ok, normally I don't post random dribble like this, but it was too funny to pass up.
You can try it, just go to google or any search engine and type in "(your name) looks like" and see what your results are.
Here are mine.

Michael looks like drag queen in one of Pauls porn videos.
In some of those photos, Michael looks like he's playing naked.
Michael looks like a penguin.

Those were really the only ones that made sense/complete sentances on the first page, but those alone were enough to brighten my day!

I've stopped washing my hair

No, I'm not going for dreadlocks or anything like that. It's not even that I want dirty hair. Rather, I have stopped shampooing my hair, although I still wet it in the shower so that I don't get chunks of say,... birdnest in it. The reason is that my hair is very oily so it can get quite greasy if I don't wash it within 24hours of its previous shampooing, or even sooner. My theory is that if I let the oils build up for a while, my scalp will slow down the rate of oil production so I won't need to shampoo the oils out every day(as I have for the past many years).
Once again, this is just a theory - I'm going to try and last as long as I can before the oily hair drives me insane. But ya, I have relatively short hair at the moment; I certainly couldn't do this with longer hair. I don't think I ever want to have long hair again. Seeing some pictures of me with long hair, and I'm not a fan. I'm enjoying the plyability of my hair with the slight excess of oil though at the moment... I don't even really need gel to make it into a fauxhawk or make the front stand up.
Ok, enough about my sexy sexy hair. I've started reading again, after having given up on that over the summer. I went to bed last night reading some Shostakovich. Not exactly relaxing reading, but it was good. It actually got me riled up about the idea that music and creating music should do some good for the world. All great art should have something to do with the common themes of humanity. He also wrote about the ill of american society and the trend that the arts should entertain and nothing more. It's a little concerning that so much music currently treats entertainment as the only purpose for music. Instances he used as examples are of how Orchestra concerts lose their variety and quality when the programmes are decided by the same people who are concerned with the finances - what they present is dictated by the dollar which is influenced, nay dictated by the flippant desires of how the audience wants to be entertained. His stance is that every programme, ever concert should have something that challanges the audience/listener - it is not a bad thing for the audience even to hate a small portion of the concert....
I agree! If you go to a concert and you like everything, then how can you qualitatively compare one thing to the next... Then you become Mr.Winnipeg and you stand up to give a standing ovation at the end of every performance because everything was good, nothing was bad; but at the same time, nothing was exceptional.
I love this, reading and thinking about the thoughts and ideas of the authors, especially when they are composers and are writing about what I want to do with my life. Yippee!
Anyway, I want to hear some thoughts on the idea of music as a means of purely entertainment.... feel free to comment.

Welcome home mikey!

Well, I wasn't really in the city long enough after my job to feel like I was at home, but now I am here more permanently.
As I said, the road trip was wonderful and it was great to see some family and a wonderful city. The scenery along the way was extraordinary and no matter what I say, I'm glad I went.
With that said, I feel so guilty about having gone. I had wanted so badly to make up for my lack of productivity this summer as soon as I got back to Winnipeg, but then there was a road trip and BOOM! there goes another week and a half of not getting anything done that I've needed to this summer.
Oh well.
But now it is time to get my butt in gear.
Next week, on Monday I start working for 2 weeks with the Musical Theatre Camp. I will be working for just 3 hours a day in the afternoon - perfect timing for me as I needn't wake up early and I still have my evenings free. I will also be doing a few mornings, but that's fine.
Since yesterday I've pushed myself to start working on the Bach Fugue and it's starting to move along...slowly. I think I've done enough work on the Beethoven before the start of the year. Now, I'll just do the upkeep on the 1st and 3rd movements- there's other pieces which I have to learn first , namely the Haydn Sonata. I would love to have that one completely learned for the beginning of school, but it's doubtful - rather, I will aim to learn the finale and make some headway on the other movement. What else, Liszt I think will be one of those pieces that I'll make slow consistent progress on. And the MacIntosh piece, I'll get around to that one later. eep.
Composing - eep, I need to do that too. I've gotten my ideas a little more organized for the variations, and I still aim to have that completed or structurally sound in time for my first composition lesson this fall. I think that is pretty much all I can reasonably expect from myself this summer, but if I can get a start on anything else, that would be wonderful.
Anyway, it's good to be back and I'm excited to go back to school next month. Now I just have to do a lot of work so that excitement is warranted.

so this has been a super-awesome road trip thus far, for a few key reasons:

cheap- we haven't overspent our gas budget! also due to...

family- we haven't had to camp or pay for accomodations yet. After the first night staying at Binky's dad's, we stayed with Jonny in Calgary, my aunt in Vernon, and my cousin in Vancouver (presently). Besides the savings, I'm so happy that we have visited with these people.I rarely see family often enough to even keep up with what's going on in their lives, so a few days with them is a wonderful opportunity!

