good week!

well, there was one great week just a bit ago. I went to Camp Sidney Dew with my scout troop, and got to help be a leader for the first time at summer camp. I relived some memories with old friends, met new people, and generally had a great time getting bit up by bugs, sweating all day, and getting sun burnt on the lake.

Camp is a place that means alot to me because of the lifelong friends I have made, such as Evan, Andrew, Liz, and many others. I was in Evan's wedding with Andrew and Jon as well. I am attending Drew Andrew's wedding in august, and cannot wait to congratulate him. Seeing kids who you personally have taught merit badges becoming staff members at the same camp is really cool and rewarding. It is magnified when you consider that without boy scouts I definitely could not be anywhere near the person I am today.

But moving on...

Saturday the 20th was Jessica's wedding. She married her high school sweetheart Earl and is moving into a double-wide in Nebraska. JOY! ok ,well I'm kidding about the double-wide part, I think. but it was a great day, with lots of fun dancing and revelry followed by a night out in buckhead with Ross, Sara, Rachel, Samantha and Savannah. Late night Steak and Shake will never be the same after watching our waitress get run over, and then go right in to work without missing a beat. some Photos of the evening are below.
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We all had a blast. Dancing with Jessica's mom, Jill, AKA "Sugarmamma" was definitely one of the highlights. But anytime someone who you are close to has a happy day, you feel happy too.

On to other things again...

On the 22nd, we closed on the house in Athens! I officially became a homeowner. The house will be my sanctuary for three years and hpoefully will be a good influence on me to do well and get a great job out of law school! I will likely put up more about the place when I move in.

Overdue trip reports

Where: Ocoee (x2)
When: May ?? and May 25?
Who: Me and Nate; me and Evan

Ok, this is a combined entry of my first 2 ocoee trips of the season. I went early in the season with Nate and we had a good afternoon, it was hot and warm, so the dry top was a good choice. I paddled not too confidently, and it was obvious. I still had not really gotten used to the Grande, and i hope to improve sooner rather than later.

When I went with Evan, however, things started to click in the beast! I paddled easier, made turns better, caught eddies more easily. I took the boof at tablesaw for the first time, and I really liked it. That move, as simple as it may be gave me the confidence boost i needed. For the rest of the run, Evan and I practiced ferrying hard. We challenged ourselves to cross swift current quickly and without going too far down river. It was a nice thing to practice, and I am going to start incorporating it in on the rest of the river when I go.

Here are my goals for the rest of the summer:
1) Get plenty of Roll Practice
2) practice combat rolls on Ocoee
3) run chattooga IV
4) Have Fun!

2009 Stats
Days Paddled: 8
Rivers Paddled: 6
Cartecay, Tellico, Little River (Chairlift), Nantahala Cascades, Nantahala River, Middle Ocoee

I've got the Statesboro Blues

Well, I made it to Statesboro a little bit ago for the 40th anniversary of Delta Tau Delta at Georgia Southern University. The only words to describe it are Epic, and, well, Epic.

Arriving in town Wednesday night, i simply got to say hey before going to bed. Thursday at around 1 would be the beginning of the fun. Joe Law and I played golf, and I actually played well for me, setting a personal best. I shot a 105. We drank, laughed, and made lots of fun of Rojas, who always deserves it.

Golf was followed by mellow mushroom, which was delicious. The night turned rough when we decided beer pong at tillman was the order of the evening. I played, and I won, alot. Tanner and I dominated the table, followed by being intoxicated. It was a great night seeing old friends and laughing and carrying on.

A few of us at Tillman Thursday night.


I got mad at Beau for bouncing it in while I was reracking his gay formations. So I fought, and I lost.

Friday came early, and involved a visit to the admissions office to say goodbye to Susan, who was leaving her job as director of admissions to go to Crap State (Appalachian State University for those who don't know GSU nicknames. The other thing I found out was that Sarah Smith is getting Susan's job! Sarah deserves it, and I'm very happy for her.

I met up with Jake, and we piddled around, waiting for alums to get into town. We headed to Tillman to socialize before heading over to the hotel, and we headed that way when I spoke to TeeTom about when they were getting into town, but they had actually arriaved the night before.

Right here I feel obliged to say there will be a serious post sometime soon regarding my love of my fraternity, our alumni, our undergraduates, and my experience. I got misty eyed multiple times driving home monday thinking about this.

We pull into the Quality Inn, and I see Carl, Tony, Tom, and Daddy Rabbit, four of the greatest guy I know, all from the 70s. Tom and Daddy Rabbit challenged us to some pong, and we tell them they are in for it.

After some drinks at the hotel and dinner, and some more drinks back at the hotel, we made our way to Tillman for another night of fun. I leave out details because it was another normal night of statesboro drinking, but it was great to be with guys like Brad and Chip who I dont see as much anymore.

Saturday was filled with alumni meeting, tailgate, baseball game, and of course, the actual 40th anniversary celebration.

The celebration was nice, with heavy orderves and a DJ. We received a proclamation from the Arch Chapter which basically said "Epsilon Omega is AWESOME." The best part of the evening was when the set of songs that began with "Shout" was played. All the young guys, and even a few alumni were out there dancing thier socks off, having a blast. It sometimes becomes a moment that is indescribable to others. You just had to be there to know how great it was. This was one of those times. Something abouut cutting a rug, acting a fool, and having a blast on the dance floor, all while sober, makes things fun.


The Macarena...one of my personal highlights of the evening.


Cha-Cha slide maybe? whatever it is we had fun.


