brass Blog

As seems to be the norm lately, my last blog was posted just over a month ago, and since then there have been a couple of bloggable items, but for brevity’s sake, I’ll give you the recap without going too in depth.

June 14th-18th
Tom and I headed out to Orlando for CUNA Mutual’s Discovery conference. Always a good conference, I had 4 sessions that I presented at out there. We received some very positive feedback. I also swear I met Joe Pesche’s twin brother (but not really).

June 20th
Hit the big 22. Yes that’s right everyone, time to change the bios and stop with the “he just turned old enough to drink” jokes. And while I don’t wish to portray the overly hyped stigma that all Oregonians are farmers and loggers, we did have the quintessential farm party and had a good 50+ people show up. I’ve included a picture of me and my buddies who decided it would be a good idea to squeeze as many people into a close up as possible.

July 1-5th
Started on the 1st flying out to Boise, ID and then driving to Ontario, OR where we attended the wedding of one of our largest investors. I found it ironic that with as much as I travel, the one time that the airline lost my bags is when I’m flying out to a wedding WITHIN THE SAME STATE. Oh well. After the wedding I flew from Boise down to Las Vegas, and redeemed some of my miles to fly first class. Nothing like flying first class to Vegas for the 4th of July!

Vegas was good times, but as they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I might be tempted to go more in depth were it not for the fact that the majority of our credit union partners and potential partners read this from time to time. Although I will share one story that still baffles me.

It was about 4am on the night of the 4th. I was playing Texas Hold ‘Em at the MGM Grand with a table full of dealers. I decided to take a break and went to the bathroom. As I walked into the bathroom there is a guy standing at the sink in rollerblades (imagine a very nice bathroom). While I’m standing at the stall the guy starts talking about the United States and is asking a bunch of questions about ammunition in an obvious Irish accent. I go to the sink and prepare to leave when he starts asking me more questions about ammunition. I tell him I have no idea what he’s talking about and am just here to play cards. I walk out, and the pit boss is standing outside and asks if he is still in there. I respond asking if he is referring to the guy on roller blades. He confirms that, and I tell him he’s talking about ammunition. At that point the pit boss extended his hand, and in the palm of his hand are 5 bullets, which he said he took from the Irish guy on roller blades. What an Irish guy on Roller Blades was doing in the bathroom at the MGM Grand with 5 bullets on the 4th of July will be a question I will always wonder…

22nd B-Day Party

It would suffice to say that my job is just a little bit different than most peoples. Often times people are intrigued by my job, which is understandable I guess, but I think a lot of the time it seems much more glamorous than it actually is. Yes, I get to travel across the country and see a lot of places, but that doesn’t touch on when the restaurant, bar, and every seat are taken in an airport where there are flight delays so I end up standing in the walkway for 2 hours. Yes, I do meet a lot of interesting people, which is one of the better parts of the job I guess. But what about unhealthy eating, how impossible it is to consistently work out, or lack of sleep and jet lag. Of course all these things are livable, but what isn’t livable to me is when I start missing out on other things. I had a recent experience where it was somewhat of a wake-up call in which I realized that because of my travel schedule, I miss important events. This has been a recurring problem with past relationships, if they could even be called that. It’s hard to plan dinner when you have to schedule a week in advance. What’s worse is that I realized I miss things like birthdays and other important events more often than I thought. I guess right now it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things, but one of my biggest worries is becoming “that guy”, who always misses the anniversary, who misses his kid’s football game, and is never there when he is needed.

One of the more interesting perks of this past week was when I was able to attend a VIP suite at Coors Stadium to see the Rockies play the White Sox. After giving a presentation in Denver we headed over to the stadium. It was my first VIP suite experience, and it was not a disappointment. While the game ended a pathetic 15-4, we fully enjoyed ourselves with free food and drink for the entire game. I included a couple of pictures from the suite for your enjoyment. It was definitely a good first experience.

VIP Suite

Coors Field