping bass music and jumping on the beds. It sounded like a full marching band.

Perhaps I'm an old grouch. I certainly feel that way calling the desk to complain about my neighbors noise. I keep thinking that I'm too young to be bothered by this stuff. So I pack my earplugs and pray for a quiet night. But I'm beginning to wonder if this has nothing to do with age. And everything to do with respect. I was taught to be respectful of others sleep and piece of mind. I was taught not to disturb people. That was just common courtesy. Lately I'm wondering if I'm in the minority on that one.

So if you happen to be vacationing in a hotel, and you see a women walk past with earplugs in and a grim look on her face, know that it's me. And try to keep it down.

Mondo

I'm still on one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. I'm still not back in the office today although I am home from Minneapolis and settling back into my routine. This weekend managed to recharge all my batteries along with inspire me. I can't say that very often about a weekend.

I had Friday off which is why today feels so incredibly luxurious. Four day weekends are great because they feel almost too long. For a moment this morning I thought that it was a workday. Jeff had class that morning then came home at noon and we managed to start heading out of town by 1. The drive up was quick and interesting. Jeff and I spent much of our early relationship traveling all over Iowa and the Midwest, so being in the car and just talking is rejuvenating for us. The four hour drive flew by and we managed to get up to the Cities just in time for dinner. We went to Mongos in Maple Grove, one of my favorite Mongolian BBQ restaurants, mostly because I can mix in brown rice with my veggies to make for a tasty and nutritious meal. After Mongos we grabbed some ice cream and headed over to a friend's house to play hours of Soul Caliber (wow, those are some interesting outfits!) and talk. The main attraction for Soul Caliber was to laugh at the outfits and the women's dimensions. Late that night our friend Dan joined us and we stayed until late talking and had a very nice time (Thanks Jon).

Early Morning Mondo

The next morning was Mondo (hmm Mongos, then Mondo). We arrived pretty early so the festival was still pretty quiet. That gave us the chance to talk and juggle and just relax. I worked on some three ball but most of the day was dedicated to contact juggling (think David Bowie in Labyrinth). As the hall filled in around 10:30, we were approached by a group of high school students on a field trip to the festival. I wish I had those kind of field trips when I was in school. They were interested in the contact juggling but fascinated with most of the other toys we had. Jeff spent almost all day teaching one of the girls to use the poi. Right before lunch, we ran into a contact juggler that had some of the coolest moves I've ever seen. This man was amazing. I posted a video of his work at the end of this post (I didn't ask so I hope that's okay with Cameron).

Lon and his brother Scott, passing clubs

At midday we headed out to lunch at Leeann Chin, a standard lunch spot on Mondo days. Then back to the festival for an afternoon of juggling practice and talking. The high school kids and Cameron found us again and spent most of the afternoon hanging out with our group. It was a ton of fun and when the raffle started (the end of the Saturday event) we were all a little bummed. But our disappointment was short lived. Our group managed to win five of the raffle drawings including a new spinning plate for Bob and a new set of clubs for Josh. Jeff even won some little things. We haven't had a good luck year like that in a while. After the raffle we went back to our friends Lon and Lisa's house for pizza and more talking. We ended up there until well after 1 am, playing Beatles Rock Band and Mario Cart.

The next morning we took our friend Josh out to brunch for allowing us to stay with him and about noon we headed out after a quick stop at Trader Joe's and some other shopping. We drove halfway and stopped in Albert Lea to see my older brother. We just hung out and talked with him, his wife, and the kids for a while. Mandy, my sister-in-law made us a fantastic dinner and we sat out on the back patio to eat. They live out in the country so it was so incredibly beautiful and quiet and relaxing. After dinner we went for a little hike on their land and about 7 we got back into the car and finally headed for home. The cat was excited to see us and although it was nice to spend the weekend with Josh, it was nice to sleep in our own bed last night. This morning I've been cleaning like a mad women. I'm so full of energy right now. The weekend inspired me to practice my juggling more. Now if only I had taken more pictures.

Cameron from Ohio, the amazing contact juggler.

{Edit: I'm not sure why the videos loaded the way they did. Rest assured, they do work, after a little buffering}

Winging My Way North

I am sitting over my lunch hour anxiously watching the clock. In three hours I will be heading out of the office for a physical therapy appointment. After that I'll have dinner with Jeff at our favorite Mongolian BBQ place and then I go home to pack. Tomorrow afternoon we'll be winging our way north. I have a four day weekend and am getting out of town for a convention. I'm incredibly excited.

Every year Jeff and I go to Minneapolis for the annual Mondo Juggling Fest. The festival offers jugglers a chance to get together, work on their tricks, learn new skills, and show off. Jeff and I can juggle three balls and Jeff has taught himself the basics of club juggling. My hope is to refine my contact juggling skills and learn how to pass. Jeff's balance board quickly became a group favorite last year. Although we have a ton of fun learning the juggling tricks, the big draw is seeing friends and spending the day just relaxing and hanging out. We have a great group of friends up in the Cities and love any chance we have of getting together. Other than one year when we were in Hawaii, Jeff and I have made the trek faithfully, sometimes through some pretty terrible weather.