Brad, Me, Backpack...one of my best friends and the first man I ever recruited for the fraternity. I am proud of backpack and am proud both these men are my brothers.


Statesboro is about "drunk" and all the awesome stories seem to involve the phrases "I was blackout," or "I had like 15 beers" or "8 shots," or "I was so blackout last night." It gets old. It was great the best story of the weekend was not one of those.



Ross and Kate cutting a rug. I think this was shout.

After the celebration, we went to Dingis. This is one of those stories with key phrases from above, but mostly because of the bottom dollar. And by that I mean dollars spent. Rumours of $500 tabs were abound, but apparantly they topped out in the $450 range. I have never bought so many shots, and never taken so many in a place not named South Padre Island. Our bartender also said he had worked there for 6 years and never seen people spend money like we did that night! Go Delt!


A glimpse into the best night of dingis ever.

Sunday was calm, cool, and half-wasted. It rained, so our golf outing was cancelled. But we did all chill out at Jake's and watched movies.


This was the edited for content version of the weekend, if you were there, it was epic. If you missed it, you suck at life.

now i am preparing to end my slackerdom

well, the last month has been crazy. Two visits to Athens, some paddling, work, fun, and a bit of sleep.


I will try to put a post up about many things, or multiple posts about individual things. Not sure which.

Lately the family and I have been headed to Athens to look at houses. I think we will be buying one! More details to come after we close and actually own the house.

I also have a new goal: read books/literature that I either never read because i didn't like reading for fun, or books that I BS'd my way through high school or college without reading. I have a large stack at the house that I am starting with, wish me luck.

Kayaking has been scant lately, mostly due to work and lack of people to go with when I am off work.

The rest of my pledge brothers are graduating this weekend, and I won't be there. I wish I could hang with them this weekend, but work comes first.

I am thinking about purchasing a new phone. Either an iPhone, or a Blackberry Bold. Any thoughts?

Here's a picture of us at Tulane on "The Greatest Spring Break Ever."

its been too long!

The man in the courdory was not on our trip, but is from GA. I graduated from high school with him. I am to yacht club for texas, and likely too cowboy for Austin, Texas (that is the STATE CAPITOL!)


The Alamo is a pretty cool place, and this shot of it at night is pretty awesome...

Well, the new job, texas, and the lack of high speed internet at the house has caused a delay in my updates.

Since my last post, I have been to the texas state capitol, the Alamo, Shiner brewery, and to the 2nd most southern point in the USA (South Padre Island), visited Athens, and worked my tail off at Wallyworld.

Texas was an interesting place, and one day I might write up a large post with some pics, but not today. I am now a cell phone peddler at wal-mart, and it is a pretty sweet gig. Better money, hours, etc.

Tonight I'm off to a bachelor party for someone I dont even know with Evan, and then I work saturday, and then paddling sunday on the Ocoee most likely.

Last week was awesome!

Two kayaking days, taking care of the dog, new job, law school news, and just a good week was what happened to me last week!

For kayaking details, see the previous two posts. But to summarize, I got to go kayaking twice this weekend, and I got to paddle with someone who I hadn't seen other than briefly at the club in four years.

Boone got neutered on Wednesday. He is doing fine, a little less rambunctious, but still a playful puppy. He turns 1 in a week and a day! He's growing up before my eyes, and there will probably be a photo post of his growing up next week.

I have heard back from two more law schools, and I am in at Temple, and waitlisted at W&L. First non-acceptance. I also received a call from the dean at Alabama Sunday night, but I didn't know it because I had the phone on the charger downstairs. I'm calling him back when I get done posting this!

I have been training at Wal-mart the last two days, and I think I will like this job. I will work during the day and actually sleep!

LRC first warm day!

Who: Bert, Hunter
Where: LRC Chairlift, ~400 CFS
When: March 7, 2009

Hunter texted me this week saying he was going to be in Rome, and wanted to paddle. I said sure thing, and so Saturday we went. All the guys couldn;t come, since they had other plans, but they missed out. It was one really pretty day on the river. It got to be about 70 degrees in the canyon, and it was perfectly sunny. Just about the perfect spring day for paddling. It doesn't beat a sunny mid summer day on the Ocoee (when no dry-top or anything is required, only a rash guard if you really want it) but it was amazing.

On to the river...Blue Hole memorial was a joke at this level. Previously, there was a hole all the way accross the river, and you had to be careful. now there was a shoot on the right side of the middle and no hole at all.

Bottleneck was much smaller, of course, than what I saw it at 3000+ CFS, but is was relatively similar to the 1200 from my previous trip. I would have run the rappid this time, but with only 2 of us, it would have taken much time to have safety set for both of us.

The rest of the river was pretty dang easy, with rock gardens that would be great to teach newer paddlers how to ferry, catch eddies, and work down a rappid instead of simply bombing down it as fast as possible.

As far as the new boat goes, I'm still having problems adjusting to the speed of the boat, and therefore catching eddies without overshooting them, which is a skill I need to develop. There are small eddies on the rivers I want to run, and I need to be able to catch them to succeed.

Hunter went to my high school, graduated with me, and is a solid paddler, I hope he can go with me again, and proly will this summer to the Ocoee and stuff.

After the river, I met Adam G, a paddler from Alabama who I saw on some video or something, and hes a great paddler. Always cool to meet someone who you've seen thier blogs, videos, etc.

2009 Stats
Days Paddled: 6
Rivers Paddled: 5
Cartecay, Tellico, Little River (Chairlift), Nantahala Cascades, Nantahala River