Sunday, June 12

Recovery. Stef and I were up pretty early today, but Teri was of course already halfway into making a big-ass breakfast for everyone by then. Stef’s Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dave were spending the weekend at the house with their kids, so we all sat down together and enjoyed Mrs. Spiro’s wonderful French toast, bacon, and sausage breakfast. Mmmmm.

Stef and I took it pretty easy this morning after we ate, but we had a lot of errands to run this afternoon, so we didn’t waste too much time. We ran out to CVS and Jo Ann Fabrics to get a graduation card for Stef’s friend and some fabric so she could make her a blanket as a present. So cute, so domestic. Anyway, we came back to the house for a little bit and got changed for our busy afternoon, and headed back out by 2:30 or so for this girl’s party in Birmingham. The place was a funeral parlor compared to the big blowout we had for Justin yesterday, but it was nice to attend an understated event for a change of pace. Stef’s friend Jess was really sweet, and we chatted with her for a little while we enjoyed the wonderful food they were serving. All I have to say is: chocolate fondue. Drool.

Stef and I came back to the house after the party and relaxed in front of the TV for all of an hour before heading out yet again for Justin’s graduation ceremony. Like Holt, Lahser is a pretty big school, so they had the commencement at Meadowbrook Festival near Oakland University. The one problem with the location though was that it was threatening to rain the whole time we were there, and everyone was a little nervous that it might start to pour (in fact, we did have to bust out the umbrellas for a few minutes). The actual ceremony was pretty long and everyone was really hot, but it was entertaining enough. Speeches were pretty ho-hum for the most part, but one kid stole the show. He got up there and absolutely owned the crowd. As soon as he opened his mouth I knew that this kid must be training to be a preacher, and it turned out that I was right. The theme of his speech was “you weren’t born to be average, you were born to be a king,” and man, he sure had everyone believing it. It was, without a doubt, the most engaging and exciting graduation speech I have ever heard, and the kid’s only 18. Pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

After the two hour ceremony finally let out, we all scattered to our separate cars and raced over to TGIFridays since it was getting close to game time for the Pistons showdown with the Spurs. It was Justin, Tim, Teri, Stef, and I at dinner, and we all had a really good time talking with the new graduate. The timing was perfect, and we made it back to the house just in time to catch the game. Of course, our hurrying around was all for naught, since the Pistons played horribly again and took another beating from the Spurs. This could be a long series.

Anyway, that sticks a fork in an otherwise wonderful weekend. Once again, this weekend is wrapping up and leading into another week that promises to be even better than the one before.

Saturday, June 11

Today was Mr. Justin Spiro’s high school graduation party. Stefy and I did our best to hide and stay out of Teri’s war path this morning. Now, I’ve been to some pretty big weddings in my day, but this was certainly among the most elaborate productions I’ve ever attended. The house was completely consumed by decorations, food, and people, but the planning came together seamlessly, and everything (aside from the occasional downpour) went off without a hitch.

Now, I know that I met about a million people today, but I probably only retained the names of a few of them. My head was just spinning. Maybe it was the humidity. The party was a lot of fun though, even though the weather didn’t exactly cooperate. My favorite highlights from today were: getting to meet some of Stef’s relatives, the food, the ice cream cart, the mix CD that Stef and I made for background music, the food, and the food. What struck me as funny about today though was how much Stef had to talk about her college and career plans even though she wasn’t the one graduation this time. And of course, since I was Miss Spiro’s escort, I got hounded plenty as well. I mean, it’s not like it’s that big of a deal to tell people about what you’re doing at school, but it does get repetitive.

I realize that this was a PARTY, and it’s not like I was really doing anything really strenuous, but for some reason I was absolutely exhausted by the middle of the afternoon. We’re talking about-to-pass-out tired. In fact, by the time things were winding down by 8 or so, I snuck up to the guest room and put my head down for about five minutes before grabbing another Coke and heading back out into the mix. Unlike Scott Pohl, I guess I just didn’t get the gift of mingling. Still, I think I did a pretty good job of being the nice boyfriend today, and I think that I impressed a few people.

The house was more or less clear by 9, and we went out to the pool to unwind and relax with the few stragglers who were still out there. Stefy went in for a dip with her parents, but since I was still so sleepy, I sat down by the fire and took another little nap. It’s a rough life, let me tell you. Anyway, I managed to survive another big bash at the Casa de Spiro today. It was a lot of fun, and I’m really happy that everything worked out without any mishaps or calls to the police.

