Honoring those who inspire us

I am lucky to have many inspirational people in my life; My gracious, cheerful Mother, my loving siblings, my best friend of 28 years who has crafted a wonderful second life, and my coach/trainer of a father. Of course our families should be inspiring--we must learn from each other in order to live fully. As an educator, I owe much of my professional prowess to those teachers who have shared the best of themselves with me over the years. To that end, I have created a student scholarship at my alma mater, University of Dayton, to honor my greatest mentor, Dr. Teri Thompson. This past Monday, I had the pleasure of awarding this scholarship to the first ever recipient of the Teresa (Teri) Thompson Graduate Scholarship at the Senior Banquet of the department of communication.

Pictured here is, in the middle, Jessica Parker, a senior COM major, who is pursing a Masters degree in Communication. Of note, she's going to complete her bachelors and masters in 5 years. To her right is my mentor, Dr. Teri Thompson. I'm sure many of you have heard me talk about Teri over the years. This is proof that she exists :) I look forward to hearing great things about Jessica as she works through her masters with Teri ably at her side.

The experience of going back to the place of both my bachelors and masters was a delight. I had a lovely lunch with Teri where we waxed about how long we've known each other, our life experiences since then, and our enduring friendship. Then we took a brief trip to campus and I was able to get a glimpse of the classrooms and offices I had spent long hours learning about communication and eventually completing my thesis. Afterwards we attended the banquet and I had the pleasure of seeing students receive various awards for their accomplishments and observe the faculty and parents with pride on their faces at their students' achievements. Indeed, you can go home :)

A Tradition like none Other….

A Tradition like none Other…. (Charles's Masters Experience post)

From green grass to green jackets; from green buildings to green chairs; from green scoreboards to… well the most ridiculous greens I have ever scene… was Augusta National Golf Club. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the hollowed grounds where greatest in the game have walked and played.

I was fortunate enough to go to the Masters Friday with my cousin Vince. Now… everyone who reads this knows that Pinehurst is my favorite place on earth! And they also know how much I love the game of golf. I had 3 pages typed out about my experience but figured no one was really that interested. So, I have condensed it into this version…

First of all, forget what you THINK you know about the course from TV. There isn’t an HDTV on earth that can display the absolute beauty, terrain and mystique of Augusta National. Everyone knows it is beautiful, and it is. But the most unbelievable aspect of the course is the terrain. It is basically built on the side of a mountain. The clubhouse, putting green, first and tenth tee are the highest point and everything goes down to the lowest point, the left side of thirteen and Ray’s Creek. The greens are the most ridiculous I have ever seen. I can’t even type anything that would be worthy of describing them. Amen corner was everything I thought it would be in person and more. It is almost surreal as you stand there and look at #12 green and #13 fairway and green because you can’t get close. It is like you are looking at a picture. #15 green and #16, which is a par 3 has a stadium setting with several large grandstands and even more “seating only” areas. Almost anywhere you sit at #16 gives you a clear view of #15 fairway and green, #16, #17 tee box and #6, which is also a par 3. We sat behind #16 green most of the afternoon and saw a lot of great shots, but also saw some that made me feel a lot better about my game for sure!!! We ate a lot… mainly because everything was $1.00, and I am dead serious! You have a choice of a chicken, BBQ, ham/cheese, egg salad, chicken salad or a club sandwich. A bag of chips were $.50, candy bars $.50 and peanuts were $.50. Drinks were $1.00 for a coke, “sport drink” (which is fruit punch Gatorade, but remember, they don’t do the sponsor thing) lemonade or beer… that’s right, a beer was $1.00. You could pay $.50 more for a plastic souvenir cup which had the 50^th anniversary of Amen Corner. We ate and drank enough for a family of 5 and spent like $20 total!!! The atmosphere is also special. Everyone is polite and speaks in a soft voice. No one cheers for bad shots and there isn’t any annoying “you da man Tiger” idiots standing behind you shouting after every shot. If you place your seat at a specific hole and leave it to walk around, you are not to touch it. There must have been 2,000 seats around #18 green Friday morning and no one was sitting in them. Try leaving your chair like that at any other golf tournament and you will be looking to buy a new one! We walked every hole on the course and the only hole we didn’t see any putt on was #18, only because we were up by the clubhouse early in the morning. I feel very lucky because Trevor Immelman was playing early Friday and we got to see him play a lot without the massive crowds. Little did we know that he was going to win! We saw most of the big names play through #16… and yes, we got to see Tiger play #7 late in the day. You won’t find any sponsor labels anywhere inside the grounds. The chip bags say “Masters” as do the peanuts, candy bars and cups. The scoreboards are white and manually updated. There are significantly less trees then it appears on TV, especially around #14 green and #17 green. In another touch of class, all the members wear their green jackets as they walk the grounds so the patrons are able to identity them in case someone needs to ask a question or needs help. As we made our way back to the car, we stopped at the merchandise store…. WOW!!! I could be purchased one of everything but only left with a belt. Reluctantly, we walked through the gates and out to Washington Rd towards our car. It really didn’t sink in that I was actually at the Masters until I was alone on my car driving back to Durham. I feel fortunate to have now been to two of the four majors in the 2005 US Open in Pinehurst and the 2008 Masters. Everyone should have the opportunity to go The Masters one time because it truly is a tradition like none there.

