What a summer. There were trips to Chicago, Milwaukee, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Las Vegas, Utah, Kansas City, St. Louis, Portland, Bellingham and twice to Kentucky. I put a ton of miles on my car and nearly another 1500 on rentals. I would love to have all of my summers look like this from now on if I could simply afford it. In a straight comparison with most people, I would probably qualify as underpaid, but I just like to think that I could get paid in time over the summer. If you take my salary and multiply by 1.5 to accommodate for the fact that I only work for eight months, it makes things look a lot better.
That said, the extra money that would come with a full twelve months of work would be nice. I see what my friends have and I know there's no way I could currently support a wife, kids and the mortgage on a $250,000 house. I get a little anxious about my car now too as its about at the mileage where my last car crapped out. Of all those things, I could probably afford one at the most right now. Thankfully, Indy is quite cheap and so my house won't be nearly that expensive. Someone could see my travels and think I've got a fear of missing out. Its not that. I see the things my friends have and its not that I feel like I'm missing out, but rather, I fear that I'm falling behind compared to all of them. I feel like some of the benchmarks of the early 30s (family and home) are things I should have by now. There is the obvious reason behind it as the vast majority of my friends didn't spend seven years in grad school making just enough to survive. I know I just need to be patient as these things will come. I should revel in the fact that I am doing exactly what I want to do and I am exploiting the fact that I essentially have summers off if I so desire. I get it, I really do. Its just hard for me to be patient, especially now that I have this massive list of places I want to visit that gets longer by the day.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
I know what I've done but tell me what have I missed
There's roughly six hours of summer left so it's time to discuss the summer goals.
1) Hike Utah's Mighty Five. Done. Awesome. I would do it again in a second.
2) Explore Kentucky. I did. Red River Gorge and three distilleries with Roger. Several passages in Mammoth Cave with a bunch of people I wish weren't there. It was still fun.
3) Drink homemade beer. Success! Thanks Jon.
4) Do actual mathematical research of expanding spectral deferred correction. Failure, but only because I didn't do it on SDC. Instead, I worked on trying to figure out stability regions and so far that hasn't been overly successful.
5) Catch up on scripture memory. This failed. It went well for the first 6-8 weeks or so and then it just fell off.
6) Get involved in church sports. I never did check out volleyball but I will eventually. Softball was a success and we won both the regular season championship and the season ending tournament. I'm counting this as a success since I didn't count anything from the math side.
7) Watch the original Star Wars trilogy. Nope, still didn't do it, but I did see them on Jon's movie shelf.
8) Build a wine glass shelf. Thanks Dad. It still looks good.
9) Complete P90X2. Nope, not even close. I gave up after four weeks. Now I'm fat. Sigh.
10) Eat no fast food within 75 miles of Anderson. I held out for the first two months, but that's it.
5 of 10 done. Goal-wise, it wasn't super great, but with all my traveling, it was one heck of a summer and I can't complain. I'll have another post up in the next couple of days dealing with my travels.
1) Hike Utah's Mighty Five. Done. Awesome. I would do it again in a second.
2) Explore Kentucky. I did. Red River Gorge and three distilleries with Roger. Several passages in Mammoth Cave with a bunch of people I wish weren't there. It was still fun.
3) Drink homemade beer. Success! Thanks Jon.
4) Do actual mathematical research of expanding spectral deferred correction. Failure, but only because I didn't do it on SDC. Instead, I worked on trying to figure out stability regions and so far that hasn't been overly successful.
5) Catch up on scripture memory. This failed. It went well for the first 6-8 weeks or so and then it just fell off.
6) Get involved in church sports. I never did check out volleyball but I will eventually. Softball was a success and we won both the regular season championship and the season ending tournament. I'm counting this as a success since I didn't count anything from the math side.
7) Watch the original Star Wars trilogy. Nope, still didn't do it, but I did see them on Jon's movie shelf.
8) Build a wine glass shelf. Thanks Dad. It still looks good.
9) Complete P90X2. Nope, not even close. I gave up after four weeks. Now I'm fat. Sigh.
10) Eat no fast food within 75 miles of Anderson. I held out for the first two months, but that's it.
