Today is 5 million times better because:

a) Caroline's on her way right now
b) My family makes all problems go away
c) I won a seat race (finally)

Time to go enjoy this glorious weekend.

A not-furious rundown.

It’s been a crazy end of the week and I’m so glad this week is almost history. Caroline is coming into town tomorrow (it was supposed to be tonight but her flight was cancelled last night… yet another part of this ridiculous end of the week), and I doubt I’ll be wanting to write too much until she’s gone so I figured I’d give a quick rundown of recent events that wasn’t fueled by unbridled hatred for the assfuck that stole my sandals. Pardon the profanity, but it still makes me pissed thinking about it.

ANYWAYS, other things…

So it looks like I haven’t written since Wednesday night, which makes sense because Thursday and Friday seem, in my mind, like they are rolled into one big crazy game. Thursday morning was one of the most intense practices I’ve ever had. 4x1500m at 34. I really think it was the hardest I’ve ever pulled on the water. Some hard rock helped that, and after each piece I was dead but by the starting line I was ready to go crazy again. I was in 7 seat and had a blast. Our boat did pretty well; both boats were putting up blazing times for 1500s. Like, seriously fast. Anyways, after a good morning I had a mellow day as usual and then went to afternoon practice, where they again separated the boats into what looked like potential A/B boats. I was happily in 3 seat of the A boat. For the first third of practice our boat was being very careful and trying to row well, which ended up leaving us quite a bit behind the other boat. Callahan remedied this with a “STOP BEING SO FUCKING CAREFUL AND PULL. THIS IS ROWING.” With all the power we had in the boat, we made up about 10 lengths pretty quickly and led the other boat for most of the rest of practice. I left feeling good that I had been in the boat, but wary that it would only be fleeting… and for good reason.

This morning, we went back out to do more pieces (originally planned for Saturday, but Silas had a wedding in Chicago he left for this afternoon, thus making this morning his last practice for the week… quite possibly the MOST inopportune time to leave…). I was back in 3 seat in the A boat again for the first piece, again 1500s at 34. That piece our boat had about zero rhythm and length and struggled to get the rate above a 32, going down the piece mostly at 32 ½ or 33. We were down to the other boat for most of the piece, only pulling out a very small victory at the end due to brute force. Then I got switched for Brad Wurnst, a strong but young kid from Princeton. The boat held rate this piece, and I lost the seat race by 7 or 8 seats. So that sucks. Maybe I suck, maybe the rate sucks, but either way, the whole thing sucked. It was nicer to be in the other boat, though, because Silas was stroking and laying down a great rhythm. He was then switched for Dave Naughton who was stroking the other boat. Dave did well in our boat, but Silas won the race by a lot. I was happy for Silas, but still frustrated at how things had gone down for me. This afternoon, the boats seemed kind of separated but not totally A/B… I was in the more B one. Things are very tense within everyone’s minds though they’re staying civil to each other and friendly. Next week apparently we’ll be trying out combinations more than direct seat racing… I want a chance in 7 seat as I think I contribute more there than anywhere else, but maybe there’s just not a place for me there, which would suck. Who knows what’ll happen, but it was an intense end to the week. One more practice and it will be totally done… finally. This week must end.

Caroline just got into Boston and is driving to Marblehead with her dad, then to drive up here tomorrow morning. That’s very exciting. I got an invitation to Lake Winepesaukee from family there. They have a beautiful place on the amazing lake, so it’d be great to get up there, but tomorrow Caro may be tired of traveling. Perhaps we’ll try to get up there for Sunday. It will be very nice to have something to look forward to during the days besides frustrating rows, Wimbledon, and trying to sleep the day away. Talked to the whole family today, which was great. Coop’s been partying lots and may take a break, silly boy. Dad sounded good, mostly just listened to me being bummed this evening. Mom sounded good too, very cheery when I talked to her this evening on her way back from Bremerton. Fun to talk to them all, I don’t think I’d talked to Coop since graduation. They keep going through it all and remind me what it’s all about.

Soundtrack currently:
I have a short playlist that has been rocking me pretty hard. It calms me during the day and relaxes me as I go to sleep (I’ve been napping well, but having trouble sleeping at nights…) It goes as follows:
Cat Power w/ Karen Elson – “I Love You (Me Either)”
Belle and Sebastian – “Meat and Potatoes”
Interpol – “The Lighthouse”
Feist – “So Sorry”
I just realized my playlist is virtually an essentialist guidebook to sad-bastard-indy music, and I’m ok with that. The songs are all awesome, the last 3 are new to me and still blowing me away every time I listen to them. I was just given the original “Je T’aime (Moi Non Plus)” that Cat Power covered, and it makes her version even better. It’s simple at first listen, complex under more listens, beautiful every time. Karen Elson’s unfinished singing is Nico-esque (She’s a model-turned-singer, duh… though trying to sing high, not low). I love this song (me either). The Belle and Sebastian is hilariously tongue-in-cheek and impliedly vulgar, with a fun melody. The Interpol is entrancingly ethereal with what sounds like 50 mandolins all playing at once, with the Interpol guy’s voice coming through and making progressions unexpectedly but perfectly. I expect it to stay just being kind of out there strumming and then all of the sudden it’s a gorgeous melody. The Feist is pretty much just classic Feist… a beautiful voice with simple backing, almost countryish but not really. Very mellow and calming. Anyways, that’s my rundown, that’s the music that’s keeping me from breaking things.

To whoever stole my brand new Rainbows while I was rowing:

Fuck you.

I wish I could actually find you so I could unleash all of the violent thoughts I am having right now.
Thanks for stealing a gift from my mom. Thanks for putting me out $50. Thanks for making me walk home barefoot. I hope my footprints that had just begun to form are uncomfortbale for you and make you fall and twist your ankle and get run over by a fucking truck.

Fuck you, asshole.




(post-anger realization: this post makes my top photo so appropriate. that is all -nr)

Afternoon off = more time for screwing around

Ahhhh, Wednesday. How medium you are. Woke up today pretty rested, so rested in fact that I woke up several times last night. Went to practice, which was fairly unremarkable other than today I was 7 behind Dave Naughton for the first time, the boats were mixed again, and our boat didn't want to pull hard. We were doing reduced slide drills adding pairs, and we'd go ahead for just stroke pair, hold even with 5 & 6, start losing seats real fast with 3 & 4, and lose them slightly less quickly with bow pair. It's not like we had weak guys either; it just seemed like people didn't really care to try and NOT be way behind the other boat. Anyways, that's just rambling. As I said, unremarkable.

