Summer relfections and other happenings.

Ok, a little later than I had hoped, but nonetheless here I am, back again to let it flow. This summer... where to begin. So many awesome memories were had that, when balled into 4 months, made for the best summer I have had yet. My summer started off with about 24 hrs of my own time. Almost exactly 24 hrs after i got off the plane I was reporting back to work at Lowe's. As many have experienced this past year time are a bit tougher and it showed through our customer numbers as well as the number of hours offered to work. At the beginning of the summer I was able and fortunate to reconnect with one of my really good friends form grade school. We spent a of time together this summer and continue to remain close while we are both back at school. Also this summer, I spent a lot of time with my number one partner in crime, the one Anthony Natale. We spent the majority of our summer creating mischief and drinking our favorite Arnold Palmer ice tea. Before I left school for the summer last year , I was asked if i would like to take a trip to Germany for my birthday. I respectfully declined.... NOT!!! I was overcome with excitement. I departed from Cleveland on June 16th in the late morning and arrived in the early morning on the 17th, in Germany. When I arrived, I was met by the sisters and father of our German exchange student, Katharina. They all gave me a warm welcome and asked about the flight and our family in the states. The following story is just me being a guy. When we left the airport we almost immediately got onto the autobahn. We were riding in a next to new Audi A6 and Ludwig continued to accelrate beyond the normal comfort level I was used to at home. When I was able to catch a glimpse of the speedometer I noticed that it read 255 kph. Now, for all you imperialists out there this converts too... 158.5 MPH!!!!!! It was crazy. From the fast lane we went to some country roads and finally to the village where all of the girls went to school. There we were planning to surprise Katharina because she was not told about my trip. When we got to the school she was not there so we called one of her friedns to find out where she was. When we were informed that she was at the local McDonalds(figures) with some of her friends celebrating their last day of school. When we got to the McDonalds we came up with a game plan that involved me walking into the restaurant by myself, right up to her with a camera in my hand to record her surprise reaction. It worked flawlessly. I walked right in, right up to her and stood there for a second with the camera. It took her approximately 30 seconds to realize what was going on, then.... she lost it. She broke down and was saying are you kidding me repeatedly. She was in tears before I could give her a hug. Her family soon followed and was also in tears at her sheer excitement. Her friends were very confused until one of them, Dani, who had been in the states with Katharina and had come to my house previously, jumped up and started yelling in German. She reacted as if everything ahd snapped into her head at once and she could do everything but keep to herself. When the rest of the friends in attendance realized what was happening they also began to become excited. to be continued...