5 of 10 done. Goal-wise, it wasn't super great, but with all my traveling, it was one heck of a summer and I can't complain. I'll have another post up in the next couple of days dealing with my travels.
Saturday, August 16, 2014
You walk this world like you're a ghost
As I'm sure you've noticed, its been a little while since I've posted. Since you're fairly astute, I'm assuming you've noticed that I didn't post a monthly update on my goals for July. Well, my excuse is this: I've been traveling quite a bit. My last post came from LDub's place up in Washington where I was in the midst of a Pacific Northwest trip for 8 days which concluded with a day of travel that started at 9:30 a.m. and mercifully ended at 3:30 a.m. I then had one day off which I chose to spend on a date with Lindsey, who I am now introducing to this blog, but I've discussed her with most of you who regularly read this, with the exception of that guy from Finland that's shown up more than once, so I don't need to update you too much. Immediately after that, I headed out to spend some quality time with Mom's side of the family on M Island. Here are a few thoughts to update you on everything that's been happening in the meantime.
1) Its a good thing the sibling-off didn't happen this weekend because I got beat at everything. Kelsey beat me in fishing, Rick and Sara consistently beat Audrey and me in Euchre, my only victory in Gloom came on a technicality, everyone beat me in bags, Julie beat me in Phase 10, etc.
2) I've become Fatty McLazyButt lately. I haven't utilized my scale in a couple of weeks and I'm expecting/terrified of seeing it read 185+ tomorrow morning. Traveling means you get to eat a lot of good food but my exercising has been pretty much nil and it shows. I'll definitely need to start running again and get back to lifting, especially leg lifts since I still have tiny knees and my gut keeps getting bigger. I will be signing up for next May's Flying Pig Marathon fairly soon though, so that should start giving me some motivation. On a related note to me being fat, pulled pork nachos with blueberry salsa are delicious and you should try it.
3) Traveling has allowed me to hit up plenty of good beer for the summer, so that's a plus. I sampled some of Jon's home brew, checked out Full Sail brewery, Chuckanut Brewery, Wander Brewing plus had Shock Top, HUB, Nicie Spicie, Arcadia Whitsun, etc. and I'm currently enjoying a Sierra Nevada. Yes, the etc. there is the beer I had at Bob's up in Lynden that I forgot the name of. Perhaps Luke will chime in and remind me of what it was. Edit: Luke came through. It was Mac and Jack's African Amber.
4) I'm not actually ready for school to start as I haven't prepped for Real at all yet and I haven't updated any of my syllabi or moodle classes yet, but mentally, yeah, I'm ready for school to start. Don't get me wrong, this summer of traveling has been awesome and I officially got the "I hate you" from my sister because of it, which is pretty much the reaction I was going for, but its taken a toll on me physically and financially and I'm ready for an 8 month break from it. There's still a trip down to Mammoth cave next weekend where I finally get to break in my tent and a trip to Chicago for a fantasy football draft the weekend after that, but things are finally starting to slow down.
5) It'll be nice to finally get back to my own church tomorrow. I'm officially being introduced as a member even though I officially joined back in early May. There was another introductory service but that was when I was in Utah. I definitely got lucky with this service since I've missed the past three weeks and will miss the next two as well.
1) Its a good thing the sibling-off didn't happen this weekend because I got beat at everything. Kelsey beat me in fishing, Rick and Sara consistently beat Audrey and me in Euchre, my only victory in Gloom came on a technicality, everyone beat me in bags, Julie beat me in Phase 10, etc.
2) I've become Fatty McLazyButt lately. I haven't utilized my scale in a couple of weeks and I'm expecting/terrified of seeing it read 185+ tomorrow morning. Traveling means you get to eat a lot of good food but my exercising has been pretty much nil and it shows. I'll definitely need to start running again and get back to lifting, especially leg lifts since I still have tiny knees and my gut keeps getting bigger. I will be signing up for next May's Flying Pig Marathon fairly soon though, so that should start giving me some motivation. On a related note to me being fat, pulled pork nachos with blueberry salsa are delicious and you should try it.
