Eli's Coming

The following is dialogue from an episode of one of my favorite TV shows, Sports Night. If you have never seen it, go out and rent it or buy it, it is worth it! Editor's Note: Dan and Casey are the two main characters in the show, they are sports anchors.

Dan Rydell: Eli's Coming.

Casey McCall: Eli?

Dan Rydell: From the Three Dog Night song.

Casey McCall: Yes?

Dan Rydell: Eli is something bad, a darkness.

Casey McCall: "Eli's coming. Hide your heart, girl." Eli is a inveterate womanizer. I think you're getting the song wrong.

Dan Rydell: I know I'm getting the song wrong. But, when I first heard it, that's what I thought it meant. Things stick with you that way.

"Eli" came to Snowbird this weekend. In my last post, I talked about how the warm temperatures was forcing the snow to melt and create beautiful waterfalls up and down the mountain. What a difference 24 hours makes.

When I woke up this morning, you could tell that something was up, "Eli" was coming.

"Eli" provided a consistent rolling fog, highs in the low 40's and accumulation of 4 inches.

While I am not a woman and in no way do I know what goes on in a woman's brain, nor am I an "inveterate womanizer" from my experience, when women discover that they are seeing an "Eli" most find a way to get back at them, to give them a taste of their own medicine. The weather did that to "Eli" this evening providing a beautiful view of the mountain.

Where does 586 inches of snow go?

Snowbird's primary function is a ski resort. This winter 586 inches of snow fell upon this resort located in the Wasatch Mountains. When I come out in May there is usually a lot of snow left on the mountain and the temperature is in the mid 50's. When I arrived in Salt Lake City, referred to as "The Valley" by those up at Snowbird on Wednesday, the temperature was a steamy 90 degrees. Up at Snowbird, elevation 8000 ft it was a little cooler but temperatures were in the mid 70's. The past few days the temperature has been consistent.

What does all this information mean? It means the snow is melting rapidly and causing rushing waterfalls down into the valley On my drive up this morning, I took some pictures. I think these photos not only show how intense the melt off is but also shows the beauty and tranquility of nature.

"So what exactly would you say you do for a living?"

New Person: So what do you do for a living?

Me: I work for my fraternity.

New Person: (Chuckling) So you are the head keg tapper or something?

Me: No, I run a leadership program teaching chacracter based leadership and values.

New Person: I remember going to the fraternity houses in college they always threw the best parties.

Me: Great, what boring job do you do for a living?

This conversation happens a lot and it is difficult for me to explain to people what I do for a living. The program I work with, Horizons, quite simply teaches character and values based leadership. Each of us have values that have been instilled in us by our parents and through other experiences we have had but college aged men and women are increasingly facing situations which compromise their values and Horizons serves as an opportunity to revisit these values.

Over the next two months, I will spend 31 days in Salt Lake City. Every American dreams of having a summer home, the Lodge at Snowbird serves as that for me and it is a beautiful setting.

































The past few weeks have been kind of a bummer for me, just a lot of stuff going on. When I am around people it makes things better but today I was by myself the entire day, just me and my mind, I tend to be very hard on myself and dwell on things. As life goes on we don't take enough time for ourselves. While it sucks to be down this time helps me refocus and provide direction.

Is my golf game like a night out?

As I reflect on my golf game, I draw striking parallels to a night out at the bar.

When you first hit the bar you, or maybe it is just me, are too nervous to go up to women you don't know and talk to them but once you are about three beers deep, the buzz kicks in and you find yourself striking up conversation.

I will chalk hole 1 and 2 up to some "stage fright." I got out of the cart, took a few practice swings under the watchful eye of those in my group as well as the starter, who wanted to make sure we "teed off ok" and promptly hit the ball 30 yards into a ditch. I kept thinking to myself, I went up to that cute woman, stumbled through a few pick-up lines and next thing you know you are back with your friends and begin to nurse your bruised ego back to health. Another beer helps you take care of that.

















I was feeling good after shooting a 5 on hole 4 and a 5 on hole 5. This is the stage of your night where you get back up and find another attractive lady. This time it goes much better, you find something in common, you both know someone, she even likes the dreadful Cubs, you buy her another beer, exchange phone numbers and think to yourself, "Wow, that went over remarkably well!" This is how I felt as I entered the back 9.

















When I started hole 10 I was on beer 6. At the end of hole 10 I was finishing 7. For our group, hole 10 was the point of the night where one of your friends decides to buy a shot and 2 shots later, we all know that once he buys a shot, you have to buy him one back, you are in trouble. I had reached that point of the night.
















I thought to myself, only 7 more holes to go, how bad can I shoot. I followed up the 10 on the 10th hole with a 9 on 11, an 7 on 12, a 8 on 13, and another 7 on 14, I gave myself a few mulligans on 14, so it was probably an 11 but who is counting at this point. By the time I hit hole 15, the end of the night was in sight but this is the point of the night every guy refers to as "crunch time." Editor's note: Every guy may not refer to it as crunch time but it sounds good here!

During that night at the bar, we have stumbled with the ladies from hole 10 through 15. Those shots didn't help us any. Soon you are talking with women who like to spend Saturday afternoon at the art gallery, they love the White Sox or only go to Wrigley for the summer party and when she asks for your phone number you keep giving her numbers with the area code of 630 stating that you live far away in Aurora. You start panicking, these last three holes will determine how you remember the night, you readjust your blazer and get ready for crunch time!
















As you start hole 16, that buddy of yours brings you another shot, for the golf game we will call it a par 5 and again you reciprocate and now you have shot a 12 on hole 16, embarassed yourself with some nice looking and nice acting woman because you are "sloppy drunk" and have had to go to the bathroom because you are feeling ill. The low point has now hit, hole 17.

