Wedding Update #1(one of many)

Tonight asked if we could go over wedding stuff and I will be the first to admit that I wasn't too excited about it. Please understand, I am very, very excited to get married to Christa. In fact, I wish it was this month. What I struggle with is all the planning and money that goes into this large extravaganza, when that money and planning could be used for something or someone in more need. It seems to be such a flaunting of excess. Christa and I are both pretty simple and probably could go with something very simple. But, that will not be the case.

Last night, it clicked and we had a pretty productive session. We got a lot of ideas out on paper and we both have a task list (although hers is much larger). One other thing that we are both struggling with is all the attention that we will be getting for this 2-3 day period. We are both introverts and do not really like the spotlight, so this should be interesting...

Daily Shout-Out: The Green Bay Packers, for actually winning. Don't get your hopes up, but a win is a win. Can they beat Philly?

Other News:

• In addition to a change in template, I am also in the process of changing the information on the side bar. It's nothing major, but you will see some tweeks.
• The NBC Village Planning Committee meets on Friday. I am excited to see work starting to get done on this. I think the students will also be happy to know how transparent we would like this process to be.

A Packer Victory

Well, well...the Packers actually won. Sadly, the Packers really tried to lose there in the end. Ahman Green coughed up the ball for the second time (a third time could be argued). It is nice to Favre in a groove right now. If they can get some shred of a running game going, the offense could really be something against some good teams. The defense continues to not look good overall, but continues to also make some really good plays throughout a game.

Let's face it. The Lions are not that good. I would say the Packers beat a team they should be beat. But, the Packers aren't that good either. So, at least they're 1-2. What's their reward? A Monday Night game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Ouch.

Daily Shout-Out: Goes to the Residence Life Dragonboat team for getting 4th place at the competition on Saturday. This was out of 30+ teams, so that says something.

Other News:

• In case you didn't know, there is a lot of crap going on this week. I need to get ready for Leadership Camp, I need to orient an interim pastor to our church and send out a great many judicial letters. Oh, and I need to get my game ready for OshCon in two weeks.
• I have been getting better about putting items in my Palm Pilot so that they become routine. I have been better at keeping up with laundry as well as watering my plants on a regular basis.
• We had some pretty successful weekend programs this weekend. I implore residents to stick around and check out what we have to offer.
  

For What It's Worth...

...if you are interested in making a political statement, you may want to check this out:

http://citgoboycott.wordpress.com/

Apparently one of the upper-ups in Citgo is a supporter of Hugo Chavez.

The 200th Post

Today marks my 200th post to the blog. A big deal for someone who has created blogs before only to have them fizzle after a few entries. It has been a therapeudic tool so far and I look forward to continuing the entried.

Daily Shout-Out: This goes out to the two ladies that operate the brat cart in the NBC Quad area. This is the last day they are serving and I will sorely miss their services.

Other News:

• Like the brat cart? I suggest you let Sodexho know this. Write them a letter. Perhaps they can create an equivalent in a more temperature friendly environment.
• The weather today is rainy; this could prove interesting for the Dragon Boat races tomorrow.
• Christa suggested that we go to Appleton tonight and play at Funset Boulevard. I think that is an excellent suggestion. I think I am buying Guitar Hero! Muahahaha!
  

Two Years

Christa and I are celebrating our two year anniversary. So, I suppose it's story time.

In August, Christa and I were both at Camp Onaway in Waupaca, WI as part of training for Residence Life; she was still a CA at the time. The weather at camp two years ago was lousy, it rained a lot especially on Thursday night. At one point during the course of the evening Christa and I were both underneath the underhang of the mess hall and I was behind her. We were both there for a few minutes and neither one of us said a word, yet someone we both have since said that there was some kind of motivation in each of us to say something, but we didn't.

Side Note: Up until this point, Christa and I had only interacted a few times. She would sometimes come by my office my first year as an RHD and would call me Mr. Droste. One time she stopped by table when Peter, Ryan and I were at Player's. My main reaction was, "Wow...she's cute."

For the next few weeks, I keep thinking about Christa and wondering how she feels about me. Reverting back to the middle school era, I decide to have someone else do my reconnaisance for me. I have Ryan Bronkema talk to his girlfriend at the time who was also on staff with Christa to see how she felt. It was determined that the feeling was definitely mutual. Huzzah! Well, now I actually have to call.

Christa saved me from that burden by calling me in my apartment when I happed to be talking to someone at the desk. While talking to the desk worker, I said, "Whoever this person is, they just keep talking...I suppose I'd better just go answer." In the time that I unlocked my door and got to the phone she was still leaving a message. Christa and I decided we would just go on a walk.

Christa and I walked for a long time. We walked for at least 90 minutes and we talked about two subjects very important to us: Star Wars & music. I suppose it was meant to be. It has been a great two years and I look forward to a lifetime of being with Christa. June 16, 2007!

Shout-Out: Goes to Peter Brooks, who yesterday engaged me in an excellent conversation about our jobs and its highs and lows.

Other News:

• The wings at Player's have been noticably hotter as of late.
• The Chinese buffet in the Union yesterday, very disappointing.
• Speaking of food disappointment, the brat cart will no longer be open after this week. Sad.
• We have an interim pastor assigned to our church until the end of the year. I will get to meet him Saturday night.
  

Running...Again

Loyal readers will know I have made this pledge before, but I have started running again. I really hope I can keep up with my pledge this time. I used a gift certificate to Kohl's to but a new pair of running shoes (a really nice pair I might add).

I have consistently been walking every morning and am now in the habit of getting up at 7:30 a.m. So, I thought I would sprinkle in some running 3 days a week and slowly build that up over time. I should be able to stick with it for a longer period of time.

Daily Shout-Out: Today is goes to the ING Insurance Company for letting me consolidate a retirement account I received while working in Massachusetts. It was worth $200. Woot!

Other News:

• I am troubled by how my department can sometimes make pretty simple tasks turn into rather large and administrative tasks. Just one of the perks of the job, I guess.
• Three submissions for the "name our plant" contest. They are all good nominations, but there could be more!
• I had breakfast with Margaret yesterday and I was actually awake and ready to go. That never happens.
  

The Archery Shop

I had the opportunity to hang out with my little brother Adam yesterday, and as per usual I had no idea what we would do. Adam brought up the suggestion of going to Appleton so that he could check out an archery store. He has recently gotten into hunting hanging out with Bruce, his mother's significant other (and now fiance :) ). Now, he wants to get a bow for hunting.

So, we went to the store and I was amazed. I really did not have a notion of what an archery store would look like, but this place was like a small civilization. It had the following things:

• Deep frier along with other fried food options
• Video gambling machine
• pool table
• dart board
• two different shooting ranges
• soda machine
• various televisions
  

I have this imagine of someone coming into the store when it opens and not leaving until it closes. Seriously, what motivation do you have to leave? I assume this place provides a great sanctuary to hunters that need to get away for whatever reason. It reminds me of a sanctuary.

I'm not sure why I find that so intriguing. I suppose it has something to do with the idea that when you have a hobby that you care about, you have a place to go so that you might be able to emmerse yourself in it, in the company of like-minded folk.

Daily Shout-Out: I will give today's daily shout out to Christa, who is doing a rockin' good job with all of the wedding plans. I think we are definitely making some progress.

Other News:

• Second OGS meeting tonight. We'll see how it goes this time.
• Bathroom door locking meetings are this week. Students rejoice.
• Sorry for so many posts yesterday, lots going on.
  

Family Night

So, the two McDonalds in Oshkosh (Koeller & Jackson) offer a special deal on Monday nights. You can get a 20-Piece Chicken McNugget Super Value meal for wicked cheap 3-4 bucks. It's a great option as a college student or as someone who may not necessarily to need worry for the moment about their health, but "family night"? How does this in any way provide a nourishing meal for a family?

I suppose that begs the larger question about how McDonals provided a nourishing meal at any time. I love the commercials for McDonalds where they show a mother and daughter eating "healthy" together at McDonalds. Riiiights...nothing healthy in what they're offerring there. I've read their salads are still full of fat and the yogurt parfait isn't exactly all that good for you either.

What nutritional value does the typical meal at McDonalds have? Very little...but yet, somehow I am drawn back every Monday.

Name Our Plant

Amy and I have a new resident in our office. We have a plant, but the plant does not have a name. I do not know the kind of plant (some of you have asked), but we're going to say she is a female plant. I want to have a name for the plant so we are going to have a contest.

