Weekend in Syracuse

I spent March 20th and 21st in Syracuse, NY. After flying in from Atlanta on Friday night, I unpacked, repacked, slept a little and then left for Syracuse early on Saturday morning. I drove straight up to the SU campus and arrived a little late for a accepted student reception for the School of Information Studies (aka the iSchool). I was accepted to pursue a Certificate of Advanced Study in Digital Libraries and depending on how job things pan out, I might be starting that as a distance program this summer. It was great to meet some of the faculty and I definitely got some of my questions answered about the program. And it was just nice to be back on campus. It was a beautiful day.

I also had a chance to head over to the Orange Grove and see the paver that my parents got to commemorate the 3 SU grads in our family - me, my mom and my sister-in-law:

The true purpose of this trip to upstate NY was much more somber than my reception at Syracuse. Last December my dear friend Jerri lost her brother Ross to diabetes and she and her family organized a beautiful memorial service for him to be held on the first day of Spring, March 20th. Many close friends from college came to support her, along with family and friends from all parts of Ross's life. Ross was an amazing musician and wished to be remembered through his music, which you can hear here. You can also read more about him here. He was a sweet, beautiful and talented person and is sorely missed by many people, as was shown by the over 150 people who attended his memorial. I'm so glad I was able to attend. It's always great to see Jerri and Mark's families. The kids running around and playing the instruments after the service was a great reminder that this next generation will amaze us in ways we can't imagine and that music is a wonderful thing to encourage and pass down to them. Here is Jerri's daughter Zoe at the service:

I roomed at the hotel with Christa and enjoyed catching up with her, as always. After meeting up with everyone Sunday morning for breakfast at the hotel and saying our good byes, Mark, Christi, Tara & Hal and I headed into Syracuse to have lunch and watch SU basketball in the NCAA tournament. We ended up at Empire Brewery in Armory Square. It was fun to watch the game with the townies since all of the students were on spring break. After watching SU win, we headed our separate ways and they all headed back to Boston. It was an easy drive back and I had a chance to stop for some dinner and shopping at an outlet mall in the Poconos.

This weekend was a mix of emotions, from thinking about my unknown future, to mourning the loss of Ross and offering support to friends, to rooting for the home team and cheering them on to victory. Through it all, it was obvious that the group of friends I made in college is a truly outstanding group of people and I'm so happy that I met them and that we are all still in touch over a decade after meeting. Love you all!