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I went to overlook skatepark for a session and had a pretty awesome time. I love skateboarding and I know it's a healthy way of getting some physical activity. The temperature was warm, but not crazy humid, which was just the way I like. There was a bunch of other people at the skatepark, so I had a lot of fun skating around with them. Overlook is probably my favorite local park to go shred. There was some old guy that was taking pictures of people skating, including myself. At first I thought it was a little flattering, but as the session went on, it started making me a little uncomfortable that some stranger was taking my picture.

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Today, me and a couple of my friends went to a trail that went along the Potomac River. We were hiking around on and off the trail, through the trees and along the river for about an hour around 9 in the morning. It was a very rainy and dreary day, but we went out there anyway. I had turned on my sports tracker, but apparently it wasn't working for some reason, so it didn't track my progress, so I have to estimate we did a distance of about two miles. I definitely got pretty dirty by going off trail and wandering around in the mud, but it was a fun time.

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I got to hang out with some of my friends for Memorial Day weekend. One of the things most of us have in common is a love for skateboarding. So, naturally, the first place we met up was Waynesboro skatepark. Skating in general is usually always a good time for me, but when get to do it with friends its so much better. There's an added urge to push myself and I suppose that's due to the fact the I want to impress my friends. And the added endorphins from the exercise cause me to be in a more pleasant mood and more likely to openly express my thoughts and feelings, so its a win-win! I was still a little annoyed that my Fitness tracker app on my phone didn't wanna work again though.

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Wednesday was my Friday this week, since I have off work for only Thursday and Friday. I got off at 4pm, which means there was still plenty of sunshine left in the day to get a little session in before bed, so I went to hit up Overlook skatepark. (Overlook is usually my go-to for a last minute sesh). I love shredding it up at the end of a warm summer day as the sun is going down. I don't know how else to describe it except to say "it feels like home." I was in a really good mood, having a fun time with whatever random kids might have been there that day, listening to some mellow tunes and just cruising around revisiting some tricks that I knew I could do, but hadn't done in a while. Surprisingly, I didn't fall or bruise myself at all, which is typically always a part of the sport, so I guess that's pretty cool. I also downloaded a new fitness tracker app on my phone since the last one stopped working. This one actually seems a little cooler, even though I'm not sure how accurate they ever are because I don't know if they take into account the type of "street league" or "extreme" skateboarding that I do. But its better than nothing I suppose.

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I had originally planned to go to Lake Tobias today with my girlfriend to walk around and see some animals that she had been telling me about for a while, but because of a minor back injury she had sustained, she elected not to go and to just chill out at my house for the day, which I found disappointing. But I figured if nothing else, I would get a session in at Overlook to finish off my day. I had an awesome session skating around with the guys that were there. I love going to skate around 6 or 7 o'clock, when the sun is going down and it starts cooling off, but its still plenty warm enough to get a good sweat going. I was finally able to Smith grind across the little ledge on the "tabletop." I won't try to explain what that is, but just know I've never been very good at them before, and it was very satisfying for me to finally be able to do one. It gives a real sense of accomplishment when you're able to do a trick that you've had trouble with in the past. Makes you feel like you're on top of the world.

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I had to work from 6am-4pm today, and I was definitely tired afterward. I took a little nap, but was determined to try to go skate, because the weather was pretty nice and I wasn't sure how nice it would be for the rest of the week. After I woke up from my nap, I noticed some pretty dark looking clouds towards the southwest direction of my house in Lancaster, so I wasn't really sure how much time I would get to shred if I went to Overlook. So, I instead decided to shoot up to Ephrata because I thought it might give me a little more time before the rain started. This was actually pretty exciting, because I hadn't been to that park in a while. Anytime this year anyway. I got up there and no one else was there which was kind of a bummer because I definitely prefer to get to skate with other people, but it was still cool because I don't mind skating by myself too. I put on some chill tunes and pushed around for a while and then spent most of my time attempting to try a smith grind down the hubba they have there. I got really close, but was ultimately unsuccessful. I put in a lot of effort and was so close, but after a while, you start getting tired and it becomes even more harmful than good to try to land a trick that your not getting, so I eventually had to call it quits. I was still proud of myself for going for it, and getting as close as I did. I'll be back to try it again another time...