Uncle Al's Birthday

Thought I'd share our birthday wish for our Uncle Al, in case someone's Quicktime for Windows wasn't up to date.

Hey Uncle Al,

CC was kind enough to clue us into your upcoming birthday, (You are turning 50, 60, I can't remember) We took the opportunity to record you a birthday greeting on this glorious evening, right before dining outside for the first time this year. We hope you have a great birthday and wanted you to know we miss you, are thinking of you and we love you.

Best to Aunt Chris,

The Cronleys

Here is our video.

Lake Lure, NC

(views from our window)

Charles, Izzy and I spend the weekend on the set of "Dirty Dancing" in Lake Lure, NC. Not really on the set, because we are just a few years late, but we did spend the weekend at Lake Lure.

My company sent me (ok, twist my arm) to check out the Lake Lure Inn and Spa for a future employee trip in August. I was there to check out the rooms, food and the area for the events planner for our corporate office. Lake Lure is for sure a winner in my book.

We arrived late Friday night after navigating some switch backs and white knuckle turns. From Durham, the trip should be about 3 hrs and 30 mins, but we were delayed by rain and traffic. No biggie. Saturday morning, I had a site tour with an event planner of the hotel. She took us around to see the rooms, event rooms and the spa. One of the main reasons why I was there was to see the rooms that would be available for registration, welcome/kick off and teambuilding.

In between rain drops and after my tour, we walked the river walk along the Broad River and stopped at some stores in Chimney Rock, at the base of Chimney Rock State Park.




Saturday after walking around, I took a nap. Hey, after all, it is my vacation too!!! Charles went to the bar to watch the basketball game and met some very nice people. We ended up hanging out with for the rest of the night. The couple was from Greenville, SC and staying at the Inn to celebrate their 10 year anniversary.

Overall, we were so impressed with the hospitality of the area, not just at the hotel, but in town too. We felt like we were welcomed friends, and not just guests.

On our way out, we stopped to see how Izzy would like swimming in the lake. She liked it, but she didn't love it. Too cold! haha!

Colorado Trip

Here's the best pix of the 3 of us. This was Saturday about 7pm at Keystone. We had a GREAT time. Brady and his friend Jake really liked riding at Keystone the best. The boys and I started at Breckenridge on Wed. The weather was sunny and warm, by skiing standards. The first ride up the mountain was "WOW"They stayed with me most of the day. "Breck" has 4 mountain tops to ski and Brady and Jake went to all of them. Around 1pm the first day I found the "watering hole" and waited for them by 2pm they were tired and ready to go. That night I picked up Brian from the Denver airport and he was taking lessons for the first time on Thursday at Breck. He had tried snowboarding before but since I was a skier I was hoping he could learn and boy did he. When I saw him at lunch he already looked bushed. He was determined to get it. He did. When we skied together the next day I realized he was not afraid of speed or falling. Well. at that point that was the only way he could stop. By the end of that day he tried (with some fear) a blue run...only because that was the only way back to the gondola and the car. We skied 4 day and Kelly was right, you get really worn out. Everyone wants to go back again...anyone want to join us???