So it’s been awhile since I wrote a blog post. I’m sorry about that. And I’m also sorry for just breaking my number one rule of never, ever apologizing for not writing a blog post. I established this rule back in college when all my friends had study abroad blogs and they started every single post (of which there were usually only five) with “omg wow it’s been forever I’m so sorry!” And what proceeded was never all that interesting. But now I feel mildly entitled to apologize because I have had two people ask me when I am going to write another post and I actually wasn’t related to either of them. This, I think, is a big step in my blogging career.

What isn’t a big step in my blogging career is my total apathy towards everything blog-related for the past two months. This has a lot to do with the big life questions I’ve been debating (please refer to this post that I wrote in September and don’t make me talk about it again agggh) and also the fact that my life has kind of gone from 10,000mph to well, hibernation speed, and frankly, I’ve always been shit at transitions.

Here’s the thing — this summer, Macky and I got used to constant excitement. We were somewhere new almost every week (if not day), we were constantly challenging ourselves with harder and harder trails, and a series of minor catastrophes (MRSA, stitches in my face, etc.) kept us from ever even being able to contemplate the concept of boredom.

As soon as the season was over we flew to Vegas for Interbike. Then we flew back from Vegas and spent three days in Taos and then I flew to Italy and traveled for three weeks and then flew back to Denver (on a flight that took me three days because United Airlines sucks so hard they probably deserve their own blog post). I then drove six hours back to Taos and collapsed and vowed to never, ever do anything so insane.

Then, two days later I bought a plane ticket to Thailand for December, because I was already bored. Or because I really just REFUSE to learn from my mistakes. Something like that.

So, now it’s November and officially the “off-season” and we’re chilling in Ohio with my parents and working on relaxing. GUYS, IT’S KIND OF HARD. I seem to oscillate between DO-ALL-OF-THE-THINGS-UBER-EFFICIENTLY-BECAUSE-I-HAVE-NO-TIME and DO-NOTHING-BECAUSE-THERE-ARE-ONLY-A-FEW-THINGS-TO-DO, with zero middle ground whatsoever.

I seem to be taking the term “off-season” far too literally and just switching off all my mental faculties. It’s the off season so why can’t I just spend all day curled up in front of the fireplace reading a book? Although, to be fair, we have also been riding bikes quite a lot, and building trails and splitting firewood. On the physical side of things, I have been doing quite a bit. But mentally and intellectually, my brain has been turned off. I just can’t seem to make up my mind on what I want to spend my mental energy on. So, I’ve been spending it on nothing and throwing myself full-force into the physical world. Which is okay, but sort of means I have neglected this blog.

That said, I have given some thought to the direction that I want this blog to take. Perceptive readers will have noticed some small changes to layout (if not, refresh this page), and while they are small, they are also significant because they should give you a hint as to the direction this blog is heading. In the past, I have written about pretty much whatever amused me, and while I will obviously continue to do this, I am going to make an effort to be more authentic and to really bring my strange, wacky life alive for you. In other words, I’m going to be writing more about bikes, and what it means to try to eek out a living as a freelance athlete. If you’re reading this and going, oh god not more shit about bikes, don’t worry, I will make an effort to make mountain biking as accessible to the outside world as possible, which, mind you, is no easy task, thanks to jargon like “shred sled” and “meat huckers.” But still, if you think of bikes as a metaphor for following your dreams and living a life of fun and adventure, well, you should be just fine.

What do you think of the new layout? If there’s anything you’d like to hear about in the coming months, please leave a comment and let me know!