Eternally Sore

A couple weeks ago I took a drastic measure to help get myself back in shape; I joined a rugby club.  The Santa Monica Rugby Club to be exact.  Now I played rugby in high school, and some club ball in Asia, and then played at university…but that was a few years ago.  In fact, the last time I actually played real 15 man rugby was 5 years ago.  Since then, I have just played in the odd 7’s or 10’s tournament.  I guess what I am saying is that I am probably 10 years and a couple surgeries past my prime. 

I showed up for the first practice and found out that the club has three teams, kind of an A, B, and C team.  Their first team plays in Men’s Division 1.  There are guys that play for the USA national team in that league.  Their second team plays in division 2, which is still a pretty high level, at least for this continent.  So these guys are serious.  I finished my first practice…barely.  I think there were only three or 4 guys out of the 60-70 that were there that were in worse shape than I was.  The next morning I found it pretty hard to roll out of bed.  I was feeling pain in areas I forgot existed.  I honestly had not trained as hard or as serious since my days playing Division 1 back at university. 

The team practices twice a week, and I figured that my goal would be to make the second team.  Through the first two weeks of practice I have given it my all and realized that while I may not be the youngest or most in shape, I do have a little bit higher rugby IQ than many of these kids, as some of them are relatively new to the game.  This past week we had our first scrimmage game, and I started for the second team, played three different positions, and played all but 4 minutes.  I was absolutely exhausted and found all sorts of bumps and bruises later that night that I did not remember getting. 

It feels great to be playing again, and I am beginning to progress slowly.  My goal is to continue getting in better shape, and reward the faith they have to keep me starting with the second team.  The season I young, so anything is possible.  But at the very least, staying with the team will give me much needed exercise, regardless of what team I play for. 

What A Conference

This past weekend presented me the opportunity to help with and attend the “Big Ideas” conference.  This is a big event put on every year by the Alliance for Innovation, the company I am working for.   Every year well over 100 city planners, city managers, mayors, councilmen, and other professionals gather in some Alliance affiliated city to discuss current and future challenges facing their cities.  Last year they met in Ann Harbor, Michigan.   This year, the cities of West Hollywood and Santa Monica were co-hosts. 

It all started with the board of director’s dinner on Halloween.  I was able to meet with some pretty interesting people, half of which were dressed up in costumes.   Dinner was at the Grand Marquis hotel, less than a half a mile from the world’s largest Halloween party, thrown every year in West Hollywood.  As soon as dinner was finished, we all went down and joined over 400,000 of our closest friends wondering up and down Santa Monica Blvd.  Although I did not dress up, it was quite an enjoyable time people watching and seeing the tens of thousands who were. 

Me and Bob's Big Boy at the Halloween event in West Hollywood

The conference continued the next day in the Mondarin Hotel on the Sunset Strip, with an early morning board meeting.  During which I learned much about the structure of the Alliance, as they went over budgets, personnel, etc.  I then went with the event organizer Brandi to help prepare for the over 100 non board members who would arrive later that evening.  The preparation involved putting together “hand bags” that included everything from free drink vouchers to merchandise from the event sponsors. 

Board of Directors Meeting

The evening portion that we were setting up for was at the beautiful Andaz Hotel in the Hollywood Hills on Sunset Blvd.  While now called the Andaz, used to be the original Hard Rock Hotel.  Our event space was beautiful, as we were in their “view room” which was attached to their pool.  The view room was used for the conference and dinner, and the pool as a lounge while the conference room tables were turned set up for dinner.

Roof top Pool attached to our even space at the Andaz Hotel.  The location of our reception

View room set up for dinner at the Andaz with the city of LA in the background 

The next day (Saturday) began early, with a breakfast held at the iconic Anneberg Beach House.  This was also where we held the day part of the conference.  It was quite good weather, and the beach was remarkably empty.  After the afternoon session, the participants were given a few hours to either go on a guided tour of Santa Monica, or wander around the beach on their own.  I chose to use the time to sit and do homework, as I had had little to no time so far during the weekend. 

Standing at the entrance of our conference room at the Annenberg Beach House

After the free time in Santa Monica, the conference resumed at the Mondarin Hotel, where they reserved the pool and event space for a drink mixer and dinner.  Each dinner allowed for me to meet with different city managers and professionals from a vast array of locations.  To me that was the most interesting part of the whole conference, to be able to sit down, unwind, and get to know the people who run many of the largest cities in the United States. 

The pool and reception at the Mondarin overlooking the city of Los Angeles

The last day (Sunday) found us back in the View Room of the Andaz for breakfast and the last session of the conference.  The breakfast was probably the best breakfast I have had in over a year, and probably the most expensive I have had ever.  It was a great way to end what had been a long, yet fruitful weekend.

