Durango (Colorado, not the automobile)

Hey everyone. I'd like to give you some excuse like travel, family responsibilities, or witness protection as to why there hasn't been a blog in forever, but I believe I can sum it up perfectly with just 2 words: Lazy Writer.

It has been a crazy few weeks for me. Brian and I were booked separately to Emcee MOVE, which is a week long high school event put on by Christ in Youth (www.ciy.com) all over the country. Brian did an event in Tennessee and one in Florida. I did one in Colorado and 2 in Michigan. Actually, in the last 4 weeks, I have been in Colorado, California, Michigan, New Jersey, and Illinois. I have only been home for probably a total of 3 days combined. It wasn't that bad, except my kids are calling me by my first name, my wife rented out my side of the closet, and my dog keeps growling at me.

I will give you the run down on my journeys, but will do so in separate blogs. This first one is dedicated to my trip to Durango, Colorado where I Emceed a unique MOVE event that had over 900 teens from a church in the Phoenix area. Colorado is a nice place, but I do have one recommendation for those people. They should definitely look in to oxygen. We have it here in Philly and I find that it helps so much with things like breathing. Some might argue that the air is cleaner there, which it is, mostly because there's less of it to get dirty.

It was weird to be on stage by myself. I used to do stand-up alone all the time during and right after college, but Brian and I have been doing our show for over 7 years now. I mostly did jokes at this event, for 2 main reasons. If I were to do the songs, they'd all just be a cappella and some would be just a harmony, which can be off-putting. Secondly, the only instrument I would be playing is the Glockenspiel which needs the guitar to tone down it's power.

All in all I had a great time out in Colorado. I learned a new game called KanJam (www.kanjam.com), hung out with some cool teens from Phoenix, and discovered a new phenomenon called "Planking," which is pictured above. It's basically where you lie down very straight in unique places, and get a picture of it to can post on line. I wish this would've started while I was in college. I could've gotten some great "Planking" pictures around the Frat Houses on Saturday mornings.

All in all, the week was fun and a good learning experience for when I would be heading off to Michigan. I learned how some of the games I was supposed to lead actually worked, what material worked best and when, and not to announce Basketball Tournaments when they don't exist. I also helped organize the longest side-hug to try and set a record for the summer (video below).