Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Settling in

Stacy and I are doing well. It is hard to believe we have been back in Chattanooga for almost three months.

Stacy and I are flying to Los Angeles this Thursday, Oct. 25. I am attending a Sigma Chi Fraternity alumni conference at Loyola Marymount University and Stacy is coming along to visit a friend. We are flying out of Atlanta and flying back Sunday night.

Our new house is coming along great. Our house was definitely livable when we bought it, but we wanted to make it more our own. We have finished the complete rewiring of the house involving electrical, phone and cable. The electrical was outdated (no grounds) as it is everywhere in our 50-year-old neighborhood. The phone and cable lines are now the best we can get as well.

Now it is on to the kitchen, where we are doing a complete remodeling. Our new cabinets came in and are ready to go. Now we just have to get the area ready. The painting of rooms is also on the horizon.

I am working on establishing a new lawn, as the old one was full of weeds and moss. We have a large oak tree and two hickory trees in our front yard that provides a lot of shade. I noticed the first sprouts of new grass today!

We have a great neighborhood. Everyone we have met is really nice. Plus, we are only five minutes from downtown.

I got my diploma from Xavier University in September so I suppose it is official. Now someone just needs to offer me job. I am out looking, and I am sure I will find a career I enjoy soon.
Stacy has made it to the big time at UnumProvident. Her name is featured as a contact on the company's website. Go to www.unumprovident.com, click Overview and News, then click Company News and there is her name under Market/Product. Very cool.


Well, that's the news for now. I hope you are waving your flags and trying to get back to some level of normalcy. To those it pertains to, I hope to see you at UTC Homecoming Nov. 3.
Keep us in your prayers as we fly across this great country.

Show our strength! Donate to: www.libertyunites.com
GOD BLESS THE U.S.A

Monday, August 06, 2001

Hello from Chattanooga

Well, our stint in Cincinnati has officially come to an end. We now call Chattanooga our home again. I completed my internship last Wednesday and my M.Ed. from Xavier University will be confirmed on Aug. 18. Eleven months of classwork and studying was well spent, and I am really happy I did this!

Stacy and I had quite a weekend. Stacy drove back up to Cincinnati with David Cope on Thursday. The three of us drove back down on Friday with all our belongings. Big thanks to one of my Xavier friends, Jay, for assisting in our move!

I cannot tell you enough how great it is to know that I have made some close friends in Ohio. They're my Xavier crew - Forever Musketeers!

We hit some rain in Kentucky and an hour traffic jam just over the Tennessee line, but despite these hurdles made it to our house closing only 15 minutes late!

The closing went smoothly once we got there, and we are now officially homeowners! It is a tremendous feeling and we are so happy. We spent the remainder of the weekend moving in and unpacking. There is still so much to unpack and put away. Special thanks to the Oglesby (in-laws) clan, the Copes and the Merciers (sister-in-law/brother-in-law) for assisting in the heat!
We have a lot on our to-do list, and it will all come in time.

Thanks to everybody for their good wishes as we made this move and your continued support during the past year. Knowing you were thinking of us and keeping in touch means a lot. We are happy to be home and will miss the friends and good times we had in Cincinnati.

Sunday, July 08, 2001

Last time from Ohio

Hello once again, and for the last time, from Cincinnati!

I have fallen behind on keeping in touch with you. The month of June has come and gone, and Stacy and I have accomplished a lot in preparations for our move back to Chattanooga.
We spent several weekends in Chattanooga looking for a house, knowing the mortgage rates were low and we thought of no better time than the present. We have indeed found a home that fits our wants and needs. The house is on Ozark Circle in North Chattanooga. We are very excited and plan to close on August 3.


Stacy left for Chattanooga on Tuesday and will start her job at Unum Provident Wednesday. She has been working for UnumProvident from here for a month now. Her birthday was Monday, and we had a great day.

As for me, I will be in Cincinnati through July, finishing up my internship and class work at Xavier.

My internship is at Don Schumacher & Associates. DSA conducts event management, sponsorship sales and event marketing through work on events such as the 1996 NCAA Division I Hockey Championships, 1997 NCAA Women's Final Four, 1998 Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship, the Kroger Senior Classic, and the company's signature event, the annual Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown, the nation's largest high school football event - five games in one day at the University of Cincinnati's football stadium.