Beautifulness- Wow, mountains and the West Coast in general are breathtakinglybeautiful! So many pictures of pretty and the trip's not done yet.

In conclusion... I will be applying at both University of British Columbia AND Simon Fraser so as to double my chances of moving to Vancouver. I think I have fallen in love with this city and then some. The only bad thing about the city is the cost of living... but in reality... I can't stay at home with my parents in my home town forever and no matter where I am looking to move, the cost of living is going to somewhat interfere with my.... well, living.

Anyway, that is enough gibbergabber from me for the moment. I will be leaving Vancouver on tuesday morning and in theory, I will be back either late Wednesday evening or Thursday sometime. From there, it's up to Thompson to visit my sister.
well, so much for getting myself well prepared for the upcoming school year....(oopsie)

So, I'm heading out on a road trip tomorrow. We don't have a specific final destination in mind. We know we're going to Calgary to see my friend Jon. If it doesn't cost that much in gas money to make it there, then we might go farther. I have an aunt in BC we might be able to stay with... who knows!
One thing I noticed today was that I don't have a map of Canada to take.... I don't know if Binky does either.... but it doesn't bother me either way. I don't think the directions to Calgary will be too difficult - Take the transcanada west, at Calgary turn right. And seeing how that's our only real destination... I don't think we need one anyways. It's an adventure! On the other hand, I'm sure I could find that one from my road trip last summer if I really wanted to...
Oh well, I did a fair amount of baking today and I found a tent for us to use. A most productive day it has been!
I should get to bed and have a good night's sleep. I still have to pack my stuff tomorrow, and who knows how well I will be sleeping while I'm on the road.

Well, the fringe festival is coming to a close. I was fairly bummed out about thinking I was gonna miss it when I was at work, but now that I was here and able to see it... I didn't really see a lot. I'm going tonight to see one, but I dunno. It's improvised sketch comedy.... which I'm always a little leary about...with good reason. True - it can be extremely entertaining when done well, but I have never seen it done at a non-professional level. True - it can be extremely gruelling and painful when it is not done well. I have a feeling that tonight will be closer to that edge of the spectrum, but I will go with an open mind and at least give it a chance.
I think the reason I'm not jumping at the idea to see more and more plays is that I saw a really really great one the other night. The acting was superb and the writing was wonderful, it was able to call upon strong emotions in the audience without straying too far from the comic goal. I would much rather have ended off this year's fringe festival with that in mind. Oh well.
There's still Folklorama coming up - always a good time with ethnic food and drink and.... hmm, I'm trying, but I'm really not that excited about anything this summer. Maybe this road trip will change things around.
Im leaving sunday evening on this exciting journey, who knows when I will return!

I went to see Ballet in the Park tonight. It's a public display put on by the city's Ballet School and some company members. It was nice to see some of the students performing, as I didn't get to work with them this summer. The show was very nice overall. The thing I didn't like was that since it was an outside free concert, you have a very interesting group of people assembled to watch. A few drops of rain caused lots of people to get up and leave, and if not, they put up their excessively large umbrellas and block my line of sight. We never thought to bring rain protection, so we sat through it. It was rather cool for the shorts and t-shirt I'm wearing, but oh well.
I love this weather!!!! It's so cool for summer! It's perfect sweater weather. I'm thinking I should put on pants and a sweater and go for a nice long walk. I certainly should... we went for a bit to eat afterwards, and then Jenn convinced me to join her in having dessert... oops. I think I'll do some good ol fashioned thinking, or compose one of these blasted variations in my head while I'm walking.... ooh and I can stop off at the park and go for a swing. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I love going on the swings.
Well, thats enough for tonight, unless I discover something absolutely exciting to talk about on my walk.

