Post Alumni Road Trip: Trying to Keep it Healthy

I'm sitting in the San Antonio airport waiting for my flight. I got here early and the flight has a slight delay (10 mins.) so I thought I might write about something that I've been trying to squeeze in through these posts for the last couple of days.

Being on the road for two weeks is draining. I can't wait to get home. Not only because I get to see my wife, sleep in my own bed and stay in one place for more than a day or two, but also because I get to go back to the gym.

I've gone from a pretty steady regiment of classes mixed in with some self-induced cardio work at the gym to hardly anything for the last two weeks. Despite my best efforts, there are always a number of factors that play a role in what I am able to do:

1. Lack of time - a lot of driving combined with meetings.
2. Lack of motivation - after a five+ hour drive, the last thing I feel like is busting up a sweat.
3. Lack of resources - this last point can be further divided:

• Lack of facilities - Some hotels have something, others do not.
• Lack of clothes - Two weeks and two bags...I have to make cuts to make everything fit.
• Weather - This has to do with clothes, but I didn't pack clothes to work out in cold weather.

I did get out for a couple of runs (3 miles and 4 miles) and two of the hotels had some cardio machines along with a weight machine. Coupled with that was the stuff that I could do in my room, such as crunches, push-ups and "wall sits."

Of course, the last issue is diet. I had the best intentions of eating at Subway as much as I could, but after one week of it, I just couldn't take it anymore. I tried to make sure to incorporate salads with each of my meals, but it is always easy to slide in an order of fries with my meal.

Needless to say, I will have to start working my butt off to get back to where I was before the trip. I'm going to have to hope for warmer weather to restart the bike commute to work and spend some extra time at the gym. Eating at home is going to help a lot also.

I never thought I would realize how much I miss the gym. I'll see how if I'm still thinking the same way when Tamara is riding my ass as I'm running sprints at the gym.

Alumni Road Trip in Corpus Christi and San Antonio

I apologize for not getting out a posting on my trip in Corpus Christi. I had a few things come up and I wasn't able to write something up.

The trip from Corpus Christi was a decent drive...and short in comparison to some of my other trips. Our event was held in the afternoon which meant I had to get rollin' in the morning. It was kind of cool taking an interstate to the point where it ends and seeing the Gulf of Mexico. I didn't get to spend too much toime sighseeing, but I enjoyed the brief sightseeing venture.

Despite the fact that Corpus Christi isn't a huge metropolitan area, it still has two chapter in the city limts and a third chapter about 45 minutes out of town. We had around 14 guys in attendance. There were three alums, three probationary members and the rest were collegiate members. One of the alums in attendance is a police officer, as well as a U.S. Marshall, who is on out unmailable list, but saw our event duringone of his rounds and signed up to be on duty that day.

Afterwards, I sat down with about five guys who wanted more information on alumni associations. There are some hurdles that a group like thus would need to overcome, but they have the desire to make something happen.

I decided to drive to San Antonio that evening for a two-night stay. After a week of packing up every morning to get to the next place, having a day to relax was very welcome.

The stop at San Antionio was not as well attended as I had hoped. We had five alums in attendance, but there should have been far more. The San Antonio Area Alumni Association had just received their charter the week prior and I was hoping to build off of that momentum. Still, two of the guys who attended were not aware of the alumni association and were able to exchange contact information.

So I'm heading home today. There is snow in the forecast in San Antonio so we will see how well the airports down here deal with this type of weather. I am ready to go home and I hope that the weather will work in my favor.

NEXT STOP: EVANSVILLE, IN (through Nashville, Chicago and Louisville)

Alumni Road Trip in Houston

As I woke up the morning of the Houston stop, I would have never known the complexity of the day. It was interesting, but also a little stressful.

Marc Perez of the DFWAAA wanted to show me a vineyard located in Grapevine, TX before I left. The Delaney Vineyard is local attraction with 10 acres of land for harvesting. We didn't have time to do a tour, but we did take a quick look around. Marc bought two bottle of wine for me; one to take back and drink and one that will be re-labeled to read "Alumni Road Trip" to keep as memorabilia.