After practice I came home and puttered around for a few hours but never fell asleep, which probably accounts for why I'm pretty pooped now. After sitting around I got kind of restless and decided to go into town and maybe find a book to read, or something to do. Just putter around somewhere other than the Nelson's basement. Though the basement was nice and cool... it got up to about 99 this afternoon. Yucky. Just as I was about to go do my town-puttering, Dave and I got a call from Josh Richardson saying some people were going swimming down on the river and that he was in our driveway, and asked if we would like to come. A funny order to do things, but we got ready quickly and hopped in the car. Lots of the rower guys were down on a public dock hanging out in the sun and playing in the water. I accepted the challenge to try and touch the bottom of the river and successfully did so, proving my feat by returning with some mud and a few mussels I found in the muck. My ears/head hurt for a while afterwards; the lifeguards said it's 25 feet... I think more like 20, but either way the pressure did some damage. After that we all left to see Life Free or Die Hard in West Lebanon (apparently the rural Poulsbo/Silverdale/Bremerton of New Hampshire...). It was nice to be in air conditioning through the heat, and the movie was surprisingly entertaining. I hadn't wanted to go and thought of going to another movie, but I'm glad I went. It was one of the more quality action films I'd seen in a while... extreme, but not too much CGI to make it annoying. And Bruce Willis played a great irreverent badass. Being with a bunch of goofball rowers was fun too. After that we returned to the lake for a quick dip just as the lifeguards were closing the public dock due to thunder... so we went to the boathouse and jumped off that dock.

After that we went into town. I split off to go through the bookstore, my original puttering desire getting a little satisfied, and bought a book with "Rashomon" and some other short stories by Akutagawa in them. I've heard the story is great and I think the movie is fantastic, so I thought it would be a good reintroduction to reading for pleasure. I was trying to think of an author that I have some books at home of, that I've really enjoyed... but he's still on the tip of my tongue. I'm going to try and remember and then maybe have my Mom send those books. Villa Incognito! That's one! Now I just have to find his name... going to Google... TOM ROBBINS! Ding dong. I love finding names you've been trying to think of for a long time. Anyways, I want to read more of him.

After leisurely perusing the bookstore, I met up with the guys outside Molly's, a nice-but-reasonable restaurant that reminds me a little of the Pub on Bainbridge. Had a fun dinner with the guys and had some fish & chips, which I haven't had in a while, reminding me more of home, and Coop. Fish & chips always reminds me of Coop. Walked home very full after dinner and am now working my way towards bed. Apparently tomorrow we're doing pieces in the morning, so that should be extremely exciting... or not. Maybe fun, probably pretty tense.

Soundtrack currently:
Feist- The Reminder
Early today was a nice mix of Mickey Avalon, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beach Boys.

"The H... Is O"

The heat is on.

It was about 95 today during our second practice, though luckily not that humid. By the end of morning practice it was probably mid to high 80s, so some of us took a dip in the river which was glorious. It was chilly, but not take your breath away chilly. Just the right temp to be extremely refreshing. The few that did it in the morning were joined by a larger contingent in the evening. We just put the boats away and jump in in our trou. Also serves as a bit of decompression and time to cool off from the intensity of the workouts, which is ramping up considerably.

This morning we were in mixed 8s and did 4 x 1500m at 34. Silas and I were stroke pair in the Resolute, with Dave Naughton (Cal) and Charlie Cole (Yale) stroking the Hudson. The first piece both boats struggled to hit the rate and ended up about 2 beats low, but our boat won by a little bit of open water, which was nice. Josh Richardson (Mich) switched out of our boat for Jesse Johnson (UW), we paddled back to the start (actually the finish, we do these pieces up stream), and started the next one. This time both boats seemed to be on rate better, and our boat won by about a length, maybe a seat or two less than before. Then we switched Derek Rasmussen (Wisco) for Andy Collard (Yale), and I think we won by about a length again (not sure... results fuzzy on this one). Maybe a few seats open by the end, but it was more of a last push than the second piece, when we got a lot of space in the beginning and kind of stuck. The last piece switched Steve Full (UW) out of our boat and Mark Murphy (S) into it. In the first 500 we had a length and knew things were going pretty well for our boat and not so well for the other one, so we kept pushing and it ended up being a pretty large victory… like 15 seconds. Once things start going like that for the other boat, I know from experience, it’s very hard to get them better. But good on Mark for having a damn good seat race.

This afternoon we went down and they called out the boat lineups. For the past long time they’ve been pretty even boats, and today was that day where they call out ones that seem pretty different. Being in the boat that didn’t have the guys who could be considered “sure things” for the final boat, it was fairly apparent that we were more of a “B” boat than we normally have. This was a frustrating realization, and maybe I was the only one that made it, but it scared me and got me thinking that maybe I just won’t make the boat. Then there’s the thoughts “well, there’s the pair,” but that’s not really satisfying. I was frustrated and bummed for the first bit of practice. The boat definitely had a little less energy on the way out, and while we weren’t rowing terribly in the large waves and whipping tailwind, we fell behind the other boat on the paddle all the way out, only serving to increase my frustration. As we picked it up coming back, though, my frustration was now more solidified than my initial bummedness, and we started the way back home with a bit more aggression and legs, which kept us close to the other boat. Being close to the other boat only served to increase my effort, and we stuck with them for the whole way back, which was rewarding. As we got close to the dock, we did some builders, bringing the rate up for about 10 strokes, stabilizing for 10, then going up for another 10. We took some seats on the first one (which was at half slide), and I think the boat was really starting to get into beating the other boat. At ¾ slide we took some seats as well, went under the bridge and spun to come back home, and had one more at full slide. We geared up for this and took about a length, which made me feel good, amped, and aggressive. I felt good that Silas and I could lift with good length and rhythm, and that in the end, though not full pieces, we could take some away from the boat that had seemed so stacked. It may not mean anything, and I still may not make the boat, but it felt good to feel like I was doing everything I could and trying to give the coaches a reason to not close the books yet.

Thus, the post-practice swim was very necessary to cool the body and the blood. People asked about treading water and I gave a quick lesson on eggbeater; they were impressed with my meager residual ability to get my trou out of the water. Most guys went to Ramunto’s for some salad and pizza (pizza is getting heavy and greasy and yucky after nice, healthy, home-cooked meals at the Nelson’s), and as always it was fun to be in a group of nice guys.

