Invasion of privacy

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

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!

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

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

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

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

Worst. Officiating. Ever.

Two words

Go Seahawks!

Tagged

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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...

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

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

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

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

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)