Boost
Working in Greek Life has a lot of ups and downs and sometimes I need a boost. Sometimes I get jaded with the direction of Greek Life, its often misguided representations of what the groups are really supposed to be about bring me down. The deep focus on the "social" side of Greek Life, but failing to realize that we are societal organizations designed to better society, our membership and the community. Issues like hazing, alcohol abuse, drug problems, gender stereotype reinforcement, etc. All issues that often times Greeks do not spend time fighting, and the things that as a Greek Advisor you push the groups to do.

But then... you have a week when things go really well, and I am glad they happen right when I need them to. Last night the Albion College Sigma Nu Chapter (Gamma Gamma) held their annual Charity Classic. It is a basketball game with another fraternity. They sell ads in their booklet, and sell T-shirts and tickets to the game. This year they were raising money for the local public school nurses program. To help ensure the school continues to have a nurse, and that the school can buy the needed supplies. I was very impressed to see that at half time the men presented the school nurse with a check for $10,800. Wow. I almost did not have words for that, what an amazing gesture, what an amazing act. Those group of men helped continue the nurse program for over 2000 kids in that school system...

Then on my SLB list serve there was a debate on hazing and membership education. I was surprised to see the out pouring of Brothers with their strong anti-hazing stance. In the past few Brothers made the stance and supported driving hazing out of SLB. In one of the debates a Texas Brother quoted me.... I end any debate with a Brother saying, "We may not agree on this, but lets agree that we both love SLB." He quoted me and that felt awesome. I am glad that statement is settling in with some Brothers. It is true, just cause we have different views on where the fraternity is going does not mean we don't love it any more or any less. I have debated a lot of issues between myself and some Brothers. Unfortunately some people can not see past a disagreement and it creates unneeded future tension.

So it was a good week that ended with a Beta Party at MSU. I have not been out with the guys in a long time. Most of Epsilon was there... Rey, Vic, Ish, Steve, Raul, Sammy, Rudy, and even Geo! Of course GVSU was deep in there plus interests, and I chatted it up with a bunch of Brothers I have not seen in a long time. I left early to get home since today I am off to Chicago!

It is April 23rd and it is snowing. I guess it is what we deserve for those 85 degree days we spent out on the quad earlier this week. Eitherway I hope it goes away soon, we have our Less Then Jake concert at school on Monday and we want it to be nice. Off to see Novi, have a good weekend everyone!

Its Spring!
Yes it is a great time of year. You pack away the sweaters (did that last night), go through your closet and take out all the stuffy winter clothes and get all the short sleeve stuff out (did that last night to). The warm sun makes you want to get out of bed in the morning (even though today I slept in...), and a nice walk around the quad after lunch is always what the doctor ordered. Hooking up the hose so I can wash my car, and buying new car care items for my patented "Love Your Car Days" just makes me smile. Planning a wine tasting trip up to Traverse Bay for my favorite Chateau Grand Traverse as a well deserved weekend get away. Doing a roadtrip to Philly to visit Andy and I don't have to worry about weather. Ice cream cones filled with Butter Pecan and wearing my flip flops. So glad spring is here.

However there are the bad parts of spring... runny nose and sneezing from my allergies. The fact that I need to start mowing my law again. Hating being indoors in my office all day (good thing I got a corner office with huge windows). Wanting to do nothing but work on my car (I need to fix the NX, and put all my Audio into the GXE). Being far from any bodies of water, not that I ever go to the beach, but I like knowing I can if the desire arises. The fear of getting sun burnt... happens every year, it is just a matter of when.

So the students leave campus in a little more then two weeks. Then things will really slow down around here. I have some fun trips planned coming up. Looks like Mothers Day weekend I will do a roadtrip with Jen to Philly. She has family there, and so do I, so it works out great. Then the weekend after that I will be off to Traverse for some wine tasting, and the next weekend up to Mio Michigan for canoeing with my Chapter Brothers for our retreat. Wow... it is going to be a fun month of May.

Family News: My brother Miguel had dinner last night with Goni the former president of Bolivia. How cool is that! Read his post.

Team PLP and Taxes
Last night I was in the zone... I got my part and went to work on my car. The little Sentra has been sick for a while and last night she got some medicine. The dealer figured out that she needed a new MAF (Mass Air Flow Sensor)... they wanted to charge me $680 for the part, $50 to ship it next day, and then $130 to change my spark plugs... Yes they wanted me to give them over $850 plus the $80 it cost to figure out what the problem was. Despite having the best month ever for OutSight Design, I did not have that kind of money.

