Back to my Roots

Today I traveled from my favorite city, Detroit, all the way through Ohio to the pleasant hills of Western Pennsylvania. To go through Ohio, at a decent speed, you have to take a toll road. Not to go on another one of my tangents about ridiculous things, but I'm going to. Toll roads are another one of my top 5 pet peeves. I don't get it. Rather than increasing taxes and make it easy, let's higher hundreds of people to charge each car $5.45 to drive across the state and hold up traffic. I was in Massachusetts early last semester, and stopped at the toll booth to get a ticket from toll booth Willy. I drove another 60 miles and came to the exit booth. When I asked how much, the lady said, "Oh, it's free." This brings me to my next question. Why does she have a job? The guy who took my money today had one tooth, I kid you not, and when he gave me my change I noticed that his hands were filled with some kind of sores. I would compare it to herpes, but the only time I've seen herpes is on Chappelle's show. I almost told the guy to keep my $15 bucks. I'm spending the next two weeks in Western Pennsylvania at Westminster College. I'll probaly know all 5 students on campus by the time I leave this place. I was suprised to find out that the school is located in Amish country. I was traveling to campus, and about took out Jebediah and his horse Skeeter. Why don't Amish people have to stick turn signals on their horses ass. The only reason I knew he was in front of me was the giant load of crap that Skeeter dropped in my lane. I proceeded to follow him for awhile, but eventually passed him, because I didn't want his wooden furniture to come of his buggy and take out my windshield. I don't think I'll have to worry about receiving hate maile from those non-technological people, so I'll continue to trash them online. I bet old Jebedia and his son Mikah have one upped me on money spent on gas though. My hotel in Grove City is an Award Winning Comfort Inn that was awarded this because they give you complementary cream cheese on your bagel in the morning. My room smells like a nursing home and it took me 2 hours to get online to write this pointless entry. Oh well, I'll show them whos boss when I gank one of their hand towels and an extra bottle of shampoo. My last name "Good" for all of you that didn't know it, is Pennsylvanian Dutch. How about that for crappy roots. I was excited when I bought a bag of "Good's Famous Potato Chips." Good stuff. I tried eating them like Matt Lind, but got annoyed at myself and stopped.

Detroit City

So I finally know the reason why all automobile manufacturers are located in Detroit. There roads are so bad, I bet everyone's car breaks down atleast two to three times a year, and they have to make a new one. I swear, I about broke my nose on my steering wheel twice. My car loves me for wanting to see a Pistons game. Another bad party about the city is its road signs and turns. If you haven't been to Michigan, you are probably not familiar with their left hand turns. Rather than just turning left at an intersection, you have to go the opposite way and then cross the median onto oncoming traffic. Makes completely great sense to me. Once again, more crashes equals a higher need for automobiles. The trip from my hotel to the Palace in Auburn Hills is supposed to be about 20 minutes, but it took me about an hour and a half. Taking this long, made me miss out on being one of the first 10,000 fans to get a talking Rip Hamilton bobblehead. That's enough to put me in a bad mood for the rest of the night (Well, actually I'm still pretty ticked.) I guess I can be thankful that I ended up in the nicer neighborhoods rather than on 8 Mile. I had the soundtrack ready to blare if I needed it. The game was very cool though. It bugs me that the Pistons call themselves the World Championships. There's something wrong about that. Our American team can't even beat other countries, but the Detroit Pistons are the World Champions. I tried scalping a ticket from my scalping buddies, but they knew that I wasn't going to pay them the big bucks when I pulled out a U.S. $10 and a Canadian $5. I figured they're about 20 minutes from Ontario, so they could hop the border to exchange it for about $3. That's where those international finance classes kick in. One highlight in Detroit was staying at a 4 star Westin. I could have hibernated on that bed for about a month, but that would have probably gotten in the way of work. I've never sprawled out on a bed naked so much. (Did I just type that). Ah, the perks of traveling alone. I know I don't belong at 4 star hotels when the valet guy tells me where my car will be and I say, "Oh, it's cool, I'll park it myself." Ridiculous. I'm not going to pay a guy $5 to park my car around the corner. I've got better things to do with $5, like buy souvenier coffee mugs or collectible Wheaties boxes. Seriously. I don't make much money, and I've got a budget.

