Michigan. The Frozen Mitten State. Part 1

Hello!

I know I haven't been blogging much lately, but I hope that all will change soon once I'm not running around with a daily list of a trillion things to do and oh yeah let me just throw in a real quick work conference to attend that will pretty much definitely take up 100% of your time…
But it was so worth it!

Allow me to explain.
I just got back from a whirlwind weekend spent in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan for the one and only NIRSA Region 3 Student Lead On Conference. Remember from blogs past how I talked about NIRSA, the association that kinda incubuses all that my job is and it's how I got my current graduate assistantship, etc. Well NIRSA doesn't just like to meet the one time per year deal so they set up smaller conferences in each region to hold info sessions, work on student development, and mainly to meet and revisit with friends and colleagues.
Only Region 3 likes to do it real big, and I mean REAL big.

My old region, Region 6 does a regional conference and we maybe had maybe 175 people go. And that's pushing it. There were 460+ people at Region 3's. Yeah. Close to 500 people all working at different universities in Campus Rec and all of them at University of Michigan. Go Blue.

But it was so much fun and I am so glad I went. And I wasn't really all too jazzed I had to go in the first place. But before I start on all the details of the conference, I'll explain the events leading up to it. Also, be prepared for another blog trilogy…It was a jam-packed couple of days and I'd rather not write it out in a novel format so for your sake and mine, I'll split it up.

So anyway…Pre-conference.

We are underway with the semester and that means we have to start up our IM sports. If you haven't caught on by now, that means training of the officials, setting up leagues, signing teams, etc.

My biggest concern- training the officials.

So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I pretty much spend the day fretting over how to run them, actually do it with the help of my staff, avoid minor/major hiccups, and then go on thinking how to change this or that, work on that more than this, etc.

The trainings went well, I was a little disappointed that only a small number came out to officiate but my supervisors did well in teaching them how to be basketball officials. We are also down in our team numbers but they are rising from last semester, so that's our silver lining. But late late late Wednesday night after our last day of official clinics, i had to stay up packing for this conference as we were leaving 6am Thursday. I went to bed at 2. gross. Oh and did I mention that IM basketball starts this upcoming Sunday? That means I need to schedule officials, and make sure they get on payroll. And I'm not in the office on Thursday or Friday. Sweet…

I tried to get out of going but my boss wasn't having it. I had already registered weeks ago and it'd be a waste of money, etc. etc. And I had never traveled that far north or to the state of Michigan before so what the heck, why not.

So after 3n1/2 hours of sleep I got up to meet the rest of the crew to head off to Michigan, 9 hours away. 2 minivans, 10 people, 2 pro staff, 5 ga's, 2 undergrad students and 1 grad student, 9 sleeping bags w/ yoga mats/pads, and enough baggage to last us months instead of just 3 days.

FUN

But it really was. I was super tired and planned on sleeping but the convo in the super cool minivan with a rear view camera, automatic doors and heated seats was too good to not listen too. We had a van full of GA's, myself, Kaylee, the aquatics GA, both outdoor pursuits GAs and our director. We're talking about everything from work to family to past trips and events and how our director got to where he is today, and just on and on and on. We stopped in Muncie, Indiana, home of Ball State University (Chirp Chirp!) for lunch and to see the Rec center they had. We don't always stop to tour universities but our director had worked their prior to SIU and so we had to stop by and walk down memory lane.

For those of you that don't know Ball St. (it's ok, I didn't either) it's average sized, David Letterman went there and some other famous people I guess but the most important part is that it has a recently new Rec that is gorgeous. Like wow. Super bright and clean and HUGE and spread out and new and did I say HUGE? It's cool. While there, the assistant director for Ball St. got a call…turns out that the one and only WannaBeGAguy was on the other line…quick back story…WannaBe had left SIU early as he had an on campus interview with Ball St for the GA position and then he would meet us at the conference later. He got the offer the day before we were there. And right as we were touring the basketball courts and multipurpose rooms he called in accepting the offer…so he is no longer a WannaBe, he will be a GA next year. We were all pretty excited, especially Ball St, and it was so ironic that we should be at the university talking to his future bosses when he accepted the offer. I'm so taking credit for getting rid of some of his bad habits cough* Now to make sure that he doesn't lose his head in all his excitement and still work for me for the rest of the semester, that'll be the true test. I kid, slightly, but I am pretty excited that he got the job and I'm going to claim him as one of my prodigal staff members. Duh. And the fact that he gets to work at a pretty cool and new Rec center is way awesome too.

But what was supposed to be a 2 hour visit turned into 4 close to 5 hours. Oops. They did send us off with some Ball State swag though and we hit the road after eating some mediocre burritos in their student center (take note for your next upgrade ball st.)