Came home and have just been puttering in the room, sitting on my bed reading car magazines and listening to music. A lovely way to spend an evening. Of note that didn’t fit in earlier, a box came for me today that I had no idea who from, forgetting that Craig had told me he sent a box. It came full of probably 150 GUs, my last small paycheck, and some data DVDs filled with photos of the rowing season from Roger. Overall, a really nice package that I shared with the other Stanford guys. Nice that Craig would still think of us, support us, and do it all on his own, especially for me, as I’m all graduated and whatnot.

Who knows what tomorrow brings? I don’t. The coaches certainly don’t tell us. They did tell us that we get tomorrow afternoon off, which will be nice, though it probably means lots of hard pieces either tomorrow morning or Thursday, I’m ok with that. May go swimming in the river in the afternoon as it should be another scorcher. Just gonna keep doin what I do, tryin to stay positive and get through this point, which seems familiar from last summer, when things are getting dicey, tense, and the unknowns become so much more important, but no more known.

Music of the Day:
Still extremely varied, what with all my new stuff, but listened to some good Belle & Sebastian (check out "Meat and Potatoes"), which I liked a lot.

This Will Bore You

This post should bore you. Today was boring, and I come to my blog not in excitment with notable things to remark upon, but in utter boredom, with nothing else to do before it reaches a reasonable time when I don't think I'll wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to get back to sleep. Alas, read on if you're as bored as I am.

Had a good morning practice, mostly just paddling and continuing to get things more together. Did a little bit of rate lifting but no real pieces. Came in feeling good relative to most mornings recently where we've been worked pretty hard and I've felt pooped. Despite being upbeat and not destroyed, I still felt kinda sleepy and after watching some race cars on TV, I took a nice 3 hour nap. Woke up, had "lunch" around 4, went to practice (still full from lunch... too close). Practice was good, and we did the 250m on/250m off pieces again, but only 12 this time. We're starting to push rate (28-36), which can exacerbate problems or make free speed really fun. I've been rowing behind Silas and with Will England behind me, which is a fun stern 3. The first 4 pieces (2000m) were pretty rough and punchy, and we lost all 4, so we went into the second set trying to relax and lengthen out. This seemed to work well and the boat coalesced around acceleration and we were finally able to pull together and get some speed. We won the next 8 pieces, with a couple of the last set feeling really good with lots of relaxation, send, and speed. It was fun to get faster over the day and start beating the other boat, which had been faster almost all the time. So we came in with the wind picking up and our morale a bit higher after finally feeling some good things. Today was also probably the windiest/choppiest day on the Connecticut I've seen thus far. Came home, barbecued a burger and listened to some more new music and read Automobile. Now I'm pooped, may watch some Planet Earth until it seems like a reasonable time to go to bed. Looking very forward to sleep.


Listened to too much new music to list it all, but a few tracks that stuck out:
"Notorious"- Turbulence (remixed by Diplo)
"Meat and Potatoes"- Belle & Sebastian, Funny Little Frog
"Littlest Things"- Lily Allen, Alright, Still
"Intro"- Chromeo, Fancy Footwork

Weekend = 1.5 Days Between Rowing

Soooo the weekend came. It was a welcome relief from rowing, and in the end was a good weekend, but had the beginnings of a shitty time.

Saturday started off kind of rough. I really didn't want to get out of bed when my alarm went off. Then I went to practice, where we did 4 x 1500m at higher rates like 32. My boat won the first two by a bit, then Tom Peszek and I got switched, and that boat still won, by a little more this tim. So I lost a seat race, maybe half a length or something. Whatever the margin, losing races sucks. Another seat race on the next piece put Alex Oz over Martin by a bit. We rowed home as the thoughts flew through my head like "well fuck, might as well pack up and buy a plane ticket now." It was extremely frustrating to lose that race. Camp's not over, and one can never know what the coaches are thinking, so I know I have to have hope and keep doing everything I can, but it's discouraging and never good to lose races. So that started the weekend off on a bad note.

I walked home and immediately went back to bed. I got up a while later and promptly burnt my eggs-in-a-nest. Things were just peachy. After the nap I was a lot less cranky than before, but still kinda bummed. I relaxed in the house for a while and then Dave and I went to a barbecue at the dorms where some of the guys are staying. It was fun, volleyball and Brats-By-Murph and some beers and all that. After that we went to Emerson’s (a Dartmouth Lightweight who befriended us) frat house which was conveniently right next door to play Pong (ping pong balls and beer cups do not Beirut make… and Dartmouth people will take your head off for thinking Beirut is cooler/called “beer pong”). Then the whole team went to Ramunto’s for some dinner and beers. Had a good conversation regarding film and music with Adam Barhamand, the Wisco cox, and we decided to trade music and watch my newly acquired Bicycle Thieves DVD today (Sunday). The night continued, wandering around Dartmouth/Hanover, looking for more fun, resulting in little. We went to the Canoe Club where I ran into Jesse and Liz, Amelia Siani’s housemates, and ended up hanging out with them and their friends for the rest of night, which was really fun. They’re excellent people and fun to hang out with. After that, the rowers had disappeared to some other godforsaken, pee-smelling frat house and I walked home to crash nice and early.

Slept in today to start off a very nice lazy Sunday. Watched car racing for a while (the Speed channel is perfect TV) and did laundry. I love the starchy feel of clothes that dried on clotheslines in the sun. ANYways. I then biked over to Adam’s for the aforementioned media extravaganza. He’s at a beautiful place right next to the Hanover country club. We traded music and I had my collection expa

nded/shamed considerably by his 26000 songs. I got some new artists I’m excited about and got more music by some of my favorites, which was probably more exciting. Then we watched Ladri di Bicycletta, which was impressive as always. Rode back home, had a nice dinner with the family/Dave, watched some Planet Earth (“Deserts” tonight… very cool). Pretty darn tired so I’m going to bed early, hoping that tomorrow’s practice isn’t too rough/my rowing stock is unsalvageable. We’ll see. Caroline is coming out on Friday, 5 days from now, which is very exciting. I think I’ve said this before, but it’s very exciting to have a friend, especially a non-rower, and especially Caroline, coming out to get to putter around Hanover and the surrounding gorgeous areas with for the weekend.

Soundtrack of the day/night? Where to start…
Still “Pet Sounds,” which Caroline sent me. Still getting into it, but definitely enjoying it.
Some Ratatat that Adam had that is extra underground and I hadn’t heard… the 9 Beats album is awesome and a welcome new dose.
That’s about all for now, but with my 9 gigs of new music, I’m sure there will be some more new stuff to come.

Here’s to having this week not suck.

