Free Food
Today I get two free meals. I have a lunch/afternoon training. I think I have mentioned before how many Albion College lunch meetings don't include lunch, but this one does! So that is great.

Then tonight I get to have dinner at the Delts. They are the sponsor for the program I set up for tonight. I have Dave Westol coming to do a presentation called "Hazing on Trial". It will be a great program, and I am sure they will have a great meal at their house. Last time they had me over it was seafood night... my favorite!

This weekend it will be a lot of free food as well. I have Sigma Chi national officers coming to do their chapter reorganization. Lots of work this week preparing for that. I got most of my reports for them completed. Now I have work for the Board of Trustees meeting I have to get done before I leave for MGCA next week... that reminds me... I need to get those presentations done as well.

Miles and Randomness
Travel time has begun and this weekend was a big kick off for it. Round trip to Chicago, followed by a trip to Grand Rapids for the GVSU Greek Leadership Conference. Mixed with fun new times with Novali, and some catch up time with the Betas at GVSU.

Did a lot of random things this weekend. On Friday Tamara and I took Novali for some pictures... it was fun. Tamara picked out a great new outfit for her and we went to the Old Orchard mall for some pictures at the Picture People, who do awesome work! Also on my trip I took Novali a fun little doctor kit, and she knew just what to do with it. she was checking everyones heart and ears the entire time I was there. Good times.

She was sleeping with the stuffed Blue Dog my abuelita made for me, that I handed down to Novali.

The future Dr. Centellas.

Walking at the mall with her mom... look how tall she is getting.

She had to have her picture taken in front of the unicorn.

I will post some of the pictures we had taken this weekend later on. They were few cute, a Valentines Day, and one for her birthday coming up.. holding the Number 4!

Then it was off to GVSU. The conference was not too great... but I got great reviews on my workshops! I did a recruitment one with Amy Rosen from GVSU and it went well. I had never done it before, and never worked with Amy before... it went well despite the amount of prep time that went into it. I now have ideas on how to fine tune that presentation. Just liked I had guessed... the girls asked... How do you apply this to Panhellenic Formal Recruitment?... I knew that question would show up... but the questions that pissed me off, was the non-Greeks there who wanted to know how it could apply to them. Some people just don't get the simplest things. The diversity presentation I did with Ken from GV, and it went well also. Even better reviews on that, but I have done that one before and is something I present on a lot. Thanks Ken and Amy for working with me.

All the Betas dressed up for GLC 2005.

Little Super Bowl Party at Max's.

Saturday night was a date auction by Delta Sigma Theta at GV, two Betas were in it and were some of the highest money makers. Representing for SLB! Then I spent the night at Ramon and Hermen's and we had a good time and a little get together at the house. Sunday... got up... lounged around, relaxed, had some Chinese Buffet at China One and chilled with the Bros and heard about Heathers crazy Russian wedding...

Sunday ended with some SuperBowl action with the Betas... now Monday back to the grind.

Trans Fats and Honduras
What a title! Yes folks I lived through sorority recruitment. It involved a lot of episodes of that HBO show with Sarah Jessica Parker... and lots of Trans Fats. I worked a total of 43 hours between Friday and Sunday... and the only thing on the menu was unhealthy food. McDonalds double Quarter pounder meals, BK Breakfast, tons of coffee for early mornings, greasy tacos for dinner, and candy all day long. I think I gained ten pounds just this weekend.

All in all (despite the weight gain) my first Panhel recruitment as the head honcho went well. My staff was amazing, and four out of six chapters took Quota. So I am pumped. It was a fun experience and I am surprisingly looking forward to next years recruitment (especially since my students think the school made me sign a two year contract to finally get a Greek advisor to stay longer then 10 months, got to love rumors).

Recruitment Kick Off: Pizza Party and Fashion show. Don't want to wear the wrong thing to the wrong event!

This is a picture from Rho Gamma Revealing: The PNMs held up color cards for their guess of the Rho Gams affiliation. Everyone was so excited.

Before handing out Bids, I gave some props to my staff, and small gifts to my Recruitment Team! I could not have done this without them.

The excitement after cards were opened was too much! Women jumping and screaming all over... It was great!

So recruitment is over... now back to the rest of my work. This week was busy, you can tell cause it took me three days to blog about recruitment. I do have some exciting news... today I paid my deposit to go to Honduras on a service trip with our Organization for Latino/a Awareness (OLA). So that means from March 3rd to March 14th I will be gone to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We are working at a place called "Mission Honduras". I am very excited... and if you are excited... help me fundraise!

