October 17, 2009

Birthday time!

Well I just celebrated my 24th birthday. I had a great day of work and class made all the better by the lovely poster my coworkers made for me. They also got me an assorted cheesecake sampler that was divine. We continued the celebration into the weekend by going Cosmic Bowling. I suck with no music and full florescent lights so I was a little worried how I would fare with a fog machine and strobe lights lining the lanes. Turns out, I need to bowl left handed. I write left-handed but play all sports right-handed so I didn't think it would work but I got a strike the first time I tried. I decided to keep it up all night and managed to get scores of 29, 78 and 83 (can you tell where the left-handedness kicked in?). Daiji and Alfred bought a pitcher of beer for us to share so I like to think the alcohol had a nice effect on my game as well. It might have also contributed to me whacking myself in the thigh with the ball and getting my thumb stuck and tearing my nail. I also managed to walk through a screen door later in the night. It was dark and I didn't realize a screen was there so I just walked on through. Now I know how Max feels ;)

I got my birthday dinner a few weeks late when I decided to come home this past Friday. It gave my body time to process that massive fruit basket my mother gave me ;) Kyle was already over and Don and Amber were on their way home so Kyle called Devin to have her pick up dessert (an amazing pumpkin roll) and the celebration commenced. I haven't had a family birthday celebration in quite a few years so it was really nice. I received a package from Jess that contained (among other things) an awesome pic from the Grand Canyon and a DVD of our Spring/Summer 09 adventures. It was awesome to see a compilation of all our crazy weekends although it made me miss the West. I can't wait for 2009/2010 New York New Year platinum edition DVD!

It was Brick City homecoming at RIT last weekend and one of the events was an entrepreneurship conference I attended. It was gear more towards technology industries and just made me all the more frustrated. I know I go to the Rochester Institute of Technology but not every kid here needs to do beta testing for their entrepreneurial venture. Some students here already had their own businesses for goodness sakes. Quite intimidating. I on the other hand only need a couple hundred thousand dollars and a cowboy hat and I'm set. I've known since I was little that I wanted my own business although the nature of it has taken several different forms. I always had that fear in the back of my head of how scared I would be to actually commit to such a venture. However, now that I have discovered what I love and what makes me happy and what I'm good at, that fear is now dissipated. Granted I'm scared witless at the thought of that level of permanence and commitment, but I know that once I have it, it may actually feel right for once in my life. Now that I'm 24, I have to start thinking about being an adult ;)

What really helped me feel more confident was my amazing interview with Donna Davis who started the MD Resort Bed and Breakfast in Dallas, TX. I had to interview an entrepreneur for a class and it was kind of hard to find one because most ranch owners have just taken over existing businesses. I actually found Donna through Twitter (which I don't use but I googled dude ranch entrepreneur and that's what came up) Donna fought through a lot of trials and tribulations and her attitude is amazing. I loved her leadership style and approach to running a business. The business has grown beyond even what she dreamed and I am really inspired by what she had done because I see a lot of her strengths in me. Perhaps it may even turn into a job for me in the future. Gotta love networking :)

October 11, 2009

A Rolling Stone

I've been voraciously reading the poems of Robert Service ever since Jess introduced me to his works. This is my new favorite. He captures my sentiments exactly

There's sunshine in the heart of me,
My blood sings in the breeze;
The mountains are a part of me,
I'm fellow to the trees.
My golden youth I'm squandering,
Sun-libertine am I;
A-wandering, a-wandering,
Until the day I die.

I was once, I declare, a Stone-Age man,
And I roomed in the cool of a cave;
I have known, I will swear, in a new life-span,
The fret and the sweat of a slave:
For far over all that folks hold worth,
There lives and there leaps in me
A love of the lowly things of earth,
And a passion to be free.

To pitch my tent with no prosy plan,
To range and to change at will;
To mock at the mastership of man,
To seek Adventure's thrill.
Carefree to be, as a bird that sings;
To go my own sweet way;
To reck not at all what may befall,
But to live and to love each day.

To make my body a temple pure
Wherein I dwell serene;
To care for the things that shall endure,
The simple, sweet and clean.
To oust out envy and hate and rage,
To breathe with no alarm;
For Nature shall be my anchorage,
And none shall do me harm.

To shun all lures that debauch the soul,
The orgied rites of the rich;
To eat my crust as a rover must
With the rough-neck down in the ditch.
To trudge by his side whate'er betide;
To share his fire at night;
To call him friend to the long trail-end,
And to read his heart aright.

