It’s late on a Tuesday night, and I’m in Lima, Peru. It’s a neat aspect of my job that I get to do this international alumni relations thing every once in a while (or about every 12-18 months).
This is turning out to be no different.
It turns out I have rheumatologist, a child therapist, and the chief of staff from General Hospital on the trip. There’s also a journalist, a Loyola law prof, and a guy who used his boat as a bed and breakfast. It’s quite a group.
Today was a nice start to the tour, beginning with our trip to an area watched over by a ‘love sculpture’ that looks more like Shrek and Fiona:
From there it was off to a cathedral….something about the old world…you always get to go to cathedrals…this one holds the body of Francisco Pizzaro, so that’s kind of a big deal
I spent time in the catacombs, which were rather Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade-ish.
Then it was off to a museum and restaurant…first, I have to say that I quite enjoyed the Pisco Sours…they are…delicious.
Have I talked here about my ‘side job’ ever? After 5 posts, I suppose I know the answer…and that’s no.
Ever since I was a freshman in high school wayyyyy back in 1991, I’ve put my years of piano lessons to use by playing the hymnody at Catholic churches in the midwest. In high school, it was at my parent’s church. In college I avoided having to work in the cafeteria because I spent weekends in Lansing sort of directing a choir.
Back in 2005, I got a call one Thursday night asking if I could help out for a few weeks at a church in Libertyville, Illinois. A suburb of Milwaukee that masquerades as a suburb of Chicago. I was supposed to go there for 5 weeks. I’ve stayed 7 years.
After the Christmas holidays had passed this year, I made the decision that it was just time for me to have, well…some time: time for me, time for my nephews, time for my dog.
So, after this Sunday (Easter no less), there will be no more weekly 80 mile round trips to be a musician somewhere off Rockland Road.
In all honesty, I’m impressed that I made the decision to step away. It’s taken me the better part of 35 years to figure out two things:
(1) Sometimes you have to make decision that are not in everyone’s best interests
(2) Time, you can never have enough of it, and you can certainly never get it back.
I’m looking forward to my little break. On April 15th, I can assure you I’ll be enjoying the Chicago Tribune on a Sunday for the first time in years.
We all need these little sabbaticals I think. It’s a good time to make old things seem new again.
One of my teacher’s in grad school used to talk about this concept called “Edge Work” (I honestly don’t know if a book has been written about it or not, chances are there is and somehow Seth Godin is involved). Basically, the concept is that it’s much more effective to take stock of your emotions when you are on the verge of something than after you’ve done it. The split second before you skydive or walk on hot coals. And that’s where I am right now…thinking about how I’m going to miss the people I’ve seen every week for the last 7 years, but excited for the next ‘thing’ that could come my way.
So indeed, here I go, April 2nd, 2012. Time to start spring cleaning. Move the furniture and get a winter’s worth of crud swept up, get the outdated clothes removed from the closet. I can’t wait.
And yet, I’d be remiss if I didn’t once again pull out of the vault my favorite farewell song, because it’s just true that the muppets always say it better than anyone else:
When Joe Paterno died last month I tweeted at the time that there is a difference between showing respect to the dead and assessing/honoring their legacy. Put another way, when a person dies, their life and the lives of those they loved is changed with irrevocable finality. Coach Paterno left behind a wife, he left behind children, he left behind many players. All of them loved him in different ways. And yes, he left behind the nasty wake of a scandal that may or may not have been preventable if he had acted differently.
Yet, in the Twitterverse, these two incredibly different concepts of respect and assessment cross paths at a furious rate. One person tweets a prayer or a good word, another person tweets a fill in the blank joke about the media developed caricature of the deceased.
On Saturday, when Whitney Houston died, it was clear from the beginning that in addition to pop stars from around the world mourning her via social media, that others would make reference to her self-admitted drug addled past. Was that appropriate?
I write this because anyone who knows me knows that I am about as far removed from reverence and solemnity as you can get. My instincts when an event like “rock star found dead” hits the news is to be rather meta about it, and yes, possibly a little snarky.