You decide to take one off to recover, your buddy brings you a water and a red bull vodka. He must have forgotten beer before liquor is what got you in this mess in the first place. He pulls you aside and tells you that you have one last hole to recover, can you find a special lady for the night?

Your gear up for hole 18, and you hit a good drive off of the tee. Things are looking good, she loves West Wing, thinks the LA Clippers are playing amazing and are just what she needs to watch pro basketball again and she and her friends are looking to make their way up the street to Tai's til 4, or 5 on the weekends. Your buddies are excited for you, they think you have a chance....















Then she introduces you to her boyfriend, you walk out of the bar with your tail tucked between your legs, head for Jack In the Box and pass out next to a taco sitting in ranch sauce watching an episode of Sports Night.

You wake up the next day wondering what happened and realizing that if you would have just kept yourself "three beers deep" you would have saved yourself a whole lot of money and embarassement.

Yup, my golf game is like a night out at the bar!

"You can find me in St.Louie"

I spent four years in St. Louis in college and during my time there I developed some favorite places to eat and drink. Whenever I visit I try and make a point to indulge and visit these places.

Friday night took us to one of my favorite bars, the Tap Room home of Schlafly beers. Schlafly beers became a favorite of my friends and I during a party sophomore year where they helped sponsor a philanthropy event, we were even graced with the presence of the Schlafly's themselves. Editors Note: If anyone can figure out how to get Schlafly to start selling their beer in Chicgo let me know.

I am very lucky because I have great group of friends from college and we are all still very close. Whenever we have the opportunity to see each other it is like old times and we pick up right where we left off.

Unfortunately, the night didn't yield many pictures but there are plenty coming :)

The Wonders of Illinois

St. Louis was the destination this weekend for my buddy Brendan's bachelor party. I decided to ride down with my friend Bif.

I know what you are thinking, you have a friend named Bif? Indeed I do and I have had the following conversation many times before:

Friend: "You have a friend named Bif?"

Me: "Yeah, he is a neat guy."

Friend: "Bif? Like from the Back to the Future movies. 'Hello, anybody home? Think McFly. Think.'"

Me: "Yes, except his last name is Bifro, so he shortens it to Bif."

Friend: "I love Back to the Future. Remember that time where Bif and Marty are talking and Bif says: 'Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here' and Marty says 'Make like a tree and leave Bif.'"

Me: Yes, yes, alright. How bad are the Cubs these days?

Our Bif isn't an old miser and he was not a high school bully but he is a great guy and would be a good person to spend 10 plus hours with through Illinois.

















Having a positive "road trip" experience with my sister last weekend I called Bif early in the week to discuss what fun things we would do on the trip to STL.

We discovered many hotspots and planned to stop at two:

1) The Lincoln Watermelon Monument, Lincoln, IL.
2) The World's Largest Bottle of Catsup, Collinsville, IL

Illinois is the "Land of Lincoln" so there are many "Lincoln" monuments. What drew us to this destination is that it was refered to on Roadside America.com, as "the dumbest thing we've seen" and it did not disappoint.















The story behind the watermelon begins in the early 1850s when Abraham Lincoln was having a city named in his honor. Lincoln was asked to christen the town and he used the juice of a watermelon. Must not have been able to find a bottle of champagne.

On our way back to the highway we saw this sign that had apparently been erected by the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce.
















How can any place that has a statue of a watermelon not be a great palce to live?

The next stop was the world's largest ketchup bottle in Collinsville. Doing some research early in the week I found out that there is a song about this attraction and that the bottle is actually a painted water tower.




















Makes you wonder how many tomatoes would it take to make enough ketchup to fill this bottle up.

Our Illinois sightseeing completed, Bif and I jumped back in the car and a few minutes later we saw the arch and our St. Louis weekend began.

Claire bear's Day

The reason for my trip to Peoria was to witness my Goddaughter and niece's first communion. Claire or Claire bear as I like to call her was very excited for her day. After breakfast and getting ready we took some pictures before heading to the church. This one below is my favorite.
















After the ceremony, we headed off to lunch at the Peoria Country Club including a lovely cake to celebrate Claire bear's day.





















We spent some more time visiting but alas it was time to come home. On the way home, my sister Cathy and I continued our road trip. We had a great talk about some of her past experiences growing up as a kid, her college experiences and about her kids. I really enjoyed it and I realized that the most important things in life are love and family. Even if you have no money or material possessions if you have family and you have love your are complete. While it was Claire bear's day, I enjoyed the time I got to spend with my sisters. I really am lucky to have such great siblings.

A Road Trip with Sis

I have two sisters, well really they are half sisters from my dad's previous marriage but we have always considered ourselves brother and sister, eliminating the half. Unfortunately, we have never lived under the same roof. I wish I would have had the experiences of long road trips, fighting over the bathroom, shairng each other's clothes, etc. While they may have seemed annoying during the times they were occuring, I just think it would have been fun to grow up with siblings.

This week is my niece and goddaughter Claire's first communion. My sister is heading down on Friday and asked if I wanted to go, so I jumped at the opportunity to have a road trip with my sister.

My sister, Cathy, picked me up in the minivan after work and we took off. The destination is Peoria 167 miles away.
















So what are the essentials to a road trip? Food? CD's? Conversation? We had them all.





























Besides my sister talking on her cell phone for a while....
















.... which led to some scary driving through central Illinois....















.... the trip was wonderful. I really enjoy the time I get to spend with my sisters. I learn so much from them. The road trip was a blast and we arrived in Peoria late Friday night. My other sister Michelle greeted us with some goodies and after some visitng we all hit the hay in preparation for Claire's big day tommorrow