Today was a very moving-centric day. It started off with me bringing a small piece of exercise equipment to a friend's yard sale, to see if it would sell. I tried to see if it sold, when I stopped by their home later in the afternoon, but no one was around. I'll give a call tomorrow to see what's up.
I then went to buy some boxes for our forthcoming move to the Garden State, and even got a start on some packing before I went around 11:30 or so to help two of my colleagues, who are also leaving Dartmouth, pack up their moving truck. Fortunately, we had about 10 people there to help, and I brought two dolly carts from my cluster, so the loading up actually went fairly quickly.
Of course, it was hard to see my colleagues head out of here, but I know I'll be on their end of the departure day soon enough, so I can empathize on how it'll feel for us. Krista was leaving "for good" today, but Fouad will be working this last week here at Dartmouth, so there's still time to drag the departure out...
In the afternoon, I bought some more boxes (besides finding some boxes for free around town, and in the building), and Sue and I have a bunch of stuff now packed. All of our CD's, DVD's, and about 60-70% of our books are now in boxes. Tomorrow, I'll get the rest of the books, along with some other stuff packed. The movers won't be coming until around July 6th, so we still have plenty of time to get stuff ready.
We took some pictures today, I'll post them up here tomorrow, so you can see what the life in boxes will be like for the next few weeks.
NP: The Black Crowes - Remedy
17 June 2006
15 June 2006
Job!
So, I accepted a job offer today! In order to save time rewriting things, here's the e-mail I sent out to friends today:
----------------------------
Hello All!
Yes, it's a group e-mail, but I have some good news to share...
Yesterday, I received an offer, and today I accepted said offer, to be the Assistant Director of Residence Life for Community Development at St. Peter's College, down in Jersey City, NJ.My start date is Monday, July 10th. The job provides housing, so we'll still be living in an apartment in the residence halls, but that's okay, as housing costs in the area are quite high, since we're right across the river from Manhattan. It's an hour from "home" down in Ocean Township, where I grew up, and is close to many members of Sue's family. Also, since this job allows me to supervise other professional staff members, it is the natural next step in my career progression.
Besides supervising two other professionals, I'll be working to develop student staff training programs, working with other campus offices to develop and grow a variety of initiatives, and other interesting stuff. St. Peter's College is a Jesuit institution (like Boston Collge, where I got my undergrad degree), and has about 1700 full time undergrads, with about 700 of them living on campus. I'll also be someone who hears judicial/behavioral issues and issues sanctions, which isn't necessarily fun, but is a way to help influence students in positive ways. I could list other job responsibilities, but that's kind of boring... :)
Sue and I will be packing up here for the next few weeks, and my last day at work at Dartmouth will probably be right around the 4th of July.What's coincidental/funny, to me at least, about this job, is that the campus is about 10 blocks away from where a pair of my great-great-great-grandparents lived (Richard and Eliza Coulson) in the mid/late 19th Century, after they came over to the US from Ireland. Maybe I'm a big nerd for knowing these things, with all the genealogy research I do, but there you have it.
For those of you in the NYC/NJ area, since we're relocating, Sue will need to find a job. Right now, she's working as an administrative assistant for one of the academic offices here at Dartmouth. If you know of any good jobs she can apply for, let me know!
Hope all is well with you, I'll write more individually in the coming weeks.
Mike
-----------------------------
So, there you have it. I wasn't really comfortable going into details on here before accepting the position, but I've been looking forward to talking about this for awhile. I'm just very glad that it's working out. I've been looking for a new position that would be a step up for awhile now, and it's finally come.
This job will give me the experience necessary to either move laterally from there in the future, or move up to another sort of position (Director, or other level). I've been getting a lot of well wishes from people, which has been great.
Of course, I will miss the people and location up here. Including my time at Landmark, I've been living up here in the "wild woods" for 8 years. I met Sue up here, fell in love, and all that goes along with that. But now we get to build something new, in a new location that has different things to offer, which will be a good experience.
