Playing Catch Up
Geezum crow I've been busy lately! To bring you up to the absolute present, and then we'll backtrack a bit, I went on a bike ride today with forecasted 30% chance of showers. I returned home wetter than... well, wetter than something really wet, because I was 100% soaked through at the end of my ride. I guess I've been lucky to have a lot of dry training days lately, because this seemed novel to be riding in the rain.So I'm still on my "vacation" to New England. After finishing 3rd at Fitchburg, I had a swing to the opposite side of the continent where I raced the Cascade Cycling Classic. The team was riding awesomely all week with Tom in 2nd place - or 1st place among those people in the race who haven't been on the Tour de France podium (and that list isn't exclusive to Levi. Name the other cyclist!) - but then we stumbled upon a 483 mile climb basically to the top of the world, which took us down a few places in GC. Despite that, Tom really impressed me with his rapid and mighty recovery from being wrecked out of Gila. Well done Z. I managed to pull out a respectable 3rd on the final stage, which basically made up for me being mostly off the radar the rest of the tour.Back-to-back stage races can only mean one thing: time off!I flew all day Monday after Cascade, arrived home around midnight, stayed up a few more hours since I was still on west coast time, then slept for 4.5 hours before heading downeast to Maine with Robbie. I can't name the exact location, because you will all be instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano thereby ruining my pristine spot, but suffice it to say:a) it's possibly the best place everb) it's in Maine.It's not a true vacation unless you eat like a glutton, so we began our 48 hour trip with the fried shrimp basket at the Sea Basket. Delicious? Yes. Enormous? Indeed. I snapped this shot as Robbie was letting out a hearty, "Ahhhhhoy!" ...with fried haddock in his mouth.
We accomplished everything we set out to do in our brief time off, including: eating, sleeping, swimming, seeing friends and family, eating, doing nothing at all, and eating lobster. Coming from a seasoned pro, trust me that those are the requisite To-Do items if you ever venture to Maine. Sailing is optional, but still quite enjoyable.Here are two pictures from our hidden gem of a vacation spot
Back to reality (ha), I got home late Thursday night in time to sleep a few hours before heading out to a rehearsal and dinner for my best friend's wedding the following day. Matthew and Heather are awesome, I've been friends with him for eons and Heather for half that time, and the entire weekend was just plain perfect. Oh, the only slight exception was when I nearly ruined it all by almost having to back out because I was freaking out.Quick elaboration: it's frigging ROASTING leading up to the ceremony, and we groomsmen are busy ushing people down the aisle. The forecast is for 94 and humidity up the wazoo, but at 10:30am it's already at least that hot, so with my 3 piece suit I'm sweating more than I ever have in my life. Collectively in 25 years, that is. On top of that, I have a reading to perform at the wedding. I've done another reading in another wedding and I nailed that one, so I figure no sweat. Wrong. I suppose it dawned on me that since I literally know 95% of the people in the now packed church, it's time to get nervous. So the combo of nerves and heat cause me to see literally stars, nearly pass out about 4 times, and do that little barf in your mouth thing. Foul.Strangely after chugging 2 bottles of water 5 minutes before we hit the stage, I was completely back to normal! I especially got a kick out of the other four groomsmen sweating bullets on stage, while I was cool as a cucumber. That's composure baby!Anyway, the wedding was a blast and I had the distinct priviledge of bridesmaids on either side of me. 
Lastly, I thought the happy couple's choice of wedding shades was also noteworthy.
So my vacation ends shortly. I'm trying to tie up loose ends in NH, be helpful to my folks, head to VT for a few days of seeing Mayo and her folks, then I head back to Asheville and back to reality (again, ha).