You know, traveling the country as a GFB speaker really is a dream job.  I love seeing different parts of this great country we live in, meeting awesome new people and teaching men and women how to kick booty if necessary.  However, there is the less than glamorous side of our jet-setting ways.  From the colds picked up in crowded airports to the sometimes questionable items offered at the free hotel breakfast buffets, there are many times that us GFB speakers simply have to put on our “big girl panties” and deal with some less than ideal situations.  At this point, I should warn you that this post may be considered TMI (too much information) for some of you.  Proceed with caution.

For our first program of the 2011 Spring Tour, I took a leisurely 5 hour drive down to the adorable little town of Kennesaw, GA.  I left pretty early in the morning, so I drank lots of coffee and I was nursing a bit of a sore throat, so I was downing water like crazy.  I made a couple of stops; one for lunch and one to fill up the ole gas tank, but as I approached Kennesaw, my bladder was making it pretty clear that well, to put it bluntly, I needed to pee….like whoa!  (I told you this wasn’t glamorous, ok!?)

Now, I wasn’t far from my hotel and I was determined not to make another pitstop, so I pushed my way through and hoped for a speedy desk clerk to help me get checked in as fast as possible.  And when I arrived at the hotel, the desk clerk was wonderful; efficient and professional; everything I could have hoped for!  I grabbed my key and within minutes I was standing outside my assigned room.  Only problem was…my keys wouldn’t work.  I tried desperately to get it to open with one key, then the other, but after about forty tries with each key, I headed back downstairs.

Next problem, the desk clerk had been called out to help another guest and she was alone on duty, so I stood there at the desk waiting to be helped for what felt like 45 minutes and I’m sure was less than 2 minutes in reality.  When the desk clerk came back, she was again curteous and kind.  She rode up the elevator with me and tried to open the door herself.  No success.  She told me to relax there in the hall lobby and she would return with a new room key for me.  Which was great, except that my ability to relax was long gone as I stood there in the hotel hallway doing everything short of the international pee-pee dance to keep myself from well…losing it. 

I was just starting to consider my options when there she came; my angel, my savior dressed in a blue blazer.  The wonderful staff member helping me arrived with a new room key and and an apology for the inconvenience.  I thanked her profusely, told her it was really no problem and then shut my door, threw down my luggage and raced to the facilities.  Ah, the glamour of the road!  Lol!

All my suffering was well worth it because Kennesaw State University students came out for our Students Fight Back program ready to have some fun.  The lectures chair at KSU, Jilly, put together an awesome event that featured lots of laughs, yummy pizza and some major butt kicking.

The first program of the tour always sets the pace for those to follow and if the KSU program is any indicator of what’s to come this spring, we are in for a wicked awesome tour!  I’ve got lots of programs within driving distance this semester, so you can trust that I’ll be making many more pitstops during my future drives!

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First, I just need to say how proud I am of myself! I know it’s totally selfish to start a blog about my own awesomeness, but it has to be said- I have become an expert traveler. People who know the “old traveling Megan” are probably laughing at this, but the tables have turned my friends. I can pack all needed belongings in the smallest of carry on bags, get through security in record time and finess my way to better seats once on the plane! Then the best part, when I arrive to my destination and get my rental car- I don’t get lost! It’s truly amazing and I’ve lost all fears of traveling and/or not knowing where the heck I am. Ok. Moving on…

Michigan is not warm this time of year. I’m super glad the coat won out in the “should I bring a coat” debate. I did the Greeks Fight Back Program at Albion College and it was awesome! I don’t get to do this program a whole lot, so I was really excited to have a room full of Greek leaders…and there were a lot of them! One of the important messages we stress in this program is being a good bystander. I think this is important for everyone, especially this community. Greeks can have a big influence on their campus community and I reminded them, a la Superman, that with great power comes great responsibility. They were a pretty great group, so I  imagine they already take the message to heart, but I hoped learned some valuable ways they can help keep their campus safe.

Thanks to Jason(anyone from Pittsburgh is an automatic buddy of mine) and Lisa from Kappa Delta!

Let’s end with my not so strong quality (to even things out), which is taking pictures. They never come out! WHY!!? I need a new camera…perhaps as a reward for being an awesome traveler?? Still love this though…

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The fierce ladies at LaSalle University!

Last week, I finished up my second East Coast Girls Fight Back! Extravaganza at LaSalle University and I learned a few things.  Here are my lessons from LaSalle:

1.  The ladies at LaSalle are fierce.  End of story.  However, should you need more evidence, check out the picture and you will have no argument left.

2.  Always bring two pairs of straight leg jeans to seminars. 

This might seem like a weird lesson to share but, here’s the deal.  We always wear straight leg jeans and pumas to seminars.  I brought my designated seminar jeans with me and all was fine until my clumsy streak reared its awkward head. As I was leaving the elevator to go to my hotel room, I fell and ate it so hard that both my jeans and knee were damaged, one of which (my jeans, thankfully) was damaged beyond repair.  I was left with only a pair of skinny jeans that look ridiculous with the pumas.  Lesson learned.

3.  Being my friend is dangerous.

Just ask my friend Tom, and he will confirm the above statement.  Tom lives on the East Coast and made the drive down to PA to say hi and see the GFB seminar.  As the only dude in attendance, Tom was roped into being our Scary Bad Guy and was a great sport about letting me throw down some serious fight moves on him in front of a crowd.  This, friends, is proof that being my friend can be dangerous.

I would like to give a big shout out to everyone who worked so hard to bring GFB to LaSalle.  I had a GREAT time!

