Home Sweet Greensboro, who knew?

        If someone could figure out how to do a time released coffee injection system, that would release coffee into your system approximately 15 minutes before your alarm system,  I think-i know- that the person would make a fortune.  It was one of those recurring thoughts this past week as I struggled not to yawn in meetings.  Something came over me, maybe change of seasons, maybe change of pace is starting to catch up with me, it's definitely not lack of sleep, but something made me extremely tired last week.  So if I could get hooked up to a coffee IV, I'd be all about it.
        On Thursday night, we had a going away party for Jeremy "Worm" Williams at Morehead St. Tavern.  Worm is one of the production guys in Raycom who is INCREDIBLY talented...so naturally he got snatched up by the UFC (that is Ultimate Fighting...eek...for those of you who aren't aware) to do production for them in Las Vegas.  Not a bad gig!  Anyways, he's that guy in the office that holds a special place in everyone's hearts.  Sarah and I were lucky enough to get close to him in a short period of time, so after the party, Jeremy, Sarah, Chris (an intern on the production team) and I all went out to dinner at Black Finn afterward.  We used our Extra Point Passes and got 3 FREE appetizers-well worth it.  It was really fun to have the last supper with Jeremy, and it's been so much fun to get to know him over the past couple of months-a small town, Ed Hardy loving boy from South Carolina who's gone on to do great things in his career. 
        This was the first weekend I had nothing to do-so naturally I slept in on Saturday.  I actually woke up earlier, realized that I would have nothing to do if I got out of bed and went right back to sleep.  Homesickness set in for the first time that morning, and so I decided to go up to Greensboro for the weekend.  Seeing my family was just what I needed this weekend, and as an added bonus, I got to see LANDER!  She's been out West and has finally returned home, at least temporarily.  I think she is in the process of being inherited by my family.  My mother is getting pedicures with her, they are cooking dinner together, and apparently starting sewing classes.  I'm starting to wonder if Barbara has gained a new favorite daughter.  After dinner, Mary Catherine, Lander and I went to see "You, Again".  Lander wanted me to go hang out with her friend Phil, but I really just wanted to be with my family, so I asked if she wouldn't mind us just going to see a movie instead.  By the time we got around to going to the movie, both of my parents had backed out-lame.  Overall, "You, Again" was relatively average acting, an OK plot, but still pretty funny I thought. 
        When we got back from the movie my parents were already asleep, so Lander convinced me to go meet up with Phil and his roommate, Tim, for a drink.  I reluctantly headed out, but ended up having a good time.  By the way, for all of my Clemson friends, Phil is the nephew of the owner of Spill the Beans- I know how much all of you will appreciate that!  We headed back to their house to play SCRABBLE (of all things-I know, just another crazy Saturday night...HA).  Naturally, I won the worlds longest word game, ever, but I will confess that Tim-who is an admittedly competitive scrabble player (and, on a side note, has FABULOUS taste in music)- gave me a helpful hint in the beginning that really changed the game for me, so I can't take all the credit...but I still kicked his butt.  And then we got a reality check when my Mom texted me at 3:45 in the morning, suggesting that Lander and I should probably not be out that late.  Honestly, we had no idea what time it was, but I have never felt more like a high school kid about to get grounded than at that moment. I am ashamed to say that I did not go to church the next morning...but Tim and Phil did, and out of all churches they attended my parents'!  That will be one of those stories my Mom will most likely not let me live down for a little while. 
        We were supposed to be at a golf tournament today in Kannapolis.  The plan was to meet at the office and carpool to The Club at Irish Creek for the 13th Annual Charlotte Sports Commission Golf Outing, so it made sense for me to stay in Greensboro for the night and just meet the group in Kannapolis.  I made great time this morning, in part, thanks to Mary Catherine who cooked me eggs-2 different kinds!  In fact we were supposed to meet at 10 AM but I was scheduled to pull in at the tournament at 9:20.  I was very happy that I was so punctual, and then I got the call.  The outing was canceled and it was just going to be another day at the office, meaning that instead of being 40 minutes early for work, I was going to be 45 minutes late.  It is not a good feeling to be stuck on the highway when all you can do is drive and watch

The Wonderful World of Web

        I am so embarrassed.  I just figured out how to keep track of how much action my blog is getting.  I'm actually a little surprised because, as I've said several times, I feel like it would make no difference if I was writing in a diary.  However, when I finally managed to click on the stats button I found that my blog has been viewed 347 times since the middle of August. 

        I've discovered a new world of stats that I'm actually interested in...and it's kind of fun to look at!  You can see how many "page views" you've had that day, week, month, and over time.  You can track what search terms have led people to find your blog, which pages have click-throughs to your blog, and which posts are attracting the most initial attention.  So, for instance...big shout out to Margaret Austen because her blog has been a source of several click throughs to my blog.  http://www.thomasandmargaret.blogspot.com/  By the way, if you are interested in reading about a crazy life, read her blog.  Margaret is Married to Thomas Austen, former Clemson football star who is trying to break into the NFL world...they are living like nomads right now and Margaret is great at describing that lifestyle.  Check her out.

You can also see what country your blog is getting hits in.  OK, I KNOW that this has absolutely no reflection on the influence my blog really has in the blogosphere, but y'all someone has viewed my blog in Canada, Denmark, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, and Hong Kong...HA!  It's just cool to think that my ongoing letter to friends and family about my life experiences is being stumbled upon (sporadically) across the world!  What I want to know is how they are searching it, because when I try to google my blog, it's not easily searchable.  There are ways to make your blog more accessible and I think that it might be a cool experience to try and expand the regular audience of the blog, just to see if I can do it!  Stay tuned...we'll see how it works.  Anyways, I just wanted to share a new hobby: looking at graphs about viewership of my blog...vain, I know.  I'm hoping the novelty will wear off soon.

        I'm not really a big fan of posting my blog on my facebook or twitter pages, asking people to read my latest post...right now at least.  But if anyone has any tips about how to make blogs more accessible, I'd love to hear them.  Trying to increase my following will hopefully be a new fun project for me...a amateur experiment with a grassroots promotional effort if you will.  

