Holly Grande: Short and Sweet

So, I earned some geek cred this weekend when the boy dragged me to a Magic: The Gathering tournament.

Here are some things I am: A nerd, a bibliophile, a digital PR-geek, a gamer.

Here are some things I am not: a singer, a trivia wiz, a Magic player.

But we packed up some overnight bags and me, the boy and one of his friends headed off to Alabama for a preview tournament for the new cards that are coming out. As we got in the car, the boy said to me, half with astonishment, “I didn’t really think you’d say yes when I asked you to come.”

Awesome. :)

Magic works kinda like two-player solitaire, but with dragons and mana and wizards. I got a crash course in the game when we arrived in Alabama—we were staying over a second friend’s apartment with his awesome wife and adorable 3-year-old.

Anyway, players have their own decks that they build from an incredible amount of cards that are sold in 15-card packs, like Pokémon. There are monsters and spells and characters with different abilities. You use the cards to fight your opponent and his characters until someone’s life points gets to zero. The way this preview tournament would work is that the players would be given 6 packs of cards, and they would build decks using only those cards. Then they’d fight to the death until there was only one player left.

There is more to it, but that’s the gist. When the boy reads this, he is gonna be horrified at my description.

So we drove to the tournament Saturday morning. With three games under my belt and only a vague understanding of how a tournament works, I was very worried that I was going to frustrate every player they paired me against. I thought, this was a terrible idea: I had no clue how to play Magic. The boy tries to reassure me that the players will probably be pretty patient with me. Probably. Also, I will probably be one of two girls there. This was not reassuring.

The tournament was sponsored by a comic book shop. Since it was Free Comic Book Day, it was pretty crowded, and there were all kinds of people in superhero costumes. The tournament itself was being held in an adjoining building with rows of tables set up. There were signs with directions and labels for tables and a not unimpressive stack of boxes fill with Magic cards.

Okay, imagine the whitest, geekiest guys you know. Do it. Get that picture in your head.

That is exactly who were playing at this tournament.

Yeah.

I told the boy that I would be sitting this particular tournament out, grabbed my book and prepared to read for six hours. I sat at a table that eventually became the girlfriend table as it filled up with a couple of moms (yes, you read that right), girlfriends and sisters. It looked like it was going to be a long day.
And then it wasn’t. One of the boy’s friends dropped out early and asked if I wanted to play at one of the side tables. He had a couple of extra decks and we started a multiplayer game. Another guy joined in, and soon we had a four-player game, and I was having fun.

A lot of fun.

I was absolutely destroyed in the first game. Like, did not have a chance as all my monsters were sent to the graveyard and my life points were decimated in a single swoop. So we played another, and I got a fan in the form of a young 20-something with fantastic hair who began to advise me on what cards to play. It was geeky and hilarious and I was enjoying myself.

I think, a lot of times, we go into things with expectations already in place, and it’s really hard to override those expectations, especially when—on the surface—people seem like they meet them perfectly. But once I got over myself (I play World of Warcraft, do I really have room to judge?), and started talking to people, I had an amazing time. In the end, I didn’t win a single game, and my understanding of how to play is still only borderline, but I have a lot more respect for the players.

Oh, the boy ended up winning the tournament.

He’s still getting his ass dragged out dancing this summer.

Posted by Holly at 4:27 PM 0 comments  

Labels: friends

Next week will mark my final week as an intern at Edelman. I'm nervous and excited, and a little sad.

Overall, the experience was amazing. I learned more about social media, public relations and technology in these few past months than I could ever have expected, and there is still so much more to learn.

I made friends, too. Great friends with life experiences and knowledge to share over intermittent trips to the kitchen or ice cream cooler. I know I will keep in touch with everyone, but it will be sad to say goodbye.

I don't know what the future holds, but I am confident that good things are ahead. Wish me luck.

In other site news, I am working on updating hollygrande.com. My portfolio, experiences and bio have all been updated.

Posted by Holly at 9:10 PM 2 comments  

Labels: career, friends

I am sure I don't need to tell you just how important it is to vote, but just in case, here are a few links I have come across.

Register to vote here at RocktheVote.

Find out of you are registered to vote, your polling location, local state rules and other information here. (Disclaimer: Site is affiliated with the Obama Campaign.)

Find your poll or registration location here.

Check your voter registration status and register here (Thanks Lis! Site affiliated with MoveOn.org).