Anyhow... this weekend I am presenting at the GVSU Greek Leadership Conference. A conference that I helped start and run the first one three years ago. It was a nice little conference bringing over 250 students from 10 Michigan schools together. Looks to me like the registration is low since they are not running a lot of sessions per time slot, and I am a little worried that I appear to booked into one of the biggest presentation rooms... I was hoping to do small sessions... not a big presentation. I guess it will be a good way to start doing some bigger things.

Before the conference I am running to Chicago. I took Friday off work so I could still see Novali and get to do this conference. So Friday will be a good and relaxing time with Novali before my presentations at GVSU. I am pretty excited cause this weekend will be a nice change of pace for me!

But my busy travel time is now upon me... Chicago this weekend... GLC Conference on Saturday... MGCA is two weeks after that and I am presenting three programs there... and then my Honduras trip... and then off to San Francisco for WRGLC and I might get asked last minute to do some programs there as well...

Mom, Happy Birthday!

Beverly Centellas
Today my mom gets one year older (don't worry mom I won't say how many years total that is now). I think I have been a good son and usually remember to call. I mean last year on the 18th I frantically called the house to wish my mom a happy birthday... and then realized that in my worry over having almost forgotten my moms birthday... I called ten days early.

I am not a card guy, so my mom won't get a fancy card from me. I am kinda broke so I can't get her that cruise I would love to send her on. I am not a good writer like Miguel and can't write any inspiring words from her middle son. So I can just tell me mom thanks.

Growing up I guess I was a little bit of a mama's boy. I was a paperboy, and my mom was always willing to help me on weekend mornings (5 AM) with my route. What was better was after freezing in the cold outside, my mom and I would sit and have coffee (I started my coffee addiction at an early age) and just talk. Those were some good times. I still do that to this day when I am home. I try to get up and sit with my mom and have some coffee.

Today I got a package from my mom. Enclosed was a book on being a good father and a letter from her. The letter about my abuelita was very touching and I might of had to wipe a tear from my eye. However the encouragement of me as a father is what was more touching. My mom has always been there for me, no matter what dumb stunt I pull, mostly dumb things I won't list here... but she always taught me a lesson when I messed up.

When I was home this year for the Holidays a couple times I had to punish Novali. Hearing my little girl ball her eyes out and tell me she hates me and wants her mom was the hardest thing in the world. It was then I realized how hard it was to be a parent. Not cause your kids hit you up for money, flunk a class in school, or complain that you can't buy them the new Nikes they want. I realized what it means to do something which hurts you, because you know it is what's best for your child. It is being selfless.

I could not have asked for a more selfless mother. She has opened doors for me, taught me right from wrong (even though I still make mistakes), sacrificed many things to help me grow and become a good man, and now more importantly a good father (I hope).

Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Thank you for everything you have done for me. I hope my gift to you can be that I make you proud. You hard work as a mother has not gone unnoticed.

Can You Hear Me Now. Part 2.
Over the summer I posted about my issues with Verizon and how much I dislike them (I might have used the word hate... and been a little harsh). Well I still felt that way until I called on Monday. They finally gave me good service, and I guess I just needed to put my foot down. I called in to pay my bill and I was basically going to tell them that I was canceling my service and going to transfer my number to another company (maybe that woke them up). Well the guy who got on the phone was super helpful, and he fixed all the problems I have been having. Including... getting me a new phone. He gave me the Motorola V265 for FREE! I checked prices at most cell places and with a two year contract it runs for like 159. So I got a pretty good deal, and he gave me a great new rate plan and helped with some of my past overages. So I am happy Verizon again... well for now. The real fun now is entering all these numbers in my new phone, AH.

So it is 6 AM... and I can not sleep. I think I am a little over anxious about sorority recruitment, and have a lot on my mind with other work and personal things. I need a vacation.

On the recruitment front we had a good night, we currently have signed up over 140 women for recruitment (my goal was 120) and should be a getting a good number of them back on Friday. Our kick off event tonight (1/26) went awesome. The fashion show was a big hit and I was told was more fun then ever. Good Job Chimi! So we are off to a good start.

So what else am I work on right now... lets recap some of my big projects and how things are going.

