It all came down to this.

What a week. Far too many things happened every single day to describe each, but there were several highlights that can be briefly mentioned. Last weekend was a stressful one in that I was working both days when I should have been studying for my 6 EMT practical exams that were upcoming. Monday was uneventful, but Tuesday rolled around and made everything a little more interesting.

It began with the alarm chirping away at 530 AM... Always a good start. I got to work at 7 to change the entire department around while running on minimal sleep. More fun. Luckily I got out at 11 so that I could get to lunch for my highly anticipated meeting with one of the most well known and respected journalists/anchors in Colorado: Ed Sardella.

It is really a fluke how things worked out. For starters, My mom's boss just happened to start talking to a friend from high school, who just happened to be the news anchor that put KUSA on the map. He just happened to be working just an hour south of Fort Collins, and when he learned of my career plans, he was more than happy to meet with me. So we went to Austin's Grill in Old Town for lunch. He gave me a ton of advice and told me a ton of stories that ranged from interviewing presidents and being on Walter Cronkite's show. This guy won a ton of awards and is one of the most highly regarded people in the state, and he had lunch with ME, of all people. Funny how things work out.

Once lunch was done, it was back to the grind of cramming for the week full of testing I had. Practicals wrapped up Tuesday night, and as soon I was out, I went for one of the best rain-runs I've had in quite a while. Huge thunderstorm popped up just to the east and the trail I was on had a view of everything, all at dusk. Amazing.

Wednesday was spent studying all day and night, and Thursday was do or die day. I worked all day, studied for a couple more hours, and then walked into my final not knowing what to expect. Sure, I felt OK and could tell you the difference between diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic syndrome, but I was still wary of his 200 question, timed final.

Nearing the end of the exam was like ending that Marathon back in May all over again. 10 weeks and endless hours of studying, thinking, stressing, and working were all about to pay off. Walking out of that room was great, and hearing that I did great on the Final and wound up with a B in the class was the best news all week.

It was over. Totally over. All that is left is to take the national registry exam next week and then I will be a fully functioning and certified EMT.

Friday was spent starting and finishing my final project for that easy journalism class that just nagged at me all summer, and I fully expect an A in there as well.

Needless to say, the week was stressful and rewarding; the culmination of an entire summer's endless day's of work, school, and stress. Above all, I am glad it all happened the way it did. Yea, things wound up a little different than I planned, but hey, 1 year ago at this time I was a completely different person. I like who I am now and wonder what the upcoming 2 weeks of summer (camping, traveling, and biking) and next semester will have in store.

Time keeps on ticking...

It's interesting how time can press onward so quickly, yet so slowly at the same time. It almost seems that, at times, I am living 2 different lives with both of them being on autopilot. One of those lives just goes on each day, waking up at 7 AM, working till 5, and then going to class until 10pm, coming home, sleeping, and doing it all again. Then the other life never knows what to do. This happens on the off chance that I get a partial day off and can have at least some time to relax. Only problem is that I don't know the meaning of that word anymore. When not at work or in class, I am studying. Sometimes running fills that time, but not nearly like it should.

My birthday was a different scenario though. Waking up at 6AM to go fishing, running, and biking was great. That morning air is very different when there is actually time to breathe it. Fishing was fruitless once again, though a couple good bites and "the big one" that got away. Doesn't matter: it was a good time. From there a quick run and ride were in store, and the weather was perfect. After so needed R & R, a trip to Old Town was in store, followed by a delicious dinner and a trip to see Inception. Go see it. Seriously. It is amazing. That closed out the night, and all of a sudden I can no longer blame doing stupid things on common teenage angst. Bummer.

Otherwise, summer has been, well, not the time of easy going, late nights with friends and music like many often imagine. I'm ok with that. So long as I pass my certification exams and get all my paperwork/exams taken so I can be an EMT, life is ok. It will all pay off.

Clinical rotations are an incredible experience. I have seen what 80MPH motorcycle accidents look like, what massive drug overdoses look like, and why it is important to maintain good health when you age. Old people have problems, and that kinda scares me.

Otherwise, I have yet to camp, climb, hike, or do anything really eventful. Hopefully I'll b able to get up at least a couple 14ers before winter hits again. We shall see. All for now-time to go study some more.

Well I think it is safe to say that the past few days have been filled with actual summer activities for the first time all summer. What had been a nonstop work-class-work-class routine, I had a chance to go biking, play hockey, and (tomorrow) go fishing. I went for my first century bike ride: that means that I did 100 miles at once.

