Patriots

Greetings from Limon, CO. Tomorrow I pick up Lyds at DIA and head to Boulder as the ski trip begins.

Had a nice drive today, especially the last 2 hours as I listened to the 2nd half and following 2 (2!) overtimes of a great OU men's basketball victory over West Virginia. Here's hoping the football team can handle WVU next week in regulation.

So now I'm watching the Pats play the Giants for a chance to set a whole ton of records and hopefully not choke. Entering the playoffs I'm hoping that this year's explosive Patriots still recall a little about previous years Patriots; teams that did little with style, but somehow always found a way to win when it counted. Before this year Tom Brady was never a great fantasy QB, he'd throw for 150 yards and a TD, but the Pats would win.

To address the spygate thing from the season's first game, sure it gives ammunition for the increasing number of haters out there, but frankly I don't care. Yes, it was illegal and immoral, and rather silly to think that Bellicek needed to spy to beat the Jets, but it in no way taints this season. If anything, it proves beyond a doubt that this season has been honest. Maybe it casts some doubt over previous seasons, maybe, but I doubt the Pats were the only team doing it, so how many team's records are you going to call into question?

Hmmm, and New England goes into halftime down 21-16. It's going to be an interesting second half.

And finally, what a year for New England sports. Red Sox win the series, Pats are 15-0, Celtics have the best record in the NBA, both UConn and BC football win 10+ games, the Revolution went to their 3rd straight final (I'll forgive the fact they've lost all 3 times), and even the Bruins are learning from their fellow New England athletes and refusing to entirely suck.

New Years Resolution

To update this blog more. Living in Madison I'm away from pretty much all of my close friends, and this a great way to keep in touch.

Right now I'm in Oklahoma for Christmas, but on Saturday I'm leaving for an epic ski trip to Colorado where I could get up to 10 ski days in. I'll also get my first in person contact with Dartmouth friends since August, which I'm looking forward to about as much as the skiing.

Okay, I'll post again soon once I've finally done something or thought of something interesting and worth writing about.

The Only Way to Travel

I left Dartmouth on the 14th/15th with style. I finished packing and loaded up the Jeep to the roof Thursday evening and headed up to Moosilauke to spend the night chilling with the spring and summer lodge crews, notably Mar, Pam, Shara, Brenden, and Pete. It was great to spend my last night in New Hampshire with this group. I even got to sleep in the crew loft. In the morning I climbed Moosilauke for the 6th and hopefully not last time, this time going solo and making it interesting by seeing how fast I could go and taking the old snapper trail on the decent (I did the 7.2 mile, 2,000+ vertical hike in 2 hours and 15 minutes in case you were wondering). I then said some hard goodbyes and headed off on my latest road trip.

Since I had to pick up Emily at 11pm at the Hartford airport which was less than 3 hours away and I left the lodge at 1, I had some time on my hands. So I decided to take the scenic route and forsake the interstate for the scenic state highways and backroads of New Hampshire, Mass., and Conn. I also stopped by Hanover one last time to eat lunch and say my farewells to the green. The roads I took south in New Hampshire were beautiful. When I didn't have great views of Ascutney or other mountains the trees arched over the road, enveloping the Jeep in a shimmering green light. I had my windows open and music blaring. I have to give myself props for my "The Drive Home" playlist, it's great to rock out to.

My route took me through Amherst, MA where I was planning to eat dinner at a burrito place I remembered from a tournament my freshman spring. When I got there though I found the town green covered with tents and the taste of Amherst festival in full swing. Needless to say I took part and enjoyed it emensely. It was now 6pm, and still having time on my hands I set off for Mt. Frissel, the highest point in Connecticut in the far Northeast corner of the state. The high point is actually on the side of the mountain though, as the summit is in MA, so it's not one of the more glamorous high points. Due to some traffic though I pulled up the trailhead in the middle of nowhere backwoods of CT/MA at sunset. I set off at a run, hoping the trail was extra short and flat and that I could get back before pitch darkness set it. Turns out the trail was steep and rugged at times and the high point is on the back side of the mountain from the trailhead and I found myself standing in dark forest halfway up the mountain when I realized that despite my love of the outdoors, being alone in unfamiliar woods at night scares the crap out of me. I paused to weigh my options, and then a plane flew over, it's engines sounding a little too much like a bear growling for my comfort, so I quickly retreated to the safety of the Jeep and the 2 hour drive across CT to the airport, where I waited until 12:45am for Emily's delayed flight from Chicago.

All in all a pretty amazing day. It's hard usually to take the scenic because it takes longer, but I'm definitely making a mental note to do it whenever I have the chance.

Summer Plans

So I graduated from Dartmouth on Sunday. I don't really know what more to say about that as I don't think it's sunk in yet. My diploma is sitting on the table in my apartment but I doubt I'll realize I'm done with this place until I'm heading south out of town listening to my "Drive Home" mix on Friday. I don't know when I'll be back, which is an odd thing to think about now. I'm currently packing up my life for the road trip home. More thoughts will come later as I try to keep this thing updated, but for now I'll just post where I'll be this summer before going back to packing. If you're in the area let me know, I have new spiffy Dartmouth alum address now which is bcarr07@alum.dartmouth.edu.

Until June 14th: Dartmouth
June 14th/15th: Moosilauke Ravine Lodge
June 16th: Glastonbury, CT
June 17th: Cooperstown, NY
June 18th-26th?: Madison, WI
June 27th?-August 15th: Norman, OK
Mid July Sometime: Colorado
July 26th-31st: Wildwood, NJ and NYC
August 16th: Starting Grad School in Geophysics at Univ. Wisconsin Madison.

So about that whole posting thing

I've decided I'm too busy to maintain this now, especially since most of the people I'd be writing for are at Dartmouth and know what I'm up to. I'll pick this up again after graduation and use it as a means to keep in touch with people.

Right

So nothing all that interesting is going on right now. I should probably transition from writing about what I'm doing to writing about what I'm thinking. That's what makes these things interesting. However, I have a bunch of stuff to read for my graduate seminar today, so I don't have time to get all philosophical about something. Maybe tomorrow. We'll see. If nothing else I'll post in a week or so about skiing and/or ultimate.

Home

So after nearly two weeks at home in Norman, I will be heading back to New England later today. I am currently up late packing as the Fiesta Bowl took forever to come to it's despressing, misberable ending (fuck! fuck! fuck!).

Home, as always, was a great break from my normal hectic life. This time was slightly more stressful than normal unfortunately due to grad school apps, the GRE, and administrative shit going down with ultimate. I managed to take care of it all though and still average about 10-12 hours of sleep tonight, only waking up before noon maybe 3 or 4 times. Like I said, I enjoy relaxing when I'm here, because I never get to do it any other time.

I also got to catch up with my best friends from high school and was again confronted with the fact that for many of us, real life is approaching very fast. Two of my friends have already landed 80 grand a year jobs for fall '07, one for Exxon in Houston and the other in Seattle for Microsoft, and I have been told I need to return to Norman this August for a wedding. My best friend from high school continues to progress through the substitute teaching ranks and is looking to join the workforce next year as well. I am the lone member of our group still hoping to delay reality for a few more years by going to grad school. Hopefully. We'll see how the applications fare, I've had good luck in the past and hopefully that continues, allowing me to go where I want and be able to afford it.