It has come to this. With all the changes that have happened over the course of the past year (new job, new school, leaving public office) and the biggest one coming up later this summer (marriage), there is one more thing that I’m looking to change: my location.

I’ve lived in the most incredible condo in Frankfort, Illinois for the past (almost) four years. I bought it pre-construction and was lucky enough to pick out all of the finishes. The time has come to move on and I’m parting ways with my home. It was my first, but won’t be my last. We’ve priced it incredibly (considerably below what others have sold for!) and this place is really looking for someone to love it as much as I did. There are NO better condo’s in all of the southwest suburbs. I can guarantee that! (Seriously!)

The details can be found here on the realtor’s site. For a condo, it really has an incredible kitchen and is a great place to host a party. It’s walkable to downtown Frankfort (2 blocks) where you can drink German beer at the Hoffbrau House, hang at the Village Green, and eat italian at Francesca’s. If you know anyone looking in the southwest suburbs for a maintenance-free life, make sure they check this place out. We want to sell it to you!

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This week, I announced that I was resigning from the Frankfort Village Board. It was an extraordinary tough decision - one which I grappled with for some time. Work, School, a huge life change - marriage - is a lot to handle. Something had to give. Unfortunately, at this point, it was public service. A more in-depth discussion of why I’m leaving is here. I’ve invested a lot of time and energy in to Frankfort and I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish these past 5 years. As I wrote in my letter to the Mayor:

It is with a heavy heart and much emotion that I submit my resignation from the Frankfort Village Board of Trustees effective Friday, April 4, 2008.

Our country’s democracy was founded on the premise of “citizen democracy” and service. Leaders were elected, worked for their constituents and when their time was up, they went home. Increasingly today, we’ve moved away from that model to one of career politicians. I admire our Founding Fathers and their contributions to our country not only for what they did, but how they served their country and then went on with their lives. With that notion in my mind, it is time for me to step away from Village government.

With additional responsibilities at work during the day including an increasing amount of travel, coupled with the upcoming nuptials to my wonderful fiancé Natalie, my ability to focus on Village of Frankfort matters is not where it needs to be. Stepping away from the Board at this time is the right thing to do for the residents of Frankfort. Their interests are at the top of my mind.

The past five years have been a wonderful experience and I relish the time spent with you and the entire Village Board as well as past Clerk Tom Bartkus, current Clerk Kate Romani and former Mayor Ray Rossi. I’ve learned a lot from all of you. I appreciate your patience with me and your support on my many initiatives including the Hybrid Vehicle Tax Waiver, impact fee increases, ethics ordinances, and downtown wi-fi.

We’ve accomplished quite a bit in the five years since I’ve joined the Board, but there is more work to be done. With the steady hand of Administrator Jerry Ducay and your leadership, I’m certain that I’m leaving the residents of Frankfort in very capable hands. The Board will continue to lead Frankfort forward in both economic and quality of life issues.

Frankfort is such a special place and the Board is entrusted to ensure that it remains that way for future generations. I wish you and the Board much success. Don’t forget to keep growth in check and continue to uphold extraordinarily high standards for development. Also, don’t forget to consider the people of Frankfort in all of your decisions – they’re what make Frankfort a truly special place.

Thank you, mostly, to the residents of Frankfort who have twice voted to allow me to represent their interests on the Board. It has been an honor to do their work.

I couldn’t have gotten this far without help from my family and friends - most notably my Dad. With his hard work, he propelled me to office. I’ve met some incredible people throughout this process. Greg Griffin will be a lifetime friend. I appreciate his efforts on my behalf. During my time in office, I’ve lost one good friend - Dan Hattan - someone who guided me and provided counsel in tough times. For that, I will be forever grateful.

I’ll give my time on the board a more thorough post-mortem another time. For now, all I can say is “Thanks and I’ll see you guys around town.”

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Whodathunk?

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Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. In fact, I think I like it better than Christmas. It’s a perfect combination of wonderful things. I have a ton of things to be thankful for and they all seem to come together on Thanksgiving. From my annual “night out” with my crew last night, to spending the day strapping on the ole’ feedbag with my entire family both in Frankfort and in Naperville - I get to spend lots of time with the people that matter most to me.

The other part of Thanksgiving that I like is the traditions. From the family, to the food, to the weekend cutting down of the Christmas Tree - it’s all fantastic fun. While all of those traditions were started without me and I’m simply a participant, there’s one tradition that I’ve started that makes me enjoy Thanksgiving morning. While most Americans are tuning into Matt Lauer and Al Roker to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, at my place we’re watching The Last Waltz - and watching it LOUD!

I’d tell you that you should be doing the same, but I’ve already done that in years past!
2004
2005
2006

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How ‘bout the Illini, eh? Taking down then #1 OSU and having an improbable run to possibly 9 wins after back-to-back rebuilding years. I couldn’t be more proud to be an an alum of both the program and the university. The program appears to have turned a corner, and with all the talent that’s starting to pile up down the road on I-57, we should be a force in the Big Ten for many years. This doesn’t appear to be a fluke (like the 2001 Sugar Bowl was).