I really enjoyed the people I met at St. Peter's, and already am looking forward to working with them. In speaking to my future supervisor on the phone today, I think we're going to have a great relationship. It'll be hard at times, to be sure, but that's what is good about change. New challenges to shake off any cobwebs in the brain...
More to come!
NP: Yes - The Ancient (18 Feb 1974)
----------------------------
Hello All!
Yes, it's a group e-mail, but I have some good news to share...
Yesterday, I received an offer, and today I accepted said offer, to be the Assistant Director of Residence Life for Community Development at St. Peter's College, down in Jersey City, NJ.My start date is Monday, July 10th. The job provides housing, so we'll still be living in an apartment in the residence halls, but that's okay, as housing costs in the area are quite high, since we're right across the river from Manhattan. It's an hour from "home" down in Ocean Township, where I grew up, and is close to many members of Sue's family. Also, since this job allows me to supervise other professional staff members, it is the natural next step in my career progression.
Besides supervising two other professionals, I'll be working to develop student staff training programs, working with other campus offices to develop and grow a variety of initiatives, and other interesting stuff. St. Peter's College is a Jesuit institution (like Boston Collge, where I got my undergrad degree), and has about 1700 full time undergrads, with about 700 of them living on campus. I'll also be someone who hears judicial/behavioral issues and issues sanctions, which isn't necessarily fun, but is a way to help influence students in positive ways. I could list other job responsibilities, but that's kind of boring... :)
Sue and I will be packing up here for the next few weeks, and my last day at work at Dartmouth will probably be right around the 4th of July.What's coincidental/funny, to me at least, about this job, is that the campus is about 10 blocks away from where a pair of my great-great-great-grandparents lived (Richard and Eliza Coulson) in the mid/late 19th Century, after they came over to the US from Ireland. Maybe I'm a big nerd for knowing these things, with all the genealogy research I do, but there you have it.
For those of you in the NYC/NJ area, since we're relocating, Sue will need to find a job. Right now, she's working as an administrative assistant for one of the academic offices here at Dartmouth. If you know of any good jobs she can apply for, let me know!
Hope all is well with you, I'll write more individually in the coming weeks.
Mike
-----------------------------
So, there you have it. I wasn't really comfortable going into details on here before accepting the position, but I've been looking forward to talking about this for awhile. I'm just very glad that it's working out. I've been looking for a new position that would be a step up for awhile now, and it's finally come.
This job will give me the experience necessary to either move laterally from there in the future, or move up to another sort of position (Director, or other level). I've been getting a lot of well wishes from people, which has been great.
Of course, I will miss the people and location up here. Including my time at Landmark, I've been living up here in the "wild woods" for 8 years. I met Sue up here, fell in love, and all that goes along with that. But now we get to build something new, in a new location that has different things to offer, which will be a good experience.
I really enjoyed the people I met at St. Peter's, and already am looking forward to working with them. In speaking to my future supervisor on the phone today, I think we're going to have a great relationship. It'll be hard at times, to be sure, but that's what is good about change. New challenges to shake off any cobwebs in the brain...
More to come!
NP: Yes - The Ancient (18 Feb 1974)
13 June 2006
Show!
On Sunday night, Sue and I made our way down to Northampton, MA, to check out the Tony Levin Band live in concert at a place called the Iron Horse. The show started at 7pm, and we got to the town at about 4:15pm or so. It was about a 100 minute drive from Hanover, so not horrible...
Since we were way early, we went to a nice little vegetarian restaurant to eat. Even though I'm not a vegetarian, I enjoy this place, we've eaten there before when we were in town. I had the vegetarian stir fry, which was quite tasty, if a bit more greasy than I'd like. But, it wasn't in a bad way. After eating, we wandered around the town for a bit (it was *quite* a nice day), and Sue went into a store while I enjoyed sitting on a bench on the street. I noticed a guy with a guitar case standing in front of the store asking passers-by for change. I can only assume that he had played enough guitar for the day that he didn't feel the need to perform any more. I'm always willing to throw in some change, if I have any, to street musicians. But, they do have to be playing when I throw my change in.