Friday, June 10

This morning was the first ‘Admin Team’ meeting at work. Basically Christi has decided to split up the staff into various teams in an effort to keep different people focused on their respective areas of expertise, and to shorten full staff meetings. Basically the ‘Admin Team’ covers everything from ordering pens and paper to designing and managing the website and newsletter. Our meeting was actually pretty long since there was so much to talk about, and took up most of the morning. There were about three pieces of good news to come out of this meeting for me. First, I am now (for better or for worse) completely in control of our newsletter design, and have the authority to dole out writing assignments. Hopefully this means that we won’t get hung up on having to wait for different people to authorize a change or take on various assignments, since I pretty much answer directly to Christi from now on. The second development was an upcoming brochure design that Miss Coady wants me to work on. It’s going to be a lot more complicated than I had originally anticipated, but I think it’ll be a really cool project, and it will be an important piece of our PR plan in the months and years to come. The third bit of news is that I’m now in charge of re-designing the layout of our display board, which we use throughout the year at conferences and meetings and whatnot. All three of these assignments are a pretty big deal, and I’m really looking forward to working on them. I think the thing that I’m most excited about is that these projects should solidify my new role at work, and will (hopefully) give me more leverage to re-negotiate a bigger pay increase in the months to come.

Ok, so enough about work. I made it to Stef’s this afternoon shortly after 5, and it was complete hell. The drive couldn’t have been less stressful, but since I’m virtually certain that my AC unit is dead, I was sweatin’ up a storm. Stefy was there with her friend Nolan to greet me when I pulled into the driveway, so I gave my girl a hug and chatted with her and Nolan for a few minutes before politely excusing myself to go take a shower. Man, that felt good.

Anyway, Nolan was gone by the time I got out of the bathroom, and we were ready to head out to Somerset with Stef’s parents shortly thereafter. We put our name on the list at J. Alexander’s and hit the mall for shop time. Stefy wanted to make a few stops and I needed to stop by the Apple store, so it was a busy half hour. I decided to just get Stef’s brother Justin a gift card from the Apple store so he could pick out an accessory for his iPod or something for his graduation gift.

Stef and I made it back to the restaurant just in time to grab our table, and her dad was already there waiting at the bar when we showed up. We all sat down and ordered drinks and an appetizer while we waited for Teri to show up from her little shopping spree, but the minutes kept ticking away. After about 15 minutes of sitting there Stefy just ordered an entrée for her mom. Teri came walking in just a couple minutes before our meals were served, and she showed off her “bargain” purchases while we joked about how late she was. Anyway, our meals were all really good. I ordered a club sandwich that was more than a mouthful, so I ended up leaving about half of it in a big heap on my plate. After dinner Teri wanted to take “ten minutes” at Victoria’s Secret before heading home, so Tim, Stefy, and I all skeptically went out to the car to wait for her. Those “ten minutes” turned out to be more like thirty, so we just sat out in the parking lot and listened to BNL while we were waiting for Mrs. Spiro.

Stefy and I didn’t do a whole lot when we got back to the house tonight. We just watched some TV and tried to relax before Justin’s big blowout party tomorrow. I need my beauty rest before meeting about a million people tomorrow.

Thursday, June 9

I’m writing this nearly a week later, so I honestly don’t remember that much about today. I think work was pretty typical. I worked on the newsletter some more, and was trying to get our fancy new copier to spit out a nice, clean version for me to show off at tomorrow’s ‘admin team’ meeting. It finally worked at around 4:30 this afternoon, and turned out a lot better than I was even expecting.

Anyway, I went to my dad’s for dinner and some laundry after work this afternoon. Kyra was in a stellar mood again today (this is me being sarcastic by the way). I think I just need to start taking ear plugs with me whenever I go over for visits from now on. Or a muzzle.

Tonight was pretty low key at the apartment. I packed up my things for another weekend at the Spiro shack, and did some more reading in my Steve Jobs book. There might’ve been a nap in there somewhere, but I don’t really remember at this point. I do know that I watched Game 1 of the NBA finals at 9:30 when they FINALLY started. I’m sorry, but isn’t that a little ridiculous? I know they want to air the games in prime time, but Jesus! There are more people watching this in the Eastern time zone than anywhere else, so how about screwing the Texans for a change? I’m just bitter because tonight my beloved Pistons took a pretty thorough beating at the hands of the Spurs. What makes the loss even more painful is that the game was totally within reach too. We just ran outta steam in the 4th, and that damn Argentinean had to go and blow the whole thing for us. ¡No me gusta Ginobili!

