What I'm Looking Forward to This Week:

Here is a list of things I am looking forward to this week:

1. Getting preparations ready for gaming on the 4th of October. Maybe I'll finally get a post on the blog. People are curious.
2. Seeing what the Brewers can get done this week. The playoffs are still possible. Can they do it?
3. Seeing how the Packers do against the Buccaneers this Sunday. The Battle of the Bays is back! :)
4. I do my first church service at the Evergreen Retirement Community. Their vesper service is at 4:30 PM on Sunday.
5. On Thursday we are having a Staff Development which will consist of us gathering together and enjoying pizza. How fun is that!?
6. After a break today, I will get back to running. I am hopeful to keep these workouts out for the rest of 2008 and see how my fitness and weight change. I am sprinkling in a few exercise classes at the Rec. Center as well.
   

Camp Onaway

The first week of my final Residence Life Staff Training is over. In all honesty, it is a mixed bag of emotions. I can safely say there are certain sessions that I will be happy that I don't have to attend. But, there are also some yearly rituals that I will miss as well. It will be tough around this time next year when I will anticipate them and they will not be there.

A week from today the residence halls will be opening up for the early move-ins that help with our two larger move in days on Sunday and Monday. One more time...

Tomorrow, my staff and I leave for Camp Onaway. It is an overnight retreat where staffs really get to bond. Camp Onaway is also a beautiful and scenic environment where one can truly relax and by at peace. I have enjoyed the many opportunities to be at camp and will not realize until I leave the island how rejuvenating it can be for me.

Calling All Exercisers!

Mike Chastain (the Breese 2nd floor CA) and I were talking about running recently and he mentioned a website that would actually allow you to map out your runs and it would tell you the distance. I did a little exploring and found a website called: mapmyrun.com.

If you run, walk or bike this website will be very helpful for you. It allows you to pick a home address and you can plot courses all over the map. You can create a profile and you can save the routes that you have created.

Mike was right...this works much better than a pedometer. :)

My New Staff

We are almost done with mid-year training here in Breese Hall. We just got done playing a game called Cranium. If you have never played the game, I highly recommend it. It was a lot of fun to see my staff relax and have a good time. I could tell that the day was getting a little long for them, but I really saw them connect this evening.

During the morning, my returning staff had the opportunity to build a tower as part of a team-building activity. Here is a picture of my returning staff working hard and building the tower. As with all things, this staff had fun in the process and built a rather unique construct, without talking.

Christina became a full member of the staff over the weekend. I do not have a picture of her for the blog, but she has learned a lot in the last few days and has fit well into the staff. I am excited to see what this group can do for the spring semester.

The building opens for spring semester tomorrow. It will be nice to get back into a routine.

Vacation?

Tonight, I leave for Wisconsin Dells and the Chula Vista Resort so that I can attend Wisconsin College Personnel Association on Thursday and Friday. I have never been to the WCPA Conference itself, although I have been to the Student Affairs 101 portion of the conference. I am intrigued to see what it is like and am curious to see what programming opportunities are available. It will also be nice to see various colleagues from around the state that used to work at UW-Oshkosh or who I went to graduate school with at WIU.

For those of you that have talked to me or for the 4-5 people that actually read this blog, you can probably tell that things have been a little stressful for me lately. Work has had some frustrating moments lately and the dealings with church, while getting better, are still a little frustrating. This trip for WCPA will also serve as somewhat of a vacation. I know that sounds wierd, but it will be nice to simply get away from campus and not have to think about work. I have full confidence in my staff to make sure that the buildig does not burn down.

It also raises a larger concern that I should probably take a weekend off one of these days. Just like my staff, I have the option to take weekends off. Most of the reasonn that I don't take weekends off is because I am so grounded in the community, I truly consider Oshkosh to be my home. Usually, my parents are willing to come a visit me. Many of my friends are already here and I have many activities that I do here. But, for the birthday weekend I will be going home. I am sure my parents and friends in the Milwaukee area will enjoy having me around for a few days.

As an FYI, my ability to blog may become difficult Thursday and Friday because I may not have reliable internet access. It may happen, but don't surprised if you don't hear from me for a few days.

Other News:

• Kudos to Taylor Hall for winning the Homecoming 2006 competition! Breese Hall took 5th place and did an excellent job by participating in all events and putting up their best effort.
• I played two songs last night on the hard level in Guitar Hero and did not miss a single note...is that cool or just really sad?
• Gabe and Kristi stopped by to visit. It's always fun to have ex-Breese folks stop by and check-in.