Eric, I'm sorry I didn't know...

Having a brother-in-law in the USAF - you would think I would have known this...but I didn't. Now, I know and so do the corps members here in Milwaukee.

During the month of November, I unfortunately only spent about 1 full week in Milwaukee due to travel for work, family, and the holiday - so a good portion of my "Milwaukee time" was spent at the General Mitchell International Airport. I was flying to places like the San Antonio International Airport and the Kansas City International Airport which made me question why Milwaukee was trumped by this General Mitchell guy when it came time to name its airport.

General William "Billy" Mitchell grew up in Milwaukee during the late 19^th century as the son of a Wisconsin Senator and enlisted in the Army at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898. While he did take a break from his education through the end of World War I, Mitchell ultimately completed his college degree at Columbian University (now George Washington University). He was first introduced to aeronautics during his appointment with the U.S. General Staff, but he was told that he was too old to be a pilot. Forecasting that airpower would be the future of the military, Mitchell used his own personal funds and time to take lessons at a civilian school and then went to France to observe their airpower. Mitchell was eventually licensed as U.S. Army pilot and made a name for himself by advocating for better air tactics like he had seen in France as well as a separate air force like the one in Britain. While the end of Mitchell's career in the military is still debated - a heavily publicized court-martial due to Mitchell's critiques of his commanding officers' decision, Mitchell is still known today as the "Father of the Air Force" for his unceasing promotion of a separate branch in the U.S. military. Mitchell, unfortunately, passed away 11 years before the birth of the U.S. Air Force in 1947.

Some biographers have noted that the posthumous honors General Mitchell has received, including being our airport's namesake, is not just his service to our country, but because of his ability to intelligently forecast the future, and his willingness to sacrifice his career for his beliefs.

cream city...

My legal name is not Mitzi. Since birth, I have responded to my nickname and only respond to my legal name when it is legally necessary. It is probably because of my nickname-ness that I'm interested in the various nicknames that are attached to Milwaukee. Most of them make sense to me about their origins - and one in particular, "Cream City", seemed pretty self-explanatory until I decided to do some research.

I foolishly assumed "Cream City" had something to do with being a big city in Wisconsin which is often referred to as "The Dairy State", "Americas Dairyland", or "The Cheese State". After all, the number of comments made about required custard and cheese curd consumption from my non-Wisconsin friends would lead one (or maybe just me) to believe this. Upon further research however, Milwaukee's "Cream City" title came from the cream-colored bricks that make up many of the buildings in the city. The bricks were made from the local red clay that had high amounts of lime and sulfur and when fired became a cream color (aha!). They are known for being durable - structures are still standing after 125 years. Back in the 1860s, the Milwaukee Cream Citys, a club in the National Baseball League, took on the city's nickname. The Cream Citys did not exactly have the durability of the namesake brick - the team lasted about 16 years before dissolving.

Unfortunately, the brilliance of "Cream City" has deteriorated throughout the years since the porous bricks have absorbed dirt and other city pollutants. If you want to see the natural cream color beauty - the bricks of Trimborn Farm (in Glendale) have been cleaned and preserved to still show the original color.

So there's a little Milwaukee nickname history for you - and for those of you wondering about my own nickname, I will tell you one thing - it has nothing to do with bricks or baseball.

Milwaukee...According To Mitzi...

My colleagues here in Milwaukee have asked me to submit a weekly "Milwaukee...According To Mitzi" column that will be sent in the Wisconsin Avenue Chronicle to the corps members here in Milwaukee.

Here's this week's:

Walk Signals
Before I moved to Milwaukee officially on August 1, I had spent only 8 hours total in the city. During the 5^th hour – I signed my lease on my apartment and the other time was spent on a walking tour of my new neighborhood and a celebratory lunch with friends. So needless to say – I don’t know that much about Milwaukee and so I hope to bring my discoveries (little and big) of this city to you through this weekly column.

It may be weird, but I’m going to say it – the first “city feature” that impressed me the most about Milwaukee is the walk signal. Have you ever noticed that the walk signal flashes on a few seconds before the traffic light turns green? I cannot lie – I’ve done my fair share of jay-walking or walking against the light or running while the orange “don’t walk” hand is flashing, but all in all I try my best to not die while living the life a pedestrian and walk with the walk signal. So when I saw the walk signal flash on before drivers could technically lift up on their break pedal – I thought it was maybe just a glitch in the wiring. However, it kept happening at different intersections and the more I think about this tiny extra amount of time pedestrians get before right- or left-hand turns commence – it seems incredibly smart.

So thank you – City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works – for the extra crossing time, but just so you know I’m still going to look both ways.

make a little birdhouse in your soul...

For some reason the above lyrics from a song by They Might Be Giants came into my head this evening...I know I've thought about the song before - but here by myself, I tend to start think about things in a more philosophical sense...probably more so than anybody really should.

My current take on the lyrics is to let your soul be open (as birdhouse is). I know - pretty deep stuff. But then look at a birdhouse...humans put it up and then some bird claims it in the spring time...and then has to line w/ twigs, leaves, or whatever they line it with...and then they live there, laying and hatching little baby birds...and the and they just take off - no attachment to the house whatsoever...leaving the twigs, leaves, and who knows what behind.