        

        Today was a bit busier in the office.  I continued to update the Meineke event manual and 4 more extra point passes today!  Seriously y'all.  If you live in the Charlotte area, you should definitely get a pass www.extrapointpass.com .  10 percent off Ruth's Chris, free appetizers at Blackfinn, $5 off your ticket to the Meineke Car Care Bowl.  Just to name a few deals.  You'll make your money back using it once or twice!  Do I sound like a used car salesman yet?  Really, though.  It's a good deal and a great way to support the 2 games being in Charlotte.  We also worked on the Newsletter today and tried to figure out Constant Contact, which is an email marketing site.  Essentially, you gather a database of email addresses that you want to reach out weekly, monthly, whatever, and format a newsletter to send to them with whatever updates you have.  We have 4 newsletters that we regularly send out.  Don't get me wrong.  Constant Contact from an operating standpoint is extremely self explanatory.  However, from an editing standpoint...quite frankly, it sucks.  Formatting is severely inefficient and some simple editing tasks are near impossible on the site.  Kind of annoying.

        Amy Yukola came from ACC headquarters today to spend some time working on the championship and I think-I hope- we finally locked down gifts for the championship game!  This has been a back and forth struggle because we are dealing with pressures from vendors, the ACC, and our own opinions in Charlotte Collegiate Football.  I'm hoping that what we came up with today for our media, VIP's and players will be well received by the rest of the ACC staff.  Here's to hoping and praying!
        I apologize that these posts have been less work intensive these past couple of days.  I was just sharing some other interests of mine.  More Game posts to come!

You Can't Shit A Shitter

        Excuse the french, but I think it's a valuable lesson.  If there has been one constant in phone conversations with my mother since the summer, it's been about her dreams of my teeth falling out because I haven't been to a dentist.  So when she called today while I was at lunch with Sarah, and I still hadn't scheduled the appointment, I told Sarah that the teeth conversation was going to happen again and I was going to tell my Mom I had scheduled it, and call when when I got back to work.  Well, sure enough my mom is still have dreams about my toothless smile, and I fed her the story.  The problem was, that she didn't bite.  Her exact words were, "OK Bry, did you really call, or are you just saying you called and now you are going to rush back to the office to deal with it?" Sarah heard her, and we both burst into laughter.  I couldn't even try to cover my tracks.  I'd lied and was totally found out.  Mom's response was, "you can't shit a shitter" and it's so true.  By shit a shitter she meant, you can't fake a faker.  I will be expecting another phone call about my teeth, and about publicizing my mothers use of cuss words, but I think it's a good point that extends beyond the little white lies about scheduling appointments.  You can't fake your way through anything and when you try to, you get burned.  It just doesn't work- in friendships, in your job, in your spiritual life.  It's funny because I read last night in "The Message" which is the New Testament written in contemporary English, from Romans 1-2.  


        "You didn't think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he's such a nice God, he'd let you off the hook?  Better think this one through from the beginning.  GOD IS KIND, BUT HE'S NOT SOFT (I love this line).  In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life change.
        You're not getting by with anything.  Every refusal and avoidance of god adds fuel to the fire....If you go against the grain you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood your from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended.  But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up.  Being a Jew won't give you an automatic stamp of approval.  God pays no attention to what others say, or what you think about you.  He makes up his own mind"


        OK a couple of notes.  First of all, I always thought that preachers used the topical search index in the back of a study bible to find the verse that proves the point of a story that happened in the week prior.  In reality, that could be true in some cases.  On the other hand, it could be a myth I've created due to my lack of discipline, spending time in the word.  One night of reading the bible matched with one trivial conversation and I've put together a spiritual lesson for myself.  Huh.  Second of all, if we go back to the original Shitting the Shitter lesson, and relate it here...we will have to rephrase.  In my mom's case I'm shitting the shitter because she may be just as bad about making a habit of 'faking it' as I am.  But with God, he's no shitter...he's the real thing.  So you can't shit....the highest, the all knowing?  Finally, I have this sinking feeling that this will be the first post that my grandparents read, and if so...I am sorry for my use of language!  I just thought there were some parallels in points and this blog has become the best forum for me to share most of my experiences.  I also offer an apology to anyone else offended by the use of the word shit as a verb connected to a conversation about God.  It's not conventional, but I'm not even going to pretend to have the world's cleanest mouth all of the time.  
        In the spirit of being honest, we didn't do...anything in the office today, really.  I mean, I went over the event manual with George Johnson, which is helpful to hear him talk through the events he is responsible for coordinating.  Other than that, Sarah and I got to pretend to be metropolitan professionals and sit outside of Dean and Deluca for lunch.  Our favorite pastime, besides learning everything there is to know about this industry (obviously), is watching female professionals walk by and pick apart their outfits.  The corner of South Tryon and 4th street was a great place to people watch!  Hoping to go downtown for lunch more often.  
         Tonight Ann and I went to the Pizza Peal for dinner and chocolate cheesecake.  We talked about my jobs, taking everything you can from a company, and learning your place in the hierarchy of a business.  All valuable things to keep in mind when interacting at work.  Loved dinner and conversation with my Aunt!   

I AM making the dentist appointment tomorrow. 

Clemson. You are so dumb. Fo Real.

        Auburn is like visiting Clemson in your dream.  It's like, you feel like you're in the place you know in love, but something's just a bit off.  We left Charlotte on Friday after work and made our way down to Clemson to meet Ansley and her friend Drew.  Overall, the trip took about 5 and 1/2 hours (I think?) and was filled with a car ride full of good music, great dance moves all around, and over-enthusiastic fight songs and cadence counts.  When we arrived in Auburn around 10pm (c) and after dropping Drew off, Ansley's boyfriend Wes gave us 11 minutes to get ready to go out.  Anyone would have been impressed with how quickly 3 girls were able to get dressed made up and ready to go with one mirror and one bedroom...I wondered why that was so easy, until I got to the bars and realized that I had not come prepared.  On our way to the first bar, I realized I had forgotten my ID, and so from that point on I had to sneak into everywhere I went downtown...as a college graduate.  C'est la vie.  We had a lot of fun in downtown Auburn (which puts downtown Clemson to shame as far as size) and saw a LOT of Clemson friends. 

Downtown Auburn with the Ansley's, after our 11 minute routine...Alabama heat really did a number on this girl's hair.