Went up to about 8000 feet elevation through the Poudre Canyon. It was gorgeous!



50 miles out and 50 miles back. Taking an all day trip solo was a great thing, and I hope to do it again soon.




I determined today that it is time for a new hockey stick. After 2 years, the blade finally snapped. Hopefully I can get a good fitting fiberglass stick for my birthday? If not I guess I will just have to take that time and go fishing. I finally got my license today and am going out in a few hours for the first time in years. We shall see how that goes.

Coming a long way just 1 month into summer

So I write this at an interesting time. I am sitting at my desk at my new apartment/condo/house after just getting a B on my EMT quiz, and I am realizing that I should probably get to sleep soon, but I am wide awake eating watermelon-A LOT of watermelon. With this brief stoppage of the nonstop summer, I decided to take a moment to write about the events of the past 4 weeks, and believe me when I say there have been no dull moments.

The week after returning to my empty apartment from my Florida vacation was filled with work. Nonstop work. A couple days of that were combined with NONSTOP cleaning of the apartment because I wanted as much of the security deposit as possible back. Poor college kid haha. After a Uhaul fiasco that would have involved me going to DENVER to get a truck, we just used Garrets tiny truck to make about 12 trips back and forth to move 3 peoples’ stuff across town. Fun stuff.

June finally came and we got moved into our new place. The east side of the tracks is a completely different life! I finally got all the right gang signs and shirt colors down, so life is good now. Haha but seriously, the place is great and is right on the creek and bike path and in a quiet neighborhood. And it is cheaper! All good things, minus the broken refrigerator door.
With June also came the start of my summer courses. Front Range is an interesting place, and EMS is a tough business. The class is 4 hrs/day 4 days/week. Needless to say, I am on my 4th week and struggling to keep my head above water. It is beyond difficult, the teacher is just like Dr. Cox from Scrubs, and I am loving every minute of it. I have learned a ton and really do hope to pass and get my Certification by the end of August and HOPEFULLY get an EMS job afterwards WHILE working on my double major at CSU.

Working 9-5 during the week while going to class from 545-10 M-TH is really hard. Like, REALLY hard. I have a new respect for people who do it all the time and still maintain a family and stuff. I am going crazy being unable to run for 2 hrs a day and not getting hope till late. And there hasn’t been a day when nothing is happening all summer. It’ll all pay off when August rolls around and I get my certification and have the money to pay rent all year. Even if I can’t make it onto the XC team in fall, I will still be doing marathon training. After all, gotta get sub 3:00 (preferably sub 2:45) at Boston in April.

I think the biggest change of the summer has come on the personal front. With 38 hr work weeks, class, running, long term goals, and all the little things, managing a good relationship with Elisa got really tough. We started drifting apart more and more, and then we made the grown up decision that we had our 4 years together and it was time to let go of the every thing we had been clinging on to. We broke up June 9, and there are 0 hard feelings. It was completely mutual, and it was the best decision for the both of us. It was hard, but it was needed. We still talk and hang out and heck, I even bought her and her roommates a dog today. Needless to say, we still are important to each other, only in different ways.

Obviously, summer vacation has been void of the vacation part. Madness at work, struggles with school, and difficulties with life are keeping me on my toes. In the end, I should be set up quite well for the long run, but until then, blog updates will be sparse, and studying will be copious. Until later, long live summer so I can actually enjoy some of it. That means I don’t wanna see snow till actual winter this year, Colorado!

Back to Reality

So 6 days after it began, my vacation across the country has ended. I currently write from the Dallas-Fort Worth International airport while waiting for our plane to get fixed (starter flow valve something or other?). My time in Florida was amazing except for the heat/humidity and drowning my phone in Gumby’s pool. We went bowling (got a 141 on the first game in months) and decided I wanna join a league. Just because. A relaxing evening at Logan’s place gave way to an action packed Thursday. Kickball was first up bright and early at 9am, and it got quite intense really quick. Even though it was hot, I tweaked my hip flexor while sliding, and I almost destroyed another phone, everyone had a great time.

A trip to the pool was in store next, and this involved beaching ourselves on the “shore.” Good news for a guy who doesn’t really like water haha.

Things took a turn for the worst when the great people at that amazing community college in Fort Collins finally answered their phones and answered my questions. Turns out my loan for summer courses wasn’t received in time and I was dropped from the full summer course load I was actually looking forward to. This is all after leaving 4 messages and emails and calling about 20 times in the past 3 weeks in an effort to tell them what is/was going on. I’m waitlisted again with little hope that I will actually get in.