Formal 2005 - as the chair for my fraternity's district Formal Awards banquet we hit 40 people signed up today. That was great news. The checking account is finally squared away and in a couple weeks will start the regular meetings with the hotel to get into the nitty gritty details. We have a design for the logo which is going to be sweet, and our By Laws I have been working on are close to being approved.

Albion Fraternities - well recruitment is in full swing for them as well. Which means more paperwork, board transfers, and of course the men complaining about other groups cheating. Drama... come on guys... Not to mention I have a fraternity selling dumb shirts for Breast Cancer Awareness...

Who's Who - I am supposed to be planning Albion's Who's Who nomination program. With what time? Between recruitment appeals, fraternity judicial stuff, recruitment, sorority consultant meetings, and housing stuff I don't have time. Our Associate Director of Housing left and since he dealt with most of the fraternity stuff I am now having to help more in that area as well... this added work is not welcome at this time of the year... I got to figure something out.

WRGA - I missed our conference call today because I was swamped with meetings about recruitment. I am in the process of doing a new website for the association and working on the design of the program booklet. My timeline got shortened a little, but things are still looking good. We submitted our AV bid and hopefully I will get all the equipment I need.

OutSight Design - been busy with new clients. A promotional website for a book, Measured Success, will be launching soon. I also signed my MMBA Client to another year contract and will be doing some added work for their site. I am currently working with two other groups to possibly land some more work for OutSight for 2005. On the consulting front, University of Michigan contacted me last week and wants to hire me to come and do some workshops there this semester. Also on February 5th, and February 19th-20th I will be presenting at conferences at GVSU and Chicago.

Well I better get back to putting numbers in my phone, hopefully it will help me fall asleep. Good night... r.. I guess morning now.

Winter Wonderland
Not sure who ordered all this snow, but I am glad I made it to Chicago and just barely beat the snow. I still hit the early part of the storm so it took me over 4 hours to get there. Anyhow, I made it safely and Novali was excited to see me. Check out the pics of my car in the snow.

Curbside drifts were as high as my windows!

As I opened my doors they cleared snow out like a plow.

Because of the weather we really could not go and do anything. So we just stayed in, ate Fruit Loops, ordered Pizza, and watched a lot of movies. Of course that means, Monsters Inc. and lots of Shrek. I did finally get to see Napoleon Dynamite, which was hilarious. Novali alos put on a show as she sang, at the top of her lungs, the intro song of Shrek 2. If you have never seen a three year old sing "Accidentally in Love" at the top of her lungs... I highly recommend it. I wanted to get a video of her singing, but she refused. It was too cute.

I had fun playing her letter game with her that she loves so much, as well as her memory game. My parents sent some gifts for her, and she loved the Snowman pen and doggie paper, she started to draw on it right away. She also recognized everyone in the pictures they sent as well. She was very excited. Her memory is getting very good. She knows a lot of her letters now as well, looks like that letter game is really working.

Making the letter T, for Tamara.

Her Strawberry Shortcake game.

Wrestling with Papi... man she is getting heavy.

Most of the weekend was spent bundled up watching movies.

Speaking of snow, yes I do hate having to uncover my car. I do like snow many other times though, my dad emailed me some pictures from when we were in Saginaw. I love this picture of Novali and I in Gladwin and would love a print version (hint, hint...).

Now I am back in Michigan, just got in and I had to park my car in the street cause my driveway is complete covered in snow. I got to run out and shovel now... Blah.

My faithful readers know that this week is going to be very tense for me. With fraternity judicials in limbo, wrapping up the diversity program, helping with housing issues in the wake of staffing changes, working on the Whose Who stuff, planning a real transitioning program for my councils, and not to mention that little thing called Panhellenic Formal Recruitment. Ah...

Hopefully though after this week things will slow down, but I bet you heard that from me before...

Busy... just Busy
I have been working nearly non stop the past two weeks. Between preparing for sorority recruitment, to working with fraternities on their sanctions from judicial cases last semester, I have been a busy bee.

Oh, and did I mention the big diversity program I have been working on? That has taken up a lot of time as well and that is in a couple minutes. Not sure why I sign up for these things, but I really wanted to make a new program on diversity for Greek Life that would be different and new, something the students would get something out of when they walk away. I think we did that, we had a student driven program and tonight will announce a new programming initiative as well. Groups will get $200 to do something with a culturally based group. I like being at a school that is willing to put its money where its mouth is on diversity issues. I think the program will go well, and I am excited to have been a part of creating this new program here... plus the President of the school will be there... so it better go well.