        We got home and promptly went to sleep on a futon in the hallway of Wes' apartment.  We woke up an hour later to one of Wes' friends, Mac (who we did not know at this point but got to know pretty quickly soon after) running up the stairs, knocking on another roommate's door and yelling "Corey! Your floor is raining into the kitchen!"  Corey did not seem immediately concerned about the flood starting on the first floor but eventually got out of his bed and went downstairs to deal with the situation.  Once I thought the issue was taken car of, I tried to fall back asleep, which almost happened.  Then I heard Corey and Mac's conversation (In the truest Alabama accent): "DUDE, make me an Eggo", "Shut your butt".  At this point Ansley (who had not uttered one word throughout this entire process, and whom I thought was fast asleep) and I burst out cackling in unison.  After that, there was no going back to sleep for Ansley Faria, Mac, or Me and we went downstairs to hang out with our new hilarious friend Mac for the rest of the night...I literally mean the entire night.  Bailey, Another one of Wes' roommates came down at 6:30 the next morning to go get the tailgate spot ready, and could not get over the 3 of us who were still up, at this point, sharing YouTube videos, and making fun of each other.  

        By 8:30 we were up and getting ready to head out for a day of tailgating.  We spent the entire day outside tailgating with Wes and his friends.  The location was perfect, because we ended up getting to see a lot of Clemson people...again.  The sad thing is that now that I think about it, I saw very few of my close friends that I know were there, but that I didn't come with.  Anyways, there was lots of good food, beer, football on a flat screen, and plenty of Orange to go around...a great tailgate scene if you ask me.  

This picture does not reflect how...hot we were the entire day.  Good ol' Alabama heat.

        When it was time for the game, we headed to the stadium to watch the eagle fly in.  I am SO disappointed that I didn't get a picture.  I figured that an Auburn site would give the best description, although I wish you could have seen Mac telling the story, dressed in his pajamas and his Auburn full brimmed hat.  Pretty hilarious, but it is a cool story.  This account came from auburnwareagle.com: 

"During the first ever Auburn-Georgia game back in 1892, there was an aging Civil War vet in the crowd. The old soldier brought with him, that day, his pet eagle- a bird he had found on the battlefield during the war. He had nursed this eagle back to health and eventually adopted it as his own. At some point during this game, the eagle leapt from the soldier’s arm and soared high above the field. While the eagle hovered overhead, Auburn took the lead with a dramatic touchdown drive and students began chanting “War Eagle!”

Auburn won the game however, when the game ended, the eagle took a nosedive onto the field and died. Still, he became an instant legend and gave birth to the “War Eagle” battle cry tradition.

During Auburn’s pre-game festivities, the eagle is released and gracefully circles the stadium until landing in the middle of Pat-Dye Field while Auburn fans yell “War Eagle, Hey!” The flight of the eagle became a game day tradition after Tiger’s first flight at the Wyoming game on August 31, 2000. This is the only University where the eagle flight takes place."

        

http://tinyurl.com/35w5rmw the result of a viral video sensation, and a phrase that had already been a theme for the weekend...how appropriate after our final kicking scheme that cost us the game.

        When we returned to the tailgate, I realized that, not only had my tigers taken a beating, my ankles had as well.  Y'all...over the course of the day I had developed CANKLES like you wouldn't believe.  That is one feature that I do not possess, but I think after an entire day of standing up all the blood had rushed down to my feet.  I refused to take a picture of them because I did not want to remember what they looked like, although the image is hard to shake.  I decided that I could not be in public with the tree trunks attaching my knees to my feet, so Ansley and I made our way to find a cab.  We had every intention in the world to come back to hangout, until what we thought might be a 20 minute ordeal to find a cab and take us 5 minutes down the road, turned into an hour long process.  By the time we got home to get changed and head back out, Ansley and Wes and friends were calling suggesting we just order a pizza and call it a night...a welcome suggestion. 
        On Sunday, we woke up to the sad realization that we were not heading back to Clemson to sit in harts cove in our pajamas and watch movies all night with each other, and instead we were each returning to our respective homes, to go to prepare for work on Monday.  Furthermore, what I realized is that, in a normal world, a Clemson football loss stinks on Saturday, and still stings on Sunday, but by Monday it's all over with.  In my world, it stinks on Saturday, still stings on Sunday, but gets even worse on Monday when your job centers around how ACC football teams perform for their conference.  And it doesn't help when your lack of voice serves as a constant reminder to all colleagues that you were a participant in the Clemson Football experience on the Saturday before.   
        Don't let me fool you, I am still LOVING my job, but I'm missing college friends and college life more than ever right now.  Ansley Zarra and I were talking on our way home from the game about missing college and I realized that I wish I had one more year in school, knowing all that I know now, to enjoy the college life.  If I had that one more year, I would use it to make Christ an even more central part of my college career, let go of petty disagreements more quickly, love my friends more actively.  Ah, oh well.  I am thankful for the 4 years I was given.  This one goes out to you, dear Clemson Friends-from every year- you know who you are!
        Also, I don't know how I forgot to mention this BUT on the way back from Alabama, I got a very unexpected call from the great Continent of AFRICA from Lindsay Hook.  Congratulations to the future Mrs. Goeghegan!!!  And good luck trying to perfect your new signature with a last name like that!

Blogging At Work...NCSU/CINCY viewing party

        Days are getting busier and busier...but this is the first time I've written from my desk at work!  I'm leaving for Auburn after work today with Ansley and Ansley and I can't WAIT.  It's casual Friday, and so obviously I'm CLEMSON T-shirt.  Lois, the receptionist was wearing an orange sweater set and Will Webb was wearing an orange tie (both by accident, but still wearing orange), and it made me feel at home!  I have gotten plenty of comments about the game this weekend though...and my choice of attire. 

        So much to catch up on in just 2 days of taking a break from the blog.  Wednesday was a long day of promoting the NCSU vs. Cincinnati Bearcats game and our viewing party.  I think some things will happen differently the next time we do a viewing party at the Epicentre from both ends.  We found out that a couple of VIP pass holders had been turned down by the pass at the bars earlier in the week and so we had to deal with that situation.  In the end, it was a good thing this happened early on, so that we can remedy the situation before it becomes a bigger problem.  All of the bars' staff members are completely on board now and it should no longer be a problem.  But because the a couple of the bars were kind of confused about there general role with the Extra Point Pass Program, we were nervous about giving them something EXTRA to promote on the night of the viewing party.  Of course, a large part of the viewing party was to promote the pass and the program, and so I told Will and Courtney that I thought the extra specials were pretty much an essential element of the parties.  This meant that we had to scramble to figure out what would be best for both the venues and for our purposes.  It was kind of messy but it got done, and over all the event went well....AND the Wolfpack won.  Which is good for us...I think...depending on which prospective I'm coming from.  It's a confusing role to represent the ACC in two capacities and the Big East in another, especially when they are playing each other.  

