Total Number of Ratings: 4
Talk Amongst Ourselves: Summer Vacation
Thursday, August 27, 2009 9:54 PM
It's time for another intermittent installment of Talk Amongst Ourselves where I ask a question and you answer it!
The Question: How did you spend your summer vacation?
Why I'm Asking: School's back in session for most of the kids in my area and the school supply sections of the local thrift-marts have been picked over and are slowly loosing ground to Halloween. That can mean only one thing: it's time for that crazy cliched question that teachers ask to stall while they're finishing up their September lesson plans.
Am I stalling? A bit. I've got another TAO brewing, but the wording is ...delicate because I'm trying not to not invoke (or give the impression I'm trying to invoke) some #competitivegeekbating.
I'm also genuinely curious. As kids we rarely had control over where (if anywhere) we went on family trips. Maybe you lived in a house where you outnumbered the parents and made use of mob-rule leverage, but that's not how it worked Chez Moi.
Now that we're calling the shots (more or less), the game has changed. Even without the summer break of yore, summer is still a popular time to take vacations. Where did you go? What did you do? If you didn't get the opportunity to take a vacation, what would you have liked to do?
I also spent a few days in Montana in June and a few days in Seattle in August, but since those were both for weddings, I don't feel like they really "count." (although we were way overdue for visiting the seattlites that the wedding was for)
Spent first part of June touring the West Coast until my band & I were rejected & banned at the Canadian border. Then we ventured to Mexico, saw Mexico City & the Pyramids (praying to the Sun God)! Then flew to Guatemala, bused to El Salvador, then back to Guate, playing shows for at least 300 kids each night. THEN we got jumped by some dudes who followed us from El Salvedor to Guate & tried to scam us on a bus ride back El Salvador (and further south to Costa Rica). Maxed out credit card to get back home.
After that I went through a couple weeks of crippling depression because I was broke & we couldn't finish the tour (we had 2 nights booked in New Orleans!!!).
Comic-Con was fun. Got to say hello to some of my favorite creators in the comics biz. I had to work at a booth this year so it wasn't quite s fun as it could've been but partying w/ the iFancrew & TRS guys was worth it.
For August, my family talked me into moving to Texas to check out the school (which is significantly cheaper than where I'm at in Cali). Made the 24 hour boring drive out there. I spent over 2 weeks there and after realizing neither the school or the heat was for me, I decided to return to the West Coast.
Leaving tonight to be home by Sunday & make it to the first day of school on Monday.
Wow this was very long.
We were very lucky and had two vacations this summer (not surprisingly, we are now in fifnancial ruin).
We spent a week in Arbua at the end of June, which was relaxing and beachy and involved a LOT of drinking.
Then we had our annual trip to the Lake Keuka for a week in August, which was also relaxing and involved a LOT of drinking. The Lake is really great though. It's a big family vacation up in the "middle of no where" and I love it.
Most of my summer was spent working or at a movie theater. However I got to take in some great scenery hiking, got to go to alot of great movies (including director Q and As). Read alot of great comics and even found time to finish two scripts and outline another and start my own podcast.
Also threw my friend a birthday party which involved drunk watching Friday the 13th part III. Good times we had!
I got a new job and moved halfway across town. Par-ty!
Oh! And San Diego Comic Con, which more than offset the chaos. (With more chaos.)
1. I taught two freshman-level classes in June.
2. I published two academic journal articles:
http://hercules.gcsu.edu/~cclark/IGS_Gambling_Crime.pdf &
http://hercules.gcsu.edu/~cclark/High-School-Econ-Peer-effects-Final-revisions.pdf
3. I went to Florida with the in-laws for a week (and read roughly 10 trades and 3 novels while there). There were approximately 22 of us in a house intended to hold 12.
4. I spent way too much time on iFanboy, murmur, and Twitter.
5. I celebrated my 9th wedding anniversary.
6. I met my 2 month old nephew, Nolan.
7. I didn't attend San Diego Comic Con.
I took my first real non-working vacation in a while and went with my family to Cape Cod for a week. It was really great to be at the beach and be almost completely unplugged from phones and computers and the like.
I have an answer for this one!
I spent a week this summer at the Robert's Cottages in Door County, WI. Door County is a beautiful part of the country. Water on 3 sides, cherry festivals, more fresh cheese and fish boils than anyone could ever need. The farmland is dotted with adorable small towns full of local artists and artists who've become "local" over the years. It's a great way to detach from overly technological lives, if only for a week or so.
Fun Fact: Good luck getting into those cottages, specifically. They're the sort that get passed down season to season to the same families for decades and if and when one becomes free, it usually gets snatched up by those expanding families.
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I worked at a summer camp for 10 weeks doing various things, primarily archery and riflery. Also put my EMS license to good use (finally) and decided to work in the camp infirmary fixing the little ones as they busted themselves up. It was fun... except for the "ton of work with very little pay" bit