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Bored this afternoon?  Looking for some thing entertaining to read on the Internet?  I’ve got a few things for you.  I’ve been trying to post these on our Facebook page, but Facebook has not been cooperative.  So click away!

Wonderful article about the 10th Annual Shannon McNamara Run and Walk held yesterday.

Article from Wesley College about GFB Jaime’s recent program there. (Be sure to check out the picture accompanying this article in which Jaime looks like she totally knows what she is talking about.  Awesome!)

And I’ve seen a lot of great success stories recently.  Here are a few:

Woman fights off a man trying to abduct her.

13-year-old girl fights off a knife-wielding attacker.

12-year-old girl tricks a would-be kidnapper with her iPod Touch.

Found an interesting article?  Saw a success story online?  Friend us on Facebook and share your link there.  Or if Facebook hates you like it obviously hates me, put your link in the comments!

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So, yesterday was Halloween and the students of Stetson University were already gearing up for some spooky games when I visited last week.

Evidentially, the school had an elaborate game devised in which some students would be “zombies” and would have the goal of infecting as many students, staff, and faculty members with the zombie virus by the end of the day.  Now, if I had known about this prior to my visit there, I would have researched some appropriate self-defense techniques for fighting the undead.  Instead, we stuck with the basic Students Fight Back curriculum and had a great time.  Hopefully, no one needed to engage the zombies in hand-to-hand combat.

Other fun facts about Stetson University: parts of the movie The Waterboy starring Adam Sandler were shot there and they love bananas foster (which is also one of my favorite desserts despite the fact it does not have chocolate.)

Thanks for having us students of Stetson!  Hope you all survived your Halloween festivities!

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I just loved speaking to the students of Guilford College last week, not only because they are right down the street from me, but also because they came ready to have some fun!

I mean look at those faces.  Awesome!

And I got to speak inside a room that can best be described as a planetarium, what’s better than that?

Thanks for havin’ us on campus, GC!

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GFB Jaime and Dena, the awesome lady who brought GFB to Huntingtown High School.

Last week while I was on the east coast, I got to bring Girls Fight Back to the fabulous young ladies of Huntingtown High School. I was so excited when I peeked out from backstage and saw about 700 high school ladies ready for GFB.  This event was jam-packed with excitement.  The ladies were pretty much a perfect crowd . . . super energetic with just the right hint of sass.  I also had a scary bad guy who doubles as a drama teacher in real life.  I would like to drop a big thanks on Mr. Andersen for being the most believable SBG yet and an even bigger THANKS on Dena for all of her hard work to bring GFB to the high school.  We all truly appreciate it.  Finally, Push Pause TV on Fios covered the seminar and is putting together a story on Girls Fight Back at Huntingtown High School. All around, it was awesome!

To all of you wonderful ladies at Huntingtown, I had an amazing time sharing GFB’s message with you and talking with you after the seminar.  Thanks, everybody and stay dangerous!

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GFB Jaime rockin' the sweet shades from Salisbury University.

Hi all!  Last night was awesome for a couple of reasons.  First, I got to hang out with the lovely ladies of Salisbury University.  Second, they gave me the sweet shades you see in the picture at the top of this blog.  We had a great time talking about intuition, awareness, and kickin’ booty! I want to give a big thanks to the wonderful ladies who coordinated this event and brought me to campus.  I had a fabulous time at Salisbury . . . Stay dangerous, ladies!

Fighting back at Salisbury University.

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Hi everyone.  I checked in to my hotel today and met the very nice man who manages the hotel.  He asked what I was doing in town and I told him about Girls Fight Back and what we do.  He looked at me like he was really surprised and asked, “You teach people self-defense?” I said yes and he replied, “You don’t look like it.”

Just to be clear, he definitely did not mean this as an insult; he just found it surprising.  I actually think it is kind of cool and goes to show that it doesn’t matter what gender you are or how big and muscley you are . . . and yes, I just made up the word “muscley.”  It just shows that anyone can learn to defend themselves and, once they reach a certain point in training, can teach other people how to defend themselves. 

The main message here is not to let your size or anything else about yourself make you thinking are not capable of being your own best protector, because it’s more about your fighting spirit and willingness to really go for it than size or some other variable.  Also, for all you ladies out there, remember that fighting like a girl is actually a good thing.

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Miami University throwin' down!

Okay, I admit both places were in Ohio so it wasn’t quite the glorious road trip that the title implies.  Last week, I spent some quality time in Ohio and the first stop was Miami University and they were super cool . . . and creative.  For example, The Programming Board has an amazingly large banner that they named Abraham, which stands for “A Banner Reaching Awesome Heights and Miracles.” Once I heard that, I knew I was with good people and that we were going to have a good time.  I had a great time talking with everyone about personal safety and kickin’ booty when necessary.  A big thanks goes out to Devin, the event coordinator and Scary Bad Guy.  Devin is actually a repeat Scary Bad Guy and has mad skills in this area. 

The next stop was Walsh University and, while they did not have a banner named Abraham, Bernie, one of the event coordinators, taught me a catchy song called “Stop,” which is a song about ending harassment and other inappropriate things.  The crowd was awesome, very interactive and entertaining.  I have to a throw out another big thank you to Steven, my very, VERY nervous Scary Bad Guy and Mike, one of the other awesome event coordinators.  And, Mike don’t think I forgot about the pony I demanded in return for this seminar.  I’ll keep an eye on my mail for it. 

Overall, my trip to Ohio was a huge success and a lot of fun.  I had a great time with all of the awesome students at Walsh and Miami!

GFB Jaime with the awesome event coordinators at Walsh University!

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