Wakechick's MBA Adventures

Better late than never 2006 year in review

2007-01-30T22:19:00.000-06:00

"Framework" is a big buzzword at the Chicago GSB these days, what with interviewing in full swing for the first years. (Boy, I do NOT miss the days of recruiting!!!) So in the spirit of b-schoolers' love of frameworks, I'll use my sub-header as a framework for taking a look back at the past year or so.

I'm just a girl...

Yep, that still applies :) Woman, chick, female, lady, broad...yeah, that's me.

seeking an MBA...

At this point I'm about 3/4 of the way done with my MBA and it has flown by. It's been a fun ride and I have no regrets about going back to school full time. I can't say I have loved every class I've taken, but I've learned something from each professor, study group, and class discussion. The most enjoyable have been hypothetically starting/running a new business in "Building the New Venture" taught by Waverly Deutsch, and putting together a business plan for Goodwill of Chicago in "New Venture Lab" taught by Linda Darragh. Entrepreneurship hadn't been on my radar before business school, but it is a new curiosity and interest of mine. Not sure how that might influence my future career decisions, but let's just say seeds have been planted and it has changed the way I think about business strategy. Enough about the classes though, because the people of the GSB have truly been the highlight of my experience here. I've never been surrounded by such a large, diverse group of really cool fun people. Whether it's traveling to Costa Rica and learning to surf, sitting at a bar and watching football, or just hanging out in the Winter Garden, I've really enjoyed spending time with my classmates and I've made some lifelong friends.

the perfect job...

Ah, recruiting. The agony and the ecstasy (more of the former than the latter, unfortunately). Figuring out what you really and truly want to do is hard enough, without the added pressure of the on-campus recruiting process. To be sure, the process is unpleasant, but the career services staff at the GSB and my fellow classmates could not have been more supportive. And nothing feels better than signing that offer letter at the end of it all. My initial plan didn't exactly pan out (marketing in a sports-related company), but I'm OK with that. I have a better understanding of myself and the opportunities available and I now realize it's not a great fit. In my life, I've found that figuring out what you DON'T want to do is just as important as figuring out what you do want to do. I tried something different over the summer, a job that was much more qualitative than anything I've ever done, in an industry in which I had zero experience. I had a blast, but at the end of the day I realized that the company wasn't a great fit for me. My revelation: it doesn't matter how glamorous or fun the product I'm marketing is. I can market ANYTHING as long as I'm part of an organization that is committed to employee development, continuous improvement, and doing the right thing...for its customers, for its employees, for its stockholders, and for its community. That's why I'm delighted to be headed back to the world of financial services when I join American Express after I graduate. It is a PERFECT fit.

love & happiness....

This is the goal I would have said I was least likely to achieve a year ago. Sure, I was pretty happy early in the year, things in my life were coming together. But I scoffed a bit at the idea of finding love. Then came the family meltdown in April 2006 when my parents split up. People unfamiliar with divorce will say things like, "Well at least you're an adult, that must make it easier." BULLS**T! That comment bugs the crap out of me because it is entirely untrue. Divorce sucks. Period. No matter how old you are. At 29 years old, my lifelong model for love and marriage is toast. Everything changes...how I communicate with my parents, how we celebrate holidays, heck even how I have to plan graduation weekend. I haven't talked about this much because it's very personal, and my parents read this (hi mom, hi dad), so it's just plain hard to get into. Luckily I have very supportive friends, some of whom have been through divorce themselves, as children and as adults. I'm getting through it and I'm not letting it weigh down my emotions anymore. It is what it is, and I can't do anything about it except try to live my best life. One of my initial reactions was to completely write off the idea of love and swear I would never marry. And sure enough, a few months later, Cupid went and shot me in the rear! I have no idea how it happened, it just did. A guy I had been friends with since the beginning of school suddenly turned into something more, a lot more. It completely took me by surprise and it has been the most wonderful surprise of my life. I love him, and my friends and family love him. And for the first time in my life, I'm ready to move in with someone, I'm ready to think about the long term. Early on, I described it to a friend as "scary fantastic" and now it's just...fantastic. I can't wait to share my NYC adventure and the next chapters of my life with him.

early retirement....

Well, considering I'm seriously in the hole after financing this MBA thing, and I'm moving to one of the most expensive places to live in the country....this goal is still TBD.

And world peace, of course.

This was a long shot. Still is. More Golden Rule, fewer bombs, and maybe we'll get there in my lifetime.

The best argument AGAINST a playoff for college football

2007-01-04T01:13:00.000-06:00

I loved the craziness of the Fiesta Bowl as much as any true football fan, but I have to say I agree with Chuck Klosterman: just say no to a college football playoff.

Oh, and happy 2007! I'm sure I will be the last blogger on earth to do a "reflections on 2006" post, but I promise I'll get around to it sooner or later.

New GSB Blog

2006-12-21T11:35:00.000-06:00

I'm a co-chair on the Dean's Student Admissions Committee and today we've launched a blog. (Disclaimer: This is blatant self promotion. I set the thing up.) It is completely student run/published. The co-chairs are hoping this new resource provides additional insight for prospective GSBers into the application process and what it's like to be a student at the GSB. Feel free to send me feedback; this is a work in progress and I would appreciate the input!

Check it out: Chicago GSB DSAC Blog

New Look

2006-12-20T15:40:00.000-06:00

Pretty bad that I haven't been to Blogger in so long that I'm just now upgrading to the newest version. In honor of that, I decided to give the blog a little makeover. We'll see if I like it enough to keep it.

Fall quarter is over and I'm looking forward to my winter classes. Finals ended on Dec 8th, and ski trip in Steamboat Spring started Dec 11th. I wish I could say I had a blast shredding the mountain on my board. I did have fun, but I did not shred. No, I'm the idiot who hurts herself BEFORE the ski trip. I slipped on some sidewalk ice in my neighborhood a couple of days before the trip and wrenched my knee pretty bad. Thankfully, I did not re-tear my ACL that I had reconstructed 3 years ago (injured wakeboarding, of course). But I had to take it easy, so I cashed in my lift ticket for some spa treatments, read books and watched movies. We did have other injuries on the trip: a broken wrist, a dislocated shoulder, and a possibly torn ACL (these were in addition to my pre-trip injury). Everybody was in good spirits and had a good time, despite the injury bug.

I'm laying low until the boyfriend and I fly to Seattle on Christmas Eve for some family time. It's nice to catch up on Tivo'd shows, surf the web, update the blog, and generally be lazy. I did make a big decision recently though: I sent off my signed offer letter to American Express and I will be joining them in NYC after graduation. Let the good times roll :)

I'm in a New York state of mind

2006-11-20T20:13:00.000-06:00

I'm back in NYC for a recruiting trip. Back? you say. Yes, this is trip #3 of 3 trips to NYC for second round interviews. All in the past 8 days. I'm tired. The first trip was a bust, the second trip resulted in an offer (a great one I'm really excited about), and this last one is a two-for-one with one interview today and one tomorrow. After that I have just one more second round interview in Chicago after the holiday and then I will be DONE. It feels so good to say that. I had some time this afternoon to enjoy the city, which is nice because before all this started, I had only spent a single day here. I walked, I shopped, I ate, I walked some more. It was fantastic. This is such a great city, and I'm beginning to see myself here after graduation. Which is weird for me since I started b-school assuming I'd move closer to home if anything, whereas now I feel I'm being drawn back to the east coast. Except it's not weird, because I'm completely excited by the prospect of a new adventure in a new city. Actually, I probably won't end up following the gameplan I laid out for myself at the start of b-school AT ALL, but it works for me because I'm a firm believer that your gameplan should never be so rigid that you can't allow yourself to take risks and open the door when opportunity knocks.

Classes are a total afterthought for me right now, and I'm not proud of that, but with this recruiting stuff, you just have to do what it takes to get through it and hope you come out OK. I get back to Chicago Tuesday night, have class on Wednesday, then head to Seattle for turkey day Thursday morning. It will be interesting, this being the first big holiday since my parents split up. I haven't been home for Thanksgiving since undergrad, but I felt like I needed to go home this year, for my family and for myself. I'd rather this be our initiation into "Holidays, Divorced Style" than Christmas. So it goes.

Don't let that last paragraph fool you. I'm still dealing with the divorce, but on the whole, things are pretty groovy in wakechick-land. I have a new offer, I still have my offer from the summer, and I'm going to Steamboat after finals to play in the pow-pow. Oh, and did I mention I have a new boyfriend and I'm absolutely crazy about him?

We're #1

2006-10-12T16:41:00.000-05:00

So Business Week just announced that Chicago GSB is their new top dog. Whispers had been circulating this week that it might happen, and now the Hyde Park Center is atwitter with the latest accolade.

This weekend's Fall Preview for prospective GSBers should be fun.

And good luck to Round 1 applicants who are finishing up their applications this weekend in time for the Oct 18th deadline!

Snow in October?

2006-10-12T11:48:00.000-05:00

Yep, its snowing here in Chicago as I type. On October 12th. Awesome.

Another strange thing I've seen here recently: A couple weeks ago it stormed really hard. Torrential rain, heavy winds, lots of lightening. Tons of trees went down, in fact they are still clearing the debris out of Hyde Park. So anyway, I was driving down Lake Shore Drive to school and noticing that the lake was really churned up, which is typical after a storm. The waves get big enough that your mind is *almost* fooled into thinking its the ocean. I go to exit at 57th street, where there is one of the city beaches, and notice figures bobbing in the water. Surfers. In Lake Michigan. Trying to make the most out of the storm and the "swell" it created. Felt like a scene straight out of the movie "Step Into Liquid." (Great movie, see the trailer here, there are a couple of brief clips from the segment about Great Lakes surfing)

And since I have so much time on my hands (ha--more like, so much desire to procrastinate and put off finishing a paper for tomorrow), I found a trailer for another surf movie on YouTube that is all about Great Lakes surfing:

God, I love YouTube.

On the school front:
Classes are good
Social life is good
Recruiting is good

Theme of the quarter so far: How am I so busy? We are second years, aren't we supposed to be coasting through it by now???

Back from summer hiatus

2006-09-13T12:13:00.000-05:00

I guess I took an unannounced break from blogging, of sorts. Just too much personal stuff going on and too busy to really sort through thoughs and get inspired to post something. I'm really happy that classes resume next week. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my friends regularly and generally enjoying the hell out of my second year of b-school. I'm actually down on campus today to participate in a couple of Career Services panels. Maybe being back in HPC is what inspired me to break the seal on blogging again.

My summer internship at Brunswick was a lot of fun and resulted in an invitation to come back when I graduate. I'm still planning to test the waters with some selective recruiting this fall (when else in my life will employers from all over come to me?), but chances are pretty good I will go back. Boats are cool. Got to drive one of these down the Chicago River:

Took another RV-to-sporting event trip over Labor Day Weekend to see WSU take on Auburn. The outcome wasn't what I had hoped for, but we all had a great time. Talk about tailgating and southern hospitality, those Auburn fans know how to do it right.

Also went home for my 10 year high school reunion....all I can say is, what a trip.

Invasion of privacy

2006-05-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

Remember how a couple of weeks ago McCombs School of Business announced they had been a victim of data theft? Well, today I got an email confirm that MY info had indeed been accessed, including my name, birthdate, SSN, and email address. AWESOME. I put a fraud alert on my credit bureau accounts as soon as the original announcement came out, but I may need to step it up and purchase one of those monitoring services for the next year to make sure no one screws up the perfect credit I've cultivated.

Very tired after a long but fun weekend. Teamed up with 6 other first year GSB women to rent an RV and drive down to Louisville KY for the horse race to end all horse races...the Kentucky Derby. Our RV was one of 14 RVs full of GSBers that made the trip. Not sure who found the lot we stayed in but we were literally right across the street from the main entrance to Churchill Downs. We had a couple of LEAD Facilitators in our group who had class til 5 pm on Friday, plus we had a couple of issues picking up the RV, so we didn't leave town until 7:30ish and rolled into Louisville about 2 am local time. (Yours truly did all the driving, I am officially the RV master.) By that point, everybody had moved from the drinking stage to the passing out stage, so we had like one beer then hit the sack.

We were roused from our beauty sleep around 8 am the next morning by a fellow first year, so started on some bloody marys shortly thereafter. We made our way into CD and to the infield around noon. I can report that the infield is as crazy as people say, and I can't imagine what it is like in the rain & mud. We were near turn 3 and the only race I saw (other than glimpses on the jumbo screen) was the Derby and even that I really only saw horse heads and jockey heads bobbing above for the 2 seconds it took for them to pass our area. Didn't even know the name of the horse that won, just that it was #8. But it was so much fun just to be there in the crowd and the weather was gorgeous. After the race, we went back to our RV, grilled up some burgers, played some Catch Phrase, and continued drinking beer. We also had to defend our RV from drunk guys trying to steal our liquor and drop a deuce in our toilet! We enjoyed the music provided by our neighbors until around midnight when we were all ready to pass out. Little did we know it would continue playing until 5 am, and that after a short two hours of peace, we would wake up to loud banging on our door and a request to move our RV away from the "dump" area. That's what we get for being the last to arrive!

RVing is so much fun. I grew up doing it with my family, so I was pretty excited about giving it a try on my own. Totally going to do the Derby again next year, and I can't wait for another RV trip I've got planned with some fellow Wazzu alums Labor Day weekend for WSU's season opener at Auburn.

Undeserving

2006-04-25T22:40:00.000-05:00

Not sure how I managed to crack the Clear Admit top 10 since I've been totally MIA lately (and I was a loser and didn't even complete a ballot). But to those who voted, thanks for thinking of me. I hope my once-in-a-blue-moon posts put a smile on your face.

It's not that I haven't had time to blog, I'm just lacking a little inspiration and a lot of motivation. School-wise, this quarter has been a piece of cake compared to last quarter...my internship is all lined up, I'm taking 3 classes (instead of the killer 4 last quarter), and my involvement in student group activities is moderate. So why am I so scatterbrained, stressed out, and procrastinating my way to insanity? Well, I have a few friends who are moving, one friend who is dealing with medical issues, and the kicker...my dad has asked my mom for a divorce after nearly 34 years of marriage and 15 years of business partnership and has moved in with a woman with whom he's "just friends."

All I have to say is thank god this didn't happen last quarter or I would be a total basket case. Honestly though, I'm OK, just worried about a lot of other people right now so blogging is pretty low on the priority list. But I am keeping up on my blog reading. It's a great way to escape, so keep up the good work guys and gals :)

Pura vida!

2006-03-26T22:39:00.000-06:00

So last night I got home from my fantastic spring break adventure learning to surf in Costa Rica. What a trip! I need another week to relax before I go back to school, but alas, Chicago GSB only gives us one week. Oh well, at least I don't have class until Wednesday so I have a couple of days to sleep in my own bed, catch up on house chores, buy my books, get back to normal, etc.

I went on the trip with 5 other GSB chicks and we headed down to Dominical, Costa Rica, last Sunday.

Just getting there was quite the trek. We got a cab to O'Hare at 4 am, caught the 6 am flight to Houston and connected through to San Jose, arriving about 2 pm. It was nice because we didn't even change time zones. However, we were still a bumpy 5 hour drive from our final destination of the Green Iguana Surf Camp at Diuwak Hotel in Dominical. It was dark when we arrived so we didn't get to explore too much...we were just happy to be off the road, out of the van, and getting a meal in our bellies.

Day 1 was pretty mellow. Our first surf lesson wasn't until later in the afternoon, so we had time to walk through town, get some breakfast, and go check out a local waterfall before we tried to catch some waves.

The waterfall

The Chicago GSB Ladies Surf Team

At around 2 pm, we met our coaches and headed down to our local beach, Playa Dominical. We first spent some time on the sand going over ocean basics and practicing our pop-ups, then it was time to hit the water and give it a go. I had taken a 2 day surf lesson at Surf Diva a couple years ago when I first moved to San Diego, so I remembered much of the basic info in my head, but my body had forgotten about it. We all took some tumbles, got a bunch of salt water up our noses (which would come out randomly later...hello, surf drip!) but by the end of day one, most of us had at least gotten our feet underneath us a few times and there were a few short but successful actual moments of surfing.

