Jax - Day 3

Okay - so I'm really bad at timelines. I have a legit excuse for it though - we have been lacking in the internet department. Between a foot and a half of snow on the weekend and a satellite dish that doesn't like afternoons or evenings - it leaves me with very limited time to update. As a consequence...M2 might have to happen on Friday...or maybe even later. Or maybe I'll be uber sneaky and just back-post (write and date it for Monday) and then y'all will just think that you missed one of my posts. I'm sneaky that way.

Karl Rohnke with an elastic on his face

Well I promised that I would talk more about Jacksonville so here we go. Day 3 in Jacksonville was pretty good. After the cancelling of the pre-conference that I had been registered in - I decided to switch into Karl Rohnke's one day pre-conference on "Play". I wasn't super pumped about it because I was looking for something a little more than surface level but I definitely wasn't going to spend a day doing Meyers-Briggs. Karl Rohnke is about 63 years old and the founder of Project Adventure not to mention the author or co-author of about a dozen books like Quicksilver and The Bottomless Bag. He's probably one of the funniest elderly men I've ever seen. The workshop was a lot of fun (go figure - a workshop labelled "Play" would be fun...) but probably the best thing that happened was that I connected with a group of people that would end up being my social circle for the rest of the conference. The workshop didn't have the content that I was looking for but the connections, I believe will end up being lasting ones. And I may sound like a bit of a Debbie-Downer in regards to the workshop - I have already used a couple of the activities from the workshop when I've been working with groups so obviously not a complete bust.

Probably one of the more funny happenings during the day was after walking to the local restaurant hub (The Landing...which was also the home of the bull) with a few of my new found peeps we headed back to our workshop room. I was the first person up the stairs when I was met face to face...actually it was more like face to belly-button with one of the larger people I've ever met. He was about 6'8" by about 6'0". He was the closest thing to a giant that I've ever seen...and he even described himself as a giant. So here I was looking straight up at this guy and he was looking mighty intense. Nicole and Nay were also staring at me because everything was so abrupt. The guy was insistent that I knew him. I tried to shrug him off but seriously the dude would not leave me alone. Nicole and Nay both sat on either side of me but it did not deter him from leaning over everyone as he searched for the connection. But it was painfully clear to

Luke, Nicole, me, Valerie and Claudia (the head)

everyone except Tiny (that's what I came to refer to him as...I don't remember his name...and yet whenever I referred to "Tiny" - everybody knew who I was talking about) that we had never met before. But for the rest of the afternoon - people were playing interference for me as Tiny manipulated his way into activity groups with me. Geh! Leave it to me to attract the creepers.

By the time the day ended - I wanted to kick Tiny in the shins. And somehow he got himself invited out to dinner with our group and even invited himself (twice) to my room the next night. Bahahahaa. Good friggin' luck. Anyways - I'll leave it there because there's lots more to pile on top of those beginnings. All I can say is thank you Karl Rohnke for facilitating the beginnings of Luke, Nicole, Valerie, Nay Nay, David and myself. It set up one of the best weeks I've had away from my 'normal' life in a long time.

Stay tuned for more adventures with me an' my peeps (oh yes, and there's more of Tiny too) and maybe a head named Claudia...and a mechanical bull...hmmm - perhaps I've said too much...