The final stretch!

I'm heading home tomorrow! I finished my last fair and my last presentation today/this evening and now I am my hotel packing my bag to go home!

I'm incredibly excited. This has been a long trip - I've been gone since October 20th.

I'm ready to sleep in my own bed, cook in my kitchen, and have some normalcy again.

I do have to say that the last 7 weeks has gone by fairly quickly. I just have a couple of trips left. I head to San Francisco next weekend for one event on Saturday and then to Saint Louis the following weekend to visit SLU and WashU. I also have a two quick trips through Nebraska.

But, I'm headed home tomorrow. And that is great news!

Adventures in Traveling!

I'm in Riverside, CA tonight.

I got a great deal on a hotel last year in Riverside and was able to stay in a Marriott and get spoiled a little.

This year I could not find such a great deal and ended up in a Courtyard - which is still a good hotel, but...


the person in the room next door to me is snoring so loud that I can hear it as clear as day in my room! I would complain, except that it is almost midnight here and I'm fairly settled in this room and don't feel like leaving. But, holy moly!!

Chai Tea Lattes

I'm enjoying some time at Panera this morning/early afternoon. I basically had a "free day" today with no events scheduled, but there are often prospective applicants who have a hard time seeing us while we are on the road because of scheduling and the fact that some universities restrict their events to just student (not that I blame them - universities do not need random people wandering around campus looking for recruiters), so I made it known that I would be at a Panera not far from my hotel for awhile today and so here I am. I usually pick Paneras for such events because they are usually located in very populated areas, they are cozy, they have free Wi-Fi (although I have discovered that in very populated areas they limit the amount of time you can be online and I can enjoy a Chai Tea Latte (or a bowl of French Onion Soup, which I will probably enjoy in just a little while) while I wait for the people to come to me.

Soapbox...

I often find myself paying attention to the bumper stickers that people place on their cars. I saw one today that really frustrated me.

The car was a HUGE SUV and it had about 10 McCain or McCain/Palin stickers plastered across the back. There was also a bumper sticker that was half black with white writing and half white with black writing and said something to the effect of, "Dear God, Why is violence allowed in schools? From Concerned Student" and the other hald said, "Dear Concerned Student, Because I am not allowed in schools. From God."

Are you kidding me? I'm sure the owner of this vehicle has a very specific opinion on which version of God he/she would like to be "present" in schools, and would likely be screaming the loudest if that version of God is not the one that suits his/her beliefs. Which is EXACTLY THE REASON OUR FOUNDING FATHERS ENSURED THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE (and therefore schools). I'm sure that this parent would be the first to scream if teachers began leading students in Muslim prayer five times during the school day.

Sometimes I think that there are people in this country who forgot to pay attention in history class during elementary school. Our country was founded on the basis of freedom from religious persecution. Freedom to practice whatever religion we choose without the fear that we will be arrested, harrassed, or killed for our religious beliefs. While I absolutely admire people who have a strong faith, it absolutely frustrates me that they are so convinced that their way is the only way that they believe that we should be teaching religion in schools so that all children will be taught those same beliefs. It is pretty rediculous when you think about it.

And who is to say that bringing God into any environment will ensure that no violence will occur as the bumper sticker suggests? Plenty of people have committeed acts of violence in the name of God througout history. Isn't that essentially what religious persecution is?

Church-based schools have been created for those parents who choose to send their children to them. But again, there is "choice" there. They can choose the school which best supports their particular faith beliefs. However, I'm also a firm believer that families should do a better job of supporting the passing on of faith traditions to children. I don't know of any religious sect that does not find that family is one of the modes of practicing and passing on of faith traditions.

I'm going to Disneyland!

Well, sort of. My hotel for the next couple of days is located just down the street from Disneyland and I plan to visit Downtown Disney sometime while I am here. Downtown Disney is a retail and food district just outside of Disneyland that you don't have to pay entrance fees for. I was going to go tonight, but ended up falling asleep for awhile and decided that I will walk down their either tomorrow night or Sunday afternoon/evening. The brochure I picked up said that Downtown Disney has a House of Blues which I have only been to one other time - in New Orleans with Kari, Rach, and Mike. It was a fairly eventful trip last time as Mike go the brillant idea to eat a habanero pepper that was included with our jambalaya. Probably not a great idea - especially when the waiter warned us beforehand not to try eating it and then added, "and if you do, make sure you let me know so we can have milk and bread ready to go in the kitchen, because you will need it." He was right, Mike did need both milk and bread to sooth the burning.

The rest of my Idaho trip was tough. I drove a ton (from Boise to Pocatello to Rexburg and then back to Boise), did not get much sleep, and met with a whole bunch of students. I ended up connecting with a girl who is now working for ATSU who tranferred to Truman when I worked there. I recognized her as soon as I walked into the first fair and we ended up having lunch a couple of times during the week. It was nice to have someone familiar to talk to during the trip.