Pictures by Murphy:

^Me Outside Ramunto's^

^Smelly, Silly Dartmouth Frat^

Music Notes

Thought last night's playlist was worth noting:
"Yellow Ledbetter" - Pearl Jam
"Summer '68" - Pink Floyd
"Heart of Gold" - Neil Young
"Don't Let it Bring You Down" - Neil Young
"I Believe In You" - Neil Young
"Red Sun" - Neil Young

Then this morning's soundtrack was Ratatat, always a good choice but takes some reminding, which Adam Barhamand did on the ride home from practice. Just thought those were some good, revisited songs that were worth sharing.

Had a tough morning practice (16 x 250m on 250m off). 4th practice in a row of hard work, but it feels good/tired. Our boat won all the pieces, maybe with a few ties, so that was good, but everyone is pretty pooped. Nap time.

What kind of fuckery is this?

A bit less to report/revisit tonight than recent times... had a hard morning practice, 4x2k at rates between 20 and 26. I was sitting 5 seat behind Silas and in front of Oz, which was fun. Some switches were done, but none of us were included. Our boat lost the first piece by a little, won the second by a bit, then lost the next two, post-switches, by quite a bit, which sucked. Losing is never fun. The free speed that seemed to be being fostered while Greg Hughes was here has been kind of pushed to the side for now... I think Mike Callahan is approaching things from about the exact opposite way as Greg. Greg was micromanaging and getting the small things perfected from the get go, with the bigger things to come later, whereas Mike seems to be wanting us to just swing together first, and pull hard, and then maybe later he'll go back to the small technical stuff. It's kind of frustrating, especially when in bow like I was this evening, because people are doing things fairly differently from how I thought we were going to collect as a group when Hughes was around... hopefully things will come together. This evening was not an easy row either, but a bit shorter. Some technique stuff, then leap frog (they still do that after high school rowing?), with the trailing boat going at a higher rate (23, then 27) and the lead boat trying to hold them off at a lower rate (19, then 21). My boat was a bit faster this time and we could hold the others off much longer and go through them much quicker, which was a lot of fun and kind of a relief to know that whatever boat I'm in doesn't automatically lose.

This afternoon I met Ottavio's friend from Dartmouth named Trey. We grabbed lunch at Lou's diner, which was fun. He's a really nice guy who DJs around campus and plays ultimate, overall a pretty mellow guy who reminds me a bit of Byron (he's a stocky Mechanical Engineering major from Virginia... who woulda thought. Oh yeah, he's also in the same frat as Byron... creeeeeeepy). Anyways, had a good lunch and he said I could hang out at his frat house if I get bored. He's friends with Ottavio, so he must be a good guy.

After that I came home, puttered around on the internet for a while, and took a short nap before practice. As I woke up, I wondered why our room was less well-lit by the small windows than it usually is, and when I went to the big windows elsewhere, I saw the reason: dumping rain. Perfect for practice outside... not. We got to the boathouse and there were flickering moments of hope of sun but then it would start pouring again. Luckily, by the time we got down to the boats, it passed and actually got pretty hot. Some rain came during the leapfrog, but when you're doing pieces, you don't really notice. Came home, had what dinner was left over from Debbie and Dan, watched some college baseball and have again just been puttering around in my room until now. And now it's bedtime.

Caroline made plans to come out, which is very exciting. She's flying in on the 29th I think, which will be great. It will be fun to have someone to really hang out with and do fun things with as opposed to just doing nothing at the house. She's an ok person to hang out with... I guess.

Soundtrack for the night? Well, for the afternoon it was Rihanna's "Umbrella" again, which was quoted profusely by all the crew boys due to the downpour. The soundtrack for the evening, however, has been Amy Winehouse, an album I got from Coop that is really excellent. Good, mellow listening that has small elements of hip-hop but most of her songs could very easily be mistaken for 70s Motown or even something prior to that, like the Marvelettes or the Chantelles. Super croony, great voice, with catchy lyrics and good beats. Works for me. She came up with Coop's new favorite word, "Fuckery." As in "what kind of fuckery is this." Pretty good, and I should probably adopt it into my daily vocabulary.

Off to sleep, only to arise and do it all over again. Could be pieces, could be seat races, could suck, could be good. What kind of fuckery is this? The repetitive life of rowing, my friends.

2ks Make Your Body Hurt Bad

Current soundtrack: Atom Heart Mother, Pink Floyd

Currently, I'm sitting on my bed, attempting to decompress, relax, recover, mellow out post-2k test. I went down this afternoon for my scheduled test at 4. Josh Richardson went just before me, and 30 seconds after he finished, the power went out. For 2 1/2 hours. While the erg is battery powered, the testing equipment is not. So, while I was warmed up, GU'd up, ready to go as he finished, I had to wait for 2 hours. It wasn't all bad, Fritz told some great stories/facts about the body and people testing it. If the power didn't come on 6, Callahan told Silas, Brad and me that we were going to do a 3-way test, just for time, no numbers. Thank god that didn't happen. At about 5:50, the power came on and I was up. I warmed up a little and took my last Gu Hardrock and went for it. I started out pretty ok, settled into a rhythm around 1:33/4 and went for it. The first thousand was decent and I didn't feel too dead. I went after the third 500 and started negative splitting, but not by much. Had a decent last 500 but really couldn't sprint it below 1:30 with a couple strokes at 1:29, and ended up with a 6:12. Slightly better than last year, but not great. There are reasons I'm not at my optimum to do a 2k right now, but I'd say the most pertinent one is that I need to train more. If things go decently this summer and I decide to continue training, I think that a good long year of solid basework and getting to train on my own terms with lots of volume could really benefit me and I could do much better than I am right now. My V02 was good, Fritz was very encouraging about that and not disparaging about the erg score just said to keep working hard. At least it's over with.
The 10 minutes after it may be the most uncomfortable I've ever experienced. Maybe not, there may be some memory I'm luckily not thinking of right now, but they sucked. For 5 minutes I couldn't get up or cool down, then at 5 minutes they took some blood for lactate and something else. Even once I got up and was slightly more conscious, the consciousness only served to let me know how shitty I felt. I sat for a bit, then lay down, then sat some more, then tried to drink some water, then watched Silas go. He had a good piece and had even crazier numbers, so that was good for him. I was still struggling, but it was getting better. Slowly I felt kind of normal, although even now I feel pretty wobbly and sucky. Forgot what 2ks do to a body. Anyways, it's over and I don't think I shamed myself TOO horribly. I beat a few starboards on the erg, but obviously I want to do much better and think it's possible. Whatever. Came home, watched an Olympic Biathlon DVD with Dave, and now I'm sitting in bed, drinking SPR-3 recovery drink. 7:30 practice tomorrow should be joyous. At least it's in boats.