If you have a good name for this plant (keep it appropriate...please), feel free to send me an E-mail with your idea. Just let me know where you live in the E-mail. Do not post name suggestions on the blog. I will have a prize if the winning name is someone from Breese Hall, but that does not disqualify outside suggestions. Amy and I will will pick the best submission of all the submissions that we get.

If you are curious, there is a picture off to the right along with this entry. Let your imagination run wild...but not too wild. Submissions will be closed by 11:59pm on Sunday, September 24, 2006. The E-mail address is: droste@uwosh.edu. We hope to hear from you soon.

Campaign Seeds

Over the last few weeks, I have not felt the need to begin a new fiction or non-fiction book. Instead, I have been reading through a great many of my AD&D 1st Edition books and modules. I am scouring them for campaign ideas so that I might actually make this 1st edition AD&D adventure take flight. I think I have the people to do it and I think I have the material to do it, but it needs to fit in my priorities as well. I think it does.

So, it has been fun to think about what I want to do. I eagerly prepare for my OshCon adventure in October. Hopefully that leads somewhere as well. If you are at all interested in learning mroe about AD&D or role-playing games, please let me know.

You may also notice the new format of the blog. I know, I know...it keeps changing. It will stop when I find a combination that I like. The old one did not have enough color for me.

Daily Shout-Out: The Green Bay Packers. Thank you for being such a bad team this year, that I find other football games more interesting. It has made me a more solid fan of football and I enjoy watching all NFL games now.

Other News:

• I have been informed that in previous blogs I did not necessarily talk about the status of the pastor who is involved with all this controversy. He has retired from the ministry and is no longer the pastor of our church.
• I had a great conversation on Friday with someone who is into blogging much more than me. He gave me some great tips and I hope I have the chance to use them. If I can generate enough material, I am considering creating a political log as well.
  

Priorities

Christa and I went to the Pride of the Valley Barbershop Chorus concert last night. It was a really good concert. It was cool to hear them sing songs that I had sung with them for a few weeks. In a way, I wished I could have been up on stage with them. On the ride home, though, I had an interesting epiphany regarding priorities.

I made a list of things that are important to me or that I would like to play a role in my life:

• my faith (personal)
• my wedding
  
• my job
• my friends and family
  
• my church (and its commitments)
• my hobbies (gaming in its many forms)
• my health (exercising)
• Pride of the Valley...

As you look at the list, there are a lot of things going on and a lot of time involved. When you take on a new commitment, a time commitment is involved. My schedule is already pretty packed and I also want to make sure I have time left over for myself to relax, etc. So, over the last few months, I have really been weighing my options and figuring out whether or not I can take on this new commitment. We shall see.

Daily Shout-Out: Alex Kuen for reintroducing me to barbershop and helping me to find a new outlet (on some future level) to be a musician. Even if I am not a member of the chorus, I may still come and sing when the time permits :).

Other News:

• The Packers lost, and this loss hurts more...because they were actually in the game. The offense definitely looked better, but they weren't consistent. The defense made some big plays early, but couldn't keep it up long term. So, the long season continues.

Packers vs. Saints

What can I say? You hate to pick against the Packers every week, simply because I can't remember the last time a team went 0-16 (although I think the Buccaneers might have done it one year). So, you figure the Packers are going to at least pick up a game here and there.

I don't think this is the week. This team is young, the coaches are young and they did not look together at all on Sunday. There were moments as I was watching Mike McCarthy that it looked like he honestly had no idea what he was doing. The team looked the same way. I think Reggie Bush is going to run all over our defense, but our offense will pick it up. I think it will be shoot out, but Packers will end up behind in the end. Saints: 24, Packers: 20.

Daily Shout-Out: Not ready by time of publication.

Other Notes:

• I just got back from seeing "Gridiron Gang". Good movie, not great, but definitely a good film. It has a good message, a good amount of action and some great lines. There was even one scene where it must have been dusty in the room. ;) I would recommend seeing it at a time when most other movies aren't so good. Grade: B

Resolution: The Next Step

Nothing like a 2 hour and 3o minute church meeting to cap your Thursday. We had an SPRC Meeting along with a Church Council meeting last night. I was worried that we would continue to dwell on dead issues, but that was not the case. We were able to move on and start the healing process. The SPRC Committee meetin afterward began to tie up some loose ends and I think the healing process can begin.

Since I have completed my Master's Degree, I can tell that I have become less of an emotional person. My two years in graduate school brough out a lot of the "feeling" component in the Myers Briggs Inventory. I often led with my heart and let it guide my decisions. I think my core value system has me leading with my head more...and that has perdominated my actions with the churhc drama. It some ways it may make me appear to be heartless or see disengaged from the proceedings, but in many ways it has been a blessing. As chair of a committee deeply rooted in this process, it has helped me to remain neutral in what can be an emotionally charged affair.

In my conversations with Harry over the last few years, we have talked about the ministry and he talks about how much of it involved working from your heart. But working from the heart has also gotten him into some trouble. So, maybe I can be the minister that leads with his head and still does a good job :).

Daily Shout Out: This goes out to Janet Karst, the admin. assistant in Scott Hall who celebrated her 60th birthday yesterday!

Other News:

• My event was accepted for OshCon 2006. I will nice to begin role-playing again. I hope people will do the adventure and like it enough to continue.
• Tonight is the LBGTQ pot luck dinner. This is the first one I have gone to; it should be a good time.
• I am seeing "Gridiron Gang" this weekend. Jen and I hopeful that it will be a good movie.
• The Pride of the Valley Chorus performs tomorrow night and Christa and I will be there. We are both very excited.
• This Sunday begins NACURH meetings...my goodness this is going to be a busy weekend.
• Stay tuned for a Packer preview tomorrow.
  

First OGS Meeting

On Tuesday, I took a chance and went to my first Oshkosh Gaming Society (OGS) meeting. It was an interesting experience to say the least. I met some interesting characters, a group of people that I miss by not going to the annual Gen Con Convention. I had the opportunity to play a game called Bitin' Off Hedz. I am hoping that I can sneak into a role-playing game some time in the future, but that might prove to be difficult.

Daily Shout-Out: Today's shout out goes to Deadre Holmes, the counseling center liaison for Breese Hall. She and I had a great meeting together and she seems to really take an interest in learning about the residence hall environment. She is just starting her tenure at UWO.

Other News:

• Peter Brooks had his first career start last night as a Dallas Cowboy on my Madden 2006 game. Although statistically not the best, he did manage to lead the Cowboys to victory. He threw a TD, but also had one INT. Sadly, his receivers did him no favors by having six drops during the game, one of which would have been a second TD pass. My goal is to play one game a night, or something close to that.
  
• It was nice to start doing the church choirs again. I was worried about the atmosphere at the meetings simply because of recent happenings. I am happy to report that the rehearsals were fun and church more normal than it has in a long time.
• I had coffee with two people that I have talked to in some time. It morphed into lunch and the three of us talked for an hour and a half. It is something that we will attempt to do each week and I think it provided an outlet for me to break out of always eating lunch with Residence Life folks (not that they are at all bad). :)
  

The "Remember the Titans" Effect

If you watch TBS or TNT at all, you may notice that they play this movie a greta deal; often, I get sucked into watching the movie, because it's a pretty good movie and it's got some great scenes in it. The head coach of the football team, played by Denzel Washington, is really, really hard on his players, but as the movie goes on you see them consistently trying to play hard because of the groundwork he laid for them.

There is one scene where the team is in the middle of a grueling practice and the coach is yelling things out like, "Will...you...ever...quit?" And they respond, "No, sir."

These moments are always interesting to me because I have never had an experience like that with a coach, supervisor or whoever. I suppose now we live in a time where if a coach did things like that to his players, he would probably be suspended or fired for cruelty. However, I always think that my level of performance or my desire to compete would be raised being part of a team with that type of dedication.

I'm not sure if I'll ever get that experience, but perhaps I will.

Daily Shout-Out: Today it goes to the Breese Hall Government for having such a kick-ass meeting last night. Good attendance, good enthusiasm and good pizza. Everything was covered. They are a good group!

Other Notes:

• The Packers are last in the ESPN NFL Football Power Rankings...ouch.
• Christa and I have righted the wedding concerns. I think it is now full speed ahead.
• I have re-juvenated my Madden 20o6 Superstar Franchise. Peter Brooks will now continue to his tenure as the rookie started for the Dallas Cowboys.
  

