absence makes the heart grow fonder.

That was a much longer than anticipated blog break!  The last two weeks have been a bear, y'all.  What have I been up to?  In no particular order...

• Work
• Attempting to spend time with J
• Attempting to not fight with J about our limited time together
• Conference travel
• NCAA March Madness
• WORK
• NCAA March Madness
• Errands
• Sleep
  

I spent 5 days in Philadelphia last week for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators annual conference.  I work with student organizations, student development and event planning at a small, private college in Chicago, IL.  NASPA's annual meeting is a huge gathering of people who work at colleges and universities outside of the classroom-- in areas like student activities, Greek life, counseling, judicial affairs and so on.  I look forward to the conference every year; it's a great way to reconnect and energize about what I do.

The conference itself was fairly good, save for a few timing snafus and sessions that weren't exactly what I expected.  It was fun to be out of the office and meeting like-minded professionals for a few days. Philadelphia, however, was... a huge disappointment.  I had high hopes for the city, as I do for most places on the east coast.  I was sadly mistaken.  From our first cab ride, to hotel check-in, to restaurants and everything in between, we were largely met with loud, rude people.  The area surrounding our hotel and conference center went from ok to sketchy in a matter of blocks, making getting around in the evenings without a vehicle nearly impossible.  We spent most of our time in the conference events and at the few chain restaurants within walking distance.

Our last day in Philly, we did get to venture out and explore the city a bit more.  I had my first official Philly Cheesesteak (at Jim's) and we toured Old City.  Here are just a few pictures from our afternoon...

I returned to Chicago on St. Patrick's Day afternoon, headed home to change and then out for the evening.  In our old age, however, we only managed to stay out until 11pm!  It was nice to see Jeremy after 5 days apart and nice to be back in my city!

Tomorrow's update: March Madness!  You see, I am a proud alumni of a little school named Virginia Commonwealth University, aka VCU.  Possibly also aka that team that totally screwed up your bracket.  VCU is making an appearance in our first-ever Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.  The cool thing about all this?  I WAS THERE TO WITNESS HISTORY!  One of the second and third round tournament sites was sweet home Chicago, and I lucked out that VCU played two games in town!  I'll post pictures and stories tomorrow... for now, though, GO RAMS, GO!!!