Since they swapped my spark plugs while doing the diagnostics on the car, I had them not charge me labor on those, so total to get my car from the dealer (new plugs and the diag) cost me $112. Not too bad, I used my roadside assistance to get my car towed back to my house. I found a the part for my car from AutoZone for $250, and they only charged me $6 to get it here next day... I bought a special tamper proof socket bit set ($10) and I was ready to do the repair myself. It took all of 40 minutes... and that includes the time I started taking something apart that I did not need to and put back together. She runs great now!

My baby getting towed.

Now that I have been under the hood... I want to do more work.

Check Engine Light On.

Check Engine Light Off.

So I had a quick love your car day like the old Parking Lot Performance (Team PLP) days. I cleaned the interior of my Sentra and I got the rims all cleaned up and they will be installed today! Now I got the car working bug... I need to get the NX 2000 fixed up and ready for racing season this summer. She needs a couple hundred dollars with of work and some elbow grease to get her back to the course. I also want to run the Sentra around the cones once...

So tonight I am rolling to Grand Rapids. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get my laptop back... I know... finally! I hope she is actually fixed this time or I might just lose it. So I hope she is done and I can have my baby back and in good working order. What does suck is that I do need to do a complete reinstall of all my stuff... that will take a long time to do. I think I will wait til school is out and I have less work so I can focus on getting it all updated and back in shape.

I filed for my IRS Tax Extension today... nothing like waiting til the last day for my extension. Now I just need to remember to get them done before August 15th... Anyhow that is off my plate. Got some programs on campus on Saturday and Sunday so I get to be in Albion for those. I am glad it will be so nice this weekend!

Great Weekend... Bad News
This weekend was awesome! The conference was a big hit, we had some small snags but things all in all went very well. I did some fun new stuff with the AV, and have tons of plans for where I can take it for next year. It was very tiring, but right after the banquet I hoped a plane to Chicago to see my family.

Sunday was the birthday of not only Novali, but my dad as well! Miguel was in town with his friend Kate, and so was Andy and Soloumeh. My parents got some hotel rooms for everyone and we had a good time. Novali road her bike in and outside of the hotel, and we had a nice Centellas family birthday lunch. Raquel was the only one who could not make it. It was great to have the family together.

She loves riding her bike around, in or outside!

She always thinks I am on a plane (usually I am) so I got her a wrist watch with a plane on it.

Her first Apple Store Gift! ... Finding Nemo Computer game, for Mac or PC.

Blowing out the candles on her cake.

The Centellas Crew.

Her cute little birthday outfit.

After my family left, Novali had another party for the Chicago side. This one was at McDs and she was super excited. Her cousins and friends and family were all there. She loves to slide down the play slides and climbs all over.

Going down the slide.

She is four now... man time flies!

Cake #2.

So what did she get... clothes, clothes, clothes...

I was very tired getting back to Michigan, but it was worth all the hectic travel to be able to be everywhere I needed to be for the weekend.

So now I am back at work, back in Albion, back to the normal life. Work is slowing down at Albion, my big conferences are over, and OutSight is having the best consulting month ever! So whenever things are going really great I know I am due to get some bad news. So last night I took my car to the dealer to finally try and figure out what is wrong with my car... yes folks... to fix that little check engine light... more then $800 bucks. OUCH! Good thing I did not get that Palm Pilot I been wanting... now everything gets to get spent on my car.

Long Distance B Day
Even though I am on the other side of the country... I need to send a big shot out to Miguel. Today he gets one year older. I called him between programs here at my conference. Miguel was a big inspiration to me, in many ways...

He helped me during my first years in college, where some of the hardest years of my life. I could not have asked for a better academic mentor, him and his grad school buddies welcomed me to academia. While pledging Sigma Lambda Beta he became my fraternal Brother as well as roll modeling how to be a good Brother. Upon entering grad school, he gave me tips, advice, and even reviewed my thesis. He's been a great all around big Brother. He tells me when I mess up, and he tells me when I make him proud, like a good Brother should.

