THE PAST YEAR:
MY JOB:
I am still at the University of Maryland - but was promoted last summer to be the Director of Sports Marketing. Exciting times for me and meant I would be a Terp for at least another year. The annual athletics conference (NACMA) that I attended in Anaheim lived up to the expectations it always does as I reconnected with old friends and colleagues and of course picked up some new ones as well. This past year in Terpland was a crazy one - how many times can you say that your school hired a new President, Athletic Director, Head Football Coach and Head Basketball Coach...all within the same year! The retiring of our hoops Coach Gary Williams was probably the biggest surprise of the year - it just won't be the same around here without him and will sure make my job this coming year a bit more interesting!
MY FAMILY:
TROY is now living in Houston working for Hewlett Packard. He has a bit of flexibility working in the office vs. at home which he has enjoyed quite a bit. I headed down to check out his place at the beginning of April - and planned my trip around the timing of the Final Four which was also hosted there. Got to catch up with many friends in town, ate at the famous soulfood spot called "The Breakfast Klub" and got a pair of Lower Level seats to the championship game (thanks in part to my friend Sarah, formerly of ASU who now works for UCONN) for only about $30. So awesome! I definitely think attending the Final Four will now become a tradition.
ELLIE is just tying up a few loose ends on her degree at Northern Iowa. Michelle Obama spoke at her graduation a few weekends ago which was really neat. She had a phenomenal senior season, breaking all sorts of records at her school, winning the inaugural Lowe's Senior Class Award, was named a third team All-American AND became just the 8th player in NCAA Division I history to record over 2,500 digs in a career. Yes...you can say that I'm a proud sister. Currently, she is hoping to sign with a team to play with overseas this upcoming year which will make planning her JULY 2012 WEDDING a bit more difficult. You read that correctly - and the two older, very-much-single siblings, are in full support....we decided she can give this whole marriage thing a trial run for us.
DAD, while very busy at the office, continues to plug away at his bucket list. Recently he has travelled from places like New Mexico all the way to Africa, bringing back a Mountain Lion, Wildebeest and a Oryx. Ellie, Troy and my dad will all be traveling to Peru this July for another youth Venture Crew outing, as my dad stays very active in leading the organization.
MOM still coaches, substitute teaches part-time and remains very active with a lot of bike riding. She loves to find trails near places she's traveling, heading out from the house solo, or meeting up with her friends. I think she also is giving Roger Ebert a run for his money - she's seen about every movie out there in the theaters.
MY LIFE:
My love for travel, to read, to dance, to cook and keep in touch with old friends has not changed; my relationship status has and my living space will be. I'm a single girl - 31 years young and okay with it :) I have had the same roommates for 3 years now, but one (Jessica) just moved to Dallas and the other (Danielle) just got an Assistant Coaching job at American U in DC. We are still going to try to live together, but will need to relocate so her commute isn't quite so long. While I realize the following statement applies to just about anyone: I hate moving. If anyone would like to volunteer to help I'll pay you in pizza and beer....or a fruit salad if you are a healthy eater lol.
I experienced many fun things over the course of the past year in terms of travel. I'll start with the fall since my last blog post talked about what I planned on (and did do) during the summer of 2010.
After a few trips to Columbus at the end of the summer to visit my Buckeye friends...
A visit from Ellie in which we played together for the first time in a grass doubles volleyball tournament here in Maryland...
And a trip to NYC to meet up with Sarah and hang out with her other best friend Lauren (who lives there), I was locked down in Maryland for most of the Fall season.
However, as usual, I managed to get away during an off-football weekend to check out another stadium with some friends. Only this year, I got to see 2! First stop was a trip to the ATL where LSU took on UNC in the Georgia Dome. Sarah met me down there along with a few of her friends from college. A stay at the W Hotel (one of my favs)
topped it off!
Then, mid-September it was off to Madison for the Wisconsin/Arizona State football game. A huge group of us met up there for a disappointing Sun Devil loss, but a great time overall.
I traveled to watch Ellie play volleyball a few times including an preseason tournament at Purdue, senior night weekend and of course the 1st round that Northern Iowa hosted in the NCAA Tournament.
I snuck away to Boston to visit Kirsten a few times - once just for the fun of it and another...well, for the "fun of it too", but it was the 6th Annual Carrie and Sarah birthday celebration and boy did we do it big. LOL. Lauren (NYC), Troy (Houston), Brett (Maryland) and obviously Sarah (now at UCONN) made the trip which made it even more special. We stayed at Kirsten's house in Boston the first night and then crammed into a hotel room the second night.
