Half of summer gone

I have an extra long summer because I do not leave for France until the last week of September, which is especially great because last summer was pretty stressful. Although I loved my internship it was a 40 hour per week commitment in addition to writing my senior thesis and training for my last cross country season.

This summer is a lot more relaxing. I am working about 25 hours a week waiting tables, which is both frustrating and fascinating and I could talk about it for several hours. I'll wait until I've quit working there to ramble about the job to a potentially wide audience, however.

Just for my own sake I'm going to list some of the summer's highlights (so far!) because there is nothing like a lazy, aimless summer.

• Seeing old friends from high school: Mark, Phil, Mike, Sandra (and meeting her boyfriend Matt), Maria, Tony, Kristy, Jenni, Chelsea, Megan, Alison
• Allison's graduation party in Ann Arbor and a fun visit to Kalamazoo
• Camping in Traverse City, exploring the Sleeping Bear Lakeshore, and running a 15k PR
• Seeing the Clarks in Akron and drinking the first beer I actually enjoyed
• Lots of running: Two 71-mile weeks and a 75 miles week, two four-mile PRs (25:43 and 25:38), a 15k PR (1:05:51) and a 10k PR (42:14, and I confess, it was my first 10k so it had to be a PR), and wins at the Camelback Four-Miler and the Lenawee Hospice 10k.
• Introducting Kashmir to Abigail