Soon Miguel will have a PHd and be Dr. Centellas... the nutty professor. He has the nutty part down, now he just needs the title to make it all official. I can't wait to see Miguel, on his moped riding to class... tweed jacket, leather elbow patches, leather attache case, iPod... heading to teach young college minds. Can't wait to see you on Sunday bro!

So WRGLC... man it is nuts over here! We made a lot of changes to the conference this year and it has been hectic trying to keep up and having everything in place. My big opening show tonight went well, rocked the house and added some new features which people loved. Then I DJed the St. Judes 4-Square Tournament at night and that was a riot... funny requests... and a good way to unwind the night.

Tomorrow... huge luncheon... lots of AV. Get to handle three powerpoints, one DVD presentation, and a slew of different speakers... Then, I got scheduled to run AV for two presentations at the same time... lets see how I handle that... I love this stuff! I am in a zone... two Macs... two screens... lights... mics... I am the King of the AV Booth.

Short Breath
My Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO) presentation went very well. Had about 300 students attend, and they enjoyed it and I got great reviews afterwards. I tried to mix funny with serious and I think the message got through. That is all I can hope for when doing a hazing presentation.

It was a beautiful day in Missouri and the campus was very scenic.

It was a tough crowd, all the football players sat right in front.

Each time I speak I still get nervous before hand and worried over how it will go. So tonight I went to Outback, got a huge steak, and relaxed for a little bit. I have been on the run for too long now... lets recap on what I have been up to...

Greek Week... man it was a lot work, despite the fact that I tried to stay out of the arguments, points regulation, and detail planning... I got sucked it. It is a phenomenon which is very hard to understand. Something about Greek Week gets everyone acting all crazy to win a small plastic trophy. It was a ton of fun though. There were some major upsets, some good teachable moments, and I even got the President of the college involved a couple times. At the closing ceremonies he said this Greek Week was the best since he has been at the college. So that made me feel good.

Something about these trophies gets everyone acting crazy.

Once the dust settled... the TKE/Delta Gamma team won.

Crossing... Friday night the GVSU Betas crossed three more men into the fraternity. Since we restarted the colony there in the fall of 2002 they have crossed 15 men into the Brotherhood. Very impressive. Whats more impressive is the quality of the men, their dedication to the principles of Sigma Lambda Beta, and what good Brothers they have become. No wonder they keep winning all the awards.

You can tell they are Neos... smiling in a picture.

The now famous East District Crossing pose, throwing up the LB.

WRGLC... so the conference starts this week! Man it has come way to fast this year. Working on all the publication materials, designs for signs, name tags, and most importantly all the big AV shows and set ups... I love working on this stuff, but it was really stressful trying to get all of that out in the middle of Greek Week and preparing for my trip here to SEMO.

So right now I am just taking a short breath. Tomorrow morning I get up super early to drive to airport and fly back to Michigan. I work at Albion Monday and Tuesday and then I drive to Chicago to fly to San Francisco for WRGLC 2005. I will be there until late Saturday night, right after I finish the show for the banquet I fly back to Chicago on the red eye. I will be in on time for a Centellas Family Brunch for the birthdays of Miguel (4/07), my dad (4/10) and my little Novalí (4/10). They will all be in Chicago. I get to spend sometime with them, and then drive back for work on Monday. World wind trips... yes sir! I wouldn't have it any other way.

Good night World... Stay Classy.

Updates... Updates
Greek Week started here last night... and that has me very busy this week taking care of a lot of things, settle disputes, judging events for points, and laugh my butt off at some of the Greeks antics. This is why I love Greek Life, one week I can be all stressed, the next week I get to watch my students make complete fools out of themselves and love it!

Easter was great. Did a mini tour of Michigan pretty much. Lots of driving... does that surprise anyone? I hope not and that by now you have come to expect that from me. It ended with an unexpected trip to Saginaw to visit families. Which was nice. Sometimes I worry about being productive too much, and getting work done that I forget to just take some time to drive home and have coffee and conversation with my parents.

More pictures folks! I can tell you are excited. Here is an update on Novalí's site. It is from a couple trips, and some pics from Tamara. I put them together and it is my first update in three months to her site... man I been slacking. She turns four next week! Enjoy.

No so little Novali

Formal Pics! I know posted a few small pics, but here is a better set of pictures. I am still trying to collect more and do a more complete event wrap up. Enjoy these for now.