As just mentioned, Sarah has now made the move from Arizona State (where everyone thought she was going to be a life-r) to UCONN to be the Associate Director of Sports Marketing. Such an awesome opportunity for her and an exciting school to be a part of this year! I have been able to go visit once already and can tell why she loves it so much up there. Great environment (minus the fact it is in the middle of Storrs/nowhere) and wonderful people. They went to a BCS bowl (Fiesta) game and then of course won the national championship in Men's Hoops.
Our family spent the holidays in Cedar Rapids this year and then took our annual ski trip to Keystone, Colorado. Ellie's fiance, Tyler, paid a surprise visit for the last part of the trip and apparently asked my dad for her hand in marriage at some point. She stayed in Colorado with him a week longer (after the family left), which is when he popped the big question.
My mom, dad and Troy paid a visit to me for a weekend in late January to check out a Maryland Men's Basketball game. It was a lot of fun and Troy's first basketball game here so it was neat to be able to show him what I do, job-wise, on gameday. Ellie was supposed to also make the trip, but as usual (this always happens), something came up and she couldn't make it. Of course, working a US National Team coaches camp is not your average everyday excuse. Who can blame her?
I joined a USAV Women's team this year with a coworker/friend of mine, Jodi, who I played against in college (she played at Marshall). The team we were able to hook up with was a bit below our level of play and a bit frustrating at times, but overall was just really fun to get out on the court again. At the end of March, after basketball season had concluded, I played on an alumni volleyball team that competed in Northern Illinois' spring volleyball tournament. I think it is really neat that in that tournament (which has college teams from the area participating) the Huskies choose to host this alumni team. I was definitely the oldest on the team, but knew 3 other girls on the team that were younger than me (I played with one: Brooke). My fellow teammates, Jen Urban (Scarpino) and Sara Thomas (Lein), came to watch and have dinner afterwards which was pretty special. Coley Pawlikowski (Johnsen), a former teammate of mine, is now the Assistant Coach for NIU with her husband Dan, so I stayed with her the evening before the tournament and got to catch up :) My mom even drove from Iowa to watch for the day. With so many friends in the Chicago area, I was able to travel there a few days prior to the tournament and stay/visit with my dear friends Kevin (already mentioned another time in this blog - he recently just moved back to Chicago), Kelly (and her new baby), Tammy (my best friend from college), James (a friend from after school) and OJ (A friend from NIU who I hadn't seen in 7 years!). I always leave refreshed, with my heart full....and wanting to come back immediately. Hopefully I'll have the chance to get back to visit at some point this summer - and maybe someday the perfect job will open up and I can move back to the Windy City I love so much.
I caught a few local basketball games...I went to the Georgetown vs. Syracuse game with my dear friend Greg (who now works at Georgetown, but used to work at Maryland) which was cool. He then hooked me up with basically front row seats to the Pitt/Butler NCAA Tournament game which, if you recall, was an instant classic. Brett and I hit up a Pitt Alumni party at a bar prior to the game, posing as Pitt fans. At gametime he moved to another bar - I went to the game.
WHICH...BRINGS ME TO NOW:)
Looking forward in the near future, I am meeting Troy, Ellie, Tyler (her fiance) and a few others in Boulder, Colorado Memorial Day weekend to compete in the Boulder Boulder - a 10k race that last year featured over 54,000 runners, walkers and wheelchair racers, making it the largest race in the US in which all participants are timed and the 5th largest road race in the world (thank you Wikipedia). The race actually ends on the football field! I love Boulder (Wanted to go to college there and would love to work there someday) and am so excited to spend a weekend in my favorite state with my siblings...I'm just not sure how the altitude (6,000+ ft. above sea level) is going to affect my running. If you know me, you know I'm definitely not a professional runner. My goal is to finish the race without walking...hope that isn't setting my sights too low. LOL.
Other places I am already planning on visiting this summer include Orlando (for my annual conference) in June and Lake Okoboji (Iowa) with the family in July. I would also like to work in a trip back to Chicago, Phoenix and also Los Angeles/Vegas. Probably will need to pick and choose - but will depend on just how high the airfare continues to rise and the amount of time I can get off at work.
If you made it this far, please pat yourself on the back. This was a long one (even longer than those annual Christmas letters!) but I had slacked off way too long. I'll try to do a better job of poking my head in from time to time, even if I don't feel like I have much to say.
:)
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