What a Day

Wow. Today was an interesting day.

I was in the office at 6:30AM because I had a ton to get done before I had to leave around noon.

At 1:00, we had an appointment at the Federal Building on Capitol Mall in Sacramento, so the Department of Homeland Security could issue final citizenship paperwork to Spencer. He’s now completely eligible to be stiffed by Social Security when he retires, just like his dad.

Just before we arrived at DHS, Cacey’s iPhone chimed with the news: our final paperwork has been completed in Ethiopia, and they want us in Ethiopia to meet our little girl on Christmas morning! We’ll leave on or about December 20, and have a couple of days in Paris on the way there. (Thank you, Hilton HHonors points!)

The next few hours were almost a complete blur. I made it back to the Sierra College Rocklin campus for the board meeting, while juggling attempts to secure last-minute airplane seats for our trip. (If I couldn’t get seats locked down, our State Department embassy date in Ethiopia would be pushed back two weeks…which would mean I’d miss a very important Sierra College board meeting in January.)

Today’s meeting was in closed session for three hours, with the open session starting at 5:00. We ratified the educational master plan, and heard a presentation on new steps our staff is taking to gather community input on our programs and budget.

Oh yes, did I mention that in the midst of all of this, our loan for the new house received final approval, and the bank that owns the house finally got the water turned on so inspections can proceed? So our real estate team was calling as well – I think I had a total of 11 voice mails after I got out of the board meeting. Thanks to Chris, Katherine and Geldie for keeping it all nailed down while I was tied up!

At about 6:00, my board colleagues gave me the distinct honor of unanimously electing me as Vice President of the Board of Trustees. (My colleague Nancy Palmer told me a bit ago that she might nominate me, but I neither remembered that, nor was I really expecting it would happen.) Our Board President, Barbara Vineyard, was re-elected for another year and I’m looking forward to serving with her in 2010.

After that kind of day, my friend Adam suggested I should buy a lottery ticket!

After the meeting, we spent the evening making hotel reservations overseas, and reviewing our checklists. In addition to all of this, my office is moving to Auburn this weekend, and oh yeah, I think there’s a major holiday in December, too.

Ah, well. We’ll sleep in January. (Oh, right. We’ll have a new baby.)