It's hard to believe that September is upon us. Monday is the unofficial end of summer. Within a few days...






football will take over every weekend,






everyone who hasn't started school will start,







days will grow shorter,











the temperature will slowly drop,


 










the leaves will start to turn colors and fall,













and then, depending on where you are in the country, either snow or miserable cold rain will fall.






With the end of summer so close, I thought I would share the fun things I was able to do this summer.

The hands down most exciting part of my summer was flying home to Virginia to cater my sister Amelia's wedding.





At home for a week, I catered the wedding reception,







saw as many DC landmarks as I could in a day and a half,


























spent time with family, and all in all had a great time.








I saw so many things in DC that, without a map, I couldn't begin to tell you just how many places we actually saw. I can tell you, however, that my dad and I had a fun time over at the Air and Space Smithsonian in a flight simulator.







Down in Southern Utah, I did as much as I could. I hiked many of the hikes in Zion National Park, including the treacherous and renowned Angel's Landing. The picture on the right, which I did not photograph, is a view from up on Angel's Landing.









In Zion, I also went canyoneering through Echo Canyon. The portion of the slot canyon we went through included 4 or 5 repels, a little bit of down climbing, wet suits, echo chambers, and a whole lot of fun. You can see how narrow Echo Canyon can get on the right. 






At the ranch I played many rounds on this mini golf course,





did some four wheeling,







and spent many hot days and cool nights in the double-decker, gravity edge pool and hot tubs.















For my birthday, I went jet skiing on a 250hp, 65 mph top-speed beast of a machine...it was amazing!

I was heading home from a long day at work today and as I turned a corner, I had a wow moment. I look around me and I thought, wow, I'm living and working in Logan, Utah.

A picture of campus

It's an interesting story how I ended up here. At the start of the summer I found out that most of the staff at the Ponderosa came from Utah State. In the mostly joking way we humans tend to be, they were like, you should come to Utah State. I joked with some of them and said if things didn't work out at the resort, I would come bum at their place and be their private chef. As the summer progressed and things actually did start to not work out at the resort, everyone continued to say, come to Logan, come to Utah State. Knowing how the job market is and how colleges hire mostly students and have very limited, if any, full-time positions available, I had absolutely no expectation that I would even have the slightest bit of luck at finding work in Logan, especially at the one place I would want to work: Utah State. I especially did not think I would ever see Logan when I was offered work at Weber State. I was pretty close to going to Weber when things changed. Just as a shot in the dark and knowing that they would be doing fall hiring within weeks, I looked up the catering's contact information on USU's website. I sent the executive chef an email informing him of my interest in work and attached my resume. This was before I even knew about jobs at Weber State. So when the Weber State offer came, I gave it a week to think it over and decided I would pursue that further. Then almost one month ago to the day, on Thursday, July 28th, a response came:

A picture of Logan

Friday I worked an eleven and a half hour day.

I loved it.

Life all of a sudden feels much more in place now that I am working in catering. It seemed kind of tumultuous during the 3 days I was managing the Marketplace. Not necessarily like it was a bad thing, but I seemed unsettled. In catering, I feel at home. I think the coming months are going to be fantastic.

Our apartment continues to do fun things like movie nights, camping, bonfires, and possibly another swimming trip to Bear Lake this afternoon. Logan really is a nice place to live. The canyon offers hiking, biking, fishing, climbing, camping, campfires and more, all within 10-15 minutes of home. I haven't even discovered the secrets in the city because we've spent all our time outside of the city. When things get cold in a month or so I'll start exploring downtown.

Football season is starting too, which is exciting. I have to follow two schools closely this year. I have no problem rooting for the Aggies, but we all know just how true blue for BYU I am.