Third Time in Ann Arbor

I'm back in Ann Arbor for my third time this year. I visited early in the Fall, in December for their installation, and now to kick off the second semester. The house is amazing, and it has the typical Big Ten Fraternity look. Ann Arbor is a great city, and the sports are awesome. I attended the Michigan/Northern Michigan hockey game tonight, and saw the #3 Wolverines get smoked. The crowd is hyper as no other, and they have started to kick people out for their obscene chants. Whenever an opposing player gets a penalty they do this chant, in which they call that player every name in the book. I thought it was pretty brutal, and was probably the only one in the crowd that didn't know it. Luckily, my sister went to Michigan and I had a sweatshirt to fit in. I'm starting to like hockey more and more and am kind of dissapointed that the NHL is on strike. That would make Canada much more fun! Oh well. I will be spending the next two weeks in New Willmington, Pennsylvania working with an interest group at Westminster College. The school does not have many students so it should be a blast for me staying in a Comfort Inn for two weeks. My hotel is in the midst of the nation's largest outlet mall, so anyone needs anything give me a holler.

Milwaukee Blizzards

Brendan and I are here in Madison working with a group of guys at the Univeristy. We planned on going to Milwaukee for the weekend, and about 3 hours before we started the snow started to fall heavily. Nevertheless, we drove through the blizzard and arrived in Milwaukee about 15 minutes before game time of the Milwaukee Bucks/Detroit Pistons game. The game was good, but pro basketball live is all about the entertainment. We were pretty annoyed as a different tune played during each possession. The college game atmosphere is far greater with the bands, school spirit, etc. Over night, Milwaukee received about a foot of snow, and it was still coming down when we left. We decided to visit the Miller Brewery. Because of the snow, the tour was limited. We were able to watch about a ten minute film and have our samples of beer. Drinking at 10:00 am was not at the top of our priority list, and we still had to drive back to Madison through the snow. We bought our souveniers and then went to Miller Park (Brewers) to have lunch at Fridays. The restaurant is in left field and our table overlooked the snow covered filed. The field is amazing and its architecture is probably one of the best in the big leagues. We made it back to Madison in good time, and it's time to get back to work. When I really thought about it, I've always pictured Milwaukee as a snow covered town, where the weather is miserable. It didn't let me down.

Whoever Thought To Put A University Next to a Lake

After a long inconvient flight from Columbus to Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin, I made it to my hotel at 2:00 am last night. I was supposed to arrive at 10:00 pm, so I was in a real good mood. The nice hotel that I got on priceline for a great price was only a place to sleep for me. I'll be in Madison, Wisconsin at the University of Wisconsin for a week to work with the interest group. Brendan, another consultant, will be joining me. His mom works for Marriott, so we get great rates at really nice hotels.

Madison is a beautiful campus and probably much more enjoyable when it's warm. I went to check out the lake, which is right next to campus, and turned around after I walked out from the shelter of a building. I'm only a state away from home, but my god, it's cold. Can't wait to go to Canada! State Street is amazing here in Wisconsin, and now I see why people come here to party during Halloween. It's like Welch Avenue extended by about 2 miles with many more restaurants, bars, stores. Well, it's not like Welch at all, sorry for even comparing it. Brendan and I will be going to Milwaukee this Friday to go to a Buck/Pistons NBA game, and to spend our Saturday in the city.

My First Trip to Texas

We just arrived back in Oxford from our trip to San Antonio. We had our General Officers Conference this weekend. It was a great chance to meet a great deal of the Fraternity's volunteers and network with them. Many of these guys dedicate much of their time to the Fraternity and are amazing people. I had a little time to tour around the city. The Alamo was great to see, but a little overrated. It's much smaller than you would think. The Riverwalk was amazing and had many great restaurants and bars. I can see how many people fall into the river after a late night drinking Cokes. The people of Texas are definitely proud. The Texas flag is on everything, and they like their Armadillos. San Antonio is being overtaken by opposums. We were at a bar, and one crawled right up to us. Not a frequent situation for me to be face to face with an opposums. Good times in Texas! Next year the conference will be in New Orleans.

The Worst Smelling Day of the Year at BGSU

My first visit of the year has already started off with a bang or shall I say without a shower. I arrived here at Bowling Green State University yesterday around five and my bladder was about to explode. (Not a surprise to me) I proceeded to go into the bathroom and realize that someone left the infamous "floater" in the toilet. I did my business and went to flush the toilet, but it wouldn't flush. Great, the consultant arrives goes to the bathroom, and everyone is going to think I left the floater. We couldn't get the toilet to flush and couldn't figure out why. Later in the night, we found out that a main water pipe had frozen and blown up. BG was out of commission for awhile, and I definitely did not get a shower in before all of my meetings. Thanks god I didn't have to meet anyone that important.

President's Leadership Conference

I just got back from our annual President's Leadership Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. The conference revolved around hazing in our chapters. Phi Delt's main push for the past five years has been alcohol-free housing. It has been very rewarding for the Fraternity and many Phi Delt chapters have done great things with it. Universities everywhere want Phi Delt on their campus, because of our initiative in this policy. Now that this is succeed the Fraternity is focusing on hazing. The conference brought in many great speakers, and probably one of the best I've ever seen. His name is Will Keim, and his website is www.willkeim.com. He is a world-renown speakers, and hit many guys right between the eyes with this words - Including me.