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Wanted to get a little session at Overlook today, but if I'm being completely honest, I wasn't really feeling it when I got there. My leg muscles were kind of tired and I was having some trouble with some tricks that I can usually do with ease on any other given day. Still, I had a decent session, even though I wasn't able to do anything new, which is always a personal goal of mine. Was skating around with this guy that I occasionally see at that park whose at about the same skill level as me which is always a nice thing to have when it's there. Been thinking about getting myself a new board lately because the one I have is pretty thrashed, and maybe that will help with my flick. ("Flick" refers to the motion of sliding your foot up the board after popping your tail for things like ollies and kickflips.)

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Today, I was so relieved to have a decent bit of free time to myself where I could do pretty much whatever I wanted with my day. Typically, on my days off from work, I still have lots of chores, appointments, or other activities already planned, so it was nice to feel a bit more spontaneous today. I decided to hit up the little park they have in Lititz since I hadn't been there in a while. I went there at about 11 in the morning which is earlier than I usually go for my skate sessions, but after today I think I might try to make more of a habit out of it because it was an awesome way to start my day and get me motivated. There wasn't really anyone else there except this kid on a scooter and he was really gnarly with that thing. I had a good time doing some pretty mellow stuff and trying some things I already knew how to do except on the different terrain and obstacles they have there which is always awesome because skating the same stuff all the time can get a little stale. Afterwards, I stopped by my local skate shop and grabbed a new deck because I think me and some friends are gonna try to do a skate trip to Philly next week. I'm stoked!

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Today me and some of my friends went on a skate trip to Philadelphia! It was myself and 4 of my childhood friends, making it a total of 5 us, having ourselves a guy's day. The first place we went to was Paine's park, which is probably my favorite park amongst the ones that are found in Philly. There's a bunch of ledges and stairs, which are my favorite kinds of things to skate. I've been getting over a bit of a cold lately, but after some ibuprofen, I was good to go. In fact, I ended up being the one who probably did the best and put forth the most amount of effort in the group. A few of the guys I went with weren't feeling it as much as I was, but I think we all had a good time.

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Amongst the multiple parks we went to in Philadelphia, we stopped by this one that was what's commonly referred to as a DIY park underneath a bridge. DIY parks are ones that are built by whatever random skaters or friends of skaters that want to contribute. There was some stuff that was still in the process of being built, but there was plenty already at this little park to skate around on and have a good time. We weren't there as long as some of the other places, but we chilled out and grabbed some beers after we got done skating before heading to another spot where we could cruise around for a while.

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One of my roommates needed a ride to Reading, PA today to pick up his car and I saw it as a win-win because I love getting to do favors for people that I care about and it was an opportunity to check out what kind of skate park I could find in Reading. It was very exciting because I had never been to Reading before and skating at a new park is one of my favorite things to do in life. (Specifically if its a good spot). Let me go ahead and emphasize how HOT of a day it was. I got to Stonecliffe Action Park at about 6PM right after dropping off my roommate and there were several other people there skating and hanging out. I had an awesome time and landed some new tricks on a down rail that I haven't been able to do at other parks. Then some 7 or 8 year old kid came out and he was just tearing it up! I swear this kid was really good, especially for how old he was. He was definitely better than me and I'm usually one of the better skaters you'll find at these random parks! I was pretty stoked to see someone of his skill level, which encouraged me to push myself a little more too. I did, however, forget to start my fitness tracker app at the beginning of my session so I don't have all my specs, but I did stay a little longer than I usually do because I went with the intention of getting a little extra exercise. I didn't leave until about 7:45PM which means I was there for just under 2 hours, and I was definitely exhausted afterward. But it was an awesome session and I definitely will be going back to that park sometime in the future!