Day 2 was a late afternoon to sunset session at Playa Hermosa, a few miles to the south of Dominical. Gorgeous! The other chicks felt Hermosa got the best of them (bigger, more frequent waves combined with sore bodies), but I felt like I had a pretty good session getting to my feet more consistently and starting to find my balance. Plus, the setting was just too perfect. Beautiful beach, nobody but us on it, no man made structures in sight, surfing right up til sunset. I was pinching myself.

By Day 3, we had nicknamed all of our coaches and some of our fellow surfers...Mowgli, ZZ Top, Kid Rock, Shaggy, The Bod, Handlebars. We hit Playa Ventanas, a few more miles south of Hermosa and so named because of the caves that create windows/ventanas from the beach to the ocean. The waves were even bigger than the day before and I was starting to feel the fatigue, so the day was a bit of a struggle for me and I ended up a little sunburnt. I was glad to get off the beach and into the shade. The great thing about Ventanas is that the access is through private property. The property owners charge for access but that charge includes a refreshing pipa fria to end the day. (Pipa fria = chilled coconut with a straw....yum!)

Day 4 found us back at Ventanas. My usual board was claimed by someone else so I spent most of the time trying to get my bearings on a new board. Same length, but twice as heavy, so my balance was a little off and I felt like I had to paddle a lot more to get into a wave. However, once I got it figured out I got a little brave and went on an adventure to "the outside" (beyond where the waves were breaking). We had just been surfing on the whitewater, but real surfing happens from the outside. I was scared (just a little bit) and didn't actually take off on anything, but it was nice to float out there, see how waves develop, and practice paddling into waves from the outside a bit.

We went back to Playa Hermosa for our 5th and final day of surfing. It was by far my best day, even though my body had pretty much had enough. Because my body was saying uncle, I was climbing up more than popping up...also known as cheating and something you can only get away with in the whitewater, but that's neither here nor there... I was actually riding waves, feeling confident in my balance, going down the line, turning a bit, and generally having a blast! And everybody, ALL 6 OF US, had successfully caught a wave, popped up, and SURFED...what can I say but... GSB women kick ass!

In our rash guards & boardshorts, we look like pros already, don't we? I don't have any pics of us actually surfing yet, we are waiting to develop a waterproof disposable camera and the camp should be sending us the pics they took on our last day sometime soon. I promise to post them when I get them.

All in all, it was a great week. As they say in Costa Rica, "PURA VIDA!" Dominical is a funky little town. Our accommodations were what I would call rustic, but nice, and we did have air conditioning, a pool, great ceviche, and some interesting resident wildlife:

Q, our favorite monkey, right Megha?

The iguana in Green Iguana Surf Camp

It's official

2006-03-01T09:21:00.000-06:00

I will be a summer intern for Brunswick Corporation.

Brunswick, you ask quizzically? Don't they do bowling and billiards?? Yes, but did you know they also do gym equipment, marine engines/accessories, and BOATS!

Reminder: the "wake" in wakechick doesn't stand for Wake Forest, it stands for wakeboarding, which is done behind BOATS!

So, this girl, who loves to spend as much of her time as possible on (or being towed behind) boats, gets to spend the summer working in the Brunswick Boat Group, product development division, working on voice of the customer stuff. (Think qualitative market research combined with internal consulting/strategic planning/change management.) To use a really overused "extreme sports" word....I'm stoked :) It's a great opportunity to take a chance, do something totally different than my previous work experience for the summer, and work on products that have a special place in my heart. And it's based here in Chicago, so no moving or subletting to deal with.

Does it get any better than this?

Internship decision

2006-02-27T19:16:00.000-06:00

The second round interview that I mentioned in my last post? Yep, it resulted in an offer. A great offer. I feel very fortunate that I have two options that are both great opportunities. So now I have a decision to make, *quickly* considering the first offer explodes on Friday. I am pretty sure which way I'm going to go, but I still feel obligated to do my due diligence and make sure it's the right decision. And I'm starting to feel the pressure of that decision, the finality of it, the fact that I have to let someone down. It's like breaking up with someone. I feel like the Bachelor...two great prospects but only one rose to give out. (Yes, I enjoy cheeseball reality TV, it's a guilty pleasure.)

In a nutshell, do I want to go back to the same industry I was working in before b-school doing something kinda different, *or* do I want to do something really different in a new industry (one I'm pretty passionate about)? Thinking back to why I wanted to go to business school in the first place, it was for the latter opportunity. When I put it like that, it's a no brainer. But it still sucks that saying yes to one opportunity means saying no to the other opportunity (and great potential boss & coworkers).

(Companies to be revealed after I've signed on the dotted line....)

So many irons in the fire

2006-02-20T13:22:00.000-06:00

Between midterms, interviews, and having a nasty cold that won't go away, life has been pretty crazy and there hasn't been much time for fun. And it's been really cold here (wind chills of -15 F at night!), so I've been laying low, staying home and watching the Olympics when I'm not on campus. I have three more interviews this week (2 first round, 1 second round) and then I'm pretty much finished with on-campus recruiting. What a drawn out process! As hellish as a dedicated week of interviews sounds (a la HBS), I think that might be better than this. I will be glad to be done, although I'm not sure when that will be. I have one offer right now, hoping to secure another one after this week (fingers crossed), but I also have some interesting off campus stuff that I may not hear about until mid-March. Which sucks when dealing with exploding offers!

We shall see what happens (and how good my negotiation skills are)....

The fix was in

2006-02-05T21:39:00.000-06:00

Worst. Officiating. Ever.

Two words

2006-02-05T08:39:00.000-06:00

Go Seahawks!

Tagged

2006-01-28T16:58:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged by poweryogi. Thanks a lot, Yogi, it's not like I don't have anything better to do with 4 interviews and a midterm next week. Due to my previously stated policy, I won't be tagging anyone else.

Here you go....

Four Jobs I've had in my life:
* Babysitter
* Summer school teacher's assistant
* Cheerleading coach
* Restaurant hostess (with the most-ess)

Four Movies I can watch over and over
* Ferris Bueller's Day Off
* Love Actually
* The American President
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Four Places I have lived
* Pullman, Washington
* Richmond, Virginia
* San Diego, California
* In a fraternity house for a summer (and lived to tell about it!)

Four TV shows I love to watch (I still have a TV, and DVR helps me find time for my shows)
* 24
* Lost
* Grey's Anatomy
* Pardon the Interruption

Four Places I have been on vacation
* Budapest, Hungary
* Paris, France
* Kauai, Hawaii
* Vail, Colorado

Four Websites I visit daily
* ESPN
* Pink is the New Blog
* Americablog
* Go Fug Yourself

Four of my Favorite dishes
* my dad's mizutaki (he's not Japanese, but he cooks like it)
* my dad's kung pao chicken (he's not Chinese, but he cooks like it)
* my dad's arroz con pollo (he's not Mexican, but he cooks like it)
* a big, juicy, medium-rare filet mignon (preferrably grilled by dad, of course)
(Honorable mention: mom/grandma's sausage fondue)

Four Places I would rather be right now
* Kauai
* San Diego
* Seattle/Home
* Detroit (next weekend), with a Super Bowl ticket in hand...GO SEAHAWKS!

Playing games

2006-01-26T10:52:00.000-06:00

Last night, I attended a ladies' poker event, co-hosted by Chicago Women in Business (CWIB) and the GSB Risk & Gaming Club. It was mostly a learn to play event, although there were a couple of us there with a little poker experience. I've played a little, mostly for fun/zero-stakes, and I'm still learning betting strategy. Play was pretty slow, but it was a good time. I finished just out of the money. However, I left at the end of the night as a likely co-chair of the Risk & Gaming club for next year! How this happened, I'm still not sure, but I'm actually pretty excited about it. Should be fun.

Super Seahawks

2006-01-22T21:32:00.000-06:00

Wonder of wonders, last week the Seattle Seahawks ended a 2 decade playoff win drought and tonight they won the NFC Championship for their first ever trip to the Super Bowl. In Detroit. A reasonable drive from Chicago. We are totally road tripping, tix or no tix.

I am so freaking happy, I can hardly believe it. I've been a 'Hawks fan my entire life...I fondly remember going to games in the Kingdome, cheering on guys like Steve Largent, Curt Warner, Kenny Easley, the Boz, leaving with my ears ringing like I'd been to a concert. This is just so sweet, I only wish I was in Seattle right now to celebrate with my fellow Hawk Fans.

Deflated ego

2006-01-18T22:36:00.000-06:00

Well, tonight I got my first round of on-campus interviewing closed list results. It did not go as I had hoped. At all. Quite a blow to the ego, the first of many to come, I'm sure. I'm disappointed, but not without hope. I did make two closed lists, both great companies that I would be happy to spend the summer working for (and interviews I should enjoy preparing for).

Since I want to go a non-traditional post-MBA route (sports industry), I was pretty selective with dropping resumes for on-campus stuff and I've been trying to mentally prepare for the likely game of chicken I will end up playing with the end of the school year and securing an internship. Even so, bad news is bad news, and rejection is never an easy pill to swallow.

So tonight I had a big bowl of ice cream and I'm evaluating my options, trying to decide what (if any) open lists I will bid for tomorrow. I'm also doing some more internet research to make sure I've got plenty of options/irons in the fire on the off-campus front.

On a brighter note, I've made my spring break plans official...I'm headed to surf camp in Costa Rica with 5 other GSB females, and I can't tell you how excited I am to go! I managed to get in one surf lesson in San Diego before I blew my knee out, and didn't get around to taking another after rehab. So this is my second chance to add surfing to my boardsports repertoire. Plus, I've wanted to visit Costa Rica for a long time. Should be a fantastic trip :)

Good luck R1 GSB Applicants

2006-01-09T23:22:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to post a brief note before I hit the sack....good luck to all of the Chicago GSB Round 1 applicants expecting decisions this week. Word on the GSB message board is congratulatory calls will likely begin tomorrow afternoon, with all decisions posted Wednesday morning. I know you are all anxious, I remember those sleepless nights well, but do try to get some rest and have some fun over the next couple of days.

As for me, this quarter has been like being shot out of a cannon (or so I would imagine since that's never happened to me). Seems like we've gone from 0-60 in 3 seconds flat this time around, probably because we didn't have the cushion of CORE to ease us back into it. Plus, recruiting is going full steam ahead. I've dropped 8 resumes at this point and have a few to go. At this point, I'm wondering why I thought it was a good strategy to take 4 classes during winter quarter. Note to the Class of 2008: don't be like me and think you're smarter than the second years, believe them when they say you should NOT take 4 classes during winter quarter.

Happy holidays

2005-12-29T16:37:00.000-06:00

Coming to you live from Sea-Tac airport.....

It's been a nice, relaxing week back in the Pacific Northwest for the holidays. Had a great Christmas with my family, got to see my friends (and how much their babies have grown!), check out my brother's new house (and see how much he's grown!), watch a bunch of movies, and basically hang out.

Highlight of the week may have been enjoying steak dinner, not once, but three times. My dad laughed at me when I scarfed down a monstrous t-bone my first night home. Steak is not in my grad student budget and it had been five months since I had red meat not of the ground chuck variety. My dad's advice: start dating some higher class guys who will buy you a steak! Sage advice from dear old Dad.

Hope the holidays have been good to everyone :) Have a wild, crazy, and prosperous New Year!

Where the heck am I?

2005-12-22T18:19:00.000-06:00

Ever wake up and have no clue where you are or what time it is? Happened to me this morning. Where am I? (Sweet home WA) Who's bed is this? (My old twin bed) What freaking time zone am I in? (Back in the old PST) It's no wonder that I woke up confused since it's the 3rd bed I've slept in over the past 4 days. (I would imagine this happens to consultants. Prostitues, too!)

Flew back from Vail on Monday, spent about 36 hours in Chicago, then flew home to Seattle for the holidays. 3 different time zones, 3 different beds/bedrooms, totally disoriented when my alarm went off this morning.

Vail was buckets o' fun. Pictures will have to wait til I get back to Chicago since I forgot the cable for my camera and can't upload them. Huge ski area, beautiful views from the top, incredible snow. It snowed all day the first day we skied (9 inches of fresh powder!) and the next day the sky cleared and WOW. We were there for a week and had plenty of time to ski and just hangout. My body was shot by the end of the week, my calves cramped beyond the point of return. The trip was worth every penny and I plan on going on ski trip again next year.

Stick a fork in me...

2005-12-09T08:29:00.000-06:00

I'm done. With my first quarter of my MBA at Chicago GSB.

Yeah, its been awhile. I've been busy and lazy as far as blogging is concerned. The problem is like letting dishes or laundry pile up. You don't do them for awhile, the pile gets so big and the task so daunting that you will continue to put it off until you run out of silverware or underwear and have no other choice. Same with blogging. Each week that passed was just that much more that I needed to update. But today I'm breaking the seal with a massive post, hopefully anybody still reading this won't be too bored. Just warning you though, I will be without my laptop for about a week coming soon, so I may not make another update til Christmastime. Anyway, on to the big show....

Classes

Microeconomics: Thank god my bid for Turbo Micro failed. Topel's "baby turbo" was more than enough to keep me occupied, and I was an Econ major! In one of the first couple classes, Topel told us that his Micro class would be different than anything we might have taken before and that's just the way its done at the University of Chicago. Sure, UofC is (or has been) home to the most influential modern economists and more Nobel Laureates than you can shake a stick at, but really...could it be that different? Seemed kind of arrogant to me. Turned out to be true. Things that were taught "take it as given, no need to prove it" in my Micro classes at WSU were completely broken down by Topel. He really focused on the theoretical and the "why" behind everything. Which made for interesting lectures, but when our group got to the problem sets....what?!? Figuring out how to apply the theoretical was left completely up to us to figure out. No easy task. But excellent preparation for future classes and work. Because UofC is Econ's Mecca, most (if not all) classes have some foundational economic aspect(s). Topel's Micro was an excellent "prepare you to think like an economist so you won't get your ass handed to you in the future."

Statistics: What can be said about Stats? It's icky, it's kinda boring, it's stuff I kinda remember from undergrad but usually have to look up in a book if I'm forced to use it. It's a foundation course, it's a chore you just gotta do. I refer to my professor as the Silver Fox. Bester has a head full of silver hair, but he's only 28 years old (!) and the guy is like the damn Energizer Bunny. He has so much energy and I really don't know how he does it. My class was Thursday 6-9, and it was the last of 3 sessions he would teach in a 24 hour period, yet he still managed to keep the energy up most of the time. He made it fun because his enthusiasm for the subject (and for teaching it at Chicago GSB) was both obvious and contagious. The problem sets and midterm were pretty fair and I usually scored above the mean, but the final kicked my ass. I rarely fail to finish a test but I did last night. Not a good feeling, until I started talking to my classmates and realized that very few people finished. We'll see how it turns out.

Operations Management: I wanted to put off Accounting and Marketing til Winter quarter because (a) I only wanted to take 3 classes and I wanted one to be case based but (b) I wanted to take Marketing from McGill and she was only teaching in Winter. So I chose to take Ops Management and get a breadth requirement done. Plus, I had never done anything like it so I figured it would be an interesting and different class to balance the previously travelled roads of Stats & Micro. I ended up really liking this class, taugh by Adelman. I mean, sure, the guy does tell bad jokes that no one but him laughs at, but I think he's a darn good case discussion facilitator. This class was a nice mix of quantitative & qualitative case work, and I really enjoyed the business process simulation we did in November. Overall, it was nice to look at business from an Ops perspective, something I had never really done before.

I think I managed to pull a B average, although I won't know for another week or so. As for next quarter, I got my perfect schedule....

Monday: No class
Tuesday: Accounting with Roulstone (morning), Marketing Strategy with McGill (afternoon)
Wednesday: Managing in Organizations with Wittenbrink (afternoon)
Thursday: No class
Friday: Competitive Strategy with Bertrand (afternoon)

Really looking forward to next quarter, should be fun and hard.