In all honesty - I don't know where I'm going with this...but given recent events in my life - that one line of lyrics seems to make sense. Right now I feel like I just have a lot of twigs, leaves, and who knows what inside me and I think it's time to clean house to make another little birdhouse in my soul.

I'm sure folks with They Might Be Giants are shaking their heads at this post...and I should probably get out more.

July 3rd.

If you haven't heard Jerry Seinfeld's bit on the expiration date for milk - then the title of this post will mean nothing to you...but for those of you who have, I hope you 1) get it and 2) thank me for reminding you of this oh, so important date.

In other news - Le Tour de France starts to day...and yes, I am routing for Lance amid all of his life troubles - I just can't turn my back on him and his cycling talent. I'm a little bummed though because while I'm here at institute I do get some cable channels - but no Versus. So it will be the online live updates for me this tour... Go LANCE!!!!

As mentioned - I'm at institute and well, institute is the reason that I'm actually posting to this blog (shout out to the lovely and talented 2010 OCs!!). Institute kicked off w/ 4 straight 7-day weeks of work for me until last weekend when I had my first day off since Memorial Day. Looking back, it seems like a blur - but amid that blur we built an institute and welcomed 575 brand new teachers who have now completed their first week of teaching (P.S. don't ask me about anything that happened outside of the 5 mile radius surrounding the Illinois Institute of Technology - because I won't have a clue!)

Right now I'm battling this want to have institute end asap and not wanting it to ever end because 3 days after I move out of institute - I'm moving to Milwaukee. And while I know in my heart, mind, and gut that moving to MKE is the best thing for me to do in my life right now - it is hard to think about leaving the city I started my "life" in and the people that have been a huge part of me becoming "me" these past four years. However, this is what life is and if there is anything I have learned in my past4 years here in Chicago is that nothing is permanent except for my faith, my family, and my friends (yeah, definitely not linking that considering I don't have a picture of ALL of my friends and me)- and those are the 3 things that matter to me the most.

My faith will always be with me wherever I go, my family while there maybe some distance between us - they know I'll always jump in my car or on a plane to come and see them, and my friends - well, it may be a facebook post, e-mail, or phone call...but I know we are always connected no matter where we go or live.

Hopefully it won't be another 5 months before I post again...

GO LANCE!

~mitzi

P.S. OCs - this is for you:

Procrastination

After getting a bunch of pictures from the holidays, I decided to make this to keep me from doing work...washing dishes...cleaning my apartment...doing laundry...etc.

26 and rolling...

You know you missed me.

After seeing that the Büschelmännerhaus had posted 3 times in the past week, I realized that it was time to update the old blog. Lots of thing have happened since my last post, but I'll try to keep this short and focus on the highlights - and what the heck, I'll just skip forward to January 2010.

I got back from spending the holidays in Kansas and then jetted off to San Francisco to see my friend and former teammate, Ashley, who is in law school at Stanford. It was a quick trip, but it was just what I needed to get refreshed after being back at work for only 4 days. It was my first time in the Bay Area and I have to say, I loved seeing the Golden Gate Bridge...there's something about seeing landmarks in person that you have seen millions of times in pictures. We also visited Alcatraz and ate plenty of good food - including the West Coast trend: frozen yogurt. I didn't know that TCBY could be out done.

After getting back from San Fran - it was back to work. As my family knows, this is the "busy time"...and well, it lasts until August where I'll have my four weeks off...so I know it is worth it. In the past month and a half, I have schedule nearly 200 interviews to select the staff that will training the 550 new corps members at the Chicago institute. This year, certainly went much better than last year - so I do feel good about that!

In late January, I was in Tulsa for a quick team retreat - it was nice to get away from the Chicago winter for 48 hours....but then I headed back to Chicago and then to Madison for my 26th birthday. It was a great day - including free Einstein's bagels, balloons picked out by my nieces, pumpkin cheesecake, ice skating, BWWs, and a great KU basketball victory.

My boss gave birth to the newest member of the Chicago institute management team on Groundhog Day - so I (we) have been without an official boss...and will be so for the next couple of weeks. It has certainly been a test for our team - to make sure we are getting things done and holding each other accountable as we continue to shape what this year's Chicago institute will look like. It's been a learning experience and I will definitely be glad when my boss gets back!

My team getting ready for our first conference in Houston - our boss sent us a cookie bouquet!
L-R: Abigail, me, Demi, Nikki, and MaryAnn

I was able to spend a weekend in Madison and take part in the 4 annual Feuerzangenbowle there as well as have a girls (and boy) night w/ the Reddig kids as their parents headed off to winter ball. I'm currently considering a switch in careers having done a decent job with Katie's hair.

Aren't they cute?

I was then off to Houston for the first training conference for our institute staff...it was the first time we would meet the leaders of our institute - and it was a success! Looks like we are in the right place for a great summer, but there's a bunch of work that has to get done between now and my vacation in August!

Our institute's motto

This is how I decorated our tables - the "table tents" have our institute's goals listed on them...
and a shout out to the Madison party store that still had 2010 confetti!

The 2010 Chicago institute leadership team
aka my family during the months of June and July!