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Today I tried to keep it pretty short for a couple different reasons. It was so hot today that I thought any extended period of outdoor activity might be borderline unhealthy, and I wasn't at 100% because of the extra long session I did yesterday at Reading. I typically don't do gnarly sessions on back-to-back days, and if I do, I usually try to take it easy on the latter because I've found that if I try to push myself as I usually do on days that I'm not at my best, I usually end up hurting myself, which is something I like to try to avoid, (although its not always possible). I mainly pushed around the park just pumping on some of the ramps, but I ended up still landing a couple not-so-difficult tricks that I had never done before, which is pretty cool. Overall, I wasn't really feeling the session and nobody else was really at the park so that didn't really help with my lack of stoke. I made it a short 30-minute session today just to complete my requirements for exercise this week and I'm grateful I didn't pass out from heat exhaustion!

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Today, after work, I figured I'd hit up Overlook for a quick session. Although I always seem to plan to make it a "quick session" which turns into at least an hour. No regrets. Had a good time skating around with some guys that were at a similar skill level as I was. Still tried to take it relatively easy though because I'm planning to have an early morning session tomorrow and I don't want to be all sore or anything. So, after an hour I told myself to call it quits even though I really didn't want to. I was super pumped to have landed a lipslide on the down-rail the other day though. That was actually on Monday but I chose not to journal about that day because I think that might have technically been considered an entry for last week, so it seemed kind of pointless to put it in here. I didn't do much in the way of new stuff today, as I said before I didn't wanna push myself too much so I would still have some energy for tomorrow. Hopefully I don't feel lazy about getting up and making the trip tomorrow.

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I started off the day with a little morning trip to Ephrata park bright and early around 7 in the morning. I was a little sore from the past few days of skating so I didn't do a whole bunch of very strenuous stuff. Was mainly just cruising around trying to get the blood pumping as a good way to start my day. I only stayed for about a half an hour because as the sun continued to rise I could feel the temperature slowly getting hotter and hotter also. Later, after my girlfriend came over to hang out, I talked her into visiting a place that's affectionately called "Suzy's Hole," which is a cool spot to go swimming that's right off the side of a hiking trail in a river, way outside of Lancaster. I think its pretty cool. There's a bunch of rocks to jump off of and the water gets pretty deep in certain area. Courtney, my girlfriend, isn't the outdoors type at all but I like to believe she had a fun time also.

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I've been having a decent amount of pain in my shoulder and upper back recently. I'm actually a bit concerned about it. And for this reason, I didn't push myself as I often do with my sessions. I tried to make it a mellow day with my skateboarding, only fulfilling the requirement for the course. Luckily, I have a doctor's visit scheduled for next week to further examine any possible causes of the issue. Until then, I'm really only doing some light skateboarding, sticking to stuff I know, and trying not to further injure myself. Today, I rolled around Overlook a bit, trying a few tricks I already know I can do, and still failing to do some anyway. The constant, mild pain in my shoulder is both a distraction and a reminder not to push it, which is frustrating for me because seeing how far I can push myself to go is one of the most fun things about skateboarding. For now I just have to be patient and hope my healing process is a quick one.

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I'm so relieved that today I woke and my arm was feeling so much better! It's not quite at 100% yet, and I have a doctor's appointment already scheduled for next week, but the soreness and tightness of the muscles surrounding my upper back and shoulder is greatly reduced. I celebrated by having myself a nice little session at Lititz Skate park for about an hour. Although I still didn't push myself too much because I don't want to reinjure myself, I had fun and got a good little sweat going. Also started working on a new trick that didn't require too much strain, so I figured it was safe to try. Later on, I met up with my girlfriend, Courtney, and went on a pleasant walk along the Conestoga river for about 30 minutes. It was a little muggy outside but it was still a nice little jaunt.