Career Stuff

Attended the handful of presentations of companies coming to campus that interest me. I will probably participate in on campus recruiting for 6-8 companies. Other than that, I've been working on my off-campus research, collecting information from websites, trying to find alumni to contact, etc. It's kind of daunting. I'm pretty sure I will end up playing chicken with my internship...meaning most of the companies I would really like to work for do just-in-time hiring so I probably won't have an internship secured until May. Could be stressful when a lot of other people start getting their offers from on-campus stuff in February/March. I will just have to stay focused and positive. I've got some things coming up that could be very helpful. A friend and I attend the Promotion Marketing Association Law Conference here in Chicago last week. They had a couple of interesting Sports Marketing panels and I made one good contact that I need to follow up on this weekend. In addition, the Employer Development office at Chicago GSB has been working on some new relationships with professional sports teams like the Chicago Cubs and the Seattle Mariners! Very exciting stuff. I've actually been in contact with HR at the Mariners and I'm going to have an informational interview with them while I'm home for Christmas. Also, the Chicago Bulls are having a career fair with 25+ other Chicagoland sports teams and related businesses on December 20th, so I'm sticking around to attend that. It will probably be mostly for sales jobs, but it's worth a shot to go check it out and maybe make some good contacts. There's another job fair hosted by the NCAA in Indianapolis after the first of the year that I may try to attend as well.

Social/Fun Stuff/Weather

Still working out a lot and going out a lot. I love this city. I leave on Monday for a week in Vail on the Chicago GSB ski trip with about 100 of my classmates. I didn't do a Random Walk, so I'm really looking forward to a vacation and a week of pow-pow. It will probably be my only chance to snowboard this year since there is no "real" mountain anywhere near Chicago (those landfills converted to ski areas in Wisconsin don't count).

I'm attending a couple of holiday parties this weekend, and then my housemates and I are going to do family dinner Sunday night to celebrate Christmas early before we all head separate ways for the holidays. We did a full Thanksgiving dinner and had so much fun, we're going to do it again.

Last weekend, we tailgated with a bunch of friends at Soldier Field for the Bears/Packers game. We had a good time, but damn...it was cold! The weather has SUCKED. BIG TIME. Worst start to December in like 50 years for Chicago. It hasn't been above 32 degrees F since November 29th. This week, I had early morning finals on Tuesday and Wednesday and when I left my house at 6:30 am it was like 5 degrees, sub-zero with windchill. Then, last night as I'm taking my Stats final, a blizzard decided to roll in. I finished my test at 9:30 pm and had to dig my car out of 7 inches of snow. Took me about 15 minutes, then my drive home (normally 20 mintues) took 45 minutes. Plus, I have a rear wheel drive only SUV, so it's always fun to go around corners leading with the ass end of your vehicle. Fun times. My friend who used to work for UofC Law said that they never put pictures of campus in the snow in their recruiting publications because they don't want to reinforce how bad Chicago's winters are (even though campus is GORGEOUS in the snow). So, I apologize to the U of C if this post gives Chicago winter a bad name, but 2 years in San Diego made me soft and this sucks! It is supposed to warm up to the 40s this weekend so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Now, to really make it up to any readers I have left, here are some pics from my Chicago antics the past few weeks...

Our beautiful Thanksgiving table, turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, fresh cranberries, green beans, rolls, homemade pumpkin pie...we know how to do it right! And about 2 bottles of wine per person, plus after dinner Texas Hold 'Em and Trivial Pursuit.

Tailgating at Soldier Field with 2 out of 3 of my housemates. It's about 10:30 and 20 degrees here and we are *choosing* to spend the day outside (yep, no tickets to the game but someone brought a TV and we watched the game there...crazy, I know)

Yeah, tailgating for Bears' games is WAY more fun than tailgating for Chargers' games in sunny San Diego! /sarcasm

Whiskey keeps you warm. It's a fact.
Whaddya think...should I include this in my resume drop to Jim Beam?

Winter has arrived

2005-11-16T08:21:00.000-06:00

First snowflakes of the season are falling right now. Today's forecasted high temp: 35 F. Current temp 33, wind chill 21.

Today is the first day I've really truly missed San Diego. What have I gotten myself into? It's only November 16th!

Just the weather report for now, full update on school and life coming soon (I promise, KV!).

I forgot about tests

2005-10-27T17:30:00.000-05:00

5 years out of school will do that to you. T minus 30 minutes til my first midterm (Business Statistics). I feel pretty much ready to unleash my stats prowess on this thing. Coming midterms include Operations Management Tuesday morning (open book/open note) and a rumored-to-be-brutal take home group midterm for Microeconomics due Nov 9th. (Seriously, the grapevine is saying the thing will take 20-30 hrs!)

I also had my midterm LEAD feedback session this afternoon. My facilitator and I had a nice discussion about my goals, how I'm progressing, how he and my peers feel I'm doing relative to my goals and the objectives of the course, and how that stacks up with how I think I'm doing. There are certainly some things I dislike about LEAD, but in general I've been really impressed with the content and presentation of the program and I think something to be gained for everyone.

This week has kinda sucked trying to get back on track. Just as I was getting into a rhythm school-wise, I take off for a long weekend in San Diego. The weekend was a lot of fun, although the sun failed to appear AT ALL during my time in SoCal. My friends' wedding was really nice, I got to see some old friends from Richmond, and I also had time to visit with my SD friends. Anyway, I had a boatload of homework and housework waiting for me when I got home Monday evening and I've been playing catch up ever since (and catch up is not easy when in B-school). I'm glad I'm not planning on going anywhere for Thanksgiving, because I would be in bad shape trying to play catch up right before finals.

Congrats to the World Series Champions, the Chicago White Sox! After a nervous September, those guys played lights out in October. Pretty magical run. I'm bummed I'm not going to be able to make it downtown tomorrow for the ticker tape parade.

Off to my test, wish me luck :)

Back in a suit

2005-10-17T10:20:00.000-05:00

Since recruiting officially kicks off for first years today and I have three presentations to attend (Reebok, Pepsico/QTG, and Jim Beam), I had to pull my suit out of the back of my closet for the first time since MBA interviews. Today is going to be a long day. Met up with my Microecon study group at 8 am, then met with a 2nd year who interned at Nike for breakfast at 9 am. Now I'm trying to squeeze in some blogging and homework before the first presentation at 11:45. My last presentation will end this evening at 8 pm. Not sure when (if) I'll be able to work out today, let alone make sure all my homework is done for classes this week. I also need to get a head start on next week's readings and problem sets, since I'll be in San Diego Friday-Monday. I think I'll be lucky to average 5 hrs of sleep per night this week.

Life moves pretty fast here at the GSB. Recruiting is starting up, midterms will happen by the end of the month, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Wazzu was on a semester schedule, so this quarter schedule is a totally new concept for me. Plus, all my classes meet only once per week....that is only 10 sessions of class before finals!

As so many people have said, an MBA is all about time management. There are so many different things you can do in your two years at school. TOO MANY THINGS. It is physically impossible to do everything. I feel pretty fortunate that I realized this early on. I've perfected my ability to say no. If I get an email that is non-priority (i.e. about anything other than class, recruiting/networking specifically related to what I want to do, or the three clubs I joined), I don't let it linger in my inbox as a potential distraction. It gets deleted. Might I miss out on some fun stuff? Sure, but participating may have come at a cost to my priorities. I'm not willing to make that trade-off. MBA admissions officers aren't kidding when they say you should have a pretty good idea of what you'd like to do after your MBA coming in to the program. If I wasn't fairly certain of the industry & function I'd like to pursue, I think I'd be extremely overwhelmed right now.

Time management also means making time for "sanity" activities. For me, this means not letting my schedule sacrifice some quality time at the gym at least 5x per week. This means not attending every single GSB social event so that I can spend quality time with my non-GSB friends. This means scheduling myself some alone time, even if it's only 15 minutes, every day. This means keeping Saturday sacred for some quality time on my couch watching college football (even when the WSU Cougars decide to break my heart 3 weeks in a row).

That being said, let the recruiting insanity begin!

Holy crap

2005-10-16T23:52:00.000-05:00

The White Sox are going to the World Series! Awesome. Going to try to get tickets when they go on sale Tuesday. Won't be in town for Game 1 or 2 (headed back to San Diego for a wedding), but it's worth a shot to get tickets to a possible Game 6 or 7. I can be an adopted Sox fan for the World Series, right? (Sorry M's)

I should be studying

2005-10-09T15:49:00.000-05:00

But this weekend I've done everything but study. Yesterday was filled with college football viewing and reading a non-school related novel I couldn't put down. Last night, my friend and I hit the Vic Theater to see Jim Gaffigan do his stand up comedy act. Very, very funny, and the audience was totally into it because Comedy Central was there taping his act for a special to air in January.

Today I hit the gym, then my friend and I went and saw Proof. Excellent movie, I highly recommend it. Gwyneth Paltrow is amazing, she gave a raw and completely vulnerable performance. But she's not the only star of the movie. The University of Chicago also plays a big role, and the shots of campus (and the city) are beautiful.

I think I'm actually going to study now. Ops management homework awaits.

Shouldn't complain

2005-10-06T22:10:00.000-05:00

I hardly have room to complain about my long day. My stats professor lectures from 8:30-11:30 am and does the same routine all over again from 6-9 pm. At least I get to sit and listen!

Long day ahead of me

2005-10-06T08:30:00.000-05:00

Got out of bed at 6 am this morning so I could make it down to Hyde Park by 7:30 for the GSB Women's Welcome Back Breakfast. Way too early for my taste (but I understand they have to accommodate people with 8:30 class). I am not a morning person, but the breakfast and the company was worth getting out of bed so early.

I was up until midnight last night working on stats homework, then I called it quits knowing that I would have time today between the breakfast and my first class (LEAD @ 1:30) to finish it up. After LEAD, I'll have a break for dinner then Stats from 6-9. That is a nearly 14 hour day at HPC, gotta love it. I'm tired, it's been a long week. Don't think I'm gonna make it to TNDC ( Thursday Night Drinking Club) tonight. I'm glad I don't have class tomorrow. I can sleep in, hit the gym during the mid-morning lull, have some lunch, then come down to HPC in the afternoon for a group meeting and an appearance by Jack Welch (brought to campus by the GSB Distinguished Speaker Series committee).

MIA

2005-10-03T09:40:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I know I suck. The past week and a half I've been telling myself anytime I have a spare 30 minutes I'll throw together I quick post to the blog, which is pretty much how I'll need to do it going forward if I'm going to keep this thing up. So Friday afternoon I have a break and sit down for a quick blog to find...Blogger down for maintenance! Just my luck.

Classes are going great. It's a completely different experience from undergrad. I'm so much more motivated to actually learn. What a difference a few years of life in the "real world" makes! Context is cool. Plus, if these three professors are any indication of the overall quality of the faculty, I think I'm in for a great two years. I never would have guessed that a three hour Thursday night statistics class could hold my attention. (Especially when planning to head to TNDC for beverage consumption and socializing immediately after class!)

I'm enjoying the group work; it certainly alleviates much of the pressure on the homework front. The only thing that sucks is schedule coordination. Location, class conflicts, etc. are an issue even with a group of only 3 or 4 people. I surrendered to the fact that although I only have classes three days a week, most weeks I'll be at Hyde Park Center Monday through Friday. Which is actually OK since I get a lot more work done here than I do at home, assuming I'm in a study room and not just hanging out in the Winter Garden. There are as many distractions in the Winter Garden as there are at home....way too easy to spend an hour or three socializing (which is nice in the rare event you have an hour to kill and nothing to do).

I am glad I was cheap and decided not to get a parking permit. I'm usually able to find a ride with a fellow north sider or my friend who works for the law school. If not, I drive myself down and to date I've had no problems finding street parking pretty much any time of day. It's easier early in the morning, of course, but even later in the day there are spots to be found as long as I allow myself time to find them.

First year recruiting doesn't start for another two weeks, but we are constantly being reminded to "mind the gap". Resume reviews, mocktail, explore more sessions, etc are all in full swing. I'm feeling pretty good about my resume, but I'll probably have a few more folks review it. I had a meeting with a career coach last week and I've got some tasks to follow up on in order to get a good start on my off campus search (since I'm not headed down the well trodden path to i-banking or consulting). The nice thing is that I've already found someone who has similar career interests to join forces with, and I'm getting involved in the entertainment & media club and much of the work I'll do for them will overlap nicely with my internship search.

I've got a group meeting for Microeconomics in 20 minutes and I need to look over the assignment again, so I'm off.

YEEEOOOUCH!

2005-09-19T15:50:00.000-05:00

I just dropped $574 on books and course packs for Autumn Quarter!!! Talk about sticker shock, especially on the non-resellable course packs. Also, I'm wondering...the estimated cost of attendance (AKA our official budget that is used to determine our financial aid award) assumes a book budget for the year of $1650. $574 only covers 3 out of 10 courses I'll be taking this year...do the math, that is going to be cutting it close, even taking textbook buyback into consideration. Guess it's a good thing I'm under what the budget allows for things like rent.

Many of the other GSB bloggers have covered the whole bidding process that played itself out last week, so I won't get into that other than to say I didn't spend a whole lot of time trying to game the system and I didn't bid too many points. I didn't get my first choice schedule, but I did get a schedule I like. Since we have LEAD during fall quarter, and I wanted to allow myself some time to get back my study habits, I decided to take 3 courses this quarter and 4 in winter quarter. I orginally thought I would get the three foundation courses out of the way this quarter (financial accounting, microeconomics, and statistics), but then I decided to put off accounting until winter quarter so I could mix in a case course with all the quant stuff. The first year herd seemed to be willing to spend a lot of points on Marketing Strategy, so I figured I'd go another route and try to get a less popular class and not spend any points (saving them for winter like a good little squirrel). I bid on a preferred schedule of turbo micro (with an alternate of baby micro), stats, and operations management (which counts toward a breadth requirement). I didn't get turbo micro (kinda bummed because the prof sounds awesome, but kinda relieved because it also sounds like a truckload of work...20+ hrs/wk!), and I didn't get the stats section I preferred.

Schedule looks something like:
Monday--no classes
Tuesday--Ops Mgmt 8:30-11:30 am, Career Essentials in the afternoon
Wednesday--Microeconomics 8:30-11:30 am
Thursday--LEAD 1:30-4:30 pm, Stats 6-9 pm, TNDC 9 pm til I pass out
Friday--no classes/recovery from TNDC/LPF

Even though I don't have classes Monday or Friday, I figure I'll be down in Hyde Park most of the day every day, but I like the flexibility it gives me if I need to go out of town for a weekend.

We are almost finished with CORE (AKA orientation) and I'm looking forward to starting classes. Tomorrow is the last day of CORE and it's Industry Immersion, a series of presentations and panel discussions to help us explore career options and begin the process of narrowing down target industries/functions/companies. Should be interesting, even though what I think I want to do doesn't really fit into any of the typical MBA career path buckets.

There's a lot of CORE that I'd like to recap, but I think I will do separate entries for the different modules as time allows this week (I should have some time since Wednesday & Friday are free days). This will likely include the diversity module (way better than expected), career services (not long enough), LEAD so far (better than expected).

I have to say, I've been having a great time so far. The GSB may have had a reputation as somewhat lacking in the fun department in the past, but the Class of 2007 does not fit that mold in the least. My classmates are always cooking up some kind of outing, adventure, night on the town, etc. I can tell that over the course of the next two years, balancing my social calendar and my academic calendar will be a challenge. Big time.

First Week Summary

2005-09-11T16:22:00.000-05:00

Short version: My liver is threatening to strike.

Long version: It has been a great first week, though it started a little rough. GSB Day 1 was long (as previously recapped by PowerYogi), especially with the post-birthday hangover. There was a lot of information to be communicated to all of us, I just wish it didn't come in the form of 550+ people in one room for 3.5 hrs after lunch with no breaks and not enough AC. I definitely have some ideas for how they might do this better next year and shared them with the GSB staff via the survey they sent out.

As for my fellow classmates...top notch folks. Fun to meet so many new people, although having the same conversation five hundred times gets tiresome. (Where are you from? What were you doing before GSB? What are you planning to do?)

The rest of the week was quite an improvement over the first day. Wednesday was an early wake up call to make the trip up to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, for Leadership Outdoor Experience. I'll admit I had some reservations about the 3 day trip. I was worried it was going to be very rah-rah-cheesy, and there were elements of that, but I honestly had a great time. We did all of the daytime activities in our cohorts, and the smaller groups made it easier to get to know people. There was your usual high & low ropes courses, team building puzzle type activities, but also an afternoon of free time to play softball, volleyball, soccer, cards, hang by the pool, take a nap, etc. Lake Geneva is really pretty and we were staying at a lodge type place. The whole time I was there, I kept thinking that I was at Kellerman's (the Catskills resort in the movie Dirty Dancing).

