EllyRox

Jersey Askew

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Ellyrox

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Our adventure began Friday, when we picked Steph up from school. We set out towards New Jersey, not entirely sure of what awaited us, but faithful that enjoyment would be had. I did not anticipate the hour it would take to drive 8 miles on the turnpike, but we survived, and Steph explained the origins of Angry Birds, “That’s how they cure swin flu, they use Avian flu.” Safe to say I was nearly in tears laughing for most of the trip down.

We arrived at red roof, and settled into our room. Pro tip: never, ever, get a smoking room at a cheap hotel. The room itself was clean enough, but good lord, the amount of air freshener meant we kept the door open for the first 2 hours we were there, and even after that if you breathed in too deeply it was followed by “Oh, god!” and some hacking and coughing.
We forgot some toiletries so Martin bravely ventured out to the Walgreen’s across the street. Fortunately, we did not forget the rum, and threw ourselves a room party, and by we I mean me and Martin, and Steph had soda.
Saturday morning we got up bright and early at 9am, and headed out for sustenance, gas, etc. Inevitably, though we had a victory in finding super cheap gas, we got lost, gps and all. So, I spent about an hour driving around North Jersey, in and out of jug handles, down back roads, through what may have been the private drive of an apartment building, until we made it to the hockey rink. Except that we hadn’t, because we were at the wrong building. We eventually found the right building, and met some people outside, and talked for a bit about Canada (which is awesome.)
We eventually made it into the rink and wandered over to the bleachers to sit, and watch for a bit, then I realized everyone was on the other side of the rink, and wandered over there. I met some new people, and got to see some I already knew. The one thing that sticks out immediately, that I have noticed is that any time I go to at VA (View Askew) event or gathering, is people are always really nice, and welcoming. I’d been to a VASHL hockey game before but it was about two years ago, so I was just wandering around the player side of the rink aimlessly, and Amanda (Starbuck) came on over to me with a big warm smile and said hello, and it was like a domino effect from there. Steph and Martin kind of hovered in my periphery but I did my best to introduce them to everyone I knew, and new people I was meeting.

We left hockey early for the day and headed back to the hotel, grabbed supplies and made our way to Red Bank. We went to the thrift store on the main drag, Funk and Standard, and of course, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, where I think I may have found some holiday gifts for people.

We grabbed an early dinner at an awesome place called Surf Taco that opened up next to the Stash and went to the park down by the docks for a little while. Once the appropriate amount of time had been wasted, we found parking and picked up the tickets from will call for the Jay and Silent Bob Get Old show, with Tell’em Steve Dave.

While we were waiting outside the venue, Steph drew this awesome picture for Kevin and Jay. I am intensely jealous, as that took her all of 20 minutes. Let’s all be mad at her for being talented for a few minutes, shall we? Annnnd….. done.

Okay, moving along. The show was hilarious. TESD was even better than I expected it to be. Puppets! Good ones! Not that Jeff Durham crap! Also, Ming! On stage! Awesome. Ming is another person who immediately made me feel welcome at the View Askew events. He’s really super nice. Let me also mention Jordan, Jay’s wife for being awesome and passing along Steph’s drawing.

As expected the shows were both hilarious. By the end of the night my stomach hurt from laughing so much. For sure, the highlight of the evening was at the end of JSBGO when Kevin called for a volunteer for “Let us act” in which he takes a famous scene from a movie and directs Jay and an audience member in said scene. This being Jay’s first time on stage in NJ, Kevin used a scene from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and since it was Gavin’s birthday this weekend, he was volunteered.

Needless to say it was awesome. After that we headed back to Edison, and within 20 minutes of being back in our hotel room, passed out. Sunday we got up, and headed back to the rink for day 2 of the VASHL Charity game, where I got to spend some time with Nikki and Gillian. Who are two fabulous women. I really, really enjoy the people who hang out at these events, in case you haven’t figured it out. We stayed for some of the game and then headed back to Philly. A lot of people were playing or other wise occupied so I didn’t get to say goodbye to everyone.

I want to thank Darryl for arranging everything, and it turns out the game raised $2,500.00 for R.A.I.N.N. and The Wayne Foundation. One of the people I met this weekend, was Jamie, the co-founder of The Wayne Foundation, to whom I’ve offered my technical skills and ability for youtube video making. I am excited to get to work with them. If you don’t know about either of those charities, please look into them, and donate if you can. These are very important causes.

Quick Edit: I just saw that Amanda also has a blog and wrote a post about this weekend, you can find it here.

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