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Today I had to work until 4pm, but I was relieved to know that I had a day off tomorrow and my doctor's appointment would help shed some light on the funk I've been in lately. My arm seems to be feeling almost completely better now, but I have an array of other little symptoms that need some sort of explanation. My mind often jumps to the worst case scenario, where I find out I have cancer and only 6 months to live. I know that's extreme, but that's how my mind works. Then I start feeling sorry for myself and it messes up what would have otherwise been a good day. Luckily, skateboarding is a way to get my mind off all of that. I hit up Overlook for a short session because I still don't like the idea of pushing myself too much until I get the okay from the doctor. I had some fun doing some stuff I knew I could do and cruising around. I may have pushed it a little bit with some more difficult tricks that I haven't done in a little while, but everything was fine. Can't wait to feel a lot more confident about my health in a few days.

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Unfortunately, I was not able to complete a second 30-minute session of exercise this week on account of me apparently contracting Lyme disease at some point over the course of the summer. This is all very frustrating and disheartening because I love to get in some physical activity and I'm currently unable to do so. I'm also missing work and racking up medical bills which aren't things that I can really comfortably afford. On a more positive note, at least after all this is over, hopefully I'll be out of the "funk" that I've been finding myself in for the past few weeks. I can only assume that all the fatigue and soreness and rash that I have been experiencing is all due to Lyme. This is all very inconvenient to say the least. I've been in Lancaster General Hospital since Wednesday the 21st, and from what they tell me, I may not get out until around the 25th. Let's hope this is all a quick fix and not too difficult an obstacle to overcome. I'd like to get back on track.

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After being treated in the Lancaster General Hospital for an entire week, the doctors finally agreed to cut me loose! It was a long time coming, I did not expect to be stuck in that hospital for an entire week! But I'm back to my normal activities finally, and the doctor said there are no restrictions on my physical activity as long as I continue to take my antibiotics and slow down if I start getting lightheaded or anything of the like. So, one of the first things I did when I got out was go to Overlook for a quick little session, to make sure I hadn't lost it. To my surprise, a week of laying around all day, doing almost nothing, had a much bigger effect on me than I thought. I didn't think a week was long enough for any significant impact, but sure enough, I was winded after the first 20 minutes of skateboarding! I suppose I'm gonna have to take it pretty easy for a little while until I get my "skate legs" back, so, I'll do what I can and try to stick to the fitness plan I created last week as the start date approaches.

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Today I went to skate with my friends that live about an hour and a half away in Waynesboro , PA. I wasn't sure how good of session it would be because I had just skated the day before and found myself pretty winded pretty quickly. On the contrary, though, I had an awesome session! I guess the excitement of hanging with my close friends fueled me to push myself despite just getting out of the hospital. I didn't have my SportsTracker app running because we were using my phone for music on the Bluetooth speaker that my friend Ryan brought, but I know I was there skating for about 50 minutes before it started pouring down rain and we had to leave. I was very satisfied with myself and what I was able do at the park, specifically the 5-0 grind I did down the large hubba. We then proceeded to a nearby tavern where we had a few drinks before heading to a nearby park where we threw some frisbees around for a while. It was an awesome time and I'm so glad I got to hang with the boys especially since I missed a cookout that they had while I was in the hospital.

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Patrick Kerr Memorial Skate Park, outside of Philadelphia 