As much as work is stressing me... things are going well. Recruitment plans are rolling along and we are meeting our goals in terms of women signing up. So that is good. The stressful part... I will have four different sororities HQ staff here watching over recruitment. Like if doing my first full our recruitment with Panhel on my own was not stressful enough....

And IFC is making strides... we have had one successful meeting with the Dean of Students in which they accomplished some important things, including a meeting with her again tomorrow on another subject. Not to mentioned their first all campus program last week (Poker Tournament) was a huge success. We packed out the Stack (big room in the Union) and had a blast.

Did I mention my possible trip... well I started attending the meetings of OLA, the Organization for Latino/a Awareness. I am helping them raise money for their trip to Honduras and they have asked me to come on their service trip. I am not sure if my budget will be able to do it, but I really want to go. I also was impressed how quickly the group was willing to accept my advice. I am gonna enjoy working with that group a lot.

Speaking of trips, I had a great relaxing weekend as well. Went to a wedding of my friend Shawna (who reads my blog but does not comment, ie. BlogStalker). We had a lot of fun working together at GVSU and I am glad to see her again, and hopefully once she gets a Greek Life job back in the midwest will see her even more. Congrats to you and Doug. I will send out pictures to people soon... just too busy right now... sorry folks!

Well off I go... even time. Then I get to leave campus... at 8pm... to just go home and relax. Maybe watch a movie or something. Adios!

Whoa...
The students are back... got back on Monday. So needless to say I am way swamped right now. Judicial issues, housing problems, sorority recruitment, formals, and the big diversity program. Not to mention I still have to attempt to run my life... like washing clothes, checking to see if my milk has gone bad, cleaning my living room, and trying to get some sleep between extremely long days on campus.

Times are a changing... today it is unseasonably warm. So it is wet out, and the fog here in Albion is something terrible. Another big change... I have been bringing my lunch and cooking at home. I have not purchased food for a week! I made macaroni salad, cooked pasta, made sandwiches, cooked chicken, made rice, and of course... purchased pudding packs.

I did some grocery shopping and my place is stocked. The once empty fridge with nothing but pudding packs and crystal light is now home to many assorted food items and even leftovers. My cupboards are filled with more then just Mac and Cheese (it is still a staple product though) and I have a wide selection of things to cook. Mom would be so proud.

The Fridge.

One of my Cupboards.

Well I need to run to a lunch meeting... at which lunch will not be provided. I don't get that... anyway my week is back to back meetings. Not to mention that tonight IFC is having a big program... we are doing a campus wide Albion World Series of Poker... Free iPod to the winner! Hope it turns out well.... wish us luck.

New Year, New Bargains
We are off and running. The new year started out great. Small gathering at Hermen's house north of Detroit was just the low key break I needed. Ended up staying until late on Saturday as well. We wore little hats on Friday night, ate lots of peanuts, and watched MTV's Pimp my Ride until we all slowly fell asleep. In the morning we cracked jokes, Hermen and I reminisced about old times on Mae Rose (the famed summer of 2003), Santi complained about the RA job, we made plenty of GV Beta style remarks about salting it up, and none of us left the house until around 7pm, when we snuck out to get some Chinese food (thanks in part to Kim's suggestion and Heather's support) during the Rose Bowl.

I did take some time to think about resolutions and what not. I have never been big on that kind of stuff... really something I refused to do in the past. I actually think one year I made a resolution to not make any more resolutions. However this year I want to make a few publically:

1. Call Novali more. Now that she is big and likes to talk on the phone I need to get in the habit of calling and talking to her more.

2. Work out more. I am not saying I want to lose weight, I just want to work out. That means some tennis maybe, or maybe a jog once in a while.

3. Keep learning. Since leaving school I have no longer kept up on current events. I need to spend more time reading higher education articles, and researching different topics. I also need to use my time outside of work more productively. I also need to start looking into where to get my next degree from...

Enough of that... so today was productive, well about as productive as I have been all break. I got some work done in the afternoon and then went to Target... to return somethings and clearance sale shop. You all know how I love a good deal... and man was there bargains galore! I got packages of purple Christmas Tree globe ornaments for 50 Cents, scored a bunch of picture frames for dirt cheap (gonna spruce up my stairway at the house), and got a car vacuum for 5 bucks! Since I spend about 2 bucks in quarters each time I vacuum my car this is a great investment, not to mention it was regularly marked 20 bucks. What a steal. I also stocked up on wrapping paper for next year.

