Aw, shucks!

I was doing so well getting all caught up and then I fell behind again! Okay, here we go ...

Friday night was a lot of fun. After work, I met up with Jenna, Jamie and Ana and got to catch up with them. They were staying with Jenna's cousin, who lives in Longmont (right next to Boulder). We went out to dinner for sushi because Jenna's cousin gave them a gift certificate. We all thought it was $50 but found out when we went to pay that it was actually $100! So that was quite the treat. Then we walked around Pearl and Broadway for the loooongest time trying to find a place to go dancing. Eventually we found a place off the main mall on Pearl Street and had ourselves a good time. It was actually the only time I got the chance to hang out with them because their cousin ended up having a bunch of stuff planned for the for the rest of the weekend. Still, it was good to see people from home.

The Miners Days festival turned out to be quite the let down. It paled in comparison to Frozen Dead Guy Days.

As far as work as been concerned, things have pretty much been routine. We're still cutting and piling at "Unit 1" near Sugarloaf road. For Open Space last week, we did more trail building but with Earth 4 along side, so work went a little faster. We got out extra early that day because of the heat and both teams decided to hit Boulder Creek along Canyon to go swimming. That was a nice change, there was a rope swing and such. I mostly sat on rocks and tried to get as much sun as I could. I'm so pale! Ordinarily at this point in the summer, I've got a nice tan going.

On Friday, I had quite the mission to ship my dad's birthday gift. I'd go into it, but I think I'll wait until I'm certain it arrived at its destination. On Saturday, we had an ISP removing invasive species (a certain kind of daisy) from a meadow along a creek up near Nederland. I'm officially officially done with ISP. Originally, I was done but I wanted to do more hours to have a bit of a buffer and I'm thankful I did because apparently our ISP sheet for the MS walk that we did back in May has gone missing. We can only imagine that it got lost en route to being sent to campus. That was 5.5 hours! I'm trying to track someone down whom we worked with that day, a volunteer coordinator or something, so we can get it confirmed that we worked. But our ISP this past Saturday was 6.5 hours so I know I at least made up for the loss.

That evening, we all gathered down at Outback Saloon in Boulder to celebrate a Forest Service birthday with a little karaoke. That was a lot of fun, especially seeing our boss sing! On Sunday, I baked a pie (raspberry peach) for Harrison's birthday. I also managed to have money in the food budget to get ice cream to go with it.

It's Harrison's last week, unfortunately. He'll be taking fall break next week and then moving to another wildfire team. Things have developed in this way: as a result of losing Brittany at the beginning of the wildfire season, losing Laura during last transition and now losing Coby for fourth round due to Team Leader trainings, Earth 4 is now down to eight members on their team. As a result, our Unit Leader decided to dismantle the team and use them to fill holes on other wildfire teams that will be created when members leave in fourth round for Team Leader training. To make things fair, some of our teammates volunteered to leave our team. So Harrison is taking his break with his new team now and then will head to his new location after transition week, which is the week after next. M Squared will also be leaving, but after transition week. The remaining members of Earth 4 will be merged with our team and we'll have eleven living at the bunkhouse in Nederland for fourth round.

I'm conflicted with the whole situation. A part of me is not happy with how they went about deconstructing a team and just scattering them. I look forward to living with the remainder of Earth 4, but I'm going to miss my teammates and the Earth 4 members who will no longer be working out of Nederland with us.

In other news, I'm taking Friday off because I have another friend in town. My friend Sean is moving from Boston to LA to start his career as a lawyer after three years of law school. He's driving the whole way and will be arriving in Denver tomorrow. So I'll be taking off right after work to head to Denver and spend some time with him.

Today we had a break. Adrienne, John and I went up to the work center an hour early to do optional PT. The rest of the crew arrived around the usual time, but after briefing we loaded up to go to the FS's seasonal picnic celebration. They had it in Rollinsville at the old work center. A bunch of people whom I don't recognize made some speeches and recognized some people. Some of the FS members from our work center were recognized for being excellent employees in one way or another. Then there were games and food. It was nice to just be able to hang out with everyone.

Last night, I bought my plane tickets for fall break. I'll be heading home late on Friday, August 22 (actually, I'm taking a red-eye that's past midnight, so it's technically the 23). My dad is going to pick me up and we're heading down the shore for the week with my mom. I'm scheduled to fly back on the 31 and I go back to work after Labor Day. I can't believe it's almost September already! I'll only have about two and a half months of NCCC when I get back from break. Even more, I can't believe next week is the last week of third round! It feels like it just flew by. I feel like we were just dreading moving down to Boulder, and now we love the place and it ended up being a fun experience.