Wednesday, June 8

The day of our Annual Meeting & ‘Million Dollar’ Luncheon is probably the second busiest day of our work year. We always tend to put off planning for these things until the last minute, and today was no different. Of course, since we’re such an amazing staff, we managed to pull everything together and have a great party like usual. Kim, Ilana, and I got to the Kellogg center pretty early this morning to set up our conference room, and we had that place lookin’ pretty slick in less than an hour. Guests started showing up about an hour before they were supposed to, but we managed to get everyone in and keep things under control while we were waiting for the board meeting to get out (which is where the rest of the staff was conveniently hiding from manual labor—j/k).

The food was actually pretty decent this year. Kellogg can be hit or miss sometimes. Our game this year was ‘Concentration’, and I think it went a lot better than any of us were expecting. Everyone really got into playing and a few people were getting pretty competitive, which is always funny to watch at a business luncheon. The whole show basically went off without a hitch though, so that was a big load off our backs for another year. Or at least until our next big event in November. Which we’ll still probably plan the day before.

I came back to the office for a couple hours this afternoon, and it was basically Wanda, Christi, and me sitting around talking about how we thought everything went. While we were chatting Christi dropped a big bomb on me—she said that the Trust Fund was making a ‘generous donation’ towards my study abroad trip. After picking my jaw up from the floor I thanked her profusely. I won’t give an amount, but suffice it to say, it’ll cover a pretty big chunk of my spending money in Europe. WH-WHOA!

I got back home at 5 or so this afternoon. It was a pretty lazy night at the apartment. I read some more of my Steve Jobs bio for an hour or more, watched some Jeopardy, talked to my mom on iChat, talked to Stefy on iChat, and poked around online. It’s just been a busy week, and tonight seemed like a good chance to rest a little. Well, I guess that’s it.

Tuesday, June 7

The day before any major event at my office is usually pretty hectic, and today was no different. That said, I was somehow able to slip under the hi-stress radar today, which was refreshing. In fact, our little brainstorming session about how our game would be played at the luncheon was downright relaxing. We all gathered in the conference room during lunch and talked through the details over pizza. A smart decision on my boss’ part.

I got back to the apartment at around 5 this afternoon, but Stefy didn’t get to the apartment until close to 6 since traffic was so bad. The drive took her a ridiculous two hours today, so she was more than a little flustered when she came stumbling up the stairs. Of course, being the trooper that she is, Stefy still wanted to make the trip out to my dad’s house to visit the girls. We stopped by Wendy’s on the way and picked up a quick dinner, and then got to my dad’s by 6:30 or so. The timing was perfect since dad, Sherry, and the girls were sitting down to their dinner right when we got there.
Stefy played ‘balloon’ with Morgan for a while after dinner, but it was already getting close to their bedtime, and Kyra was starting to have her nightly meltdown by 7:30 or so. Stefy went up to Morgan’s room and read her a chapter from one of the ‘Lemony Snicket’ books before bed, while I went over to Kyra’s room and read a few of the ‘Little Critter’ books. I know, we’re cute like that.

On our way back to the pad after leaving my dad’s house we made a quick stop by Meijer to pick up some groceries, and one other goodie… the new Coldplay CD. It’s been a long three years since their last album, but our patience was finally rewarded with this gem. Stefy and I made our way back to the apartment and settled in for the night with our respective weekly periodicals—EW and Cosmo—while we had an ‘X&Y’ listening party. I can already tell that this CD is going to get a lot of play counts on my pod in the next week or so. While my first impressions of albums tend to be overly generous, I don’t think it’s TOO nuts to say that this is Coldplay’s best album to date. As far as I’m concerned though, they’re a perfect 3-0 in terms of having consistently good records, which is something few bands can claim.

Okay, I’ll stop. Anyway, that’s it for Tuesday.

Monday, June 6

Woke up at 6:00 and hit the road for Lansing this morning. The traffic wasn’t too bad, and I still managed to make it to work by about 7:30. We were starting to feel the pressure mount all day for our upcoming Annual Meeting on Wednesday. It just seemed like there was a lot to do that we weren’t doing, but I did my best to just keep my mouth shut and stay out of the way.

It was bloody hot again today, but fortunately I had enough foresight to close my window and shades and leave my door open during the day so my room could soak up some of the AC air. I pretty much spent the whole night printing out letters to send to my family and friends telling them about my Study Abroad trip. It turned out to be a much bigger undertaking than I was anticipating, with about 33 letters total to mail. The problem was that I only had 17 stamps. I guess some will have to wait.