YEEEOOOUCH!

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

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

Wish me luck :)

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

Final week of freedom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.