Thankful

We're sort of forgoing Thanksgiving this year. (Which can be weirdly easy to do when you don't live in the states.) I love working with good teams of professionals. There are a lot of people out there who have mundane jobs with mundane coworkers. My job is great and it opens up a lot of fun opportunities. So turkey or no turkey, for that I'm thankful. One of those opportunities is that every Thanksgiving we're asked to work with a great team of people who put on NCAA tournaments around the world. It's the second largest event on St Thomas every year (taking a backseat only to Carnival). To be a part of something so big on a scale this small is fun. How many people get to complain that they can't get a good picture for their blog because the UConn bench keeps jumping up and getting in the way?

And how many people get to correct it by just walking past them and crouching at the end of the court to get a better shot? I went to college basketball games in the Coliseum when I was a student at UGA. I remember not loving it because I always felt so far away from the action. Not the case this week.

Planning and running events is a weekly aspect of my job. My events are usually on a more intimate scale but observing, preparing, working, and sometimes even brain-storming for a mega-event like this is a great learning opportunity.  So there will be pumpkin pie tomorrow but it will be up in the staff area and crammed down quickly before getting back to work. (It's amazing how many high school volunteers assume their t-shirts give them locker room access...)

But really, don't feel too bad for me while you're digging into your mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. Because last Thanksgiving we skipped out on the tournament and spent the weekend here:

Doing a lot of this:

And this:

So enjoy your giblets. Be thankful. I am.