A status update that requires explanation

Facebook asks: “What’s on your mind?”

Here is one status update that requires explanation, a bit more than what I might usually devote to a Facebook post.

The update basically has to do with the fact that I’m writing this in South Bend, Ind., preparing to return to Durham, N.H., in a couple of days.

This will be a pattern that will repeat itself in the years ahead because my wife, Jane Murphy, has started a job as the director of communications for the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, located in South Bend.

I’ll divide my time between South Bend and the home we’ll keep in New Hampshire, where my post-retirement working life is based.

This is both a challenge and an adventure for us.

A big part of the challenge is logistical. The most inexpensive way to travel to and fro is through Chicago. So, my trip home, for example, will involve a commuter train ride from South Bend to downtown Chicago, a subway ride from downtown to the airport, a plane ride from the airport to Manchester, N.H., and a bus ride from Manchester to Portsmouth.

And, yes, there is an emotional challenge. Jane and I aren’t accustomed to being apart for long periods of time. But challenges are part of any adventure, and for a routine-oriented Baby Boomer like myself, the notion of adventure is a good thing.

It requires forward thinking, not just living in the moment, which many of us can get trapped into doing. I think about what we can do,where we can go now that part of our lives will be centered in the middle of the country.

To understand why Jane would take a job that takes her away from her kids and grandkids you have to understand Jane. I often tease that she has three priorities in life - Notre Dame, Bruce Springsteen, and family ... though not necessarily in that order (sometimes Springsteen trumps Notre Dame).

She graduated from Notre Dame in 1983 and is a devoted alum. To be offered a job at Notre Dame and to be offered a job as director of communications for one of its prestigious colleges is a dream come true.

And there wasn’t a long-term future at the newspaper where she has worked for many years. For Jane, looking ahead 10 years down the road at the future of Notre  Dame is a heck of a lot brighter than looking ahead 10 years at the future of newspapers.

Jane and I over the years have shared a friendly rivalry over our respective college hockey teams -- her Notre Dame Fighting Irish and my University of New Hampshire Wildcats. That’ll play a little more intensely now that they are members of Hockey East and as I proudly walk the ND campus wearing my UNH cap.

Change can bring threats and opportunities. With this change of status, we’re focused on the opportunities.

Another year of wait until next year

I put my UNH Hockey ball cap away on Monday, and replaced it with my Red Sox cap.

It’s what I do as I transition from one season to the next.

One of these days I hope to wear my hockey cap into April. That would mean that the University of New Hampshire Wildcats were playing in the NCAA Frozen Four.

The Frozen Four final is played in April -- this year in St. Paul, Minnesota, next year in Tampa, Fla.

But it wasn’t meant to be this year. As it wasn’t meant to be last year. As it wasn’t meant to be the year before that. And before that. And … well, you get the idea.

Forget what poet T.S. Eliot said about April being the cruelest month. He wasn’t a UNH hockey fun. Or a resident of northern New England, for that matter.

March tends to be cruel to UNH hockey.

It had led the Hockey East pretty much all season, but lost the regular league championship in the last two games of the season to Boston College. Then in the league tournament quarterfinals at the Boston Garden it lost to Merrimack College.

Welcome to March.

But the stars were beginning to align as the bracket for the NCAA tournament started to emerge.

We were going to be playing in the NCAA quarterfinals at the Verizon Center in Manchester, N.H. Also in the draw there were nemesis Merrimack, past nemesis Miami of Ohio, and Notre Dame, my wife Jane’s alma mater.

UNH would play Miami/Ohio in the first quarter final game; Notre Dame would play Merrimack in the second quarterfinal game on Saturday. The winners would play each other on Sunday, and that winner would go on to the Frozen Four.

The weekend meant that I got to walk around in my UNH hockey gear with my wife who walked around in her Notre Dame gear.

We filled out our hockey tournament brackets: mine with UNH as the national champ; hers with Notre Dame as the national champ. She wrote a column for her newspaper about how the weekend would test our marriage.

Indeed.

UNH beat Miami/Ohio. Notre Dame beat Merrimack. Which meant UNH played Notre Dame on Sunday for the right to play in St. Paul next week.

UNH lost. Notre Dame won. I lost. Jane won. Yes, we’re still married. Through thick and thin, wins and losses.

Sure, as March turns to April, I’ll root for Notre Dame next week when the Irish play Minnesota/Duluth in one national semifinal game. North Dakota and Michigan play in the other semifinal. And sure, I’ll root for ND if they make it into the national final on Sunday the 9th.

But my heart won’t be in it.

I’ll be thinking about next year. I’ll be looking forward to when UNH takes to the ice again.

I’m ever hopeful. I’m a Red Sox fan, after all.