the 20'th century finally caught up with me

It makes me a little sick, but I'm actually using the twelve-tone method.. thats right, I am a veritable dodecaphonist!
I wanted a section to sound random -without a hint of musical intentions. So lo and behold, I asked a friend to put the numbers 1 through 12 in random order, then I proceeded to create myself a matrix to create many different combinations of the notes which I derived from the numbers.
I'm not sure if it will have the effect I am going for, but I figured I would try it.

roadtrip weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ok, so I know now that everything works out for the best!
I almost bought a car this summer, but i didn't. If I did, I would have spent money on the actual car and then insurance and registration and everything, then I would have been (financially) forced to stay at the Lodge til the end of the summer to pay for it....
As it happens, I didn't but the car - I came home early and have nothing really pressing to do (ignoring the practicing/composing thing) until the middle of August. I have a friend named Binky who wants to travel around .... THEREFORE ROADTRIP!!!!!!!!!!
even better is that she has a car and she's totally cool with the random road trip idea!!!!
We're also both wanting to stick to a almost non-existent budget!! Yay for cheapness!
Oh wow, I'm excited, superduper!
I'm not sure exactly when I'm leaving, but most likely by Saturday or sunday! yippee!

This set of piano variations I'm working on is driving me crazy, well not really, but ya. How is it that I feel like I've made so much progress on it, but when I look at what I've actually written... it's sadly depressing. Grr! But ya, soon enough I will be done with this silly incubation period I seem to be in, and I'll have it marked down on paper.
Ignoring that rather dreary introduction, today was a pretty marvellous day. I took my mom and Granddad and Great Aunt Jean out for lunch and then we went back to their appartment to see pictures of my granddad's trip out east and then we talked for a while. It impresses me how smart my Great Aunt is, both of them really. I've had a lot of experience with older people, and it's frustrating how closed minded and stubborn they can be. But these two exercise their minds and bodies regularly - and I admire then immensely for it. We talked about the state and value of higher education in North America, touched on the situation overseas, and of course we talked about the apparent lack of traditional parenting skills amongst the younger generation these days.
Tonight I went to the neighborhood coffee shop with my friend Cara and her boyfriend Dat. While it was a relatively short night, I always enjoy spending time with them.
Well, it's nearly half past eleven, but I don't think I'm done for the evening. I wonder what further trouble I can get into tonight...

Today I went to the library to take out a good edition of my Beethoven Sonata in order to crossreference it and find out just how bad the one I've been using is. It's not actually all that bad, only a few little discrepencies here and there. Thankfully, it's not like I'm going to have to struggle to relearn chunks of it.
While walking towards the building, I stepped into what I thought was dirt (AKA dry mud), but it wasn't - it was veritable mud (AKA wet dirt). The subtle distinction means that my foot and shoe got quite dirty and my foot slipped, I flailed and screamed and the world was at a loss for not having had people around to enjoy my reaction...
Tonight I hung out with a friend that I haven't seen for a while. It was good, but since I know they read this - I'll point out that I didn't really buy the attempt at a bright mood. There's no need to put on a show for Mikey - but if that actually is an improvement in mood, I'm worried. But for now, enough said.
Before I went out tonight, there were Park family shenanigans - mostly trying to decide what to do for dinner. The end result was me leaving. It was an event of indecisiveness. We were all hungry and it was a reasonable time for supper. When we posed each other the question of 'what shall we make?', noone wanted to make a decision. In order to partially stave off our hunger, but mostly to avoid deciding we made appetizers. I made bruschetta - involving many cutting boards and knives and swearing while my mother went all out and made celery with peanut butter. The bruschetta was alright, but not quite was it should have been like. I think that was due to the wrong type of tomatoes and some pretty tasteless feta, but oh well. I'll try again sooner than later.
That's about all for now.
Ooh, Tomorrow I'm going for lunch with my Grandpa, Great Aunt, and Mother. It will be wonderful, I don't see those first two nearly often enough. I haven't decided where I'll take them, but I'm sure they'll have some suggestions... or else it could be a whole new indecisive adventure!

