trip tidbits

Rather than bore you with a travelogue of our trip to Glorieta, here are some of my observations/tidbits from the week:

• Yet again, the Sit 'n Stroll proves it is completely awesome. I don't think we could have made our connections if we had to wait for a gate-checked stroller. We used it instead of a high chair in the dining hall.
  
• The Kia Forte is not a bad little car.
• Staybridge Suites is fantastic.
• DirectTV on Frontier is awesome, especially when traveling with a toddler. They also let us pre-board. Too bad they are going bankrupt.
  
• New Mexico is still a long way from Nashville, but it is still incredibly beautiful.
  
• Altitude sickness is the worst on the fourth day. Either that, or I quit drinking as much water later in the week.
• The Flying Star Cafe is a great family-friendly place to eat in Santa Fe. We ate there twice.
  
• Adam is a pretty good little traveler.
• If the Glorieta Conference Center folks knew how much Adam ate, they would have charged us for his meals.
• I still didn't see if there is actually anything to the town of Glorieta. The roads are not paved, and we didn't have a four-wheel drive.
• There is a Trader Joe's in Santa Fe!
• Fernando Ortega is great performer in addition to being a really nice guy.
• I take a fast internet connection for granted.
• If you have a choice, I would advise against waking an 18-month-old at 4:30 am to catch a 6:00 am flight.
  

The power of the "in joke"

I don't pretend that this blog is a bastion of marketing and business knowledge, nor do I pretend to be an expert in the field, but I have noticed something quite a few times recently.

Today, I'm working my way through my teriyaki chicken bowl, listening to our about-to-be released new children's musical Parableooza. Gail and Jimmy Getzen have knocked another one out of the park with an approachable, engaging theme and music that will connect kids with the Word.

The conceit of the musical is a game show based on the Parables. Of course, every game show has contestants, so it wasn't unexpected to hear the announcer say something to the effect of "let's introduce our contestants..." but what followed almost made rice come out my nose. The boy's name is the same as the project leader's husband, and the girl's name is the same as one of our project coordinators.

This is probably the most "in" that an "in joke" could possibly be... the only ones that will get it are people who know both names. I just happen to be in both of their "friend networks," so I get it. The thing that surprised me was my reaction. I had an almost visceral response... surprise, excitement, disbelief, acknowledgement, and attention... ultimately attention that superseded the next bite of my lunch. And then, the next step, wanting to share the "in joke" - a first step in the guerilla marketing of a product.

Microsoft did this in their Gates and Seinfeld commercials. Although critically panned, they were almost universally talked about and deconstructed, from just noticing Bill's mugshot from an early arrest on his shoe store member card to a deconstruction of symbology for every element. The point is that no matter what people thought of them, whether they benefitted Windows, Microsoft, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Apple or had no effect on sales whatsoever, people were talking about them, and it raised awareness of a product and a brand.

Parabaleooza and Microsoft are about as opposite ends of the spectrum as possible, but both managed to cut through my new dad, super-busy site-launching church-resourcing, near-deacon, facebook-obsessed life and connect with me long enough to want to blog about it.