3) Traveling has allowed me to hit up plenty of good beer for the summer, so that's a plus. I sampled some of Jon's home brew, checked out Full Sail brewery, Chuckanut Brewery, Wander Brewing plus had Shock Top, HUB, Nicie Spicie, Arcadia Whitsun, etc. and I'm currently enjoying a Sierra Nevada. Yes, the etc. there is the beer I had at Bob's up in Lynden that I forgot the name of. Perhaps Luke will chime in and remind me of what it was. Edit: Luke came through. It was Mac and Jack's African Amber.
4) I'm not actually ready for school to start as I haven't prepped for Real at all yet and I haven't updated any of my syllabi or moodle classes yet, but mentally, yeah, I'm ready for school to start. Don't get me wrong, this summer of traveling has been awesome and I officially got the "I hate you" from my sister because of it, which is pretty much the reaction I was going for, but its taken a toll on me physically and financially and I'm ready for an 8 month break from it. There's still a trip down to Mammoth cave next weekend where I finally get to break in my tent and a trip to Chicago for a fantasy football draft the weekend after that, but things are finally starting to slow down.
5) It'll be nice to finally get back to my own church tomorrow. I'm officially being introduced as a member even though I officially joined back in early May. There was another introductory service but that was when I was in Utah. I definitely got lucky with this service since I've missed the past three weeks and will miss the next two as well.
Monday, August 4, 2014
You have always been my safe home
My most recent round of travels has brought me back to the Pacific Northwest. I flew into Portland on Wednesday and spent a couple days out there with Jon and Rachel. Jon had to work so I was out exploring with Rachel with their two girls in tow. Due to this, everybody who saw us assumed we were a family and occasionally, we'd interact with strangers and whenever a question came up, I'd defer to Rachel about the girls since they're not my kids. After a little while, it struck me that I look like a fairly aloof dad. Portland's a good city but I'm not sure if its somewhere I would ever truly fit in. Jon and Rachel aren't hipsters, but Portland is their kind of city.
Saturday afternoon, I hopped on the BoltBus from Portland up to Bellingham because a trip isn't complete until your butt is sore from sitting on a bus for six hours. About 20 miles south of Bellingham, I first saw the exit for Chuckanut Drive and the nostalgia started to seep in. The rest of the way in consisted of remembering landmarks and reviving memories. The few days I've had here have been wonderful. I got to see how the city has expanded into a beer city (but not Beer City, which is still GR's title), followed by a hike in the forest the next afternoon and hanging out with a couple from grad school that I hadn't seen in two+ years who had just recently moved out there. Last night, Luke brought me around to some of the sentimental places in Lynden. The one that hit me the most was driving by our old house. The garden is gone, the basketball hoop is gone, the evergreens are taller and the fireplace looks like its been updated, but other than that, it looked exactly the same. I was tempted to have Luke stop and see if I could go inside for a little bit and even more tempted just to climb up onto the roof, but discretion ruled out. The west coast is definitely a place I could see myself coming back to, with the biggest drawback obviously being my family still being in the Midwest. Tonight I'll be going out to Bob's for a burger and a brew with several of the guys from high school. This trip has been good and its a shame it's been ten years since I was last here.
Saturday afternoon, I hopped on the BoltBus from Portland up to Bellingham because a trip isn't complete until your butt is sore from sitting on a bus for six hours. About 20 miles south of Bellingham, I first saw the exit for Chuckanut Drive and the nostalgia started to seep in. The rest of the way in consisted of remembering landmarks and reviving memories. The few days I've had here have been wonderful. I got to see how the city has expanded into a beer city (but not Beer City, which is still GR's title), followed by a hike in the forest the next afternoon and hanging out with a couple from grad school that I hadn't seen in two+ years who had just recently moved out there. Last night, Luke brought me around to some of the sentimental places in Lynden. The one that hit me the most was driving by our old house. The garden is gone, the basketball hoop is gone, the evergreens are taller and the fireplace looks like its been updated, but other than that, it looked exactly the same. I was tempted to have Luke stop and see if I could go inside for a little bit and even more tempted just to climb up onto the roof, but discretion ruled out. The west coast is definitely a place I could see myself coming back to, with the biggest drawback obviously being my family still being in the Midwest. Tonight I'll be going out to Bob's for a burger and a brew with several of the guys from high school. This trip has been good and its a shame it's been ten years since I was last here.
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