Back from conference (aka the one day work week)

Hal writes:

Anna and I just happened to both be wearing pink the other day, so Anna thought that mean we needed our picture taken. Anna had dressed up for a two-hour presentation for one of her classes earlier that day and I was involved in RA interviews for the mid-year selection process.

Halloween occurred on the same night as hall council, so here are some of my RAs and I dressed up for the occasion.

This past week I was in Rochester for a regional housing conference. I only had to work Monday this past week and have a short week coming up for Thanksgiving break, so November is flying by. All of my RD colleagues were able to join in and we were able to spend some time together in the evenings. I appreciate the fact that not only were we able to have fun, but other groups began calling us the fun group. Here is a picture of us at dinner the first evening.

In addition to breakfast at Pannekoeken's and evenings spent eating out and singing karaoke, we attended programs during the day. I was able to go to some sessions and get some good information to bring back to campus (and went to one session that was terrible, but once you are in it's rude to get up and leave). I also had a variety of presentations. Jen and I did a presentation on RA programming for the Gen Y students in college, Nolan and I did a presentation on housing humor, I assisted one of our facility workers with a presentation on custodial work and I presented on learning styles.

Big news is that I was awarded with a "Top 5" program award. Out of the 130+ programs, my learning styles program was deemed one of the top five at the conference. Quite an honor considering that I'm fairly young compared to the other winners who had more experience. The bonus is I now have a one in five shot at being selected to attend a national conference to present my session with someone else paying for it. I don't know how they select which one of the five of us, but it's pretty exciting. Nothing like an additional resume booster, right?

Here's a picture at one of the banquet's with my colleagues Andrea and Artanya. Check out my Facebook account for more photos.

This week Anna and I will be hosting both families for Thanksgiving. I bought a 22 pound turkey this morning among other groceries. Only three days of work until the break begins!