Year in Review: Travel

I’ve developed a taste for travel. This year, I traveled even more about the States, visiting Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Hit some major landmarks, such as the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam and Zion National Park. Visited some not so common places that you’ll never hear about, such as that little convenience store, run by three Mormon women in dresses, where I was able to call home for the first time in a week. I slept over in an airport after a seven hour drive down and through New York City to get out there in the first place, and that first campsite at the Valley of Fire, surrounded by ten meter tall dune cross beds.
I took off from school for half a week and flew out to Indianapolis, Indiana to attend a Star Wars convention, dressed up as a Storm Trooper. I stayed out in a hotel right across from the Convention and every morning was surrounded by thousands of fans of the series. I met some of my favorite authors, Timothy Zahn, Matthew Stover, Karen Traviss, Jan Duursema, and Joe Corroney, as well as the other workers on the Clone Wars Site that I work on. I met some crazy people there, some interesting ones and some people that I still talk to, even after several months. I went with my family to New York City, to Carnegie Hall, not once, but twice, to watch my brother perform with first the Vermont Youth Orchestra and then a national wind ensemble that he was accepted into. I found, each time that I was there, that I really enjoyed walking around the streets with such a large number of people. I also found that I especially liked Central Park, and walking in general.
Those were the major trips. My geology class took a day and we drove out to Central New York, looking at the rocks and examining a progression of strata as the mountain ranges shed material off. I went to Maine to visit my friend Sam at school, taking a much needed break from Vermont. 400 miles and a hundred dollars on the credit card later, I still maintain that it was a good idea. Then of course, there were the spontaneous trips up to Burlington with Eric or to meet with Rachel over the weekends. Then there were the times when I hiked around my house, ten miles at a time.

Reunions & Friends

A couple of days ago, I was messaged by a couple of friends for camp - While most of the staff members in the Burlington area were in town for their school breaks, they decided to get together and have a sort of Abnaki thanksgiving celebration. I headed up and met up with Rachel, who invited me over for a while, and we decided to go out and stay for a while, after we walked down to Church street to get some air. We've both been having our own various headaches, and it was good to talk about them with a sympathetic ear. We walked around church street for a while, ran into my friend Blackwell, which was a big surprise, and he was even more surprised to see me, and I think caught off guard, because he was with a girl - I think the one that he was almost arrested over (Long story) - and we didn't chat long. We also ran into my friend Lucy, who's apparently gotten a new job on Church street. From there, we sought out Billy and Jesse's apartment.I was extremely surprised to see that they had cooked an entire two turkeys and everything else with a turkey dinner - stuffing, mashed potatos, cranberry sause. A lot of people were there too - Billy, Tidd, Mike Wells, Pat, Alex, Lindsay, Dan Schwartz, Sam Hagen, Shane, Kevin, and a couple other random people. I think Rachel felt a little out of place, but it was like none of us had been parted for more than a couple of days - lots of reminising about events at camp, some video games, talking, drinking, eating, smoking and everything else that college guys do when they're on their own. It was good to see a lot of friends again. I ended up leaving early, and walked back to Rachel's apartment to get my car (She left early). Went back up and we talked for something like two hours before we realized what time it was and I left for home, getting back at around eleven. Fun evening. Kyle left this morning, back at school, and I'll be back at class tomorrow. Where did the time go? I still have two reports to finish up. Gah. Started working out my budget for London, watched the first episodes of Season 4 of Farscape, typed up a couple random things and going to do some reading later. Anyone ever listen to the 1812 Overture? Fun piece of music. I got a file of it earlier this year, and while watching Farscape, I found it highly amusing that the main character, John Crichton, was singing it to himself and got a small robot to hum the tune. Very catchy - especially when you're going insane.

Opening Night

Never did get around to talking about opening night for Serenity. Eight of us went up from school. Me, Eric, Keelia, Kyle, Matt, Justin, Stewart and Karthik all drove up in two cars for the 6:45 showing. We got there pretty early, at 6, got our tickets, then got dinner. We ate, chatted a bit, then went to the theater and waited for the movie. Saw a LOT of people that I knew, from Harwood, Camp or Norwich. Saw Rachel, who was pretty upset over a missing cat, I'll have to remember to call her later... Brigham, from Harwood and Norwich, good to catch up with him, a couple other random people from Harwood, people who Eric and I had talked about earlier that day, talk about weird.
Eric and I had gotten together earlier that day and went up to Burlington to hit the comic shop, where I got most of the comics on that list below, except for the Iron Man one, which is beginning to look pretty lame, which is disapointing, considering that Orson Scott Card wrote it.
The thing about SciFi movies with good fan bases is that it's the waiting that counts. Being in a theater with a couple hundred other people who are looking forwards to it just as much as you are is something like nothing in this world. There's a certain energy about it that's just cool to be apart of.
This morning, Stuart and I manned the Tactics booth for Parent's Weekend, basically doing a bit of recruiting for the club. Not too many people stopped by, but some were interereded. Kind of a waste of time though. I went back to see Serenity later that afternoon for time #2. Just as good the first time.

On another note, does anyone have anything by Zero 7? Great British band with some cool stuff. Looking for recommendations.