Sweet, Sweet Routine

The feeling has been there for awhile, but this week has sealed it. With staff meetings, hall government, staff one on ones and conduct meetings, it feels as though my job has kicked into full gear. Interestingly, it is this routine that brings security. It actually feels normal. I suppose part of this is because it's my schedule for about 75% of the year, but mostly as a creature of habit, I like it when things don't change so much.

I feel like my energy level is up and my productivity is high as well. Sweet, sweet routine.

Daily Shout-Out: This goes out to Ashley Beach for asking me what happened to my cross necklace. Thanks to her, I went and got it fixed so I can start wearing it again. I do feel more whole now.

Other News:

• There was a lot of frickin' football between Saturday and Monday. I can really get used to this. ESPN needs to think about having additional Monday Night Football double headers. You can't lose.
• Christa and I are running into some snags with this wedding planning. It has been trying for both of us, but especially for her.
• I am going to try to go to an OGS meeting tonight. We'll see if it translates into any actual gaming. :)
  

Where Were You?

I don't anyone can deny that the acts of September 11, 2001 qualify as the "JFK Assassination" of my generation. Even five years after the fact, I still think about that day a significant amount. I will always remember what happened for me that day as well.

I was on my way to class that morning and among the group of students that I walked with to class, we heard that some planes were hijacked, but nothing had been destroyed at the moment. By the time I made it to class, our professor informed us that one of the World Trade Center Towers had been crashed into and that it was on the verge of collapse. After hearing this, I told the professor, "I have to see what's going on." I left to watch what was going on and was glued to my TV for most of the rest of the day.

Other memories:

• I remember of my classmates telling me that they expected something like this to happen.
• I remember crying more that day than I had in a long time.
• I remember calling my dad and not being sure what to say on the phone.
• I remember WIU having an impromptu student forum for people to gather. It was held in our ballroom and the room was packed.

Other News:

Yeesh, did the Packers lay an egg yesterday or what? Strangely, Ahman Green ran for over 100 yards and Donald Driver has a pretty good game. You also have to give the Packer defense some credit. They were on the field most of the game and they did what they could to stop the Bears. The score could have been a lot worse. Maybe by 6-10 prediction is being a little too nice. Thanks for Travis and Joe for leaving comments...it is going to be a long year for Packer fans.

Strange moment this morning. On my walk I felt the need to listen to hip/hop music on my walk. It just felt good...I downloaded "Remember the Name" by Fort Minor and it just got things started.

The 2006 Packers

Of all the years that I have followed the Packers seriously (maybe 1995), this is probably the year that I know the least about them. I am simply not as excited for the Packer's season this year. Why? Well, let's generate a quick list:

• They stunk last year and they didn't make many changes that make me think they will stink less.
• Brett Favre doesn't have many people to throw the ball to.
• The defense is young, inexperienced and does not have much depth.
• Overall, the team is young and will need time (a few years) to mature and be competitive.
• The coaching staff is almost entirely new and quite unproven.
• I couldn't tell you too many starters as well (although that will change as the year goes on).

Today, the Packers start against the Bears. I think the Packers could actually win this game. The Bears have a tremendous defense, but no offense. If the Packers can minimize mistakes, they may be able to stay in the game late...perhaps that's when Favre can work some of his old magic.

As for the year, I would say the Packers will finish 6-10 at best. I hope I'm wrong. As my dad said yesterday, you have to keep your expectations low this year. Hopefully, you'll come away surprised. More after the game.

First Week Is Over

Well, today is Friday, and that means the end for the first week of school. This will be a wonderful weekend because I can finally relax and not feel like I should be doing some kind of work to prepare for training.

I will be having dinner tonight with Harry, the pastor of our church who recently retired. It will be nice to chat with him now that all of this controversy is over.

My prayers are with Peter who will be in intensive care for a few days after surgery. No fears...the surgery was planned, but I know he will be in pain for awhile and I hope he recovers as quickly as possible.

Another Plane Ride?

Well, I booked some airplane tickets through Northwest Airlines so that I can travel to the Exploration 2006 Conference in November. I am still a little shaky about flying given the experience that I had flying back from Texas. I am sure things couldn't get much worse than they did then, so there ya go!

I suppose purchasing this ticket signifies that despite some rough times in my church I am still willing to give this ministry thing a shot.

In Other News...

I am pretty creeped out by this new Facebook format. I think it gives me a little more information than I would like about my friends and residents.

This week has been a productive week for me. I have taken a few nights "off" and have gotten things back in order in my life. I have way mroe energy than I have had in awhile.

I am looking forward to seeing my parents this weekend. I'm not sure where we'll be or what we'll do, but it will be fun.

I am getting pretty geeked up about gaming again...scary.

First Day of Classes

Last night, Christa and I talked a little bit about the fact that she starts classes tomorrow. In somes ways, I think I was downplaying the emotions involved in the first day of classes. I say this becuase it has now been four years since I have had a class. It makes me think back to some of my more vivid memories of the first day of classes.

General Psychology
I will always remember this class because it was my first class as an undergraduate students back in the year 1995. It was 10:20-11:20 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in Clow 102. It was funny becuase the first day the lecture pit was full and with each passing class there were less and less folks. I, of course, went to every class and witnessed this lovely event. My professor was Baron Perlman, a great professor, who has earned various teaching awards. It was great that he was teaching a first-year level class. It set the bar high for my future experience.

Music Theory
My sophomore year of college began my career as a music students. This class met Monday-Friday from 10:20-11:20. I had two professors, Dr. Chaudoir and Dr. Wise. They were both phenomenal professors, but were both also very demanding. For the first day of class, we had around 60 students in the class. I was stoked because I had taken piano lessons for eight years and I assumed that I would know more about theory than the average student. When they through my entire knowledge of theory in the first week I know there was going to be problems. Within a few short weeks, the class was down to 25 students. But a core of us stuck in out, despite many late nights and early mornings.

Speech
My only comment about this first class was that my speech teacher had a lisp. That doesn't seem quite right.

"Resolution"

For those of you that have been keeping track, the last few months have been very chaotic for the church I belong to. As the dust settles from many meetings, many complaints and much anger and frustration, our pastor has chosen to retire from the ministry.

For the time being, we will have interim pastors until June 2007, at which point we will be assigned a new pastor. This has been a difficult time for everyone involved and it has made an otherwise crazy training/opening month even more chaotic.

While it by no means has ended, it has definitely become a much more manageable situation and one we can hopefully rebuild from. I appreciate everyone's support.

Role-Playing Games

So, OshCon is this weekend. We'll see how it is. It has been a long time since I have done any kind of gaming. Ever since GenCon moved to Indianapolis I have been really out of practice. Most of us that made up the gaming group we had in college/high school are all married, have children or have become busy people in the working world. It is hard to get together.

Interestingly enough, Peter mentioned to all of the hall leaders and hall staff that I played Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. He did this as part of an introduction for a program that I was presenting. At first, I was a little embarassed. But, since then, I have had at least five different people come up to me with interest in learning how to play.

It would be great to get back into gaming again. If you are interested, please let me know.

First-Year Student Move-In Day

At 9:00 a.m. today, Breese Hall opens its doors to new first-year students. This is the fourth time that I have been involved with student move-in on an RHD level. This year I feel pretty confident and prepared for the first-years to move in. I think all the paperwork is in order and I have a great lunch spread prepared for my hall leaders, staff and greeters.

With each year, I look at the move-in days, I am less stressed about it and I simply enjoy the chaos. If you think about it, you are moving around 3000 students in the residence halls in two days in tight quarters. The fact that they all make it in the building is a big enough accomplishment regardless of how clean the move-in goes.

Also with each year, I feel a decreased amount of competition between each of the halls. No matter what I might wish for, Breese Hall always seems to continue doing good programs and building a good community. I might as well realize that the staff and hall leaders have a handle on this and I should just continue to let them do their great work. It makes my job easy!

Students Start Moving In

The students are coming, the students are coming! It begins...

Bread

Well, training continues to be quite a busy time. As you can tell, I haven't had the time to journal that I usually do. Because of training, I don't have too much to say. I did want to post this picture of a sign from Oshkosh's Jimmy John's. I just think it's fun!

Pepsi Giveaway

How is it that in a recent Pepsi giveaway, where you have a 1 in 12 chance of winning a 1 for 2 Pepsi deal and a 1 in 3 chance of winning a free ringtone for your phone, I get 3 2 for 1 deals and one ring tone? Interesting luck.

