Sometimes I just love my job.

Because we get to send emails like these:

Dr. Notes,

How do I share my calendar so my co-worker can see it? Right now it shows times blocked but not what it is! Please help!

xoxo,

Brooke & Neil

The email would even be funnier if Brooke and I knew who was on the receiving end of the Dr. Notes email. I'm sure he will think who let those two yahoos in Fraternity and Sorority Life have email access anyway.

Weeks like the last few weeks it's the little things like this that just make us giggle.

Here, there and everywhere

Right after the debut of my esteemed blog, my spring "travel season" started. (My previous blog entry highlighted Neil vs. the Airport.)

As someone who works on a college campus with students, I'm not sure where these chunks of travel come in. And since my packing skills usually leave much to be desired, it's a wonder I make it out of the house in one piece. My travel schedule is not really a typical one as I am not always traveling for work. I have the pleasure of mixing business and personal travel- and adventures always ensue.

In my last blog entry, I was off to meet my parents in Tunica, MS via Memphis, TN. When I arrived in Chicago for  my connection, I volunteered to take a bump for a travel voucher (always have to be ready for that next trip!) and then my new flight was delayed. Mom and Dad, being on vacation, were totally flexible and killed time in Memphis waiting for my arrival. We arrived in Tunica, the Las Vegas of the South, for our weekend of gambling, food and family bonding. Live blogging this trip would have been run giant entry but they don't allow phones at the table. It was hard enough to get funny tweets out in between bathroom breaks and shuffling. The weekend was successful in catching up with Mom and Dad as I did not come home a millionaire.

A week later, I was back on the road heading to Camp Oak Hill in North Carolina (and drove through a town named Virgilina - you guessed it, it straddled the boarder between Virginia and North Carolina. Creative.) to work with the IFC community of North Carolina State University. I was excited to work with just a group of men through a leadership development program about their fraternal experience. My observations include:

• Fraternity and Sorority Advisors will have jobs for a long time to come. We can address issues with one group of men only to start over again in a few years. (I often say we work in the move Groundhog's Day.)
• Fraternity men in large groups are dumb. And this does not change when you are an alumni. My IQ dropped as well
• Boys smell.
• All the male facilitators slept in one large cabin - I don't think I could have survived cold air sleeping quarters. (I'll take the military style showers at Lambda Chi Alpha over giving up my own room any day).

After survivng the NC State fraternity community (and hopefully touching a few lives along the way), it was back home to cram a weekend's worth of activities and life like things into a few hours. I did manage to get most things accomplished, including dinner and drinks with friends, with a few tasks rolling into tonight.

I'm looking forward to the next round of travel which includes three weddings and a bachelorette party all between now and May 19. That, combined with dog sitting for the Beauregard and wrapping up another semester, I'm sure many more life lessons will come!

Planes can still fly...

...when you don't turn off your phone. This was only one of the mishaps I had this morning trying to leave RIC. I left my belt in the security line and tried to hand it off to the guy in front of me. When he politely turned it down, I realized it was mine. I then marched up to the body scanner and proceeded through. As I was standing there with my hands in the air, I realized I still had my Chapstick in my pocket. Guess what - they noticed. "Do you have anything in your left pocket air?" Thankfully they didn't make me throw my Burt's Bees out (things may have gotten nasty at 5:15 am at RIC if that were not the case.)

I managed to compose myself and send some work emails while I waited to board. After valet checking my bag (American is fancy - no gate checking for them!) I then had to ask the guy behind me if I was in the right seat. He gave me a look that said "you do not travel enough" and I have him a look that said "that's an unfortunate shirt choice your wife made for you this morning. I then proceeded to zonk out on the flight and I'm pretty sure my mouth was wide open and even though I had my travel pillow, my head was bobbing. Awesome.

In order to increase my travel karma, I will do my absolute best to not give dirty looks to the people that are not such wordly travelers as I. (Seriously though. I've flown at least once a month since September - I got this.)

And so it begins.

To those that know me well, I have talked about starting a blog for awhile. I am always inspired when I read good blogs, where people are able to express their thoughts in a humorous way and you can learn a little something along the way.

One of my 2012 New Year's resolutions was to start a blog. And yes, it is March. (Per my usual fashion, I am arriving fashionably late even in resolution time). Then the great debate started on what I would name my blog. I wanted to catch the attention of my future 10's of readers, so not just anything would do. Along with the blog title came the conversation about what I would write about. Chelsea Handler and Aaron Karo have a run on the "life is funny and I'm going to make fun of it and have tons of people follow me" reign, so that was out. I am not a parent so I can't write a parent's advice blog. And goodness knows, I can't advise myself out of a paper bag so a self-help blog is also out.

So setting the title aside for a little while, I needed to really decide what I wanted to write about. As the days following NYE turned into a month, and then another month, I still wasn't inspired by a title or a general topic. But as 2012 marches on, and I reflect what life events have occurred in 2012 - I'm inspired to write about the life of a 20 something who is on a mission to figure it all out and have some (mis)adventures along the way.

So... the potential list of topics are basically thoughts in my head regarding what I do on a regular basis: a single dude enjoying his (late) 20s, who is passionate about fraternities and sororities, is trying to become a morning work out person and marathon runner, figure out work/life balance... figuring out all of this while laughing and having a good time all the way. Potential topics may include life lessons by Neil, the fraternal movement, student affairs, running and general health and the joys of being a single guy in RVA. All with my own special spin of course. My goal will be to be funny, sometimes deep, and maybe even having readers walk away with "well that was interesting."

Near the end of December, I had a whole list of New Year's Resolutions. As luck would have it, I lost that list. But who needs the dawn of a new year to resolve something. Each day is a new day - it's my goal to make it count.

Where did the name come from? My friend Britnie and I were imbibing in an adult beverage at a more random bar in RVA one recent evening.

The bar atmosphere provided an excellent place to pontificate life and try to answer all of our unknown questions. I happened to mention that I had a new favorite song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts&ob=av3e. Minutes later, the song came on in the bar. As Britnie and I were singing along, the part of "we are young, so I set the world on fire, we can go brighter than the sun" resonated. That's when I decided the name of my blog.

I'm here to set the world on fire. And names have not been changed to protect the guilty.