Don started the Greater Cincinnati Sports & Events Commission in 1989 and resigned from that commission in 1998 to focus more on DSA, Inc. He is currently the Executive Director of the National Association of Sports Commissions, an organization Don helped create in 1992 with 15 original members and a current membership of 266 organizations across the United States.
So as you can read, I am getting a lot of experience and knowledge from this internship. It is quite exciting to learn from a man like Don and from his staff members.


I hope you had a good 4th of July. I went on a three-hour, self-guided canoe trip on the Little Miami River with a bunch of my classmates. It rained all morning on the trip, which made for more of an adventure. But as we made our way for the afternoon cookout, the sun was shining, the skies were blue and we had a great day.

I am traveling north this weekend to Youngstown, Ohio to see one of Y. State's most famous employees and go to a Pittsburgh Pirates game at the new PNC Park. I have made it quite a summer with my ballpark visits. Of course I have seen the dismal Reds several times here at Cinergy Field. I have been to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs and Brewers and was lucky enough to see the Reds and Indians at Cleveland's Jacob's Field. I really, really enjoyed Wrigley Field there is nothing like it, but I am ready to visit Turner Field and see the Braves.

I have really enjoyed keeping in touch with you during the past year as Stacy and I spent our "year-long vacation" in Cincinnati! Thank goodness for the power of e-mail. I can tell you we are excited about Chattanooga, but we will sincerely miss Cincinnati and the friends we have made here. I encourage you to take a trip here and enjoy all it has to offer.

I hope you will be thinking of us as we make our move back to Chattanooga. Yet more exciting times ahead!

Talk to you next time from Chattanooga . . .

Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Back to Chattown

Hello, BIG NEWS from Cincinnati!

I hope you are doing well and enjoying life.

I finished my spring semester at Xavier on May 10 and started the summer sessions May 14. Some break, huh?

I finished the semester with an A in research and statistics, an A- in marketing and an A in management and promotion. I am actually petitioning the A- in marketing - I'm never satisfied!
And as the summer approaches I have good news to relay. I will finish my M.Ed. this summer by completing the final 12 hours - seminar, fundraising, sport law and internship. It will be a nose-in-book summer, but I will be done by the end of July. How awesome? I will earn my M.Ed. in 11 months!


I cannot tell you how excited I am that I made this move in my life. I have learned so much at Xavier and am equally pleased that I worked at UTC and waited four years before starting graduate school. Being able to apply real world experience has proven its worth.

In addition, I really appreciate all the support you have offered in the past 10 months.

** And now for the BIG news. Stacy and I are moving. Yes, we are leaving Cincinnati. Stacy was offered a job by her former employer, UnumProvident, that will provide her with great opportunity.

So, yes, that means the Grays will be reclaiming Chattanooga as home. Get the coolers stocked and ready to go!

Stacy really enjoyed working at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. She really likes her boss there, and it makes it hard for her to leave. But the opportunity for Stacy to get back into the corporate world and the fact that a Fortune 100 company approached her was icing on the cake.

Although we will miss this great city of Cincinnati, we are excited to come back and be closer to friends and family.

Stacy will start her job as managing writer in corporate marketing at UnumProvident on July 11. I will not move down until the end of July.
As for me, who knows? I do not plan to be a househusband, so I will begin my search immediately for career advancement in the Chattanooga area. So be on the lookout and keep an ear to the ground for this dapper young man with skills.
I wish we could call everyone individually, but this e-mail will serve as a great way to let a lot of people know at the same time. Hope you are doing well. Take care

Thursday, April 12, 2001

Riots in Cincinnati

Hello from Cincinnati, a place CNN is calling the "City of Unrest."

We are experiencing some scary times here in Cincinnati. Stacy and I wanted to let you know we are doing fine in our corner of Cincinnati. We are on the northeast side, suburbia, so we are not experiencing the racial tension and riots like in the downtown area.
Don't know what I am talking about?


It all started on Monday with protest over last Saturday's police shooting of an African-American man, the 15th one of its kind since 1995.

Citing a ''clear and present danger,'' Mayor Charlie Luken today declared a state of emergency and imposed an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for all persons throughout all of Cincinnati after violence, vandalism and looting spread out of the inner city late Wednesday and early today.

The city-wide lockdown applies to all events, including evening Good Friday services and Easter services Saturday night. The mayor has urged citizens to stay at home and pray.

City officials are still considering asking the National Guard for assistance as police continue to work long 12-hour shifts without relief.

There has been some extreme television coverage of the situation. I have seen footage of hundreds of people breaking store windows and dragging mannequins down the street, knocking over hot dog stands and stealing all the food, throwing newspaper stands into the street, stopping cars and pushing the owners out and throwing anything they can get their hands on at anything they see.