In other, non-rowing related news (there isn't much of that here), Dad got me Atom Heart Mother for graduation and I never knew how epic of a Pink Floyd album it truly is. Combining their greatest orchestration with some great mellow, Meddle-esque ballads, I'm really enjoying listening to it. Even better, it makes me want to revisit all those Pink Floyd albums I listened to death in high school. So, good choice, Dad. I'm looking forward to the giant cow print. My pre-erg music was Rihanna's "Umbrella," which is kind of on the other end of the spectrum of music, from avant-garde psychadelic rock to shitty (read: GREAT) mass-produced hip-hop/pop. Perhaps I'll add a music review section to this thing.
Anyways, D-Day is done, now it's on to things I can better handle, and I'm feelin ok. Just need sleep and drinks to make my head feel less woozy. Annnd ending note... I like my old-school Stanford baseball hat and can't stop wearing it. Makes me nostalgic. Sleeptime.

Graduation Memories pt. Deux

So I think I wrapped up Wednesday last night. Onwards...

Thursday:
Thursday morning was Coop's bad morning. We recounted the night's events, and he wasn't feelin so well. We went up to Caroline's to get breakfast and relax, though once we got there, Coop wasn't feeling too much like eating so he passed out while we made food. Then we went for a swim, which he arose for and I think it felt good for a ll of us. Thursday ended up getting to 105 degrees out, so having some water to cool off in was amazing. Coop and I went back to Stanford and packed/hung out in my room for a bit, moving slowly due to the oppressive heat. I ran some errands and tried to find Craig, who via phone ended up telling me to meet him at the treehouse at 5:15. I went there, waited for a while, and he eventually showed up with Roger, Yaz's husband, and we shared a couple pitchers of Fat Tire. It was fun, he was talking a million miles a minute as always. He had to run at 6 so I went back to KA and got ready for Senior Dinner on the Quad. Various guys were debating what the necessary attire was and I opted for shorts and a buttondown, which turned out fine. We headed down there with a couple beers for the road, and showed up to a nicely set up Quad with lots of people mingling and enjoying the open bar. I saw some old friends/acquaintances, said hello and caught up, etc. Eventually we moved to the dining area, where we had some good fish and salad and I proceeded to get a bit too drunk on the wine that seemed to endlessly fill my glass(es). Long story short, I made somewhat of a fool of myself and was assisted in making the decision that it would be a good time for me to leave. As I left, apparently a large picture of me came up on the giant slideshow. How ironic. I made it home almost in one piece and proceeded to get sick and inconvenience my friends and Caroline's friends... oops.

Friday:
I woke up the next morning feeling atrocious and lacking a good recollection of the night, only to receive a call from the Housing people, who were in our kitchen and letting me know that, while our kitchen was a disaster, it was supposed to have been completely cleaned and closed up by 8 that morning. So, in a painful state, I rallied people from the house and we narrowly avoided getting hammered by the housing office. When that was finally done, I went upstairs and took a nap. Throughout all this, Coop was watching YouTube videos of boat disasters, rally cars, and Land Rovers. And by "throughout all of this," I mean he probably watched about 8 hours of YouTube that day. We got Jamba juice in the middle, which was somewhat refreshing, and after the nap and an erg workout I started to feel like a real human again. Around 7 the family got in and we all went out to Chevy's. That was a great time, it was awesome to have the whole family together. After that I went to stay at Caroline's while they went to the Sofitel, to reconvene the next day to really take care of packing.

Saturday:
This might as well be known as packingday, with a few events interspersed. By the end, we had packed up 11 normal boxes, a bike box, and 2 tupperware containers full of my life. It was awesome to have so many hands helping because I could sort my stuff out and say "can this go in a box?" and it would happen. We ended up skipping class day and the President's reception, neither of which I missed too much. We went to the senior lunch on the grove by the rugby field, which was fun and broke up the day. We returned to packing and got it all done with a few trips to the UPS store. My room was totally cleared out, which was a huge relief. We went to the Sofitel for some much needed relaxation before dinner. I got some awesome, extremely thoughtful gifts from the family which was really nice. Caroline showed up and hung out for a little bit while we all got ready to head out to Mandarin Gourmet, which was an absolutely fabulous dinner. Being with everyone was great, and the food was, as always, intensely delicious. We went back to the Sofitel for a bit after that but everyone got the sleepies pretty quickly so we all conked out, ready for a big morning of graduation the next day.

Sunday:
I got up early to go meet with guys at KA to try and figure out Wacky Walk. "Where's Waldo?" had been decided upon as a theme, although with short notice and other things going on, the costumes ended up mostly being put-on-crazy-shit-and-go, which was just as good. Graham as Waldo, and as he was the last to show up, we got a lot of mileage out of the "No, seriously, where's Waldo?" joke. We waited around for a while and got pictures taken and all that, then headed down to the field where the wacky walk was... well, more disorganized than I'd foreseen, which was probably better, as we had no organization either. More mingling occured around the field, and then eventually we went to sit down for the ceremony. The commencement was pretty nice, less painful than I usually assume large ceremonies to be. The speakers didn't talk for too long, there wasn't too much superfluous stuff, and we were done with it in what seemed like just about the right amount of time. More mingling on the field then, then some mingling outside the stadium, where we waited for Donny (which proved to be in vain and silly because he wasn't even there...) for a bit, hung out with Kreek, and then parted ways with our respective families to go to the departmental ceremonies. There, we found good food and a pretty relaxed atmosphere. The various art departments gave their degrees and awards, which was fun and, again, mercifully not drawn out. I got tons of butterflies as I actually went up to get my diploma, and had a fairly silly grin as I carried it and looked at it. Pretty weird to actually have a college degree, but it's alright with me. Pretty proud of it, actually. After everything wrapped up and a sufficient number of pictures were taken (in AND out of the shade, mind you!), we moved on up to KA, where Don, Barbara, and Coop left to go Visallia (sp?) to go hike and visit the river for Pete. It was a bummer to see them go but I knew they had to go do more things. Caroline and Julia and I went up to her house to hang out for a bit, then Mom and I ran down to the Stanford Shopping Center and looked around for a bit and went to the Creamery for a fun dinner. It was really fun to just have some mellow time with her. Afer that, I took her to Gail and Ray's and I returned to the Crandall abode. Hung out with Caroline, Jess, and Emily for a bit and then passed out. The next day I knew would be tough... KA cleaning day.

