Tampapalooza
September 29, 2005 | Leave a CommentPosted by admin | Filed Under Erin Weed's Blog
Last night I spoke to a jam packed room of sorority gals at University of Tampa in Florida. What a blast! And the good news is that it was professionally video taped, so I will be posting video clips on the Girls Fight Back website very soon.
So after the program last night, my friend Becca (also a speaker in my bureau, CAMPUSPEAK) drove me back to my hotel. It was about 11:30 pm. We hadn’t quite finished our conversation when we arrived at the hotel front door, so she pulled over to the side of the driveway near the parking lot. All of a sudden she says to me, “There’s some guy approaching your side of the car.” I turn to look, and he’s already there. And he starts knocking. Both of us had a simultaneous intuitive reaction thinking, “This guy is totally creepy.” So I said to Becca, “Step on it!” She put the pedal to the metal and he ate our dust. In the rear view mirror, I saw him curse at us and throw his hands up in frustration.
Many times people think Girls Fight Back is all about self-defense, but it’s more about NEVER having to fight in the first place. Being aware, trusting intuition and having the courage to take action are the real key components to stayin’ alive. Is it always socially graceful? No. But who cares? While the man who approached our car might have just wanted directions, here’s the simple breakdown: It was nearing midnight, totally dark, nobody was around, we were two young women in a car, and a man we did not know approached our car and knocked on the window. When you put it that way, no one can blame us for punching the gas!
Life is like one big choose your own adventure book. May all your adventures be safe ones.
Fly in my eye
September 22, 2005 | Leave a CommentPosted by admin | Filed Under Erin Weed's Blog
Last night I spoke at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. What a fantastic crowd, and a pretty big one too. I’d say there were about 300 fight girls in attendance. My male assistant, Rob, was nearly seven feet tall. (Which always makes things interesting…I’m always up for a challenge!) The gig was awesome, but there were some strange events that took place. First, I was doing the lecture part of my program when mid-sentence, the biggest fly ever zooms directly into my right eye! Instinctively both my hands flew to cover my face, and I yelled, “What the!” (Thankfully stopping myself before screaming an obscenity.) So I asked the crowd, “Did you guys just see that fly bombard me?” Everyone did, and they started hysterically laughing. I mean, this was an enormous ballroom, and this stupid fly decides to divebomb the lone speaker on stage. Just when I think it can’t get weirder, it did. About 10 minutes later into the lecture, some girl in the crowd spontaneously falls out of her chair. It was too obvious to ignore, so I was like, “Hey, are you okay back there?” (Just FYI, she emerged from the ordeal without injury.) A big thanks to all the Rhodes gals who came out, despite it being test time. Holla!
Tri Update
September 21, 2005 | Leave a CommentPosted by admin | Filed Under Erin Weed's Blog
You’ll be happy to know that I survived my triathlon on Sunday, and raised quite a bit of money to rebuild the domestic violence and rape crisis centers affected by Hurricane Katrina. The swim had me a little freaked, with the jelly fish and all. I know that one touched me at one point, but I quickly did my mental exercise of pretending that I swimming in my bathtub. (and thus avoiding a major panic attack) The bike leg was rough, because I hadn’t taken into account the very strong winds coming off the ocean. The run actually felt easy after that bike ride! So I finished with a personal best time of one hour and 39 minutes. Overall, it was a great time. And the cool thing about the Danskin Triathlon Series is that all the racers are so cool to each other. No throwing elbows or insults at these tris. Instead, when people smoke you on the bike ride, they yell behind them, “Good job! Keep it up!” One of the most inspiring things about this race is the Team Survivor. It’s basically a bunch of cancer survivors who do the race…it’s truly girl power in motion.
Just a Moon Jelly…phew!
September 16, 2005 | Leave a CommentPosted by admin | Filed Under Erin Weed's Blog
Good news! Turns out that the jellyfish that I’ll be swimming with on Sunday for the triathlon are just harmless Moon Jellyfish, and they won’t kill me. How do I know this? Turns out that one of my endearing blog readers is also a marine biologist and did some research on the issue. (Thanks Lisa!) Now I feel a bit more assured. Several other blog readers e-mailed me as well, but were taunting me for being scared of jellyfish. They marveled at the fact that I teach people fight bad guys for a living, but can’t handle a measly slimy creature. I guess we all have our weaknesses. Another reader made a helpful suggestion. She advised me to say, “Stop. Leave me alone. I don’t want any problems” in the event I am confronted by a jellyfish. Thanks for the advice.
Indy
September 13, 2005 | Leave a CommentPosted by admin | Filed Under Erin Weed's Blog
This week I had the awesome opportunity to return to Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana to give the Girls Fight Back program to about 200 gals. The last time I was there was fall of 2002, and it was great to be back. The program went really well, and as you can see in the photo, some people stuck around to demo their fave self-defense move for the camera. Rock on, Indy!
