As August will inevitablely pass, I wanted to take some time and talk about the weekend. The glorious few hours from Friday after work until Sunday night that usually people take to spend time with their family and friends. However, this year August was gave me a surprising variety of weekends. Some parts of each of these weekends will stay with me. Each weekend in each own uniqueness has filled my life with more variety that I would experience in a quarter of school. So please pardon the randomness.
The first weekend of this fine month of August, I took a family trip with my parents to DC. While I can must definitely say that I was not pleased with the long drive, the time to sleep (catch up on my relatively sleep deprived life) and talk to my brother was much appreciated. Also, catching up on some of the most popular hits on the radio isn't so bad, well from an pop culture experience at least. After the driving to a town near DC on Saturday, I spent most of Sunday and Monday walking around looking at museums, government buildings and a couple of memorials. I think the most exciting part was definitely walking through the US Capitol building. I don't think I've gone in there for a while (probably at least 10 years, since I don't remember whether I went the last couple of times ten years ago). Seeing the vastness of the building and the white marble was a good reminder of where the country has been and where it is at now. At the end of the day on Sunday, we visited a staple visiting spot for me, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which despite my lacking of general interest in engineering, captures a lot of my attention. Also, the vlogs (yes I know I haven't uploaded the second video for Monday, but I'll get around to it eventually) for this trip are both in HD for once. The quality was so good, that I'm wondering again, whether I should get a new camera/camcorder for my vlogs? What do you guys think?
The second weekend of this month, I returned to Sylvania to see most of my friends (with only one person missing, I'd say that's not too bad). In celebration of one of our birthdays, we all met on Saturday night for dinner at Bravo's. After waiting for the usual late birds (Haha see what I did there? Not that funny, I know), we took forever to order. Dinner was excellent as usual, though we seriously considered putting a computer on an empty seat to video cam with Angela (But it's ok, we did that later). After dinner, we managed to confuse waitress with by all be asian and apparently similar looking (we're really not) and splitting the birthday girl's cost. In addition, applying a last minute coupon did not make her happy at all. So a long waited check and a poem for Marie, we went to her house for some cake and laughter. Putting Harsha's ridiculously long arms aside, laughter soon followed as we ate Marie's watermelon looking ice cream cake, watched HIMYM and video chatted with Angela. As we celebrated her birthday, I couldn't help but to feel happy for myself (selfish I know, but please keep on reading). Not only do I have a group of really unbeatable college friends, but I also have a very close group of high school friends. Wherever we go, we always make sure to keep each other up to date. I believe that at the end of the day, friends are what's most important.
The third weekend, I stayed in Columbus (kind of) and changed my life. This past weekend marked the second annual Pelotonia. Pelotonia is a biking event each year to raise money for the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, comprised of both the James Cancer Hospital and the Solove Cancer Research Institute. This year I decided to join the OSU student team. Anyway, on Friday, there was a great opening ceremony with way too many people to count. Seeing everyone supporting a single cause was very moving. Huntington National Bank had over one thousand participants, which meant almost everywhere you looked, the bright green jerseys of Huntington could be found (also the pink of Limited Brands was in a lot of places, too). For me, Saturday morning started at 4am, when it was still dark and cold. After checking in at CAS and eating a second small breakfast, I got to the staging area with my very nervous friend. At 7:30 I finally got to start my long journey towards Athens. After a slight mechanical delay at the first rest stop due to faulty derailleur on Lauren's bike, we got going again, but this time with a new friend from Limited Brands. At the next stop, we arrived at Groveport, Ohio, the first stopping point. With the crowd slightly smaller, the three of us continued towards Amanda, OH, the slightly less than midway point. We got to Amanda, OH at about twelve, which was slightly slow, but just in perfect time for lunch, so it kind of worked out. After a quick break and a full stomach, we started towards Hocking county and the hills. The next twenty-five miles were the most excruciating and dangerous part of the ride. Within an hour after lunch, nature decided to send the rain. At the same time, we began climbing the most difficult part of the route, Hocking Hills, with one part being a three quarters of a mile ascent. That hill took everything that I had. Pure determination was the only thing that kept me going at that point. Each time I pushed my foot down to pedal, I gritted a little harder to push my burning quads for one more cycle. The rain falling hard and fast felt like stinging needles as I pushed my way up the hill excruciatingly slow. This was also were the worst tragedy during the ride happened. A few miles later, at a steep descent combined with a dangerous three way turn. Sadly, a rider fell off her bike and got ran over. As I arrived at the scene, ambulances were rushing to the scene with a crowd of riders, police and Pelotonia personel. While I continued on, the danger of the rider became chillingly realistic. As the miles continued along with the hills, I began to pull away from my friends as my multi-sport training began kicking in. After many miles, I finally arrived in a rainy Athens. All together, one hundred and two miles of pavement, grave, rain and hills. While waiting for Lauren and our new friend to arrive, too, the rain started again making getting dinner an impossible feat to accomplish; however, the warm shower after they arrived in Athens was definitely worth it. After the warm and relaxing shower, our attempt to eat was (as mentioned earlier) thwarted by the torrential downpour making it impossible to cook. After that slight heart or rather stomach breaker (Haha get it? No? Again lame joke I guess). All in all, this was an experience that I look forward to next year!
So now that everyone knows what I've been up to, here are links that describe in more detail (sometimes high definition detail) my week AND weekends. Or just go to my channel (link the in the side bar)
Weekend 1
Weekend 2
Weekend 3
No comments:
Post a Comment