Thursday, November 15, 2007

My Pilgrimage

Below, I have included the email I wrote to my team explaining why I will be out of the office next week. I have officially lost my mind; this is my secular religion:
--

Team,

A simple "Sirene: OOO" in the subject line is not sufficient enough
for why I will be out of the office Mon-Wed next week.

Some of you have Christmas, others have Diwali, some may even
celebrate Darwin's Day. I have one holiday as well, and it falls on
the third Saturday of every November. As with other holidays, there
is a lot of preparation that goes into this day. There are songs that
are sung leading up to this festive day. This may be why you have seen me clapping, jumping, and beaming from ear to ear at my desk with headphones on this past week. I am anxiously awaiting my favorite day of the year where tradition is ingrained in every second and the believers bow to the South part of the city. As with other religions, it brings people together, but also helps you distinguish yourself from the "others."

This Saturday, November 17th, 2007, I will be landing in Detroit at 5
a.m. and driving to Ann Arbor, MI for the game of epic proportions.
Hailed by ESPN as the #1 rivalry of all time, I will be taking a seat
in the Big House, the biggest stadium in the United States, and will
be watching the Michigan Wolverines take on the far inferior team to
the south with the largest crowd watching a football game this season.

During my pilgrimage, I ask that you keep me in your thoughts, and
whether you hail from Stanford, Harvard, UCLA, Northwestern, Penn,
Cal, Columbia, or other fine institutions all around the world, I ask
you to bleed maize n blue with me this Saturday.

I will be back November 26th bearing gifts from the motherland, and I only hope that I can convert you to Wolverine-hood, if only for one day.