The song of the day today actually has a good story behind it for me. This song actually sort of spawned my big summer of change last year. When working at Seven Peaks last summer, I was the opening supervisor one morning. I was the only one there and I was doing some office work for the day while listening to some music on the computer. Different songs speak to me at different times in my life and at this time, I really liked listening to this song. So there I was listening to this song when one of the managers came in. He walked in, looked at me and said "Wow, that is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. You're sitting there at the desk all alone in an empty building, listening to that classic rock song. You gotta stop living in the past man." It was then I realized I had been living in the past and I need to move on in life. Since then, a lot has changed and all in all I have to say I'm glad that he said what he said when he said it. I still like the song though, so sit back, relax and enjoy "Fields of Gold".

I have great news today, but first I have to recap a story from the other day. So, Tuesday night we were pre-closing at work when I find out an employee gashed his head open a bit. He was doing some cleaning and a piece of equipment fell and cut his head pretty good. I called my bosses and took him to the ER. We spent an hour there, where he got all stitched up and all was well. It was my 3rd day managing and I was the only manager there, so it was a fun night. Thankfully though, I don't have to deal with injuries or babysit people all day anymore because I now have a new job in the kitchen.

When I was offered the position as closing manager, it was sort of a foot in the door position that may or may not ever evolve into a spot within the catering department, which is where I wanted to work. They said it was a possibility that next summer they might have a spot doing catering, but that I should do the manager job as if nothing would happen. Well, today I got a lucky break. The banquet chef was going to open a position this weekend and interview people for a job cooking for catering. The chefs were discussing it and realized an opportunity to move things around without hiring anyone new. The original plan for my job was to promote a student who is done with school and had been working here a while to be the closing supervisor. However, he was not sure how long he was going to stay in Logan, so then when they got my resume they had that job to create for me. With catering needing someone though and my desire and my experience being with that, they wanted to move me to catering and then put the other other guy as closing manager since he will be here at least through the end of this semester. And so today, they sat down with him and me and made it all official. I will start in catering today (Thursday).

I'm way excited for this new job. The closing manager position was fun, but it really was a lot more babysitting and it was not what I truly wanted to be doing. It's also great because now I don't have to worry about not ticking everyone off for being the outsider. Another plus is that my schedule will be nicer. I'll be done much earlier in the evening and will be home by 6 or 7 rather than 10 or 11. I'll have to do some weekend work, but all in all, the pros FAR outweigh the cons.

In other news, I received a hilarious email from my dad today. Here is what he sent:


Pretty funny eh?
And I would like to add that my thoughts and prayers are with all those who lost a book or a tea cup in the recent earthquake. Hehehe.

Well, that's the latest from Logan. Today's song of the day is just a random song I picked because I'm too distracted to find a song with a story. This one is a good one though. You'll find it in some movies, like "A Walk to Remember." You'll also find it on my ipod. Keep it real everyone.

I've been keeping pretty busy this week. I work every day from 2 or 3 until 10, and then my roommates and I are doing something every night before school starts. Sunday evening we drove up to Bear Lake and last night we went camping up the canyon. We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

Work is going ok. The next week or two will be a little tense because there are people who have worked there for a year or more and know more about how this kitchen works and think they should have my job. So, although I learn quickly and know how most of everything here runs already, I have to tread lightly so I don't offend people. This week I'll spend with the people who have worked here longest and see what I can learn from them and gain their respect. I understand how they feel. When you've been working somewhere and someone is hired as your manager, it can be difficult to deal with. Thus, I'll be less of a manager this week and more of a worker and hopefully no one will hate me...yet.

For the song of the day today, we're going back to the 70's and Cat Stevens.

It's been a long, challenging summer, most of which I do not want to really think about, but we learn, we grow, and we move along in life, and that is what I am doing. My first week in Logan has been good. Today, we opened the Aggie Marketplace dining area that I manage. It is not any kind of a high end restaurant by any stretch of the imagination, but so far I love it and it's exciting. It's really exciting being in a new place and meeting new people. I think the coming months will be great up here in the northern part of Utah.

Anyway, I just wanted to put a quick update on here to let you all know that I am pretty well settled in now and I will be starting to post updates on here. Until the next update, enjoy the song of the day. The song, a ballad, is "Feels Like Home" sung by Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk and written by the great singer/songwriter Randy Newman.