Have you ever thought about the nicknames you received while growing up and wonder how you got them? It stumps me all the time. My childhood nickname was Bate Bate (like Bait Bait)… huh? What the heck does “Bate Bate” mean? Did I put myself it situations that would lead to me being eaten? I […]

Three weeks ago, Monday, I opened up my email to do my morning sweep. In between some junk from UT, facebook notifications, and the token spam letter, I came across an email that made Texas 4000 VERY real. Fundraising updates were officially in. I opened up my excel spreadsheet and it felt like my stomach […]

Hello world! Long time no talk. It’s been a crazy year so far, and the fun is only just beginning. I would like for y’all to meet Jean Claude. He will be my most handy side kick on this journey to Alaska next summer. I brought him home from Jack & Adams shop a couple […]

Today was my 19th birthday. 19 on the 19th, my golden birthday! One would think that I’d go do something crazy, exciting, or fantastic to celebrate, as I’d been looking forward to this day, and this specific birthday, for months. But today was different than I expected. I didn’t feel my normal birthday elation or […]

A few weeks ago I ate lunch with my middle school volleyball coach, Teresa Carpenter. Her husband Jim fought cancer from 2006-2007. Since I was in high school during those years I heard bits and pieces of information but never really heard his full story. Luckily, Teresa was gracious enough to spend an hour filling […]

The Austin LIVESTRONG Challenge was this past weekend, and it was a great opportunity to volunteer with my team and to meet various people in the cancer community. Throughout the weekend, I had the opportunity to talk to various people who have been affected by cancer. For example, I talked to some guys at the […]

First blog of MY RIDE YEAR. This is intense. So much has been going on, I cant even begin to attempt to sum it up, so just know, things are crazy things are good. This past Saturday myself and a fellow rider went to panhandle in front of Whole Foods, on our signature corner of […]

Panhandling was something I had never done but I finally did it consistently this past week. I went out Thursday, Friday and even Saturday at the game. I have to say that I was a little bit skeptical at first about the whole panhandling deal. I had heard stories of mean mugging by the homeless […]

Those of you who have known me for a while would probably recall how much I enjoy naming things. My car has a name, my cannondale had a name (‘Spasmotic Butterfly’ – see my prior journals about its affinity for randomly changing gears up a hill), and even my stuffed animals have names. But after […]

Austin, Texas: LIVESTRONG Challenge One more volunteer event, one more ride, and one more ride dedication. I anticipated catching up on blogging now that I am back from the ride and school is back in full swing. Unfortunately, it hasn’t worked out as I planned. Nonetheless, in between registering teams at the Austin LIVESTRONG Challenge […]