SLB East District Formal

As Greek Week gets underway, I will be taking pictures and posting pictures from the events as well. This week is a hectic one, I am preparing for my presentation at SEMO, getting ready to do the WRGA AV Show, and working with Formal 2006 Proposals.

Honduras Pics
I am slowly getting through all my pictures and finally posting.

2005 OLA Trip

Enjoy!

Good Times
Formal is over folks. It was a huge success. We sat 110 for dinner... I think a new record for the event. We had 48 Hotel Rooms reserved at the Hilton for Saturday night, for sure a record. Finally, at the dinner we collected over $300 to go towards the Sigma Lambda Beta Education Foundation.

Lots of great memories. GVSU won Chapter of the Year again... and Ramon won Alumnus of the Year. Two very well deserved awards. The dance was great, the Presidential Suite was a great afterparty location, and my suite was very nice and Hilton gave it to me for free! Now we are just wrapping up the final bills and seeing how muc money we have left over to give to the next Formal committee.

The Epsilon Crew. Rey and Vic came in on Friday and we chilled like the old days.

As the chair of the event I of course got to rock the Mic a lot.

We had Brothers from all ten schools in the district, and many reps from the Alumni Association.

The Hilton was by far the classiest location for a Formal for SLB.

My date (the famous Heather D) and I all glammed up.

The GVSU Alpha Gamma Chapter did a rap to end the banquet and kick off the dance. I ran the music...

So now I am back in Albion and I have Novali at my house! No better way to end a stressful week the witty comments from my shorty. Her and Tamara arrived yesterday and so did my parents. My parents took her today while I worked. Finally getting some more use for my second bedroom. She grows by leaps and bounds each time I see her, and it has only been three weeks!

As soon as she got in I had to snap a pic of the two of us. Her pastiness even makes me look tan!

Ready for bed last night... she watch Bambi over and over until she knocked out.

Today when I got home for lunch she was playing with Playdough... her favorite toy.

Of course grandma and grandpa brought her Easter Candy...

It great to come home when Novali is there. I love it... much better then going home to an empty house like I always do. She makes the day go faster. I was hoping my parents would bring Novali up to my office this afternoon... but its 4:45 and I called them... they were all sleeping... I guess I shoulda called earlier to see if they were coming or not. Oh well... maybe Tamara can bring Novali up tomorrow. So I am wrapping up work, the family is going to go out to eat and then my parents will leave for home tonight.

Good night everyone... I am sure my night will be filled with chasing Novali around the house, playing Lotteria (spanish bingo), and of course... watching movies. Adios.

Its Not Easy Being Green
So everyone is wearing Green today... even I wore the one green dress shirt that I own. I do wish that the grass was green... and that spring was actually on its way. That is what would really make my day.

Anyhow... yesterday I went home sick from work. I think the travel, then coming into work early the following day, and the stress of all the things I got going on just wore me down. So I went home and slept, and now I feel a lot better. Still sluggish... but better.

What also helped with the typical Wednesday Funny Movies and Chinese Food with Jen. We watched Anchorman and ordered delivery from New China. They know how to find my house... Where You At?

Staying home also allowed me to get caught up on WRGA and Formal stuff. So that is all squared away and I am super excited about that, this weekend is going to be great and our WRGLC conference is getting closer everyday!

You know what is going to top the weekend off? That Tamara is bringing Novali to Michigan on Sunday. My parents are going to come as well and stay for Monday also and play with her during the day. I am very excited to get Novali back at my house again.

Well I got to get back to work now.

I'm Back!
So we returned without any problems. The flights were great, watched some horrible movies, ate some cheap airline food, and got welcomed back to Detroit!

The trip was amazing. I got in super late last night and did not get to unpack anything! I got some cool gifts for people and took over 200 pictures! I am really excited to get them loaded onto my computer and post them up. Coming soon...

The last few days of the trip were the best. Of course being at the Mission was fun, and working there was extremely rewarding. But the last two days of the trip were for resting our blisters and getting pampered a little.

We went to the city of Copan. It is were some famous Mayan ruins are, and they were great! The city had a lot of tourism and we stayed in the most pimp hotel ever! We ate like kings (which of course means lots of meat), walked around, got more little trinkets as gifts, and just relaxed in the tropical pool at our hotel.

