Tucson, AZ

Greetings from Tucson, AZ, where 85 degrees and sunny in the middle of November is not unusual...
I am here preparing for the Cast's visit in February... yes, 2007. I am here WAY ahead of time, but it is great. I can get a lot done now before it is crunch time and I get to see a lot of the stuff that is usually done before I get to a city. For example, I've been involved in choosing our show venue, picking our CI projects and sponsor stuff. The downside is I don't really have a car, office, phone or any of the stuff that I usually don't have to worry about. But, its a great learning experience. AND there are tons of great alumni down here who can't wait to help.
I have been down here for 2 weeks so far and was joined by an Admissions person from the office- Joel. It was nice having a buddy down here while I was getting my feet wet in Tucson. We did tons of admissions stuff on the U of A campus, which is really nice. Not quite Boulder, but not too shabby. I have another 4 weeks to go here and I'm not sure what exactly I'll be doing, but I will do it.
Last week we had breakfast at the Arizona Inn with Mr. Blanton Belk (the founder of Up with People), his wife and Mr. Ralph Colwell (of the Colwell brothers- who wrote tons of UwP music). Talk about history! Wow! Tucson itself has a lot of UwP history, as UwP was based here for many many years before moving to Denver.
Setting up Tucson will be quite the challenge, but I am ready for it! I am excited to get back to Denver however and see the few Cast A 2006 people who will be returning from Europe. I am also really excited to meet the future Cast A 2007 students when they arrive in Denver on January 6. Crazy that one semester has almost passed!
Like the space cadet I sometimes am, I left my camera cord in Denver, so I cannot upload any of my Tucson pictures, but just imagine palm trees, small mountains and lots of cacti!!