While waiting for my luggage...

Just getting back from the ACUHO-I conference and figured I post a few updates:

• You can't help but smile when you're down at Disney World. No matter what's going on in a person's life, everywhere you turn there is a kid and/or adult smiling. One smile that I don't think will drop from my mind for some time is when I first got there. Disney provides a shuttle service from the airport to any of their resorts. I hop on after being greeted by a number of different Disney people and take my seat. After finally being able to sit down and relax I hear a familiar song in the background ("You can fly" from Peter Pan) and close my eyes. Some rustling continues around me, bus driver comes on and says they'll be playing a video welcoming us to the park. I open my eyes back up to find an family with a young boy, maybe 9 or 10, sitting in front of me. I do the polite Jeff Spain nod and get ready for the video. The Disney theme starts up and I catch myself cracking a nostalgic smile. As I do, the kid in front of me, turns to his family, gives them an excited smile, then peers through the crack between the seats and flashes a smile my way. It'll be hard to forget until I have my own kids. Can't wait.
• A shoutout to Scott Victor who is participating in the Disney Internship program. Scott will be donning a cowboy hat everyday and saying "Howdy" as he greets visitors at the Fort Wilderness campground. Scott was the RA for the Business Leaders of Tomorrow group I advised this year. Was able to catch up with him and even got a tour of the campground and other parts of the property.
• If you are involved in any management or leadership development profession, take a look at how Disney does things. Part of the conference was a session about the Disney style of management and leadership and there are some great things that can be "borrowed" to help any manager or leader.
• How many people can say they've been to Disney World and Disneyland in the same week? You can tentatively add me to that list because tomorrow morning it's out to Los Angeles for some much needed family time including my cousin's wedding. An early congrats to Patrick and Andrea Manion!

Off to get my luggage thanks to flying standby on an earlier flight. Hope that it gets here! I'll have more updates next week from that side of the country. Until then, keep smiling:-) It's a small curve that can straighten a thousand things.

It's Time

Two reasons for this post:

1) Every August for the past 10 years has meant one thing, RA training. Each year it's a different experience filled with meeting new people, sharing ideas, and listening to new ways of how I can build my professional self piece by piece. There are a lot of presentations I remember from labeling exercises to the numerous (and rockin' good) tech talks I've given.

Last August was a little different. I think it was the keynote speech for the 2007 training where a woman who works at RIT named Colette Shaw came in and talked about the development of a book she wrote. To write a book takes a lot of work but what got her through it was by telling people about it. She recommended to the students to tell people about their goals but be prepared because you'll be accountable to them.

2) Just finished reading "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. It's one of those books that I'm going have to read again with a highlighter or set of post-its to capture some of the great sentences and anecdotes that he wrote. Highly recommend putting it on your reading list. With it's focus not necessarily being on that life is short, it's more about living life with a purpose and to it's fullest extent.

Now, from here, this post could take on a stereotypical, "I'm going to tell you everything in my head" type writing. But, as I've mentioned before, I don't want to live my life through a blog. A big part of my life has been connecting with people 1-1. Can't really see who's reading this. Can't ask them what they thought. I don't believe I can truly connect with people without getting to them face to face.

So I'm going to be a little selfish and use this blog for my own good. Putting Colette's words into action (but not giving away all the cards (goals) in my hand(head)) and having realized something else from reading that book (read it yourself (I'll let you borrow my copy!) and you may find some clues as to what I'm talking about) I'm posting two, count em, two goals for the world to call me on:

1. Before the winter is here, I want to be able to run 4 miles without looking like a tomato when I'm finished. Just want to be able to do it with a little bit of ease
2. Lose 20 or more pounds in six months (edited to be more specific)

I've got some plans in place and have been working on them already (lost 15 pounds) but now that these are out there, it's a whole new ball game. I don't want to let you down.

Happy Father's Day 2008

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers I know out there. Thanks especially to my Dad, Grandpa, and Pa for their support over the years!

Two updates

- Yep, it was a hot one:

- After the t-shirt gun expereience, a few people sent me this link to Bud Light's tribute. Enjoy:-)

http://www.allowe.com/Humor/audio/BudLite/Mr%20T-Shirt%20Launcher%20Inventor.mp3

Chris vs. the LA Dodgers Fans

Head over to this link and fast forward/watch till around 43 seconds:

mms://a1503.v108692.c10869.g.vm.akamaistream.net/7/1503/10869/v0001/mlb.download.akamai.com/10869/2008/open/mlbam/2008/06/05/mlbtv_chnlan_556477_400K.wmv

(You may need to copy and paste this link into your browser)

What you'll see is a guy run down some stairs after a Mark DeRosa home run. Well, it's not just any guy, it's my brother Chris!

