Last Day of Summer

Unless you are a teacher, a student, or just a plain old unemployed person, the joys of summer vacation forever allude us. Fortunately, I was able to get one more summer break this year after losing my job and deciding not to jump right into another one I didn't like. So what have I been doing for the last four months? A lot actually, but very little of it was actually useful. As you can see I spent a lot of time outdoors in sandal.

Officially, I considered myself a transient as I was bus-setting my way across the Midwest (thanks to the cheap fare aboard Megabus). All in all I took 20 trips between St. Louis and Chicago this summer. I broke up the time on the bus between reading, watching movies, and sleeping. I also took and excursion to Memphis to watch a Redbirds game and eat ribs, drink beer, and eat more BBQ. I also took a trip to New York to visit my college roommate and to see my girlfriend's family.

During my less than stressful bus-setting life style I made some time for fun and games. I did things that I love to do and found some other things that I now love to do. I went to four beer festivals this summer and saw 'The Dark Knight' four times (on opening night and then three more times in IMAX). Pictured are my ticket stubs and sampling glasses. I also worked on mastering the art of 'Guitar Hero,' beating 138 of 168 levels. It sure filled in the extra time when I didn't have anything else to do.

But the summer wasn't all fun and games, just mostly. I did spend some time thinking about my future and decide to throw caution into the wind and start pursuing my dream of brewing professionally. So I spent a good amount of time reading advanced brewing textbooks, building and collecting new brewing equipment, and improving my unique brewing recipes. This work was in preparation of enrolling in the Seibel Institute of Technology, the oldest brewing program in the United States. The program starts on Monday and runs for 12 weeks with the last 5 taking place in Germany and other European countries. There will be plenty more to tell about my program as I am anticipating it could be the time of my life.