        On a social note, Ansley came in town on Wednesday and got to see the office!  It was really weird having my former roommate come and visit me.  I'm used to us coming home to each other!  But we met Ansley for dinner and then some other friends (Christie, Lauren, Carrie, Caroline, and Kate) at Angry Ale's afterwords for trivia.  Also, good ol' Mike Morrel came into town earlier this week and we were supposed to have a drink but in his words, he "punked out".  He says he'll be in town again next week, so we'll see whether he punks out again.  
        I texted with Will for a moment the other day, and he said that he wanted to talk on the phone to catch up.  Naturally, I was ecstatic about the suggestion but I have not heard from him and he hasn't returned my call.  If anyone speaks to him, please inform him that I desperately want to talk to MY BROTHER!   
        Alright, back to work...won't have time to write again until Sunday, but I'm sure visiting Auburn will leave me with several stories to share at the end of a weekend!

         The worst thing that could POSSIBLY happen, happened today.  OK, not really.  Will Pitts asked us (and by asked us, I mean told us) to go to the Kickoff Club Luncheon today.  Naturally, I have yet to turn down a free meal...which is becoming a health issue, quite frankly, and so we were happy to go.  Will, knowing that I am an avid Clemson fan, failed to mention that the speaker at the luncheon was Heisman Trophy Winner George Rogers...glorified University of South Carolina alum.  COME ON. I will admit, Mr. Rogers seemed like a charming man...( I know why he went to USC and not Clemson though- HA!).  Even though I could not really tell where he was going with what he was saying most of the time, he did have want to get 3 points across that I will never fault a man for preaching: 1. Education is important 2. Don't do drugs and 3. You can't get to heaven by getting a Heismen-you need Jesus (Amen).  That took up a large portion of the day.  Otherwise we were doing the typical day to day duties.  Social media, ticket renewals, etc...  

        On the way home from work, I had to stop by Blackfinn, a bar in Uptown where we will be hosting the College Football Night at the Epicentre viewing party to give them some media banners for Thursday night.  I parked in the  Valet lane(The valet boys know me now because we park there every week) because it is right outside of Blackfinn and I really only needed to go in for a second.  I had to give the guys the keys and so when I went to try and restart my car, to my utter horror, it would not start.  Yes.  I was in a VALET parking lane, in Uptown, with a broken down car.  When I tried to crank it a second time with no success, I went to reach for my phone and realized I had, for the first time, left my phone at home.  I wasn't ready to get out of my car and plead with the valet boys to help me out just yet, so all I could do was pray that God would start my car...which he kindly chose to do.  I'm hoping that this was his subtle reminder that I can't do anything without him, and not a warning that he is about to present me with a several hundred dollar car repair. 

        Feeling like a freshman today.  I think that in a small way, I'm loving this feeling of being new, not being expected to act like a seasoned veteran in the field, meeting LOTS of new people, and getting taken under several wings...many of the things I loved about my freshman year in college.  Tonight, Emily Brown who works in Raycom (and with whom I attended church on Sunday...which was the best, out of two, protestant church experiences I've had in Charlotte), took us to a...ok I don't know what to call it because it wasn't youth group because I'm no longer a youth, and it wasn't Young Life because I'm no longer in high school, and it wasn't campus minustry because I don't live on a campus anymore, anyways...it was a Christian gathering for adults, and I really enjoyed it.  I think I'm going to be doing the 20 something single women's bible study that starts in 2 weeks.  The topic tonight was relationships...another reason I felt like a freshman again.  We wont even go into it.  

        Lastly, I just want to apologize to anyone who spent a good portion of today at the Conrad house...so, sorry Aunt Ann.  Like I said, I left my phone here on accident and it was on the loud setting so that I could hear my alarm this weekend.  While it was probably the most free I've felt since I got the phone, I'm sure that the 42 emails/text messages I got, notified by a loud ring were SO annoying. 

Random Thoughts

        A side note...I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but Sarah and I share the largest office in the Raycom Building.  Even if you split it in half, it would still be bigger than the offices of the people we work with.  We have a television, where we have Sports Center, Regis and Kelly, or CMT running all day...sick, I know.  There is a large window that opens up to the lobby and lets in direct sunlight.  It's a place that people like to stop by, and I LOVE that!  Because, let's face it.  I work with cool people!  I'm spoiled. 

        Alright, I know I don't need to be talking about buying clothing but for those of you looking for good work attire, GO TO GAP!  I got a pair of black slack (ish) pants from there for $35 and they are SO great.  The fit is called True Straight and they really streamline a look.  They are not as wide leg as a traditional pair of slacks, but they are a nicer fabric than wearing a pair of dark jeans.  In a relatively casual work atmosphere, that is pretty typical in the sport world, I still feel the need to dress up.  But a suit looks out of place.  These pants, which I obviously bought in a long, are a great length (I can even wear heals with them without them looking awkwardly short), and an even better fit.  A solid investment piece to keep in your wardrobe!

Get yours here: http://tinyurl.com/3x8l8oe

        

        Back to work.  Hands up if you think going to work in an almost ALL ACC atmosphere was fun today.  If you kept your hands down, you got it.  ACC Football biting the big one in general this weekend was not a good thing for Raycom or Charlotte Collegiate Football (especially the ACC Championship)...YIKES!  At this point, I'm thinking that the Tigers might make it to the Championship by default.  It's an interesting dynamic to work for a Bowl and a Championship that will most assuredly bring in 2 completely different sets of teams but will be drawing from some of the same audiences.  The overwhelming losses were certainly a bad thing for the Championship, but for the Bowl, it had potential to mean good things...it's a weird dynamic. 

        OK today was busy, per usual.  We are calling people to get all renewals in for the Bowl by Wednesday.  Somehow, I have managed to get about 95% voice mails.  Sarah actually got to have conversations with people...lets just say that leaving 65 of the same voice mails gets a little redundant.  Here's to hoping I have some messages of my own tomorrow tomorrow and can finally have some conversations about ticket sales!  