I waited all this time to get a free ringtone and when I see the free ringtones available I don't recognize any of the artists or the songs. This means I'm old and out of touch. :)

Christa, The Artist

As I came to the office after breakfast this morning, I found this picture on my door. I am assuming that Christa, my fiance, was the drawer. Very few people who have access to Breese Hall know that we are bowling tonight.

It's pretty sweet looking and it is one of those pictures that I do not want to erase. So, I at least took a picture to preserve it.

I would also like to take the opportunity to say what a great artist Christa is. She has some great drawings in her office and she also has a copy of a great painting in my apartment. It is just one of her many artist skills!

Otherwise, training goes well. We are only in day two, and my energy level is pretty high. I am excited to leave for camp. My staff is great! More about them later. Peace.

Pictionary Poison

After being on the losing side of another Pictionary match last night, I have realized that I am Pictionary Poison. Honestly, I think my overall record is like 0-7. Who will ever want to play with me?!?

Otherwise, the staff are here and we are having a good time.

So It Begins

It's 2:15 and all of my staff are moved in. It is nice to have a little life injected into the building. When you have lived in a residence hall for three years, you get used to the sounds of life. I actually find myself sleeping better now that I head noises...strange.

Training starts at 5:00 p.m. tonight with dinner. From then on, it is non-stop movement until we open the building on September 3, 2006. This is by far the busiest two weeks of the year for me. Please understand if calls are not returned quickly or if my E-mail response lags a little bit. I promise everything will calm down eventually.

Let's do it!

Recent Lessons

As the struggle continues with the First United Methodist Church of Oshkosh, I have learned some valuable lessons that will be helpful to me regardless of the career path that I choose beyond the RHD position.

1. People Will Not Like What You Do – I work in the field of Residence Life where everyone likes everyone else. It is also a field of accommodators that are likely to keep animosity or frustration to themselves that the group might continue to function. Given the struggles with my church, I have now had to deal almost daily with the realization that members of the church do not like how I am handling the situation. As difficult as that can be, it is also a good feeling because now I know what it’s like. It won’t be so difficult the next time.

2. People Can Separate You From Your Work – Despite some people not necessarily liking what I have to say or not liking how you handle something, they can still respect you as a person and can understand the difficulty you are having. After last night’s Council Meeting, I could tell that I angered some folks or at least told people something that they did not want to hear. I was amazed at how many people came up to me after the meeting to express concern, encouragement or support despite the gravity of the situation.

3. Trust the Process – As Tracy Davis, my professor from graduate school, always emphasized, despite the desired outcome more will come out of what got you there. As difficult as that is to understand right now…he was right. When this is done I will have grown so much based on the process.

Interesting Quote

In graduate school we spent a great deal of time talking about various identity development models in the areas of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. While there are some merits to these models, there were times when I may have questioned them. I have been reading a book entitled White Guilt by Shelby Steele. I wanted to pull one quote out to talk about:

"In fact, if there is a white identity today it would have to be white guilt--a shared, even unifying, lack of racial moral authority. As other group identities derive from a shared fate, white guilt is a shared white fate rendered up by history. Whites can no more escape white guilt than blacks can reject being black--the latter cannot know themselves racially whitout the memory of slavery, and the former canot know themselves racially without the memory of white supremacy. Two shaming fates, yes, but two identities? Can an identity revolve around contrition and deference toward darker races, as a modern white identity would have to? Does it make sense for whites to go around saying, "We are the contrite people, and we defer to other races; this is our identity"? Yet to gain employment today in most American institutions whites must somehow pledge allegiance to "diversity" as if to demonstrate a white identity of contrition and deference. Even in the corporate and military worlds--not to mention academia--no white goes far without genuflecting to diversity. Nevertheless, beyond an identity that apologizes for white supremacy, absolutely no white identity is permissible."

I have finished the book, and I find this quote sticks out the most. I do feel as though to be white means that you do not have an identity and if you tried to have an identity it can only be one wrapped up in privilege and guilt toward our treatment of others. I also agree with his contention that you can not succeed in most professions without devotion to "diversity". I am curious to know what folks think about this quote. Thanks!

Nothing Profound

I'll post, but there isn't much to say. Training and church drama.

Fox Valley Invitational Results

Course 1 (Fondy Sports Park) Winner: Nick Sayner (52 strokes)
Tom Dittl - hole in one on 17

Course 2 (Settler's Mill) Winner: Nick Sayner (54 strokes)
Peter Brooks - hole in one on 7 and 14
Tom Dittl - hole in one on 14

Course 3 (Jurassic Village) Winner: Jim Droste (48 strokes)

Course 4 (Gopher Golf) Winner: Tom Dittl (40 strokes)
Tom Dittl - hole in one on 14 and 15

Overall Winner: Tom Dittl (198 strokes)
2nd Place: Nick Sayner (206 strokes)
3rd Place: Jason Chapman (220 strokes)
4th Place: Jim Droste (222 strokes)
5th Place: Peter Brooks (193 strokes through three courses...unable to make 4th course)

I do want to say that it was wonderful to see everyone and play golf together. We had an excellent time and we look forward to the 2007 competition.

Second Annual Fox Valley Min-Golf Invitational

Tomorrow at 11:00am, my friends Nick, Tom (an possibly Jason) will be coming up from Milwaukee to participate in what we hope will be an annual event. I have chosen 4 golf courses in the Fox Valley:

• Fondy Sports Park (Fond Du Lac)
• Settler's Mill (Oshkosh)
• Jurassic Village (Oshkosh)
• Funset Boulevard (Appleton)

That's 72 holes of mini-golf action. We'll see how long we last. With Peter joining us as well, there will be plenty of golf and hilarity.

I am playing a handbell solo for church tomorrow. My parents are coming up to hear it. Christa is also coming. Everyone will be gathering for lunch before golf. It should be an eclectic mix of people feasting on brats.

Meeting Complete

The church meeting was last night at 6:30 pm. The meeting went until 9:00 pm. I talked to a few folks afterward and I left church at 9:30 pm. I am so glad that this meeting is over. I now have some homework to do, but I feel as though we can take a step forward toward some sense of resolution.

If anything, I am getting some great practice in conflict resolution!

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend of work. I know that sounds funny, but it will really be that way. I am also looking forward to Nick, Tom and Peter joining me for the 2nd Annual Fox Cities Mini-Golf Invitational being held this Sunday.

Thank You Verizon

As you may have noticed this month I have had many situations where I have been blessed to have a cell phone. But, with that I have also used up a great deal of minutes. With everything that happened, I was 15 minutes over my anytime minutes and was not looking forward to the $.45 charge per minute over.

In calling Verizon, I was awarded 50 minutes over the next four months that I could utilize for times that I go over my minutes. The customer service representative said that as a loyal customer for 5+ years she thought that would be fair. How wonderful!

Church Meeting

As you may have picked up from pervious posts, First United Methodist Church - Oshkosh is in something of a crisis. As the Staff/Parish Relations Committee Chair, it is part of my duties to help mediate conflicts between members of the congregation and staff. Well, there is a big conflict between our pastor and members of the congregation about a great many issues. The District Superintendent will be coming to our SPRC meeting tonight to help "resolve" these concerns.

This crisis has taken much of my time and has taxed me greatly. It has in some ways made for a frustrating summer. Tonight's meeting is very important in moving toward a possible solution. I am looking forward to it so that hopefully I might be able to move on to other important areas of my life such as friends, family and my job. We have started training and I am hopig to soon be able to start working on that task list.

Super O'Haro

Paging through the safety manual on my flight to Milwaukee, I discovered these two classic pictures. Don't these two guys totalling look like they are flexing their super powers? This was the first time I was finally able to catch these pictures with a camera.

Christa's Car

Christa's rear passenger side tire blew out on her way back to Oshkosh this afternoon. She is fine! I drove out to the Waupun St./Hwy 26 exit and put her spare tire on. We were able to get her back to campus. She will be figuring out where to get a new tire. We are just having poor luck when it comes to cars.

Car, Yeah!...Trip From Texas, Boo!