All in all it was an adventure. From the crazy landing (the worlds shortest runway, whoa...), to the scorpions, the hard work, the soccer with the kids, to the dance with the women's and childrens shelter. It was very touching. I left a nice little donation, clothes, money, my shoes, sheets, etc. I donated some stuff I will miss a lot, like my Hurley shirt, and my favorite Addidas tennis shoes... but I figure they need it more.

I was also amazed at how much like Bolivia it was down in Honduras. The cities, the streets, the cars, all the same! Honduras did have a lot more American influence though (Wendys, BK, McDs, TCBY Yogurt, and Western Union on ever other corner). The food was very sweet. Even the meat was flavored with sugary sauces.

Ah... I will be day dreaming all week about the trip!

So now I am back. My Albion email had about 195 emails in it (that despite that I stopped all my distribution lists), and my personal email had a little over 220 in it... crazy! SO now some updates...

Formal - we are set! DJ confirmed. Glasses are ready and look hot. Champange is purchased. Programs ready to print. Awards getting finalized. Got a projector and sound system for the presentation. Over 100 people confirmed.

WRGLC - they got the program books to print. Registrations are starting to roll in now. I am collecting all the needed AV requirements, and I am working on the best show ever!

SEMO - got my airplane tickets. Confirmed my speaking times and now just working on the presentation. It is going to be great, they are going to video tape it so I can see myself speak!

OutSight - It was a good month for OutSight Design and Consulting. More work from MMBA, and my new Achive Website looks great and this week I will be adding more interactive features late this week or early next week.

Laptop - the saga of my laptop has gotten worse... for those who have not been following the life of Auto (the name of my laptop) here is a recap. In November I took her in to get the backlighting on my keyboard fixed. Simple cosmetic error I wanted fixed while it was under warrantee. Simple right... well not so much. After the repair she started crashing all the time, locking up, not starting, and just overall running really slow. I took her in again... same problems. So while I was out of the country for a week I figured here they could have it for a week, and finally get it fixed, and get it fixed right. Well, they didn't. When they ran my serial number they saw it was off warantee... which is not true since they worked on it while it was under warantee it extends it by 90 days. I am in my 90 days still... so my poor Auto sat there for 7 days doing nothing! Now they want to start tearing her apart, and I need my computer! I am demanding a loaner machine while they work on her this time... we will see what happens.

AH... okay... deep breath... calm down...

Well I better get to my mountain of work now. Pictures will be coming soon... you know... once I get my computer back...

Misson Honduras
I am having a great time! We work each morning from 8 AM to noon, then we eat, and in the after we go and play with the kids at the schools. It is a lot of fun. Today we went to one of the towns nearby and I finally got some internet.

I am enjoying the food right now, and the company of the students. The service projects we are working on are helping to build a wall, and working on a big garden. The kids are great to play with, and I love finally being able to speak Spanish a little more.

I fly back to Detroit on Monday night. I will post photos and all that ASAP. After I am done with the mountain of stuff I have to do for Formal, WRGA, SEMO, MMBA, etc... ah...

Well, back to the sun (about 80´s today) and shopping. Adios!

Ready or Not
This week I was trying to get everything squared away to go to Honduras. I will be gone from my office for a week, and have no access to my laptop... sad... I am not sure how I will live. I have never gone this long without my laptop and internet. I will survive.

I got a ton done this week! As always being under pressure gets me to really kick things into high gear. So let me give you some updates on what happened this week.

In my consulting world it has been a great week! I got a contract from Southeastern Missouri State to do a hazing presentation on April 3rd. I launched a new clients website, Measured Success. Its a work in progress, and more features are coming soon. I completed contracts and updates for an old client, MMBA and will soon be revamping their website. My Western Region Greek Website got all the 2005 conference information posted, WRGLC. I am also in the final stage of securing one more website client, to be named soon.

On the fraternity side, Formal is T-minus two weeks. We will hit 100 people registered for dinner by the end of this weekend. I am leaving Ramon in charge of the rest of the planning as I will be gone. Today we are wrapping up a ton of items. It is going to be an amazing program. We will have a PowerPoint slide show with music, give out our big district awards, give out our Undergraduate scholarships, and recognize the contributions of the Brothers in our district to higher education and multicultural issues.