We got to the Iron Horse around 6pm or so, and it was pretty full on the floor. It was set up for dinner, and most of the tables on the stage level floor were filled. There was a deuce (restaurant talk for a two person table) right at the top of the stairs to the balcony, so that's where we ended up. It was a good location as we could both see the stage, and not have to share our table with other people. Not that we're not social, but I just didn't feel like sharing my space. You could end up with some cool people, or not... I didn't want to run the risk of the second option.
The Tony Levin Band is made up of 5 people. There's Tony Levin himself, who plays bass and a number of other bottom end instruments (the Chapman Stick, and an electric cello), and sings. Jerry Marotta plays drums and sings, Larry Fast is on keys, Jesse Gress on guitar, and Pete Levin (Tony's brother) also on keys. Those of you into odd music trivia may realize that Tony, Jerry, and Larry were three members of Peter Gabriel's touring band from the late 70's into about 1983. Levin still plays with Gabriel, but Marotta and Fast have moved on to other things. Larry Fast has a number of albums out under the name Synergy, which are all instrumental albums done on synthesizers. Cool stuff! I picked up two of those Synergy CD's at the show, as I already have all of Levin's stuff that was on sale.
Sue and I didn't eat, since we had already eaten, but I did get a coke, and Sue got coffee.
The opener was a duo from Australia called "The Kin." At first, I thought they were a bit too "pretty boy" for me, but they could sing well, and their songs were quite good, actually. I'm not running out to buy their CD's, but they were a good warm up, and performed for about 40 minutes. During their set, I saw some members of Levin's band, including Levin himself, moving in and out of the club.
When Levin and Company came out on stage, they first did a barbershop quartet which mimiced Levin's old King Crimson quartet piece from 1984, except this one was all about his own band. Very fun! The first "real" piece was an instrumental song (Pieces of the Sun, I believe), which started out with Levin on the aforementioned electric cello. The low end was deep enough to vibrate my seat!
I should mention that during the opening act, I got a dessert which was a brownie sundae, which was quite excellent!
Levin's set consisted of a mix of newer songs from his latest CD, other music from his recent albums, and covers of songs from bands or musicians that he's been involved with. He played two King Crimson songs (Sleepless and Elephant Talk), Black Dog from Zeppelin (just for fun), Genesis's "Back in N.Y.C.," Larry Fast's/Synergy's "Phobos," and Peter Gabriel's "On The Air," which was fantastic. The band all seemed to be really enjoying themselves, although Marotta seemed perhaps a bit under the weather, although he sang very well on Sleepless, Back in NYC, and On The Air.
Afterwards, the band was freely available to chat, sign anything that was put in front of them, and just be generally pleasant to talk to. Sue got some photos of me with the band members, which I'll get up here at some point. I talked with Larry Fast about being from NJ, which was a bit of "old home" stuff, and with Tony Levin about coming down from Hanover for the show. He wished us a safe drive back, and all was well. I didn't want to take up too much of their time, I could have really geeked it up with music questions, but chose not to, as they had a good drive back to Woodstock, NY, once the meet and greet was done.
All in all, a very good show! I'd recommend any instrumental music lover to go to their show, or if you're interested in progressive rock in general. Even Sue enjoyed it!
NP: Cheap Trick - Goodnight
Since we were way early, we went to a nice little vegetarian restaurant to eat. Even though I'm not a vegetarian, I enjoy this place, we've eaten there before when we were in town. I had the vegetarian stir fry, which was quite tasty, if a bit more greasy than I'd like. But, it wasn't in a bad way. After eating, we wandered around the town for a bit (it was *quite* a nice day), and Sue went into a store while I enjoyed sitting on a bench on the street. I noticed a guy with a guitar case standing in front of the store asking passers-by for change. I can only assume that he had played enough guitar for the day that he didn't feel the need to perform any more. I'm always willing to throw in some change, if I have any, to street musicians. But, they do have to be playing when I throw my change in.