my hair got shortened

it was haircut day today.
i was excited to go to my baber, but apparently he only works a few days a week now, and he hired two other haircutters who only operate by appointment.... this made me not happy.
Barbershops don't do appointments... it's just the way things are... gosh!
anyway, so that put me off a bit, but mostly I wanted to have short hair for the rest of the summer, so I said screw it and went to one of those ghetto little discount hairchopper places.
Yuck, there was like a 4 year old getting her haircut beside me, and apparently it was causing her some kind of unimaginable pain and torment cause the little shit bag didn't stop screaming the whole time. For fucks sake, the thing that got me was that the mother said she does it every time... fricking shit - then don't cut your kid's hair! or cut it yourself, it's a child that's the perfect age for bad haircuts... give her a fricking mullet for cunt's sake! That's what they invented the Flobee for!
Anyway, no biggie. I don't particularly care what my hair looks like most of the time- ie. the mullet or the multiple times I've let drunk people cut my hair at parties. It's quite short - the only thing I cared about was that the back was properly taperred, which it was, so I am happy. The last haircut I got was out in the middle of nowhere and she didn't taper it at the back, so it already looked like I was going for another mullet... again. I don't think I've had it quite this short since I started the music program (according to my picture id).
That was the productivity of today. I also practiced piano a bit in the late-afternoon/evening. I've made some strong steps forward in terms of the first page of the last movement of my Beethoven sonata. -If only I was this productive everytime I practiced-
Anyway, I think I'm off fringing for the evening.

I love city water

I know it sounds odd, but I really do love the taste of Winnipeg Water.
Out where I was staying this summer, the water was far too salty to drink straight from the tap. The restaurant/bar had a wonderful filtration system that made the water taste much better, but I still prefer the clean taste of mass water filtration with a hint of fluoride. Yummy. Just in case your sarcasm-meter is going off, stop it, I am completely serious.
I had myself a nice little brita water filter so I could drink the water in my little cabin. I also had a kettle fo I could pour the water into that and then into the brita filter - the setbacks of an extremely shallow sink. After not even two months there was a thick build up of salt in the spout of the kettle, and a slime on the inside of the filter basin and on the filter itself. As I didn't have another filter, I washed it off and continued to trust that it was keeping me safe from the natural sludge in the water. It tasted fine enough.
I have been just gulping back the water, now that I am home. With the taste and large effort required to filter my water out there, I was not drinking anywhere near my normal 4 litres of water a day. This is something I have to catch up on over the next little while.
Aside from water, I have also not been eating much lately. The food had been accessible - so no real excuse. It's not just that I haven't been eating much, but I can't eat much. It's not a loss of appetite, I still feel hungry and then eat, but I don't need much to satisfy the craving. I've been getting full quickly lately, which I won't argue with - I'm not gonna keep eating when I feel that way.
Nevertheless, I am no healthier nor have I lost weight this summer - damn the theory I had months ago of being healthy in mind and body...
So far this summer has been a write-off for productivity, but I'm gonna change my ways - you just wait and see!!

I have moved home for the rest of the summer.
Never have I felt so much like the people I was leaving will genuinely miss me.
Anyway, long story short - I had a great time and spent it with great people this summer. I am glad that I worked out of town this summer, and I will miss those people dearly, but I am excited to be back in the city and can't wait to get to work on practicing and composing.
A few weeks back I realized something that wasn't so cool, but I won't dwell on it too much-
Being in say a school of music gives you a lot of friends who you see all the time. It's like highschool, some relationships are stronger just because you have no other choice. It's nice to think that you will still stay in touch with some of those friends after school....
While I was out of town, I didn't receive any phone calls or text messages from the people who I thought might have. I'm not going to bitch about how it wouldn't have cost other people any money to have called me, cause I still had a city number... mumbly mumbly.
It's just that sometimes I feel like the pathetic friend that people only talk to when I call them up. I've thought about just not calling people anymore and seeing if anyone actually does care, but the prospect of being interminably lonely isn't all that appealing. although at times, it does.
This is just in my mind because people I said goodbye to today were very adament about me keeping in touch. More than just something people say, they made sure I wrote down my contact info and stuff - it made me wonder how close you can get to a person in a few short months - or three years?
Gah, too much heft for a post in such summer heat.
I'm back in Winnipeg and all is well!