However–it’s becoming clear to me that those moments after a death are not really the time for the kind of public sarcasm and snarkiness that often makes me smile on Twitter. In the moments after death, it makes more sense to me to simply say a private prayer for the deceased, and then to share a positive memory or thought. It won’t shock you to know that I did not know Whitney Houston or Joe Paterno personally. Therfore, I do not share in the grief and pain that those close to them felt. But It seems odd then that we use a tool as powerful as Twitter to claim ownership of the mourning process in a way that is not only unhelpful, but an affront to the inherent dignity of a person who has left us, regardless of the circumstances.
Where social media continues to struggle is that it is still searching for the leaders who will ‘set the stroke’ of acceptability like the captain of a rowing team. Places like Twitter and Facebook make is incredibly easy for us to think the only people who can hear what we have to say are those that agree with us, or know our personalities. That is simply untrue.
This morning, a mother mourns the passing of her daughter, and a daughter mourns the passing of her mother. If that sentence doesn’t make us all try better to control our gut reactions on Twitter then I have to wonder how we can start proving that ultimately there is more about a human being to celebrate than to denigrate.
Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo is close to earning his 400th win at Michigan State (currently sitting at 399..so the question here is not if, it’s when). Quite an accomplishment for a guy who had been written off early in his third season when he had about 35 wins.
One of the fun things I got to be a part of in college was the growth of the Izzone. I joined the group the year it went from 200 fans to just about 1000 fans. Since then it’s grown up even more.
I was in Breslin the night that Coach Izzo won his 100th game (12 years ago by the way).
Note the signs everyone is holding that say “100″ on them. Well, it’s one of the few artifacts I have from my days in the Izzone, along with the megaphones they gave us that night:
A little tattered around the edges, but the message is clear
I hope that the students who have a chance to be in the stands for the 400th remember it someday as fondly as I remember being the stands for the 100th.
WARNING: This post serves no purpose other than showing off pictures of a bathroom remodel. There is no underlying message, no discussion of social media. It’s my blog, and I get to post what I want.
Anyway–my dad and uncle came to town this weekend and took the lead on making my bathroom a little more livable than before.
Before
So I bought a condo with an old school clawfoot tub, I called “showering in a water filled coffin” It was time for a change.
And after a lot of elbow grease…it now looks like this
Actually worked out pretty well…
Also..if anyone is looking for an old cast iron claw foot tub…I’ve got one…for cheap
About a year ago I signed up for a service called “Foursquare and 7 years ago”. The site sent me a daily email detailing where I had checked in on Foursquare that day the previous year. I found it fun to look back and remember the fun and mundane days I had a year earlier. Sometimes I passed them along to a friend who I knew I had done something particularly memorable with and we’d have a quick moment of reminiscing in the early morning.
About a month ago, the site morphed into Timehop, basically it’s the same service but now serves to remind you of your activity on Facebook and Twitter as well.
One of the quotes on their site calls the service ‘oddly addicting’. Wired called it “a curiously powerful daily jolt of reminiscence”.
I bring the concept up here, because I think that while the service itself has little relevance to the work I do in alumni relations, maybe the concept does. 6 months after a reunion why not repost the pictures on Facebook reminding the people who were at the last reunion, and appealing to people who might be at the next one. One year after a huge football win, put the videos of that night back up. Giving people the opportunity to think about where they were when something big happened might stir up great memories and lead them on a path back to engagement with a university.
Personally, I like my daily trip in the wayback machine, a lot of times it reminds me to reach out and connect with someone who I haven’t talked to in a while. Other times it reminds me that my life has been a little too routine and could use a shakeup.
Mornings in whatever house/apartment/condo I have lived in for the past 35 years start more often than not with at least a quick look in on The Today Show. This morning was a celebration of the 60th anniversary of that program. It was interesting to see hosts and co-hosts from years gone by. These were the faces and voices that helped me get to school on time as a kid (for example, I always knew when Bryant Gumbel said “we’ll be back after a station break”, it was time to start walking over to my elementary school).
My mom watched the show (still does I believe), so i watch the show. It’s a comfortable tradition/ritual for me.