So this past weekend my husband and I drove to the site of my upcoming triathlon that takes place on Sunday. It’s a .5 mile swim in the Atlantic Ocean, an 11 mile bike ride and then a 5K run. (3.1 miles) So I’ve been training for awhile, and felt confident, but thought it would be a good idea to check out the race site. I’m not scared of swimming in the ocean, so I didn’t think it would be an issue. But what I hadn’t counted on were jellyfish! Seriously, jellyfish are my nemesis. They really freak me out…and they were everywhere floating in the ocean. I was like, “Oh man, what have I gotten myself into?” So it’s getting down to zero hour…four days ‘till I swim with the jellies! Wish me luck…or even better, donate to the cause I’m competing for. (See Sept. 8 blog entry for details)
The Wrath of Katrina
September 8, 2005 | Leave a CommentPosted by admin | Filed Under Erin Weed's Blog
No one can seem to escape the mighty fist of Mother Nature, especially the victims of hurricane Katrina. As a typical American, I have attempted to absorb the mass amount of pain and destruction by watching it on CNN from my comfy home or a cozy hotel room. After the real destruction began to take hold, I remember thinking to myself all the violent aftershocks it could cause. After all, what’s to keep bad guys in check when they already have nothing to lose? The next morning, I awoke to the morning news reporting on children and women being raped in the bathrooms at the convention center. Since then, I have watched as countless people try to put into words the obliteration that has consumed their lives, only to recount being sexually assaulted or witnessing someone be shot and killed on top of it all. It makes you think to yourself…what can I do? How can I help? With so many problems to tackle, it’s easy to just get overwhelmed and do nothing. But as Ghandi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” On Sunday, Sept. 18th, I will be competing in the New York Metro Danskin Women’s Triathlon. I have been training for it all summer, yet all this time I haven’t been able to figure out what I was doing this for. (It’s not for the love of pain and exhaustion, that’s for sure.) But I am happy to tell you that the “why” has now been revealed to me. I will be swimming, biking and running to raise funds for domestic violence shelters and sexual assault centers destroyed by the hurricane. Many shelters have been leveled, women are not registering wtih the Red Cross out of fear their ex-husbands will find them, and children have been violated under the very worst of circumstances. The victims of these violent crimes have so much more to deal with than just not having a home to return to…and they will need these services to be up and running to assist them in their journey to heal and be safe again. If you are able, I would greatly appreciate your donation to the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault Hurricane Relief Fund. (California is organizing it, but ALL donations will go directly to the rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters of areas devastated by Katrina.) Funds will be used to relocate staff and victims to safer locations, provide food, shelter and will bring in advocates from surrounding areas to help with counseling. I have personally validated the legitimacy of this organization, and would appreciate any assistance you might contribute. Keep the victims of this tragedy in your mind and heart…and maybe wish me an encouraging thought as I get through this triathlon! Thanks so much for your support.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Read more about this particular Hurricane Relief Fund
More info about the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence
Rocky Mountains and Fried Gator
September 7, 2005 | Leave a CommentPosted by admin | Filed Under Erin Weed's Blog
Being that college is officially in session, this tends to be a particularly busy time for GFB. I started out at Johnson & Wales University in Denver, where I addressed the entire freshman class. First I gave the brand spankin’ new “How to Be A Bad Victim” program to both the men and women, which was very well received. The gentlemen then exited for some Karaoke and in the Student Union (my kind of school!) and the JW ladies and I got down to business. Simply put, we opened up a Rocky Mountain Can O’ Whoop-Ass. My scary bad guy for the event was a student who had participating in a cross-dressing skit before my program, so he still had full make-up on while being my male assailant. I can tell you, fighting against a man 10 times more glam than myself was certainly a first! While in the Denver area, I managed to squeeze in a Willie Nelson concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater. What a fantastic show! Red Rocks is the coolest venue ever to check out a good music act, built among the flatirons of Colorado. I can assure you that Willie might be old, but he’s still got game. He recently came out with a reggae album, which I find hysterical. From Denver I flew to Tampa, Florida to speak at the University of South Florida. I was brought there by an old friend from high school named Lisa. She was actually a band buddy during my very abbreviated French Horn musical career. She’s gone on to become a Biology Ph.D. student at USF, and is a huge GFB fan. So again I did the “How to Be a Bad Victim” program to both the ladies and gentlemen of USF, and then the females in attendance busted a move GFB style. Afterwards, Lisa took me to dinner where I had my first experience eating alligator. (see photo) It kinda tasted like fried, rubber chicken. When in Florida, do what the Floridians do!