At the same time, I was trying to organize a lunch with a college buddy who is living in Dallas. He apprently failed to read my messages to call me and NOT text me. A two-minute decision took more than an hour. (Ugh!) We got it figured out and met a Hooters to catch up. I had a great time, but I was there a little longer than planned. So I'm a little behind schedule, but not in trouble.

OK...I'm on the road and headed for Houston. My GPS system says there is a toll road on my way down. I don't know how much or how many tolls there are so I stop to get gas, go to the bathroom and find a place where I can buy something small to use my debit and get some extra cash. I stop and get gas, but the bathrooms are out. So I go to the next exit to find a "working" bathroom and find a Wal-Mart. GREAT...bathroom...money...done. Still, an extra stop put another pinch of my drive time. Still not in trouble, but this didn't help.

As it turns out, there wasn't a long toll road as the GPS told me so I never needed the cash (Grrr....). Houston traffic was beginning to slow down. I'm a little concerned, but not overly worried.

I get to my hotel go to my room on the second floor (two suitcases, no elevators) and the room isn't cleaned. Walk back to the lobby and the receptionist says she gave me the wrong room. My room is on the first floor (REALLY!?!). At this point, I'm starting to sweat a bit.

I get into the correct room, quickly whip out some clothes, iron them, get dressed and leave. Two problems. First, our gathering is at the University of Houston Music Building. The address I have is not accepted by my GPS so I run into the hotel lobby to get a better address. Second, their is an accident on the freeway on-ramp right by my hotel so I have to drive an extra mile or so to find another exit.

At this point, I'm late. I call in to let them know that I'm on my way. The GPS gets me to the location, except the address is for the university and there is no music building in sight. So I sit in a holding pattern and call my contact to get me directions. He gets me to a UH student who gets me in. WHEW! Made it.

As far as the event itself, the gathering went well. We had about 15 or so brothers in attendance. I was hoping for more, but I heard there were a lot of people who responded, but they just couldn't make it. Hopefully, these contacts will result in some potential growth for the Greater Houston Alumni Association.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to a local establishment for a couple of drinks. Thank you to Randall Capshaw for picking up the tab. A big thank you to Ken Tice for organizing everything, despite Solo and Ensemble (he's a teacher) and traveling this week to check out grad schools.

Long day...

NEXT STOP: CORPUS CHRISTI

Alumni Road Trip in Dallas/Ft. Worth

After some of the other marathon drives have experienced over the last couple of days, the five hour drive from Amarillo to Dallas felt like a walk in the park. A quick stop for gas and a snack and I was off to the races.

This is my third time being in Dallas. My first time was almost 10 years ago when I attended the 2000 National Convention. A few years ago, I came back to visit the Dallas/Ft. Worth Area Alumni Association (DFWAAA).

I drove to the apartment of Marc Perez who is letting me crash at his place for the night. Marc is a Sinfonian who is a member of the DFWAAA and helped put most of the event together. We had out gathering at the Times Ten Cellar where we had our own private room and a decent selection of wine to choose from. The Times Ten Cellar is located in the arts district of Dallas. We were looking into getting a tour of the new opera house nearby, but couldn't get everything lined up

It's important that I recognize the DFWAAA for their help with this event. They covered the room rental, as well as the cost to bring in some food (to help wash down the wine).

I think we were hoping for about 25 guys based on RSVPs, but we had about 15-16 actually show, including two collegiate members from the Gamma Theta Chapter at the University of Northern Texas. Even with the slight drop in expected attendance, we still had a diverse population of Sinfonians in the room which was pretty exciting.

Everything went off without a hitch. The presentation went well and there was some good discussion afterward. It is always interesting to have an event that is more social and laid back. Most of the stops tend to be a dinner-type set-up. Doing something that is more like a reception changes things up and still allows for excellent networking opportunities.

On the drive back home, I was still having a bit of the munchies so Marc recommended that we stop at Whattaburger, which apparently is a staple in Texas (I've never heard of it before coming here). Good stuff.

