Well it certainly feels weird to be posting on this dusty blog after not really touching a computer for 4 months, but I'm at that stage where it's past midnight and I'm too tired to play and too awake to go to bed so I might as well write.

I spent the summer bouncing about the country and beyond in work and play. I feel like a bit of a tool posting about a blue collar job on a poker blog, but god damn it it was fun and grinders don't get out enough so why not.

I spent May through July tree planting in Northern Ontario and Alberta, Canada. If you haven't heard of the job I don't blame you, it's an at times hellish bush job that features 10 hour days in any weather and putting over 3000 trees a day in the ground at 8-11 cents a piece. The job is incredibly physically demanding as you're essentially racing the whole day trying to put in as many as possible, while dealing with the bugs (unlike anything any one of you have seen before, I guarantee), the strewn trees and logs in the land, 50 lb bags on your hips and the fact that your 'home' is a tent 3 hours from the nearest hot shower. Here are some pictures for a visual.


Two planters at work (the bundle in his hand holds 20 trees)


Poplars ****ing suck



Day off tomfoolery

Aside from the money ($15k in 3 months isn't bad for a college kid) the best part about the job was that your bosses and co-workers are pretty much all students with a little bit of that hippy vibe in them but still party pretty hard. It's a weird feeling taking a day off in a tiny town and putting 50 people in a bar that usually has 15 fat old locals in it. I can't do planting justice in a length that anyone will want to read so I'll stop trying, and leave it by saying that unless I'm playing 10/20 by next summer I'm going back in a heartbeat.

I wound up the planting season in the Canadian Rockies so I went down to Fernie BC to visit friends and family and to celebrate what had been a great summer. I was going to stay with my cousin and her boyfriend there, but my Greyhound got in at 2am and I had no idea where to go and had noone to call. Having 3 months' worth of training in vagrancy, I just huddled up in my sleeping bag round the back of a church and slept until morning. Filthy hippies . I spent a little over a week mountain biking, rock climbing, and hiking Mt. Fernie which was very cool. By this point I was in phenomenal aerobic shape from the season and I was riding better than I ever have, which felt really gratifying. Fernie has world class mountain bike traisl; brutal, sustained climbs and crazy fast downhills. I took my cousin and boyfriend to a nice sushi joint as a thanks for letting me stay at their place and hopped the plane back to Toronto.

I barely had time to unpack my stuff at home before I was off again with my family to go down to Costa Rica for 12 days. I love my family and spending time with them, but this was especially cool as usually our trips are spent canoe tripping in Ontario or backpacking in BC. We were going to be pampered!

Aside from a month in Tanzania I'd never been south of Colorado, so I really didn't know what to expect from CR. I was both impressed and dissapointed by the country. CR was the first central american country to really catch on that eco-tourism could be a big deal, and they have their act dialed now compared to everywhere else in the Carribean. Tourism is the biggest industry there by far, and with that comes the unfortunate side effect of totally drowning and legitamite culture that you can get excited about when going 3rd World. That being said, we still had a wicked time rafting, snorkeling, horseback riding, chilling in hotsprings, mountain biking beside active volcanoes, walking through cloud forests, and fighting off monkeys trying to steal our bags on the beach (seriously!). Few more pictures because those are always fun.


Myself and my sister chilling beside the Pacuare river


Aggressive monkey at the beach in Manuel Antonio


My 50 year old mom surfing!


Two sisters and myself enjoying the beach.

In closing, I had the best summer of my life. I made more than enough money, traveled a bunch, and put on 15 pounds of muscle. I'm happy, healthy, and really excited to start school in a few days. And I did it all without playing a hand of poker. Funny, huh?