Monday:
I got up early at Caroline's to go to KA and try and get all the cleaning done to get it closed by the 2pm deadline. I got there a little before 8, and ended up working almost until 3. It was sucky. Slowly people joined in on the cleaning crew, including KBaum's brother and Dierdre, and we cleaned the shithole of a house. People had left a lot of gross shit, and some of the job was pretty gross. Mostly, we just threw out tons of stuff and put lots of beds together, and then attended to the little things like organizing storage and cleaning the laundry room. I won't elaborate more because it's boring, but it was a shitty day. Around noon I had a little bit of a break and went to get my mom and we grabbed some food, then went back to finish it all up. I got almost all of the keys accounted for and after a bit was so tired of the house that I figured it was pretty much clean enough, so I went, turned the keys in, and decided my time at Stanford was done. We went and got me some new sandals, then finally, after hours of thinking we were almost ready to be there, got to Caroline's and collapsed. We went for a swim, made dinner, and just mellowed out until I had to head to the airport at a little before 9. Caroline took both my mom and me, as my mom was getting picked up by a friend at the airport. A sad goodbye to my two favorite girls, but we had an amazing weekend. I got through the lines in ok time, got to the gate, and took my ambien in preparation to pass out, which I did as soon as I got on the plane.

Tuesday:
It's weird to get on a plane at night and get off in the morning. Very weird. I found where to wait for the Dartmouth coach, it came, I got on and had to buy my ticket again about 15 minutes into the ride. Maybe still due to the ambien, I was so tired I couldn't really keep my eyes straight, but I got my ticket and passed out on the bus. Got to Hanover, walked to the Nelson's, and passed out. Woke up and heard we had 5:30 practice, went, rowed (which was weird... the previous 6 days was the longest stretch I'd had out of a boat in over 6 months), then came home to a nice barbecue and watching DVDs of the West Wing with everyone. That was nice, then wrote last night and passed out.

There, I think we're caught up. Today I missed a lunch with Tavio's friend Trey, which was dumb because I just spaced and got there a bit late and just missed him. Ended up getting a sandwich in town and now I'm here, anxiously awaiting the 2k. I ran into Spencer, another rower, who said it's not too bad an not to stress it, which is the feeling I'm getting. I'll just do what I can, try to lay down a solid piece, and be done with it. Murph and Osborne pulled good pieces (6:06 and 5:59 [baller] respectively), Silas will go just after me, and other than a couple really fast scores I haven't heard anything that makes me too scared. No Ben Harrisons or Alex Hearnes, which is relieving. Anyways, I don't think it's going to make or break me. Onwards, and if you read this whole thing, I'm sorry. It's damn long, I hope you didn't have better things to do.

Graduation and Beyond

Hmmm... how to recap a week of immense change and craziness? I suppose just go through and summarize it:

Wednesday:
Got up at the buttcrack of dawn in Hanover, had all my bags packed, walked out into the 4am dark crispness and made my way to the bus stop. Waited there for a while and kept wondering if the bus would actually come, then finally another guy came and I felt better, not like just some crazy kid on the bench in an empty town at 4:30am. The bus came, it was pretty easy after getting my ticket at a different location about 15 minutes away. They played "A Hard Day's Night" and I watched some, but eventually just tuned out to music and slept a little. Got to the airport and it was super easy with nothing to check and my boarding pass in hand, and made it to the gate with a little time to spare despite traffic in Boston. Had an ok flight, slept about half of it and just anxiously struggled in the tiny seat for the rest of it. Got in around 12 and met up with Coop and Caroline, which was about as good as I could have imagined getting picked up at an Airport after several weeks of random traveling. We went to a delicious taqueria and then to the Caroline's for swimming and relaxing. It was great to have time to just turn my brain off and be with two of my favorite people.
Eventually we went down to Stanford to get ready for the Nomad party... first Coop and I drank some beers and Jamba Juice while we started packing the first few boxes. We had fun, listening to music and sweating our faces off in the oppressive heat. Then, after many beers, the Nomad party started coming around. which was pretty darn amazing. We put a keg in a shopping cart and a keg on a hand truck and started voyaging around campus. We made a quick stop at some Theta Delt live power hour (the band actually changes songs every minute... impressive), then we went on to White Plaza. I found an unlocked fourwheeled bike (which caused some bruises that I mistakenly attributed to Coop for a while the next day) and rode it around a little by the Claw and then we moved on... I think the bike was fine, and not too far from its original destination. We went through Meyer Library with the kegs, where Kevin performed his magic trick again. The studious kids were duly impressed. We moved on, Coop leading the charge as he had been carrying the keg on the hand truck... running, actually. In a little flashback to earlier in this paragraph, before Theta Delt he challenged me to do a kegstand, I ralphed, and kept going. I'm sure the responsible people (parents) reading this love that, but hey, it was the last week of college. So we kept going, and around Stern Jess, Caroline and I were kind of tapped out, so we walked Jess home and then went to bed, only to be awoken by a phone call from Coop not knowing where he was. I took the car and eventually found him after he'd run from the cops after trying to tip over a golf cart, run through Lake Lag, hopped a fence only to find a dog, and then ended up by the golf course. Luckily I found him, only a little worse for the wear, and we went back to KA where he passed out on a mattress with some blankets.

Whew, that was more exhaustive/ing than I thought. It's late and I've got a dreaded 2K tomorrow (lions and tigers and 2ks oh my!), so I ought to get to bed despite kind of being back on west coast time. I spose I'll try to recount a few more days tomorrow as I anxiously await my 4pm date with Fritz "Hangman" Hagerman. As far as tonight, I'm pretty happy, sad to be removed from CC and the family (good name for a funk band) again, but it's decent to be rowing again, just kind of anxious to see how things go as this seems to be the selection period for real. More tomorrow, sleep for now (hopefully with less crazy Ambien-induced dreams like on the plane/bus this morning).

Some of Today, Some of Yesterday, Some of Tomorrow

Sooo what's worth posting these days. As previously written, I finished my paper last night and picked up Alex and Mark. They boh got put in the 8 today along with Jesse Johnson and Andy something from Yale. The boat was set up and moving pretty well, better and easier than I'd say it has been other days. Will England, Dave Naughton, Derek Rasmussen and I made up the rest of the boat. Silas and some other folks were in a 4. I had to be worse than I've ever had to throughout 3/4 of the practice, but unlike some I find it impossible to pee out of the boat, so it was a test in bladder pain tolerance and trying to focus at the same time. Dave Naughton was in the same boat (HA) as me, and once we docked we both ran to the bathroom and were there for a while. If only I were like Donny or Silas and was a master of boat urination... ANYWAYS.