View of LA from the view room before breakfast at 6:45 am

Public Service and Urban Governance

I currently am working for a non-profit group called the Alliance for Innovation.  The Alliance is specifically built for the purpose of assisting in public service and urban governance.  The Alliance defines itself as an international network of progressive governments and partners “committed to transforming local government by accelerating the development and dissemination of innovations”.  The Alliance seeks to find new and out innovative practices to current and future government challenges.  Their mission statement claims to “challenge existing business models, exchange knowledge, and provide products and services that help our members perform at their best.” 

In short, the Alliance for innovation is a partnership of over 200 cities throughout the world that work together to provide ideas to solve local government problems.  This partnership accelerates the adoption of new ideas while furthering the work of local government.  Member cities are provided unlimited opportunities to connect and to share information and ideas needed to make their communities the best places to live, work, play and prosper.  The Alliance provides a blend of services, resources, information tools, publications, networking opportunities, workshops and conferences specifically targeted to local government.  Through this partnership, many cities have been able to find assistance and answers to many challenges.  The many workshops and conferences are facilitated by a rotating board of directors, as well as funding through different sponsorships and member dues.  The alliance is also partnered with Arizona State University, as well as the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).  With their continuing success, the Alliance has positioned itself as a major player for both public service and urban governance throughout the country.  Its goal is to become the premier provider of innovative practices for the entire world.   

Culinary Medication

It all started the morning of the USC football game.  I started feeling quite stuffed up, dizzy, and queasy.  I went to the game, because seeing the Coliseum was something I had to get crossed off my list of things to do, but by the time I got home, I promptly ingested lots of decongestants and cold meds, and got into bed.  I stayed in bed all Sunday, and on into Monday.  However, by Monday afternoon, I was actually feeling quite hungry, having only had soup for two straight days.  However, I did not have the energy or the desire to expend too much energy cooking.  So I ended up throwing some stuff together.  When I say throw stuff together, I literally mean, throw stuff together.  I got this idea that if I combined a lot of stuff that sounds good into a rice cooker, I could set it and forget it. 

So, I took some whole grain rice and added diced onions, mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts.  I then threw in a can of cream of mushroom soup and a half stick of butter.  I then added roasted garlic and herb seasoning and “N'orleans Cajun” seasoning.  I then added a packet of “Indo Mie”, mie goreng flavor with the noodles all crushed up (for those of you not familiar with Indo Mie, they are pretty much Indonesian Raman Noodles).  I then added a spicy Indonesian sauce called Sambal, made by an Indonesian company called ABC.  To ensure spiciness  I also added sriracha hot sauce made by the Bangkok "Cock" brand (the one with the rooster on it). 

I then added water and stirred it all around to make it soup like and then let it cook in the rice cooker.  I know this all sounds weird, but it tasted fantastic.  It was like an Asian Jambalaya.  The dish as a whole had the consistency of Risotto.  The spiciness cleared my sinuses and felt great.  My sore throat was either numbed away, or cleared up.  Not to mention it warmed me up to the point that I had no chills.  Pretty much what I am telling you is that I may have just found the cure for sinus infections.  I am impressed that this worked, and bored enough to email all of you about it.  Maybe I just found the cure to a sinus infection.   Although next time I will try to include more variation in color. 

Football!!

So, Saturday October 26th was somewhat of an iconic day for me.  I was able to go to a college football game in the Coliseum.  I am not a fan of USC or Utah, the two teams playing that day.  But I am a fan of history, and the Coliseum has it.  USC is not the way I pictured it.  I always assumed it was a sweet set up. With a beautiful campus, the beach, the girls, etc.  The reality is, USC is right in the middle of a dumpy part of town, where everyone makes jokes about the crime in the area.  It is in a older part of the city, so it is not good looking at all.  And because it is right in the middle of the city, there is little to no parking, forcing everyone to pay 20-25 bucks at random lots that can be as much as 2 miles away from the actual stadium. 

We arrived early and lucked out by finding a street parking space about a mile away for free.  We walked with all the other thousands of friends to the stadium.  Right outside the stadium it was interesting to see a religious group with signs and mega phones telling everyone to flee from sin and choose Christ to live.  They passed out “get out of Hell free” cards, with important scripture verses on them.  (I figure I will hang onto mine, as you never know). 

The game itself was not that exciting, a 19-3 win for USC.  Besides one field goal on the opening drive of the third quarter, all the scoring took place in the first half.  And in the end that was a good result, as I particularly don’t like Utah winning anything (I used to play rugby against them in my undergrad days and disliked their team immensely).  The most challenging part of the day was that I was sick, and not feeling well.  It continually got worse, and ended up by me being in bed all Saturday night and Sunday.  But I am still glad I went as it is something I can cross off my bucket list.