Lots of Lavender

Last weekend's Sunday trip was a drive to Skaneateles and a stop at the Lavender Festival. The country setting was ripe for nice photos and we brought home a bunch to make our linen closet smell pretty. Watch out for those bees!

There's something about a little kid...

Summer events are a great time to see friends' kids and see how much they've grown and changed. Our Welcome Clambake was a chance to see Aiden Tarrats and his mom, Jessica, as well as River Greenfield and his mom, Karen. Aiden loves the camera. River, not so much. But both are very photogenic! Something about kids and summer makes you forget those three-foot-high snowbanks.

New friends and clams

Last weekend's Welcome Clambake gave all of us a chance to meet and get to know the new PRL master's class. Some of them had never had steamed clams. Others were new to the whole "salt potatoes" thing. Spectacular weather and good company made for a great day.
Did you know clams are brain food?

Here they are!

Summer is zooming along and here comes a new crop of PR master's students!
They're fresh-faced, eager and smart and we're looking forward to getting to know them over the next 13 months.
Today's Orientation Day and soon they'll be walking across that stage and receiving their degrees.
How time flies!

Autumn in New York

Those of a certain age (and you know who you are!) will remember the haunting melody of the song "Autumn in New York".
The crisp air and turning leaves are back in Upstate New York and it reminds us of how much we enjoy living here.
There are hills to show off the fall colors and yard chores to gather up those fall colors and compost them or set them by the curb.
Our dogs love to run in the piles of leaves.
Reminds us of when we were kids and used to create enormous piles of leaves for jumping.
That unmistakable fragrance of autumn leaves is in the air, too.
Let's savor it.
It won't be long before we're living up to our Golden Snowball reputation again!

Team Insidedge

Employee Engagement is the mission of the practice at Insidedge here in Chicago.
The team includes full-time staffers, as well as interns.
I met Stephanie Gurtman, an intern from Boston University who knows my friend and fellow SU alum, Dr. Edward Downes.
Dharma Subramanian, a recent graduate of Purdue University, is an Account Executive at Insidedge. I learned she can sing "Happy Birthday" to her colleagues in FOUR DIFFERENT LANGUAGES!
And Jessica Brubaker, an Account Supervisor who holds communication and graphic design degrees from St. Norbert College, was very helpful in making sure I knew how to locate the office and helped with many other final trip details and questions a day or so before I left Syracuse.
I'll be watching the careers of these wonderful new colleagues and friends with great interest!

Farewell, Chicago

I leave my two-week adventure at Insidedge with mixed feelings.
On one hand, it will be good to be home to my partner and "kids" (translation: pets) after being away for two weeks.
On the other hand, I wish I had more time to spend with these smart, dedicated people here at the firm.
I envy them being in the practice and it makes me think where I might be now if my career had taken some slightly different twists and turns.
But, all in all, I know I'm doing what I love best, teaching, mentoring and learning for a living. It's a good gig, as my colleague Dr. Dennis Kinsey, would say.
So, as another colleague, Dr. Carla Lloyd, always says at the start of a new semester, "It's time to go teach college!"
A special shout-out to Keith Burton, President of Insidedge, whose care in planning and preparing for my visit made it a big success, and to Helen Loosevelt, his right hand and all-around organizer and miracle worker.
I'll post more pictures of all the team members you've yet to meet in my last post.
Thanks, gang. I'll never forget you and hope this is just the beginning of a friendship and partnership that will go on for years to come!