God has really blessed me with a steady stream of activity this year. I am not happy when I am idle.

I am having trouble sleeping and I decided I should write to help clear my mind. With school starting this week, I thought of the dreaded first paper of the year required each September in grade school. I'm sure everyone had this assignment each fall, write a report of your activities over the summer vacation. So, if any of my grammar school teachers are reading, here it is, one more time:

What I did this summer.
This summer was filled with new jobs, moving, trips and weddings.

As school let out, my small business (shameless plug) started work on the largest contract we have received so far.

Move 1: helped Cody, one of my college roommates, move into my house.

Trips 1, 2 & 3: Three back to back trips to Austin in about a month. One bachelor party, wedding and a cousin's graduation. Approached by, interviewed with and offered a new job with the Texas A&M Libraries Digital Initiatives. Put in my two weeks at the Computer Science Department.

My bike was stolen from campus which under normal circumstances would get me down but the same week, I started my awesome new job. In the excitement of the transition, I barely took notice.

Trip 4: Over the course of a week, I drove Brian's truck to Dallas to pick up my brother Steven at the airport, we drove to Arkansas to visit our grandmother, drove from there to Georgia where we meet up with the family to see our brother Brian graduate from officer candidate school at Ft. Benning, flew back to Dallas to attend my roommate's wedding, flew back to College Station early enough to make it to work on time Monday morning.

Trip 5: Spent four days at a terrific house on the shore of lake Travis over the 4th of July. We were not able to get on the lake because the water was too high. Since when do we have problems with having too much water in Texas? Sometimes irony sucks. I still had a great time with my friends but it would be a lie to say we didn't wish to be in the boat. No wake boarding this summer...

Trip 6, Move 2: Dave and Emily returned from their honeymoon. The three of us packed up all of their belongings into a twenty-four foot truck, Emily and Dave's cars. We finished packing and hit the road at three in the afternoon and set off for Colorado. Driving through the night, we made it to Wichita Kansas on the first leg, slept a few hours and then set off for Colorado. We moved everything in, spent a day in Loveland and Ft. Collins then I flew back to Houston on the red eye. Brian picked me up a midnight and drove me back to College Station on his way to his first post at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma.

Trip 7: Left work mid afternoon to drive to Dallas for a wedding and to see a couple friends.

My brother got engaged!

Traded in the old junker (suckers) and bought a new truck.

Moves 3, 4, 5: This month, Shaun, my cousin, moved into my house, moved a co-worker across town and helped my cousin, Randy, move into his new dorm. Finally, this past week, I stumbled into the best freelance job I have ever had. 'whew

Over the past year, I have spent a fair amount of time trying to decide on what to do next. I think I am finally staring to formulate something of a plan.

I have a perfectly good job and I like what I do so I am not sure why I am so restless. This feeling of malcontent is actually worrying me. In the past year, I have received a promotion at work, started a small business and the landlord gig is definitely profitable. I have nothing to complain about.

For a while now, I have hoped I would somehow come to realize exactly what to do with my life. I have not come up with anything definite so far. This is extremely frustrating. I believe I function best when I have a single, clearly defined goal that I can work towards. I'm not content drifting from one interest to the next.

During all this reflection, I have come up with the following observations: First - I can no longer wait for the answers to just come to me. My goal is to be focused on two or three basic areas of self improvement. Second - There is no need for me to decide my exact job or career path right now. Third - There is a strong correlation between my general level of contentment, self esteem, etc. and my physical fitness. Fourth - I need to simplify and focus and limit my interests to my education, my job and my business. Finally, and most importantly - I need to stop procrastinating and continue my education.

So this is step one - I have stated the obvious. Until I have a definite career goal to work towards, my goal will be self improvement and to do my best to advance the web development business.

The plan

The plan is to go back for my masters next fall but continue working the full time job and trying to expand my web development business. The business is showing real promise as a viable career option so I want to feed it more of my time and energy.

On the personal wellbeing front, I have signed up for a personal trainer to help me get the workout back on track for the first time in six years. In an effort to simplify and focus, I have started a list of all of my ongoing projects. I plan to knock out the last of my personal pet projects and hobbies, and not start anything new so I can devote my free time to web development and to continuing my education.

I posted photos from my three most recent trips. At the end of August, I spent a great weekend boating and wakeboarding on lake Palestine. The following week I left for a two week trip, backpacking North Cascades and Olympic National Parks with my brothers. A couple of weeks after backpacking, I left for a visit to Washington DC with my parents.

I think I will try to write about my backpacking trip later. Its amazing what a bit of fresh air can do to improve my mood. I was in a fog before this trip. Little things were getting me down and I was worrying about small problems. Our little walk seems to have cleared everything up.

I apologize if it seemed like I dropped off the face of the earth over the past six weeks. After three back to back trips, I am back in town and unpacked.

At the beginning of August, I was worried that all of this travel around the first of the fall semester would set me behind for the entire semester. Somehow, everything seems to have worked out.

A bee stung me in the neck this evening. Good times...

*UPDATE: 9/23* Two more bees stung me today! Wasps this time - last week was a honey bee. I found their nest and took my revenge. I have had four bee stings in my entire life. Three were this week.

I have posted the photos I took from last week’s ski trip. There are only 14 pics so far, my camera was acting up so I didn’t use it most of the trip. I know Anne and Dave have some excellent photographs. I am hoping they will allow me to post a few of them.

Anyway, Copper had the best powder I have ever seen (76 - 96 inch base!). On many of the runs, the powder was deep enough that you could not see your skis. To sum up the trip: My bum ankle healed, I got stuck in a turnstile, successfully skied the most difficult trails I have ever been on and wiped out a-lot on the easy runs. Oh, BTW, I have experienced the ’B’ line, I am never going back.

Kerry, Dave, thanks for organizing everything, we couldn’t have possibly found a better deal on such a great condo and trip. Anne thanks for selflessly sharing your internet connection with everyone. It can be difficult to feed my addiction on vacation. Casey - we all appreciate you skiing slow so the rest of us can keep up. Steve - mountain sickness? Since when are you susceptible to altitude sickness? That’s my favorite illness, way to show me up. Kevin, Jason - you better come back next year. The second ski trip isn’t nearly as painful as the first. (Good luck on your surgery Jason).

Thanks guys & girls, I can’t wait for next year.