So I am on a renewed bargain kick, since I need to learn to budget my money better. No more buying lunch, no more buying anything just cause it is on sale. I am broke ladies and gentlemen... very broke. It has come as a huge shock to me paying back my school loans and learning to live on a fixed income. In school with my part time jobs, when I needed more money I just worked more hours. Can't do that anymore.

I decided to leave engineering to go into this field, something that paid less but I knew in the long run would make me happier. I am loving what I do right now. I love going to work, and I am always excited about what challenge is coming next. However, my challenge for right now will be to get my money situation under control. Someday I will be a high ranking administrator... but now I need to watch my spending. So here are some of my New Years money resolutions:

1. Spend less money (I trimmed this year, and now must trim even more). Yes this means not getting the Treo phone I have been wanting so badly.

2. Cut extra expenses. As of right now I know I need to lower the minutes on my phone, cut off my DSL at home, and make my lunch.

3. More income with Outsight. I am making it a goal to spend more time developing clients for OutSight, and I want to double my revenue for 2005.

Well there is it folks... some New Years Resolutions from me. I have a feeling this is going to be a good year. I know I have some tough times ahead of me... but there are some exciting things coming up.

So what will the new year bring? a preschool for Novali... my first full year on the job... applications to grad schools (JD or PHD?)... placing at a race... big client for OutSight... getting a roommate...

Who knows... right now the options are wide open.

173 Pictures
That is how many I have taken since Christmas Eve! Man, 173 pictures and I can only post a couple here on my site. Right now I am posting just a couple little shots and I have a full photo gallery of Novali's Christmas in Michigan! Check it out: Novali's Updates.

Christmas Eve was done traditional Bolivian style in an American twist A La Centellas. For you long time readers you might remember my midnight dinner last year while in Bolivia. We were not able to hold out that long, but we had dinner at about 11pm. My American grandparents were over, Tamara, Raquel and Valerie, and Andres. We were only missing Miguel. It was a full house to say the least. We ate Chuño (my favorite!) Puti and Aji de Pollo with soup and bread, and white wine topped off with some after dinner coffee, desert, and... Present time! Novali and Valerie got way excited as the present exchange arrived (Valerie is actually just always excited). Anyhow some pics...

Our new Christmas Ornament, a Golden Star, in honor of Enrique Centella, my abuelito.

Novali and Valerie warmed up quickly to eachother.

Chuño... my favorite food.

After dinner, it was gift time.

Novali and Tamara enjoying the gifts.

Sleeping by the tree waiting for Santa.

Christmas Day was a pleasant surprise for the little girls. Novali left milk and cookies in front of the fireplace for Santa and she decided to sleep in her new Barbie sleeping bag right in front of the tree. This made it hard for me to sneak in and play Santa... but my dad and I managed to get in there, leave more gifts, and eat the cookies and down the milk. Novali woke up excited and ran around the house telling everyone that Santa ate the cookies. Once everyone was up we opened gifts and Novali got even more stuff... not sure how it will all fit into the car on the way home.

Milk and cookies... gone!

Gift time again.

New gloves and hat... more clothes... more toys... more everything.

Had to work right away on her new coloring books.

Sunday we went to Gladwin to my grandparents house on Pratt Lake. The lake froze and my grandpa cleared a nice spot on the lake and we played. It was great. I pulled Novali around on an intertube, taught her to make snow angels, made a snow man with her grandpa, drank hot coco, and she wiped out once big time... snow all over her face. She got up, I dusted of her face... and while she cried she said, "Daddy I'm Hurt! Dady I'm Hurt!" She was fine.

Playing her letter game.

Ready to play in the snow.

In a pile of snow after being spun around on the tube..

My mom and dad with their grandkids, Novali and Valerie.

The rest of the time in Michigan was spent doing all sorts of new things. She made gingerbreadmen with Grandma, went sledding with Grandpa, watched Tio Andy ice skate and said "WOW!", made snow angels with her papi, took lots of bubble baths, worked on a 1000 piece puzzle, saw A Sharks Tale with Grandma and I, played with PlayDough with grandpa, made a fort in the basement with Tio Andy, and played with all her new toys and her little cousin Valerie. So many funny stories... one was from this morning. She wanted me to get her some chocolate milk. We did not have any (or so I thought), and she got mad at me, and said she was not my friend anymore. Then she walked over, pulled out a dinning room chair, sat down in front of the puzzle, and said, "I am gonna play this by myself... and It's gonna be fun!".

