Das...

Its been quite a few days since I've updated which is quite all right with me. A lot has happened in that amount of time but the best has been my vacation to Grand Lake, CO. Upon thinking of all the time I've spent there, I've deduced that its almost like a second home considering I've spent most of the summers of my young life there.  Its been about four years since I've been there so this visit was much needed.  Most of my family (all 9 or so of us) met in G.L. for perfect weather. The high points were: relaxing, catching a day of M sailboat races, watching the adults act like 20 year olds (now I know where I get my party/fun gene from), rock candy, walking to town, my new boots, and consistent cocktail cruises around the lake every evening. For better or for worse, there really is no place like G.L. 

Other than my little getaway I've been taking advantage of these few summer months that I have left.  Working at Feast isn't the most rewarding place to work but I've come to enjoy it.  Hopefully this time next year I will have connected at least a few dots in my head about what I want to do, and maybe be in a different city? Who knows. I am about to go see the new Batman which I can't wait for and I saw Mamma Mia! the other night in Denver.  Let's just say I have ABBA stuck in my head to the point that I've downloaded their greatest hits. I think I spent too long in europe.  So since I can't remember all that's happened in the last two weeks, here's a photo recap.  

Reas and I gave Bradley a bath.  He looks like a drowned rat but we love him anyway.

I like this dog more than I do most people.  He's a jerk but look how cute he is. 

Kenton and I enjoyed the holiday that is 7-11.  Free slurpies at most 7-11's is a glorious thing.  

Laura and Susie and Sparks. This is a pretty normal situation. 

So I went to this moped rally party, which was aptly called the "bro-b-q". While the joke was that they were making fun of bro's, the real joke was that they are real bro's.  This picture sums up that night.  I think I was pouring beer on them from the roof, but after them yelling "bro's first!" and preventing us from getting a beer I think they deserved it.  

Reas and Diana drove me from Denver to G.L. in this convertable. I liked the drive through the mountains but it got a little shakey when we were driving up and up with no guard rail and a foot between us and the edge of the cliff.

Mom likes kayaking.

Reas, Diana, and I stayed in the boat house.  It was perfect and this is the living room set up. Check out that leopard print foot rest. 

The old house.  

The yacht club. Its like 100+ years old. 

Guys picture. 

There was a full moon while we were there.  I wish this picture was better but it was too dark to do much.  G.L. is at an elevation of about 8,000 feet so the sky is impecably clear. 

This is Reas' signature pose.  I think you could look at any family picture from when he was 10 or 12 and he'd be pulling the same move.  

summerrrr

Obviously I've totally slacked at posting, but I am back to the grind. Being in KC was relaxing and I had some good times with friends such as Amber and Ali.  After KC I finally made it back to Chicago so now I am here trying to get on some kind of schedule but that's pretty hard since its summer and the whole point of summer is not having a schedule. I've been doing a lot of walking Bradley, riding my bike, and hanging out with Laura and Suzy. Some highlights of being back have been seeing Monika and Chadwick and eating at Chicago Diner all in one night (their vegan "milk"shakes are amazing), going to see Katie A. in her new band Bromance minus the getting really lost finding the venue, seeing Crystal Castles for free at Double Door, actually the best part of that was the free part but also the actually getting in and the sweaty uber excited kids parts weren't too bad either, and group bike rides are always nice.  

The weather has been pretty amazing lately, little to no humidity and in the 70's or low 80's.  Yesterday was a perfect day, slept in, went on a good run, layed out on the roof with Reas and Diana, helped Kenton move, hit up pizza metro with Kenton and pooch, saw Curt and Josh play at Sonotheque with Laura and Suzy, went to Rodans, ran into some friends on Milwaukee and came home.  Down points of the evening were that I got a flat on my bike and lost my favorite sweater but those things are easily fixed. Anyhoo I got my job back at Feast which is good news for the pocket book.  I am actually excited to work there again, mainly because its really easy and I have a super flexible schedule. Tomorrow is free day at the Chicago History Museum so I think I am going to hit that up.  I want to go to one of the museums once a week this summer. Kelly and I have a thing called Adventure Wednesdays where we do something interesting in the city and just have a fun day, so I am adding another day to my week which is Museum Day.  I just want to get in as much fun and adventuring as I can this summer because its my last one. After this its all business and no fun. Anyhoo here are some random pictures from my daily goings on. 

View from the roof. I am going to be hanging out here a lot this summer.

This is where I hang out a lot in the morning. I watch people ride their bikes down the street and the cars slam on their brakes because they didn't see the speed bump. 

Puerto Rican Fest! Its officially summer in Chicago.

Crystal Castles. We waited in line for 30 minutes for this business. Good thing it was fun, and free.

Kelly is going to kill me for putting this up here, but I think she looks cute. I missed this lady lots while I was gone.

Ali is hiding and Amber is obviously having fun. Alex just wants to know what's going on. 

sticky

So I've made it to London. Its really hot here, the first day it was 80. There's no humidity in Dublin so its weird being in London and sweating because of the heat.  But then again its nice to know that summer exists somewhere.  I like London a lot so far, I've done a lot of tourist stuff but then a few things that make me feel more like a normal person.  Oh and the Tube is really really easy to use so that's a plus, and using it kicked me back into Chicago-EL usage.  So what have I done so far exactly? The first day I did a bus tour where I fell asleep and got a really awkward tank top tan, ran around with my friend Harriet from Chicago and her mom and sister, and just walked around town.  Harriet's mom was super nice, Harriet and her picked me up from the airport, fed me and drove me home and stuff . Moms are nice. Yesterday I ventured out on my own and did more bus tour which I fell asleep on again, went on the London Eye(I got to skip the 3 hour line somehow which was really nice), went to Westminster Abbey  and then to the National Gallery, and the most exciting part of my day was joining the millions of girls and gay men at the Sex and the City movie premier.  I was pretty far away and barely saw anything but I saw SJP. She was gorgeous and now I can't wait until I see the movie.  But after that I got dinner at a cute Italian place and then saw the Joy Division film at a really cool theater.  Really enjoyed the film and would recommend it to anyone interested in punk history or just documentaries.  

So overall I've had an interesting and activity filled few days.  Today is Tate Modern day and possibly the Tower of London, and if the weather stays nice I might go to Hyde Park and read or something relaxing and such.  But I've been taking tons of pictures and will post a few here but otherwise you'll have to track me down to see all of them.  London so far as surpassed my expectations and I am having a pretty good time here.  I leave for Berlin really early thursday morning, but check  in for more traveling bits.  

My stalker/paparazzi pic of SJP.  

SATC crowd. Tons of girls.

I'll Post more pictures to this post later. The interweb isn't letting me upload the rest of these pictures.