Enjoying Fall Foliage, Ouzo, and Bowling

Well, it's that time of year. The leaves are changing colors and apparently, you have to time it just right to catch them before they're all gone and Winter sets in. While my memories of Fall include long hours in the front and back yards of my parent's place raking up leaves, Erin has always had fonder memories of the time. So yesterday we jumped on the motorcycle and rode up to Georgetown and Guanella Pass.

While it was very warm down in Denver, it didn't take us long to regret not dressing more warmly for the mountains. Even as we reached Georgetown it had already started raining. But after a brief break in a coffee shop, we were on the muddy, pothole-ridden rode up the pass. It wasn't too far up though when another motorcyclist coming the other way told us that it was hailing up on the top. We decided to enjoy the views from where we were and then go back down for lunch in Idaho Springs.

After lunch we enjoyed the ride back on 6th Ave. through the twisting canyons and tunnels. By the time we got back we were both tired from having been on the bike for over three hours. But there was little time to rest. We got back with just enough time to change clothes and head out to meet with our friends with whom we were having dinner.

There's a great Greek restaurant on Alameda called Pete's Central One where we enjoyed hummus, seafood, and baklava. The great thing about the place is that Pete is such a gracious host and comes around after the meal to share some ouzo with you. Though I'm not a fan of ouzo, it was a fun time.

We ended the night with a few games of bowling which were also very fun. Our first game went very well with most of scoring over 100. By the second one though I think the day's activity had caught up with us (or maybe it was the ouzo) because we all did much worse.

Still, all in all it was the kind of wonderful day, packed with activity, that I truly enjoy. I'm looking forward to another one soon.

See more pictures of the weekend here

Mixed emotions on the edge of the work-life balance

I don't think work-life balance is a very good term. It assumes that they're two separate things. Like a person's "work" is just what they do to pay for what they do in their "life." But for many the two are indistinguishable. What we do for work makes up a big part of what our life is about. There are certainly people who are content to sit around and do nothing, but I could never stand to do that for too long. Don't get me wrong, it's wonderful to relax and recharge the batteries, but I prefer to be doing something valuable most of the time (even if that just means going out and flying a kite).

I guess at the other end is the life that's constantly filled with constructive activities. These aren't necessarily part of a job or a career, but they require effort. So maybe a better term would be the relax-effort balance. Too much effort, and you burn out. Too much relaxation and you feel like a worthless slug (or maybe that's just me). I'm sure it's different for everyone and maybe it's like working out where you need to train yourself to become more effort-full, but that's another discussion.

My point is that there's a sweet spot, right in between the two. When you're in it, it's great and things just seem to click. For the past two or three weeks I've been in that general vicinity. With classes, the AIM presidency at Daniels, a part-time internship, and web development contracting it would be hard to imagine that I wasn't. My main problem is that usually I start on the boredom side of things, load things up on my plate that have lengthy commitments, and then suddenly find myself shooting past the sweet spot right into crazy-stressful land.

Especially on the stressful side of things I've seen my emotions spiking from happy to angry to morose and back to happy. For example, on Wednesday, I organized a meeting with AIM, got praised at my internship for some good data analysis, then went to an interesting class, and finished the day by making progress on a contracting gig. All-in-all I was happy when I went to sleep that night. But the next day, with nothing scheduled I didn't want to get up, I didn't feel like doing anything, I got some bad news about some upcoming costs I would have to pay and I was altogether feeling down.

Even this weekend, as I got to spend time with my girlfriend, I felt bad because I had so much work to do and bills making me feel like I couldn't afford to do anything even if I had the time. I think next month will be better and all this work will start paying off, but until then, I expect life to feel a bit like a roller coaster...I just hope it's a fun one.

Outlaw Day

This last week my girlfriend agreed that this weekend I should get to do what I wanted to do (since we'd done several things that she wanted to do lately). So during the week as I came across a show about motorcycle riders and I felt the urge to be an outlaw...within reason.

So on Saturday morning after sleeping in and breakfast I got my leather jacket on, we put on our helmets and hopped on my motorcycle. It felt good to be out on the road, riding against the wind, just a pair of rebels...on our way up to Brighton to pick fresh berries at the Berry Patch Farms (you didn't think my girlfriend would participate in an "outlaw" day if it didn't involve something for her, did you?).

With our freshly acquired stash and a bit of lunch we were back on the bike heading back into town for our next event. Every outlaw has the need sometimes to fire off some rounds, sometimes it just feels good. So we went out to shoot off some pistol rounds...at the Cherry Creek Family Shooting Center (just a note: 1. I love that name. and 2. You may be noticing a certain compromise-seeking trend here).

For the final part of the day, my girlfriend had a school event to attend, so it was time to hang out with some Army buddies downtown as we tossed back some Guinness and vodka. I'm not going to go into how the night ended here, but I didn't get home until early in the morning. All in all, it was a pretty good outlaw day, and I didn't even have to go to jail.

Starting Classes and Already Missing Summer

Well, it's that time of year again. Classes are starting up for the Fall Quarter and for the first time in my life I'm going to class at night. My first one, Developing International Markets, is tonight and Wednesday from 8pm - 10pm. The other, International Political Economy, is tomorrow night from 6pm - 9pm.