Car is Fixed
Well, things in my life are almost back to normal. Christa and I drove down to Westville, IN to pick up my car. Although I was quoted a total bill of $908.00, the head of the shop said that he would knock off $100 dollars because of all the trouble that I went through getting the car fixed and picking it up. I appreciated the gesture, but more than anything I simply wanted my car back. Much thanks to Christa for driving me down to Indiana, only to drive back up the same day. Overall, the car seems OK, it does seem a little louder than usual. But it runs, which is key.

Trip Back from Texas
In a continuing streak of good luck, I should highlight for you my return trip from Chicago. I will spare you a lot of details, and give you bullet points:

Day 1: Wednesday

• My layover in Chicago before my flight to Milwaukee was 3 hours with my flight leaving at 7:40 pm.
• 7:10pm - O'Hare airport shuts down due to lightning in the area. My flight is obviously delayed. Airport opens again, but closes 15 minutes later again due to lightning in the area.
• 7:50pm - Due to severe weather also in Milwaukee, our flight is cancelled. It is discovered that the plane we were supposed to take did not leave the airport.
• 8:00pm - I get to the customer service desk and discover that the only remaining flight scheduled to leave that evening is booked. I decided I will book the first flight the next morning at 8:00 am. In talking with a representative, I discover the 6:05 pm flight out of Chicago for Milwaukee has been delayed and has still not taken off. I book myself for this flight.
• 8:40pm - Our flight is supposed to leave at this time, but it doesn't. Several of us on the flight continue to ask the service desk to find out if and when the flight is leaving. Finding out nothing, I contact Chris to tell him he won't need to take me home. I contact my dad asking his advice and I text message friends to stave off boredom.
• 10:15pm - Getting no help from the service folks, I call a customer service person, asking them about the flight. At this point I found out the 6:05 flight already left and they didn't tell us! So, there are no flights out of Milwaukee and I realize I am screwed.
• 10:25pm - Back to the customer service desk to find out about hotel rooms. Rooms are not covered fully because the cancellation was due to weather. They can get us rooms for $59 a night. Great...
• 10:35pm - I call the toll free number to get a room. I wait for about 15 minutes. I find a room in the AmeriSuites Hotel which is 20 minutes away from the airport. I guess this will due.
• 10:40pm - I contact a taxi service that charges $20 to get you to the airport. I am assured that they take credit cards (more about this later). They tell me to meet at G1. I have no idea what this means. I ask repeatedly what this is and they think I am a crank caller. After waiting 15 minutes my cab arrives.
• 10:55pm - I share a cab with Kathy Fritz, a young lady from Germany. I thought I had it bad, she flew from Germany to Cleveland with two cats. She ended up paying over $500 EURO extra to get her cats to Chicago and then her flight to Cleveland was cancelled. She lent me $20 so that I could pay the drive who could not accept credit cards, even though he said he could.
• 11:15pm - I arrive at the AmeriSuites...not impressed. There are 5-6 of us checking in all having had our flights cancelled...Cedar Radids, Cleveland, Milwaukee...good times. I get checked into my room. They let me have a complimentary toothbrush and toothpaste as all my toiletries were in the bag I did not have. How nice.
• 11:20 - Wow...my room has HBO. That was the highlight. Rough towels, no pressure in the showers, and the room didn't really get cold. Sweet.
• 12:30 - I finally relax and get to bed. Here ends day #1.

Day 2: Thursday

• 4:30am - I get up and get ready for my taxi driver who is coming at 5:30 so that I have time to get to my flight.
• 5:30am - Taxi drive shows up and tells me to leave behind Kathy because I don't have a cell phone. Much thanks to Kathy for paying me and not being able to pay her back.
• 6:00am - I arrive at the airport and discover my taxi driver can now pay with credit cards...riiiiiiiiiight.
• 6:10am - Having already "checked-in" last night, I have 1 hour and 50 minutes before my flight is supposed to take off.
• 7:45am - We are told that our flight is going to be delayed because our flight crew is in Moline, IL and their flight has been delayed due to weather.
• 9:30am - Our flight finally boards and we are on the plane. As I board, my ticket generates an error message and I have to be re-assigned. I end up bumping a crew member to a rumble-type seat.
  
• 9:40am - Once everyone sits down, we find out that there was too much fuel put into the airplane and all people that were accepted on stand-by now need to leave. They get their baggage and de-plane.
• 9:45am - We are now told that there are technical difficulties with the plane that need to be fixed. After 20 minutes they are fixed.
• 10:05am - We get cleared for takeoff, but the airport shuts down because of bad weather. We wait.
• 10:50am - Our plane takes off for its 15 minutes flight to Milwaukee.
• 11:10am - I find my dad and we go to baggage claim only to find out that my luggage is still in Chicago. I pick it up on Saturday as we drove down to get my car.

There you have it...my tript back from Texas.

More from Texas!

I finally figured out how I might be able to get some pictures from my Texas trip up on the blog. The picture you see to the right here is a view of the Riverwalk from a bridge. As you can see, the view was very nice. The whole River Walk scene reminded me a lot of Venice is some ways, although the waterways were not so pervasive as they were in Venice.

For fear of having to do too much uploading, I will keep things at one picture. I will post more on Facebook when I make my way back to Oshkosh. As for Monday's travels, I had the opportunity to attend a minor league baseball game for the Round Rock Express. Unfortunately, the game did not turn out to be so good and we left after seven innings, with the score Express 2, River Cats 9. I noticed the price for concessions was about the same it is for Brewers games and their apparrel was equally overpriced...so much for getting the Round Rock baseball cap.

Dario has to run some errands in Austin so I got a nice tour of the city as well as the campus. I am hoping to get to see more of the campus today as Dario needs to go back to work. For today, there are plans to get some good barbeque, see a movie at a place called the Draftfhouse. You cann watch a movie while having a meal and even a beer! I think that is all for now.

Greetings from Texas!

I am writing to you from Austin, Texas! I arrived safelt yesterday and have enjoyed and good nights rest to begin my first day in the "Lone Star State". When I landed in San Antonio, there was some initial problems with my bag. They did not have my bag when I got off the plane and they were not sure where it was. I had to full out a luggage tag and everything...luckily, after 10-15 minutes it arrived and I had clothes to wear.

Since we were in San Antonio, I figured we could do some of the San Antonio stuff. I had the opportunity to walk on the Riverwalk and also got a picture of the Alamo. I will post some of these pictures later in the week when I get back or have access to a Windows friendly computer (I am using a MAC right now).

Some quick reflections of the journey from Milwaukee to San Antonio:

• Airports provide great opportunities for people watching; I was amazed as to what I saw in the Chicago O'Hare airport.
• I started a new book called "White Guilt" by Shelby Steele, I happened to be sitting next to a black woman while I was reading the book. I actually wondered how she would feel if she happened to see what the book was about. I actually hid the cover to avoid a conversation/confrontation. How sad for me that I didn't feel comfortable.
• Our flight from Milwaukee to Chicago was 17 minutes...seventeen minutes. I have never been on a flight so short.

Car Update

For your viewing pleasure, this was the view from the Ohio I-90 rest stop as I waited for Chris to pick me up when the tow truck dropped me off.

Well, after many phone calls and much frustration, my car is finally fixed. When I chatted with Kyle from the Westville Hwy 6 Auto Shop, the total cost for fixing my vehicle will be $908.00. This will not include the gas and tolls it will take to go down and get the vehicle. Originally, I was under the impression that the catalytic convertor would just need to be replaced. It turns out that after further inspection, the entire exhaust system needed to be replaced.

I was very frustrated the entire week because I felt like I was really left in the dark about what was wrong with my car and how much it cost. I had to contact them over and over to get any idea what was going on with my car. Needless to say, I expressed to the owner of the shop my frustrations about their poor communication. It turns out that the owner was gone for the week and the person left in charge was not necessarily all that experienced. After expressing my concerns, I sensed that what was fixed needed fixing. I will be picking up my car a week from today. Good times!

Better News

In better news, I received a call from the District Superintendent for our church. Despite the constant calling from various members of the congregation asking me to move faster on our church concerns, I am holding fast to our process. Jorge, the DS, said that I should keep going with how I am going and make sure that I do not let others sway me from the process.

So, only time will tell how all of this church business goes down. It has been tough so far.

The picture here is of a grotto with candles where folks at Notre Dame can light candles and say prayers. It is a beautiful sight.

Durangos

While visiting Chris Sewalish at Notre Dame, during the course of our conversations Chris brought up how much he likes the sign that greets customers when they come into a restaurant named "Durangos". Don't ask me how we got started with that...he liked the wonderful fusion of English and Spanish with "Bienvenudos to Durangos". I sent him this photo, but I also thought I'd post it here as well...it's pretty nice.

