The Weekend Edition

This weekend was strangely wholesome. Well, maybe not wholesome, but the fun I was involved with involved less debauchery than usual, and believe it or not that was a welcome change. Mostly because the decline in debauchery also came with a dramatic decrease in money spent, which is super as well. Thank god because my money has been converted into stuff (food, clothes, coffee, etc.) lately at an absolutely alarming rate.

No less, what did I do this weekend?

• Mini First Friday adventure with Amy to check out my neighbors exhibit
• Dinner party at Kim's with Kim, Emily, Lorna, Amy, Hannah, Colver, and Rory
• Nephew Outreach Program with Charles (Hiking and Moose's Tooth with my Dad - awesome!)
• 2 minutes of coffee with my sister Bobbie and my niece Emily
• Hanging out with Hannah at Middle Way
• In Bruges v 2.0 with Hannah (plus bagging and boarding infinity comics)
• Rocking out with Amy!
• Having fun and promptly dying at Bernie's Bungalow Lounge
• Breakfast with my mom at Harley's (delish)
• Frisbee Golf with Amy (9 freaking pars)
• Re-reading Planetary and Nextwave and realizing that Warren Ellis was my favorite writer

So yeah, pretty chill weekend spent with friends, but an awesome one no less. The highlight was definitely the inception of the Nephew Outreach Program in which I got to hang out with my nephew Charles for a while.

Myself and Charles on top of Flat Top

Even though Charles had lived here almost all of his life, he'd never had a chance to experience hiking Flat Top (or any of the surrounding mountains). He loves the outdoors, he just never had the opportunity. Thankfully, I was allowed to provide it for him and we had a great time doing the hike. The kid is an absolute manimal though, as he is legitimately one of the best hikers I've ever went with.

I can run up the stupid mountain, but he glides up the thing. I'm convinced he's part mountain goat, and I honestly think he can compete with my friend Matt in terms of going up the thing. This is of course without ever really hiking in his life. I can't imagine him with training. He said he was interested in running Mount Marathon, which is an insane race in Seward on the Fourth of July that goes up a mountain. I think he could do it without training, right now. Crazy.

Charles and I on top of Flat Top

After our hike, we went over to my parent's place and hung out for a bit before needing to head off and hit up Moose's Tooth for lunch. Charles had never been there either (Moose's Tooth is an Alaskan institution and honest to god the best pizza place on the planet) so I got to give him another first. My dad met up with us there, and it was awesome just chatting and eating delicious pizza with the two of them.

Honestly, one of things I miss out on the most probably are family functions. That is why I wanted to do something like this. I hadn't seen my nephew in months and that was a ridiculous state to be in, especially when I can try to be a positive influence on his life and guide him to find successes in his future. It was a great time, and I'm looking forward to doing it more often in the days ahead.

I may be a big goofball who is ridiculous more often than not, but I can do what I can to instill the very positive lessons my parents gave me on the kid. I think that's the least I can do.