Nick’s Blog

Hey everyone I posted on Ash and my new website www.nickandash.com.  Go check it out…

Finally after many years (insert joke here) of college I have finally graduated (again).  This time at least I have a Master’s degree to my name and can find solice in knowing that I will not have to take any more tests, write any more papers, or step foot in a classroom setting as a student for a very long time.

My mom and dad made the trip out almost two weeks ago to watch Ashley and I graduate.  We surprised them by showing up at the airport witha huge sign greeting them to the cornfields.  The next two days went by quickly with lots of eating and drinking taking place.  Our parents met for the first time too…but don’t worry they got along famiously.  It was really sad to see them go as it had been two months since I had seen them last.  I posted some pictures of graduation on this website or you can visit my mom’s blog (see talmaskatz link on the right) to see them there as well.

Ashley and I have two new websites that we wanted to tell you about.  The first is for our upcoming wedding which you can view at http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AshleyHattaway&NickKatz.  We (or should I say Ashley since she is really good at this stuff) plan to update it more as the wedding gets closer but it is a good start for now. 

The other site is www.nickandash.com which my brother made for us as a Christmas present.  Nothing is written on it yet but soon we will both start using that one instead of this site.  This way both of our friends and family can view one site instead of two.

Both Ash and I will be in Macomb for about another month as we begin to prepare to move down to Atlanta on June 23rd.  I just received some pictures of our two bedroom apartment and will post them when I get a chance.  We also just found out that Georgia Tech is going to furnish our apartment with all new IKEA furniture which put big smiles on both of our faces.  On the job front Ashley had a phone interview with GT right before graduation and will have an on-campus interview either in early June or when we get down there at the end of the month for a Program Coordinator in the Admission’s office.  She is really excited and hopefully we will have some really good new soon for her.

Nothing much else has been going on.  The corn is starting to grow and Ashley and I are entertaining ourselves by sleeping in as late as possible and watching a lot of TV and movies.  We have a friends wedding to go to in a few weeks and a trip to Chicago planned for Ash’s sister’s 21st birthday in mid-June (not to mention my birthday as well :-)  As for that it is pretty quiet out here.  I still do not know when we will be back in Socal.  The next possible date is around Labor Day for the street fair so cross your fingers for that.

My deepest appologies for not updating sooner…I know three months is a long time not to write but I have good reasons.  A lot has happened and I finally have a second (well only a few) to breathe so hear goes…

For those of you still playing at home graduation is only four days away.  I know I cannot believe it either!!  In four days I will have my Masters Degree in College Student Personnel (in case anyone forgot what I was actually doing out her for the past two years).  It seemed like only yesterday I was living on Balboa Island with Paul and working at the law firm.  Well two years have come and gone and we will celebrate like it’s 1999 very soon.

Speaking of graduation my mom and dad will be here in three days to help partake in the celebratory libations.  They leave before the sun is even up on Thursday morning and will arrive in the corn and bean fields in the early afternoon and should get to Macomb around 3:30 PM.  It has been about two months since I have seen the parental units.  Since then my mom has turned 50 and went on a cruise will all our family and friends and my dad started wearing depends to control his blatter problems.  Okay okay that last statement is not true…he doesn’t have any blatter problems…oops I mean he doesn’t wear depends.  Well you know what I mean.  Just joking dad you know I love you and cannot wait to see you.  I will have cold beer waiting for you.

Now for the biggest and most exciting news of the last two years.  Drum roll please (yes it is appropriate to make a drumroll sound with your tongue or fingers on the desk)…that’s right folks…I am now employed (aka I have a job!).  That’s right, a big people (person) type of job.  It has been a very tiring and crazy last four months but I have accepted a Hall Director position in the Freshman Experience program at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta Georgia.  I am going to run an all male freshman residence hall of 300 students and a staff of 20 Peer Leaders (their version of RA’s).  I tried my best (and Ashley can attest to this one) to move closer to home to either San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco or Tempe, AZ, but as everything usually happen in my life, things did not go as I had planned.  All in all and at the end of the day, Georgia Tech is gong to be a wonderful place for Ashley and I to move and begin our lives together.  Ashley is already actively searching for a full-time position in the area and I hope sooner than later we will have more good news about her job search to tell you. 