NEXT STOP: HOUSTON

Alumni Road Trip in Amarillo

As you come into Amarillo, you will notice that the place to go is The Big Texan Steakhouse. There are signs all over the place. My hotel key card even had a advertisement for it. It was only fitting that this be the place where the Alumni Road Trip had its stop.

The Big Texan boasts a 72 oz steak with fixings that you can have for free if you eat it within an hour. While there were some guys who thought it would be cool to have me do it (apparently NHQ staff members are supposed to do weird things), the $72 price tag...or the equivalent of one college member's dues...was a definite turn-off.

I never took a definite head count, but I believe we had about 26-27 brothers in attendance (and one guest). Seven alumni members attended with the rest coming from the Iota Pi Chapter at West Texas A&M University. On a side note, I was very impressed with the collegiate members from this chapter. It was almost like they hold alumni events on a regular basis.

The night went off without a hitch. I had an unbelieveable 18 oz steak (which they like to advertise as 1/4 of the 72 oz version), baked potato, 3 shrimp and salad for $20. It was so good. The presentation went over well and I had a few questions from the audience afterwards.

Afet bills were paid, I joined a couple of guys for a quick drink at a local bar. I wasn't thinking about the cigarette smoke and didn't plan on the REALLY bad karaoke, so I wasn't there very long. I headed back to my hotel room to reflect on the steak that is sitting in my tummy. Yum...

NEXT STOP: DALLAS/FT.WORTH

"Colony" Road Trip in Portales, NM

On Wednesday, I had scheduled a day off to account for the church responsibilibities that many of our members are committed to. Since I started doing these trips, Wednesdays tend to have a lot of church-related conflicts, which would result in lower attendance for my event (understandably). I got some stuff done during the day, got in some exercise and then headed out to Portales, NM to visit the Theta Phi Colony at Eastern New Mexico University.

Portales is about two hours from Lubbock and one time zone behind Texas. I didn't realize the time zone issue until that evening and was gettting pretty hungry as I was driving out there. At the last minute, I pulled into a gas station to get a quick snack. I was wearing my black Phi Mu Alpha hoodie and another customer noticed it and said "Hail Sinfonia!" As it turns out, he was one of our lost alumni from the Theta Lambda Chapter at Hardin-Simmons University. Since I have a trunk full of handouts, I dug out one for him to look through.

Moral of the story: WEAR LETTERS! You never know who you'll run into or where you'll run into them.

This was my second trip to Portales. I was there about 2.5 years ago to do an offical colony visit. That group didn't make through the process, but this second group is giving it a second try. All but one of these colony members are from the first go around.

This was not an official visit, just an opportunity to hang with them and answer any questions that may have. As it turns out, we went to the same Mexican restaurant for dinner that we went to on my first trip.

Our discussion was good and they had a lot of good things to say and great questions to ask. I hope these guys have the ability to pull through to the end.

Alumni Road Trip in Lubbock

I got the second of the two painful drives finished on my way to Lubbock (the first being from Austin to El Paso). Since I got here, I haven't really had the best of luck, but more on that later.

ne of the nice things about this trip throgh Texas are the stops at various steakhouses. With my wife being a non-beef eater, I don't eat it that much at home. So far, I've had my fill of beef and the Triple J Steakhouse and Brewery kept me going with another night of steak.

Out of the three nights, this was defintely the largest showing, althought we are still a little weak in the alumni department. We had 4 alumni, 10(ish) collegians, 1 probationary member AND the chapter sweetheart in attendance. We had a semi-private area which was nice for us, but all that seperated us were some curtains that we were able to draw. This would not have been a problem, except that they had a solo guitar act playing really close by and the curtains didn't have the ability to absorb the sound. I blasted through my presentation during his set break.

The guys were fun to talk to and I had a great time hanging out with everyone. I mentioned earlier that I was experiencing some bad luck. Here is a breakdown:
1.) My cell phone isn't working (hope I can fix that)
2.) Apparently the map of Lubbock and my GPS system don't jive. I got misdirected TWICE going home...and once on the way to the restaurant. A ten minute drive home took 20 minutes. Ugh.

I got a day off today, but I made arrangements to drive to Portales, New Mexico to have dinner with the Theta Phi Colony at Eastern New Mexico University.

