Alumni Testimony

Hey, check it out, I'm famous!

Ok, not that famous, but exciting none the less. A few months ago, my university in Spain emailed their alumni asking for "testimonies" about studying abroad at the Universidad de Deusto. I jumped on the chance to do something in return for the program that did so much for me so I put a lot of thought into my statement and sent it in. I then forgot all about it until today when I randomly Googled myself and the Alumni Testimony page came up. I was super excited that they used my quote and just had to share. Yay Bilbao!

Assembly Hall Ushers: Protecting Patrons From Falling Ice One Door at a Time

A few weeks ago I was working at a basketball game at the Assembly Hall. It was quite warm and much of our snow and ice was melting. As I walked up to the front entrance, I noticed all sorts of security guards, caution tape, and people. I was told to go around and go into this little tiny glass-ish building. So I continued to this little building and went down some stairs into the bowels of the Assembly Hall. I kept getting pointed in the right direction by security guards that had been carefully placed along the path. I was seriously confused as to what was going on because I'd also seen a couple police cars and I was wondering if I should even be going into the building. I went through the loading area, went up some stairs, and then into this super secret hallway with offices and what looked like a room leading into some locker rooms or dressing rooms. If I hadn't been so weirded out, I would have snooped a little bit more. It's not every day that lowly ushers get to go into the depths of the Assembly Hall! After a few more twists and turns (pointed out by the faithful security guards) I boarded an elevator. That's right, they try to lie and say there's no elevators, but there are. Not many people can say they've ridden in an elevator at the Assembly Hall. Then I got off the elevator and had to figure out where the heck I was to check in at the usher room. Whew, an entire maze just to get to work when I normally just walk in the front door.

I found out that the reason no one could go in the regular doors yet was because all of the ice that had accumulated on the roof was melting and falling. Yikes. I knew that was some serious business because a few weeks earlier I saw a huge chunk of ice fall off the Hancock in Chicago and shatter when it hit the ground. So, people were only allowed in and out of the Assembly Hall via the main west door. This wasn't too big of a problem til after the game. They made a bunch of us stand out on the concourse to prevent people from using other doors. Just imagine me, the big bad usher, stopping people from going out of a door. We then waited around for about 45 minutes after the game because it took that long for people to filter out of one door. You never realize how many people 16,000 is until you're waiting around for them to get out. Oh Assembly Hall, good job keeping things interesting.

Flip Flops in February?!

You betcha! I don't know about you, but this surge of warmer weather has put me in a fantastic mood. There's nothing better than a warm spell to pick up those winter blues, even if it only lasts for a week. I celebrated Monday by wearing a short-sleeved sweater to clinic and on Tuesday by wearing flip flops and capris to the library and sitting on the porch swing to do some reading. Even though it's rainy today, it's still warm enough for me. Too bad it's just a taste of spring and we probably won't get the real thing until after another load of snow is dumped. But that's the Midwest!

Snow Much Fun

Lame, I know, but I couldn't figure out a way to sum up this post. On Friday I went to the Raquels' and Liza and I took the boys outside to play in the snow. After Liza and I tried to pull each other in the sled while holding Caden on the lap, I started pulling Caden around. We took a couple trips around the front yard and then I got adventurous and took him around the whole house. Sled pulling is hard, man. Anyway, I must have been doing a good job because about mid-way across the front yard Caden said "This is my favorite day of my life!" Wow, that's some serious business there. Either he forgot he went to Disney World twice or I am just that awesome. I'll choose to go with the latter. This picture was taken right after he said that to document his favorite day of his life (and so I could blog about it).