Making animals out of PlayDough.

In her play fort with Tio Andy.

Her favorite Gingerbreadman.

Going down the sledding hill with grandpa.

Making a snow angel.

Posing for her Christmas picture.

Wednesday morning we start the trek home. We will stop off at my house in Albion so I can grab some things I need to take to Chicago, and then off to her mamas house. Then Thursday morning I pick up Miguel at Ohare Airport from his European trip and we head back to Michigan!

New Years plans are still a little in the air, but more then likely it will be low key, and then the rest of the weekend I will be getting ready for a busy couple weeks at work... ah... vacation will be over.

White Christmas
So it looks like we will be having a white Christmas. Which is great! This means I get to take Novalí to do all the fun winter activities. Sledding, building a snow man, and maybe even ice skating if we get a chance (I doubt the lake up north will be frozen, but maybe at Hoyt Park).

I have been getting into the Christmas mode... which is not usual for me. I am not a big present buyer, but I managed to find something for everyone which I think they will enjoy. I even got most of the them wrapped as well which is always fun for me. This afternoon I will finish that up before heading to Saginaw. No cards though people... you know how I feel about cards. Not a big fan...

This week was a good week to get things cleaned up at the office and wrap up my first semester at Albion. It was a good semester, and I ended it with a good thorough cleaning of my office... and man it was a lot of work.

This huge filing cabinet... towering in the corner... got sorted and emptied!

My nice little collection of Christmas cards had to get taken down.

With "Big Grey" empty... she went on to greener pastures (ie Not my Office). Thats me givin' her the BOOT!

Surprise! Under one of my shelves... a heal to a shoe! (Jen stepped on it while moving the shelf)

So now my office is how I want it... at least for now. I have more room, less junk, better wall space to hang stuff on, and space for when students come in to meet with me. This also means I have to find somethings to hang on the walls... hum...

For those who have yet to see my office, or seen it prior to the changes, here she is... this is gonna be a great year!

Well it is time for me to run... got to pick up a few more gifts, wrap some more presents, pack my car, and head to Saginaw!

Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down...

Great Weekend
This weekend was a lot of fun... Friday went out with the work folks. Julien is leaving to work at Barnard and it was his last weekend in town. So some fun at Rellis followed by breakfast at the Cracker barrel in Jackson. Saturday was the Baker family Christmas party in Grosse Point. Megan Baker was one of my best friends in undergrad and her family is great and a ton of fun. Sunday was a reminder of how short I am, some highway mistakes on the way home, and then back in lovely Albion.

Today, my phone battery is dead, but I am at work, so feel free to call me here if you need me. 517.629.0433. Or just leave me a message and I will get back to you soon. I did not take my camera this weekend, so no pics... I know you are all bummed.

My car is really dirty from all the highway grime! Blah...

Bad News
Gas prices are the lowest they have been in years! So why is that bad news... well I made two trips to Grand Rapids this week, one to drop my laptop off, and one to pick it up. You might say, but I expected to have to make those trips... well yes I did... but I also expected my laptop to be FIXED!

This was not even the lowest I saw!

The green screen funky thing.

So today it crashed a couple times. Did some weird funky screen thing, crashed again, and then refused to start. My keys light up though... but I would trade for my old broke keys and working computer right about now...

To top off the day, the internet went down at Albion. How does a school lose internet? They have no back up, how can you run a business and not have a back up internet solution? It makes no sense to me and I raved about it all day. So instead of my usual work, chat, work, email, work, chat.... I only could do work. So I started cleaning out this big grey filing cabinet in my office... SCARY!

The night ended cool though. It was my office holiday party. We ate, exchanged gifts (I got a Bodum!) and just relaxed. It was a lot of fun, and after Jenn came over and we watched Van Wilder. Now I am getting ready for bed, and thinking about how bored I am going to be tomorrow with no internet at work. It is not set to be fixed until tomorrow afternoon.... AH...

Classic
Another classic Epsilon retreat, no doubt. We had a blast, we did some fun new things, and of course covered the classic traditions like Plaka Cafe, Golden Griddle, and hitting up the mall. We all got to know each other better. I was reminded how little interaction I have had with the younger guys, and I loved connecting with them more. We ended the retreat with an Ad Hoc meeting in my living room and talked about some vitals issues that are holding back our chapter's success. In time... we will be a powerhouse once again.

