Can8ianben's Blog

This is a blog about me. I'm sure it will at some point talk about the things that I love... that being, my wife Meredith, family, friends, EMU, the Jays and baseball, the Maple Leafs, music, art, TV, biking, and whatever else is going on in my mind.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Brad's Last Day :(

Today our office is losing one of its big personality. While there has never been any formal documentation of this title, I consider him to be a big role model in the admissions world. He took me on my first recruitment trip and shows us daily how to be cheap.


Belinda had her camera to document the boys in the final hours of Brad Miller at EMU. The picture above was described as "the way girls take pictures together". You know, arms around each other, big smiles, matching clothes, etc...


Melon break anyone?? Not sure what I am closing my eyes for, they must be good melons.



A little EMU Admissions pyramid action. Note everyone in blue -- not sure why that happened... I'm also not sure why I have the following look on my face. Too much fun.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

AYEKOOO! Black Stars


I'll admit that sometimes having dual citizenship makes me torn as to what side of the fense to sit. I love Canada for its people, health care, social systems, love of hockey, and many more things; while the USA has given me an education, a beautiful place to live, a job, a fiance, and other great things.

So when the largest sporting event happens, I guess it would make sense for me to support the only country from my background that actually made the tournament - however chearing U-S-A, U-S-A, is something I've never been able to make myself do. Maybe its the fact that I love chearing for the underdog, but if that were the case, they should be one of the teams I would pull for in the World Cup.

Anyway, this all to say that today I had a legitimate reason to chear against them. Another country from my life was playing against the red, white and blue. Ghana's Black Stars were victorious and moved on to the next round of the tournament - the victory sent the USA packing.

Its amazing how much pride I have for a the tiny nation which was my family's home for less than a full year. I'm sure that times have changed since I was last there, but listening to the game in my office made me smile at the thought of the remote village of Jenga sitting around the one or two black and white TVs, hooked up to car batteries, chearing on their countrymen to make them proud.

Not only did this strike me as an amazing acomplishment of "David and Goliath-like" proportions, but it was also Ghana's first ever trip to the world cup. So three cheers to Ghana, still in my heart.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Jason is tech savy

Goodie has discovered Xanga and has decided it is a great marketing tool, perfect for getting students to come to EMU. You can check it out here. Its really not that bad of an idea, however he has now decided he has to document office life, and thus this picture was born....



In all seriousness I was cleaning my office and found the orientation schedule for our new staff -- my facial expression shows how excited I am. Life in admissions is always interesting.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Oh Canada!

The Stanley Cup Playoffs are actually being broadcast on TV down here in the 'burg -- I'm not sure if anyone actually knows that, but they are.

The first game in Edmonton made me proud to be Canadian, and also kind of homesick....

The singer who was singing Oh Canada sang the first line or two, then simply held up the microphone and let the crowd sing the rest. It was loud, it was clear, it was beautiful. It still gives me chills.

Now if only the Oilers could pick it up and send those 'Canes back to Carolina without Lord Stanley's Mug.

Friday, June 09, 2006

The Blue Jays Win It!


So I turned on the Jays game much to my dismay and found that they were losing 5-2. Playing pretty poorly for the second consecutive night.

"Do these guys even want to catch the Yanks and Sox?" I said to myself.

They sure do...

In the 8th inning they sent 11 batters to the plate scoring 8 runs. Box score looked something like this:

Detroit 5, Toronto 10.

I will sleep like a baby tonight!

The Harrisonburg Turks.

My good friend Michael and I ventured out into Americana tonight and made our first trip to a Turks game. This minor Minor League softball team - named for the city's many turkey farms - plays at the old high school stadium.



It was a perfect night for a ballgame, and we ate it up. At least until it got too cold... we left at the end of the 5th inning.


We had pretty good seats... 4 rows behind homeplate :) The crowd was small but noisy, and were happy to see that the winless Turks were finally scoring runs. They were 0-6 going into this game, and were winning 8-2 by the time we left.


A good night overall. There is little that compares to the combination of country folk, baseball, the smell of hotdogs, little kids running around eating candy, and a beautiful sunset in the background. Worth our $5, even though we left early.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Shower in PA

A very enjoyable weekend up in PA -- my family was down from home, and my grandparents and aunt Suze were over from Ohio. We had a shower back at Meredith's family cabin with presents, a toilet paper bride contest, and lots of good food. I threw in a picture of my soon to be nephew Cole as well.



Friday, June 02, 2006

Maust and Foddy

My friends, Nathan and Drew are off on their journey across the US. They are driving, hiking, and biking out to the west coast and will then bike all the way back to the east cost with bikemovement.org. Should be a great journey!

Check out their blog for updates -- http://movingjourney.blogspot.com/