2023 and Me

  The 31st day of the year, for the past five years, has been a somber day for me.  1/31/2023 was no different.  It's been five years since I left my job as The University Registrar at Penn and went back to the NGSS Project.  It's been five years of a lot of good work, our system has gone live and I have really enjoyed working with my teams, helping people figure out the new system, implement the new processes, and process (and cleanup) a lot of the data.  In fact, honestly, I think this work is a better match for my skill set than the position from which I moved.  But, Jan 31 and Me will always invoke memories of that turbulent time of change and moving positions.  So I am glad I was on PTO today.  I am glad I saw a long time colleague in the Registrar's Office, and I am glad that, tomorrow, I can return to the Pennant Support Team and continue the good work of the past five years.  Always good to stop and remember times in your life that, a...

  Well, it's been a while since my second (and until now, my last) daily post of the month.  January has been a busy, exhausting, frenetic month.  Mainly because of work.  So, on the 30th day of 2023, I was on a PTO day so I was able to get to the bank to make the Church deposit on a Monday (in January it has been a Tuesday or later, but often because of bank holidays as well).  As I rolled up to the bank drive-thru with Skylar on 1/30/2023, I realized that this is probably my last regular deposit of my time as Financial Secretary at Old First Reformed UCC.  After years on the Finance and Stewardship Committee, the Stewardship and Finance Committee, as Treasurer, and now as Financial Secretary, my 25+ years of service to the Financial Ministry of OFR is coming to a close.  So my 23 and me for tonight is Church Financials and Me.  I am sure I will still be nosy.  I am planning to stay involved in the Admin SLG.  But my days of crunching n...

I have lived or worked within a mile of the campus of the University of Pennsylvania my entire life.  The pandemic times were the longest I had ever gone without setting foot on Penn's campus for, again, my entire life as I grew up 7-10 blocks away and the campus was, basically, a local park for us growing up.  But my '23 and me for the 2nd day of 2022 is Penn State and Me.  Why, Penn State?  Well, a long, long time ago, when dating Sarah and visiting York on the weekends, well, you needed to be a Penn State fan since you were in Penn State Country.  So here I was, trying to court the amazing Sarah Jayne (and win the affection of her family), so this kid from "Not Penn State" became a Penn State Football fan.  And, on 1/2/2023, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the culmination of this season, a Rose Bowl win!  I love the Rose Parade, I love the pageantry of "The Granddaddy of them All," and so I was doubly pleased with this year's bowl placement and, of co...

Well the calendar was changing from 2012 to 2013 and I was feeling kinda down.  So I made a decision, for the New Year, to make a daily post.  I wrote: "Feeling like 2013 will be "lucky 13"......I want to try to post, daily, why I feel lucky....let's see if I can find something each day to feel lucky about - hoping it is a struggle, not to find one, but to narrow down the choices......" I went on to post that I felt lucky to be working at Penn and Penn Nursing.  That started a daily discipline that, for the last decade, I have done ALMOST daily.  Yes, in 2022, work (ironically) was a but overwhelming and, thus, I missed a LOT of days.  I do not do New Year's Resolutions, but I DO hope (and will try very hard) that I can make it each day (or almost every day) this year.  So, now I need to come up with a theme. Y'all know I love numbers and, so, I was looking for a Daily Theme that fits in with a numerical hook, and one that means something to me.  And, ...