There are images of police using shotguns firing beanbag ammunition into crowds and drenching crowds in mace. There was some footage of a man walking toward a police line being shot in the chest with a beanbag. It knocked the guy right off his feet.

Many of these images have been shown on the national news and CNN the last several days.
Last night the riots got really bad and a policeman was shot. The bullet went under his vest and struck his belt buckle, which saved his life.


Last night, a white woman was dragged from her car by a crowd of black youths about 9:30 p.m. and ''beat to a pulp'' before police officers rescued her. This is only one of many instances.

SWAT teams barricaded blocks in an area of town hunting for a rooftop sniper last night.
Dumpster fires have become so commonplace that city firefighters stopped responding to them.
There is extensive coverage of all of this at
www.Cincinnati.com

Aside from this scary situation, the trees are beginning to show their green, the flowers are blooming, the grass is thick and green and we have had some beautiful 85-degree weather. The thunderstorms hit late at night and the skies are blue all day long.

We hope you are doing well in your corner of the world.

Here's to a safe and peaceful night and a very Happy Easter holiday to you

Thursday, March 15, 2001

March Madness

Hello from March Madness City!

It is that special time of year. The basketball gods have blessed us with a great upcoming tournament and at the same time the midterms gods have laughed at it straight in the face. I have midterms this coming Monday and Tuesday. When am I going to study when there is so much basketball on TV? Plus, St. Patrick's Day is Saturday!

On a serious note, my sister, Tobi, went back into Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga on Monday to have surgery to remove the rods from her back. It is hard to believe it will be three years this April.

You may remember last April the doctors had to take a part of one of the rods out of her back. The portion of the rod that was taken out had a staph infection on it, and the doctors thought it had been on the rod when it was placed in her back.

Well, the doctor, Dr. Pierce, who put in the rods in 1998 was the one to take them out. I am glad he was the one because he knew how he put them in. One wrong move could cut a nerve.
When the rods came out on Monday, the doctors discovered the rods were completely covered in staph infection.


For those who do not know, staph infections are caused by bacteria that grow in grape-like clusters and cause skin infections and serious internal disorders. Staph bacteria are usually harmlessly present on the skin of people, but when trapped in a sweat or sebaceous gland it causes a skin infection.

So here we go again. Last year, Tobi had antibacterial therapy with an IV to feed her antibiotics to rid any strain of infection.

We found out yesterday after she met with the infectious disease control doctors that she will not have to have a central line put in and will not be fed antibiotics with an IV. She will be able to take pills. What a relief for her and us.

It looks as though she will be released from the hospital today, Thursday. She will go back to her apartment in Atlanta with my mom and her fiancé in tow.

Yes, by the way, Tobi is engaged to a bright young chap named Corey Weldon. He will most definitely make a nice addition to our crazy family.

So, back to the NCAAs, the Chattanooga Lady Mocs are a No. 12 seed and play Clemson on Friday night at 6:00p.m. (TotalCast on gomocs.com).

The AWESOME thing about this game is that it is being played at Xavier's Cintas Center. The first and second round games are played at campus sites. HOW COOL? My alma mater playing at my graduate school. If I can't go to the Lady Mocs, the Lady Mocs will come to me!

I went to the airport last night and met the team as they arrived. It was great to see the team. I know they are so excited. Stacy and I will be there Friday night, then watch the Xavier women play Louisville, and then take in some TV viewing of the Xavier men playing Notre Dame at 10:20 p.m.

Well, I better stop here. I hope you made it down this far in my ramblings. Stacy and I are doing well and wait for the spring. The temperatures have been anywhere from 30 to 60 in the past couple weeks.

Hope you all are doing well. Take care.
Happy St. Patty's Day!

Sunday, February 04, 2001

February 01

Good Day from Cincinnati,

I am sitting down and resting after a long weekend of televised sport contests, including watching the Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, act like a fool as a commentator for an XFL game. Guess I was a fool for watching.

It is quite hard to believe that the month of January is gone. Spring is right around the corner, or so the stores here in Cincinnati tell us. Most of the stores have packed up the coats, sweaters and gloves to make room for the new line of shorts, t-shirts and Reds baseball jerseys. No doubt we will get a foot of snow next month.

After only five months on the job, Stacy got a promotion and a raise at the University of Cincinnati Foundation. She is now the Foundation's promotions manager. Her duties have expanded, and she is taking the office by storm!

