troy austian | blog

Going to Argentina

I'm on my way to Argentina for an International Transformation Network Global Summit. We'll be flying into Buenos Aires, but spending most of our time in Mar del Plata, which is farther south. The weather will actually be similar to Minnesota while we're there, except that the seasons are opposite (because it's in the southern hemisphere). It's fall in Minnesota, but spring in Argentina.

I've not been to Argentina before, so I'm really excited about the opportunity to be there...and maybe use a little of my very rusty Spanish skills. I'm really looking forward to the conference and to meeting leaders from all over the world who are impacting nations. We'll be doing a presentation and a breakout session ourselves, which should be fun as well. More to come!

Listen to My Blog

I just added the Odiogo voice reader to my blog.  Just click the "listen now" icon under the title to listen to any of my posts...and let me know what you think.  One practical benefit of this is that you can subscribe to the audio feed with iTunes as well as Juice and quite a number of web readers, so you can easily get the audio version on your iPod so you can listen to it on the go.  If you like, you can also download audio versions of individual blog posts in MP3 format for your computer or MP3 player.  (Note that it's a computer voice, not mine, which is kinda weird while kinda cool.  Also, it's newly added, so I don't know if it'll be all or only the most recently of my blog posts that'll be available with Odiogo.)  Try it out and let me know what you think.

High School Alumni Reunion Weekend Pictures

I've uploaded a few pictures taken over the course of my high school alumni reunion last weekend in Springfield, IL. I was mostly occupied with seeing everyone, visiting, and catching up, and so, unfortunately, I didn't really get very many pictures. I was glad to get these, though. These pics are of alumni my age, older, and younger, and other friends.  Click HERE to check 'em out.

High School Alumni Reunion Weekend

I'm so glad I made the trip for my high school alumni reunion!!  Even though I had to pass through Iowa...twice...it was absolutely worth it.  Planning for the fact that there would be no Starbucks along my path through Iowa, I drove through Starbucks on my way out of Springfield, IL, and got two Espresso Macchiato Doppios to help me on my journey home.

It was really a lot of fun to see friends that I hadn't seen in years!  Some of them looked almost the same, and some, well...  We're all a few years older!  And no one could bluff on their age with this crew.  While there were several people that didn't make it that I would have loved to see, there were many old friends there that it was so awesome to get to see.  I wouldn't have wanted to miss it!

It's amazing the power of shared experiences.  When you have enough common ground, even if it left off years ago, it's like you still have a door into each other's lives...to pick up where you left off, catch up on what has happened in your lives, and go from there.  What a cool and wonderful thing to have friends like that.  I reconnected with a number of friends like that, and I look forward to keeping in touch.  (Do you guys hear that??  Let's keep in touch!)

Outside of the reunion events and church services, I was able to spend most of my free time with friends and their families, with Mark Johnson, and seeing others I knew from school and from my church there.  It was a blast!  What a great weekend.

Iowa in Passing

I left yesterday and drove south into Iowa and to my friend's house in Mason City.  It was great to see him and meet his wife and three kids.  We had dinner, a great visit, talked about all kinds of stuff, and stayed up too late...all the stuff of a good visit.  And my friend just happens to be a really good cook -- the home cooked dinner was great!  We grabbed some breakfast this morning and then I hit the road to head on to Springfield, IL, for my high school alumni reunion.

Now I like to make fun of Iowa from time to time, but, honestly, the jokes really aren't that funny.  It's mostly just fun to give my friends from Iowa a hard time.  Plus, Iowa does raise a lot of cows, corn, and soybeans, so ya gotta give 'em that.  Here's what I found really concerned me, though... I drove a whole lot of miles through Iowa and I never saw a Starbucks...not one.  I wanted one...I needed one...I hoped for one...but ultimately I had to get my caffeine another way.  I managed, but it was rough.

I kept my doors locked and windows rolled up until I finally made it through Iowa.  It was still a ways through Illinois until I reached Springfield, but I'm here, getting settled, and really looking forward to the festivities that start tonight.

Going to My High School Alumni Reunion

So I'm going to my high school alumni reunion this weekend...  It's in Springfield, IL, and I'll be heading out this afternoon.  I'll be going through Iowa and staying the night with a friend of mine that I recently reconnected with on Facebook -- it'll be cool to see him again, catch up, and get to know his family.  Then on to Springfield, IL, the "Land of Lincoln"...Abraham Lincoln...the 16th President of the United States...the guy on the penny for all you Miss Teen USA contestants.  (Did you see that video?  A friend showed it to me, and it's painfully funny.  Poor girl...and kind of a tough question.)  Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing lots of old friends from high school and people from the church I attended there, including Mark Johnson, who's a good friend, mentor, and pastor there.  This will be the first alumni reunion I've ever gone to, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Valley Fair

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening at Valley Fair.  We had a ball.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and we got to ride all the rides we wanted to...some several times.  My favorite ride there is still Steel Venom, but I've got to say that the new wooden roller coaster, Renegade, is a blast...fast with lots of tight curves.  We also really had fun (and got wet) on the ride called Riptide -- it's more fun than it looks, whips you upside down and such, and its line was really short so we rode it several times.  And of course we also hit rides like Power Tower, Extreme Swing, Wild Thing, and others.  It was a really nice, fun day, and a great day to be outside.