        We got some good feedback today about the luncheon, and the only complaint he had was that he would like for the name tags to be a little more creative.  I was kind of disappointed that we didn't get it perfect, but we did the tags exactly as he had originally asked and if that is the only feedback we got from him, I can live with that!  

        We're hosting a viewing party for NCSU VS. CINCY on September 16 at the EpiCentre and our job is to really push that on Twitter and Facebook.  Today we came up with a makeshift social media plan to promote the viewing party.  By the way, if you are in the Charlotte area, you should come out to Strikecity, Blackfinn or Whisky River on Thursday because there are going to be great drink specials (especially if you have an extra point pass) and it should be a really fun crow at each of these venues (all three will be showing the game).  Some of the things we will be promoting different aspects of Thursday night that will hopefully draw in consumers: last Alive after 5 at the Epicentre, The actual game-articles about the teams and kickoff times etc..., and the drink specials available at the party.  We are going to link to Alive After 5, Strike City, Blackfinn, Whisky River, and the Epicentre as much as possible.  We also decided to do a contest on both Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday that will involve retrieving a prize at the party.  Sarah and I had a phone conference with Melissa Kern who manages the social media for the EpiCentre and their venues, and she had some good ideas as well (including an additional contest!)  We are exchanging some great prizes, to be announced later, and she has promised to link to our social media sites as much as possible.  It was a very productive convo, and I'm excited to see how effective it might end up being!

        On a final note, I'm sure that I've mentioned this in other posts but I really love working in a small group because I have gotten to work in all facets of the big games.  All along, I have said that I want to get into sport promotion but what I'm realizing that Event Operations MAY be a more accurate description of what I want to do...I'm not sure, but I think that title better encompasses what I ultimately want to do.  Snaps for taking productive steps towards figuring out where I want to go with my career!

       

Bob Griese, Hugh McColl, and Snakes. OH MY

        We pulled off our first event! OK, so it was a luncheon and half of it had been planned before we started (venue, menu) but we had a good hand in it and it wasn't a disaster. Bob Griese was the speaker at the luncheon, which took place at Quail Hollow, and one of my jobs was to meet him at the entrance and walk him in to be introduced to the board at their pre-luncheon meeting. While we waited for the board to open their doors, we talked about my job, his career, and even his little slip on ESPN with the taco comment he made. I know. Sometimes I shouldn't be so bold, but I told him that I had read up on his impressive career and he said, "Oh gosh, what did you read". So I told him, but he was good natured about it. We had an impressive turnout, almost too impressive. A couple us in the staff had to sit outside to eat. Bob was a great speaker. I realized he was a hit when I was sitting outside and heard an eruption from the room. I listened to the last half of his talk, which was pretty great until the end when someone asked him who where his favorite ACC football stadium was and he did not say Clemson. He actually didn't pick a favorite, but seriously? Is there even a question about whether or not Death Valley is the the best place to play? Oh well. At least in Johnny Harris' opening remarks, he used Clemson the fifth goal written on our locker room wall: GO TO CHARLOTTE. I hope Clemson reaches the goal! When I was introduced to the room of over 100 people, Will somehow could not get the word Clemson out to save his life. Of course, he made the typical "does it have a 'P' in it?" joke, but I finally had several Clemson fans come to my rescue. Obviously we exchanged cards afterwards, and I think I've made my Clemson connections among the leatherheads and the board.
        OK, Y'all. Can I just say? Charlotte. is. cool. It's like this small nothing city in the south turned into a southeastern mecca for industry. I'm shocked. I grew up coming to this City to visit cousins, or stop in for a meal with family on the way to and from somewhere else. My experience with Charlotte was pretty much limited to playing in the back yard, or walking to the Harris Teeter down the street to pick out candy. I had no idea how much this city had to offer. I am meeting half of the who's who in this town...the only problem is...I don't even realize what's going on until after it's happened. I am "important person illiterate". I'm interacting with several of the most important people in the Charlotte community and beyond and if you asked me if I was intimidated, I'd say no...mainly because I meet these people and have no idea who they are. Yesterday we had a breakfast at Carmel Country Club as part of the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club. If you are local to Charlotte, or if you know anything about anyone in the business community, you would probably appreciate the guest list. Packman, a local sport talk radio celeb, Jerry Richardson (owner of the Panthers), and Hugh McColl (former CEO of Bank of America) were all in attendance. By the way, when I told my dad that Jerry Richardson was there, he said "Oh yeah, he used to bring us hamburgers"...uhhhh.
        Hugh McColl spoke at the breakfast. When I saw the 75 year old man approach the podium. I prepared myself for a long hour of staring at my plate of half eaten eggs and bacon. To my surprise, Mr. McColl was utterly entertaining. I mean, this guy had an entire room erupting in comfortable laughter. There were several things he said that made Charlotte as successful as it is-the first being the city's annexation laws. According to him, it is extremely important for Charlotte to be able to annex other land. He also said it's important to only have one school district, guaranteeing kids from all economic backgrounds will have an equal opportunity for education. He also mentioned that the weak mayor, strong management system was important to the success of the city (adding a "sorry, Mr. Mayor" directed to the mayor himself who sat at the head table). Apparently, when Hugh finished his duty with Marines, he came back to the farm to take on the family business, but his dad told him "we're getting along fine without you", so he went into to banking...huh. Mr. McColl took some questions at the end, one being from a younger guy who asked him to speak to the young professionals in the room about his definition of success. He paused for a while but answered that he thought success was when you were able to make your abilities meet your limitations (I think...I’ve had the quote in my head since Friday and all of the sudden drew a blank when I tried to write it out). I do distinctly remember him talking about happiness though, and he said that happiness hasn't come as much from his professional success, as it has come from being a father and a grandfather. God, I hope that I will not just be a professional success and a failure in my personal life.
        When we got back to the office we decided to devote some attention to the social media sites...and it was a "football Friday giveaway" day on twitter for the meineke bowl game so we decided to give away our first pair of tickets! We had a lot of success with that, a good amount of retweets and even several more follows! On the ACC site, we tried to engage followers by getting them to ask us questions about the acc championship...not effective at all. We're trying to figure out how to make our pages effective on twitter so we're trying different things...some more successful than others. Note to self: Tickets, a hit. Q&A sessions, not so much.
        We got a new pet in the office on Friday...a baby copperhead. Apparently baby copperheads are more venomous than the big ones, AND when you see the baby, the momma is not far away. I think everyone showed their true colors. The entire Raycom office came into the lobby to watch Ken Haines, President and CEO of Raycom, try to wrangle the snake into a box. No surprise to anyone, at one point the snake reared up to attack and I dramatically bolted in the other direction. BUT I was brave enough to take a few pictures.


