Irresponsibly being Responsible: Summer Time and the Livin's Easy

Well it's really hard to make a quick summary of all the exciting stuff that happened this summer. So I'll try and pick out a few key moments of it so ya'll don't get too bored.

ROAD TRIP back to the Mitten

So Deener flew for those last few days I was out here and I made it a point to show her as much of my life as possible. So the first day we just kind of took it easy so she could adjust to the altitude. Friday I decided to get her little butt into shape and we went on a 3 hour hike up Red Rocks. Saturday we drove up to A-Basin to do a little shredding. Now the drive up was always quite interesting, it was mid-80's in Denver so we drove up to about 12,000 ft with no top on the jeep and took some pictures at the continental divide. We then proceeded back down to ski on the slush that was left at the resort (no complaints though since it was 65 degrees, sunny and in June)! The coolest thing was that the snow would erode and eventually turned into running water down the slopes. You could just hop onto the mini stream, hydroplane down it and hop back onto the snow. SICK!!!

The road trip back presented an interesting surprise. I accidently took the wrong freeway (76 instead of 70) and drove us into Kansas, whoops. So that added about 5 hours to our trip but did give us a chance to pick up some sweet doo-rags.

FLORIDA

The day after I got back from Michigan, Eugene talked me into flying down to Florida for a week before Summer School started. It was a lot of fun as always (Boating through thunderstorms, winning a beer pong tournament and getting the worst hangover ever).

SUMMER SCHOOL in Rochester Hills

So with a little help from Aunt Sue and my amazing resume ;) I somehow landed a job in the Rochester School District for the summer. Now this is awesome for several reasons:

1.) Gets my foot in the door of one of the best school districts in the country
2.) Builds my resume
3.) Pays ridiculously well so I can dig myself out of debt

Teaching in this district is way different than the urban setting i'm used to. Even though I was teaching a recovery course, the students are much more motivated and better behaved. I thought it was quite amusing that my supervisors and co-workers would stop periodically to "check on me" because they "didn't know if I'd be able to handle the kids." All in all it was a great learning experience and rewarding (I only had one student fail each semester as opposed to the 50% I have at DPS).

MY NEW BIKE

So I finally decided to stop worrying about the price and buy a road bike. It's F*ing awesome. I bought an entry level tri bike (Trek Equinox 5) and have been riding it like crazy since the day I brought it home. Here's a picture :) The first day I decided to book it down the Tienken hill and passed a car (probably +40 mph) and then hit a small crack in the road and blew my tire. I then proceeded to carry my bike to the nearest gas station and called my Aunt Lori to have Aunt Sue pick me up. Since then i've been much smarter about where and how I ride and have yet to experience a similar mishap.

CHERRY FESTIVAL

My old roomies Tank and Al easily convinced me to pay a visit to the Cherry Capital (Traverse City) for a weekend of old fashioned craziness. Easily the best weekend of the summer. Since this weekend is way to hard to describe in a single blog posting, here are some things that stick out: Casino, K-ho (the only lesbian bar in Northern Michigan), "summer time in Northern Michigan", waking up on a beach in the morning, and hanging out with moms at the bar.

Great Lakes Relay

Even better than last year. We had 11 people on our team as opposed to 7 last year and I ran extremely well. My last three runs of the relay were all sub 6 min pace ranging from 5:40 to 5:55. I also finished top 12 on my second leg of the race "Tommy Toyota" which dubbed the hardest leg of the 270 mile relay. Of course when I returned I was injured and took 3 weeks off from running. But I'm back at it again and slowly adjusting to the altitude.

Vacation with the Family

The following weekend (third in a row up in Northern Michigan) I went up to Gaylord to hangout with the family at a cottage on Lake Otsego. As usual it was great being able to water ski (I slalom skied well for the first time!), ride my bike out through the backcountry, and chill with the fam.

Back to Colorado

So I left last Friday to head back to Denver (the Sunshine State) and return to the real world. The drive back was quite pleasant since Samantha decided to keep me company on the 18 hour drive. It took a little longer to get out here since we decided to go to a wedding on Friday and spent about 1.5 hours going to motels with No Vacancy in West Illinois.

We rolled into Colorado around midnight then spent most of Saturday hiking through Red Rocks and doing a 1.5 hour run for 3 hours (probably not the best run to start out with when jumping a mile in altitude).

Road trip hilights: No Vacancy, "that girl is so dangerous", trying to camp at Red Rocks summit, Rave Run and the beautiful city of Proctor Colorado.

RANDOMS

Fourth of July in Ann Arbor, new high scores in frolf, Drunk History, Off Roading, Eugene playing volleyball with one leg, Roxanne and Ball Room Blitz, using a crane to lift Cullen out of the jeep, "i'm gonna do a shot with every single person that walks in the door," Texas Road House, Wednesday Dinners and of course, Eugene's V-knee.