My line throughout the year has been that I had kind of a crappy summer. There were big, sweeping changes in my life that made me think this and to a point I was right to think this. Of course, not every big change in your life is a bad one and sometimes the things that feel the worst are actually some of the best things for you. I didn’t like that I got fired from my last job and I didn’t like that I didn’t get unemployment, but in the end that was the best thing to happen to me for my future. A dead end job isn’t where I belong. Now that fall is here I’ve been thinking a lot about my summer, a summer that I thought I “wasted”, and I realize now that it was actually a pretty damn good one.

Here’s what I did:

• Saw Martin Lawrence. That was in May, does that count? He so crazy!
• Went to Ring of Honor. It was okay.
• Took my girlfriend to SummerFest for the first time and saw Jason Mraz. The show was “meh”, but the day we had was awesome.
• Went to CHIKARA in Chicago with my dad and nephew. The most fun I’ve ever had at a wrestling show in my life.
• Met Colt Cabana and Mike Quackenbush at that show. Didn’t take my picture with them or anything because be for real, but it was cool meeting them and just saying what’s up since I spend about two hours with them every week. (Art of Wrestling/Grizzly Bear Egg Cafe podcasts.)
• Went to WWE’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view, the greatest WWE pay-per-view of all-time and watched CM Punk walk out with the title in one a crazy moment in front of an INSANE crowd. (Since this show I’ve not been able to keep myself interested in wrestling. It’s like I reached the apex of my fandom and there is no point of continuing.)
• Saw almost every movie I wanted to see this summer (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Tree of Life and Bridesmaids being the ones I wanted to see but missed). Saw Harry Potter 7p2 surrounded by people dressed up at midnight. Another good time.
  (SUMMER MOVIE RANKINGS: Thor, Super 8, Captain America, HP7p2)
• Took Nolan fishing for the first time. Took Nolan camping for the first time. Went on bike rides with Nolan. Took Nolan swimming for the 10,000th time.
• Reconnected with some old friends and realized that I’d been being stupid keeping myself locked up all the time.
• Met some new friends who made me realize how awesome I can be to hang out with when I want to be.
• Two Brewers games. Not an ideal number of games for a guy like me, but you have to make some sacrifices when you don’t have a lot of money. Really enjoyed the two games I did go to.
• Went and saw Pearl Jam both nights of their 20th anniversary show which is something I wanted to do since the day the concert was announced and I’m glad I got to do it.
• Also saw The Strokes at the show which was awesome because they are one of my favorite bands. Julian Casablancas acted like kind of a douche between songs, but they were still good.
• Ran a restaurant. Working a 70 hour week is not exactly what I’d call fun, but it was a good experience.
• Got a new iPhone. Got a new laptop.
• Started eating right and losing weight. Feeling good about myself.

Maybe I didn’t do everything I wanted to do and maybe everything didn’t go how I planned, but I do some fun stuff and I had some good times. It wasn’t a great summer, but it was a good summer and sometimes that’s enough.