With the posting of this picture I can announce that I have now joined the picture/text messaging generation with my cell phone. I am now able to take pictures with my cell phone and picture message them to a website where I can do with them what I want. You can look forward to more random pictures of stuff going on around campus, Oshkosh and beyond...perhaps even my trip to Texas. Woot!

Work Starts Next Week...

It is hard to believe that a week from today, I will begin my official duties for Residence Hall Director training. Next week I will simply serve as a buddy for Jocelyn, one of the new RHDs for this year. However, after that we go into full-time training for four weeks until the building opens and the duties begin. So, how do I feel about it:

Good News:

• Having something to do every day may stave off boredom and add more structure to life
• Hanging out with new staff and finding out more about them
• Having something that gets my mind off of the chaos in my church
  

Bad News:

• Going through training for the fourth time!

Regardless, I look forward to my trip to Texas starting on Sunday and I look forward to seeing Dario while I'm out there!

Softball Game #7 Statistics and Commentary

Well, I didn't get to last night's game until the 5th inning. I worked at the front desk for EAA until 9:00 pm; the game started on time at 8:30. When I got there we were down by seven runs. I took over for Tex whose knee was acting up. I didn't get a chance to bat because the mercy rule was invoked. It was nice to at least get there and be a part of the game. Sorry, no updated stats!

I won't be at next week's game because I will be in Texas.

Routine

Still waiting to hear about my car. Hopefully it gets fixed in the next few days...not like I'm in any hurry. Not sure when I'll ne in Indiana again, but it will likely be the first weekend in August.

I figured that when the summer started I would lose the routines that I usually get pretty good at during the year. This summer has had a few bumps but I have managed to keep up many of the positive routines that I got into. As you have read earlier, my weight has gone down and I am "feeling" healthier.

With the new cell phone I am able to keep in better contact with folks. I feel more connected to friends. Overall, things are really good. Unfortunately there is a lot of upheaval in our church and this is making things difficult.

South Bend Update #2

Well, I will be leaving South Bend in less than an hour. Chris will be driving me back to Milwaukee. During my stay, I had the opportunity to check out the College Football Hall of Fame. That was really cool. Chris also took me on multiple tours of the Notre Dame campus, both at night and during the day. I got to eat at Notre Dame's food service and it is incredible. The pretty much had anything you'd want available to eat. As I said before, Chris and I had many opportunities to chat and catch up, it was great.

I am thankful now for having both a cell phone and AAA. Without those I might have been sitting at the roadside of Highway 90 in Indiana for a long time. I think that is all for now. This is the first weekend in awhile I am actually blogging on the weekend.

South Bend Update #1

Well, usually I would start a post like this by saying, "I got to [insert location] safely". Unfortunately, I can not say that this time. About twenty miles outside of South Bend, my car started to decelerate to 60 miles an hour no matter what I did. After pulling over and restarting my car, if I ever tried to accelerate it made an eery sound in the rear left tire. I called AAA and after holding for 30 or so minutes, they said someone would come to tow my car. After waiting 30 minutes for the tow truck to come, Jason (the very nice tow truck driver) dropped me off at the nearest toll way oasis where Chris picked me up.

They are going to need to replace my catalytic convertor which should be around $200. Including labor, I can only imagine how much that will be. The key is that it won't be fixed until at least Monday and I have to be back in Oshkosh for work at 6pm. So...I am having Chris drive me to Milwaukee tomorrow so that Christa can take be back to Oshkosh. It will probably be 1-2 weeks before I will have the time to go back to Indiana to pick up my car.

It has been great to see Chris and catch up, but this whole situation has made the weekend difficult.

To Notre Dame I Go...

In a few hours I will be making my way to South Bend to visit Chris Sewalish at the University of Notre Dame. I feel like I am leaving Oshkosh with things in good hands. I have attempted to move FUMC Oshkosh forward in what have been some difficult times...although I know there are folks that say we are not moving fast enough. My apartment is cleaned up and I am almost completely caught up on personal and business paperwork. I am not sure what kind of internet access I will have, so I will try to post this weekend while I am at Notre Dame. Peace.

Weight

Well, as of this morning I was 197 pounds. I have this interesting program that tracks your weight each day and also tracks your "trend weight" averaging over time to show trends. Since May, I my trend weight was gone from 202 to 197. It has been slow progress, but it has been progress. The change in diet and exercise has made a big difference. My goals was to get my "trend weight" down to 190 and I think if I keep things up it should be possible.

Softball Game #6 Statistics and Commentary

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've played in our team's softball game. Last week I had the youth trip, week before that was July 4th and the week before that I had the Church Council meeting. It was nice to be back playing softball. I will also be able to play next week as well. Last night's game ended up being 24-12 and we were able to play six innings of softaball and we got to play the entire 60 minutes we were alloted.

The good news is that we managed to score more runs than we ever have in a game. The offense was there. Unfortunately, we had no ability to field the ball. It was really bad...we could not catch grounders at all. It got so bad that we took out an infielder and had five people in the infield. I myself missed an easy pop fly, but still manged to field oa lot of balls that got by our infielders. Hopefully, things go better next week. New stats taking into account the latest game:

_______AB___R___H___RBI___BB___SO___LOB___OBP____AVG
Droste___12___4___6____5_____4____0____5_____.625____.500

Traveling Man

This weekend I will be visiting Chris Sewalish at Notre Dame. I told him in the spring that I would visit him and I was not very good at ironing out an exact date. Now it is done. It will be nice to ctach up with him; it will also be cool to see the Notre Dame campus. I hear it is beautiful. I am not sure about the church layout or availability, but it would be really cool to attend a Sunday mass at a cathedral on campus.

At the end of July and into early August I will be flying out to Austin, Texas to visit my friend Dario Landazuri. The last time I saw Dario was when he came to visit me while I was in graduate school. It has been about 4 years. It's about time I visit him. He said that I should be ready for some BBQ...most exciting!

In between these trips, I will be working the Breese Hall Front Desk for the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Fly-In. Again, the commute shouldn't be too rough. ;) I enjoy working for EAA because it gives me the opoportunity to catch up on filing and other paperwork stuff.

New Cell Phone...

..woot! I actually have a phone that carries a signal in my entire apartment. I don't have to go outside to make a phone call. Yay! Expect some phone calls from me in the near future...or call me!

40 Miles

Last night when I got back from seeing Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (more in a later entry), I got a message from Christa saying that she came back from a long bike ride....40 miles. Forty miles! That's incredible.

I was a little unsettled because she rode back at night, without a light on the Wiouwash Trail. I was worried for her, but honestly biking 40 miles is quite impressive. She almost biked to Appleton and back. For someone who only recently bought her bike and only recently started to exercise on a consistent basis, I am very proud of her.

Mission Trip Thoughts

I recently got back from a trip to Bethany United Methodist Church in Chicago, IL. This was a joint trip between youth from First United Methodist Church in Oshkosh and Waukau United Methodist Church. Five youth and three adults drove down to do some painting and cleaning in the church. It was a very good experience for all. I will share some thoughts and highlights from the trip (for a more religious perspective, see the other blog):

• Our sleeping conditions were interesting. We slept on the floor of the church, as the pews that were down there did not provide much comfort. The first night we discovered some extra visitors, cockroaches. Luckily, if they came by me while I was sleeping, I did not see them...I will consider myself lucky. It made me realize how truly blessed I am for where I live and what I have.
• I got to see a great deal of Chicago that I did not see before. The pastor from the Waukau church did his seminary work in Chicago and he took us all over the city. It made for a lot of driving, but I did appreciate the tour.
• Cara and I had the opportunity to talk a lot about some of the problems that our church is facing. I think we have been able to develop some strategies for how to deal with them. I am actually looking forward to making some progress in this area.
• It felt good to do some volunteer work, especially out of the Oshkosh community. I felt like the painting and cleaning that we did really made a difference for the members of the church. We also donated a new vacuum to them because they did not have one that worked.

If you have any questions or thoughts, let me know. Thanks!

Weekend to Catch-Up

I have a lot of work to do...this summarizes it all :).