NEXT STOP: PORTALES, NEW MEXICO (...unofficially)

Alumni Road Trip in El Paso

I started the day in Sonora, TX with a quick breakfast, a three-mile run and and a few exercises that I can do in a hotel room. I finished some work on the computer, packed up and started the long haul out to El Paso...and it was LONG.

Having never driven out this way, I assumed that the terrain would be flat and pretty boring. There were a fair amount of mountains and other geographical features that were nice to peek at while driving. The 80 mph speed limit helped keep things moving along, but it didn't really allow for sightseeing. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of traffic, which I'm sure is pretty normal.

I made it to El Paso in about 5.5 hours. I was happy to know that I got an extra hour of downtime because of the time change to unwind and stretch out a bit. Of course, I'm not happy that I am losing the hour on my way out of town as my next stretch of driving is just as long.

I hopped in my car and headed out to BJ's Restaurant and Brewery. I had a slight delay in my arrival because I accidentally plugged in the wrong address into my GPS and didn't realize it until I ended up in a residnetial neighborhood. Whoops!

We had about 15 guys made up of 4 alumni with the remaining number combrised of the collegiate members at the Nu Lambda Chapter at UTEP. They were a great bunch of guys; very welcoming and excited to have some come out here. Even though they are one of two dozen chapters in Texas, they don't get the same amount of attention that everyone else does. As I have said many times before, they are in the middle of nowhere. The closest chapter is seven hours away.

We had a great time and did some joking around in the parking lot after dinner. It is still amazingly cool out here with an overnight low of 34 degrees. It was cool looking to the south of El Paso and being bale to overlook the city of Juárez in Mexico. If you didn't know any better, you would think it was a southern extension of El Paso.

I won't have a chance to check out the border gate or do any gernal sightseeing. My short time here was enjoyable and I know the guys were appreciative of my trip out here.

NEXT STOP: LUBBOCK

Alumni Road Trip in Austin

With TMEA over, the Alumni Road Trip officially started. My first stop in Texas is Austin, which is a puddle jump compared to some of the other drives I will be making oer the next week.

As it turns out, I have found that I have a knack for weird scheduling errors in the spring. Last year, I accidentally scheduled over Easter. This year, Valentine's Day was my hurdle. Luckily, out of the 200+ Sinfonians living in the area, two guys were able to escpae the clutches of love to have lunch at an Applebee's in a northern suburb of Austin. Oddly enough, the two brothers who attended are both employed by comouter companies (IBM and Dell).

With only two brothers, I didn't have to hassle with the projector and screen. I presented my PowerPoint straight off of the laptop I have with me. Both brothers were pretty in the loop. I do keep a few interesting facts in the presentation so there is something for everyone.

After we departed fromour lunch gathering, I started my long drive to El Paso. I am currently at a Comfort Inn in Sonora, Texas. Driving straight through would have been about 10 hours worth of driving. Instead, I cut out the first four hours this evening and will wrap up the second half of the drive tomorrow.

Tomorrow: EL PASO!

2010 TMEA Conference

I just got back from the step sing on Friday night and I am flat out tired. Before I go to bed, I need to upload pictures onto the computer so I thought I would use this chance to write about my experience so far...and upload a few pics if they are ready to go.

In comparison to The Midwest Clinic, the TMEA Conference appears to be bigger...at least the exhibition hall is. I really haven't explored everything or have an idea of attendnace for either event. The one thing I do know about for both events is the exhibition hall and TMEA is the clear winner.

There are a good chunk of vendors who are at both events and I got to meet up with my fellow Sinfonians who work with them to say hello. The majority of my time is spent at the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia booth that is paid for mostly through contributions by the four main fratenrity provinces in Texas, as well as donations by individuals who want to see a future presence at the event.

David Irving is the driving force behind the event and he puts together a solid core of volunteers to make sure the booth is constantly manned for the hundreds of brothers who will stop by to check in with the Fraternity.