We finally end up in Ann Arbor. About 4 hours too late for registration and the first social of the conference but we were all so tired it didn't matter. So we check into the Rec and walk into this ANCIENT building that is the Intramural Sports Building at the University of Michigan. It is over 100 years old. Not joking. Like it was built in the early 1900's and looks it and we're sleeping in it. It's massive though as it has a huge court with 3 basketball courts, an indoor pool, 8 racquetball courts, lockers, gymnastic rooms, rowing rooms, a rock wall and it just goes on and on forever. It felt like walking around in Hogwarts, there's random corridors and stairways that lead to doors that don't have handles or rooms that have no purpose or every purpose you aren't really sure, etc. Too easy to get lost in. But we get in, scope a spot to sleep and try to pass out but none of the other folks staying there are interested. We aren't exactly in the meet and greet mood but there's kids playing frisbee in the gym we're sleeping in, juggling (that was odd) and doing hand stands (that was odder) and bouncing basketballs and just being ridiculously loud…not gonna lie I wanted to shoot them all I was so tired and it was past midnight and I was running on very little sleep. FINALLY they turn the lights out and we managed a few hours of shut eye.

We also found out that the one women's locker room only had 5 shower heads…and there was definitely more than 10 girls staying in that gym…oh and it's an open shower, no stalls. So you're saying we have to somehow manage to get around 100 girls to shower in 5 stalls in bathing suits before we start the actual conference? Yeahhhhhh ok that's hilarious.

But we did. We had to wake up and be ready by 8 as the conference started at 830. GAG. So me and some of the girls set our alarms for 5AM to beat the crowd and get a shower before the water heater went out. Double gag.

We did it, we woke up at 5 and showered in our tiny locker room with small, lukewarm showers in bathing suits and laughed awkwardly how close we were going to get whether we like it or not and passed the body wash and shampoo around and tried to present ourselves as professionally as we could when living out of basketball gym.

Nothing like a good ol' rec sports conference to make you rethink the term 'roughing it'.

Breakfast consisted of mini donuts and fruit juice boxes and it was off to the conference at a different building. Did I mention that it was negative 15? Yes. NEGATIVE 15. Not including the wind chill.

Never ever go to Michigan in January. Ever.

To be continued!

Sunday Not-So-Funday

Ok, I'm officially done crying over the Patriots losing to the Broncos in the AFC championship. Sigh…Brady what happened? That's 2 years in a row…first Barf-ill-more Ravens and now the let's all jump on the band wagon Broncos because we have laser rocket arm QB Manning aka Jesus…GAG.

Thank goodness there's college basketball to look forward too. 

But while at the bar watching the games last night, I saw that we're a few Niner fans, too many Bronco fans and only one other guy in a Gronkowski jersey. I didn't wear my jersey, that's my superstitiousness coming out in full but it didn't matter anyway. I still caught a lot of flack for being a Pats fan. "You're from Cali and you like the Patriots???" "You're geographically confused." "I hate Tom Brady!" "What?!?" "Who are you?!?" etc.

My reaction to the constant questions and jokes.

I could say the same for all of the Seahawk, Niner, Bronco fans in a sports bar in southern ILLINOIS…where da bears at?? Right…

Let me get this out there once and for all… yes, I am from Northern California and I am a Patriots fan. 

When I say Northern California I don't mean SF. Nope. Not even close. Like over 5 hours by car and so vastly different you can't even call me a 'local'. So geography never was a factor. My dad likes the Cowboys, my mom the Rams, etc… When I was about l1/12 I started to really pay attention to sports and take more vested interests in teams. But with my family having no consensus of who they like I wasn't exactly handed an option of "Us Allen's are ____ faithful. And that's final." So dad was like ok, you can watch all the games with me and see who you like. You can't go by mascot though, and if they win the super bowl you can't stop liking them if they get bad or lose, you have to stick with them forever. FOREVER.

I think he was joking with me but I took him really seriously. So I watched every Monday with Dad. the panthers were doing well, so were the titans I remember. Dad would go, so who is in the running today? And I'd go, well the colts dropped down in the poll but the packers went up a few spots, etc. I could have ended up liking the Philly Eagles but Tom Brady and the Patriots ended up being the 2004 Super Bowl champs and thus I am a forever faithful Patriot fan. 10 years strong and still going.

Sure, fine, I'll let you say that technically to get there I jumped on the wagon. But I'm here to stay. Through 2008 against the other Manning, and AGAIN in 2012. And I remember when the Dolphins beat us in the AFC. Yep. And it comes in waves so who knows maybe next year I'll have to suffer through a dismal year but I'll be right there.  