In the evenings, there were games, dancing, karoke, etc. And lots of beer (plus whatever booze people were smart enough to pack in their overnight bags). The socializing kicked into high gear around 9 pm each night and continued into the wee hours of the morning (I went to bed at 3:30 am on Wednesday night/Thurs morn, 4:30 am on Thursday/Friday).

Needless to say, a week of averaging 4.5 hrs of sleep a night sucked the life out of me. I bonked on Friday when I got home. I don't normally nap, and I slept like the dead between 3 pm and 7 pm Friday afternoon/evening. I was supposed to meet up with the WSU alumni group to watch the WSU-Nevada game that night, but I just didn't have it in me.

The week wasn't over though. My housemates and I hosted a party last night. I'm the only GSBer in the house, so between the four of us, we had a wide variety and constant flow of people. I had a great time and I think everybody else did too. We had a ton beer & booze, and while there is still a bunch left, we drank A LOT last night.

So today I'm cleaning and trying to recover. It has been a long week. I think I need to take a week off from the sauce or my organs are likely to go on strike. GSB orientation (aka CORE) continues tomorrow with a curriculum overview and an introduction to the class bidding system. I've got some ideas for what I'd like my schedule to look like and I'm hoping tomorrow will help firm those up. I'm also hoping I'll be able to figure out the whole bidding strategy.

Off to my first day of school

2005-09-06T08:08:00.000-05:00

Wish me luck :)

(BTW, just a little hungover from the birthday madness, but not too bad)

Final week of freedom

2005-08-30T10:38:00.000-05:00

This is it. The last hurrah. A week from today, Chicago GSB will own me. Until then, I'm going to be lazy. Sleep in. Do something, do nothing, whatever I feel like.

August in Chicago, free as a bird, is cool.

My Wazzu friends and I had a friend/sorority sister in town from Seattle this past weekend. Fun stuff, pics below. We did the John Hancock tower, Millenium Park, shopping on the mile, etc. But the coolest thing was meeting up some guys my friend T knows and going on their sailboat for a sunset sail along the shore of the city.

Sunset Sail

View from the Ladies Room, Signature Lounge, John Hancock Tower

Skyline & Us in the reflection of the MP Bean

Millenium Park "Bean"

Wazzu ladies night out in Chicago

This weekend should be fun too. It's a holiday weekend and it's my birthday weekend. My birthday falls on Labor Day this year, just like it did 28 years ago...yep, Mama labored on Labor Day. Anyway, we've got another Wazzu friend coming in from Seattle, we're going to the White Sox/Tigers game on Sunday, then Jimmy Buffet @ Wrigley Field on Monday. I will be spending my birthday, AKA the day before school starts, in Margaritaville...God help me :)

Oh and I forgot to mention....WSU Cougar Football kicks off this week! It's the most wonderful time of the year. My boys play Idaho Thursday evening. Fox Sports NW is going to be carrying the game live, and I'm determined to find a bar in this city that's got it. Go Cougs!

Just say no to the uniform

2005-08-28T19:49:00.000-05:00

Very funny spoof on the button down striped shirt. Guys in Chicago sure seem to love them.

Yes, I know I'm a slacker blogger. Update coming soon. Having too much fun to blog.

BTW, thoughts and prayers with the people stuck in the path of Hurricane Katrina. Sounds like the worst case scenario could happen, which is really bleak. New Orleans is such a great city. The potential loss of life and history is staggering. Godspeed, NOLA.

Summer in the city

2005-08-21T22:42:00.000-05:00

Another beautiful weekend in Chicago (with the exception of some nasty thunderstorms late Friday night). This weekend was the Air and Water Show. I had been hearing the planes practicing early in the week so it was neat to see it all come together. A friend of mine is into sailing, and the crew she normally goes with was competing this weekend. (She didn't compete...got bumped because she's the rookie on the team). Anyway, another friend and I went with her to the after race party at the Chicago Yacht Club. It was a fun night, awesome view of the city & lake, great band, interesting people, and a fantastic fireworks show to end the night. Well, not exactly...we came back to the neighborhood for more drinks and I think we were all a little hungover this morning!

Didn't end up going wakeboarding last Thursday due to sketchy weather, but I have plans to go tomorrow. The guys I'm meeting up with live on a semi-private lake about 70 miles west of where I live (Lake Holiday). It will be cooler tomorrow (in the 70s as opposed to 80s/90s) but should be sunny....no thunderstorms!!

I love my neighborhood

2005-08-17T17:01:00.000-05:00

There's a Starbucks at the corner, a too-good-to-be-so-close ice cream joint, the cleaners, a bagel place, a sandwich spot, several bars, a convenience store, and a nail salon...all within two blocks of my apartment. 6 blocks to the gym, 6 blocks to Wrigley Field.... It's a beautiful thing.

Got a ton of errands done today. Made my first trip down to Hyde Park, did ok with the navigation, bit of a challenge to find parking, but I was able to get my U of C ID, sign up for parking, and drop off my immunization record, all within about an hour. I headed back north to Michigan Ave so I could sign over my first (not yet born) child in exchange for the beautiful 12 in Powerbook from which I'm currently blogging. So *sooooo* worth it (sorry first-not-yet born child). Got all the desired accessories and took advantage of the free iPod mini deal (which I will be giving to my friend since I already have a 20 gig iPod...am I an awesome friend or what?)

Date tonight (he's taking me to his favorite Italian joint) and tomorrow I'm getting out of the city to explore rural Illinois and hook up with some new wakeboarding peeps. Hopefully gas prices will be under $3 when I get out of the metro Chicago area.

The good life

2005-08-16T10:21:00.000-05:00

I'm kinda liking this unemployed no responsibilities no cares thing.

I unpack a little each day (a lot initially, now it has slowed to a trickle. I need to finish my kitchen, hang my pictures, and sort through my papers/books)

I work out with my friend (who is a personal trainer at my new gym 6 blocks from here. She is kicking my ass into shape, and free personal training is the best kind. The gym is huge, it's close, and it's right next to Whole Foods, so I can enjoy their salad bar after my workout. Perfect.)

I go to baseball games (White Sox-M's weekend before last, Cubs-Cards this past weekend. My friend and I went to Thursday's game at Wrigley. We scalped OK tickets for $40, but met a guy during the rain delay that provided us with a free upgrade to much better seats, 10 rows up from first base. Wrigley has so much character. I still can't believe it's only 6 blocks away from my apartment)

I meet up with friends new and old (it's nice living in the same building as my friends from WSU. It's also nice meeting their friends, I'm definitely going to have a good cross section of GSB and non-GSB friends. I also had fun meeting my classmates at last week's happy hours, and look forward to meeting more this week. Plus, I've been meeting some really fun guys. I had a date last Friday and I have a date tomorrow. Both are fun guys, although I don't see a future with either, but they don't take no for an answer when they know I'm not gainfully employed!)

Why am I in Chicago again? Oh, that's right...school! T-minus 21 days...

Just my luck

2005-08-07T17:41:00.000-05:00

The Mariners of course won on Friday night, but lose the game that I actually attended Saturday night (and subsequently lost this afternoon...the White Sox are good, the M's not so good). Oh well, the weather was perfect, we had a nice tailgate before the game, and after the game was a fantastic fireworks show. I was impressed, it was better than some 4th of July stuff I've seen.

Can't wait for my stuff to get here tomorrow, I'm dying to unpack and I'm so excited to sleep in my own bed for the first time in 4 months.

As Le Voyageur points out, pre-pre-term socializing has already begun. This week should be fun, I'm looking forward to meeting more people. But lucky for me, I've already got most of my pre-term assignments done. Plus, I received the curriculum guide on Friday, so I've been browsing through it and starting to make a master plan of classes I'd like to take, the order in which they need to be taken, and getting a rough idea of what my schedule may look like this fall (rather, what I hope it will look like assuming I bid well).

My grill is where bugs go to die

2005-08-05T11:44:00.000-05:00

After ~2200 miles, the front of my Pathfinder is a bug graveyard. I must have wiped out at least...oh... 0.0001% of the bug population on the I-90 corridor.

I have arrived in Chicago (yesterday around 3:30 pm CDT). As much as I love my SUV, I hope I don't have to get into it again for at least a week.

I left my hometown Sunday afternoon and stayed with a friend in Seattle that night. She highlighted my hair (I'm *really* blonde right now, I love it), then we went to dinner at a new place on Lake Union (Joeys...it was fantastic). Got an early start Monday and rolled into Butte MT in the early evening. My best friend from Wazzu grew up there and her dad still lives there, so I crashed at his place. Started early again on Tuesday and crossed the continental divide just outside of Butte around 7:30 am MDT.

Tuesday's drive was really pretty, all part of the country I hadn't seen before. The NE portion of Wyoming/SW portion of South Dakota is really specatular. I was planning to stay in Rapid City SD that night and had plenty of time to get there, so I took a side trip to see Devil's Tower (which is pretty cool). It was nice to get off the interstate for awhile, except when I needed to use the restroom while in the middle of nowhere. On the interstate, there are rest areas and/or gas stations at reasonable intervals, but not so on the state highways. I ended up stopping in Aladdin WY, population 15, at a little trading post. Their public restroom was an old school outhouse. Not a porta-potty, an outhouse. Better than having to go bare-assed on the side of the road for everyone to see, but gross none the less. Given my camping background, I would have rather gone in the woods, but there wasn't anything to hide behind on the side of the road.

When I rolled through Sturgis SD, I finally realized why I was seeing so many bikers on the road. The annual world famous motorcycle rally starts this weekend. There were even more bikers on the road heading toward Sturgis the following two days. Not just bikes, but bikes in tow behind trucks and some fancy schmancy motorhomes. I'm telling ya, it looks like those folks know how to party, that might be an event I have to go to at some point in my life, just to see it. Mardi gras, biker style. Although you have to wonder about the sanity of folks who ride a motorcycle at 85 mph without a helmet (chances of surviving a bike crash at that speed with no helmet being nearly zero and all).

Wednesday morning I went and checked out Mount Rushmore. It was impressive but what was more striking was looking out to the east of the Black Hills and realizing how flat it gets. The rest of South Dakota was pretty boring. I stopped in the town of Wall for gas, but I did not make it to Wall Drug. Billboards every half mile leading up to Wall were an annoying "something to look at" so I boycotted. I spent Wednesday night in Albert Lea MN, then made my final push to Chicago Thursday.

I thought the scenery in Minnesota & Wisconsin right around the Mississippi River was really pretty. Green, rolling hills, lots of waterways and lakes, etc. Further into Wisconsin, I laughed when I saw the Cascade Mountain ski area. As someone who grew up in the foothills of the real Cascade Mountains, it was a pretty funny joke. I should be careful about cracking on Wisconsin though because that is where my new roommate grew up!

By the time I hit O'Hare, the traffic was awful and it was hotter than Hades. In the trench of I-90 in bumper-to-bumper traffic, my outside temperature gauge registered as high as 109. YUCK!

But anyway, I'm here, I made it in one piece, and I'm looking forward to a month of getting settled and having some fun. Saturday my friends and I are going to the White Sox-Mariners game, Sunday we're going to go see Wedding Crashers, and Monday I will finally get to start unpacking since that is when United Van Lines is going to deliver my stuff out of storage. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed again!

Couple of checks off the to-do list

2005-07-28T13:26:00.000-05:00

Completed my self-evaluation for LEAD. Put together a preliminary version of my new resume. It's weird to be putting the GSB on it when I have yet to attend my first class.

My Pathfinder is in the shop today getting all tuned up for next week's 2100 mile trip (oil lube filter, tire rotation, brakes etc). My '02 is going to roll 40K somewhere in Montana! The car cover I ordered came in yesterday (to protect my baby since my parking spot is under the El track...maybe it'll deter the theives too, but that's probably wishful thinking). Bought a 2005 US Road Atlas and I've been checking out the construction hot spots online. Looks like there's a bit on roads in and around Yellowstone and since that's a pretty major side trip, I think I'll skip it.

I think I've got pretty much everything wrapped up at work now, just doing a final proofread of the manual I created. 4 months went by a lot faster than I thought it would back in April.

Excuses, excuses

2005-07-25T19:45:00.000-05:00

I've got a million of them for why its been so long since I blogged.

1. My replacement started last week so I've been super busy at work training her and trying to make sure things are in order for my departure. It's going well so far. Last week I had to spend a lot more time "driving", then watching over her shoulder as she drove. This week she's working mostly on her own while I finish up some special projects and catch up on chores that I've put off due to interviews, like filing/organizing/etc.

2. My evenings have been filled with watching the Tour de Lance...er...France, and procrastinating on the task of packing. Now that the Tour is over, I'll have to get more creative with my procrastination. My room is a disaster and I'm not looking forward to taming the beast. I think I need to do another round of purging with a couple more trips to goodwill & the dump.

4. I also need to get my ass in gear making sure that all of my papers are in order and that I'm caught up on my to-do list. The financial aid stuff is in the bag (I've already had some paperwork sent back to me), my immunization records are ready to be sent, and I just enrolled in health insurance for the next year. I still need to finish up all of the tasks for pre-term (aka LEAD). I've done the Myers-Briggs personality test thingy (for what must be the 10th time in my life) and another standardized "intersts" type test, but I need to complete my self assessment, make sure my 360 feedback providers do their part (3 of 5 are done), get a draft resume uploaded to career services, etc etc.

5. Then there's the move. I am officially on the lease as of August 1st, which is the day I plan to depart Washington. I'm in the process of planning my road trip, trying to figure out which sights I can see, where I can stay, and how I can make it work so that the drive time for each day is reasonable (read: in the vicinity of 10 hrs). I'd like to drive through Yellowstone if possible (never been) and I definitely want to see Mount Rushmore (also never been), but we'll see how it works out. I need to call my friend and see if it may be possible for me to crash at her dad's place in Butte, MT. That would eliminate one night in a hotel, although it may mess up my objective of ~10 hrs driving a day. We'll see how it works out. I'd like to arrive in Chicago by August 5th at the latest, so I can be in town when the Seattle Mariners play the Chicago White Sox. Then I will have my furniture and other misc crap delivered out of storage on August 8th. I called today to get that scheduled but my "move coordinator" hasn't called me back yet. I hope that day will work, I don't think I can go much longer without my own bed. Sleeping on my 15 year old twin mattress for the past 4 months has not been kind to my back.

6. On top of all that...I'm just too busy having fun with family and friends in my final throes of pre-school life in Washington. This past weekend my folks and I went camping near Plain, WA (aka Middle of Nowhere). Their friends have some property on the Wentachee River. It was nice to see a bunch of their friends that I've known forever but haven't seen in 5+ years. The weather was awesome and Saturday we did a 2+ hr float down the river in tubes and rafts with plenty of beer. This week I plan to hang out with my local girlfriends, do a sort of ladies night this weekend (they'll get their husbands to babysit while we tear up this town). We're also going to have dinner and play cards with my grandparents on Thursday (our family favorite is Chicago Rummy). Sunday I'll probably head down to Seattle to stay with a friend so as to avoid Monday morning traffic.

So yeah, that pretty much sums up why I've been a slack blogger. Can't promise it's going to be much better for the next couple of weeks, although my new roommate is getting everything in order to make sure we're hooked up with high speed internet. Oh, forgot to add that I also need to get around to buying a new laptop. My current one is a 3 year old Compaq model that I've already had to reformat once and the keys are not working so well lately. I need to do some online research with my dad tonight, who has recently expressed interest in providing some financial assistance in the technology department of my b-school adventure. Sweet! Although he's making noise like he's going to try to talk me out of the laptop I've had my heart set on for the past couple of months, the Apple 12-in Powerbook. Don't you go thinking I'm a follower on this little trend of MBA bloggers going Mac, I've been talking/thinking about this one for awhile. The Powerbook is one bad ass machine, IMO.

Never a dull moment

2005-07-14T23:25:00.000-05:00

An honest-to-goodness D-list former reality TV star came into our office today. Not as a client either (read: as a debtor). No joke. Due to privacy concerns I can't tell you who, but man, I wish I could because it's a good one!

After conducting 20 agonizing interviews in the past week, I've hired my replacement and she starts Monday morning. What a relief. In a small business where each person's role is critical, transition & training time is essential to business continuity. I have a personal interest in ensuring a smooth transition since it's my family's business, so I've been really worried about getting someone on and making sure I have at least two weeks of overlap for training. *fingers crossed* I'll get the new gal up to speed in short order and my last day at work will be July 29th. I think I've also got a new receptionist lined up, too. I am thrilled to be done interviewing. It's exhausting and there is a massive pile of work on my desk and I'm hoping I'll be able to make a dent in it tomorrow.

