eli eli bo belly banana nana fo feli

well... i don't have nearly as many photos as britt, so i'm going to stick to the text. i'll throw out a couple of key words and phrases that remind me of eli, and i'll go from there...

george. a girl dog with a boys name and a literary inspiration. love it. i think of her as a pocket sized kody.

chocolate. i have a feeling i was only aware of about 15-20% of the goodies available at the fortress at any given time. those that did make themselves known to me seems to disappear pretty quickly.

patriot league. in an office overrun by acc jokers, eli was great (if unknowing) conference ally to me and edouard. somehow i don't think she'll align with me on this whole duke thing, though.

pony tail. never seen someone's hair transform into a weapon so quickly as when eli tied it up for a short run. it's the equivalent of the high school kids throwing elbows when running the cross country course.

blue. i'll never forget eli's stories about bill drayton's obsession with the color blue. i have a feeling that with a little red wine, i could tap into an even more colorful supply of ashoka gossip. hopefully she'll keep the lid on the gg stories, though.

wooo hooo. it's become a big part of my online email vocabulary. i believe this was eli's doing. and in a world of catch phrases (fact) and acronyms (imho), that's a big accomplishment.

- and now the transition between from silly goofy stuff to...

vision. when i was headed back to grad school, eli and i talked about what we wanted to do long term while cruising around palo alto during the gpf. we started talking a little bit about our personal strengths. she highlighted herself as someone who could execute on a plan, but was always quick to say, "i don't see myself as the visionary of the group." well eli, i'm not so sure. you certainly transformed the project and partnership side of gg. i don't think i'm alone when i point to the dozens of world class partners posting hundreds of amazing projects. and to think - we're not even paying them to do this! they did that on faith that globalgiving was going to be something big. your vision, combined with systematic and thoughtful improvements in the way that gg's sources projects has been the difference. you were exactly the person that gg needed - you took a problem, articulated a world where that problem would be solved, and worked like crazy to get us to that point. along the way, you inspired the fortress... and a couple fortress wannabes (ahem) to boot.

i have no doubt this is why the maine women's foundation hired you, and i have every expectation that you'll bring the same leadership and vision to that challenge...

ok ok. enough. sorry i can't be there for all the goodbye festivities, but have an awesome awesome time and start contributing to the globalgiving alumni blog. :)