Greetings from Oxford, Ohio!

Well, I am not dead. It has been a long time, too long in fact, since I have posted a comment. I got to my last visit on the road up in Ottawa, Ontario and decided I was done writing. My apologies.

It has been an exciting past few weeks. After returning home to Oxford on the 19th, I had a few days in the office and then I flew home to Kansas City to see the family for Thanksgiving. A very good time indeed! After flying into Kansas City, I flew down to New Orleans for the Association of Fraternity Advisors annual meeting.

I have never been down to New Orleans before and it was an eye opening experience. We arrived a day early and went down to the Upper 9th Ward to help build a house for Habitat for Humanity. It felt so good to help down there, but the areas hardest hit have such a long way from recovery. I think the biggest issue facing New Orleans isn't the lack of resources, but more so the lack of PEOPLE there. I read the morning newspaper while we were there and the front page story was about the population finally reaching 200,000 in the city of New Orleans. This used to be a city of 500,000 before Katrina. The Upper 9th Ward is full of empty homes....block, after block, after block. Occassionally you would see a home here and there that was fixed up and somebody was living in it, but in general it was empty. After we were done working for the day, our bus driver drove us down to the Lower 9th Ward. This was the area hardest hit by Katrina. There is nothing there. No rebuilding. No demolition. I imagine it will look the same way it does today 10 years from now.

It was good to experience Bourbon Street. They call Las Vegas "Sin City"....I'm pretty sure that Bourbon Street makes Las Vegas look like a monastery. It was definitely an experience--to say the least. But a very good time. I would tell you more, but in an effort to boost the local economy and support New Orleans Tourism, I'll just say--"Go find out for yourself!"

After New Orleans, I flew back home to Oxford where I have been the past week. It is nice to be back home and I am enjoying my time in the office. We had our annual Kai Bowl football game this weekend. I was finally on the winning team! But I think I only played 3 or 4 plays...which was fine by me because I was having too good of a time watching the game on the sideline and chatting with the spectators. But It was a great time and we ended the day with a fine evening at The A-List in Oxford.

Thanks for reading. A brief overview of the past 3 weeks. I probably won't have another post until the beginning of the year. But trust me I'm still ticking! Happy Holiday!

-T