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The main thing I had on my agenda for the day was going to donate plasma for the second time ever. This meant I had to drive about an hour and a half to a town just outside of Philadelphia to the donation center and arrive at about noon. I left a little earlier with the intention of finding a little skate park along the way to get a quick session in. The closest one to my destination was one called Patrick Kerr Memorial skate park, and it was only about 15 minutes away from the donation center, so it was perfect for my purposes. The park itself wasn't too bad, but it had a lot of features that I personally don't skate much of so it didn't capture my interest too much. However, if you put me at just about any skate park in the world I'll find something to shred and have a good time. I got a good little sweat going and my muscles warmed up for about a half hour skating the pyramid and brick transition they had there and headed out. I thought this was a good way to relieve some of the anxiety that I get before going to donate, so there were multiple benefits for making the stop. After my donation, I was advised to hydrate and not do anything strenuous for the rest of the day. Admittedly, I didn't take much heed to this advice because on the way home I also stopped by Reading's Stonecliffe Action park for another session. I immediately noticed the fatigue that I can only assume was associated with my recent loss of plasma, but I still pushed around for a while and skated some little stuff with some kids that were there for a while. I didn't turn on my sports tracker app for the sesh because I didn't think there would be that much to see, so I'm not actually sure what my stats are. After leaving Reading, I was ready to get home and wash off the sweat from my previous 2 sessions, but my friend Nick called and invited me to come shoot some hoops with him when I got back into Lancaster. I knew I had already been pushing it a little bit, but I decided it was a good idea since I don't get to hang with Nick that often. I met him at a place called Schaeffer park and we shot around and played some one-on-one for a while longer before I had decided that I could feel I was dehydrated and I went home to eat, drink, and wash up. Although I was probably more physically active then I should have been, I still consider it to have been an awesome day and I wouldn't change a thing about how things went.

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I had to run a bunch of errands during the first part of my day, but I was very grateful that I had a lot of free time in the afternoon. I decided to go back to Reading's skate park because I really like the atmosphere and the people that I skate with there. Plus, I felt like I needed to redeem myself for not doing too much the last time I was there. I got there somewhere around 4:30PM and skated for roughly about 3 hours which is the longest session I've had in a long time. Reading is about a 35 minute drive, but for some reason it feels like I'm really far away from home whenever I go there, so I wanted to make the trip worth it. And I most certainly did! I learned some new tricks and revisited some of the more difficult ones I have done there in the past. I hung out with the other skaters as we encouraged each of to "send it" on this obstacle or that. It was an awesome session. I had to take a couple breaks here and there to rest or get more Gatorade, but I'd pause my SportsTracker app when I did so, so I know my total skating time is what is shown on the app. It was an awesome time. I can feel that my legs are gonna be sore from not having skated this hard in a while, but I'll wear that soreness as a badge of honor and hope that I get back to this park again sometime soon.

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Today I had another plasma donation to perform, which I'm more than willing to do when they pay me as well as they do. I left a little early with the intention of finding another random skate park to shred for a little before getting to the donation center. I came across one called Ambler which was about 20 minutes from my final destination so I took a small detour and found a fairly small park with only a couple of people there, which made sense since this was the early afternoon on a weekday. I got a good little session in, although it was very hot, and I was sweating profusely. There was a lot of little obstacles to skate, which is always fun because I can try almost whatever I want on them without being intimidated or scared. It was a nice session and if I find myself in the area again I'd like to revisit this park, hopefully when there's more people to skate with.

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I woke up kind of hungover this morning because of the crazy concert I went to last night. It was a Korn and Staind concert in Bristow, Virginia. It was a spur of the moment thing when this woman hit me up offering me some free tickets for the show that she had extras of, so I was super pumped when my buddy Kruz agreed to go with me. We had an awesome time and stayed at a motel last night. After getting up I had the idea to stop at a skate park on the way home, which is how we came across Lake Fairfax. The park itself was awesome! I wish that I had a park exactly like that one closer to home. There was lots of different stuff to skate for all skill levels, which is exactly how I like my skate parks. The big downer about my visit there was the outrageous heat that we've been having. Kruz and I got there around 9:30 in the morning but it was already hot and getting hotter by the minute, so I couldn't "send it" as I usually would for fear of overexerting myself and suffering dehydration or heat exhaustion. Still, I had fun and talked a little with some of the locals there which is always cool. I don't know when the next time is that I'll find myself in Virginia, but I will definitely make sure to try go back to that park again so I can really give it my all. After the session, Kruz and I went to a little water park that was in the same park area that the skate park was to cool off and have some extra fun before heading home. This was all done spontaneously and in the moment which isn't typically how I live my life nowadays, but it was probably the best couple days I've had in a while, maybe all summer, and I'm so grateful for the experiences.