I will be posting pictures very soon. We had a sweet room at the Hilton right on the water, we could see Detroit across the water and it was great when snow fell on Sunday morning. I was able to tap into the resources of being a meeting planner with the Hilton (my new business idea) and hooked up a cheap room rate for us. More perks coming soon. More pics of this weekend coming soon, my laptop is in the shop again... yes again... and once I get it back I can post all the pictures.

This week back to the grind, getting a lot done since the students are gone. I have a ton of receptions and dinner parties for work which is cool and will break up the time on the computer working on policies, forms, and websites.

Anyhow more coming soon... and what happened in Canada...

Birthdays
Yesterday, December 9th, were the birthdays of two of my favorite people. Vic Rivera and Geo Athappilly, my fraternity Brothers. Both of those guys have had a big impact on my life. We been through some crazy stuff... we pledged together bringing SLB back to Western. We planned some huge events and made impacts on each other and people around us.

Geo and I both supported each other when our mothers can cancer... my mom still has the plant that Geo gave her. I gave blood for his mothers blood bank before her surgery. Geo has struggled with his eye condition, macular degenerative condition. I think that is the real title, he is slowly losing his vision. We had a lot of long talks about that, and other points in life's craziness. Talked about break ups, religion, politics, fraternity life, and our goals. One deep Brother, all the time. Now he is married and I am so happy for him.

Vic... well we been through a ton! We traveled all over the country... had so many adventures I can't even describe them all in a book. I went to his sisters wedding, and he has been to my house and wondered why we don't have beans with every meal (Puerto Ricans I tell ya). The complete opposite of Geo... Vic and I never talk about anything serious but that is okay. I remember when my mom had cancer, he offered to go and get notes or my syllabus from my classes. That from a guy who
didn't go to his own classes. Vic does stuff like that and reminds me while we will be friends, and more importantly Brothers, for life.

Last night I went to Kalamazoo to see them. Vic of course was sitting at his house watching movies, and Geo was out with his wife so I did not get to see him. Anyhow, Vic and I and all the Brothers around went out and just had a total blast. Thanks Brothers for helping me to unwind a little, and I look forward to our retreat this weekend! Happy birthday again to you two, can't wait for this weekend. Peace!

My job
I feel like a new professional... yes I know I am new to the field, but AFA (Association of Fraternity Advisors) really pumped me up. I was reminded why I love this job, why I love the field I chose, why I dedicate my time (on and off the clock) to work with fraternities and sororities. I made some new commitments, made some new networks, and made new connections with old friends.

My clothes arrrived... late afternoon on my second day... but I did not let that ruin my day. I still went to sessions (in two day old clothes) and I did not let it get to me. The workshops were not as good this year, but time spent with my Western Region Greek Association Board and also with the Betas, Gammas and other NALFO professionals there was awesome.

We were at an amazing hotel property, view of the Hollywood sign and the strip. Celebrity sightings all over the place, David Swimmer, the entire General Hospital Cast, Daisy Fuentes (she spoke at our luncheon), MC Lyte, Tarantino, John Stamos, and many other B List celebrities were to be seen. It was interesting.

Our hotel was next door to the famous theater and connected to the big mall.

View from my hotel window, that is the hollywood sign in the distance.

It was great hanging out with my fraternity Brothers who were there and our headquarters staff Jim Trajilio and the famed Mary Peterson. After convention this summer I felt someone unconnected from the fraternity, but this brought me back in full force. We made some plans as to ways that I can help be involved with the Betas on many different levels. Needless to say I am excited.

The WMU Crew back together. Steve (my Greek Advisor, now at IU), Kristen who was Greek woman of the year when I was man of the year, and Ryan Weier who was IFC president when SLB came back to campus.

The Betas... we represented hard for the frat. Doing big things.

Hanging with the Brothers was great. Our last night we went to a place called Miyagi's. We had a good time, Ammar and I reminded each other of the good ol' MOA days. We had Moet, music, and a place were tons of A List people go... the parking lot was like a car show... I loved it!

Well anyhow, I am at LAX and getting ready to fly home. I have a busy week ahead of me and I am looking forward to being back at my office and getting started on the list of things I committed to do at AFA. Wish me luck!