The Boys of Summer

Well the time has finally come. I am making my valiant return to blogging. Sadly not feeling too introspective lately. Life has been pretty busy for me. I just wrapped up six great weeks at Camp Panawok in White Plains.

Camp was a welcome vacation from the daily grind of the restaurant. I met lots of great new people who I will continue to talk to throughout the year, and tons of great campers. Its amazing how impressionable young minds are. I totally convinced the group of kindergarten boys that the second floor of the school was inhabited by a mob of dragons. And they were not allowed up there because the dragons loved to eat small children. To make matters worse, I told them my grilled chicken wrap was actually dragon that I had slayed and cooked. They proudly called me "Dragon Slayer" all summer long. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

So Dam Hot is really doing fantastic lately. The new apparel has been in for some time and sales have been steady. Fortunately we have had a pretty mild summer, so we haven't been suffering too greatly like we had the past two years. We have been enjoying the return of Joe, who we sadly will be losing again to go back to school. He got mad at me today because I forgot where he went. So I will say have fun in Oneonta Guy!! See? I remember now!

How has every one's summers been going? Anyone do anything interesting? Write some comments to let me know whats going on with you guys. Especially you Jimmy, since you are my biggest fan!

I started training tonight with Mikey. I'm hoping that I did well enough on the written portion of the fire exam, that I will be asked to take the physical test in October. So I am forcing myself back into a fitness regiment, to give myself an adequate chance of placing well on the list. So if the warm weather wasn't enough to make me cranky, this surely will. So be forewarned!!

One last thing before I leave. At every point in life you are surrounded by different groups of people. Some people transcend time, others don't. When I was in high school, I was greatly influenced by some friends I made at Iona Prep. I just need to take a second to mention them here, since their lives have been pretty productive lately. First, my good friend Chris. Congratulations on the new house, and baby Carter. I am truly sorry to have missed the Christening, but my disgustingly infected eye, would not have been to exciting to see. Pete, who is enjoying his pre-wedding wedding/honeymoon in Bora Bora currently, congratulations on your upcoming marriage. I am sincerely blessed to be a part of it. And I can't wait to party with you like old times. Lastly, Jon Jon. You show up at SDH today to tell me you are moving to Miami on Friday to attend culinary school. Wow! Good luck with that. All I can say is follow your passion and hopefully everything will fall into place.

All that said, I love having some free time now to reconnect with you all. I want to try to keep this updated as much as possible. Check back to see whats new. I will attempt to keep it fresh and fun, and sometimes informative. Hope you all are having a great summer so far. Talk to you guys again soon.

With Great Love
~Joshua