Yesterday was pretty relaxing, the paper came pretty painlessly though it did take a bit of time. I was in much better form than Dave, who was slept until 3pm and was hung over for most of the day... and even some this morning. Rough. Great stories of havoc caused on Saturday are still coming out from the various factions that split off during the night. We won't have too many opportunities to go out, so it was fun to get that done with. Found out that Fritz Hagerman, the VO2 testing guy, will be coming on the 19th... the day I get back after a redeye flight. That should do great things for my 2k test, which I'm already really excited about. Lovely. I am excited to go back to Stanford though, it will be great to see Coop and Caroline and the Family, though I'm a little anxious to have to pack up my entire room/life, but so it goes. Hopefully that will go smoothly and painlessly so that there can still be plenty of time for fun. And I'll probably have to work out while I'm back there too... yuck. Too many things, too little time, as opposed to here, where there's too much time and not enough things. It's fun to see the Stanford guys here, I think they're looking good at least for the first day.

So, catching up on things I said I would write about previously: Will England and I were put in a pair on Saturday morning to do 2k pieces, which was pretty fun. We had some pretty good run although the steering (Will's job in the bow, I was stroking), did not go particularly well, and we kind of bounced back and forth between the shores of the river. We stayed ahead of the 4 on all the pieces but the last, which we were happy about. Probably won't be too much more time in pairs as we're starting to get a significant number of people here, but it was fun to have a little introduction to pairs racing as I know that's pretty much all the senior team does for most of the year.

Back even further... The drive up with the Siani's was a lot of fun, they're an amazing family and I was feeling very talkative, partially due to nerves from just finishing the big race, partially due to the energetic/inebriating effects of the Sparks we drank in the hotel. Andrea and Sergio both went to Evergreen, which was an interesting coincidence. They were fun and kind and very welcoming when I stayed at their house. That night Amelia and I went to a section of Boston where she was meeting a friend at a restaurant/pub called the Sunset that had 112 beers on tap and 400 different beers in all. We tried several, including a 21% beer that had quite a bit of kick to it... The next day everyone slept in and then Amelia and I eventually drove up here to Dartmouth. I stayed in an empty room at her house for a while. She has a few house mates, I think I described them a little in my first post. I miss hanging out with them, it was fun to be around mellow people. I was in gradual contact with Debbie and then eventually moved in and here I am... hanging out in the Nelson house. It's definitely nice here, I'm starting to feel comfortable and getting into the rhythm of things here, if there is one... they've been having tons of guests in addition to us coming through so it's been pretty hectic. I at least know where dishes are/go, where to put things, what not to do, etc.

Probably nap time now, I might revise my paper a little and send it in, which will be awesome to have it gone and done with. I was just talking to Donny online and apparently Mike Teti was bitching about us leaving for graduation... me included. "Fuckin Stanford guys, you're not that good. The guys that are that good are going to be here training while you're gone for a week. Who needs a fuckin week to graduate?" Thanks, Mike. Apparently he also told Greg to cut me... I don't know how much that was in jest or seriousness, but I'm not cut yet...

I'M DONE WITH COLLEGE

Despite my relaxing day I didn't post because I was mostly working on my paper like the diligent student I am... NO LONGER. I have now completed my final assignment in my 17 years of education, and I'm stoked about it. The paper is decent-not-great-but-done-and-that's-what-counts so I'm happy. I went and picked up Mark and Osborne from the train station, took Osborne to his dorm and now am going to go to bed because it's very late, but there is probably lots to write about for tomorrow, and since I'm DONE WITH COLLEGE I'll probably have time to blog about it. Because that's what nerds who don't go to college do: Blog.

I should stop.

Latenightdrunkramblings

So, we got this afternoon as well as ALL OF TOMORROW off. This afternoon I napped and watched Tokyo Drifter to finalize my ideas for my paper; I'll write it tomorrow. Then, the whole team met (Silas and Jesse Johnson showed up!) at Romuto's for dinner at 7, we all had some pizza and some beers, and then proceeded out to find the Dartmouth nightlife... which is lame. We went to many parties, probably circulating the scene twice, and they were all uneventful, lame, depressing, and uninspiring. We had fun together, however, bursting in on a girl named Katie's graduation party (her whole family had shirts with her likeness on them... she invited us and then later her family decided we were no longer welcome). We went to some fraternities and sororities and houses, all equally lame, and eventually Dave Naughton and I headed home, stopping by a frat at which he prompty got into a heated argument at (I dissolved it and helped him head home), and now we're at home, getting him water and agreeing to sleep in before we erg tomorrow. He's in medium/bad shape. He crashed on an appropriated bike right in front of campus police at an intersection... I'm glad I had a semblance of my wits about me. Anyways, now it's late, we have the day off, I'm not sure what to do about that (the last day off I had was several weeks ago... I can't even count how many), and I'm going to sleep and finish my paper and erg and relax. Should be good. It was definitely a fun night, I'm glad the whole group gets along well and was able to hang out and party together. We may have split up, but it's an awesome, cohesive group, and the beginning at Ramuto's was probably the most fun part. Don't know if I wrote about the pair this morning, but if not, I'll write about it tomorrow.
Bon soir.

Post-morning practice

We actually did pieces this morning, which made things a little more interesting. The kicker, though? The workout was 5 x 7 minutes, rates 18-22... same shit we did every fricking morning this whole year. Didn't make it not fun, because it was in an 8 and not 4s, and after so many miles of paddling and technical work it was fun to lay it down, but it never ceases to shock me how many 7 minute pieces one person can do. Then, because Greg thinks we may be "fatigued," we're going to do a "gentler" workout this evening, with some soft technical work and keep it short, then do some more pieces tomorrow morning. I'm sore from lots of miles and working on my stroke a lot, but I'm certainly not fatigued. Whatever, guess that means it's time to go erg this afternoon...
Key things about the way the US team rows that I've had to work on: 1) smooth catch, no splash anywhere, working to pick the water up at the speed it's moving. This transitions into 2) getting the blade connected, which results in a few inches of just hanging with straight arms and not trying to immediately rip the blade through. Can feel like, and is, less of an intense catch than we do (did?) at Stanford, but contributes to 3) an acceleration through the stroke, hanging as long as you can, straight arms almost until the legs are all the way down, keeping the blade linear all the way through, kind of catching at 1/4 pressure and finishing at 3/4. I guess that's the drive. The recovery, they've been wanting me to A) keep my hands higher and thus blade closer to the water and B) keep this handle height into the catch, not dipping the hands and skying the blade. This has been easier when we're thinking about those softer catches because you can just drop it in and not already be thinking about swinging it in and jamming on the water.
Sorry if any non-rowers read this post, it probably means nothing to you. Actually, I'm sorry if anyone reads these posts at all; I doubt they're interesting. "Pretty boring, but... it's part of my life." - Ron Burgundy

