2008: The Year of Traveling

Ok, I realize I haven't posted in forever. And I have a lot of good pictures from the holidays to post, so bear with me. Instead, this will be more of a reflection post. Over Christmas, my Dad made a list of highlights from 2008. Along those lines, I decided to make a list of places I traveled in 2008. Thanks to the leadership role in NIRSA, and my very generous parents, I got to travel quite a bit. Here's the month-to-month breakdown:


January - Youngstown, Ohio; Home
February - New Orleans
March - Month of visitors
April - Austin, Texas; Home
May - Los Angeles, Home (2x), Des Moines
June - Michigan, Pomona
July - Home, Crown Point
August - Ventura
September - San Diego
October - San Diego
November - East Lansing, Home (2x)
December - Home, East Lansing, Brownsburg, Peoria

Travel goals for 2009 and beyond: NYC & Vancouver. Wish me luck.

Club Sports in the New York Times!

Bill Pennington of the New York Times recently wrote an article about club sports and their impact on the college experience, as well as professional development of the student athletes themselves. The article can be found here. It's a pretty good description of the types of students/clubs I work with as well as my ultimate frisbee experience at Indiana. Check it out!

Thanksgiving!!!

Not that I really need a reason to want to go home (this is my 8th trip home this calendar year), but I love Thanksgiving. Not necessarily the part where we wake up early to go run in the freezing cold (which thankfully Kris and I are bypassing this year to fill our role as frozen cheerleaders) but the rest of it - playing soccer, watching football, the occasional family power hour, spending time with the fam, and of course, the amazing food. I got this e-card from Shawn today and I thought it was hilarious:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Happy Birthday Meesh!

Just wanted to send a birthday shout out to Michelle - happy birthday!!! I'd include a picture here, but apparently I didn't start using digital photography until after she moved to Australia and apparently we haven't taken any pictures since. I'll work on that...

Smart Cars

While waiting for my bus this morning (the new bus line I'm on never shows up on time), this car pulled up in front of me:


I thought of two things: 1. It would be hilarious if I ever drove one of these. Can you imagine watching me try to get in or out? And 2. Why would you ever drive one of those cars in California? Last I checked, it wasn't built like a tank, and since LA drivers don't know how to drive nicely, it seems like you are just asking to be crushed.

Trip to the Midwest

For Veterans Day Weekend, I flew into Chicago, drove to Michigan with Shawn and my friend Anne, surprised my mom, tailgated with the fam, went out to lunch with Kris and Grandma Kay, and drove back to Chicago with Anne. Here are a few pictures from my excellent weekend in the midwest. If you want to see more, e-mail me and I'll send you the link to Kodak Gallery.

High Expectations

So apparently you all have high expectations for this blog. I apologize in advance if I don't meet those. Since I still don't have internet at the new digs, I am unable to post any pictures from my camera, so I thought I would just go with a movie review for the Changeling.

Starring Angelina Jolie and Jeffrey Donovan, it's based on a true story about a boy that goes missing and how the corrupt LAPD of the 1920's-ish found a different kid and returned him to the mother (Angelina Jolie), trying to convince her that it was in fact her son, and she was crazy not to believe the police. For whatever reason I looked up the history of the story behind it, which obviously gave away the ending for me, but the movie was still good. In terms of acting, I would give it an A. In terms of enjoyment factor, I would give it a C, just because it's not my type of movie (too depressing) and it was a little on the long side. Also, for most of the middle part of the movie, it was raining. Let me tell you, it doesn't rain that much in LA. I've lived here four months and it's rained twice, and it did not pour.

On a side note, before the movie, some friends and I went to a restaurant called Monsoon Cafe which was excellent. When you all come visit me, we should go.