All that stands in the Illini’s way from a New Years Day Bowl Game and possible BCS bid are the Wildcats from Northwestern this Saturday. Should be a slam dunk win for the Illini, no? It should.

I’ll be going nuts, rooting for the boys from Champaign-Urbana, right?

Ummm….

Not so fast.

What? Am I questioning my allegiances? Sorta.

At age 29, with a day job that I love and a fiancé pursuing her PhD full-time, the time couldn’t be more right for me to head back to school and get an advanced degree. Earlier this fall, I applied to a few part-time MBA programs around town and was excited to be admitted to both at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management – my two top schools. After much deliberation, discussion, research, and a bit of hemming-and-hawing, I have finally settled on attending Kellogg. The decision wasn’t so much “against” the University of Chicago, as it was “for” Kellogg and Northwestern.

They’re both highly respected programs (and I’m honored to be admitted to both), but at the end of my evaluation, the program at Kellogg seems like a better fit both professionally and personally. I’ll be working towards a concentration in marketing and entrepreneurship and the team-based environment and real world curriculum will allow me to maximize my time in the classroom. I’ve thought and thought and thought about this decision – it certainly is a big one – and with the help of Equation Boy/Man and Natalie’s dad, I think I made the proper one. Equation Boy/Man helped me more than I can ever have hoped for. I am very grateful for his assistance, advice, and dirty rushing.

There are plenty of other people who helped me through the process including Rick, Tom, Natalie, my Dad, and Patrick. I couldn’t have done all of this and made a decision without their help and for that, I’m extremely grateful.

It’s a 2-3 year commitment, but one that should set a strong foundation professionally for me in the years to come. Balancing work, travel, school, a new marriage, and social time will certainly be difficult, but it is a challenge I’m up for tackling. I have a few more significant changes planned personally, but I’ll save those for another post. Today, I’m celebrating my admission to a new school – and being a Wildcat! Orientation at Kellogg is coming up soon, so I’ll have to get my purple gear from the bookstore in the coming weeks and get registered for classes soon.

So…will I be wearing one of those silly “split” jerseys like Brady Quinn’s sister did last year on Saturday? Half orange, half purple?

No way. I know where my roots are…

GO lLLINI!

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We’ve missed you.

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The Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune laid the defeat of the bloated, ineffective transit bill at the feet of Tom Cross and the House Republicans. They argue that Cross and his Caucus are holding out for more funding for their constituents in exchange for their votes to eliminate any cuts to the CTA. The Tribune folks further argue that Cross is hurting the exact folks that he’s trying to help: suburban voters. Their logic is flawed. Sure…there are plenty of folks who are using mass transit who potentially may be hurt by the cuts proposed by the Chicago Democrats and the bloated CTA, but there’s more to the story.

Let’s talk about strategy and why I believe the Tom Cross and the House Republicans made a great move. As a side note, I think Ron Huberman, who inherited this mess at the CTA is a good man, but he needs to bring the focus of his scapel internally before he starts crying externally. Cut some middle management out of the budget before you start cutting routes. I won’t delve into that subject (as it’s just a side note!) in this post, but just stick to the political implications of this standoff.

Let’s fast forward a few years to 2010. There will be a Governor’s race between Lisa Madigan and the GOP nominee. Now…let’s just say that the nominee was Tom Cross - the House Republican Leader. Let’s say that he’s taking a page from Congressman Mark Kirk and his “Suburban Agenda“. Where’s Cross going to get his votes? Mostly from outside the City of Chicago, right? Is Lisa going to use this against him in the City with commuters? Sure she will. But, he’ll be able to counter much of that with the discussion about transit not being a one-and-done issue. It requires a regional approach and the region needs road money as much as it needs mass transit money.

Cross will further be able to buttress his work for Chicago by pointing to his successes with both O’Hare and Midway Airports. Of course, Tom Cross recognizes that Chicago is THE economic engine for the State of Illinois and it needs to be supported. The O’Hare Airport expansion couldn’t have happened without HGOP votes, and Cross ensured that the future of air transportation stays strong with a healthy and expanded O’Hare Airport. Transit isn’t the only issue that’s facing folks in Chicago. What about jobs? I know Tom Cross and his policy staff are thinking about job related issues like keeping the technology scene moving along in Chicago. That’s a subject near and dear to my heart. They are working on ways to keep folks from who are interested in technology from fleeing to the West Coast. The Illinois Math and Science Academy is in Cross’ district. He knows what a gem of an institution it is. He also knows that the University of Illinois in Urbana produces some of the smartest engineering minds in the land (including my very own brother-in-law Equation Boy/Man). He’s going to develop policies to keep these kids in Chicago and working in the field that they love: technology. Do that, and we’ll all come out ahead.

Getting back to the CTA, I know Tom Cross a bit and I know that he actually rides the CTA. Not in the Mayor Bloomberg way for show, but actually to get somewhere. When he takes his son, an avid Cubs fan to Wrigley, he rides up there from the loop on the Red Line. He attends countless dinners, meetings, and events in the great city. He isn’t an ideologue who hates the city and thinks Chicago doesn’t deserve the funding for mass transit, he just understands that fixing just one part of the problem is the proper solution. Doing what’s right for the region is what’s right for Chicago and he’s going to try to ensure that the solution is comprehensive.