Work... well it was a rat race to get everything done. Housing review and counts, done. Extra board transfers and one more fraternity judicial, done. Sorority recruitment mediations, scheduled for when I get back. The idea for the Napoleon Dynamite program... scheduled! Greek Week... well... not done, but getting there. Who's Who...not done, but I started it all.

I am not heading to get to see Novali before I leave, but the good news is that Tamara is bringing her to Albion on March 20th for a couple days. My parents will come and visit as well and it will be great! So I will get to see her very soon! And I won't have to drive!

I have a few more days state-side before I take off. Wish me luck, I am super excited about the trip! Before leaving I enjoyed sometime in Grand Rapids. Went out with the guys Thursday night to BFE, my old stomping grounds, and had a great time! Friday went to drop off my laptop to CompuCraft and then a business trip to the Hilton with some of the committee members. It was nice to be in GR for a while, saw a bunch of people at GV and chilled with the Bros. Sunday I finish packing up for Honduras... and off I go!

Winter Sales
Since I already outed myself as a sale shopper, I figured I need to rave about a couple of my recent escapades. I have been on two shopping trips lately and found me some great deals! I love the end of winter sales!

My first big catch was going shopping before MGCA. I got a pair of Kenny Cole pin stripe dress pants, some Polo Khakis, and a Half Zip Sweater all for 50 bucks at Marshal Fields. You all know how much I love Kenny Cole dress pants. Machine washable, no dry cleaning needed... low maintenance, a mans best friend. That same day a trip to TJ Max proved very productive. I found a stripped BCBG Dress Shirt to wear at MGCA and a new Ecko shirt. The trip ended with a find at Goodwill! I got an express shirt there for 3 bucks, and then went next door to KMart and scored a $10 iron (I needed one really bad).

This past weekend stumbled upon a sweet sale at Elder Bierman. Chaps shirt, Izod Fleece, and Geoffrey Beene Dress Shirt for 30 bucks. Then at the GAP, I got some pin stripe wool pants (also machine washable!) and a bar shirt for 20 bucks!

The Goodwill deal stole the show!

I love Pin stripe pants.

Now I am in need up picking up items to take to Honduras. I got my list last night of other items I must take so I need to shop again for those items, as well as some items to donate down there. In a few days I will be sweating in Honduras!

Work update... same stuff. Way too busy, but getting a lot of important planning done. I am getting close to the end of my first year so I need to get into gear on some unfinished items and really make a few things happen.

Fraternity Update... if you did not know, I am the chair of our 5th Annual District Awards Formal. It is going well, in the next day or so I think we will break 100 people signed up! This might be the biggest one yet... I am very excited!

Cabaret and Anchors
This week has been a mixing of ups and downs. Started off tired from a long weekend conference, went right into busy meetings about judicial stuff and important reports. My Monday ended with a long meeting with Ammar, my fraternity's International President, mostly good news and some possible opportunities for me to get more involved (like I need more right?), but we discussed some tough topics as well. I really believe in the work my fraternity is doing, and I can't say no to a good cause.

I have a lot on my plate right now. Lots of meetings with the Dean of Students, trying to keep the momentum going from MGCA with my councils, and the regular runs of life. Like getting my tetanus shot for heading to Honduras (we leave in ten days!) and taking these $11 a piece malaria pills!

There of course as always has been the ups which keep me in good spirits. A funny "Fraternity Moment of the Week" always helps the cause, as well as time out of the office having fun. Some examples of out of the office fun. This week on campus is showing the play Cabaret, which I saw Thursday night and it was fabulous. I also watched the Big Lewbowski on Wednesday with Jen and ate Chinese food. The most commical part of the night was not the movie, but when I called for the Chinese Food the lady answers and says, "where you at" like she was Snoop Dogg, and then when I tell her, she does not understand, and then passes me to the driver who does not understand, and then he asked me... "You come get it." Well actually I think he told me... anyhow I went cause I had a hankerin' for some sweet and sour pork, and you all know I am weak when it comes to some Crab Rangoons.

The week will end with Delta Gamma's Anchorsplash. Hands down one of my favorite Greek events, it always reminds me of my line Brother Alex Diaz. We always went to the Delta Gamma stuff together at WMU. I miss those days. There has been a buzz on campus for this event all year, seems to be the biggest Greek philanthropy event on campus here, and I get to be a judge! So exciting. It has also been fun seeing the events they do here, like the hide the anchor scavenger hunt.