I was supposed to be leaving to go back to the lodge right about now, but as per usual... plans have changed. My ride back in has decided to stay on vacation a few days longer. No biggie, I just have to take the bus tonight at 8pm. It means I won't be getting back til later tonight, but oh well. We were heading back earlier tonight so that we could go to one of our coworker's birthday celebrations, but if my ride isn't going at all... I won't look so bad for being late.
In other news, I'm sure if it's just because I haven't been using my nightguard for my teeth lately or if there might be some other reason, but I've been feeling quite tense lately. Mostly in the jaw neck and a bit in the shoulders. Anyway, now that I've made a note of it, I will take proactive approach to fix the problem. When I move back into the city, I will also go for a massage.
My friend Jon and I have been planning for a while to work together on some kind of collaboration. We're both actually serious about it, but living in different cities and things to do and whatnot... we've never actually tried to start it. BUT, over the last couple of days, we found a way to work together....separately. The theme/topic of the work is kinda vague, but in the best of ways and the structure of the work will give us the freedom to do whatever we want. The basic idea is that we will each create several segements which will be paired with other segments. As a result, each pair of segments will explore the theme from a different angle.
As you should be able to tell, I'm really excited about this. Nevertheless, I know I'm not going to have a lot of free time to work on it, so it will be a slow moving project, but I think that's how it will be on both sides of the collaboration....
On the other hand, if we can get it finished and put together by January or earlier, I can use it as part of my portfolio for auditions. There we go again... thinking about things that should be far off.... but they really aren't....
Bye for now everyone, I'll see you all when I move home in about 10 days.

This visit hasn't been anywhere near as good for visiting with people. It seems everyone is very tired or down this time of the summer.I suppose it's understandable, and some of my friends have very good reasons to not be available this week, so I won't complain.
It definately has felt different, on account of knowing that I'm not going 'home' tomorrow; rather, I'm going out of town for a little vacation almost. Anyway, it's not important.
I have so much work to do during the rest of the summer. For example:
In terms of composition, I need to finish the piano composition I am working on. For all intents and purposes, I haven't really moved forward on that at all since I moved out there. I also want to have finished reading my orchestration textbook. I won't have to have read it for the course, but it will put me at an advantage in terms of the course, and lower my disadvantage a bit in terms of learning how to compose for orchestral instruments and groups. These two goals represent a bare minimum for what I have to do. I really should aim much higher, but as the list continues, it becomes doubtful as to the amount of stuff I will get done.
In terms of Piano, I have said that I need to have a substantial start on my recital rep, but thats an anderstatement. I need to learn a Haydn sonata for my half Jury/ I have began to pick at it, but not in a nearly picky enough fashion.
Let's take a look at my recital plan:
Bach - French Overture- As a base minimum, I need to have learned the first movement, so that I just have to work on the remaining dance movements. The first movement is about 9 pages. I have worked a fair bit on the opening two pages, but after that there is a rollicking fugue that will take a fair bit of tenacity to get in shape.
Beethoven - Op.101, I have learned the majority of the first and third movements... But I'll be honest, those are the easy movements in terms of technique(this will give me the chance to get more familiar with them, so that I can be very comfortable with them and make my musical intentions solid..... but ya, I need to focus on the technical stuff) The second movement is a fast march and I'm sure it will not be a breeze in the park to learn or play. The scary part is the fourth movement. It's very fast and has a fugue as part of it.... Intimidating, to say the least.
Liszt - Vallé d'Obermann- I've started to make some progress on this one. I think it's safe to say that the intro is ready for a first lesson scenario, and I forced myself to dive into the obviously more difficult sections. I absolutely LOVE this piece. I absolutely LOVE Liszt.
I'm loving all my repertoire of course! The Beethoven I'm listening to right now and it's just amazing how brilliant it is! It was the fifth last sonata for piano that he wrote and the experience and mastery of his craft are just amazingly present!
McIntosh - This is a piece I will be performing with a singer..... thats the first issue I should take care of....finding one.... The piece involves a lot of improvising and coordination... so I don't quite know how to approach the learning process. I think I'm going to treat it as an excuse to practice technique drills (I really really shouldnt need an excuse) so that I have a battary of options available at my fingertips(pun intended).

Anyway, thats the main things I need to be concerned with learning. Although I can't let myself forget that I will have to also learn something for the second half jury... but I'll probably do the same thing as this year, leave most of the work for those pieces til the last minute.
Bargh! too much thinking about the school year that hasn't even come close to starting yet! Oh well, I need to be focussed! yippee!
gnite!

Holy Schomley, it's hot out there!