It's been a stressful week and I de-stressed this evening with some wakeboarding and some beer. Just what the doctor ordered. Now I'm off to rendezvous with Tivo to catch up with Stage 12 of Le Tour De France and today's episode of The Daily Show.

Shot in the arm

2005-07-11T11:04:00.000-05:00

Literally & figuratively.

Saturday I went to our long time family doctor's office to pick up my immunization history for school. I had called earlier in the week and asked them to make a note on there if I needed I tetanus shot. I was pretty sure that I did. However, I had no idea how badly I needed it. Assuming you need them every 10 years as suggested (and as required by the University of Chicago) I was 13 years overdue. Yes folks, the last time yours truly got a tetanus shot was 1982. Don't ask me how I fell through the cracks, I have no clue. I guess I assumed that the family doc had kept me up to date since I saw him throughout undergrad, and I figured I'd err on the side of caution as an adult and get a booster shot if I ever cut myself. Wrong. $20 and a shot in the arm later, I'm now immunized and ready to learn, according to the sheet I'm sending off to the health folks at U of C.

A couple of weeks ago, I reminded my folks that it was almost July and therefore almost time for me to be wrapping up my work for them and start heading east. I think it snuck up on all of us. So I've been working like crazy, trying to make sure all of the manuals related to my tasks are updated and easy to follow. I've got a couple of projects that may have to wait, but I could possibly do them remotely from Chicago before school starts (or they might end up as good class projects, who knows). I'm also sorting through all of the applications we received in response to our classified ad and online listing. We had three interviews Friday, two today, and this afternoon I'll schedule more for later this week. My ideal scenario is to get my replacement and a new receptionist hired by the end of the week, hopefully have them start a week from today, so I can get a full two weeks of training with them before the end of the month. My preferred last day here is July 29, and I hope to be arriving in Chicago by the first weekend of August. Will that actually happen? Depends on how things go with interviews this week and when our chosen ones can start. I've got my fingers crossed! (But I set that July 29th milestone knowing full well that it could be pushed back two weeks... and I'd rather July 29th get pushed back to August 12th, than August 12th get pushed back to August 26th...that would suck.)

BTW, to anyone else who's gone through the b-school app process then been involved in hiring...are you now way more critical of resumes & interviews? At times I'm asking myself "are these truly bad applications, or are my standards out of control?!?" Anyone?

Got my fix, finally

2005-07-05T18:35:00.000-05:00

Went wakeboarding for the first time since I moved back to Washington. After three months, it felt awesome to get back on the water, in spite of the fact that conditions sucked. Thanks to the holiday weekend and better than expected weather, everyone who owns a boat or PWC was on the water this weekend. We were on the water from about 8 pm until there was no light left (probably well beyond what is legal) and it was still pretty rough. But no matter, I went wakeboarding!!

I met up with some guys I met on a wakeboarding website, Wakeworld. If you don't own a boat (or have a close friend with a boat) and you want to ride, you have to hop online to find people with boats who have extra room or need a third. When I lived in Virginia, I had a close friend with a boat so I had a permanent hook-up for pulls. But when I moved to San Diego, I had to network my way to pulls and ended up finding some pretty reliable ones. It's always a little weird going to meet people for the first time, but so far I've only had positive experiences. The wakeboarding community is a pretty chill group of people and most folks are happy to have another boarder on the boat (especially a chick who boards). It's a very social activity. These guys I met up with on Sunday had a house on Lake Stevens and a dock with 3 tournament wakeboard boats tied up (we're talking $150K+ worth of boats). They also had a keg tapped and the BBQ fired up all day. In other words...heaven on earth!

Refuse to Lose 10th Anniversary

2005-06-28T00:09:00.000-05:00

Also known as the 10th Anniversary of the summer that I (and the rest of the Pacific Northwest) fell in love with the Seattle Mariners and Major League Baseball.

Fox Sports Northwest just replayed Game 5 of the 1995 American League Division Series between the Mariners and the Yankees. Brought back a lot of memories. That was such an awesome summer. No one thought the M's had a chance at making the playoffs. Instead they had a pretty magical run through September, and won their first ever AL West championship in a fantastic one game playoff with the Angels. They lost the first two games in New York (Game 2 in 15 innings), and had to win 3 straight in Seattle to advance to the ALCS. Thus began the "Refuse to Lose" campaign.

The series had a great cast of characters, in both dugouts. For the Mariners...Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr, Jay Buehner, Randy Johnson (who came in as a reliever in Game 5), Tino Martinez, Joey Cora, and a 20-year-old pre-sellout rookie named Alex Rodriguez. For the Yanks, the old guard of Wade Boggs & Don Mattingly, with Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, David Cone, and a couple of rookies...Mariano Rivera & Derek Jeter. There were also some first class mullets on display thanks to Randy Johnson & Norm Charlton!

Game 5 was wall-to-wall excitement through 11 innings. Every time the Yanks scored, the M's found a way to match it. 5-4 Yanks going into the bottom of the 11th, with the heart of the Seattle batting order coming to the plate. Cora gets on by the skin of his teeth with a lead off bunt, then Griffey gets a walk. Up comes Edgar, coming off a grand slam in game 4, and he just rips a shot to the left field corner to bring home Cora & Griffey. Pan-de-fricken-monium, the place goes bonkers.

A baseball town is born. The road is paved for Safeco Field, record-setting attendance, Ichiro, and 116 wins in 2001. But we're all still waiting and hoping for a World Series championship. Someday.

Not a happy camper

2005-06-21T18:01:00.000-05:00

Of course the weather decided to go straight into the crapper as soon as I had plans to go wakeboarding. Mother Nature has a sick sense of humor.

I guess I should go to the gym and work out after work. But when you were hoping to spend the evening on the lake, the prospect of sweating it out on a cardio machine surrounded by meat heads is not all that enticing.

So it goes.

Summer

2005-06-20T22:45:00.000-05:00

Love summer in the Pacific Northwest. Today was ridiculously beautiful. Clear blue skies, no smog, 80 degrees. It's almost 9 pm and the sun won't set for another half hour. Just awesome.

And I had to work.

And I haven't been wakeboarding in more than two months.

I am *jonesin* for some time on the water, y'all. And I may be in luck tomorrow if the weather stays nice. My dad introduced me this evening to a friend of his that lives on Lake Samish. He keeps his boat wet all summer and his son wakeboards. I'm putting my gear in my car tomorrow and I will be praying for an evening session on a glassy lake.

Tough Chick

2005-06-16T20:04:00.000-05:00

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you set a big goal, aren't afraid of hard work, and face challenges with a "bring it on" attitude. Exhibit A: Danielle Fisher, a local girl who recently became the youngest person to complete the Seven Summits (the tallest peaks on each of the seven continents). Very, very cool. You can learn more about her journey at her website, in our local paper, or tomorrow morning (Friday 6/17) on the Today show.

One year

2005-06-12T22:30:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe I’ve been at this blogging thing for a year now. It was about 15 months ago that I began working in earnest towards my goal of enrolling in an MBA program, a goal that I set 6 years ago. And in just 3 short months, I’ll be back in school starting the next phase of my goal…completing my program and pursuing my dream career. Pretty damn cool when you stop and think about it. I’m really glad I have my blog, so that I can read back and reflect on what has transpired. It’s also been very rewarding to be part of the online community.

What I haven’t done yet, and what I promised to do awhile ago, is a review of my application process and the outcome. I think this is the perfect time do it since it was around this time last year that my preparations began, and maybe those preparing for Fall 2006 applications will find a post-mortem of my application process useful. What I am not going to do is tell people what to do or give advice. Every applicant is unique and so should be his or her application strategy. What worked for me may not work for others, and vice versa. I’m just going to use this post to do a sort of self-assessment, and I think in another year-in-review post I’ll link to the highlights & lowlights. I didn’t participate in any feedback sessions so these thoughts are all just my opinions.

What I did well:

1. Rocked the GMAT. I took it during my senior year of undergrad and I think that definitely worked in my favor. I was in the studying/school frame of mind, I had time and energy to take full practice tests (the most critical piece of my GMAT prep), and material was fresh in my mind. I’m not sure that I could post the same score today, in fact I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t. Five years of corporate life may have added to my practical experience, but it’s been a bit of a brain drain on the other facets of knowledge. I’m also glad I didn’t have to worry about studying for and taking the test while researching programs, drafting essays, and working 50 hours a week. There are just not enough hours in the day.

2. Got involved with things that interest me and stayed involved. This applies both professionally and personally. I sought out new and different projects at work, but I stuck with the same employer, one that’s know for a rigorous hiring process and good development programs. I stayed involved with my sorority, volunteering for leadership positions that would help fill in the management gap in my profile since I have no formal people management experience.

3. Supported my goals with a backbone. What I mean by that is I’m dreaming big, but I have realistic expectations for an MBA’s role in the process of getting there and I demonstrated a clear understanding of the challenges I’ll be facing. My big goal is broken into smaller goals, which are further broken down into specific activities and experiences I’ll need to get where I’m going, particularly those that can be obtained by completing an MBA program.

4. Visited the programs I was interested in, or at least attended every information session possible. When people said it was an important way to differentiate the programs, I didn’t realize how important until I was deciding between admission offers and could reflect back on my *personal* experiences, not just the experiences of others or the pretty brochures the programs sent me.

5. Didn’t allow too many cooks in the kitchen. Sure, I was seeking advice from anyone who had knowledge about MBA programs and I was addicted to reading the blogs and the MBA forums. I also got an application strategy consultation from Clear Admit fairly early in the process, which helped me to figure out what to focus on and how I should position myself. Filling out their questionnaire alone went a long way toward helping me get a coherent train of thought for my applications. But when it came time to actually write each application, it was pretty much me and only me. I sought my mom’s proofreading help, but specifically asked her to focus on just the spelling and grammar because I wanted my applications to be my voice, my story, without outside influence.

6. Didn’t over-prepare for interviews. I hate canned answers and I hate sounding like a robot. All I did for each interview was read over my resume and my application essays the night before and the day of my interview. That’s it. It kept me sounding natural and it also kept me from stressing out too much or over-analyzing.

What I could have done better:

1. Eliminated procrastination. I should have set a better application schedule from the get-go and stuck to it. I definitely rushed some elements. When I start up at the GSB in the fall, I need to get a handle on my predilection for frittering away time in the face of a big project.

2. Completed my back-up application first (McCombs), rather than one of my top choices (Kellogg). Reading back over my applications and remembering back on my interviews, which Kellogg was my first completed for both, my first ones were my weakest ones.

3. Sucked it up and completed 6 applications in the first round, instead of stubbornly holding onto the limit of 5 I placed on myself. I would have been better off if my Wharton app had been in with all my others, and it was my procrastination and laziness that got the better of me.

4. Not have gone into my Wharton visit & interview somewhat cocky and apathetic. It took place after my scholarship news from Chicago & UCLA Anderson, and I really liked both of those programs and felt pretty certain I would end up at one or the other no matter what happened with Wharton. Even so, I should have gone into my Wharton trip with a better attitude and a more open mind, instead of undermining my application the way I did. That was stupid.

5. Not let my shing in 2000 mess with my confidence and cause me to play it too safe. Looking back, I probably should have skipped the apps to McCombs & Haas and instead gambled on HBS and/or Stanford.

6. Saved more money over the past 5 years. Sure, I’ve been putting plenty away in my 401k, but this process requires cash money…a lot of it. My cash savings is pretty much spoken for at this point, between application fees, school visits, moving expenses, etc etc. There’s not much left over for fun things like pre-MBA travel. I feel a bit like I’m missing out and that sucks. At least I’ve been pretty good about paying off my debt and I’ll be headed to school with no car payment and a very low revolving credit card balance.

Anyway, that’s the good, the bad, and the ugly as far as I’m concerned. All-in-all, I think everything turned out A-O-K and I’m really looking forward to the next two years at Chicago GSB.

Travel

2005-06-09T10:28:00.000-05:00

Jeez, everywhere I turn I'm reading about somebody else's worldly travels. There are so many bloggers traveling this summer before school (Iceman, PowerYogi, DirtyMartini, and Le Voyageur, to name a few), and I'm getting travelogue emails from an Indian friend who is headed to NYU Stern in the fall but is currently kicking it with some German chicks in Cuba. I am green with envy. I wish I had saved more time & money for travel this summer. Not just for fun and the experience, but so that I have a more interesting answer to the question everyone will be asking in the fall "What did you do over the summer?" than "Well, I lived with mom & dad, worked with mom & dad, and got fat from all of the home cooking."

But in the nick of time, I get an email from the Chicago GSB '07 Yahoo Group. Evidently, the Ski Club is planning a ski/snowboarding trip for the winter holiday break. Cool, that's right up my alley. To Vail. For a week. For under a grand. Woo-freaking-hoo. This is exactly why I asked for a little more money than my personal budget required on my loan applications, because I may have missed out on summer traveling but I sure as hell will be traveling during winter & spring break.

I have great timing

2005-06-07T21:30:00.000-05:00

Just found out this afternoon that my former employer is closing the San Diego office, sometime between Q3 2005 and Q1 2006. Although I may have missed out on some severence $$$ that may have helped during school, I'm not sure exactly what my eligibility would have been (since my impending departure was already widely known), so rather than being bummed, I'm happy as hell not to be there as the shit is hitting the fan. Many of us saw the need for the shit to hit the fan and figured it was eventually going to happen, we just didn't know exactly when the execs were going to nut up and pull the plug. I've talked to my friends who are impacted, and most feel confident that things will work out OK for them. It sounds like they are consolidating non-redundant functions to another office (in a cheaper location than San Diego) and eliminating redundant functions. So there are opportunities to transfer offices, assuming you're willing to leave San Diego. Anyway, IMO, it's the right business decision and it's about time they did it.

A little severence to subsidize school would have been nice though...

Update: the official press release, the AP's blurb, and the local take. Talked to more people last night, sounds like there were good things about the way the company handled it and not so good things. It also sounds like they cut severence to a third of what it used to be. I might have been eligible for two months. Yeah, I'm glad I left when I did, my sanity is worth more than two months. My heart goes out to those who lost their jobs, I hope everyone is able to land on their feet.

Another check off the to-do list

2005-06-06T00:02:00.000-05:00

Finished my financial aid application. I feel like I should have signed it in blood. Those are big numbers, even with the scholarship, this is some massive debt about to hit my credit report. Keep repeating the mantra...I'm making an investment in myself that will pay off in the long run. And I'm going to have a whole lot of fun in the process!

Saw two movies this weekend. Went to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with a friend on Friday night. Somewhat disappointing, but an OK chick flick. I enjoyed three of the four plot lines. The fourth sucked out much of my enjoyment of the movie. Went with my folks to see the latest installment of Star Wars this evening. I enjoyed it, despite the typical Lucus hokey dialogue and subpar acting. The story was good and I liked seeing the overall Star Wars tale come full circle.

I hate chain letters and their brethern

2005-06-04T14:19:00.000-05:00

Thanks a lot, Dave :) I've been tagged. At least it's a subject I like.

-Total number of books owned: No way to say for sure, since my cache of hardbacks & paperbacks is in storage in Chicago, with the exception of the few titles I planned to read this summer and a couple of textbooks I planned to revisit in preparation for b-school (as if that's really going to happen). I would guesstimate my library is around 250.

-Last book I purchased: For someone else, The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, a board book for my friend's son for his first birthday party this afternoon. For myself, God's Politics by Jim Wallis, a book I picked up at Costco based on a recommendation from my hairdresser. I really like his ideas, but it's not a book I can read in one sitting, so I'm reading it a chapter or two at a time in between other books.

-Last book I read: Since I traveled this past week (and I always read more when traveling) I've read two. Like Dave, I read State of Fear by Michael Crichton on the way to Chicago, based on a recommendation from my dad (plus he had a hardcover copy so I didn't have to buy it). I liked it, it was a fast read and I liked his critique of the media/propaganda circus. Coming back to Seattle, I read The Enemy by Lee Child. It was just OK. The plot was pretty good and I liked the twists (although I saw a couple coming, which takes some of the fun out of it). What I didn't like was the actual writing/language. It was done in the first person, and I've found that with first person books, I either love it or hate it depending on the primary character's voice and the way the author writes that voice. I could see some of the reasons behind why the author wrote him the way he did, but I didn't find myself enjoying it or really rooting for him. I just wanted to know what happens next and that kept me turning the pages.

