This one is for the parents, the "St. Jude"ers, and the ACPAers

So back in Mrs. Champelleo's (don't think I'm spelling that right) third grade class, we learned about the 13 colonies. One of our assignments was to create a poster presentation on any of the colonies. Well, Jeffrey picked Georgia. If I remember the assignment correctly, we had to find out both present day (1986ish) facts and colonial time facts. Don't remember any of them but I do remember thinking, "I'd like to visit this place." Maybe it was the Coca-Cola plant?

I do remember, as with a lot of projects, keeping my parents up trying to draw an outline of the state.

Well, that thought of visiting came true more than 20 years later, and I did it with some very cool people. The American College Personell Association held thier annual conference down there this past weekend. Had a great time and got to reconnect with some old friends and colleagues. I was surprised at how many people in conversations mentioned they read this blog!

Some specific thanks and thoughts go out to:

• Kathleen and Kristy from RIT who provided a ton of laughs and support.
• Alex from RIT for putting up with my shaky sign language
• The rest of the staff from RIT past and present who went including Mike D, Jen and Matt Hinton, Dr. Heath, Collette, Josh, Corey, and Carrie.
• The Canisius Higher Ed Program Alumni for including me as a half member. Specifically Mary and Christina who I still owe a drink to!
• The candidiates for positions at RIT who I enjoyed meeting and chatting with.
• The NYU friends and alums who I wish I could have connected with more
• Cha Ron, Sharon, and all the CAs for holding down the fort so that I could be gone for two weeks (conference + mom trip)
• and to the RIT staff who helped me get to the conference

-Jeff

Updates:-)

A few updates for you:

• I'm in Michigan with my mom. Was on the University of Michigan campus today killing time before her procedure at the U of M hospital. Almost bought a $40 set of Michigan themed golf club covers...
• The promotion is official. I'm now working in the apartment area for RIT and with some great graduate students. It's a lot different than the residence halls and will miss the good times there but it's a great opportunity and look forward to making new "good times".
• The Pacifica hit 50000 miles on this trip. Almost in the same place that it hit 40000. Same country at least.
• A traffic jam in the Michigan-Canadian border almost stopped me on the border line. Couldn't get my phone out fast enough to take a picture. Still getting used to my new phone...
• After here in Michigan it's off to Atlanta for a conference:-) Looking forward to checking this place out which happens to be right down the street from the hotel.

Once I've got the camera function nailed down on my new phone, I hope to post more pictures from our travels. Hope things are well where ever you are reading this!

-Jeff

Happy Groundhog Day!

I know I'm a few hours late but after watching Groundhog Day for the hundredth time, I had put up my favorite quote from the movie:

Phil: Do you ever have Deja Vu Mrs. Lancaster?
Mrs. Lancaster: I don't think so, but I could check with the kitchen

Hope you had a great Groundhog Day.

-Jeff

Amy's In California!

Yea, so, um, there's snow outside. And what does she send me, the picture below.

In all seriousness, congrats to Amy for successfully making the trip out there and for getting a job. She'll be working for the same company that my brother worked at and we're excited that she starts Monday.

Sounds like Chris and Stacy are also doing well out there! All three of them are living together in an apartment in Santa Monica.

Spain Christmas 2007- Round 2

This year Christmas was spent with my family out in good ol' Wynantskill! Thanks to my Mom and Dad for a great time. Below are more pics from the time we were there.

Big Al getting his new Notre Dame sweatshirt!

The newest member of the Spain family, Nicholas Franchi (my cousin Sarah's son).

Spain Christmas Pics 2007- Round 1

For the directionally challenged member of the Spain family. Say some prayers for her road trip out to Los Angeles.

The hit of Christmas was a game called Rock Band. It's a game that has a drum set, guitar, and microphone. Buddy Holly (aka Chris Spain) is rocking out on the guitar and Amy is playing the drums.

Merry Christmas!

A very Merry Christmas to everyone! I wish you all safe travels, lots of smiles, and good times with family and friends this Christmas. Thanks to all those who have touched my life in some way.

Updates

A few updates:

- Congrats to Lisa and Mike Garvey who added another bundle of joy to their family. We wish them lots of happiness and sleepFULL nights! A lot of awesome pictures can be found here: http://royaltoybox.blogspot.com/

- I got an interim promotion! The past two years I've been managing the RAs in one of RIT's residence halls. Well, about two weeks ago, I was asked to move over to the apartment area and start supervising graduate students. In addition, the number of students that I will be helping with has increased a lot and the living situations they are in are more apartment style communities. I also will start overseeing students living in the RIT Inn and Conference Center and get to learn more about college students living in private housing. We'll still be living in the dorms and won't have to switch apartments.

I will definitely miss the RAs that I've supervised so far but as I've said a few times, I'll still be around. I look forward to this great opportunity and to working with the talented new staff.

Upcoming posts should include pictures of the apartment with all the decorations, pictures of the holiday visits, and other updates from the craziness :-) Hope you all are doing well!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I sent this picture to my brother with a nice message that wouldn't be appropriate to share in a public space but the point is, WINTER IS HERE! The neon (with 104,000 miles on it) has been parked in the RIT parking lot overnight and thanks to mother nature finally figuring out which season it was, the lake effect snow piled up. So to Chris, Stacy, and soon, Amy, enjoy the *?&%!@! warm weather in California.

Stay tuned for more frequent updates to the blog and an update about the new position that I've been asked to step into:-)

UPDATE 12/5 @4pm- It's still snowing...