*****I wanted to go ahead and post this, but the pictures aren't uploading. I will go back through and figure out how to upload the pictures from my phone.*****

This is the day, this is the day...

        This is the day that the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.  This is the day that I will finally have time to completely dry my hair.  My new goal is to wake up to my alarm and NOT hit the snooze button.  When I can get my morning routine down to a science, and know exactly how long it takes to get to class, work, or wherever, I tend to start waking up later and later.  This morning, I woke up at 8 which gives me just enough time to shower, partially dry my hair, and run out the door...a frazzled start is not the best start to the day, but it's one that I've unfortunately become accustomed to in the past couple of years.  Someone ask me how my new wake up plan is going in about a week.
        LGA came in for a meeting today and we talked about the media plan for the Meineke Car Care Bowl.  They gave us a chart of the months leading up to the day, and the different media that we will be using to promote the game: billboards, radio, TV, etc... and the rough budget for the plan.  This year we are advertising for the bowl later than last year because we want each game, the Bowl and the Championship, to have their moment to shine and give the consumer an opportunity to give undivided attention to each game.  Lisa from LGA gave us the idea to go to mashable.com which is a social media website that offers a wealth of information on the most effective techniques for the usage of sites like facebook and twitter.  What an awesome resource.
        The rest of the day was focused on finalizing several things for the Quail Hollow luncheon tomorrow.  After doing some office projects, we headed out to the venue, 12 Football helmets in hand to set up for tomorrow.  (I will put pictures up in my next blog).  The country club was gorgeous...and a lot bigger than our country club in Greensboro (obviously).  It was actually just added to the rotation of courses for the PGA and will host the tournament in 2017.  Anyways, we weren't sure how we were going to decorate the tables because they were 10 tops and you don't want them to look blank, but you are creating a room for a largely male audience.  We brought the ACC football helmets, and 2 Bowl Game helmets (to mark the 2 head tables) and used a couple of black table toppers-essentially large black dinner napkins- to dress the tables.  Simple centerpiece worked because the 10 tops were actually kind of small.  I'm really excited about tomorrow and meeting more Leatherheads and Football Legend, Bob Griese.  I'm not excited about the good ol' southern food on the menu.  I've been accepting free food for the past month and it is starting to take a toll on me.  My body just needs a salad!
        Tonight I went over to Lauren Patterson and Christie Schaus' apartment for dinner which was great.  Carrie, Caroline Plunkett, and their other roommate came too, and it was nice to just be around friends that I am familiar with.  It is so weird that we sit around and spend  a vast majority of our time discussing our jobs.  Definitely different from discussions we would have over dinner in College.  Look at us...we are all grown up!  My aunt Mary came tonight to spend the night before she flies out to LA with Uncle Oscar tomorrow.  She recently had surgery and so she got to show and tell me all about that.  Nursing friends, you'd be so proud.  She is an AWESOME cook and I got her to try one of my biscuits from the other night, and she liked it.  If Mary likes the food I cook/bake I will chalk that up to a success.  So good to sit with her tonight and just hang out for a bit!

...Continued and Tuesday

        A quick recap of Monday.  It was relatively uneventful...I went to breakfast with the majority of the Conrad fam in the morning at the Original House of Pancakes (not to be confused with IHOP).  There were exorbitant amounts of food on the table, and I ate my fair share of the goods.  I don't ever crave sweet things for breakfast and I ordered pancakes with strawberry syrup (never in my life have I had strawberry syrup...but it was pretty good).  I hung around the house for a couple of hours, regaining energy from a long weekend and relaxing before what is already turning into a busy week. 
        There is really only one reason for going back to finish my blog from the weekend before talking about the work week, and that is to share a rather amusing anecdote.  My uncle is level headed and seemingly fearless.  He can put murderers in jail for life, face threats from federal criminals, and deal with extremely high stress situations while showing no sign of fear.  A raised eyebrow is about as much expression as you will get out of him.  So when he came rushing into the house I was sort of shocked!  "BRYSE!!!!" he said with BOTH eyebrows raised, and had to pause to let his jaw return to its upright position before repeating "Bryse...you gotta come see this.  I don't know what it is!  It's a huge animal...What do I do??!!"  This series of words was repeated, in alternating orders as we walked out to the back yard.  Turns out, there was a ferocious possum in the garage.  OK, in all seriousness...it was pretty big, and when it moved I immediately ran to the porch.  When Bobby tried to get it to leave the garage, it had been scared by us and hidden...somewhere.  I look down in the house every once in a while to make sure he didn't crawl in the house, because I noticed I left the door open when I went outside to take a look at the beast.  But really, the expression on Uncle Bobby's face was priceless...I wish it had been caught on camera...that and the scary possum.

FEROCIOUS BEAST, AKA, Possum.  This image is compliments of wikimedia.com (filed as: Awesome Possum, American Possum, but I can assure you that our furry friend was bigger, and whiter.  There was some discussion as to whether or not it was pregnant.

        After that picture, I'm sure it's hard for you to be excited about a good homemade meal, I am afraid of going to sleep tonight-I'm pretty sure I'll be seeing that sucker in my dreams- but I do need to announce that I finally made dinner for Ann and Bobby...and Carrie and little Bobby came to join.  I made a variation of the tomato pasta my mom makes that I love...it was a bit different but still good (I think), parmesan crusted crusted chicken, and cheddar bay biscuits.  The dinner seemed to be an unhealthy hit...if they didn't like it, they were very gracious, and I can appreciate that.  I realize now that I should have taken a picture of the dinner spread to include here, and left the image of the possum out of the post.

