doubt your doubts, and believe your beliefs

I'm back in sunny California and trying to re-acclimate myself to the time here. I didn't think it would be much of a problem, but as it turns out I was desperately tired by 11pm both nights I've been home. I also woke at 5am yesterday. That is not okay. I'd imagine after today I should be in pretty good shape as far as all that goes. I did have a pretty tiring week, so that probably has something to do with it too.

In all the trip to Chicago was a good one. It was great to see everyone out there, to hang out with John, Becca, and Ang again. Not to mention the rest of the Pack family, Josh, and Mandy who was awesome in giving me a ride to the airport. Westmont isn't home to me but with my friends there it certainly feels like it. Life is different with them gone.

Realizing some parents of the particularly paranoid persuasion might take issue with me posting pictures of their children on the internet I just have a few here to put up. We went on a hike through the greenest, lushest woods I've seen. Initially I argued with John about it (because on principle everything in California has to be better than everything everywhere else) but eventually had to acquiesce. While on the hike we stopped by a riverside to mess around for a bit. While there I learned that my rock skipping skills have declined drastically and I absolutely must do something about that. Aside from that, Illinois has a decided dearth of stones suited to skipping. (Two alliterations in one sentence...that just came out.) As you can see just about everything out there was green. Finally we have Rufus. John and Rebecca's beloved bulldog. That thing is a noise and gas machine. He snores more than almost any human I know and farts with such frequency I wonder if there isn't something terribly wrong. One night in the house Rufus was overcome by his desire to be a sex machine and ran around the living room, humping no less than two kids and had to be forcibly restrained from hopping on more.

Afterwards he was seen walking around with something resembling a cigar in his mouth. I'm sure this is just a coincidence.

So it was a fun trip and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone out there again. Now I'm back home with my responsibilities and finding it difficult to get the proper motivation to fulfill some of them. While in Chicago I had a talk or two with John about some stuff I'm doing out here and got motivated - so I'm sure it's just a little fatigue playing itself out. I'm going disc golfing....oh yeah, disc golfing! I almost forgot.

I went disc golfing a few times while I was gone. Ang and I paid a visit to the course in Downer's Grove. That course was fairly weak and I lost one of her discs in the long grass. It was still a good time because we got to tell ourselves we did something with the day and pretend we did enough to eat the Coldstone we had on the way home. Friday and Monday I played Joliet's course which was verra nice. It's no Dela but it was a good course. Friday I actually beat John, but Monday he regained his rightful place as pwner of me in the realm of disc golf. Today I'm heading out to Santa Cruz with Jesse to play a round. Still working on a new throwing motion to increase my distance. John suggested I get a new disc, as my preferred driver is "the easiest to throw." Tougher discs cut through the air better and increase your distance; so I may want to experiment with that a little bit.