From there, I finally got to check out downtown West Palm Beach and, ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean. I’ll say this right now: The Atlantic is hundred times better than the Pacific. Unlike cloudy, chilly San Diego beaches, WPB beaches were perfectly sunny and like bath water. It was a great change of pace, not to mention we drove a sports car to get there.

We took one last spin the in U Haul truck we called home for 2300 miles while we moved some furniture, and then had some amazing home cooked gourmet style food before heading off to Karaoke night at Gypsy Horse where we shot pool and just had a great time. Heading back to Logan’s around 2am, Gumby and I devoured whatever chunk of meat was sitting on the stove. From there, I learned that birds (the same one that chewed the cabinets) can also roll over and play dead. It was an amazing thing haha.

I'm so much better than these two posers. lol

At 3AM, we realized it was probably a good idea to sleep, seeing how we had to be up in 3 hours. And now here I am sitting, waiting, for the plane to get fixed.

Vacationing across the country with the ultimate destination of South Florida may have been the best idea we ever had. While bittersweet, I am definitely glad everything happened the way it did, and I really do wanna head back Florida sometime soon. I swear, if it snows when I get back to Fort Collins in a few hours, I may move.

Goodbye Home, sweet home...

I guess that’s it for this trip. And with all the extra free time I may be having, I guess that makes for more adventure time that may give me something to write about; maybe another severed arm or marathon will have to suffice.

*Just landed in Denver after a 2 hour delay. Off to Foco and then work for the evening. Oh boy.

**Off work, done getting food. Time to veg’ out for the night. I can’t find my camera cable, so pictures will not be up for a while.

My running travels.

So I actually failed to mention that I never really road in the U-Haul... I ran the whole way.


I just kept running...
...and running...


...and running...

...and running...

...and running...


...and than I ran some more...

...and then I stopped.

The final stretch of driving

Well the tough part is done. 2300 miles later, we arrived in West Palm Beach,FL around 930 on Tuesday night. We had planned on leaving Tallahassee early Tuesday morning, but we could not pull ourselves away from the air conditioning and internet at Logan's friend Josh's place. We finally hit the road around 11am and made a shot almost straight to Orlando.

Florida seriously has cops every mile tucked away in forests... Luckily nobody ever expects a U haul to be speeding :)

I finally reached my aunt Linda on the phone, and we decided to make a pit stop to see her. I hadn't seen her in quite some time (4 years?) so it was a nice surprise. The only downfall to this was A) the toll roads that charge 75 cents every couple miles and B) the traffic and C) the fact that it was about 15 miles backtracking. Overall though, it was quite worth it and it was great to finally see her again.


We learned here that no matter what people say, a U haul truck can pull a U-turn just as well as anything.

Now the fun part began. We got directions for how to make it the rest of the way, but before we could continue, we had to get gas. CHASE bank had something else in mind, though. They completely shut off the credit card because, apparently, purchases in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida all within 4 days is suspicious? Go figure. After a nice conversation and a verbal SAT to get the card back working, we were on our way again, only a few hours behind schedule.

Florida roads are labeled horribly in an effort to get people lost and put them in Disneyworld. Seriously! How can a road go east and south, but not southeast?! We got lost on a tollway, which is not an easy feat.

We eventually found ourselves and were even more behind schedule, taking the scenic route through Orlando. Then an interesting thing happened...

I was writing and Logan was driving. We were both preoccupied and just wanting to get to West Palm. Logan said something along the lines of "that sign is wrong...Miami isn't one mile away." I looked and laughed and we kept going...



As we entered Cape Canaveral Air force base, we just wanted to make sure we were on the right road, but as it turns out, we were on an island. We crossed 2 bridges, but neither of us thought that we were going the wrong way; about 30 miles total.

We finally got things going the right way and were still 2 hours outside of West Palm. It had taken about 4 hours to go 40 miles, but the rest of the drive was quick (U hauls have speed chips btw).

We finally go to his house after picking up Kevin (Gumby) in our stylin' ride and relaxed to a delicious Italian dinner. From there we went to a friends house for a few hours and watched a very hyper dog (try to) play with a puppy that can't walk on hardwood floors. Quite the site to see.

The evening went on, we got back to Logan's, and settled in for a night's sleep.

Logan's Umbrella Cockatoo (bird) got a case of restless leg syndrome in the morning and decided it would be a great idea to chow down on some hardwood cabinets. The day opened with a huge breakfast and a trip to home depot for wood putty.