Learn more about the candidates and their take on key issues here, or at their official websites.

Barack Obama
John McCain
Cynthia McKinney
Bob Barr

Go vote. :)

Posted by Holly at 12:58 PM 0 comments  

Labels: career, communication, family, friends

I snagged this Interview meme from Cynthia_French at livejournal. She is a slam poet, artist and roller girl, and she asked me these great questions.

Here are the rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you five questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

1. Was there a particular reason you friended me on live journal?

I follow Cynthia French because she is an amazingly talented slam poet. I love slam, and I think it can be an extremely powerful artform. My alma mater had an impressive slam team, and the performances were fantastic. After seeing my friend Samer perform, I decided to check out the online slam community, and I came across Cynthia's blog.

2. What do you want your prize novel to be about?

I have a library of stories in my head, many of which are young adult novels. I currently have three stories that are plotted out, and one that is written through the third chapter. I often have to put them on the back burner, but I am confident that I will complete them and pitch them to a literary agent.

I read a lot as a kid, and my favorite books were fantasy and modern fantasy novels. If you take a look at my summer reading list, you'll find more of the same. My prize novel will likely be fantasy, too. The story I am currently writing is a modern fantasy that takes place in a small town outside Charlotte, North Carolina, but that is all the information you'll get.

3. What's your favorite book and how many times have you read it?

This is a tie between Jurassic Park (six or seven times) and Where the Heart Is (three times). I am also partial to Galveston (three times), The Last Unicorn (five times) and The Monster at the End of the Book (eleventy billion times growing up).

4. Is there a book that's been made into a movie that you've enjoyed? Was the movie true to the book?

I enjoy most books-to-movies. I like to view the book and the film as separate entities, and if the movie is not exactly like the book, I am cool with that. I liked Stardust, by Neil Gaiman. It was mostly true, with a few things changed to help the pace. Oh, The Last Unicorn is classic: that was a brilliant adaption.

5. What are you focused on right now in your life?

I am focused on getting a job. I recently left the firm I was with to pursue other opportunities, and I have been applying to different positions. My dream position right now would be with an international PR firm as a junior account executive, and that is what I am looking for. I know I am good at what I do, and I am proud of my accomplishments, but that perfect position won't come to me, so I am actively scouring the web, want ads and company websites.

Posted by Holly at 12:28 AM 1 comments  

Labels: books, career, friends

This is kind of a sentimental entry, so bear with me, folks. :) My friend JoAnna reminded me to write this when she friended me on facebook.

Since moving back home, I’ve had the great fortune to meet up with some of my old friends in high school. It’s happened by chance—I ran into Kelly at the grocery—or it’s happened incidentally at a party or get-together (Fun Fact: Thomas and Ryan host the best 4th of Julys). In either case, I have been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to pick up conversations where they left off. These kids, some of them married and some of them professionals, are clearly grown up, but our histories remain.

When I was in high school, I was a new kid, and I had a hard time making close friends: I saw these kids who had known each other since they were in kindergarten, and here I was a new girl from New York. I had an awful lot of acquaintances, but very, very few good friends. Looking back, I think it was more my fault than anything: I was shyer in high school than I am now, and I was afraid to infringe on these friendships.

When I went to college, that shyness was gone, and I met an amazing group of friends who have stuck with me through some really tough times despite us only knowing one another for three or four years. I guess it was easier to become close to them because we were on the same ground, thrust into this new place with new people and experiences. It was easy to make friends because everyone was looking for them. We were all a little homesick and all a little lonely, and college is the perfect place to reach out and meet people.

And now, I think, I’m in that position again. My former high school friends and I are post graduates. We’ve been separated by distance and time—in some cases, I haven’t seen these kids in four years. But even though our experiences are so different, we’re now in that place where we’re not quite adults (after all, a huge group of us live in our parents’ basements), but we’re definitely “grown up.” It’s a really nice place to be, I think, because we can reminisce on what Kyle did in the lunchroom in eleventh grade, but we can also talk about how scary it is to be a grown up, how hard it is to find a job or an apartment, and how weird it is to be finished with school.

I am so happy to have found these friends, and so grateful that we can reconnect. Being grown-up is lonely and scary sometimes, and having friends along for the ride makes it so much more fun. So, I’d like to thank my friends, old and new.

Have you reconnected with any old friends since graduating or moving? I’d love to hear your stories.

Posted by Holly at 3:04 PM 7 comments  

Labels: college, friends