You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2010.
I'm 6 feet tall. Eli is 25 inches. Jeff Foote is big.
They couldn’t pull off the miracle upset, but they did more than anyone could have expected. Thanks for the awesome ride. Today they were greeted by faculty and locals on campus since the students are away on spring break. A few videos from today’s welcome back…
The escort onto campus and Cornell Marching Band:
The singing of the alma mater to the team:
In the past two weeks we’ve hit some major milestones. Rolling over, eating rice cereal & green peas (see picture below), sleeping without a swaddle, and last night he slept through the night. Hallelujah!
So after 5 months, where are we? Well, after last night we’re pretty excited. The only thing keeping us from fully enjoying parenthood is the sleep deprivation. So if we’ve turned a corner and sleep is on the horizon, that’s about all we can ask for. That and maybe some more napping during the day. But I get the feeling he’s going to take after his parents and be too curious and active during the day to put his head down. A few pictures of the little man in his 5th month of life:
Whether they can play David and take down the Kentucky Goliath on Thursday or not, they’ve already given us an awesome gift. It has been an unforgettable few days seeing Cornell basketball mentioned in nearly every major newspaper and television program in the country. The Cornell and Ithaca community is buzzing like I’ve never experienced…and I can’t imagine we’ll experience again. So we’re enjoying every day of this ride. Enjoying our team. Enjoying it more than any fan at Michigan, Kentucky, Duke or Kansas could ever understand. Read a great column from Bill Reynolds, an ex-Ivy Basketball player here. I think he captures this feeling pretty well. Go Big Red!
At 5pm today, I saw something that I will likely never see again in my lifetime. And just before midnight I saw another. The first was the Cornell Men’s Basketball team destroying the 4th seed Wisconsin Badgers to move on to the sweet 16. After nearly beating Kansas (the#1 team in the country) earlier this year and then being ranked as a top 25 team in the country we knew this was a strong team. But really? We’re going to the sweet 16? I honestly couldn’t fathom Cornell making the tournament for the past 20 years. And now we’re the Cinderella team being covered by ESPN, Sports Illustrated and nearly every major news organization. When I decided to attend Cornell as an undergrad, it was with some disappointment that I wouldn’t have a sports team to follow. Well, today I wore my Big Red t-shirt with pride. Go Big Red!
The second historic moment was a vote to pass major healthcare legislation. Whatever your political persuasion, we have gone 50 years without a much needed change to our healthcare system. And if nothing else, this day marks a step towards increased coverage and care for those with pre-existing conditions. This isn’t the ideal solution, but it’s a step in a political environment where steps seem nearly impossible. And despite all the anger from the past year, it will be interesting to see how this day is portrayed and discussed in my son’s high school history book. My guess is it will be a very positive portrayal and a defining moment in the Obama presidency. And I’ll look forward to trying to explain the confusing paragraph in his book about the “Tea Party.”
I was down in New Orleans for a work conference this week. This was my third visit to the city in the last 7 years, and my second since Hurricane Katrina. A few thoughts from the visit.
1. There is something I love about New Orleans. It was the first vacation I took with my then girlfriend and now wife. The architecture, the music, and the smells coming out of the French Quarter, transport you to another time and place. Then there’s my favorite street and area of the city: Frenchman Street & The Marigny. An area with great food and live music…and a little sheltered from Bourbon Street. My favorite music spot from this trip was The Spotted Cat. Here’s a video I shot (on my new iPhone!) at the jazz club.
2. The city feels more like it did on my first visit than my second. The second visit was still relatively soon after Katrina, and while the French Quarter and Jazz Festival seemed ‘normal’, they seemed like props in an otherwise wrecked city. This time, most people I spoke to sounded like they were moving on. While some felt they should rebuild in the 9th ward, most felt like it was best to just let it return to nature. Oh, and they love their Saints.
3. While these medical conferences can be pretty stilted and textbook by nature, this was the most interesting meeting I’ve attended. It was a conference for the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons. 40,000 doctors and industry professionals descended on New Orleans for 3 days. It felt like they took over the city and the city seemed to appreciate the business. But the interesting thing about this meeting was an exhibit open to the public at the conference center. The exhibit was about the earthquake in Haiti and the response from volunteer surgeons. The exhibit featured a series of pictures, quotes and thoughts from surgeons that volunteered their time to help the people in Haiti. The pictures were pretty wrenching; raw images of the mass amputations, and the crude equipment used to perform them. Many of the surgeons commented on the horror of the experience, and the comparison to working in a war. They wrote about the destruction, the lack of resources, the anger, and the amputations. But then they spoke of the one thing that kept them going.
This was a quote from one of the surgeons while in Haiti: ”…and I saw it many times, a sight more emotionally charged than the destruction spreading for miles in every direction. A child’s smile. Sound a bit sentimental? Maybe. But the sight of such simplicity, the essential human ability to feel happiness in dire circumstances, and the unbelievable sound of laughter – here on the backdrop of all this misery, well it changed me. ” -Daniel Ivankovich, MD
4. With that quote and those images in the back of my mind, it sure felt good to come home and walk through the door to this…
Recent Comments