From there, we ventured to Gumby's (play) house, which is fully equipped with a lake, wave runner, pool table, pool, and rock band. Wave runner was great until we flipped and Logan's glasses decided to take their own vacation. Thunder was rolling, so we got off the jetski and went in the pool...but before that happened I thought it would be a great idea to put my stuff back in my pockets, including my phone. Not the best idea.




Just another reason I hate water lol.

All and all, the past couple days have been great. everything is going phenomenally well, even though I did break my phone, may have lost my spot for summer classes, and am constantly sweating.

Dallas, New Orleans, and Tallahassee

So I guess the best place to pick up is right where we left off…waking up on a heated sleep number bed in an upscale hotel in downtown Dallas provided to us by our good friend, Alex.

To start with, walking outside into the furnace that bakes the South was a huge shocker. Now it was only the mid 80s, but remember, it SNOWED 4 days before up in the Fort. Quite the change. Ricco took us to a Mexican restaurant that rivaled some of those from SoCal I was accustomed to. After a delicious meal Alex, myself, and a very happy Logan parted ways with Catherine and proceeded to Owen’s “Man Cave.”

The plan had been to play tennis, but that did not happen. Rather, after a Super Smash Brawl, Alex, Logan, and I went to his grandparents’ penthouse on the 22^nd floor and had a view of the entire city of Dallas. As we sat on the balcony discussing who knows what, Logan put forth the proposition of going out to a legit Texas steakhouse in celebration of an ending school year among other things. After talking to his awesome grandparents about anything and everything, we continued on to Texas Land and Cattle Steakhouse. Porterhouse steak done right.

Texans sure do know their steaks.

We then made the journey back to the U haul, said our goodbyes, and prepared for the daunting night long journey that was in front of us. But Alex had one more trick up his sleeve. As we were getting ready, he showed up, and we walked to the Track within the walled community of Highland Park (there are castles at this place!!). There are few things better than an empty track at 9PM in the South, and we all just chilled on the pole vault mats for an hour. Of course, I went running…a mile barefoot just because haha.

Going back to the U haul and saying our goodbyes (again) we were preparing (again) for the trip…only we were both exhausted. Ricco showed up again20 mins later, and he offered to put us up at the Radisson Hotel again. Those Sleep Number beds were calling, but we decided it was best to hit the road. After getting slightly lost in the ghetto of Dallas, we were on highway 20 heading to Shreveport, LA.

U Haul trucks are loud, and this makes sleeping difficult

Exiting Dallas at 11PM, we were in it for the long haul. And Mother Nature decided to spice things up a bit by putting on a spectacular light show in the distance…and then it was on top of us. I slept while Logan powered through the impressive storm and woke up just in time to see the biggest, brightest lightning bolt of my life. It hit right in front of us a few miles up, and we could see the sparks coming off of whatever it hit. I was awake then….

…But then I slept again, woke up at daybreak in Louisiana (bearded guy sitting outside gas station talking to everyone, haze making it almost difficult to breathe) and I took over the wheel. Logan tried to sleep, but before we knew it we were in Baton Rouge passing over the Mississippi River. We had the bright idea to park in a random neighborhood, walk to the river and go in…only it was the most disgusting part of the river right past “Cancer Alley.” After stepping in, we left on the road again and soon were in New Orleans.

The plan had been to sleep for a few hours when we got there and then check out the town. After driving through downtown in a 20+ foot truck, we were definitely ready to sleep, but the lady at the tourist center preferred that we suffer. After almost taking out her tree and her car, (she had it coming) we parked near the Mississippi Levies right outside the French District. I claimed the cab and Logan hopped in the back and we tried to sleep… but New Orleans apparently gets hot in summer (who knew, right?) so our luxurious nap transformed into a sweaty rest outside an apartment building. People saw me and I heard them saying something along the lines of “truck, tourist, sleep” but I didn’t care and eventually slept a couple hrs.

We walked to the French corridor, had lunch at Magnolia’s Grill, and toured the deserted Bourbon Street. It was hot, empty, and frankly, kinda boring so we decided to ship off to Tallahassee, FL.

Shrimp Po Boy from Magnolia's in the French Quarter:

A trip through Mississippi and Alabama was in store, and nothing happened in either of those states except another display by Mother Nature in the form of a blinding rainstorm.

After finally reaching Tallahassee, FL we were met with couches and friends and Pita Pit and were settled in for the evening. After a solid night’s sleep, we are now getting ready to make the final stretch of the trip to Wellington, FL.