Five books that mean a lot to me (in no particular order):
-The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay: Race relations, poverty, coming of age, perseverance & triumph...this book covers it all and it's a great story. Plus, I love books set in foreign places.
-Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel: A fairy-tale-esque romantic novel slash cookbook. Kind of a fable. Better than the movie, I've read it at least 5 times.
-The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George: The first historic fiction book I ever read that got me hooked on the genre. I'm blown away by the amount of research she did to stay accurate to the history while giving us a fictional insider's perspective on the man who had 6 wives (and beheaded two of them!)
-What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles: The ultimate career planning & job hunting book, updated annually.
-The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein: I love all of his books, and they remind me of being a kid and visiting my grandparents (who gave me & my brother The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, and Where the Sidewalk Ends). This one is my favorite because of it's message about giving and loving unconditionally.

On that note, I'm going to *give* everyone a break and not tag anybody. But it's not a purely altruistic move, because as I stated from the outset...I hate chain letters and the like. So really I'm being a spoil-sport and breaking the chain. Neaner, neaner.

Living arrangements for the fall? Check!

2005-06-01T18:52:00.000-05:00

Back from Chicago. Another great visit, can't wait to move there in August (actual date still TBD). Toured the potential apartment, met the potential roommate...it's going to work out fabulously! The place is huge, and while it's very near the "L" (read: you can hear the trains, it's the one drawback of the place, but it didn't keep me awake), the amenities, location, and price cannot be beat. And my roomie and I are a good match. So I'm really relieved to have that figured out, definitely worth the trip.

Now I just have to finalize my budget and get that darn financial aid paperwork out the door ASAP!

The Contender

2005-05-26T01:59:00.000-05:00

I've been religiously watching The Contender for the past few months. It's a great show. The boxers are all likeable, entertaining people who you want to root for, and the storytelling & editing is fantastic, signature Mark Burnett (see also: Survivor & The Apprentice). The Contender season finale Tuesday night featured two great fights. My summary wouldn't do it justice, so I'll just link to my favorite sports columnist for a summary of the finale, and a column he wrote earlier in the season (subscription required). I really hope this show returns for another season. And if you haven't caught an episode yet, try to catch the re-runs on MSNBC.

Frustration is...

2005-05-26T00:40:00.000-05:00

trying to teach your mother how to format an Excel spreadsheet. Especially when she would rather you just wrote down a detailed list of instructions. She'd rather just blindly follow a recipe than actually learn the how & why behind each step for future use. That way when the shit inevitably hits the fan, and she can't get it bolded & aligned exactly the same way, she can blame your crappy incomplete instructions and absolve herself.

My latest pet peeve: People who click the mouse once, and when it doesn't produce their desired result, click-click-click twenty times rapid fire style and act surprised when the result is something undesirable.

I love my mom :)

You got served

2005-05-23T20:04:00.000-05:00

In my family's debt collection business, we make every effort to work with consumers (aka debtors) to help them pay their bills. But when all of our efforts have failed and the consumer isn't acting in good faith to handle their debt, we use legal means to resolve the issue. If we have a judgment against them, we're always on the lookout for an asset, such as a bank account or wages to garnish. Today, I served writs of garnishment to a few banks. That's the part of the business I really enjoy...finding people that don't want to be found, and finding assets they don't want us to find. Then I get to swoop in with a bank garnishment, yee haw. People don't realize how much dishonored checks and past due accounts can damage the bottom line of a small business, and I think it's cool that we're able to help these businesses recover their bad debt. Some people see bill collectors as the bad guys; I see the more heroic aspects of the role.

On that note, I'd like to clear up a few preconceived notions about bill collectors. I don't own a set of brass knuckles, I don't know how to break kneecaps, and my dad's name is not Guido.

I'm so disappointed

2005-05-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

Since I'll be in Chicago this weekend, I'm going to miss the Sasquatch Research Conference. Damn. Those fury fellas are out there somewhere, I'm tellin ya. One in particular shows up regularly at Key Arena, and he puts down a mean 360 dunk.

I was up in bigfoot country on Saturday, hanging out with my friend's family in upper Skagit County in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. We had a BBQ and rode their quads all over the property around Baker Dam. It's pretty creepy to hang out at the base of a dam, thinking about what would happen if it failed. It was fun to get up there again, it's so pretty and I hadn't been up to Baker Lake since a kegger during my senior year of high school. Plus, it just feels good to get dirty and get some fresh air.

Picture of Baker Lake, courtesy of the USFS.

I realize that one thing I'm really going to miss living in Chicago is mountains. As someone who grew up in the shadows of the Cascades, it was a bit unsettling to look out from the top of the John Hancock tower and see how flat as a pancake that part of the country is. Everywhere I've lived to date has been mountainous, or at least hilly...Western Washington, SE Washington, Central Virginia, Southern California (you could see mountains when the smog wasn't too bad). It'll be weird. Thank goodness there's a big body of water nearby, otherwise I'd be completely out of my element.

Mt. Baker from Bayview-Edison Road in the Skagit Valley. Photo by: Wade B Clark Jr, November 11, 2003.

MBA Applicant Bloggies

2005-05-18T10:16:00.000-05:00

Much like high school "superlatives", Clear Admit recently conducted a survey to recognize the best of blogging among this year's MBA applicant bloggers. Yours truly was nominated, and I let them know what blogs and posts I enjoyed the most and found the most useful. Clear Admit released the results today and I would like to say kudos to the cream of the crop. I was not surprised to see Dave, PowerYogi, & Brit-Chick leading the charge. For the full results, click here.

I think every MBA blog adds an invaluable new voice and perspective to this process. Each blog has little gems of information and support to make a process, that is normally stressful, competitive, and lonely, quite the opposite. I found priceless advice, insider info, support, and a laugh when needed, through the MBA applicant blogs. I have no doubt they helped me put together a more competitve application, not to mention maintain my sanity while awaiting decisions. Thanks bloggers!

Let me say that I was very pleased to be nominated, then very surprised and very flattered to finish in the Top 5 overall. I really enjoy writing this thing and hope to continue doing so for a long time. The fact that people actually enjoy reading this stuff is just icing on the cake. Thanks :)

Proof that I'm living in a small town

2005-05-18T00:49:00.000-05:00

I played bingo tonight. No joke. For the second time since I moved home no less. My friend J and her family go once a month for birthday bingo (if it's your birthday month, you get a lucky number and each time it's called you get $5). I didn't win jack. J didn't win at bingo either, but she coaxed $30 out of the penny slots. Fun times...really, it is kinda fun because we get goofy and get shushed by the old ladies.

Memorial Weekend Plans

2005-05-14T13:14:00.000-05:00

Booked my ticket to Chicago for Memorial Weekend to figure out my living
situation, hang out with friends, catch a game at Wrigley, etc. Should be fun, although it means missing out on the annual family & friends camping trip that I haven't been on 5 years (and I was kinda looking forward to going again). My parents have a big group of friends from high school & college that we've been camping with at least twice a year since forever (we're talking 10-15 families). Everybody used to be in tents, then as their incomes improved, most upgraded to motorhomes. We kids stayed in tents, of course, to get away from our lame parents during our teen years. Our parents would play cards and get drunk, and we'd get
drunk on whatever we could smuggle into our tents. We were bad kids :)

My mom and I went out to Thai food and a movie last night. We saw Kingdom of Heaven. We both thought it was pretty good. Ridley Scott was definitely making a not-so-subtle commentary on the current quagmire in the Middle East. Worth seeing in the theaters for the war scenes on the big screen with surround sound, so long as you're prepared for the barbarity of Medieval warfare.

I'm off to shop for my dad's birthday. He wears golf/polo shirts *all*the*time and the few favorites he keeps in rotation are just gross. Grease stains, faded shoulders, etc. He's looking pretty schlepy these days so my mom and I are only buying him clothes for his birthday.

Finally, we have a series

2005-05-13T17:03:00.000-05:00

After watching my Sonics get destroyed by San Antonio (both on the scoreboard and with injuries) in the first two games of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals, I was just hoping for a close game last night. They delivered that, and a win. It was close down to the wire and I was completely stressed out. Literally, my heart was trying to pound its way out of my chest. I was so wired that it took me a good 2 hrs after the end of the game to mellow out enough to go to sleep.

My grandma had back surgery this morning, and so far it sounds like this one was a success. She has been suffering from chronic back/nerve pain for almost 2 years now and her last surgery did almost nothing to improve the situation. She'll be 77 next month and surgery at her age is no joke. My grandpa called the office this morning to report that she came through with flying colors and the surgeon felt he found (& fixed) the real underlying problem this time. I hope he's right because it must be miserable to be in that kind of pain all the time. My mom and I are headed to the hospital after work for a visit.

Chicago apartment hunt

2005-05-10T23:17:00.000-05:00

Based on my two trips to Chicago, I've determined that I would most enjoy living on the north side of the city, even though that means commuting down to Hyde Park for class. I need nightlife and neighborhoods that have lots of personality, and I was really drawn to Lakeview & Lincoln Park. Plus, all the GSBers say everyone that doesn't live on the north side in 1Y moves up there in 2Y, so why not eliminate the additional move. I'm not into high rise living (feels too much like a dorm or hotel, in my opinion) so I've been looking at mid-rises, flats, rehabbed brownstones, and the like. All online mind you. Couple of sites I've found useful (not just for Chicago):

MBA Properties A free apartment locator service specifically for MBA students. Available for Columbia/NYU, Harvard/MIT, Kellogg/Chicago GSB, & Miami. You fill out a questionaire, they narrow down a list of properties that meet your needs, and they either take you on a tour if you're in town, or you can do a virtual tour online/over email. They also have a database you can search on your own. They seem like really cool people, and a current GSB student used them last year and gave them a strong endorsement.

Google Maps + Craigslist = Awesome What a genius idea. This is a great way to see exactly where the listings are so it's easier to eliminate apartments that are totally wrong and really zero in on apartments that are near your favorite places/landmarks.

However, I've done this research and now I've had a golden opportunity fall in my lap. My friends who live in Lakeview just moved into a new place that they love. It's a three flat of two bedroom apartments. The landlord lives on the bottom floor, they live in the middle, and two women live on the top floor. Turns out one of the gals upstairs is engaged and just bought a condo with her fiancee. They need to fill her spot around August 1st. It's a big two bedroom about 3 blocks from Wrigley Field, it has a sun deck, and my share would be $750-800/mo including partial utilities AND PARKING. This is a fantastic deal, too good to pass up. I had assumed I'd be living alone, I've been doing that the past 3 years and I figured it'd be easier and maybe worth the expense. This little opportunity has me rethinking that. My potential roommate is also a sports nut, has her MBA from Mizzou, and is a corp auditor who is traveling 60% of the time. In other words, PERFECT. Maybe too good to be true. So I'm trying to find a cheap ticekt to get to Chicago for Memorial Weekend, hang out with my friends, meet their upstairs neighbors & landlord, check the place out, and see what happens. If it's a match, then I'm done. If it's not, I can spend the weekend checking out other places too.

Haven't blogged much about financing my MBA, probably because I don't find it that fun/interesting. It's just one more hoop to jump through, and U of Chicago has made it pretty easy. U of C has their own loan program that has competitive rates, low to no fees, and it's very very simple. And the GSB Financial Aid officer rocks. So I'm not worried about it. I just wish they'd release the final figures for 2005-2006 tuition so I can finish my budget and send off my loan paperwork. Word is tuition will increase from the 36K neighborhood to the 38K neighborhood. Lovely.

I suppose I'm overdue in writing a "lessons learned from the application process" blog to sort of summarize my experience, where and why I think I succeeded/failed, etc, especially since applicants for Fall 2006 are sure to be gearing up soon. Maybe I'll put something together for my blogiversary in June, a retrospective of the year's highlights and lowlights. I'll also probably try to figure out the direction of this blog now that I'm no longer an MBA applicant. Is this an MBA blog, about my specific program and/or course of study and/or career track? Is it a personal diary with no limits? Is it a way to keep my friends and family up to date? Is it for entertainment purposes, or just a brain dump and a way for me to keep a written history of my life? I'm not sure yet, but it's something I'm thinking about, as are many of this year's MBA applicant bloggers. It'll be interesting to see where our paths lead, beyond just the programs we'll be attending in the fall.

Flashback

2005-05-09T12:08:00.000-05:00

Saturday afternoon, I judged tryouts for my high school’s dance team, a team I was on all four years of HS. I’ve only been back to my high school a handful of times since I graduated 9 years ago. (Crap…that means it’s reunion time next summer…note to self: start the diet now.) It was a trip. I first tried out for the team as an eighth grader THIRTEEN YEARS AGO! Doesn’t seem like that long ago. It made me miss being part of a team, dancing all the time, learning & perfecting new routines, performing at games, going to camp & competitions, etc. We had such a good time.

My friend J also judged, and during a break told me she had someone she wanted to set me up with. This is the friend who is hoping I meet someone local this summer, fall in love, and never leave….0.0001% chance of that happening. Anyway, I’m open to being set up, going on dates with new boys is fun, so I ask her what he’s like. “Well, he’s single, he’s a cop, he’s single, he’s not hot but he’s not bad looking, he’s single, he has a 14 year old kid, he’s single, I think he’s taller than you, he’s single, he’s friends with my neighbor (whom J can’t stand?), he’s nice, and oh, he’s single.” So other than the fact that he’s single, are there any compelling reasons why you think we’d be a good match? Thanks, but no thanks. I know it’s weird to be almost 28 and never married here in our pretty little valley, but getting out of the valley means your taste in men becomes a lot more discriminating. Being single and having steady employment are only two of the many minimum requirements to get on this ride. And the older I get, the more discriminating I get. Ladies, repeat after me…there is nothing wrong with being single. It’s fun to date and enjoy your 20’s with friends. Why hurry up the rest of your life, it’ll come soon enough.

As for my concern with the valley rumor mill, turns out it’s not unfounded. My friend J told me that one of my good friends from high school K (whom I ran into at the gym a couple weeks ago) even asked her if there was more to the story of me being home than what I told her. Ah, life in a small town…is it August yet?

Family biz

2005-05-05T10:35:00.000-05:00

Last night, my dad & I left the office around 5 pm while my mom worked late. (Our commute is about 25 miles and they both have company cars. I ride with one or the other, so I'm at the mercy of their schedules.) Anyway, I came in this morning to find that the things I left on my desk had been moved. My mom felt compelled, for whatever reason, to "tidy up" my desk. Not that it was untidy, mind you. I had a couple of small piles of work in progress, nothing with information on it that couldn't be left out...by no stretch of the imagination did it need to be "tidy'd up" by my mother.

Meanwhile, both of my dad's offices here have been declared disaster areas. We're working on applying for federal aid so we can begin the clean-up and reconstruction process. (Yes, he needs TWO offices for all of his clutter.)

This is what you get when two people who are complete opposites (a middle child who is anal about organization & process, the other an only child who lives & dies by the hang loose/organization be damned philosophy) have been married for 33 years and have run a business together for the last 15. Frankly, I don't know how they've managed not to kill each other by now. They certainly drive each other crazy, and are on track to driving me crazy before I leave for Chicago.

Such is my life for the next few months.

Runaway Bride

2005-05-02T22:12:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest article about her on CNN.com for those who haven't heard.

My theory: She met someone (online or somewhere) and rather than break off her engagement like a normal person, she decided to runaway with the new person. So she changes her hair and hops a bus to rendezvous in Las Vegas. Only something went foul with the rendezvous (either the person she was meeting didn't meet her expectations, or she didn't his/hers, either way someone wanted out) so she had to go back to Plan B, AKA the dude she was supposed to marry. But she can't go back without an explanation that doesn't lay the guilt on her, so she concocts the kidnapper story...only she's in way over her head at this point since her actions indicate premeditation. Whoops.

Why do people insist on taking the hard way out, creating layer after layer of deceit? Wouldn't it have been simpler and kinder to all involved to be honest and say, look, I have doubts/cold feet, let's postpone? Her poor family. All the quotes from the family & church friends have been pretty kind to her; I think it was a town member who said he was glad she was safe but that this was an act of the most extreme selfishness. I agree. I hope the district attorney sends her the bill, and I hope her family makes HER pay for it (and the wedding bills).

