6.29.2005

The Weekend Trip
My weekends are generally full of a lot of driving and of course this weekend was much the same. Except this time the weekend started on Thursday since I took two days off work. Thursday was game seven of the NBA Playoffs, and the Pistons were in it so I figured we could do something cool. The pregame warm up was showing Heather my favorite Kzoo areas. We toured Wayside (no debate it is cooler then the CMU Wayside) and the ate at Burdicks, and of course we got the spinach dip. I got a suite at that Hawthorn (perks of all my Hyatt Points) and invited the Betas and Gammas to watch the game. We had a good turnout, and a good time, despite the Piston loss...

Finally got to see Ramiro back from France and Hermen back from Italy.

Marcie and our Neo Ben came out.

The Brothers smiles disappeared as the game came to a close.

We mourned the loss with beer and doritos.

Friday it was off to get Novali. A brief stop at the dollar store to get a pink swimming noodle and off to our hotel where of course... we went swimming. The weekend was a ton of fun, we went swimming, watched movies (Scooby Doo was better then I thought it would be), saw planes, blew bubbles, went to IKEA and the huge Woodfield Mall. It was funny... Saturday night I asked Novali what she wanted to do... I offered McD's Playland, the Park, the Mall, Swimming.... and she chose the mall. We had fun running up and down the ramps at Woodfield. It was a great weekend.

With her noodle at the pool.

she said we had to bite the noodle.

On the way to get food and videos we saw cool fountains.

She was entertained for a long time watching them go up and down...

You can't beat dollar store bubbles!

Nice picture with bubbles and flowers.

We stayed in Itasca, IL and there were a lot of ponds and fun things to see.

She finally was able to blow some big bubbles.

Who doesn't like IKEA... Novali stopped in each fake room and pretended... here she is cooking pancakes.

Here she said she was at work.

Here she is baking a pizza (she did not know it was a dishwasher).

Nothing is more IKEA then cool chairs! She does love pink.

It was a ton of fun. Sunday was a long day though. My presentation for LTA was at 8 AM... so I had to be there at 7:30 to prep. Needless to say it was an early morning. I was very excited to do it and met a lot of amazing women. I had several women ask me to come to their schools and speak. That would be great because I miss working with NALFO groups since we don't have any here at Albion. It was also great talking to leaders of another Latino group and hear that our struggles are all still pretty much the same. The best part was the email from a founder of their sorority thanking me for the job well done. Not every day a founder emails you..

The LTA Convention was at the Crowne Plaza in Rosemont, IL.

I had a cool powerpoint and some pictures which caused a little bit of a stir...

So now I am back in Michigan for a while... well two weeks at least before I head to Indy for my convention. I am helping with the curriculum for our convention and we have planned some great programs. I am doing the final session of the weekend to bang the points home, no pressure or anything... I am excited and have some cool things planned that I think will really impact my Brothers.

So right now I am doing the typical Albion things... The Phoenix for wings on Monday, mowed my lawn, oil change, returning videos, and working. This weekend will be spent at a wedding and then helping Heather move into her place in Jackson. Good times.