On the Water

Over the summer, my father and brother bought a pair of Kayaks. Having finished his Master's program, I think that dad wanted to get a new hobby, something that he had picked up a couple summers ago. They've been out on them a couple of times, as have I, over the past couple summers, taking kids out on Kayaking trips as cabin groups or classes. It's a fun sport.
Dad and I went out in ours today, on the Winooski river. We put in near one of the main roads, and paddled down to Lake Champlain and back, about four miles in all. It was a good little trip. Dad commented that it was interesting to go down a river, and it makes one realize how much of Vermont is not built over. When you're driving on the roads, you see a number of signs that people are there. Here, however, there were entire streatches of forest that was untouched, even right in the city of Burlington. It was very relaxing. We saw a couple birds, Herons and Kingfishers, ones that we hadn't seen in a while, and a couple of turtles basking on floating logs.
At the mouth of the river, there's a bike bridge that links the Colchester and Burlington bike paths. A couple of kids were jumping off of it. Looked like a lot of fun. I'll have to do that sometime...
I think that the main thing that struck me is how at peace everything was. The water was calm, and the only thing that could be heard was the bubbling of my paddle in the water. I wasn't even really thinking of the world outside, politics or anything. Just of my friend Hillary, various songs that related to water, and the thrill of being outside, with almost nothing to worry about. The conclusion to my thoughts: I think that it hit me then- We are so lucky to live the way we do, to do the things that we do, without worry of getting shot, killed, attacked, blown to pieces or something like that. Out on the water, everything is calm.

My friends Jen and Sean were married tonight. They had intended to have a regular wedding here in Vermont, on the Norwich Campus, but because their families kept trying to interfere, they decided to go out to Las Vegas to get married. So, over webcam, me, my mother, father and sister watched as they got married at 9:00 pm EST. Congradulations!

And, it was my cousin Carlie's first birthday earlier this week. We had a bit of a get together with the family, which was good. She's now walking, and doing many weird things, like walking up to someone, stating BAH and walking away. She's getting weird, and that's good.

Admin Training Week

I'm a week into Admin training, which was all of this week. This year, I've been hired on as a Village Director, meaning that I'm in charge of an entire village of kids and staff members, probably around fifty total. This week was our preperation as leaders, and preparing for the regular staff and campers alike. It's been a fun week thus far. I have my own cabin, which is the only VD cabin with running water. I also have a closet and a main room, with my computer hooked up and a TV ready for an X-Box to be hooked up to. It's great.
A lot of good friends are on the admin staff this year. Tidd, Billy and Gaddy are fellow VDs, and Evan and Brian are the program staff. We have a new Arts and Crafts director, a girl named Erin, who's fitting in really well so far. I've spent the evenings this week in lifeguard training, a first for me, which went over really well. We cut some corners, and we had a great instructor, a former Navy rescue diver. Awesome guy. I'm missing the last day because both my Brother and Father are graduating from high school and a master's program. I'll make that up later.
One of my projects that I'm going to start working on this summer is a book, focusing on the counselors and history of Camp Abnaki. I've gotten a ton of material to look through, and I'll be typing up a rough manuscript this summer, if all goes well.
Plus I now have a new computer game on my computer, as well as about another five hours of Dave Matthew's live music on there as well.

Accepted!

I had my job interview with Jon today, which went extremely well. I got the Village Director postition, with a bit of a pay raise ($600 up from last year.) We talked about quite a few things, mainly about camp, and how it can be improved. It was good to talk to him again, he's a very good camp director. I was saddened to learn that there were some people who I worked with (and became very good friends with) won't be returning for various reasons. But overall, looking at the staffing list for this summer, we have a very good group of people coming, so that's good. I'm excited. This has been one of the best jobs that I've ever had, and I look forwards to going back every year about this time. And now as a VD, it should be an interesting summer. I like the village that I'm in, and I like a lot of the people who are returning.

I'm excited.

After the interview, I went and got lunch and met up with my friend Andy Bulpre, who I used to work with at another summer camp, and who I haven't seen for about four years now. Andy's a crazy guy, and a great friend. It's been far too long in between talks for us, having finally gotten his contact info from another friend. Man, how time flies, and it's entertaining how small the state is, because we both know several of the same people from various places. We walked around Burlington's Church Street for a while, catching up on things and chatting, the three of us (he had a friend, Lucy with him, who was also a pleasure to talk to), like no time had passed. Apparently I've changed a bit, although I don't really see it. Great to see him though. From there, I went to my dad's office, where I dropped off my resume for another job, then visited my Grandmother for a bit, before going and picking up my sister, talked to Eric briefly at the store, then drove my sister back home.
On the way back, I let Keelia drive for her first time. She was a little shakey, but she got the hang of driving very quickly, although she needs a lot more practice, expecially where it comes to the side of the road and breaking to stop. She was excited to drive for the first time, and she'll have more practice before she gets her license. Man, I can't believe that she's almost ready to get it. Scary. My dad found it amusing that she drove with me for the first time, while my mother was on the verge of freaking out at me. Oh well, it would happen sometime.

And now, to study for my final final.