This year I'm really excited that the convention is being held in April rather than the usual February. I'm excited to see friends. But I'm also excited to be getting out of town. Jeff and I typically travel heavily in the winter. This winter, because of my foot, we've been home and the cabin fever had started to kick in. We haven't been out of town since Christmas. I'm excited and it just seems like the hours aren't passing fast enough. So there will be no post tomorrow (I'll be on the road) and most likely no posts until Monday. Then I'll have lots of pictures for you. I'll even try to get some video of the unicycle hockey game that always starts up. Or some cool juggling trick I noticed. But mostly you'll get pictures of friends (some of which read this blog) who may or may not be doing some fun juggling.

If by any chance you happen to be in the area, stop by and check the festival out. The $5 entrance fee will get you a lot of cool juggling and unicycle tricks and some even better people watching.

Finding my Balance

So I'm back home. I'm a day later than I expected and I'm exhausted but it was a fantastic weekend. Friday was a tough day and I had not time to write anything. In fact, I took a half day of work so we could get up north before the snow hit. My plan was to leave at noon....but as they say life is what happens while you're making other plans. I didn't get out of the office until 1:30. We got on the road and only the last fifty minutes of our drive was snowy and slow. It worked out well. 

We hung out and had dinner with a friend of Friday night (Thanks Josh!) and then woke up early for Mondo the next day. Juggling was fantastic. The festival is so much fun mostly because everyone just brings their toys and tries out new techniques. It is all about just making an attempt at things. I dropped regularly and no one even batted an eye. If you do something badly for long enough someone will walk by and try to teach you. It is just one of those festivals where you can publicly fail over and over and everything thinks it is great. We have a great group this year and everyone seemed to have a great time. 

The main toy this year was Jeff's Rola Bola. For those non jugglers out there, a Rola Bola is a thin piece of wood that balances on a PVC pipe. You stand on the board and try to balance. Almost everyone there tried it out. Here is one of our friends attempting to juggle clubs on the board. (Now you're going to have to buy one Lon) We saw a couple people take a tumble off it but mostly everyone tried. I actually got to the point where I was doing pretty well. I'm not at juggling on the board stage but I can stay up almost as long as I want. Sorry no pictures of me on the board. There is a video at the end of Jeff playing on someone else's board. It is made out of a door. (it was massive)

On Sunday we went over to our friends house for breakfast and ended up staying all day. The plan originally had been to leave after lunch and head home but we were having too good a time. We stayed and had dinner with them, and then played some WoW at their house. We finally left around midnight and drove about two hours south. We finished the drive this morning and made it home by noon. All in all, a great trip. Lots of juggling, lots of hanging out. 

MONDO

Of all the winter months, February is my favorite. I love that because it is so short, it feels like spring is just around the corner. March starts to get warmer here and February tends to move quick. I have two family birthdays in February (my little brother and my little sister). In general it's a good winter month which for me is saying a lot. Did I mention that I'm not a huge fan of winter?

But one of my favorite parts of February is Mondo. Every year (normally in February) the Mondo Jugglefest is held in Minneapolis at Concordia University. And snow or sleet we almost always seem to make it up. Jeff and I have been going to the convention for at least six years now. The first trip I managed to almost learn how to juggle. The friends we go with taught me with tennis balls, meaning that I chased them all over the convention floor. I was so sore that night that I couldn't move. By the next convention I could juggle three balls. Now I'm slowly working on club juggling and three ball passing. I don't practice all the time but I love that I'm able to do some basic stuff. 

The convention is pretty informal with a couple scheduled activities. There are jugglers, unicyclists, and yo-yo artists.They always play unicycle hockey and they always do either 7 or 8 ball endurance. There is always an auction. But most of the time we just stand around and learn new tricks from the people around us. If you want to learn there will always be a someone who will teach you. I am constantly amazed by all the tricks I see. The convention can occasionally pull in a big name in juggling like Vova Galchenko or Ivan Pecel. 

No matter what, every year we have a blast and I get incredibly excited about learning. I love that this is a place were failing is not a bad thing. It's just part of the learning process. I've always said that juggling is just learning to drop less. I'm sure I've dropped hundreds of thousands of times trying to learn to juggle. And this year I'll do even more dropping. And I may even learn to unicycle. 

Okay Now I'm Impressed

I'm learning to be a juggler which seems to amaze people. Okay so I have limited depth perception (one bad eye) but that shouldn't make a huge difference. I think people just think that it is really difficult, which isn't true. It's just a lot of practice. A lot of dropping. I love doing it. I'm currently working on my contact juggling. If you don't know what that is check out the first couple minutes of the movie Labyrinth. I'm nowhere near that good. But I'm working on it and having fun. 

Every year me and some friends go to a juggling/unicycle convention up in Minneapolis called Mondo. Here is a picture of Jeff and I at Mondo last year. Note the unicycles in the back. They do unicycle hockey every year. One year we watched unicycle jump-roping. In this picture it almost looks like we know how to pass, huh? 

The one problem with going to Mondo is that I see all sorts of cool juggling. Now that sounds like a good thing but what happens is that I am less impressed with just basic tricks. Three ball juggling doesn't really interest me anymore. I've seen a huge number of tricks. Some impress me, some don't. I get to see people doing club tricks while balancing plates and standing on a balance board. (and trust me that's impressive) But this past week I found a video of a juggler who just floored me. This kid is amazing. This is Vova Galchenko, one of the best in the world. I found this video and had to share it. Amazing. (sorry about the link, my video uploader is not working.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEb3YknGUks

By the way he was at Mondo in 2004. Passing 11 clubs like it was nothing. That was the one year I missed.