July 4th Thoughts

I had a great time at Christa's aunts house. They live a few blocks away from a large lake and I had the opportunity to ride in their boat, swim in their pool, play over two hours of "spoons", and enjoy a brat and an Italian sausage. It was a good day. I had plenty of oppportunities for random thoughts and reflections. A few highlights:

• We do not allow people to drink and drive. However, we do allow people to drink and boat. Is not this still a hazard? I can't be the only that feels this way.
• It is interesting to reflect back on high school and realize how much emphasis is placed on status, especially based on your grade level (sophomore, junior, etc.). As a sophomore, when I had the chance to date a junior I felt like I had been lifted completely out of my social standing in high schoo. It is just not the came in a college environment.

Holiday!

Well, the dust has settled on what has been a slightly crazy last two week. Although it is the summer, I feel as though I am still working as hard as I do during the regular school year.

Today, Christa and I will be traveling to Oconomowoc to spend July 4th with the Macintosh clan. The house we are going to is right on a lake, so there is plenty opportunity for swimming, tubing and eating :). This will be the first time I have seen the family post-engagement.

Christa and I saw the Oshkosh fireworks last night (45 minutes late!). We were curious as to how many people actually know why we celebrate July 4th...

Tales Told by An Idiot...Signifying Nothing

I was trying to find a goof name for blog entries that are simply just filled with random thoughts and ideas:

I have received a lot of positive comments on how I handled our church controversy at our council meeting. It makes you wonder what the problem is, or at least it makes you wonder how many people have a problem.

I couldn't make it to the softball game on Tuesday, hence no stats. I wonder if we one...I obviously want us to win, but there is that part of me that says, "You need me." ;)

Ryan Bronkema leaves tomorrow, we are having a lunch to wish him luck on further ventures. It is good to know he will only be a few hours away but he will be sorely missed. I can't believe Jacque hired Ryan, Peter and I in the same year. What was she thinking?

Moving Times & Council Meeting

I have a couple friends who are in the process of moving. I didn't post yesterday because I was up in La Crosse helping Ryan move his stuff into a storage room in his new Residence Hall where he will be working. Some highlights of the trip:

• Getting a $10 parking ticket (Welcome to UW LaCrosse)
• Waiting 30 minutes to return the keys to the U Haul (You're a good man, Gus!)
• Waiting 10 minutes to get our food in the Hardees drive through (Customer service in LaCrosse in currently 0-2)
• Good conversation on the trip home

We managed to get back from LaCrosse with time to spare, so I was able to get to my Church Council meeting on time. When all was said and done, the meeting lasted 90 minutes and I stayed after to talk to folks for an additional 60 minutes. It was a very intriguing meeting and speaks greatly to the status of our church. This is what I know:

• Our church has continued to lose members over the last 30 years, to the point that our church has currently 340 members when it used to have 800 members.
• Our church is old...meaning, there are not a lot of young people to keep the church going as our church continues to age.
• Our church has a habit of not following procedure when disagreements come up and as a result, things are made much more difficult. I realize this more now as Staff/Parish Relations Commitee Chair.
• Our church has a habit of always looking at things negatively: money, membership, ministry. It can be challenging as a member to be positive when people jump on the negative.

You may wonder why I am a member is I am struggling with my church so much. I think we can turn the bend and I hope to play my part to make this happen. Check my other blog for more about this coming soon.

June 16, 2007

Well, Christa and I have secured a reception hall for our wedding. It will be at the Vineyard in Appleton. Now that we have a church, a reception hall and are close to securing a hotel I suppose you can say we are holding firm to this date. I am sure I will be posting more details on the wedding as we go.

Exodus International

In a Facebook cycle of links, I found myself at the Exodus International Website. I checked the everytitan.com website, which eventually took me to the Exodus website. Essentially this website is supposed to serve as a way for those identifying as homosexual to follow a path out through God. On the outset, I struggled with the background of this website...it essentially says that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God. I do not believe this. However, I do appreciate the fact that there my be people who are again questioning their identity and they may appreciate the opportunity to talk to someone. Unfortunately, the counseling services offered by this group would be one-sided. I am curious to know what is out that their that allows for open religious counseling about thosw who may simply be questioning their sexual identity. I am certain it is not Homosexuals Anonymous.

Ugh...to be a Methodist and see stuff like this is very disheartening as a Christian.

Are You Kidding?

Send Your Global Warming Stories

Oh boy...this one is hard to comment on. First of all, you have to be convinced that if global warming is happening, it is happening at a significant rate. Second, you have to be convinced that mankind is the major contributor top this global warming. I am not convinced in either case. As a result, I find this story completely laughable.

Thanks to the Drudge Report for these two interesting links.

Just Cause?

WMDs found in Iraq

Surprise! There is now a fledgling democratic government in Iraq and WMDs have been found in Iraq. I am not at all surprised. I have been supportive of the Bush Administration's decision to invade Iraq, take out a known dictator and establish a democratic government. I would not deny mistakes have been made on the way in its execution, but I would never question why it all began. I realize this story will be overlooked and the Bush bashing will continue.

Softball Game #5 Statistics and Commentary

Tonight's game found me in the "rover" position, otherwise known at the fourth outfielder who plays shallow left field. I have three good catches and assume that this will be my permanent position for the season. For the game I went 1-3 and had to RBIs. The batting statistics continue to look good for the season:

_______AB___R___H___RBI___BB___SO___LOB___OBP____AVG
Droste___11___2___5____5_____2____0____5_____.538____.454

Yesterday's game was disheartening because we were actually winning for the first three innings of the game. We were hitting well and our defense was superb. Ultimately, our pitching was not as consistent as before and that meant walks. We also got sloppy in catching fly balls which then led to lots of runs scored. We gave up 15 runs in one inning and that pretty much sealed out fate. We have one player on our team that has a really crappy attitude and it sucks because I think the rest of the team has a pretty high morale despite our fate in many games.

Randomness...

For my small but loyal following, I apoligize for not posting for a few days. Things have been a little crazy for me. I won't get into details, but I might as some of the craziness gets settled. I assure you that I am back into my usual routine and the posts should be more regular.

This past Thursday and Friday I was in Milwaukee to stand in my friend Nick Sayner's wedding. It was really nice to see him again and to connect with friends who I have not seen in a really long time. It was nice to see Nick and Shawnta so happy...I hope they are enjoying their cruise (they left Sunday).

Tonight is our softball game. Hopefully Christa will be able to make it on time. She will be towing the line for our Vacation Bible School group while I leave to be on time for a game that probably won't start until 8:00 pm. She has been there for all my games...it would cost our team 25% of our cheering section ;).

Apartment Cleaning

Why is Jim posting at 7:45 am this morning? Well, I stayed over at Christa's last night (*gasp*) because the floater custodians were coming over to my building at 6:00 am to begin cleaning my apartment. Yes, you read that right. Each year, he have the opportunity to have custodians come into our apartments and do the following:

• steam clean all of our furniture
• shampoo all carpeting
• wax all tile floors
• clean all windows
• powerwash the bathtub

This is now the third year that I have had the opportunity to do this and it is wonderful. What a benefit that I will not have in the future. Knowing that the cleaning folks would come right at 6:00 am and I would need to pick up things in the apartment before they arrived, I decided it would be best if I prepped the apartment the night before and simply found another place to stay. I will also be out of town for the weekend giving anything that needs to dry plenty of time to do so.

It's not the most exciting thing to post about, but I am really impressed by the fact that we receive this service.

Softball Game #4 Statistics and Commentary

We managed to play an entire game last night and we were remarkably competitive. Thus, the batting stats are much more inflated, seeing as though I had five at bats in this game.

_______AB___R___H___RBI___BB___SO___LOB___OBP____AVG
Droste___8____2___4____3_____2____0____4_____.600____.500

So, let's move to the commentary. We only lost 9-8 and we played an entire game. Ironically, we actually were down a person and were only playing with 9 guys even though you are allowed to have ten. I assumed we would have done worse, but we did better. I can think of a few additional reasons why we faired better than usual:

• We had a really good pitcher this game who almost always put the ball where it was needed and got a lot of guys to fly out.
• Our old pitcher was able to play left field where we truly excelled and caught at least five balls.
• All of our other players were playing in positions where they were good. No one looked like a liability.
• We did not have any opposing batters that were left handed.
• Their pitcher was awful and threw a lot of balls. I would say he walked at least 10-12 batters during the course of the game.
  