To scorn all strife, and to view all life
With the curious eyes of a child;
From the plangent sea to the prairie,
From the slum to the heart of the Wild.
From the red-rimmed star to the speck of sand,
From the vast to the greatly small;
For I know that the whole for good is planned,
And I want to see it all.

To see it all, the wide world-way,
From the fig-leaf belt to the Pole;
With never a one to say me nay,
And none to cramp my soul.
In belly-pinch I will pay the price,
But God! let me be free;
For once I know in the long ago,
They made a slave of me.

In a flannel shirt from earth's clean dirt,
Here, pal, is my calloused hand!
Oh, I love each day as a rover may,
Nor seek to understand.
To enjoy is good enough for me;
The gipsy of God am I;
Then here's a hail to each flaring dawn!
And here's a cheer to the night that's gone!
And may I go a-roaming on
Until the day I die!

Then every star shall sing to me
Its song of liberty;
And every morn shall bring to me
Its mandate to be free.
In every throbbing vein of me
I'll feel the vast Earth-call;
O body, heart and brain of me
Praise Him who made it all!

October 3, 2009

Autumn in New York


Blogging is hard when I'm not changing states every two days. Nothing else is quite as interesting as a six week road trip across America. I'll just talk about my feelings instead ;) I was really excited when I got home to settle in and get started on grad school but now I'm itching to run again. I've started to post videos on here and on my Facebook page of my trip and it's great to relive my trip and remember where I was and how I was feeling. I've been watching Ken Burns' National Parks documentary and found myself quoting along with the history of the parks. I still managed to learn a lot though. Like the fact that I am obsessed with John Muir. The one souvenir (other than postcards) that I bought on this road trip was a shirt with the Blue Ridge Mountains on it and it has a quote from John Muir that says "The mountains are calling and I must go". It's amazing that before we even had all of the States in the Union, people were calling on the government to preserve pieces of land and it was mostly on account of these individuals that we got National Parks. A lot of the focus was on Yosemite and that is my next goal because I've pretty much done every other "big" park in the system and everyone talks about how beautiful and transcendent it is. For me that park was Glacier. I spent a day on both sides of Glacier in Canada and Montana and every inch of it was breathtaking. I can't even put into words how gorgeous Going to the Sun road is. Even pictures can't do it justice. It's the one park I would recommend everyone see if they ever have the opportunity. If there was one park I could return to, that would definitely be it.
I think my main problem with grad school is my lack of motivation. The only reason I came back was because my transfer credits were about to expire. If I didn't do it now, I would end up having to go two years and you know me, I can't pass up a deal. The other problem is that I worked my ass of in undergrad, even getting a 4.0 and graduating with honors but that didn't mean crap in my 2 years of looking for a "real" job. Nobody gave a damn that I was magna cum laude, they were looking for experience. I'm glad I am working at RIT though, I've met a lot of cool people. I blew through Keuka looking to get out with the best grades in the shortest amount of time so it's really nice to get involved on campus.
I had delusions of taking lots of road trips while I was back East since I haven't been to a lot of New England. Well turns out I have no time for that. I barely see my family, let alone another state line. I was able to take Max and Abbie out back the other weekend though. Some idiot's been messing around with the land back there and changing some things up and posting signs and gates but I strolled through because I have a blatant disregard for no trespassing signs. I absolutely love fall and it was beautiful with the changing leaves and the corn fields. Mom, Dad, Kyle, Devin and I headed up to the Genesee Country Museum for the Agricultural Society fair where we got the Christmas ham.
I have been a little under the weather all week and now the only remnant left is a 1-900 voice. I went to the Roost with Don and some of his friends and was sounding rough by the end of the night. However, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Don and Aaron joined Crystal and I on the dance floor for the cupid shuffle. Now if you don't know how Don dances, you can't full appreciate the image of him shaking it on the dance floor. He is completely uninhibited and has this loose, hip swaying, ungainly way of moving and it's hysterical. I had a lot of fun. For my birthday Kyle and Devin took me to the Lockport Caves. I grew up along the Erie Canal and had no idea about these caves. Although, I should clarify that they weren't caves per se. They are old pen stock pipes that went into an old diversion tunnel. It was still really cool though. Our guide knew a lot and we even got to go on a boat ride underground. The upside down railroad bridge was built that way to prevent bigger boats from coming through. This was a way the railroads could prevent the Erie Canal from taking even more of their business.