Hahaha. I love this photo. Look at the glee and excitement on everyone's face as Alysha and her friend get ready to square off (after a bunch of good-natured shit-talking). Yoni's totally cheering them on!
...but couldn't pin her! Look at the size of his bicep and Nicole is just totally relaxed and smiling. That's her ultimate weapon - to just stand there smiling and unfazed while guy's try their hardest pin her. Hahaha.
In the summer of 2008, word of Nicole's freakish strength had spread through Manhattan like wildfire and each night scores of gentlemen were lining up to see if they were man enough to pin her! Lefty (who was arm wrestling with his right hand?) went first! I think he came really close...
Friday night last call at Hanger Bar! I love going super late at night because it's right down the street and when you get there late no one is there but locals! This also meant that instead of being tied up serving drinks, Nicole was free to arm wrestle us!
Check out the totally legit interlocking hand-grib on the bar. This ain't no joke, sheeee-it. Also, please note Nicole's expression as she summons the extra bit of power necessary to TAKE HIM OVER THE TOP! UNNNGGGGHHHH!
The worst part is when you'll be totally trying your hardest to pin her arm and it'll look like she's trying really hard to resist, and then all of a sudden she'll turn and start having a casual conversation with folks at the bar (or worse, start pouring drinks which I've also seen her do). So god-damn funny.
After Mike lost to Phil, a lady that we all work with (I forget her name) decided to challenge Mike to a match! Everyone started teasing Mike and the ENTIRE company gathered around the table to watch. Mike is the king of shit-talking and knew that if he allowed himself to be defeated by a girl, he would never hear the end of it so he started really psyching himself up. Mike got himself so pumped up that when the match started he almost threw the lady out of her seat. (Which was probably the funniest thing I've seen in like 5 years). Here's the pic I snapped (of the lady yelling and almost getting her arm broken) right when we yelled "GO!" Hahahahaha.
Whenever alcohol and competitions are mixed, you can be fairly sure that sooner or later some arm wrestlin's gonna break out! Mike Montero was making excuses about why his team lost and it turned into Phil challenging him to some arm wrestling! Mike felt pretty confident going into the match, but Phil immediately took a strong lead!
Here's Leigh summoning an extra jolt of power from her broken, wonky finger. In the end, they called it a draw! Fancy should've totally turned his hat around backwards and turned "from a man to a MACHINE!", ala Lincoln Hawk (!!!), the competitive arm wrestler (expertly!) portrayed by Sylvester Stallone's in the greatest (only?) arm wrestling-themed movie of all time: "Over the Top". What's that? You've never heard of this incredible movie? Dont' worry, YouTube's got you covered.
Not to go too far off onto an "Over the Top" tangent, but I think it's probably important (cathartic?) for me to mention that not only did I see this movie in the theater during its original theatrical run, I saw this movie on my very first date! How insane is that? I was in fifth grade, and Geri Fox and I went on a double date with Jimmy Rotsides and Renee Rusch! Hahaha. Afterwards, the girls' parents picked them up and then Jimmy and I went to the Ledgewood Mall where I bought one-pound bag of watermelon jellybeans (at Sound-o-rama!) and then went and slept over Jimmy's house. We talked about how awesome our dates went and how awesome we were for taking "our girls" to the "right" movie. I ended up eating the entire one-pound bag of jellybeans and threw up in the middle of night. Holy jeez, what memories! How did I get so old?
And now it's time for the "where are they now" part of this VH1 series: Geri Fox is married, I ran into her and met her husband at Bev Chase's wedding! Jimmy Rotsides, unfortunately, died. He sort of grew up into a rough character and sometime around '99 or so he ended up falling out of a canoe while fishing and drowned in a pond in my home town. Sad. As for Renee Rusch, I have no idea what happened to her! So Renee, if you ever read this, say hi! (Okay, this is starting to sound like the lyrics to a Bryan Adams' song "Jimmy died, Geri got married..." so I guess that means it's time to leave memory lane and get back to...
I know it looks like they're kidding around, but I assure you, this was DEADLY SERIOUS. Here they are approaching the end of minute one and they're still locked up at the top! (Check out Alexis' face as she cheers them on. Hahaha!)
Brother Lawrence was there too! A few drinks later and somehow an arm wrestling competition broke out. (Which has happened more than I'd like to admit).
The next event we were scheduled to compete in was the moonpie eating contest! But when we arrived at the location, we were told that they'd run out of moonpies and that we should figure out a way to keep our kids entertained for a few minutes while they ran out to get more moonpies. So I suggested that the Korean teachers should all arm wrestle each other, which the kids loved! (I hoped that by the time the Korean teachers had all finished arm wrestling each other that they'd be back with the moonpies).
No such luck. The Korean teachers had all finished arm wrestling each other and the moonpies still hand't shown up yet! This meant that I'd have to square off against my co-teacher and roommate Dan who was a whole lot bigger than me. I gave it my all, and put up a decent fight for at least a few seconds...