When I got to work, we were reviewing the feedback from our recent Texas Bowl adventure, and one of the pieces that jumped out at me was the handful of direct comments about how people really missed the chance to give the team a send-off as they boarded the bus to go to the game. For a few different logistical reasons, it was impossible. Those folks probably didn’t realize it, but I think they missed the ritual.
Working at a college or university makes you keenly aware of rituals…and how comfortable they are to people. Singing the alma matter, proposing in front of a clock tower, or wearing a shirt inside out on the Friday before a game are things that may make no sense to an ‘outsider’ but are an ingredient in the glue that holds us together.
I admit there is something comfortable knowing that if I have nothing else to talk to mom about right now and she calls, I can reference the first 15 minute of the Today Show and we can talk for a few minutes. Knowing that when Michigan State scores a touchdown their are alumni everywhere singing the same song I am is invigorating. Being aware of the traditions that stoke those feelings for Northwestern is what makes my job easier, and kind of fun.
This goes in the musings category…not that anyone else needs to discuss Tim Tebow…but I do need to discuss someone RUINING my favorite elementary school roller skating song:
Back home in Bay City, Michigan, we had two skating rinks. Metro Skate East & Metro Skate West. Metro Skate East closed in the mid-80s. Last I checked Metro Skate West was still kicking.
Anyway–at the big holidays (Christmas and Good Friday…Catholic school) we’d get our hands on FREE skating passes for Metro Skate. I’m pretty sure my father used to Xerox them so we could take our cousins.
And it was always a freaking blast! We go to play ‘shoot the duck’, which was skating on one leg in a seated position. I think if I tried that today you wouldn’t be able to get me back up. We’d eat bad nachos, and we’d skate to the 80s greatest hits. One of those hits..the Theme from St Elmo’s Fire. Maybe it was the lyrics “gonna be your man in motion, all I need is a pair of wheels”. That was the best part…I HAD THE FREAKIN PAIR OF WHEELS.
*sigh*. Thank you parody song maker. You took my memory and Tebowed it.
Last week I celebrated my 35th birthday. As I do each year, I celebrated it on December 31st (funny thing about birthdays is that even the most type A personality can’t schedule their own). To this day people often like to ask me if having a birthday so close to Christmas is a bad thing. My answer…of course not! I just like to think that millions gather in Times Square to celebrate me!
One major difference in my current job is that I have actually been working on my last 3 birthdays. I know, I know, most people probably work on their birthdays (looking at you children of May 14th). For me however, this is a recent innovation.
I’ve spent those days working at Northwestern bowl games and the activities surrounding them. I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by colleagues who have found ways to mark my birthday at the same time. Last year it was a chocolate cake we had to spend 4 days finishing. This year it was a performance of happy birthday by the staff of a Chinese bistro, complete with a gong. The pictures are not to see the light of day, they show me looking shocked, surprised, frightened, and happy all at the same time (not coincidentally, that’s probably the same way my mom looked after I was born).
Anyway–back to bowl games. It’s pretty neat how alumni come together for these, so I thought I’d offer a few random observations:
Whatever your school color is, prepare to be blinded by it. Purple purple purple. Wear the color of your school, and you’re guaranteed to meet 15 new friends within 8 feet of a hotel elevator.
Need a break from working? Wear a different color in the hotel gym. For me, it was a bright orange t-shirt. Somehow bright orange blended in in a world full of purple.
It never ever ends. Remember that you’re staying in a hotel full of important people, like the university president. You may want to wait until you’re home to break out your spot-on impression of his wife.
In the event of a loss, be prepared to foster hope in your alumni. Poor NU, 64 years with no bowl victories. Be prepared for alumni to tell you the 5 point plan they have for returning the program to glory. Nod politely at the 5 points, do not offer your own points in return.
Staying at a mall is no fun. With due respect to the people of Houston, Texas, my 4 days of being marooned at the Galleria were not exactly high culture. Oooooo…should we eat at Chili’s…maybe the Cheesecake Factory?!?!? I also have to question any mall that has a pretzel stand on each floor. Bottom line…leave the hotel for a while if you can…if only for your sanity.