TUESDAY

Having a four day work week is not quite like having a four day school week.  When you miss the Monday of school, you get to skip a couple of classes, syllabi are adjusted so that the workload reflects the times you are in class (for the most part), and you generally get to cruise through the week with less stress...at least, that's how my holiday weeks went in college.  Now, a four day week means you have one less day to get the exact same amount of work done.  Can you say wake up call?  Last night I had a to-do list for today running through my head on repeat.  By 9:30 this morning, the receptionist had already called me a worker bee...and that trend continued throughout the day for Sarah and me.  We have a luncheon for Leatherheads who have met half of their sales goal on Thursday at Quail Hollow featuring football legend, Bob Griese and although the site and menu had been locked down prior to our start with CCF, there was still a ton of stuff for us to do today.  I had to get the final count for the guest list, which was changing up until the minute I sent it to Courtney.  We had to arrange for specialized name tags for each type of guest: Leatherhead, Board of Directors, VIP, or guest.  We also had to compile a short bio of Bob Griese for his introduction at the luncheon, come up with a sales update to be presented to the guests, work and rework and meet about and rework again the sales incentives for the Leatherheads, brainstorm centerpieces, and decide on the best way to present the Extra Point passes at the lunch.  Yes, that took pretty much the whole day.  After work, I stopped by the YSPN (Young Sports Professionals Network) social.  The sport world is seeming to get a bit smaller and I'm starting to say hey to people I at least recognize instead of introducing myself to the first person I see...I'm still meeting new people, but feeling a little less lost.  I talked to Chris Clouden, Director of Marketing and Events for the Charlotte Sports Commission for a long time and I think he is going to be a great contact and ally in the Charlotte Sports World.  The Charlotte Sports Commission will be heading up our ACC Night of Legends for the Championship game so I asked him to keep me informed on any planning that goes into the event, and requested to attend some of the planning meetings.  It's another great opportunity to get involved in something that's not directly part of my job (because we have handed much of the responsibility for this particular event over to the commission), and I'm fortunate enough to have the freedom in my work to ask to been involved in the extra stuff. 
        On another note, my car currently sounds like it's been wrapped in bubble wrap and a thousand tiny elfs are running around popping it everytime I have my foot on the gas.  Anyone have any idea what this means??!  It's a little bit troubling.

Back at it...

        Well, it's been quite a few days since my last post, but you know what that means...Clemson Football season has officially started. I wasn't sure whether I was going to end up heading down to Clemson, as not all my friends would be in town for the game (and it was N. Texas for goodness sake). But all things considered, it was labor day weekend, all of the people from work were going to Atlanta to see UNC play-I can't let my Chapel Hill friends appear to be more loyal football fans than me, and enough friends would be heading down to make it a decent trip.
        As far as the rest of the week went, it was a bit of the same thing. Finishing up RSVP's for the Bob Griese luncheon on Thursday, working on some Extra Point Pass projects with Will and Sarah, and we FINALLY got around to finishing some good old fashioned data entry of the "enter to win" slips for the ACC championship.  For some reason Thursday and Friday seemed to go on forever this week; I think in part because the days were less eventful and more so filled with some of the same old tasks.  The week seemed to go on forever, probably because we worked all day Saturday last weekend, and didn't really feel like we had a break. 
        Like I said, I went back and forth about whether it was practical to head down to Clemson this weekend, but decided pretty last minute that there was no harm in heading down to Tiger Town, and Katy Padget SO graciously let me come stay with her...so nice to have friends with homes in Clemson.  I decided to stop by Target on Friday afternoon before leaving Charlotte and discovered that this particular Target has its own parking GARAGE, and you enter on the third floor.  Definitely not your typical Target; Hello, (semi) big city.  So, anyways I left around 5:15 and quickly realized that leaving then on Friday, on the weekend of the Clemson game and the major UNC-LSU in Atlanta, and on Labor Day weekend was a DUMB idea.  I contemplated turning around several times, but talking to good friends like Ansley Zarra and Sara Tafeen made the trip more bearable.  It's funny because they are both doing programs that are associated with the Peace Corps (Ans with Teach for America, and Sara with the Health Corps) so it's fun to listen to their different struggles as they start their commitments with the programs and schools.  But I digress...After about 45 minutes wasted in traffic, I made it to Clemson by 8, just in time to have dinner with several friends.  I figured I'd make it an early night since Saturday was guaranteed to be full, and wait for Katy to get off work and meet her at her apt.  That was until I found out that by getting off work late, Katy meant getting off at 3:00 AM instead of 10:30.  An early night turned into me having nowhere to go after spending a night with the guys downtown.  It was the first time I realized that I didn't have a home to go to in Clemson anymore, and it was QUITE a reality check.  I finally got in touch with her roommate and was able to get to sleep before Katy made it back. 

Balloons that are released at the beginning of every Clemson game...Perfect sky; fun image.

        Saturday was, of course, an awesome day in Clemson.  Katy were out Tailgating by 10:45 for the 3:30 game.  It was absolutely beautiful outside and it felt great...that is, until I got into the stadium.  I am embarrassed to say that I kept looking at the clock to see if I could make it through one quarter of the game in the extreme heat of the stadium.  I will say that I stayed long enough to see the poor ref get TAKEN OUT by players during the play that resulted in our first touchdown.  I had some mixed emotions about the play because I was excited for a touchdown, but worried about the Ref...but I think I was the only one around me that seemed concerned for a referee's health. 

Ref: laying down on the paw, where he stayed for a solid minute and a half before being escorted off via Gator

        By the end of the first quarter, I lied to the people I was sitting with, saying that I would be right back, and b-lined it for the closest tailgate with a tent.  I spent the duration of the game at Susan's tailgating with Susan and her friends and fam, Will Sartin, Adam, and towards the end Coach Brownell and his family and Coach Weineke.  After leaving that tailgate, I headed up the hill to where Channing and Trey were posted up and spent most of the rest of the night with that gang.  It was SO much fun to spend time with time with that crowd...I just felt like a care free college kid again. 
        I woke up on Sunday morning, expecting to still feel extremely full from all of the food I ate, but really all I felt was sore.  I came away from the weekend wanting someone to do a study on the typical Clemson tailgater, and the ratio of calories consumed, to calories burned by walking around all day.  After breakfast with Katy, I was set to get on the road quite early, but simply couldn't bring myself to leave the town that was an integral part of the four best years of my life, to date.  I ended up driving around all of my favorite spots for a while, but realized at some point I had to get back to my new life in Charlotte, as I had plans with family.  It was the weirdest feeling, going back to Clemson as a visitor and not as a resident.  No, I didn't cry...yes, I was on the verge.  I got back just as my parents were pulling into Charlotte.  We got to spend a good portion of the day as a big family with some of the Youngs and some of the Conrads.  Kim and John came into town as well, and John's brother Ross even stopped through on his way back from his trip to Atlanta.  It was so comfortable to just hang out with family and listen to people struggle to get a word in on all conversations...this is common among family get-togethers with several big personalities, but it makes for the most fun convos.  Mom and I got to go on a walk, and it was the first time when we had spent legitimate quality "chill" time together in a while.  After dinner with the families, my parents left, and Kim, Jon, and I headed over to Carrie's to hang out.  Branden surprised us by showing up in Charlotte last night and Bobby headed over so I got to hang with almost all of the Conrads at one time...I guess you could call me the stand in for Ryan last night.  Bobby, Carrie, Bobby's friend and I went out to the Montford area to hang out and although it was a strange crowd that night, we had fun surveying the scene and just spending time together.  I'm hoping we will have several more of these laid back, fun nights with cousins in the next couple of months. 
       
