Everything, All the Time

Went on a fantastic journey last week from Sunday through Thursday at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We camped out every night, made our own meals (usually), hiked the 2nd highest peak in the park (highest elevation ~ 6500 ft.), talked with a graduate student who is doing some neat research on Black bears in the park, visited the Cherokee Indian Museum in Cherokee, North Carolina, and did some research for a tree biodiversity study. The hike was 5 miles in each direction and took us about 8 hours including a stop for lunch at the summit. The trip has inspired me to haphazardly (for now..) plan a camping trip for a week or two in June before I start my job at Dancing Rabbit on July 16th.

The concert I mentioned in my last post was fantastic. I may have mentioned it, but it's worth repeating that the Decemberists are easily my favorite band right now, so it's always a pleasure to see one's favorite of something. I bought 2 t-shirts, and I was with fun people, and everything was just great.

I just found out today that I have been awarded a Unit Scholarship, which means my teachers either from the classes I'm in now or from last quarter nominated me for it and now I'm getting $1,000 for next year's academic term. A nice surprise in my mail box.

Though I don't ever get a chance to watch them, the Cubs and Red Sox have been doing, recently anyway for the Cubs. I'm hoping to catch as many games as possible live in Chicago, again, before my job starts.

Later this week I'll be choosing my classes for the fall quarter...not sure what I shall take, I haven't spent much time looking at what's available yet, but there's plenty of time: I don't sign up until next week.

I'm officially going to off-season basketball practices. They have about 90 minutes of scrimmage on Sunday nights and 2 1-hour sessions of skills development on Mondays and Wednesdays. Nothing fancy really, and the coaches aren't there (NCAA rules), but it's still fun to be playing and learning.

Everything's great in school, and it's enjoyable. What's up with all of you out there reading this?...Lemme know!