Radio stations

2005-05-02T21:57:00.000-05:00

Another interesting aspect of my move from So-Cal to Western WA...

In San Diego, I had a selection of radio stations that included San Diego/Tijuana crossovers that featured a mix of English, Spanish, and Spanglish. They were also required to play the Mexican National Anthem a couple of times a day (usually in the wee hours) and announce their call letters in Spanish. Now, I live closer to Vancouver than Seattle so I have a selection of Canadian stations to choose from. I get to hear the temperature forecast in degrees centigrade, hear "about" pronounced "aboot" and I have options in Chinese and French.

Sweet

My not-so-little little brother

2005-05-01T15:49:00.000-05:00

Just got home from Bellevue. My parents and I spent the weekend down there watching my younger brother & his girlfriend compete at the Emerald Cup. It is the premier bodybuilding competition in the Pacific NW. It was his first show ever, and his girlfriend's second, and while neither of them won, they both did really well and had a lot of fun.

My brother has been wanting to do this for several years and has been working really hard towards this show over the past 12 months (kinda like me & b-school). He's about 6'3" and by Christmas he had bulked up to about 285 lbs, then in January he started dieting to lean down for this show. He weighed in this weekend around 240 and looked absolutely shredded. He's still got work ahead of him, and at 25 years old, he's just a baby in the sport...he's only just begun.

I'm so proud of him. He has come a long ways since his high school days. We used to be very different people (I'm the typical oldest child overachiever, he's the rebelious youngest child), but as time goes on we've become more alike. We may have different goals, but we have the same drive now. He has bad knees like me. When he was in school, attending classes & doing homework were simply a means to the end of participating in sports. When he blew out his knee, his days of football, basketball & soccer were pretty much done, so there was no point to school as far as he was concerned. He bummed around doing odd jobs & manual labor, but in the past couple of years he's found his home in the gym, and is now the general manager of a beautiful fitness club and is on track to be a district manager. Plus it's given him a great outlet & the contacts to pursue his bodybuilding dream. He's very ambitious and works hard toward his goals. It's an inspiration.

I'm off to the gym!

PS--My brother can kick your brother's ass ;)
PPS--Another funny/random run-in (small world part 2)--the guy who won last year's Emerald Cup Light Heavy & Overall Men's championship was there last night--it's a guy who was in my freshman biology class at WSU, I was in a study group with him. I remember him having to eat plain tuna & brown rice, nice to see he stuck with it and had some success.

2005-05-01T15:48:00.000-05:00

My "Little" Brother, Emerald Cup Body Building Competition, Super Heavy Weight Division, ready for quarter turns

2005-05-01T15:46:00.003-05:00

Back double bicep

2005-05-01T15:46:00.002-05:00

Front bicept & chest

2005-05-01T15:46:00.001-05:00

Front lat spread

2005-05-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

Front tricep

2005-05-01T15:45:00.001-05:00

Front chest & arms

2005-05-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

My brother's girlfriend in the Figure competition

Still here

2005-04-27T02:23:00.000-05:00

Nope, I didn’t drop off the face of the earth. Just busy and still trying to get in the groove of a new routine. Creature of habit, you know? I used to have a little bit of time to post in the morning, and some quiet alone time at night, those were my usual blog times. Still trying to figure out where it fits in best now.

Not much new to report on the MBA front. Received my financial aid packet last week. I meant to fill it out this weekend, but that task fell through the cracks. The magnitude of the debt I’m about to incur is really starting to hit home, but I still feel confident that this is a worthwhile investment I’m making in myself.

The weather has been awesome here. Mother Nature is doing her best to avoid giving me reasons to miss San Diego. It’s been sunshine and near 70 degrees for the past week. Spent most of the past weekend outdoors. The Tulip Festival has been going on all month so there has been a lot to do around town. Saturday, I hit the Fly In at the regional airport with some friends, saw some really cool airplanes & acrobatics. Sunday, my friend and I took her baby out for a nice 2.5 mile walk at Washington Park in Anacortes. It was a perfect spring day and the Puget Sound views were awesome.

It’s still weird to be home. I come from a small town and I was one of the handful of people who left to go to college and didn’t immediately come back after graduation. Many people just stick around here, get married, and start pumping out the kids. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just soooo not me. The weekend before last, my friend and I went to the street fair and ran into a classmate of ours and her 7 year old daughter. I looked at my friend and said “We’re not old enough to have kids that age, are we?” Yeah, actually, we are. Egad. It’s funny though, I kinda want to see some old faces, but at the same time I don’t. While I don’t totally care what they think, I still sorta do, and I care about what gets passed on down the grapevine. Running into somebody and giving them the 30 second spiel of why I’m home and what I’m planning to do, when most people here don’t know what an MBA is let alone what I’m going to do with it, lord knows what stories will be produced. I’m living at home (having moved back from San Diego), working for mom & dad, unmarried & no kids…I’m sure the grapevine will have me knocked up, strung out, and broke. And maybe a lesbian for icing on the cake!

My new gig working for the folks is going well. Hit the ground running, and although it’s not particularly challenging work and I spend a good portion of my day putting out various fires, I have started some interesting projects. Debt collection is anything but glamorous, but there are some interesting aspects to the business. I’ve been working on updating the website and creating a better keyword list for search engine optimization. I also did some client analysis that I was pretty proud of and my dad was really happy with it, so we’re putting our heads together to figure out how to incorporate it into our marketing efforts. And we’ve got another piece of analysis in the hopper since the first piece of analysis got us thinking about modifying our commission structure.

Handling client services is also flexing a professional muscle I haven’t used in a long time…sales. Sure, you learn and use some negotiation /influence type skills in the corporate world, but that’s completely different than working the phones or pounding the pavement, teaching people about your product/service and helping them see how it fills their needs. So far I’ve mainly been working with b2b warm leads, but I’ll be ready to start drumming up fresh leads once I’ve got some process improvements implemented and freed up some time.

I have renewed respect for my parents, and anybody else who runs a small business, particularly after working for a large corporation. There’s no HR department or IT department; my dad handles all of that. There’s no Accounting department or Legal department, with CPAs and attorneys on staff; my mom handles the majority of that in house and has professionals on retainer sign off on the end product. It’s pretty amazing what they do…and neither of them graduated from college.

My dad and I had a bizaro/Twilight Zone moment today. He called the company's collection software provider for a question and got misdirected to a guy he hasn't talked to in a long time. They start chatting and the guy mentions that his son is moving to Chicago in the fall. My dad gets curious and asks why. Turns out his son is also headed to the GSB this fall. What are the odds? How random is that?

It's a small, small world.

Homecoming

2005-04-10T23:29:00.000-05:00

It's good, but weird, to be home. I'm sure this is a topic that will be explored in great detail over the next few months. For now, I'll leave it at that.

Day 2 of my journey home (aka Friday) will forever be remembered as Wakechick's Adventures in Installing Tire Chains. I wanted to hit the road by 6 am in order to time my drive so that I'd dodge rush hour traffic in Portland, Tacoma, and Seattle. Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn't cooperate and the weather forecasters completely blew it. I walked out of my hotel to find it pouring rain. This was in Redding, which meant I had two mountain passes to get over in the first couple hundred miles, and of course rain in Redding meant snow in the mountains. Sure enough, 20 minutes into my drive, rain turned to snow, and 20 minutes after that it started sticking to the road. It was a white-knuckle first hour of driving since the snow plows/sanders hadn't been out yet. Made it safely over the first pass, but learned they had closed all of I-5 earlier in the morning at the next pass and had just opened it back up with the requirement of chains. UGGGGHHHHH. In all the drives I made over the Cascades to get back and forth between home and WSU, I always had a 4WD vehicle equipped with studded tires and never needed chains. Here I was in a 2WD vehicle, by myself, with no experience installing chains. I figured it was better to be safe than sorry, and ponied up the $90 for chains. It was snowing pretty hard and I didn't want to get stuck in Yreka, and nobody seemed to know what was going to happen weather wise. So I set about installing the chains outside the store in case I had problems. {profanity warning} I have never been so frustrated, and cold, and dirty, and naturally by the time I got those fuckers on I had to take them off because the snow had let up and the DOT had cleared the road. I would have been better off sitting down at Denny's for some coffee and pancakes, I would have saved $85 and my sanity. Oh well, so it goes. Now I have chains and know how to install them. That may come in handy in Chicago. I got back on the road, turned on some very angry hard rock music and worked out my frustration, and continued on home. Ended up rolling into the old driveway around 8 pm, though not before stopping at the store for some cold beer.

Saturday I had to clean out my old room. I had some old clothes and random stuff to be saved, given away, or thrown away. I realized that I went to high school during a very unfortunate time, fashion-wise. Especially during the PNW grunge thing. Just say no to baggy, shapeless flannel. My purge inspired my mom to do the same with her closet (just say no to suit jackets with matching shorts in her case). We were loading up the car to go to Goodwill and my dad got inspired to clean out the garage. This was a miracle of epic proportions. My folks have a two car garage that only has one car parked in it at any time, the rest filled with junk. The garage gets my dad's attention once in a blue moon. My mom and I treated my dad like he was a pitcher in the midst of a no-hitter...any wrong movement or word might distract him from his current mission, so we just let him do his thing and tried to stay out of the way. We ended up taking two loads to the dump and one big load to Goodwill.

Today was pretty lazy, watched the Masters. What a finish. My mom and I were rooting for DiMarco to pull it off, and he did make quite a turnaround, from posting a 41 on the last 9 holes of his 3rd round this morning to taking Tiger to a playoff hole. Pretty amazing to mentally put that first ugly nine behind you, and play the next 18 so well. Tiger's birdie on 16 was the shot of the tournament.

Back to work tomorrow, should be interesting....

On the road

2005-04-08T00:21:00.000-05:00

Well, technically I'm in a hotel room, but I'm halfway home after spending 10 hours on the road. Damn, California is a long state! So far so good though. The movers rocked yesterday. The driver for my shipment is a guy named Elvis who lives in Nashville...how classic is that? Unfortunately, he didn't look the part (that would have been just too good), but every time I went outside to check on progress or offer them water he would say "uh oh, here comes Trouble." I guess my reputation preceeded me! Anyway, they showed up at 7:15 am and my apartment was empty by noon. Considering I hadn't packed a thing (other than the suitcases coming with me), that's pretty fantastic. Love love LOVE the full service move! Hate hate HATE cleaning :( By 5:30 my apartment was clean, but I was a sweaty, filthy mess in need of a shower and a cold beer. Hit Old Town one last time with my friends for some beers, margaritas, and tacos, then crashed at their place. Didn't say "goodbye" to San Diego...said "see you soon" (likely 4th of July and again in October for a friend's wedding) and hit the road just before 10 am. Hit the LA County line an hour later, and naturally, I encountered my first bit of traffic. It cleared up after a while and a half hour later I hit the LA City line...and again, I was met with stop and go traffic. Not really a surprise since that's where the junction of the 5, the 10, and the 101 is. What's a drive through LA without traffic? (Answer: Nonexistent). Smooth sailing after that. I had my sunflower seeds, a cooler with cold sodas, XM radio, a few audiobooks on contraband CDs (burned from library copies, per Zachary Emig's suggestion) and mostly sunshine the whole way. I arrived in the Shasta area as the sun was setting...the Siskiyous at dusk were very pretty. The tall, rugged snow covered mountains make me feel closer to home already.

Another 10 hours tomorrow....

(PS--I wanted to post maps of this little journey, but BloggerBot/Picassa is MIA. No dice. But it's a real simple trip. Get on I-5 in San Diego. Drive 1322 miles. Get off I-5. No sightseeing and/or coastal driving this trip, I'm all about speed. I'm by myself, and having grown up on the west coast in a family that likes to take RV trips, I've seen most of the coast a few times over.)

Surreal

2005-04-05T12:28:00.000-05:00

Today is my last day working for “the man”, and April 11th I start working for “my old man”. Feels weird, hasn’t really hit me yet. I’ve never quit a job before. That’s not to say I’ve been fired or laid off from previous jobs; I’ve never had that happen either. Every job I’ve had before was a summer gig/internship that had a predetermined start & end date based on my school schedule. I’ve worked for the same company (Capital One) since I graduated from WSU. It was my first real-grown-up-I’m-an-adult-now job. I have very mixed emotions about my last day. There are times when I have loved working for CapOne, and there have been mornings when I have stayed in bed longer than I should, wishing I worked somewhere (anywhere) else (or that I was independently wealthy and on my way to St Tropez). I think everyone goes through that with a job. It’s called “work” for a reason, and they pay you for a reason. Very few people are fortunate enough to have true passion for their jobs. The rest of us just have to try our best to find something we like enough (and that pays enough) to spend the majority of our time doing, and when our energy and drive for it starts to falter, we seek change. That’s why I took a transfer from Virginia to San Diego, and that’s why I’m going to business school this fall.

However, major life changes in general are bittersweet. Whether it’s moving, starting a new job, going back to school, getting married, having a baby…there’s excitement about the new adventure, the next chapter, but there’s also a sense of loss for the lifestyle, people, or place you are leaving behind. I’m excited to have the chance to spend some time at home and help my folks out, but I’m sad to leave San Diego and say goodbye to some great friends.

What I’ll miss about San Diego

My friends, of course
Palm trees
Sunset over the Pacific
Year round average temps near 70
Wakeboarding year round
Fish tacos from South Beach
Fresh tortillas and awesome margaritas from Old Town Mexican Café
The lunch specials at Rocky’s and Bronx Pizza
Cheap baja lobster down in Rosarito, Mexico (can you tell I’m a foodie?)
Living within walking distance of Mission Bay
Having my own personal fireworks show every night of the summer, courtesy of Sea World (a great way to end a date)
Street Scene
4th of July on the beach with a half million of my closest friends
Playing in the waves, drinking beer on the beach
That it’s socially acceptable to ride a granny bike (AKA beach cruiser)

The movers come tomorrow to pack up my stuff and send it on to Chicago. Thursday morning I start my 1300 mile journey home. I will probably post one more time before I leave, then I’ll be MIA for a few days until I get home and get settled in. I’m definitely going to keep blogging during summer and throughout my 2 year adventure at Chicago GSB. Stay tuned, y’all.

Another good one

2005-04-01T14:28:00.000-06:00

From ChiBus, GSB to relocate to South Beach (via Linda at Accepted)

Wish it were true! (eh, not really, I like Chicago, but I still have aprehensions about winter)

Foolish

2005-04-01T11:47:00.000-06:00

I was planning to come up with some clever trickster post this morning in honor of April Fools Day, but I don't think I can top the guys at Clear Admit. Nice work, Graham & Eliot!

Deposit, sent and received

2005-03-29T15:27:00.000-06:00

In all my posting about this past weekend, I forgot to mention that last Thursday, I made it official with a $1000 check Fed Ex'd to Hyde Park...Chicago, I hope you're ready because here I come.

The beginning of the end

2005-03-29T01:24:00.000-06:00

Saturday was an awesome, long day that started shortly after dawn. My alarm went off at 6:30 am and I was totally out of it..."what f'n day is it and why is my alarm going off?" Ah yes, wakeboarding! I picked up A. and we met B. and his daughter at Lake Elsinore at 8:30. It was such a beautiful today and several other wakeboarding friends were also hitting the lake, so it was a very social day. The wind was down and conditions were pretty good, so we all had some nice sets. Even though the sun was out and the air temp was near 70, we still sported the dry suit, which is kinda like wearing a big baggy garbage bag with seals around your wrists, ankles, and neck. It's funny because the air that gets trapped inside is warmed by your body, so when you jump in the cold water it expands and the damn drysuit blows up and makes you look like the Michelin man, until you burp it. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get one last ride in So-Cal this weekend before I head north.

Saturday evening was my official farewell party. A few of my friends are out of town next weekend, so we had the official party this weekend even though this whole next week and a half will be my farewell party tour of San Diego. We met up at PB Bar & Grill around 4 pm to get things started with some beers and the Arizona-Illinois game. We had a pretty good turnout and it was happy hour so our tabs weren't too out of control. They only forced two shots on me, so it was pretty easy to control the pace of alcohol consumption and not get sick (and not have a hangover for Easter Sunday). As I said in a previous post, we ended the night at Sandbar and I was passed out in my own bed by 1 am. Not too shabby.

