November Highlights:
- Trip to Miami to see cousin Mario and Lindsay get married
- Celebrate the life of a great man gone too soon
- Luke leads his team to convincing victory in last game of the season (their only win but sweetly savored)
- Thankful to celebrate another Thanksgiving together
- Kickoff the 2016 season at Mammoth over the Thanksgiving break
Bomario 2015
These days all the “cool couples” have websites to promote their wedding and provide valuable info — a calendar of events, registry information, directions, etc. My cousin Mario and his wife, Linsday, even had a nice moniker created for their site, Bomario, a play on Lindsay’s last name and Mario’s first name. Going to this wedding was cool on many levels. I remember that when Cat and I were in our 20s there was a stretch of time where we seemed to have multiple weddings to attend every year. But then, time passes and the you go through what seems like an eternity before you attend another nuptial again, making it that much more special when you do receive another invite. Obviously, if it’s a great couple, you look forward to attending the event. And, if the wedding is in a destination like South Beach Miami and you get to fly with some of your favorite travel companions (pops and sis) you jump on the opportunity without so much as a second thought.
Mario’s wedding also happened to coincide with my cousin Julio’s visit to Miami, which means we were able to stay with him at his beachfront condo and catch up on all the shenanigans going on with our extended Chilean family. So yes, many things came together to add a dimension of specialness to the trip that we could not have predicted. Being around the wedding energy and atmosphere also provided us all which a much needed buzz as well. No, not not from drinking, although we did partake in that, but from just being around a happy couple who radiated love and positivity in how they interacted with each other and with their family and friends. It was truly an honor to attend the ceremony and the before and after parties where we imbibed, danced, laughed and engaged in all kinds of fun and silliness, although I did not jump into the pool with Mario and some of the other gents at the outdoor reception — I left that to the young people (who also happened to have a change of clothes).
Tom Adamski Memorial Service
As I mentioned last month, life can throw a lot of things your way in one month. The week after the celebration of my cousin’s wedding I found myself driving out to San Luis Obispo to pay homage to Tom Adamski, a guy I really respected, who was diagnosed with cancer in May of this year and passed away in October. I didn’t know Tom well, but he holds a special place in my heart because when I first joined Semtech one of my first big projects was to completely redesign and re-engineer the company’s website. After a pretty comprehensive selection process we picked Tom’s company, known as Web Associates at the time, for the project. However, before our CEO would give his final sign off on the six figure budget, he requested a conversation with the CEO of Web Associates, Tom, who happened to be around 34 years old. But you would have never known this the way he got on the call and spoke confidently in that rich, warm voice of his, reassuring our CEO that we had indeed made the right choice (here’s a TED talk Tom gave so you can hear his pipes).
Tom was well-versed in the business-speak, but it never seemed phony or rehearsed. He was a genuine guy just three years younger than me, something I would find out later when I met him in person. And although he could play the part, Tom was not just a corporate guy. He had several passions, including his family (3 kids), coaching, surfing, his band and his faith. He also knew how to connect people as he assigned a guy to my account, Ryan, that I am still friends with today. It was Ryan who filled me in on Tom’s diagnosis and what Tom had been up to in his career since the last time I had seen him. What Tom was able to accomplish in business was pretty impressive as he had risen to become the CEO of a multinational creative and interactive agency known as Razorfish. During the memorial service, one of Tom’s business colleagues, remarked that when Tom was hired by the CEO of Publicis Groupe (the parent company for Razorfish), he told Tom “you are too young, you are not ready, but I guess we have no choice.” It was one of those lines that got everyone at the service laughing. It was also a line that rang true to me as well (especially the last part) as all you had to do was listen to him or watch the way he carried himself to know that he was the right choice for practically any endeavor.
The service was by far the best memorial I have ever attended. All of Tom’s kids went up to speak (keep in mind they are all 12 and under). They weren’t all able to finish what they wanted to say, but just the fact that they even made the attempt spoke volumes about their character and the upbringing from their parents. The kids made us laugh and they made us cry. Tom’s friends, mom, business colleagues and pastor all shed light on his character and life as well, and also took us on an emotional rollercoaster of laughter and tears (I’ve never wiped my face so many times in one sitting). Then, in closing, Tom’s band performed two touching songs from U2, which couldn’t have been a better tribute to him as it made me recall a speech he had made at an event I attended many years ago. In his talk, Tom weaved in the story of U2 to illustrate how he felt about friendship. He said that yes, U2 was a band, and yes U2 was a worldwide brand, and yes U2 was a multimillion dollar business, but, most importantly, U2 was a friendship that, at the time, had been going strong for more than 25 years. That’s what Tom thought was truly special — the connection, the friendship, and the camaraderie you develop with people through the course of years and decades. Tom was truly a special guy himself and I will be forever thankful to have met him.
If you are touched by Tom’s story I encourage you to donate to the TA Foundation (which stands for the Tom Adamski foundation). Tom’s best friend Ryan set this up with help from Tom’s son Shane, who also designed the logo. The TA Foundation provides design and technology scholarships to inspire future innovators. Here is the link:
The experiences of these last few weeks have left me wanting to reach out and hug you all. Even if I have not seen you in years, know that I am thankful for your friendship and wish you the best always. For now, I leave you with the closing song from Tom’s memorial service:
That’s all for now. More next month…