Yes, I said blame.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a blame free environment. Oh yes, I spent enough of my life in the corporate world to know that buzz term. (I have lots more of those like it if you're interested. You know, like downsizing 'reorganization', action item, win/win, walk the talk, optimization,'it's not a problem, it's an opportunity'. I could go on and on). Back to blame. I figure the Olympics are such a giant, nebulous thing that I can put all of the blame on it/them and not take any heat for it.
The blame for not blogging since Thursday morning. A week! OK, so some of the blame can go to CKU, but hey. That's a little closer to home. Let's just keep the blame at arm's length and stick with the Olympics.
Still so much going on at work, no time to blog during the day. And then the Olympics calls. How can I pass that up? Just can't make myself sit in front of the computer to blog when the beach volleyball is calling. And the gymnastics. And the synchronized diving (seriously, how cool was that?!!). And the badminton (ok, that was Tivo'ed from 2:48 am one night. And in case you missed it and in case you're wondering, there's a reason why it's on at 2:48 am...) And Michael Phelps (no, no. He's not calling me. Not on the phone. Or from the front porch, telling me it's time to come in for dinner. The swimming is calling.)
So that's where I've been. Running, running, running all day long only to fall on the couch when I get home for hours and stare at the tv. But hey, it's only for a few weeks and it only happens once every 4 years, right? What's that? The winter olympics? Right. Every two years.
So CKU was fabulous! So fun to have it in our backyard. One of the disadvantages, leaving some things to the last minute, like the class kits. When you don't have to ship them ahead of time and you can wait until the last possible minute and drive them down. Why not? Always something else that has to be done, right?
8 classes in 2 days. 12 hours of teaching. 450+ students. No microphone. Sure, they're available. But in the words of my husband "hello, you're loud enough as it is; why in the world would you need a microphone, I can hear you 2 floors away". Nice. Thanks honey. But he's right. Besides the fact, I move around too much when I teach. I pace and walk and wander and, well you get the picture. So it always takes a few days for my voice to recover. That or I take on a night job as a 1-900 operator.
So much fun to meet so many new people! People from all over the US, Canada, South America, Italy and even New Zealand! I'd love to show you pictures of all these people. I was prepared. Camera ready. Oh yes. Forgot to take pics in class 1. No problem, 7 more classes to go, right? Wrong. Took 1 pic in class 2 then dead battery. Nice. So here's the 1 pic -
Loved this sweet lady in the front. She was there with her daughter and daughter in law. She was a hoot. Offered to come into class and help me get set up. Nice!
And here's a pic of Margie and me that I borrowed from Debbie Schuh's blog
and this one too of all of the teachers at commencement on Saturday night.
Such a great time spending time with these guys and just hanging out. On Friday night after teaching and before we did the giveaways at the crop, a bunch of us sat in a hotel room and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for a few hours. Did you see those? HOLY MOLY, were those amazing, or what?!
On Friday night, Ali gave an incredible keynote speech. Truly inspiring. About making sure to tell your story in your scrapbooks. The story of you, your family, your kids, your spouse. You know, your story. It was super.
She wrapped up her keynote by introducing all of the instructors via slides. She had asked each of us us ahead of time to email her a childhood photo and she showed our childhood photos alongside our current photos.
The childhood photo I sent to Ali
And the current photo
Notice any similarities?!
