I'm all educated and trained and all that

Sorry for dropping out of the Blogosphere, but I was a busy bee this week. I finished the 42-page Mother of All Papers, a public relations plan in full color. Between work and finishing the paper every night Sunday thru Tuesday I was practically immobile all day seated at a computer somewhere. So I was finally able to treat myself to a run to the gym on Wednesday and usual workouts, and I've been able to get back to rugby practice again. It's good to be back, and I have a month off from class and homework.

The next (and final) class is "in person" Wednesday nights at UMD. Usually these live classes tend to have fewer labor intensive assignments, relying more on class discussion. We hope. This previous class was the capstone class for the public relations aspect of the MS in management that I hope to achieve this summer. The next class is my final management capstone course, then I'm done. I expect I won't feel like any more education for a while after all that.

And at work I was in training, and I feel like I'm sufficiently trained and ready for the trenches. Bring it! The classes were more public relations stuff, including practicing interviews live with a camera. I've spoken with mean aggressive reporters on the phone but have yet to have a real camera interview. On the screen I sound like a Smurf and I tend to blush easily.

Tomorrow we're heading down to the Celtic Fest for some rugby and turkey legs way down in Prince Frederick, MD. Our pitch is right off the Chesapeake and it's pretty nifty playing rugby on the waterfront with the sounds of bagpipes and drums in the distance. Hopefully I can snap some more pictures of hot guys in kilts.

"Ohmigawd Lady Gaga is going to be at Town!" Heard that before, different venue, different artist. Someone at Nation would start that rumor every time they held a Madonnarama - "OMG Madonna's gonna make an appearance at 3am!!!" And now someone at Town is pulling that crap. I'm guessing it's one of the owners or managers, possibly the same one from Nation. Not cool. When it's that obvious you're starting a rumor just to pull in the numbers it undermines your credibility and makes you look desperate. I'll go there because it's a nice place, not because of a rumor. For the rest of you gullible gays, please read "Rumors and Rumor Control: A Manager's Guide to Understanding and Combatting Rumors," by Allan J. Kimmel. Or maybe Town might have better luck saying something like, "OMG Aaron Schock will be dancing shirtless on the box tonight!"