Geoffrey H Wood

Have you taken the pledge?

This post was written well over a month ago and was intended to coincide with our annual New Year's card. Due to a variety of circumstances we didn't get around to putting together the card - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't proceed with: 

We suppose we should probably start off with the big news of 2008 – we’re having a baby! We found out in October that we’re due for a baby in late June 2009. We’re very excited and plan on keeping all-things-baby a bit mysterious as we’re not going to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time and we’re not letting anyone in on our choices for names. We have agreed to names for both genders (with relatively little arguing and need for compromise) and will let the rest of you know on or about June 25, 2009. Until that point, we’ve nicknamed the kid “Baby Blueberry” (due to a reference to the size of the baby found in a Mom’s book a few months back) and you’re free to use that name as well.

The end of 2008 marks the end of our fourth full year of life as Hoosiers here in Indiana. We both continued in the same roles at our respective employers, Hope at the American College of Sports Medicine and Geoff at The Schneider Corporation. Geoff is still pursuing his MBA at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and is on schedule to graduate a semester early in December 2009.

Work, school, and baby preparations have kept us pretty busy all year and unfortunately, we haven’t had the chance to see our friends and family as much as we like. We had the opportunity to meet up with Hope's parents in Houston, TX in March for a weekend visit to Hope's Uncle Kelly and Aunt Bonnie. We enjoyed hosting our friends Eric and Jen from Omaha and Geoff’s brother Joe and his wife Mary for the annual Indy 500 race festivities in May. Geoff’s parents and his brother Sean visited in November and we made an icy trip to Iowa over Christmas to see Hope’s family and stay with Geoff’s Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue for the Roth Family Christmas. 

Outside of the usual work travel and visits to Ames for Iowa State football, we enjoyed a fun weekend in Washington, DC for the wedding of Geoff’s long time friend Matt Klinger to his fiancée Jane and a great weekend with old friends in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the Annual NFL Draft Party hosted by the D’Amicos. We also spent one week-plus cycling in the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) with our friend Kerry McGuire’s Team FUNK. The RAGBRAI experience dominated our Spring and Summer, including new bike purchases for the two of us, nearly a thousand combined miles of training, and lots of fun. We both turned the big 3-0 in 2008 and we celebrated each in our own ways. For Hope’s birthday, we made the trip to Newton, Iowa to take in the “Iowa Corn 250” Indycar race. For Geoff’s birthday, we made the trip to Las Vegas (Geoff’s first time) to watch the Cyclone’s take on the UNLV Rebels. On one trip, we had the opportunity to meet the 2008 Indianapolis 500 champion, who later went on to win the 2008 Indycar Series, Scott Dixon, at the Indianapolis Airport. 

For the most part, each of our families is doing well. We live far enough away that we don’t get to see our parents, siblings, nieces, or nephew very often but we’re very proud of the successes and growth that they’ve all had in 2008.

Unfortunately, we lost Geoff’s grandfather Davis Luck (age 93) unexpectedly in August. In recognition of his service to the Navy and our country, he was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in December. It was certainly a sad circumstance but we enjoyed the opportunity to spend so much time with Geoff’s extended family in Florida in August and in Washington, DC in December.

2008 was certainly a great year for our family and with Baby Blueberry on the way, we expect 2009 to be that much better!

Happy New Year!

Indianapolis, while certainly a nice place, is a Big Ten town. I, however, am not a Big Ten guy. I’m a proud alumnus of Iowa State University, of the Big 12 Conference. Many of my college buddies are also Big 12 guys and live in Big 12 towns, such as Kansas City, Denver or Omaha. Many others live in cities that I consider shared by the two conferences, such as Chicago, Minneapolis, or Des Moines. Very few live in Indianapolis.

Since my alma mater is 7-8 hours away and my college buddies live in places that are decidedly not Indianapolis, it’s no surprise that I don’t get to see them very often.

However, the past two weeks have been different. It started on a Tuesday night when my good buddy Ryan Pieper was in town for work. Ryan’s a pledge brother who lives in Denver. Luckily, Tuesday is the one night each week that I don’t have class so we were able to grab a few drinks in a couple of my favorite Downtown Indy establishments. 

We talked about which of our buddies were where at this point in their lives and who each of us had seen in the last year or so. Ryan wondered why I was so in the loop and I told him the answer was simple: Facebook. He told me his wife was on Facebook but he had been resisting. I exalted the benefits and he promised to go for it. I dropped him at his hotel and headed home. I logged into Facebook the next morning and was happy to see a connection request from Ryan, which I gladly accepted – only to find out that he’d already connected with 40-some others in just a few short hours.

That weekend I met up with a few other college buddies in Chicago. The point of the trip was to reminisce with the old CampusAuthority.com buddies: T-rav, Yezek, and Nick Walters. Reminisce we did, along with sharing a few drinks and subsequent cab rides. I had the opportunity to see some other Chicago-area college friends, like Kurt Johnson.

There was a downside to the weekend as, unfortunately, somebody stole the Obama magnet off my car (while in the garage of T-rav’s building). That’s something I figured might happen in the ramp up the election but not just before inauguration (and in Chicago to boot!).  Oh well, Brad Becker tells me that it’s time to ditch the campaign propaganda, anyway.

I’m not sure why I haven’t visited Chicago more often in 4+ years in Indy – it’s only a few hours away. 

I haven't written for awhile because school and work are really busy, blah, blah, blah...

Anyway, I came home from work yesterday and found a duck sitting on the peak of our roof. It's completely random, yet something I felt the need to share on the interwebs.