So there, neener neener. Who cares that they're located on the other side of the country? I'm still going to cheer even if I don't have a Boston accent or have ever set foot in gillete stadium. One day. Til then, I cheer from dirty sport bars surrounded by some newly-oh I have always been a Bronco fan-gag-where were you when they were struggling?-oh right you were a steeler fan instead?-fans. Yeah yeah we gave up welker, Yes, I just saw the same play you did, idiot, where he caught the umpteenth millionth catch from Peyton...blah blah. I wanted to punch all of them in their stupid faces. But I was with girlfriends who could care less about the game and more about the beer so I maintained being civil. 

Do you even remember when Cutler or Orton was the quarter back?? Thought so...

It ended up being a good day overall with friends, as we went to the wineries and then the bar to watch some football and drink 22oz beers and cheer every time the rest of the bar did (they aren't the watch football or any sports type, they just went to humor me.) and minus the Pats losing I had a good time. And then the Niners lost too and that made it kinda worse, because I'd rather see the Niners go on than the Seahawks but whatever…the post game interview with Sherman was almost worth it.

Not going to lie though, had they won I would have partied a lot a lot harder. Instead I went home and went to bed and now I'm going to enjoy my MLK day off by teaching my baby refs how to officiate basketball. Super Bowl? Nah, I'll skip this one and maybe just watch the half time show. Meh, better not.

To be continued!

Back on that So Ill grind

Howdy y'all!

I'm back in my home-for-now state of Illinois! Yay!

Gag.

No it's not THAT bad but I did leave beautiful, sunny, warm California for negative temperatures. I'm not even joking a little bit.

My last week of break was simply superb too. Made getting on that plane really hard and then landing in a snow tundra and hearing the pilot say it was a whopping 3 degrees outside made me want to stay on it.

I'm running back to Cali!

Why was it so fantastic? Let me count the ways…the quick version since it's been awhile.

I went back to Davis! YAY!
I saw some college friends.
Went shopping with said college friends.
Went out with said college friends.
Gossiped and caught up with said college friends.
Learned how to drive a stick shift in the city. (yikes!)
Saw my best friend and her family.
Went furniture shopping with best friend and family.
My best friend made fun of me for having the nickname Cali.
Went to Disneyland!
Rode all of the rides and ate all of the mickey mouse shaped food I could find.
Went to California Adventure park!
Rode all of the rides (Cars is by far the COOLEST one! Lightening McQueen is my favorite!)
Went to the Rose Bowl Parade!
Saw Vin Scully, he was the parade marshall (the play-by-play announcer for the LA Dodgers) and yelled "Go Giants!" and kinda feared for my life as all the Dodger fans boo-ed and laughed. Worth it.
Hung out in LA and Pasadena.
Wore shorts on the first day of 2014. No one in the rest of the US can say that. Thanks polar vortex.
Spent time with my family, aunt, soon-to-be uncle and Polly the boston terrier.

It was the best week to end my winter vacation.

And I came back to a sub-zero winter wasteland…some one check me into an insane asylum, why on earth would anyone leave this…

No ice to be found.

for this…

Chicago literally covered in ice. LITERALLY COVERED.

I MUST be crazy.

But I'm back. And it was cold. Super super cold. Like I can't even describe it. Never ever have I felt NEGATIVE degrees before. Sure, it would be cold at home, I think the lowest I saw was 8. Yeah ok brrr. Nah. I'd take that 8 over -13 any day.

Needless to say, I stayed in my little apartment and only ventured out to get my over flowing mail and I regretted that decision immediately. They shouldn't have negatives, just after a certain point the weather man should just say 'Sorry folks, it's cold enough to freeze hell over and that's all you need to know.'

Geezzusss. I take back every thing I said about being cold before. Nothing can compare.

But today was a lovely 50. Wait. It went from -10 to 50 in a matter of a week???

Yep. Makes sense.

And now we just finished our 'Welcome Back' training for the rec and school starts tomorrow.

Oh boy. The fun just never stops.

To be continued!

Here are some random photos from my winter vacay. Enjoy!

One of many bike circles in Davis. You'd think after all my bike crashes I wouldn't miss riding a bike all the time but I really really do.

FRIENDS! Oh how I have missed you!! xoxo

Palm trees and Blue skies? Happy New Year indeed.

Take 1…

Take 2..

Get it TOGETHER people!

Splash Mountain Yeeeahhh!!

Fake snow in 70 degree SoCal. Ha.

Happiest place on earth to wait in lines….

My baby brother is almost a foot taller than me and I only kind of look like I'm from a 90's grunge boy band. Greaaaatt...

Whipped Dole…Heaven on Earth. 

'It's A Small World' but the line is so big you can make 4 trips to the ice cream vendor and still have your fam waiting in relatively the same spot. That song is going to be stuck in your head for hours too, it's almost not worth it.

Ok. I lied. It's worth it.

My future house.

Finally!! A decent photo of all of us!