It's summer!
I'm not really a big fan of the weather in the summer, although I enjoy the feeling of freedom that flows through the air.
Nevertheless, yesterday and today I spent some time outside and enjoyed it a lot.
Yesterday Fi and I went fishing. Humane fishing really... we didn't use bait, we didn't use hooks... mind you we didn't even use fishing line. We took fishing poles and threaded them with knitting yarn. At the end of the line, we attached stuffed toys - the benefits were endless: Everytime we tossed the line out... we brought something back.. well except for the time that fi had given up on the fishing pole and then let go of the string.... The other benefit was that we didnt harm any fish, but we still had the fun associated with fishing. I got some good pictures of the crazy antics that can be expected from fi and myself.
Today, I went for ice cream and then a walk with my friend Kimberley. We walked by the creek, walked across the rocks and then Kim picked some flowers. Kim is leaving in a month and a bit to move to Germany. She is not the only one.
I'm not surprised, but a fair amount of my friends from high school are moving away to exciting exotic places. Two of them are moving to Germany, one to Montreal and then another to Hong Kong. I know it's silly, but I'm feeling a little jealous that I'm going to be in Winnipeg for another year(if not two). It's not that I really have the travel bug, rather I just want to be "away". My summer getaway didn't really fill that desire for me; it felt too static, I wasn't really being productive or developping much. Anyway, thats enough feeling sorry for myself.
Now that I'm not tied down for the summer, Fi and I can go on our exciting road trip to Thompson, Mb to visit my sister. We'll probably go on a weekend so it doesn't interfere with Fi's work. I'm super excited to be able to do what I want on a weekend. All summer I've had to play piano on the weekends, now I can go party it up in the boppin social atmosphere of Thompson, Mb! Yippee! I actually am more excited than the sarcasm there should have veiled.
Hmm, enough typing for now.... maybe it's supper time, maybe I'll knit, maybe I'll watch some star trek, who knows!

Today was the second day in a row of practicing piano.... wow, the dedication that I have just exemplified! As sad as it is... the little that it has been has actually been quite rewarding. Little bits of development have occurred. I'm learning my Beethoven sonata - little by little. Tonight I taught myself the last 16 bars of the piece. I figure you should learn the end of the piece fairly early on in the development stage. People are always most attentive to the beginning and then the end of a piece, so you need to make sure those are nice and impressive. On the odd chance that a person might fall asleep during the first movement and then not wake up til the very end of the piece... I'm set already!

I'm already preregistered for school - long before registration has started. I just told the registraar which courses I needed and she will do it for me. Luckily they she needed to find some random students to register beforehand to make sure that everything is hunky-dory. Now I don't have to worry about my registration date and time or missing it or whatnot. And things are all set, I will be prepared for graduation by the end of the year.
Tonight I think I might practice at the school. I need to be productive and I always seem to run into some people when I poke my head in there. I haven't been getting my regular dose of schoolness this summer... perhaps due to lack of school.
I'm excited for tomorrow. The only point of business while I'm here this week is an orientation for a mentorship program that I will be volunteering in the fall. I'm excited to put my life experience as a diabetic to some good use. I also haven't done nearly enough volunteering over the last while - meaning my whole life, really - so I look forward to getting involved in this project.
I should also look for some work to fill the rest of the summer up. By good furtune, I got myself 2 weeks of work during august with a musical theatre camp with one simple phone call. I should make some more of those and find some more things to do to make money once I relocate back to the city. I'm thinking I might try to find some work as a waiter or something, but with those two weeks in the middle of August, my availability won't be so great. I think I'll stick to finding random music-ish gigs to make some quick cash. So if anyone knows of any weddings or accompanying work.... let me know please.

quick post... I'm sure I'll tell you before you read it here... but I'm coming back in 2 weeks for the rest of the summer. Long story short - the piano thing was an experiment and the result is that it wasn't successful enough of a business venture. I don't think there are any hard feelings on either part, so I'm gonna move home in two weeks time.
At the moment, I'm in town til thursday, so fun fun fun!
This summer has been marvellous so far. I've learned a lot, met so many interesting and exciting people. It was a beautiful place to live for a few months... but I do miss the city.
I haven't been practicing/composing nearly enough this summer... which I must admit also weighed on my decision to move home. I thought being away and in nature would give me some inspiration or something... but no, I was just distracted by the way of life out there: relaxing and drinking, when you're not working of course.
All in all, I wouldn't trade the last few months for anything and I'm excited to see what the rest of the summer will bring.