Ashley and I will stay in Macomb until the end of June (around 23-25) and hope to be all moved in my July 1st (when my contract starts).  We have a nice big two bedroom apartment on campus in the middle of downtown Atlanta and we welcome any visitors.  A lot of Atlanta was redone because the Olypics were there about 10 years ago so the place looks great.  Most of all Ashley and I are excited to have an Ikea and Target only a few mintues away.  I will send some pictures when I get a chance.

Now that school is almost done, Ashley and I can start to focus on planning a wedding.  We still plan on having it next summer but are undecided on the location (tenative date is still July 7, 2007).  Neither of us thought we would be living in Atlanta so that should make things interesting in terms of where to have the wedding.  As of right now we are wrestling with a few ideas, but nothing has been set in stone.  Of course I will let everyone know as soon as we do.  You might want to start looking up the price of plane tickets.

I think that gets you all caught up on my crazy life.  My cell phone number should be staying the same, but my e-mail and mailing address are sure to change here in a few months and I will e-mail that out when I get it.  I do not know when Ashley and I will be back to visit SoCal but I will be sure to let you know when we do.  Hopefully it is sooner rather than later.

I hope everyone is doing well!! 

Surprise, surprise!  In a recent turn of events Ashley and I will be flying to Socal for a few days two weeks from today.  I was not expecting to come home anytime soon (seems this happens every semester) but the stars aligned (cough cough = parents) and so we will be back in warm weather soon.
 

It all started late last week when I tried to convince my mom to come out to Chicago for a weekend during the first part of our Spring Break.  I knew there was little to no chance of Ashley and me coming home since I had to close the residence hall here on March 12^th whichonly left a few days before Ashley and I head out to Indianapolis for a job-search/conference on March 17^th. 
 

I will admit, I tried, and I whined, I begged and I pleaded to try to convince my mom she needed to get away and come spend some time with Ashley and I in Chicago (only a four hour drive for us).  Needless to say it would extremely difficult for her to come by herself.  Basically this meant my dad wanted to come too which left the kids home by themselves.  I mean who could blame him, I‘d want to go have some fun in Chicago too!  Next thing you know my mom called back with the heartbreaking news that she would not be able to fly out…but she said, “How about we fly you and Ashley out to Socal instead?”  So as Ashley and I sat in 20 degree weather we thought, “Hmmm, stay here and work or go to the land of In-&-Out, Balboa Island, and warm sun?”  That made our decision process a lot easier and we both proceeded to get out of work to make the trip.  We arrive on Friday, March 10^th at noon and leave on Thursday, March 16^th really early in the morning.  I cannot wait for the sun to hit me in the face as I step off the plane.  We put in an order for clear skies, warm weather, with a slight breeze, so be ready!

Things here are pretty much the same.  There are only 77 more days and 11 more weeks until graduation.  A week from today I will be in Oshkosh Wisconsin at my first job- search/conference.  I have mixed emotions of excitement and nerves.  I will be sure to give more details as they come.

I would love to get together with everyone for a night…maybe some Hero’s or a BBQ???  Let me know if are interested. 

I hope all is well and cannot wait to hear back from you.

See you all soon!
-Nick

We just finished the third week of school here and for any of you who are counting out there we only have 14 more weeks or 97 more days until graduation.  It is scary to think in a very short time I am going to have a “grown-up” job (again).  

I think I am actually going to miss being a graduate student…well I won’t miss the pay.  But seriously, doing this job search thing lately has really made me reflect on the past 20 months…and what I have concluded is I really have had a great time here at Western Illinois and there is a huge part of me that is going to be sad to leave.  I never would have thought I would come to enjoy life in the Midwest, or enjoy waking up and smiling to see snow on the ground and the temperature below thirty, or enjoying living in a town with less people than all the students that I went to my undergraduate school with.  In about six months I won’t have the safety net of a graduate student title attached to my name.  Instead I will have two new letters signifying that I accomplished some form of higher education and that I might actually know a thing or two about what it takes to work with college students on a daily basis. 