So, cheers to use for playing well, but I felt like we also had some help. I feel like our practices are finally strating to pay off. Hopefully we can keep this up. It is much more fun to play a game when it's competitive. :)

I also have to say that our opponents were some of the worst sports I have ever played against. I have never seen a team talk so much trash in a game. When I blew a throw they all laughed at me...what are we in, grade school? They got mad at us when we weren't swining at their pitches...however, if I did not move out of the way the ball was going to hit me. Sorry folks, not swinging at that. They would shout things when the ball was in the air and we were trying to catch it. The jawed at runners when they were on the base. It finalyl came to a head when one of our players got into an elevated discussion at second base. Yeah, they were bad. At the end of the game one of their players said, "If we lost to these guys, I would have cut all of your nuts off!" *sigh*

This being my fourth game, I am starting to relax out there. I think the first few games I was getting over the nerves of playing a game I had never really played competitively. Now, I feel more relaxed, especially playing first base. The fice at bats last night also had me more comfortable batting. I need to be careful not to swing at anything that comes over the plate. I could probably get a few more walks that way.

Kudos

Today is a day of Kudos out to various folks who have done some cool things.

Kudos to Christa for playing softball for the last few practices or our ever-improving team. Tex, our captain, has called several practices over the last few weeks so that we can improve our skills and attempt to be more competitive in the games that we play. Sadly, our practices have not been too well attended, but Christa has helped out by throwing with us and also hitting for two hours somtimes so that we might practice fielding and catching. It has been wonderful. There is talk of sneaking her into one of our games...we could use the help :).

Kudos to Peter and Ryan for advising an amazing group of students to get NACURH 2007. That bid team was focused, prepared and motivated and those two played a key role in making sure that happened. I was simply happy to be along for the ride and see a lot of excited students and advisors when we got the bid.

Kudos to Chris CA-walish for his internship at Notre Dame. How cool is that? He's come a long way and I am excited that he has the opportunity to grow as a professional.

Happy Summer Work Day!

Today is my first day doing summer work for the Department of Residence life here at UW Oshkosh. My primary assignment will be working at the NBC Village and makign sure this first-year student initiative is ready for the 2007-2008 school year. I will also be doing work on NACURH 2007 as well.

A Profession of People

Today begins a two camp stint in Breese Hall over the next two weeks. It is easy for me to look on the bad side of the summer conferences. After all, I found a sign on my car saying that if I didn't move my car from my own parking space that it would be towed at my expense. *sigh* Couple that with issuing 3 parking tickets and having my office dry erase board ruined last year and you can say that I am not always a fan of the summer conference season here at UW Oshkosh.

However, there is something to be said for having people in the building. The last week has been rather strange with it empty. I have appreciated the silence for sleep purposes, but often my motivation was low and I think it was because there was no one in the buliding. When you live in a building with 220 residents 9 months of the year you get used to it. Even as an introvert, I know that I gain motivation and inspiration for my job from the people in the building. So, it is nice to have things back to "normal".

X Men: The Last Stand

Christa went home for the weekend and I really had the desire to see a movie. I have seen plenty of movies by myself, despite the social connotations that might be associated with it. It still seems funny to be engaged to someone and still see a movie alone. Oh well...I went and saw X Men: The Last Stand. Let's look at the movie this way.

What I Liked: I really enjoyed the new characters that were added. I especially liked Kelsey Grammar playing the role of "Beast". I also thought they did an "Ocean's 11"-like job of giving all of the major characters a decent amount of screen time. I thought the action sequences were incredible and overall there was a pretty decent story line.

What I Didn't Like: For a 1 hour and 45 minute film, it seemed very busy. With all the characters and subplots, I felt like the movie could have been longer and more developed. It seemed like many doors were open and they needed to be closed quickly.

Overall: It was an entertaining movie, what I would expect from a summer blockbuster. Grade: B.

Finality to the Year

Well, my keys are currently being checked in for the end of the year. I have completele cleaned my office of paperwork from the year so I feel like I can focus on summer projects. I originally anticipated the opportunity to work on the "Freshmen Village" project which will begin for the 2007-2008 school year. With winning the NACURH 2007 bid, it seems like I will have a split focus with NACURH and the village. I should have no lack of things to do :).

Salem State College

At the NACURH 2006 conference, it was announced that Salem State College won the School of the Year award. As was said during the speech before the unveiling of the award, it is the highest award that a school can earn. I was very, very excited for Mathew Chetnik, Kathy Neville and the staff of Salem State College. They do some great work and I appreciate the fact that they were rewarded for it. I was honored to have an opportunity to work with Mathew and Kathy as part of an ACUHO-I summer internship. Both of them were excellent supervisors and I gained some great skills that I was able to apply to both my graduate school work as well as my work as a Residence Hall Director at UW Oshkosh. It is also exciting because Jayme Gaffke, who was once an Assistant Residence Hall Director at UW-OShkosh is now a hall director there.

Softball Game #3 Statistics and Commentary

I moved around a little bit in Tuesday's game. I started at first base and was then moved to right field because it was discovered that I could actually throw the ball. I also was struggling with a left hander hitting some real zingers at me. Here's the batting breakdown...

Batting:

_______AB___R___H___RBI___BB___SO___LOB___OBP____AVG
Droste___4____2___2____1_____1____0____2_____.600____.500

Sadly, this game ended in three innings. A 20 run mercy rule was invoked as we were down 22-2. The one week we were actually competitive I was not there. I come back and we get slaughtered. Argh.

NACURH 2007 in Oshkosh!

I realize that not everyone may know what NACURH is, but regardless, it will be in Oshkosh for 2007!!!

The National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) is a student run and operated leadership organization. They host a yearly conference of anywhere between 2000-3000 delegates at a school that wins the bid to host. The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh had a very motivated and excited group of students that bid for and won the opportunity to host this NACURH conference in 2007.

I will one of two advisors working with this group of students to make NACURH 2007 happen. Afte the initial excitement of getting the bid, it is beginning to set in that we have a lot of work to do. Woot!

NACURH Update 2

June 1, 2006 – I am sitting at the computer at 12:43 p.m. Pacific Time and we got back from lunch. The NACURH 2007 bid team just presented this morning and they were phenomenal. It is hard to encapsulate my thoughts at this moment. I am proud on many levels, but what is most satisfying is that they presented a strong bid, gave a flawless presentation and answered the Q&A session very, very well. From a sports perspective, they left it all out on the court and there is nothing more that they can do. It is out of our hands now and we will need to wait until Saturday.

On a different level, I was very impressed with the excitement and emotion that this group of students (and advisors) has shown for this process. Regardless of the outcome, they really accomplished something here, and even for the brief amount of time that I helped out, I am proud to be a part of this process.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On an interesting side note, during one of the rehearsals, Peter thought it would be good for the bid team to know about our advising experience in case they were asked a question about it. It is pretty crazy if you broke down the conferences we have attended, the awards we have won and the organizations that we have advised. I am pretty excited for the opportunity to possibly co-advise the NACURH 2007 conference with Peter.

NACURH Update 1

May 31, 2006 – I have yet to hear about the results of our Breese softball team. I did not play so my stats will remain stable for another week. I talked to Christa earlier this morning and she said that the senior/central staff members won the game against the CAs and PAs in the first annual Residence Life Softball game. I honestly thought we were going to lose and lose badly. So that was a pleasant surprise. I wish I could have played in the game.

I am really happy with the progress that the NACURH 2007 bid team has been making. They sounded really good yesterday and I was excited to see them finally get to practice on the stage. I think this group has some real potential. What will be difficult is that we present on Thursday morning and then we play the waiting game. We will find out the results on Saturday night at the banquet.

Done With Da Vinci Code

May 30, 2006 – I am writing this first entry from Towle Hall in Berkeley, California. We officially got into our rooms at 5:00 pm Pacific time or around 7:00 pm in Wisconsin. It was quite a day. We left from Oshkosh to leave for a flight to Minneapolis. From there we flew to San Francisco. From there we took an hour long subway trip to a stop on the subway where vans took us the remaining few miles to the Berkeley campus. It made for a lot of sitting, but also a lot of walking. I was able to get in a good two hours of solid music listening (including some recent I-Tunes downloads) as well as the opportunity to finish The Da Vinci Code.

I read the first 150 pages of the book in one sitting…I was completely into the book. I was really impressed with the clues and how the book unfolded. Unfortunately, I let the hype of the book/movie ruin it for me because I watched a History Channel special which revealed the secret of the Da Vinci code. So, what was probably meant to be the climax of the book was actually a little disappointing.