We got to the Iron Horse around 6pm or so, and it was pretty full on the floor. It was set up for dinner, and most of the tables on the stage level floor were filled. There was a deuce (restaurant talk for a two person table) right at the top of the stairs to the balcony, so that's where we ended up. It was a good location as we could both see the stage, and not have to share our table with other people. Not that we're not social, but I just didn't feel like sharing my space. You could end up with some cool people, or not... I didn't want to run the risk of the second option.
The Tony Levin Band is made up of 5 people. There's Tony Levin himself, who plays bass and a number of other bottom end instruments (the Chapman Stick, and an electric cello), and sings. Jerry Marotta plays drums and sings, Larry Fast is on keys, Jesse Gress on guitar, and Pete Levin (Tony's brother) also on keys. Those of you into odd music trivia may realize that Tony, Jerry, and Larry were three members of Peter Gabriel's touring band from the late 70's into about 1983. Levin still plays with Gabriel, but Marotta and Fast have moved on to other things. Larry Fast has a number of albums out under the name Synergy, which are all instrumental albums done on synthesizers. Cool stuff! I picked up two of those Synergy CD's at the show, as I already have all of Levin's stuff that was on sale.
Sue and I didn't eat, since we had already eaten, but I did get a coke, and Sue got coffee.
The opener was a duo from Australia called "The Kin." At first, I thought they were a bit too "pretty boy" for me, but they could sing well, and their songs were quite good, actually. I'm not running out to buy their CD's, but they were a good warm up, and performed for about 40 minutes. During their set, I saw some members of Levin's band, including Levin himself, moving in and out of the club.
When Levin and Company came out on stage, they first did a barbershop quartet which mimiced Levin's old King Crimson quartet piece from 1984, except this one was all about his own band. Very fun! The first "real" piece was an instrumental song (Pieces of the Sun, I believe), which started out with Levin on the aforementioned electric cello. The low end was deep enough to vibrate my seat!
I should mention that during the opening act, I got a dessert which was a brownie sundae, which was quite excellent!
Levin's set consisted of a mix of newer songs from his latest CD, other music from his recent albums, and covers of songs from bands or musicians that he's been involved with. He played two King Crimson songs (Sleepless and Elephant Talk), Black Dog from Zeppelin (just for fun), Genesis's "Back in N.Y.C.," Larry Fast's/Synergy's "Phobos," and Peter Gabriel's "On The Air," which was fantastic. The band all seemed to be really enjoying themselves, although Marotta seemed perhaps a bit under the weather, although he sang very well on Sleepless, Back in NYC, and On The Air.
Afterwards, the band was freely available to chat, sign anything that was put in front of them, and just be generally pleasant to talk to. Sue got some photos of me with the band members, which I'll get up here at some point. I talked with Larry Fast about being from NJ, which was a bit of "old home" stuff, and with Tony Levin about coming down from Hanover for the show. He wished us a safe drive back, and all was well. I didn't want to take up too much of their time, I could have really geeked it up with music questions, but chose not to, as they had a good drive back to Woodstock, NY, once the meet and greet was done.
All in all, a very good show! I'd recommend any instrumental music lover to go to their show, or if you're interested in progressive rock in general. Even Sue enjoyed it!
NP: Cheap Trick - Goodnight
11 June 2006
Levin!
Just a quick post to say that Sue and I will be heading out soon, to Northampton, MA, to see the Tony Levin Band, tonight at a place called the Iron Horse.
Levin is a bass player who has played with John Lennon, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, and many others. He has a few solo albums out, mainly instrumental work, that are quite good. It should be a fun show... I will post an update tomorrow to share what the show was like...
Levin is a bass player who has played with John Lennon, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, and many others. He has a few solo albums out, mainly instrumental work, that are quite good. It should be a fun show... I will post an update tomorrow to share what the show was like...
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