I'm in California again for a week - in the LA area this time. I'm hoping the trip goes by quickly as I'm ready for some routine again. I feel like I haven't "worked" in a long time, even though I feel like I am working all the time, if that make sense.

Beautiful Country

One of the best parts of my job is being able to visit parts of our country I have never seen before. Prior to working at Creighton, I had never been to San Diego before, and in the last year I have been there five times. I had also never been to San Francisco before and now I have been there twice and will visit again next month.

I am currently in Idaho - the first time I have visited this state or really this part of the country. I've never been to Montana, and have only flown through Salt Lake City and drove through Wyoming one time when I was young on our way to South Dakota. I flew to Boise yesterday morning. I was in a horrible mood all weekend because I wasn't really looking forward to this trip. I've been traveling for over a month now and the idea of spending more time away from home was really weighing on me. I also miss my husband. I missing spending time with him, hanging around our house, cooking, running errand, etc. So, I was not in the best of moods on Sunday as I was packing and getting ready to leave. And I was really not in a good mood when Matt and I left our house at 5am so I could catch my flight.

However, I'm enjoying my trip to Idaho a great deal. I landed around noon yesterday and had a little bit of time to drive around Boise before my appointment with a couple of students. Boise appears to sit in a little bit if a valley and is surrounded by hills. The setting is gorgeous! I spent the first 8 years of my life being able to look at the mountains everyday so perhaps I am just always drawn to them.

The Boise State fair was this afternoon so I slept in a little this morning (which was great since I was up so early yesterday), and then made my way over the campus. The fair took place in the student union which was a really fun building. Right when I walked in the door I was greeted by the sound of a bowling alley and about 2 seconds later walked right passed the bowling alley that is in their union!

After the fair, I jumped in my mini-van (more on this later) and headed to Pocatello, which is about 3.5 hours west of Boise. Tomorrow I will be attending a fair at Idaho State. I'm looking forward to my trip back across southern Idaho on Thursday (I fly out of Boise on Friday) because I didn't get to see much of the scenery before it got dark tonight.

Okay - the mini-van story. I arrived yesterday and got the details for my rental car that I had reserved in advance inside the airport, and the walked outside to pick up my car. Then, when I got outside I was informed that the type of car I had reserved was not available, but "would be given a free 'upgrade' to a mini-van". An upgrade? Are you kidding me? The only reason I took the mini-van was because it came with Sirius radio and I figured it would be good with all the driving I am doing in remote areas during this trip. However, I always reserve small vehicles because I drive a small vehicle so it makes me nervous to drive an unfamiliar and much larger vehicle. However, I was too tired yesterday to pitch a fit about the fact that my "reservation" was pretty worthless. This is NOT the first time I have had issues with this particular company and it is not looking good that I will be using them in the future. It seems to be the case with rental cars that you get what you pay for because I have never had issues with my reservation with the "more expensive" company I usually rent from.

A little bit of home and then a trip to Illinois

My trip home from Seattle was fairly uneventful. Kim and I got up at 3:30 to make it to my flight, which left at 6:10am. We got to the airport with plenty of time, but we wanted to make sure. Sometimes you can run into a crazy airport when you don't expect it. I flew through Denver with a short layover and Matt picked me up from the airport. It was good - so good - to see him again. We headed home where I quickly got cleaned up and we picked up my mom to head to Council Bluffs for Marcia's retirement party.

The party was nice - I spent some quality time with Ruby, although she seems to prefer to be in her carseat untouch rather than being cuddled. Marcia was surrounded by lots of family (I think all of the Fischers were there) and friends. My family went to The Matt after the party because our monthly dinner was scheduled for Sunday evening and we decided to have it anyways.

I spent Monday at work and then had dinner with the Deveneys on Monday night. They were passing through town and had dinner with me before heading home to KC. I got to meed the adorable Addie, who tolerated us for awhile during dinner, but then let her unhappiness with the situation be known. Poor kid - she had to have been exhausted from traveling and the lack of a good nap. It was great to see Tim and Sarah - I hadn't spent much time with them since we were all in Kirksville about a year and a half ago.

I left Tuesday for Illinois. I flew straight to Chicago, got my rental car and took off for the University of Illinois. I enjoyed a quiet night last night including a great workout.

I visited the University of Illinois today and saw a decent number of students. The location of the fair changed this year and it seemed like we had fewer students who passed by the fair and remembered that they wanted to go because it wasn't in the Union. I love the U of I campus and I got to walk around a little bit between the fair and a PT forum I participated in this evening. I also enjoyed some Malted Caramel Chocolate from Moonstruck - YUM!

I am headed to Chicago tomorrow to visit Loyola University Chicago and then the Chicago Grad/Professional Fair. Then I fly home!