My apologies

Once again I have fallen slightly behind on my writting. Hopefully it doesn't show. We'll give it a try though.

I believe I left off somewhere in the middle of my Nebraska trip. There have been a couple developments in my life since mid July. My summer in Nebraska finished off pretty uneventfully, big surprise right? Sam left early to go home so for the last week I was there by myself and it ended up being alright because I got to drive Jim and Sharon's Mitsubishi Spyder Convertable, which was a slight upgrade from the Toyota Camry Sam and I had been driving. Despite the new ride, I was done with the mid west and ready to come home. I do miss the friends I made in Nebraska. Jim and Sharon who were nice enough to welcome me into their home and call me one of their own for the summer. Scott who gave me the job and his hilarious co-workers Chad and Tyler. Ryan and Laurie (Jim and Sharon's son and girlfriend), for showing me around Omaha. I made some memories on the trip that wont soon be forgotten. Yet, I don't think I will be going back next summer. The days were long, the work was brutal, and I didn't make as much money as I had anticipated, I'm still trying to work out a financial dilemma with my work. I am going to miss that sun though, it was really hot but it was there everyday, and you get used to the heat and humidity. It was nice being able to go to work then come home and lay and take a nap by the pool. When I got back to school this fall everyone was asking me if I had gone tanning this summer. "Nope, just spent the summer in Nebraska."

So next summer I'm off on another wild adventure to another region of the country. It is looking like I am going to be spending my time in the wilderness of Alaska. One of my good family friends has a relative that is a VP for a major fishing company so I am going to be working in a cannery. Listen to how fun it sounds. The towns attractions, as listed on a website, include a thrift store, a restaurant, a post office, and internet access. How have I never heard of Naknek, Alaska before (www.naknekfish.com)? I will be living in a dorm and the work hours are from 4 o'clock in the morning to whenever they say I am done, 7 days a week. So why am I going? This is from a second hand source but I am going to make anywhere between $5,000-$10,000, which is slightly better than the $2,000 I hauled in this summer. On top of that Chelsea is going with me and possibly AJ. So I will have at least one friend to suffer along side with me. I don't however think I will come home next summer with the same tan I brought back this summer. For that paycheck, I'll take that loss.

I've been at school for over a month now and there have definitely been the times where I questioned why I was excited to be back? Case and point, right now. I have so much homework this weekend it's scary. I'm going to try to get motivated and go the library after practice tonight and try to take a chunk out of the load. Having homework on the weekend ruins the football watching experience. When you are loafing around on Sunday morning it's hard to not think about all the homework you have to do once the game is over. Even worse, while you am doing homework on Saturday or Sunday, football is on the brain. It's hard not to think about how the game is going, how your fantasy guy are playing. But back to the school part, my classes are ridiculous this semester. I'm not sure if I just had an easy schedule last year or what but this semester is on a level of its own. Every night I have at least an hour and a half of reading and writting to do. And I pay thousands of dollars a year for this torture? Oh just kidding, not torture, it's school.

Fall ball is on its last week and I am relatively pleased with how I have thrown. My velocity is up from high 70's last year to sitting around 83-84 mph this fall. This has to be a result of my running this summer. I ran nearly 4 miles, 3 times a week. This increase has me excited for what a winter of hard work can do for me. There is a new pitching coach this year who already gave me more coaching then I had all of last year, I love it! After my first inning of the fall, which I struggled in, walking a couple guys, he came to me and just told me to relax, he could see I was tense, which was completly true. I know it's weird but it sometimes is as simple as someone else saying what you know but aren't necessarily aware of to make a change. My next few times on the bump on focused on relaxing and the results showed. I don't want to jump to any conclusions but I feel like as long as I have a strong winter where I stay focused, I can play a much more significant role as a sophomore than I did as a freshman.

Now off to my most exciting class, Philosophy of Science. What does that even mean you may ask? Thats a great question.

Nathan...out