My studies are going well at Xavier. My research and statistics class is a boat full of fun, including the extensive research/theory paper I have to complete by April. My marketing class is very awesome. Xavier's assistant athletic director for external affairs teaches the class and he knows his stuff. He is originally from NYC, and he has a great wit about him. My event marketing and management class has been a pleasant surprise. I thought it would be simple, but it is well structured, and I will learn a great deal from it.

The basketball scene at Xavier is going well, too. The Xavier women's team is ranked 15th in the country, and the men are coming off two ESPN2 televised wins. The men are 17-3 and in first place in the Atlantic 10 conference. Every men's game is sold out this year with 10,250 fans in attendance.

Stacy and I went to last Tuesday's XU men's game versus Dayton. Dayton is a big rival game, as they are only 35 miles north of Cincinnati. The game was on ESPN2 at 9:30pm. It was late getting home, but it was worth it. We cheered our throats out as the Musketeers went on a 12-point run, including four dunks, to win the game.

I just caught some big news on the radio - Xavier is ranked 24th in the Associated Press poll announced today!

One place you have got to visit if you ever come up I-75 is the United States Air Force museum in Dayton. I had heard it was there, but I never realized it how significant it is.

Stacy and I drove the 45 minutes and took on the museum. First of all, it is free. The main museum is in three large hangers. The first hanger portrays the beginning of flight, WWI and into Pearl Harbor. The second hanger includes WWII and the beginning of space flight. There is one of each plane that was ever designed by the Air Force, Army or Navy hanging from the rafters or incorporated in exhibits, as well as many space modules.

The third hanger is the largest. It includes modern flight. There are 50 planes in this hanger, including the F-117 stealth bomber and the SR-71 Blackbird. It is quite a sight to see all these planes together.

There are more hangers about a half-mile away on the base, but we did not have time to go there. One of the other hangers houses the Air Force One that carried JFK! I cannot wait to go back and see that.

All in all, the USAF museum was better, cleaner and not as packed as the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in D.C. I cannot urge you enough to come see this if you ever get a chance.

Stacy and I are headed to Chattanooga on Wednesday, February 7. We will be there through the weekend. Stacy's sister, Meghan, is getting married in UTC's Patten Chapel on Saturday afternoon. We are excited to celebrate this occasion as well as get a chance to spend time with friends and family while we are in Chattanooga for five days.

I am also going to take in my first Mocs basketball game of the year on Saturday night. It will be nice to catch a game before the season is over.

Well, enough for now. I hope you are doing well and your life is healthy.

Monday, January 08, 2001

Cold!

Stacy and I are doing great here in Cincinnati despite the recent cold spell we had. We experienced 16 days below 32 degrees. It was usually 10-20 degrees with unheard of wind chills.

I am pleased to say we are thawed out now and our temperatures are back around 35-40. It was 49 yesterday!

Stacy and I drove around Cincinnati looking at the old mansions and castles on the area's various hills this past weekend. It is hard to believe single families live in some of those houses.
We also visited many of Cincinnati's parks. The park system is very big here. It is like someone took NYC's Central Park, broke it up and spread it all over Cincinnati. The park board does a great job here and there are many great places to enjoy the scenery. Several parks overlook downtown.


I start my second semester of graduate school next Tuesday, January 16. I received my fall semester grades after Christmas and got all A's.

This semester is going to be a hoot with Research and Statistics, Marketing and Management. I do not have much of a problem with the last two, but I have to write a thesis in Research and Statistics and present it at the end of the semester on PowerPoint. It should be fun as the department head teaches the class!

Stacy had her first University of Cincinnati Foundation advertisement placed in Ohio Magazine's first issue of the year. The ad encourages planned giving with UC. It is a great ad and it is great to see it in the state magazine!

On the sports front, baseball's Opening Day is right around the corner, April 2! It is a holiday here and best of all, the Cincinnati Reds opening day game will be a one-game set with the Atlanta Braves at 1:05pm!

I am also enjoying some successful runs right now by my favorite basketball teams. The Chattanooga Lady Mocs are 10-3, the Mocs are 7-5 and the Xavier Musketeers are 11-2 and sneaking toward the Top 25. The Muskies face UMass on Tuesday, and I am going to the game.
Well, I hope you had a good holiday season and are enjoying a great new year. We had a good time enjoying family and friends and came back to Cincinnati with a carload of gifts. We are very thankful.


Also, for all of those who recognized I forgot to say Happy Festivus in my last e-mail, I want to apologize and let you know that I am taking therapy and watching Seinfeld at least once a day!