I'm actually looking forward to both of these classes as I believe they will provide more of an international business focus than my earlier "core" classes from last year. What's more, I've heard other students talk about the good hands-on approach in the Int'l Markets class and the engaging presence of the Political Economy professor.

I'm a little weary of having the night classes and wonder what my energy levels will be for them. I scheduled them later so that I could work during the day and start paying off my student loans. The work isn't very fulfilling unfortunately and I'm looking for something more suited to my abilities. Perhaps I'd feel better at a smaller company or simply doing more work on my own...

As the new school year has been ramping-up I've also been doing more with my student organization, the Association for International Management (AIM) of which I'm the president. I signed up a lot of incoming students last week and this Thursday we're going to have our first meeting. It's been quite a new role for me since I haven't led a club since I was in high school. Still, it's exhilarating meeting and talking to so many new people.

This weekend and last weekend have been good opportunities to get out and have some fun (like going down to see Garden of the Gods and Cave of the Winds with my friends), but now it seems like it's time to get back to work...wherever and whatever that may end up being.

Mt. Massive

Last weekend my uncle, his wife's nephew (I guess that makes him my cousin...?), and I went on a climb up Mt. Massive just outside of Leadville, CO. We left Littleton at 3:30am and were on the trail by 6am with the outside temperature around 40 degrees. Since it was so cold and I was in my shorts I took the lead with a brisk pace to keep warm. While the first mile was easy enough, things soon got more difficult.

The night before we had decided on the shorter of two routes up the mountain (8 miles instead of 14 round-trip). Unfortunately that meant it was also the steeper of the two paths. That didn't prove too difficult until about halfway up we lost the trail in one of the many patches of snow that were still covering the mountain. After scrambling around over rocks for another three hours we made it to a point just below the summit where the two paths meet up. Even though it was noon and we had spent the better part of the morning scrambling over rocks we were excited to be back on a path and quickly made it up to the peak.

It was amazing to see over the surrounding mountains and the countryside around Leadville. However I was starting to feel the affects of the altitude with a growing headache and was ready to start back down. My uncle and cousin wanted to go back down the side of the mountain we had come up. In their pants they were ready to slide down a scree field and scramble on down. I had enough of scrambling over boulders by this point, and wanted to go down the gentler side of the mountain.

We ended up splitting up with me going down the longer, gentler side to one trail-head and the two of them going down the steeper side to the trail-head we had started at. One other appealing aspect of the longer side was a long stretch of snow from the peak that people had been sliding down. The slide gave me a good head start on the seven mile hike back to the trail-head. It helped me reach the bottom of the mountain first, but I was glad the others went the other way since that was where the truck was parked and there was about a three mile difference between the trail heads.


The day ended with my uncle and cousin picking me up and all of us driving back down to Littleton. All in all it had been a long day and I'm debating how soon I want to go back up and do another 14er. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Back Home

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, I've made it back to sunny Denver, Colorado. Getting a solid internet connection in Hong Kong was just as difficult as it was in Shanghai. And to be honest with you, I'd grown a bit lazy as this trip came to an end. Still I've added a few pictures from Hong Kong which I enjoyed immensely. From Victoria Peak to the Star Ferry, I was glad that I got a chance to see it.

Anyways, It's been a very exciting trip, but I'm glad to be back home. I hope everyone enjoyed reading and I hope to keep posting stories and pictures as I have more summer fun (this weekend: hiking up Mt. Massive).

Until then, take care.

Shopping in Shanghai

Well, today was my first free day in Shanghai as the class that I was with ended last night. There was dinner, a group reflection where we each shared our reflections for the trip, and a slide show of some of the best photos. It's gone by very fast and I was surprised to see all that we have done over the past ten days. After dinner about a third of us went out to a bar near our hotel and enjoyed each others company before we had to go our separate ways.

This morning, it was nice to sleep in and have a leisurely breakfast without having to worry about getting on a bus to go somewhere. After breakfast I relaxed in my room until going out to market. There with my friends we haggled over the price of shirts, watches, and belts. It was the first time I haggled on the trip and I was very much out of practice. Good thing my friends were better at it. What's more, as a pair or in a group, we were able to get better prices.

After we were done there two of us tried our hand at the subway system in route to a silk market. While it was incredibly easy for us to use the subway and get to the right station, the directions we had for the silk market were wrong and we ended up spending our time walking the street. By the time we were in a cab to the market, most of the stalls were closed so we had to head back to the hotel.

Now we're getting ready to head out to dinner. I'm not sure how late we'll stay out since my friends have an early flight to Hong Kong. I got mine here and made it a little later so I'll meet up with them sometime tomorrow afternoon once I fly in. I've enjoyed Shanghai and I'm looking forward to Hong Kong, but I can tell I'm starting to miss home. As we're deciding where to go for dinner tonight, we don't want Chinese food again but can't decide where to go.

I'm sure we'll figure it out. There are plenty of choices here...for the right price.