*** Stay tuned for stories about mystery animals, an Uncle Bobby semi freak out (ha!), and good eats from Monday...TO BE CONTINUED...so I don't sleep through my alarms in the AM***

An hour in Adoration

This One Goes Out to STELLA...because I got a facebook message from her tonight that said "its weird how i'm obsessed i am with your blog. end of story."  Yes, Stella.  Quite frankly it is a little weird-but flattering, nonetheless.  Keep reading.  It's good to know that I am not writing to the air; that someone, besides my parents, likes to read my thoughts. 
        So I woke up at 8:10 this morning and left at 8:40, about twenty minutes later than my usual .  It was the quickest I've gotten ready since the mornings when I would jump out of bed and head straight to class...except this time I actually had to go through a morning routine to look presentable at work.  Oh, the luxuries of the "running look" in college.  I got to work at 8:59 (I know, I CANNOT make this sleeping in thing a habit...again), just in time for the conference call I had forgotten about at 9:00.  Brooks and Lisa took us through the extrapointpass.com website so that we would be able to add deals, events, logos, etc...on our own to the site.  Another valuable lesson learned. 
        A large portion of the day was centered around the gifts committee meeting.  If nothing else, we got to meet several more leatherheads.  Everyone was receptive to ideas, and a lot of them had really great input.  Really, lots of good opinions...but I think its hard to nail down gifts when you have 20 people's opinions to consider.  Sarah and I have spent weeks narrowing down ideas, at the suggestion of Joe Max from Max Mpact, and coming up with a succinct agenda, but then Joe and Max show up with almost their entire store in tow to present at the meeting and Will just kind of shot from the hip as far as the meeting was concerned so it almost felt like our efforts were wasted time.  Lessons learned.  Also, as we were setting up for the meeting, Will randomly decided to ask me about the job I had taken before this one.  Literally, we were walking down the hall, carrying boxes and bags of promotional products, and Will said, "So, I was just wondering. You said you had taken a job before you came up here.  What was it?"  I answered him, and just like that, the conversation was over.  Hmm...I wondered why he never asked me when I first started here, but without questioning, I assumed the issue was irrelevant to him.  I'm not quite sure why he was all of the sudden struck with curiosity. 
        Tonight, the plan was for me to cook dinner and then I would join Bobby during his weekly appointment at the Perpetual Adoration Chapel.  Ann thought that timing would be a little cramped to get all of the above done, so Bobby and I ended up going out to eat at Hotel Charlotte, before heading to St. Gabe's for an hour of prayer.  Bobby was right...the She Crab Soup was awesome.  One of my Uncle's mentor's, Judge Potter, had a wife with an incredible vision to organize an event where someone would be praying in this chapel for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  After Judge Potter's death, Mrs. Potter asked Bobby if he would be willing to fill Judge Potter's spot on Thursday nights from 8-9.  How can you turn down the widow of a man you hold in such high esteem, who's asking you to do spend time with God in place of her husband?  Anyways, Uncle Bobby has been raving about his time in the chapel ever since and so, although an hour is sort of an intimidating amount of time to sit silently in prayer, with other people around, I decided it would be good to go with him.  In the hour I was sitting in the chapel, I realized that one of the places where Protestants may really be missing the mark, is this Adoration thing.  Every person who entered the chapel- and I mean every person, including a crippled man who walked with a cain, a small boy who came in and sat by himself, and several men and women over the age of 60 or 70- all knealt on both knees, head towards the ground, for several moments in the presence of Christ.  One older man literally touched his head to the floor.  These are things I'm only used to seeing paired with more intense emotions or circumstances, and not just simply out of the utmost respect for God and I felt like such a fraud having walked in and taken my seat comfortably, and without any particular thought as to who I was there to offer up praise to. 
        I will be totally honest, I did not feel God's presence in the way that I was expecting to.  However, I did get some solid time to just talk to god and throw out prayer requests that I didn't even know I had.   Many of these prayers surprised me but one had been on my heart all day.  I finally got around to putting up some pictures in my office, and one of them is of my parents sailing on my Dad's boat.  Will Webb came into use my computer, saw the picture and asked about both the people and the boat.  Apparently he was once an avid sailor...who knew?  Anyways, without a breath or a thought I said, "that is my Dad's boat and I think it's the one thing in this world that gives him peace".  Tonight I prayed over and over that my Dad would have a boat in his life, for the rest of his life.  I know it does not seem right to pray for a material thing like that in a world like this, but that boat is not just a material object for my father.  It is his passion.  The boat is where he is completely in his element.  It is the one place in this entire world where he actually wants to entertain people.  In short, the boat makes him happy in a way that material things don't typically make people happy...and I think he deserves that feeling, forever.
        On a separate note, I think my hour in prayer had a round about way of helping bring to the surface a lesson that I have been subconsciously teaching myself throughout my time in this internship.  I started the job with the comfort that I knew this was certainly where I was supposed to be, but with the insecurities that come with the territory of essentially being someone's second pick.  If i'm going to be honest, I started on my first day with a mission to identify my competition, or the hurdle I would have to jump in order to be successful at this job.  What I am learning is that competition should be completely irrelevant to me in that particular sense.  Instead, doing my job excellently, apart from any outside motivations, is the ultimate goal and helping others to succeed is part of that.  I have been trying to put into words those thoughts since I started the internship, and very quickly stopped feeling a sense of competition in the office and yet still felt challenged and motivated in my work.  Tonight, I figured it out...but I think it's one of those lessons you learn and relearn for the rest of your life.