Appartantly he gets the home run ball but then the whole stadium starts chanting "Throw it back". What does he do, he threw the darn ball back. Don't know if I would have had the guts to keep it either.

The Bleacher Reacher

Just realized that pictures were never posted from the T-shirt cannon experience. And it goes a little something like this...

My big boss, Chuck, decides it would be a good promotional experience to rent a t-shirt cannon and shoot off Res Life t-shirts during a hockey game. So he and Matt Colaprete hop online and find a place. About a week later, Matt comes strolling into my office saying, "You gotta see this". I walk out into our main office to see Chuck and him standing over a huge suitcase with smiles as if it contained the Stanley Cup. So Chuck goes to open it and right on top are the directions, which get tossed aside, only then to pull out, the "Bleacher Reacher". No lie, it had a huge decal right on the side that said "Bleacher Reacher". After realizing that the air tank needed to be filled with air, anticipation spread as Matt went to go get it filled. We then proceeded outside, hooked the canister up, put a shirt in fired, and PHOMPT...

it went about 5 feet

Dramatic silent pause as we look to each other thinking, "This thing sucks". After turning a few dials we try again. PHOMPT! The shirt goes maybe 7 feet. Feeling a little defeated (but laughing pretty darn hard) we blame it on the wind, head back inside, mull over the newly opened directions, and realize that we weren't doing anything wrong. The gun gets packed up and we call it a day.

Chuck wanted to break it out at two games. The first would be he and Matt, the second night would be me and Matt. First game, Chuck's got the gun, walks out onto the ice, and puts a t-shirt clear into the ceiling of the ice arena. I get this story the next night and I'm thinking it's going to have a hell of a kick. Me and Matt chat about who's going to use the gun and he allowed me to take a crack at it. Here's a picture of me in action thanks to Bruce Bufford and Mike Greenberg:

We only had a few minutes out there. Bruce, Kyle Schradel, and Matt went off to throw a few shirts into the crowd. I got off about 6 or 7 and they flew out of that thing. But then, in front of, oh, 2000 people, this happens

Ok so yes, that guy on the far right is doing a "safe" sign. Bruce is the guy in the blue polo. Kyle is next to him helping, yep, me, up off my butt. What this picture doesn't show is a few things:

1. Bruce and I feel completely in sync according to people.
2. All that was going through my head as I'm falling is "Don't break the gun". Not "Protect Yourself", just "Protect the gun".

All in all, it's one of those experiences I'll never forget.

-Jeff

Since the last update...

Lots has happened since the last update. Here's a brief recap:

• The RITchie Experience- Working at a University provides you with a lot of opportunities that you wouldn't get in a normal job. These include shooting off a T-Shirt gun ( I think I posted pictures of that one) and being an announcer at a hockey game. Most recently, I got to dress up as the RIT mascot RITichie. Yep that's me below. Thanks to Dr. Ward for a great picture. Also thanks to Nick and Melissa Ippolito for being my eyes and ears cause I really couldn't see a darn thing!
• I also have had the opportunity to see what some students get their hands dirty with each day from learning how pottery is baked in a kiln, to how a snowboard gets it's edge, to how young deaf and hearing students learn, to how a forum gets on the internet, and to how a robotic arm and lung gets made. There are many more experiences that could be their own book but thanks to all the CAs and the RAs who have let me become part of their lives this year.
• Congrats to Paul and Erin Zablocki! Recently they welcomed a very cute Olivia into the world!
• Congrats to newly married Lisa and John Nolan!
• My supervisor, Cha Ron Sattler, is right now, having what sounds like a great time in South Africa as part an educational trip through a student affairs organization. Continue to have fun down there Cha Ron!
• Also congrats to Fr. James Kirkpatrick. Jimbo, an old college roommate and resident when I was a RA, was ordained as a priest this past weekend in Buffalo. While I was there I got to see some old college friends...
• These college friends deserve their own bullet because congrats should also go out to Sean and Becky Berry who are pregnant and to Nate and Amy Jay who have raised two great kids, Thomas (8 years old) and Samantha (1 and 1/2). I've also got to throw Jerry J. into the mix for becoming a successful doctor out in Detroit.

There's another long update coming but it will have to wait until next week.

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