For Easter Sunday, we got a group together for Beers & Brats at the Bay. Played some Washers, played some Bocce, had some friendly wagers (one guy fit 15 Peeps in his mouth) and enjoyed good company.

Please help me root for Illinois this weekend. By some stroke of luck, I've managed to end up in contention in my NCAA pool. If they win, I finish in the money.

And if you haven't noticed, I've gotten more liberal about posting pics. My cover has been blown and I'm past the point of caring. All I ask is that you refrain from stalking me. I know it'll be a challenge, but I think y'all can handle it :)

2005-03-29T00:41:00.000-06:00

Me, getting my wake on Saturday morning.

2005-03-29T00:40:00.000-06:00

A, my fellow San Diego Wakechick, driving the boat. Sticking your tongue out is key to a good pull.

2005-03-29T00:38:00.000-06:00

A. getting some air. Note the ponytail, that thing is like a whip.

2005-03-29T00:32:00.000-06:00

California, land of blonde women. My farewell party, I'm a just a little sunburnt from wakeboarding Saturday morning.

2005-03-29T00:26:00.000-06:00

Sunset over the Pacific, one of the things I'll miss most about San Diego

Boys are shady

2005-03-28T22:45:00.000-06:00

At least they are here in San Diego. Here are three recent examples to support this observation.
Last weekend, while watching basketball at our favorite sports bar, a friend's boyfriend's friend was very obviously running game on me. He went so far as to compliment the combination of my ass and my favorite Lucky jeans. Normally, this would be flattering and no big deal, however this cat has previously made attempts on two other chicks in our little circle of friends. Thanks, but I'll pass.

Friday evening I dropped my car off at Best Buy to have my new XM Radio installed (got the Delphi SkyFi2...love it). I had two hours to kill and the last two Sweet Sixteen games were on, so I set off to find a nearby bar. Hooters was the closest, but I wasn't too keen on going in there as female, party of one. I walked a little farther to Seau's, found a seat at the bar, had some dinner and a couple of beers, and chatted with the folks on either side of me. A while later a group of jokers ended up next to me and insisted on displaying how embarassingly little they knew about NCAA basketball...instant turnoff, and they weren't cute to start with. Best Buy called to let me know the install was done, so I closed out my tab amidst much protesting from the boys..."it's early, you can't leave" "pick up your car and come back" "you have to hang out with us." Um...no. Just because a girl is sitting at a bar by herself, enjoying a Guinness and mind her own business, does not mean she wants to be picked up.

Saturday night we ended up at Sandbar around midnight. I was talking to a friend of a friend of a friend and he kept trying to make out with me. You'd think after I dodged two or three passes, he'd figure out that I was not going to kiss him. Nope. I was pretty drunk (my farewell party was that night, recap coming soon if crappy ass Blogger cooperates), but not drunk enough to make out with someone at a bar. Here comes the shady part. Fast forward to this evening....as I'm leaving the grocery store, I spy Make Out Boy heading into the store with a girl, looking very domestic. What a joker. He's lucky I was in my car and not walking out of the store as he walked in, I may have "slipped" and said something.

Boys are fun, but they sure are trouble.

Chicago it is

2005-03-24T09:14:00.000-06:00

Ding from Wharton. Oh well, so it goes. Glad I didn't wake up early to get the news. In a way, I'm relieved, makes things a lot simpler. If you haven't noticed, I'm really quite enamored with Chicago and my pro/con list favored the GSB (but I won't post it).

Deposit will be sent today and moving plans finalized. Feels great to finally say that.

Congrats to all the R2 Admits (shout out to Iceman...way to go), and best wishes to my fellow dingsters. Good luck to PowerYogi for LBS results!

Calm

2005-03-23T21:41:00.000-06:00

Just under ten and a half hours to go until Wharton releases R2 decisions, and I'm feeling eerily calm and at peace. Probably because I'm fortunate enough to already have a very pretty bird in hand that I like an awful lot. I recognize that that has much to do with my current mental state. I have no expectations for tomorrow. I feel like I submitted a strong application, that I had a good interview, and that my profile is competitive, but this is the MBA admissions process so it could go either way. Not sure what my reaction will be. If I'm dinged, I'll be bummed, but I think I'll also be relieved that I can finally make a formal decision about where I'll be spending the next two years kinda by default. Bruised ego, but an easy decision. If I'm admitted, the next question will be...is there any money involved, and if so, how does the offer measure up to Chicago's? However, I don't want to make this sound like a purely financial decision. It is but one factor. I feel very strongly about Chicago and it will take something special to turn my head. After my two recent trips (to Philly for my interview, then to Chicago for the admit weekend), I have to say I felt a much stronger connection to the community of the GSB and there are specific things I like about Chicago that you can't find at Wharton. I've been working on a pro/con list, and if I'm admitted I'll share it tomorrow.

Pleasant dreams and best wishes to all my fellow Wharton R2 applicants.

2005-03-22T13:33:00.000-06:00

So, did I mention that the only other Financial Analyst in our office is also resigning, a week after me? Yeah, all project/ad-hoc work has screeched to a halt and we are now in full on process documentation mode. [sarcasm] Whoopee, my favorite activity! [/sarcasm] We may get the first replacement in as soon as next week, which would be awesome for knowledge transfer purposes. My boss had been warning the higher ups that this was coming (one way or another with my planned departure in August) and they needed to be prepared with backfill, but heel dragging has resulted in a fairly critical situation. We shall see how it plays out. I feel bad that my new departure date is so close to my co-worker’s d-day, but I know I’m doing the right thing for my family and myself and that is what is important. The world is not going to stop spinning, business will continue after I leave.

I’m really starting to sweat the release of Wharton R2 decisions. Mainly because I’m trying to book my interstate move & storage and I need to tell them whether it’s going to Chicago or Philly. I’m going the full service mover route and since they jack up prices in the summer, I’m going to take advantage of current prices and do the interstate move on the front end, and then keep my stuff in storage until I’ve secured an apartment in city TBD. The nice thing is, when you do the interstate move, the window for delivery is pretty big (7-17 days during the summer) but if my stuff is stored locally in Chi or Phil, the delivery window shrinks to 2-3 days. Way more convenient. When I was pricing just an interstate move a couple of months ago, I budgeted $2500-3500. Now, with 4-5 months of storage tacked on it’ll be more like $3500-4000. Yikes…there goes a big chunk of my year end bonus, the rest I’ll save for first months rent & school expenses. I know some people are of the “sell it all, travel light” mentality, but I really like my furniture and have some nice pieces, a couple of antiques from my grandparents that are important to me. I’m sad to part with the money, but it’s better than parting from precious items.

I’m still setting aside a little of my bonus for fun stuff. Normally, I’d buy new wakeboarding or snowboarding gear, but this year I’m getting satellite radio. With a 1000 mile drive to the Pacific Northwest on the near horizon (I'm pretty much driving from Mexico to Canada), and a 2000-3000 mile drive to either Chicago or Philly later this summer, I’m thinking satellite radio would be an excellent investment. Now I just have to decide between XM or Sirius. I’m leaning towards XM because they carry all MLB games and they have a deal to carry Pac-10 football & basketball games. This is an important factor for me, so I can follow the Mariners and the Cougars when I’m not in Washington. Any readers who subscribe to either service, feel free to leave a comment with your experience/recommendations.

Busted Bracket

2005-03-19T14:10:00.000-06:00

Between yesterday's upsets of Syracuse and Kansas, and today's upset of Gonzaga, my bracket is officially toast. Pretty typical for me, I rock day 1 of the tournament, and by day 2 I'm done. So I guess now I'm rooting for Pacific to upset Washington and hoping that the slipper stays on for Cinderellas like Vermont & Bucknell. And I have a bunch of friends who are Arizona grads, so I guess I'm rooting for them too.

I still love tournament time. Wall-to-wall basketball, buzzer-beaters, overtime, upsets, win or go home. It's the most exciting playoff in sports.

And I'm glad I have TiVo so that I can watch the World Figure Skating Championships later tonight.

The wrath of St. Patrick

2005-03-18T11:08:00.000-06:00

Hangover. Ugh.

First Irish Car Bomb around 5 pm during halftime of the Arizona-Utah State game. Zero to drunk in 5.3 minutes. Really didn't need to do two more later in the evening, but buckled under peer pressure as my friends were saying, "You're leaving us in three weeks....DRINK, BITCH!"

Ugh. There is a reason why I normally don't drink on weeknights.

I have to go interview a candidate for my replacement. Gotta get my game face on.

Curveball, explained

2005-03-17T15:50:00.000-06:00

Short version: I put in 3 weeks notice to my boss on Tuesday and I'll be moving back to Washington state to start working at my parents' small business on April 11th.

Long version: I was chatting on the phone with my mom while driving home from wakeboarding Sunday afternoon. She sounded really stressed out and told me that the shit had hit the fan at work. They have had 3 people either quit or get fired in the last two weeks. When your ship is run by only 15 or so people, losing 3 can be crippling, especially when the loss is heaviest on the client services side of things. This is their livelihood, retirement, what have you, and things are not looking good. It didn’t take long before I offered to quit my job, put my crap in storage, and head north to help out. This is the one time in my life, with school on the horizon, that I can drop everything and help out without making much of a sacrifice career-wise. It was a no-brainer.

Mom was reluctant at first, fearing I was giving up too much, that it might put my MBA plans in jeopardy, that I won't have enough money saved before school considering they’ll only be able to pay me about half of what I’m making now. But as we talked through my current situation and the trade-offs, what I actually would and would not be giving up, she got pretty excited about my offer and said she’d talk to my father about it.

Fast forward to Monday morning. Long conversation with dad. Dad is very excited about the offer, asks me to sleep on it and really evaluate the financial implications before making a decision. At that point I was pretty much decided. I may be making more money right now, but I also spend a helluva lot more in San Diego than I will in small town Western Washington living at home. Plus, I’ve only worked for one company since undergrad, I don’t have any major projects in the pipeline for the next 5 months and I’m not getting promoted, certainly nothing to add to my resume. Either way, I’m treading water for the next 5 months until school starts. I can do it for a big corporation that really doesn’t care about me, or I can really make a difference for my parents’ business, drum up some new clients and implement some process improvements, have a bunch of new and different stuff to add to my resume and a completely different set of experiences to draw from when I’m in school. My efforts would have a purpose close to my heart, something I haven’t had from work in a long time.

While I’m sad to be leaving San Diego sooner than expected (who wouldn’t be?), I’m really excited by the opportunity to go home and contribute to the family business for a few months before school starts.

Curveballs

2005-03-15T21:20:00.000-06:00

Life throws them at you. Sometimes they are good, and sometimes they are bad, but what's important is how you react. I had a curveball thrown at me Sunday afternoon. Changes are afoot. I will likely be spending the next 5-6 months before b-school differently than I originally planned. Can't get into the specifics yet, but I assure you its good stuff, it's just keeping me occupied right now and I need to figure some things out before I broadcast it to the internet.

I guess it's a good thing I'm occupied so I have something to fixate on other than the release of Wharton R2 decisions...T minus 1 week 1 day 10 hours and change as of this posting. The nerves haven't started yet, but I expect they'll be in full force next week.

Finally got to go wakeboarding on Sunday. After a nearly 3 month hiatus, it was awesome to get back on the water, even though it made me feel completely out of shape. Even if you work out, there are little muscles you use to wakeboard that you can't train and absolutely let you know their displeasure about their use the next morning.

This weekend is sure to be crazy, starting on Thursday with the St Patty's Day/First Day of the NCAA Tournament doubleheader. May have to play hooky from work on Friday, and I think I need to block off an hour on my schedule tomorrow to finalize my brackets for the office pool. Can't believe the University of Washington Huskies got a #1 seed, but as a Washington State University alum that means all the more pleasure for me when they get upset.

It's Thursday already?

2005-03-11T01:37:00.000-06:00

(Well, almost Friday now)

Good lord, where has my week gone? Lots of excuses for being a lazy blogger. Busy at work, traveling in back-to-back weeks, got a friend in town this week, getting some stuff together for a yard sale on Saturday, etc etc etc. Haven't had time to do laundry, much less sit down and write up my trip to Chicago (and do it justice). So I'm forcing myself to put some thoughts together, not labor too much over it, while I watch Wazzu try to beat Stanford for the third time this year and advance to the Pac-10 conference semi-finals. Go Cougs! Thomas Kelati is on *FIRE* right now, draining 3s like nobody's business. Wish I was up at the Staples Center cheering them on in person.

So, Chicago. First off, let me clarify something from my previous post. 99% is less than 100%. The remaining 1% will be decided, either by Wharton or by me, on or about March 24th. How much weight that 1% carries remains to be seen.

Until then, I'm officially undecided.

Unofficially...I really like Chicago. A lot. I would be extremely proud and happy to be headed there this fall.

[Mid-post game update...1 minute to go, Schlatter just hit a 3 to put the Cougs ahead by one. Down the court, rejection by Verum...AWESOME, Go Cougs!]

I think Chicago (both the city and the GSB) fits me well. Things just felt right there, whether I was talking to current students or fellow admits, listening to faculty, or spending a night on the town with my friends. After reading blogger reports of the Kellogg & Wharton admit weekends, I was curious to see what Chicago would do. I wasn't too surprised to find it pretty light on style, heavy on substance. No rah-rah for the sake of rah-rah here.

[Speaking of rah-rah, 17 seconds to go, WSU is down by 2....ARRGGHHHH! C'mon Wazzu!!]

The majority of activities during the day Friday and Saturday were in the format of either a panel discussion or small group discussion. IMO, we spent a little too much time seated in a conference room with too few breaks, but there's only so many ways you can disseminate that much information in two days. And at times I wondered how much of this stuff will be repeated during pre-term activities. But those were my only complaints.

[Damn, Schlatter's 3 didn't fall. Stanford wins, 60-58. Stupid Cardinal, what kinda mascot is that anyway?]

I was very impressed by the faculty who participated in the weekend. They came off as approachable, extremely intelligent, open to new ideas, excited about teaching, and ready to crack a joke at any time. Some very witty folks (I must take a class from Ann McGill). I really got a taste for the classes available and I'm stoked that the program's flexibility will allow me to explore whatever my little heart desires. From the get-go. Very cool. Plus, I'm an econ nerd at heart, so the opportunity to take a class from Nobel prize winners like Fogel & Becker...well, that just rocks. I was also very impressed by the experiential learning programs that are available (management lab, private equity lab, new venture lab/challenge).

A couple of phrases used by the faculty stood out in my mind as an apt description of the GSB. It's the "intellectual equivalent of Manhattan" where "ideas compete and people collaborate." Sounds a little grandiose, but seriously, you could feel this vibe in everything we did, and I don't think it was affected or put on. The description seemed as genuine as the people who spoke it. I got the sense that this is a program with momentum. They've got incredible intellectual capital, a great brand, a beautiful new building, and recruiting just keeps getting better.

The faculty and staff are serious about making sure their students leave the GSB with a timeless education and a toolbox ready for whatever business issue comes their way. I feel like everyone at the GSB is serious about learning, and not just focused on getting a job and having fun. Chicago definitely appeals to my intellectual side. That's not to say that these folks don't know how to cut lose and have fun. At Friday's Liquidity Preference Function, there was a variety of liquids for consumption to satisfy whatever preference you may have. And it was pretty cool to see beer pong being played in the Winter Garden. That definitely earned bonus points in my book. Everyone I met was so cool. Based on the quant jock reputation, I figured there would be some geeks/social misfits, but after this visit and my October visit, I have to say that reputation is bogus. GSBers (current & future) are smart, witty, down to earth, cool ass folks.

Byron & PowerYogi--great to meet you guys! Sorry I was a bit MIA in the evenings.

I didn't participate in any of the evening events. I didn't get a hotel; I was staying with friends from undergrad, so I wanted to save my evenings to spend time with them since it was a quick visit and my days were packed. Friday night we went to a tapas place downtown and enjoyed more than our fair share of sangria (yum). Saturday we went to a couple of bars on Southport in Lakeview, just a couple blocks from their apartment. I have to say, after the housing tour of Hyde Park, and hanging out with my friends and exploring Lakeview/Wrigleyville, I'm thinking the North Side is more my scene than Hyde Park.

All in all, a great weekend.

But I'm still officially undecided.