How's your summer break?

I don't have much planned until July. Then 4th of July, a friend's 21st birthday, and my family vacation will all happen very quickly.

I have a crappy job as an appliance salesman in Sears but one of my very good friends just got me a job for the NJ Jackles. I'll be doing consessions and stuff. My friend has been there about 5 years too so it should be fun.

That's about all I got.

I totally forgot about 4th of July. My roommates birthday is that weekend and we are doing one of those Barcycles. I did one in Austin a couple months ago and it was a blast.



Only 14 more months until you can celebrate at the bars!

Well..  no one is gonna top that! Sounds amazing.

In July I have a week in LA for my brother's wedding, then jumping a cheap flight to Vancouver to bum around Vancouver Island for a week in a Westfalia Camper Van. It is a lot cheaper right now to travel around Canada than the US, and I did Oregon and California coast a few years ago so it felt like time to finally make my way to Vancouver.

Things have been busy lately but well. I've been busy training for the Edinburgh Marathon (my first!), which will be a week from Sunday. Hopefully the Scottish weather will hold! I've also been busy with a lot of DIY work at the apartment, with old partition walls taken down, new ones put up, and around 60 or so flat-pack boxes waiting to be unpacked and built for our new kitchen.

Travel wise, my wife and I have a couple of shorter trips planned this summer. We'll be off to the south of France (Carcassonne and Narbonne) for an extended long weekend in three weeks time, and to the northern coast of Ireland for midsummer (the same weekend as our draft commences).

We're currently also in the planning states of a longer trip to South America for the end of September/beginning of October. The itinerary so far is to arrive into Rio de Janeiro at the tail-end of the Paralympic games; visit Ilha Grande and Iguazu Falls; travel via bus through northern Argentina to Montevideo in Uruguay, and from there via ferry to Buenos Aires; fly down to southern Chile for a week of hiking in Patagonia. Should be pretty epic!

Dang everyone is out having fun and going on trips and I'm just sitting over here like....I'm going to work? And going home? And from my chair to my couch? Occasionally to bed. That's my summer

Man everyone is posting about great vacations and mine is the opposite. A little back story I am from Halifax Nova Scotia but I go to school in Hamilton Ontario, There is like 2000 km between them. So I am back in Halifax for the summer since it costs way less to live with my parents again for the summer.

The worst part about being home is the job I have, it is a shitty labour job at a wood siding company and my boss is universally hated by everyone. The only reason I ever go back is that my father has been the acountant for 21 years (so I just get the job and never interview for it) and I have worked here many times so the pay is better then anything I will get else where and it is 45 hours a week not 40 so that is like 800 more dollars over the course of the summer. It is all about maximising revenue for me right now.

This place usually puts me in a sour mood while working as there are not really any positives to being here except for the 3 friends I have at work but I hardley see them as I am at a different section of the plant then them. Last summer my girlfriend came down to visit twice during the summer and that really helped lift my spirits throughout the summer.

But we just broke up a couple days ago so ya....

I have always been someone that keeps a small set of friends but they were good friends. Now since I am not here for 2/3rds of the year I have drifted away from them and we are all kind of different now then 3 years ago when I use to live here full time.

I spent most my time at school with my girlfriend and now I feel like I am going into third year with not a lot to look forward too. I am not the best at making friends and I am pretty shy before I get to know someone. Also I am not someone who puts themselves out there that much.

The one positive thing I have going is that I am finally getting healthy. I have always been a little overweight not much, but bigger then most people. I have fought with it all my life to varried levels of success. But I am really trying harder then ever and I am down 10 pounds in a month so it is a good start and I hope it will continue.

We have lived in this house for 22 years now and it needs some repairs and since my parents are selling it in a year or 2 this is the first summer where we are putting major work into it. We already have a completely new lawn, painted one room and redid the kitchen so my parents are just spending money on the house so we are taking no real vacations this year.

So ya, sorry to be the downer is this thread I hope you all have a fantastic summer and I am sure mine will get better as it goes on too.

Also for the first time in a long time I am excited by summer hockey things, since the Habs have had pretty good success in the last 5 years our summers are always kind of boring (picking late in rounds, traded away second rounders, etc.) But we have a good pick and the FA pool is big and MB knows he needs to get us a forward(s), and we just rehired Kirk Muller who was our assistant for years and will be running our PP again which can only be good as it has been TERRIBLE since he left.

Also I am looking forward to our draft too, I have 6 picks in the first 2 rounds (side note I am looking to trade my depth picks for another second rounder too).

This turned our longer then I expected, thanks for reading though.

I've been pretty busy with work (getting more responsibilities, which is cool).

Playing a lot of softball with my traveling team. We're having a rough regular season (last place in a tough division) but there's been some improvement recently and we're playing a tournament up in Seattle over July 4th weekend, and potentially a couple more in late July/early August.

Just wrapped up a stint volunteering as a basketball coach at the Blazers Boys and Girls Club (Boys and Girls Club charter that the Portland Trailblazers founded a while back, which is pretty cool- got to meet Terry Porter at the season kickoff), which was really rewarding. Waiting to hear back from the Russell Wilson Passing Academy as to whether I'll be a volunteer coach at their camp at Nike HQ here in Oregon, which would be awesome.

Very firmly in baseball mode right now, but still thinking about hockey and excited to see if my beloved Winnipeg Jets do indeed take Patrik Laine, which I would be overjoyed with. Excited as well for Euro 2016 and hoping that Jamie Vardy/N'Golo Kante don't leave Leicester City (because then I know there's no way we compete for a CL berth next season).

See you all at draft time, I'll try to check in on here more often.

Fuck the Penguins, go Sharks.