Sparky Reardon, the Dean of Students at Ole Miss also spoke. He's a Phi Delt who has made his personal mission to stop hazing within Phi Delta Theta. His stories and experiences are amazing. Everytime I see him he reminds me that I look like Payton Manning. I actually heard this about 30 times this semester. Kind of crazy! The conference was great for me and my personal development because I had a chance to speak in front of the 175 people in the room. Public speaking has become easy for me through this job, but this was definitely my biggest audience. I spoke about the importance of teambuilding within a pledgeclass.

On the way home yesterday, a few of us stopped by the Annheiser Busch brewery. It's huge and the best part was the stabble with about 10 Clydesdales and Dalmations running around. We also stopped by the Broadway Oyster Bar. If you're ever in St. Louis check it out. It's right between the Arch and the Brewery.

Struggle City

I apologize to all of you who care enough about me that have been checking the website to see no updates. The website was definitely put on the backburner, and I kick myself daily that I haven't been documenting my travels. This past semester was amazing, and I can't even explain the experience I have already had. The places I've seen, the sporting events I've been to, the sights I've seen, and the people I've met have made this job ideal for me. I'll try to do my best to recap the past semester, and to continue to update this website throughout this semester and next year.

18,000 miles since August gave me the opportunity to think. What do I want to do with myself after this job? Do I go back to school, test out the job market, keep looking for that million dollar idea, or continute with the Fraternity? All of these options have their pros and cons, but I still have three semesters to make my decision.

I added many states to my personal list of states I've visited. I was in the following states this past semester.

1) Iowa
2) Illinois
3) Indiana
4) Ohio
5) Michigan
6) Pennsylvania
7) Kentucky
8) New York
9) Connecticut
10) Massachusetts
11) West Virginia (for about 20 minutes)
12) New Jersey (for about 30 minutes)
13) Wisconsin
14) Minnesota
15) Missouri

I visited my first Canadian Province (Nova Scotia)

I saw two pro football games:
1. Bengals vs. Patriots
2. Chiefs vs. Broncos (With the dudes)

College football was my life on the weekends:
1) Miami (OH) vs. Indiana State (It was hard to root against ISU- Ind. State.U.)
2) Michigan vs. Miami (OH)
3) Ohio State vs. Marshall
4) Pittsburgh vs. Rutgers
4) Boston College vs. Connecticut
5) Syracuse vs. Connecticut
6) Iowa State vs. Missouri (Loved that one)

Went to one hockey game (In Canada)(The Halifax Mooseheads)

Saw many sights
1) Niagara Falls
2) Statue of Liberty
3) Wall Street
4) Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water
5) Annheiser Busch Brewery
6) Baseball Hall of Fame
7) Football Hall of Fame
8) Basketball Hall of Fame
9) Fenway Park
10) The Freedom Trail (Boston)
11) Times Square
12) Peggy's Cove (Halifax)
13) Leinenkugel's Brewery (With Tillie)
14) Duquense Incline (Pittsburgh)


Spent time in the following major cities:
1) Columbus
2) Cleveland
3) Cincinnati
4) Pittsburgh
5) Ann Arbor
6) Grand Rapids
7) Pittsburgh
8) Boston
9) NYC
10) Hartford
11) Duluth
12) Kansas City

Went to the following Major League Ballparks:

1) Jacobs Field - Cleveland
2) Great American Ballpark - Cincinnati
3) Fenway Park - 2 Games (Was an extra in a movie) (Fever Pitch)

Went to the following College Basketball Games:
1) Michigan vs. South Florida
2) Iowa State vs. Xavier
3) UCONN vs. Some scrub team (Don't remember)
4) Syracuse vs. Memphis (At Madison Square Garden)
5) Mississippi State vs. Someone (Madison Square Garden)

Visited the following Universities:
1) Western Kentucky
2) Case Western Reserve
3) Bowling Green State University
4) Kent State
5) Denison University
6) University of Akron
7) Ashland University
8) Northwood University
9) Kettering
10) Washington & Jefferson College
11) Clarion University
12) Allegheny College
13) Cornell
14) Colgate
15) R.I.T
16) Boston University
17) M.I.T.
18) Harvard
19) University of Hartford
20) Central Connecticut State University
21) Iowa State University!
22) Dalhousie University (Canada)
23) Yale

And I did a little work..........

The work has definitely been the most rewarding. I'm at an organization I really care about, and work along some great people. It's been a great experience working with the chapters to help them improve. I even had the chance to go back to ISU to work with the guys. Very rewarding!

Good times...