Then Sunday I am doing a retreat for Panhel. We are going to Marshal to do some training, goal setting, and long term planning. I am very pumped cause we have some exciting things coming up. As much as I complain about my stress and work load, I know at the end of a week I can look back on what I accomplished and be proud. I guess it is better then a boring, laid back week, that in review was worth nothing. At least my stress, although a high price, does yield a promising result. Well off I go... I need to try to get some sleep, I been missing too much of that lately.

MGCA 2005
So here are the details of the weekend. Thursday I was able to duck out of the office and hit the road and I made it to Chicago early and able to catch up with a lot of people I have not seen in a while. I love this conference because it is one of the few times I get to see a lot of my Greek Advisor friends and visit with other professionals.

Friday I did two workshops. One on hazing and the other on Multicultural Greeks. The hazing one was hard to present, and is always something that gets heated but I think it went well. The Multicultural Greek presentation was a hit, and I hope we get great reviews like we did last year. I did the hazing one with Renee from Delta Gamma, and the cultural one with my friend Michelle from Zeta Phi Beta.

That night we went to dinner in Chicago, and continued my short tradition of having Novali to dinner. This is her third MGCA, and it was fun cause lots of people were asking about her cause I used to take her up to the hotel. This year we met our crew at the restaurant, Fernandos. It was a lot of fun and Cressie brought the Oakland University group as well. We had great Spanish food and then headed back to the hotel.

Saturday was a bust day. I started with some work on Western Region Greek Association stuff since a lot of us board members were there at MGCA. Got all our registration stuff up and ready to go. We had the final workshops (One on Eating disorders with Amy) and then the formal banquet which is always a lot of fun.

Sunday was time with Novali. I got my Albion students checked out of the hotel and on their way, and then off to spend a couple hours with Novali. We played a little, ate, took a nap, and then I had to hit the road home. This week I have to play clean up on a couple large projects for work, and do a lot of things for my Formal, and then start getting things ready to go to Honduras! I am so excited!

MGCA is the largest Greek Council Conference, it brings over 1600 people to gether.

My Albion Delegation. Left to right: Shannon (Phi Mu), Tavio (Sig Chi), Aleece (KD), Joe T(Sig Chi), Megan (KD), and Me (SLB).

At the Friday luncheon people sit with their members, Eddie was the only Beta there and two SLGs.

The grad students from GVSU, Amy (my copresenter) and Tillie.

The Albion Delegation at dinner, Novali did not want to be in the picture and ducked.

Novali did want a picture of her by the donkey at the entrance of Fernandos.

All dressed up for the formal banquet.

After the Banquet they did an "Up 'Til Dawn" Fundraiser and Cressie and I wrestled. I won...

This was a great break away from Albion. Cressie was a good roommate, my students learned a lot and are coming back really excited, some funny times with Novali, and got more experience as a presenter. Good little break from my busy schedule.

Monday was a crazy day back. Just trying to get all my projects done and ready for all my meetings this week. A good change of pace though was going to dinner with Ammar (SLBs President). We had a good talk about the direction our national fraternity was taking, positions within our district, and of course talked about the good old days. Let's see what the rest of this week has in store for me.

What the Doctor Ordered
I needed this trip. I love MGCA, it is my favorite conference and I am once again doing three programs here. My campus was very stressful before coming here, I nearly didn't come things got so stressful. I am so glad to be here, in Chicago. Novali came to dinner with me last night, it is her third MGCA Friday night dinner! She was too funny and just reminded me to not make life more stressful then it needs to be.

I am also very excited because my students are really getting it. They are enjoying their programs, I am helping them meet important vendors (computerized recruitment!) and make contacts with important presenters and helping them process their programs. For example last night I chat until nearly 1AM with two Panhel women about the exciting ideas and programs that they have for the next year. Reminds me why I went into this field, and the excitement of the challenge of making needed change. To top it off, one of them is thinking about going into higher education now!

There is only one other Beta here, and very few Latino Greeks. The NPHC showing is much better, but I wish we had better representation. Next year I will be more involved, and help change that. Mark my words... and for the record my presentations are going well, two down, one more to go, wish me luck.

Sunday I will spend with Novali, and then back to Michigan. I have a very busy week ahead of me...

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...