Some of our classmates threw Ashley and I a little engagement party last week at a really cool restaurant here in Macomb.  This was quite a surprise and very much unexpected.  It was a great time had by all.  Next weekend Ashley’s family and I are heading up to Chicago to go to a bridal show to begin researching for the wedding.  In case you were wondering where we are having the wedding…you’re going to have to wait a little longer because we don’t know yet either!  It really all depends on where we get jobs.  I really wish we could focus just on wedding planning and not job searching but I unless somehow we win the lottery, job searching is going to have to come first. 

Speaking of job searching…here is a little update on how everything is going.  I am going to attempt give a quick overview of how everything works.  The first step is for Ashley and I to research schools in areas we would like to work in.  Next we will set up interviews with these schools at the conferences we will be attending.  At the conferences we will interview with several schools at least once and maybe even two or three times.  After the conferences are over we will get invitations to visit schools to conduct on-campus interviews.  From there we will get offers to accept or decline jobs from these schools.  In each step we will narrow down our choices of schools until we find the right fit for us.  

I will be attending two conferences, both coming up really soon.  The first is Oshkosh Placement Exchange (OPE) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin from March 2nd to 6th.  This conference is primarily for entry level housing professionals in the Midwest though some schools for the coasts interview here as well.  The second conference is the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) in Indianapolis, Indiana from March 17th to 22nd.  This is a national conference and I will be interviewing along side professionals, who like me, are just starting out in the field to professionals who have many years of experience and with all types of functional areas. 

Ashley will be attending ACPA as well and we are both looking forward to finding out where we will be next year.  As we get closer to the conferences I will update again with where I might be going.  The trick for Ashley and I is to find a location that will allow the both of us to find jobs.  This means we will probably be in a metropolitan area with lots of schools.  The chances of us both finding jobs at the same school in a small town are slim, so basically we won’t be looking there.  I know we would both prefer to be in warmer weather and near a large body of water but right now I will settle for being in a location where we can be together.  I know Ashley and I are very excited about being closer to places like malls, targets, best buys, ikea’s, and olive gardens.  

I really do miss everyone from back home.  I feel really fortunate to have Ashley (and her family) here to help keep me sane.  I cannot express how much she means to me!!!  I wake up everyday knowing how lucky I am to have her in my life.  I cannot wait until we have a place to call our own. 

Well that is it for now.  I do not know when I’ll be coming home since one of the conferences is at the back end of our spring break.  I know Ash and I would love to come home sometime soon though.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Write me if you get a chance.  

You can visit my mom’s website at www.talmaskatz.com to view some of the pictures.  Just click on the photo albums on the right hand column…

Well if you have not heard by now…Ashley and I are engaged. I proposed while we were down in Puerto Vallarta on December 28th. Here is the story of how it happened….

School ended in mid-December and I came back home to Socal on December 20th. Christmas was really fun as the family headed down to my Aunt’s to celebrate. The next morning I took the family to the airport as they were heading down to Mexico and I was waiting one more day for Ashley to arrive.  On the 27th I picked her up early in the morning and we celebrated Christmas in a near by Taco Bell parking lot…I know - very romantic :-)  We waited a few hours and then hoped on a plane to meet up with the family in Puerto Vallarta. The next day was pretty routine of our trip.  Sleeping in and going down the pool to soak up the sun.  We had dinner reservations for six o’clock…or so Ashley thought.  Around 5:45 her and I were both ready to go but the rest of the family was not.  We were sitting on the balcony enjoying the view when I asked Ash if she wanted to go down to the beach for a little walk before dinner. I knew we had some time and were probably going to be late for dinner anyway. T o my surprise Ashley had no interest in going down for a walk.  Very happy and content where she was I asked again, and again she had no desire to go since we needed to leave soon.  I knew I had to pull out the big guns so I did the first thing that came to my mind…I started to pout.  Sure enough it worked and we were on our way down to the beach for a little walk…As we neared the beach Ashley ever so nicely told me she had no intention of walking on the sand.  She had just taken a shower and we were about to leave and didn’t want to get dirty.  I thought in my head…where did this girl come from?  The Ashley I know has no problem getting her feet in the sand.  Well again I had to pull out the big guns…yes that means pouting…and again it worked….

Welcome to my very own website. My amazingly talented brother designed this for my X-mas present. I think it is pretty cool!! Thanks so much Tim…You ROCK!

Merry Christmas Nick. I hope you enjoy the site!