Friday night was the Step Sing. As I have been told, it is called the "Step Sing" because seven brothers got together at a flight of stairs 25 years ago to sing. Flash forward to today and five hundred brothers can't fit on any set of stairs...nor could the stairs probably hold our combined weight...but the name has stayed the same as a part of the tradition.

A couple of highlights from the evening festivities:
- There was no official head count, but there was easily 500 brothers in the room, as well as an audience of SAI members, family in friends.
- Five brothers, including Brian Stratton, David Irving and Darhyl Ramsey conducted various Sinfonia songs.
- I went through two 1GB memory cards with our digital camera and had to find bad pictures to delete so I could take more.
- Isaac Chavez, alumni association president, was presented the charter of the San Antonio Area Alumni Association.
- The Sinfonia Educational Foundation raised at least $1,100 with donation pouring in after the first count.
- David Irving was presented the Fraternity's Orpheus Award.

I've got to get to sleep as I have an early day tomorrow. Saturday is the last day so we will pack up, get out and I wil be prepping for the Alumni Road Trip.

A Lucky Guy

I'm sitting in the Louisville Airport waiting for my flight to San Antonio. I have to say how amazed I am at how the airline industry has been affected by the recent weather. My flight is still good to go, but that's not why I am a lucky guy.

I'm lucky because I have a wife who does far more for me than I think mose wives would. As I already mentioned, I am in Louisville. I could have flown out of Evansville, but I would have paid probably an extra $200 in flight and luggage costs. Since two bags are checked for free and the other two I can carry on, Louisville won.

Of course, the airport's victory is my loss...kind of. A 9:30 am (Eastern Time)flight meant waking up at 3:00 am (Central Time). Who woke up with me AND drove me out here AND will drive back to pick me? Leandra.

I don't think my work with Phi Mu Alpha would be as successful without her. She has driven me to Louisville numerous times to save money on flights for various businesss trips. She has come into Lyrecrest to help me get work done when she gets a day off during the week. She even used her week of vacation to work as a staff member at our National Convention.

For all the grief that I give her...she's the best. I think it would be difficult to find anyone else who is willing to do half the things that she has done for me. I know that being away for two weeks in Texas is not easy for her because she is so far from the rest of her family. It just means that my arrival home in two weeks will be all the more meaningful.

Stop back over the next two weeks to read about Dan in Evansville...in Texas.

Winter Weather Brings the "Runs"

With the cold temperatures and unsure weather conditions over the last month, my ability to get on the bike has been a little difficult. I somehow snuck in about 70 miles over the course of January, but I haven't been able to commit to any work commutes with weather so questionable.

My main source of exercise has been at the gym. As of recently, I have been logging nights with as much as 3 hours doing classes and cardio machines. With my cycling outlet in the near future coming from the spinning class I take on Thursdays, I have been getting back into running...a little bit.

In the fall, I would dabble a bit on a treadmill and worked myself up to running for a full hour at a reasonable pace without having to stop or slow down. With any workout, I had my good days and bad days.

December was a bad month as my lower back flared up and I was afraid to run extensively and put any undo pressure on it until I could get it to settle down. For those of you who don't know, I was hit by a car in May 2008 and suffered a compression fracture of my T-12 vertebrae.

Being a 34-year old with back problems doesn't help with some of the things I want to accomplish...especially those that have a physical demand. After seeing friends complete Ironman triathlons, I've started contemplating this for myself.

One of my 2010 resolutions is to learn how to swim. Once I can get myself comfortable in water, I can make this part of my training, which would get me through the first part of the race.

Cycling is not a problem. I'm not a speed demon, but I have completed 112 mile rides which would fulfill that portion.

Running might seem the easiest, but you need to run a marathon after swimming 2+ miles and cycling over 100 miles. I can only imagine how difficult it is to run a marathon. I am trying to fathom what it is like doing so after a grueling swim and bike portion that probably takes up 12 hours.

So I am going to take advantage of this crappy weather and run. Evansville is holding it first full marathon in April, but I am going to start small and attempt the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles).

I'm going to have to learn to deal with the back pain. Treadmills are one thing...concrete will be another. I'm not trying to win. I just want to complete it and work my way up to the big goal.