Boston Red Sox

This was an awesome day to go into downtown Boston after two hard days of mulching 10 yards of mulch for my parents! It was awesome to head into Boston with my family and a friend to see the red sox play the cleveland indians. Even though they lost, it was great to head into the city for some good italian cuisine with a flattened beef panini and wash it down with some fine beverages. The whole afternoon was spent in Boston and mainly Fenway Park (Pahk). The seats we had were exceptional and it was awesome to be back with the Bostonians and to see their antics from a streaker on the field to the crazy antics of the people in the crowd. The guys and a girl in front of us had plenty to drink, we counted about 12 trips to the bar to get $14 dollars of beer each time! Not only did we see those actions but we saw the new additions to the sox team with Daisuke Matsuzaka and oldies such as Manny. Dice K wasn't as good as I would have hoped, I guess even a 52 million dollar man cannot always be on his game every day. Seeing all the players up and close was an experience and there were several foul balls that flew by our heads. Luckily we did not get nailed in the head like a few other unlucky fans did a few rows ahead of us. It was a crazy day with awesome family and friends. There is truly no place like Boston with the culture, people, history, sports, and fun all around.

IN to NE to MA Road Trip Pics

Nebraska to Boston Road Trip

When one travels by car, they really realize how far one location is to the next! I have been spoiled over the years by flying location to location, but driving from Valparaiso, IN to Falls City, NE and then onto Boston, MA. A total of about 2000 miles, it truly tests the patience and stamina one has with sitting in one seat for 22hrs. I did this journey with my mother after my graduation from college to head out to see my grandma, that I have not been able to see for a long time. It was nice to travel out to the very small town and see my grandmother and spend time with her and also show her all the new things I have been up to. It was also a pleasure to head back to where my family roots are. I was able to see the gravel road where my grandmother was born in 1920 and I was also able to see the old houses that my mother and father grew up in, one having my name carved in the concrete sidewalk still way back when I was in third grade in 1993. The town is still alive and doing well with a new library, even though the restaurants seem to be lacking and the main street does not seem to be a very main street compared to other cities I have been to. It was awesome to come out to this open area and relax and let my mind ponder about everything, including the several life changing things I am about to embark upon. Along with my thinking I was able to help my grandmother out with her apartment, cleaning and organizing and sight seeing the Midwest for one last time before I leave the country. An interesting thing that I was able to notice was how parts of the Midwest seem to be great places for Walmarts, chain stores, and some very large people who seem to hang around rest stops and all you can eat buffets. Going on this Midwest road trip really showed me how large some of the American population is and how people internationally may view us. People told me in Asia that I had a small belly and was large in Asia, I thought to myself that they should see parts of the USA! I want to add pictures to this posting, but that will have to wait until I get a faster Internet connection. The trip went well with flooding and rough rain in the Nebraska area, extreme road traffic around Chicago and the 400 mile thruway in northern New York is always a fun one to drive, my radar detector came in handy, needless to say. Home is looking better and better by the mile and it will be nice to get back to good old Massachusetts before I go to my new home in Hong Kong.

Valpo Memories

This senior year has been a blast living in the house and being able to really connect with the underclassmen and help them out with things such as job hunts and advice about school. Also, when it comes to senior year, I wanted to make sure that I experience as many things that Valpo and surrounding areas such as Chicago have to offer. This year has been busy with school work like usual, but I have also been able to keep busy with Phi Psi activities and along with that, comes a lot of weekly meetings and other such items. The photos above are a brief summary of a few of the activities that I was able to enjoy before graduation such as a Cubs game, visiting Phi Psi headquarters in Indy, touring Chicago, having two live bands play music at my fraternity, and other dances and social activities that are always fun. Time is on fast forward, but the memories that I have created here with my close friends, will never fade away.

SEMA Show 2007 Pics

SEMA Show 2007

I was going through my pictures today and organizing them into folders and making sure I can keep track of them, this can be a challenge with a poor memory at times. As a little car guy growing up, I was always interested in cars and because of this and reading through multiple car magazines, I always ran across this thing called the SEMA show.

Over the years it has blossomed into a huge multiple day event in Las Vegas where anyone and everyone related to the car world goes. As the main website states, "It draws the industry’s brightest minds and hottest products to one place, the Las Vegas Convention Center. As part of the AAIW, the SEMA Show attracts more than 100,000 industry leaders from over 100 countries for unlimited profit opportunities in the automotive, truck and SUV, marine and RV markets."

Basically it is the Rolls Royce of the car event world and every new and amazing product, concept car or other new thing is displayed and shown off. When I was asked to go out over a weekend in my first semester of my senior year to work this show, I almost fell out of my seat. I was extremely excited and I had no idea what I was in for.

The show went on forever and had anything my heart desired. I spent a long time working the show and talking and networking with car people from all over the world. I spent my time doing everything from giving demonstrations to talking to new customers to giving interviews. It was a blast and was really a dream come true for a 22 year old.

The really cool part of the show was that I was able to learn from the show and then learn how to transport the ideas used in Vegas to a worldwide display area. People in the states do not always have an understanding of how things work outside the USA borders and being a midway point for the company should prove to be an interesting task and job.

Spring Break 2007 Pics

Senior Spring Break

This was an amazing way to top of my college experience. This senior spring break was an amazing two week experience that started off with eight of my pledge brothers and I going on a seven day cruise off Miami to Cozumel Mexico, Grand Cayman Islands (where this picture was taken with my cousin) and also to Ocho Rios Jamaica. This seven day cruise was an awesome experience that I was able to have with some of my closest friends. There were a multitude of shore excursions that we participated in such as zip lining through the rain forest and also meeting up with my cousin who lives in Grand Cayman. The whole experience was a spectacular experience that I will never forget. This section could go on forever, but there were so many crazy experiences, places, people and stories to talk about! The second seven days were spent with my parents in Key West Florida, where we did a lot of bike riding and meeting up with my great aunt and her husband. These two weeks were a nice dose of dreaming, unfortunately school was quick to return after my trip.

Living in Phi Psi

Throughout my four years at Valparaiso University, I have learned a lot about school and also myself. It has been a great learning experience and one place where I have been able to apply my skills as a leader and mentor a lot, has been at my fraternity on 801 Mound St. Here I have lived for three out of the four years and I have so many fond memories of this house. The rooms may have all been so small, the halls were narrow, the food was horrible and the whole place smelled funky, but it was my college home. Here is where I was able to study and have fun on the weekends. Here is where I lived with 50 of my closest friends and we were able to create ever lasting friendships and memories together. This small house is certainly not the Ritz and I would not want to live here forever, but it gave me the opportunity to meet more people than I could ever imagine and it allowed for so many experiences such as traveling all over the Midwest, going to leadership conferences in Indianapolis, and even going down to Cabo San Lucas for fun and leadership work. This house may be average to some, but to me it is extraordinary and has taught me that if you want something bad enough or think something needs to be done, you should be the catalyst and lead the way for others to follow. There were so many boys that joined this house, that left as men, each took their own path and each is hopefully following their dreams. It was a great place to develop as a person and was also a great place to take chances and hone each persons skills and especially people skills. Phi Kappa Psi will always be a part of me and if it weren't for this house and the people associated with it, I probably would have not stayed at Valpo.