So boring it's probably not worth reading

It’d be easier to write things if life were more exciting out here. What was today… got up at 6:50, went to practice until 10. Came home and made some eggs and toast and leftover pizza for breakfast. Dan Nelson’s dad, Chuck, was hanging out and reading while I ate and gave me paper… he’s a talkative old guy but was pretty mellow this morning. The family has warned of him talking peoples’ ears off, and he certainly can, but as I said, things are boring, and an old guy’s stories are pretty good. After that, the long time started… I screwed around and tried to figure out how to fix my wireless, which didn’t work, so I went to a store (which sells Tivoli radios of all sorts, including PALs) and got an ethernet cable that works. So that allowed me to spend some empty time on facebook and whatnot. Then I searched the house and found some scissors and cut my hair in the bathroom. Then I gave in and napped. I wasn’t particularly tired but it was a good thing to do. Did I mention that this day was boring? We went out for our second row, which was shorter than yesterdays in addition to starting at 5 instead of 5:30, so we got back early (7) instead of 8:15 like last night. We’re still doing lots of drilling, but today we did some more power strokes all 8, which was more fun.

Came home while the Nelson’s were having dinner but Debbie had cooked some extra for Dave and me, which was great. It was nice to come home to a real meal and not have to mess around with a restaurant and all that. Yummy pasta and chicken and broccoli. Then Dave and I went into town and went to Ben and Jerry’s and had some yummy ice cream. Thought about looking for some graduation parties but some kids we saw said things are pretty mellow tonight… we may pursue hanging out at Dartmouth this weekend. Seems like this is a more reasonable week to hang out because no one’s here and the rows are pretty monotonous thus far. When things pick up, we’ll probably feel a bit more... self-restricted. Anyways. Probably more of the same tomorrow. More 8s rowing, more boredom, maybe some paper-writing. Silas gets here on Saturday, that should be fun.

Internet Crisis!!! And rowing.

My wireless stopped working yesterday. And now whenever my wireless card is in, my computer won't start/errors. So that's fun. But I figured out how to connect it into the internet of the house, so hopefully I'll continue to be able to waste my time on the internet. Still procrastinating on that paper, let's see... 4 days left. I'll get started soon.

Due to the internet crises I'll post more later, and I plan on doing a prequel... some IRA thoughts, going to Boston with the Sianis, etc. As for now, rowing has started up, and it's long, monotonous, but overall pretty fun. It's more of a drain than usual because with this much focused technical coaching it requires total focus all the time... doing all the little things perfectly, trying to make sure I don't revert back to the stuff Hughes is trying to get me to stop doing, trying to mke the boat move, trying to fix something else... blah blah. We're going for pretty darn long rows, between 2 and 2.5 hours on the water, mostly technical work by 6s and sometimes 8s... pretty different from the constant piecing in 4s we do at Stanford. But, I think I'm making good changes. Right now I'm sitting 7... kind of a default I guess since Will England and I are the only ones returning from the boat last year, were stern pair last year... and there are only 8 people right now, so we're just cruising with that until more people come. I'm going to go try and figure out my computer shit... since I really have nothing better to do. Maybe I'll take a nap.

First day actually IN Hanover

from a word document:

I might put this into blog form… we’ll see. I figured I’d put some thoughts down though… I started something like this last year at U23s but didn’t keep up with it. That’s how I am with journals; who knows if this one will be different.

Anyways.

So today I finally moved in to Debbie and Dan Nelson’s place, an awesome, deceptively large Hanover house on the edge of campus. They make me feel warm and welcome, and remind me of how my family acts when people come by, which makes me happy. I met the daughter, Alice, first, yesterday when I stopped by. Her grandfather, Chuck, is also here, a hilarious old man who loves to talk and chat and just shoot any shit that’s out there. I watched some Judge Judy with him. He’s from Tacoma and used to work with troubled youth, but I think he was also an investment banker. His wife has Alsheimers but remembers him, and he says she’s happy and cruising.

Dave Naughton, a Cal rower, showed up this evening and can’t get into the dorms until tomorrow so he’s crashing here for tonight. He’s a genuine, nice guy. We went out to dinner at a burger place because we were both pretty starving, had good talks about rowing, college, camp. He seems very intrigued and excited about camp and it’s funny to be the person who’s been through it already… I perennially feel like the new kid/little brother/youngster. I feel bad that he has to go to the dorms because he’s been here as Debbie explains how kickass I’m going to have it here in the house… but, I got stuck in the dorms while other kids were in baller houses, so it goes… It will be fun to have Murph live here with me. Dave can come hang out too.

I’ve been working out a bit and I feel good about that. Hopefully I won’t be too out of it for camp. After last year I think it’s going to be important to keep my fitness up during camp, so I’ve been doing good maintenance stuff, long stuff at low heart rates. Got in an hour in the 1x, 40 erg, 20 bike… should be good. Singling is interesting but not as much fun for me to do all the time as rowing in bigger boats. I almost went out again this afternoon with a couple Dartmouth kids but the water looked pretty choppy (whitecaps on the Connecticut? No thanks…) so I went inside while they went down to the dock. They came in a few minutes later while I was erging amidst lightning and thunder and a coming rainstorm. Glad I like erging alright…

Definitely is different being in a family house as opposed to Amelia’s place with her housemates… it was fun to be with a bunch of different, interesting, energetic 20somethings all sharing an awesomely eccentric old house in Vermont. Hopefully I’ll get some time to hang out with them; it’d be worth it to bike the 8 miles to where they are. Just mellow, would-fit-in-on-Bainbridge types of people who like to have a couple beers, tell funny stories, and barbecue. Definitely appreciated yet another group of people who were warm to me, instantly made me feel like I had friends and a good place to be. Awesome.

Yep, bed time. Probably going to get up and go to the boathouse, workout some before the first official practice at 5:30 tomorrow evening. Should be interesting.