as opposed to being stressed, with less than 2 weeks until my wedding, it’s good to know that instead of feeling stressed, i have that nervous excitement right before i go on a trip. pretty good, huh?

it’s been quite a week. it started with a trip out to ithaca, new york to visit cornell university. the campus is beautiful. i stayed in the statler hotel, which is actually one of the schools at cornell, run by students a lot. the place was really nice and i got to enjoy it more than i expected, due to a snowstorm. the students there seem focused and smart, studying on the plane and my tour guide exuded joy for the institution.

i saw the same energy from the alumni affairs staff that invited me to join them for their advancement. i gave a talk on alumni education at stanford while out there, and sat in on their training sessions as well, which was a truly great experience. i love the idea of an organization re-focusing every six months to build the team, reiterate strategy, and gain some professional development. i was pretty jealous, actually.

this was my first experience in the snow. i’m glad i bought those boots, because i needed them. it was beautiful and shocking all at the same time. shocking, because people still operate. as long as roads are plowed, people drive, they run, they go to class - i’m used to living in a place where everything would shut down.

i had a couple cool moments around art as well. i did a tour of the johnson museum on campus and they had a few excellent exhibitions that i got to enjoy, as well as a broad view of campus. my other experience was surprisingly in the airport. if you ever fly through detroit, there’s a light tunnel between terminals A and C and despite my run through, it was awesome. the lights change and get set to music. on the way out it was dramatic and scary. on the way back, it was a lighter tune with bright colors. i wish more public spaces were so playful.

that’s it for now, i’m going to see which zipline we’re going to take for the honeymoon!