I have been asked to write a blog post about my interesting daily adventures. Unfortunately, my daily adventures aren’t very interesting and consist of drifting from one job to the next, with an occasional trivia night at the Recovery Room. My trivia team has consistently been placing 4th and we haven’t won a single thing.

I managed to get a research position for the summer with Dr. Lee in the Chemical Engineering Department. I have been doing a lot of CAD for Dr. Lee. Yes thats right, chemical engineers doing CAD. We are investigating various polymer crystal structures and the shapes they make. I have been drawing these shapes and printing them using a 3D printer. Fun fact: It was shapes like these that were used to design the Water Cube in Beijing. Who knew they weren’t just bubbles! Soon, we will start working in the lab synthesizing nanoparticles for a completely different project.

In addition to research, I am coaching this summer at Uncle Sam, Rob and Meg’s age group team. I help out with all age groups from teaching lessons to 4 year olds, to coaching the senior level 18 year olds. Coaching has definitely been a great learning experience for me. My favorite punishment has become swimming with a weight vest. Unfortunately, most of the kids I coach aren’t quite big enough to do that, so I often have to downgrade to smaller ankle weights. My goal for the summer is to teach legal breaststroke kick to a girl name Mikaleigh, who has spent years trying to do it. I am super psyched for the coaches relay at the last meet of the season. USAM is the 2 year defending champ of the 200 medley relay and Marissa, Meg, Rob and I are planning on keeping up our streak!

If you are following the lift Drew gave us (he will be missed) you are on break this week. I don’t know about you, but I really needed that break. I was losing more and more motivation every time that 6:30 am alarm went off. But what kept me going was this: David Gardiner is lifting 3 days a week and swimming regularly, and he recently completed a triathlon. If David Gardiner is doing all that, I better get my ass out of bed. Enjoy the summer!

-DC