In the end, blocking the CTA’s money grab while protecting the suburbs was a wise political move for the future for House Republican Leader Tom Cross or for any GOP leader. When he needs to, he’ll have every Mayor and suburban leader championing his cause - saying he stuck up for the area’s roads in the face of the Chicago Democratic Corruption Machine. His work isn’t done, because he’ll still loose if he gets whitewashed in the City. But…turning some of those young commuters his way is doable. By pointing to the GOP’s success in Chicago with an expanded O’Hare and the votes to lead to a Midway Lease by Mayor Daley, coming up with some solid policies to keep the tech industry humming along in the city, along with a smart press, political and web strategy, he’ll have it licked.

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The DuPage County Republicans released their “new” website this morning and its magnificently underwhelming. The only way this thing could be worse was if it was hosted at a .geocities.com domain. I hate to pile on fellow Republicans, but if DuPage is really the “most Republican County in the USA”, this is embarrassing. The real sad part is, that I’m sure they paid someone a bunch of money to develop this and they’re probably so happy with it. They built a wonder website for 1994.

We need to do better. The suburbs and DuPage County is battleground territory right now. The Turn DuPage Blue guys or whomever seizes control of the DuPage Democrats will certainly be more proactive and engaged online. So should the Chairman Cronin and the DuPage GOP.

Where to begin? I don’t know. That silly splash page? Where’s the data collection? If you’re going to have one, which in this day and age is common, at least include an email box or contribution form. What do they have? Some silly flash movie. Some of the basic blocking and tackling is screwed up. Who can’t build a “volunteer form”. Apparently the folks the DuPage Republicans hired. If you want to get involved, you have to send an email. The contribution form is the same. Want to contribute to the Party? Send it in via mail. It’s not hard to use a 3rd party system to collect funds online. Come on, guys. Instead of listing the events on the page, they’ve posted a pdf. I wonder how long until that goes bad, eh? That is vey silly. Aside from the whole downloading aspect, what about search engine juice?

There’s so much wrong that I could go on and on. There’s a few easy ways to fix these things. First step: get your money back from whomever you paid to do this. Then expand the offerings to include online forms. You can even embed ones from wufoo. The one part they kinda got right? They made sure all the “bigs” got their pictures on the site. I’m sure that was their way of getting the committee to vote for this thing. And what’s with the “We are” thing? The State Party is doing it too. Let’s worry less about cute domain names and more on content and execution, huh guys?

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I need some help from the East Coaster’s who read RhodesSchool. I’ve had nothing but bad luck from pretzel vendors. First it was in NYC, today the problem occurred in Boston. I enjoy the speed of acquisition and feel for food cart vendors on the street. I’ve done plenty of shopping from street vendors for “goods” and I will, on occassion buy a meal from a street cart vendor. I like that it’s all cash. I like that it’s a one-man operation. And…I like the whole thought about cart “turf” that I have in my head. (how do you get the prime corners? Seniority? Does the Outfit control the turf?, etc…)

In the midwest, where I grew up, we had “big” or “jumbo” pretzels that were served hot. They were always, without exception soft. They were chewey and usually had salt applied to them and if you were feeling friskey, you’d even dip them in some yellow mustard - they’re fantastic. In both NYC and now in Boston, I’ve encountered not the usual soft, chewy soft pretzel, but rather a rigid, rock hard pretzel that has an almost burnt smell to them. I can hardly get them down. They’re certainly not a joy to eat.

So…East Coasters. Have I just had a bad stretch of luck? Lousy food carts? Or…is this a custom out there? Are the big pretzels supposed to be hard? Just really large versions of regular sized pretzels? If that’s the case, I’ll give up. If not, tell me to get back on the horse and find the perfect soft pretzel on the East Coast.

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September 6, 2008. 365 days away. If you head over to our wedding blog, you’ll see the countdown widget is finally under the one year mark. Natalie and I were engaged last December, so we’re 9 months into it with 20 to go. Seems like a long time, eh? It is. But for Nat, the planning never stops. I’m excited about gearing up for this year and all that it entails. We’ve secured the venue, the caterer, and the church. That leaves pretty much everything else. Nat’s on top of it, so I don’t have to be. We’re having a discussion over the band as we speak. I want one group, she wants another. We all know who’s going to win that battle.

There’s so much to do and see that Nat has even started to write a secondary blog about all the wedding things she sees and reads about called i heart peonies. She’s a great writer who puts a smile on my face. You should go subscribe to her feed on the site now. I’m excited that she’s enjoying the web as it relates to our wedding. As we get closer, I’m sure we’ll be doing more and more things with our wedding website to ensure that everyone that’s invited will get all the details they need. At some point, unless you’re a really traditional bride, I could see folks just sending out invitations with web urls. In fact, why not just twitter it to your friends and family. That seems like it’s all the rage, doesn’t it?!?!

Regardless of how we do the invites, I couldn’t be more thrilled that Natalie said “yes” last December. It was the best decision of my life. Thanks, Nat! I can’t wait.

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