4 parks, 3 days

and we visited 3 of the parks twice in the three days.

On a break

I know I don't have many followers, but I figured I would let the few of you know: I am swamped with school stuff right now. I might posts once or twice, but I will probably not be back until later this quarter. Have a great fall!!

just peachy

Tonight my friend Sara came over and we made peach jam, peach pie filling, and Bill made peach martini.

This is my last week of fun time before school. Classes begin a week from Thursday but I have events starting Monday.

Before classes start up I have a few last things to do. On top of peaches, I have 25lbs of tomatoes that need peeling cooking and canning. I have case interview prep to continue. I have cover letters to start and pre-work for my classes.

Anyway, I will also try to read some and lay out and enjoy my week. I can't believe this summer is coming to an end.

What is new

Well other than the pictures I haven't posted much recently. This is because the social monster of my school gobbled me up. I never knew that my social life was so lacking until I started at Booth.

Classes are going well and they are rapidly approaching the end. I have 2 weeks of classes left and then a week for finals. It is crazy how quick this academic year has gone by.

I am going to write the rest of this post as a reflection of my first year at Chicago Booth. Warning it will be long.

Things that have been awesome:
I can't believe the number of accomplished men and women with whom I not only get to interact but are my friends. The people at this school are doing amazing internships and awesome research. their interests are much more varied than I thought would be the case.

The social aspects, not only the parties but also alumni events, club events, trainings, lectures, are all so much more than I expected. I find myself constantly declining invites because I already have something planned for lunch/ evenings/ weekends.

Things that have changed me:
This school has re-awaked my desire to lead and join in groups. I have become a co-chair of a great group (public speaking club) and joined a variety of fun and more career focused clubs.

I competed for and landed a position as a Career Advisor. As such I will get to help incoming first years navigate pursuing a non-profit internship.

Having classes with incredible professors and my wonderful classmates has made me more confident of my skills and yet very aware of how little I know.

I am more social. From the very first day of LOE I challenged myself to be more social, to make the effort in leaving my comfort zone (and my house all the way in Homewood) and to really experience the full time program. I know that this challenge has sometimes been very hard for myself, and at times I have failed, but in the end it has made me more well rounded and provided me with so many fun memories.

Things I wish I could change:

I wish I wasn't leaving my home for the summer. This will be very hard on both me and Bill, but I know that the internship is important and I am so lucky to have landed such an amazing opportunity.

I get frustrated with my classes, especially this quarter. It is so hard to pick out your classes and a study group and it is very disappointing when you look forward to a class as you don't get out what you thought you would.

I wish I had gone on a random walk/ gone to the chicago area meet ups. Last summer I was so excited to get into the program and have the chance in expanding my academic horizons. I was NOT looking forward to all the social events and the new working and interacting with people. I wish I could call my past self up right now and yell at her. I would have met my friends even earlier and started bonding even earlier.

Things I look forward to or worry about next year:

Finding a job - I both look forward to recruiting and worry about it. The timeline for on campus recruiting for full time position is compressed into one month. But if you land a job you are set and can enjoy the rest of your year.

More travel - travel with Bill, travel with friends, and maybe some family time. that mixed with a weddings of close friends in october, november and december will make for an awesome fall

Overcommitment - I worry that between the club the recruiting the weddings the travel AND the classes I might have already overbooked myself in the fall (and this is before the social monster of Booth tries to gobble me up again).

There are so many more things I feel about this year but above all I am so blessed to have had this time, to be a part of the Class of 2012, and to have the wonderful family and friends (old and new) support me and my decision to return to school.

this quarter is flying by

Midterms are here again

Times seems to fly by while you are in school.

I am about to take my last midterm as a first year student... the next time I take a midterm I will be a second year.

I am starting to get excited about my summer position and getting anxious about finding a place. But as a firm believer in the universe working things out I will stay positive and keep looking.

gardening in the rain

So first - I talked about my internship a few weeks ago when I got it, though I didn't mention the name of the place. I will be working for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in Washington DC for the summer

Next - all week I have looked forward to getting some seeds planted for a spring garden. Before I would let myself enjoy some garden time I had some tasks to do and some homework to finish. By the time I got outside I was able to gather my tools and start raking when it started drizzling on me. I worked in the steady drizzle for a half hour before I gave up. No seeds were planted, but I will be ready when the weather is ready to cooperate

beautiful weather

We had some gorgeous weather here over the weekend. Bill and I got to enjoy it both days and it was invigoration to get some work down around the house and outside. Winnie and I treated ourselves with some dairy queen on sunday.

As for school things are going well though crazy busy. I feel like I had not participated must in campus life last quarter and am making up for it this quarter. Last week was the CWIB (chicago women in business) spring dinner which was a fun reason to dress up. This week was have a GSB (give something back) charity auction, also a fun reason to dress up. Classes are fun but many of them I signed up for the teacher and therefore am still uncertain of the point even in week 3.

I am still trying to find a place to sublet in DC and will start to get really excited once that is settled.

Once my housing is settled I need to start thinking about what to take clothing & object-wise.

One week down ...

Time flies when you are in school I am now on quarter 3 of 6 of my MBA. School is so much fun and I am so happy I decided to go back. Overall, I am really excited to dig in to the work and fun, but I am also a little overwhelmed by all that has changed in the last week. Over finals/spring break/ first week back I landed an internship for the summer. So with that pressure off, I can concentrate on my four classes and also having some fun (re)connecting with people. I also want to have more to do with leadership roles in the school.

So much to do so little time!

Formal

or as mom called it - MBA Prom. The theme was Casablanca, so I got my hair done up in a 40's-ish style. Bill got a new tux (thanks Nordstrom's Rack!) and learned how to tie a bow tie (thanks You Tube!). Anyway, we had a great time and we will definitely get tickets for next year.

I played around with some setting to make the photo look old

Bill and me!

I wanted to keep my hair nice for Sunday's date night, so I slept in this. Bill kept calling me Rosie.

warm weather

maybe the groundhog was right, maybe spring is coming sooner that I thought. I know that winter's icy grasp will strangle these happy thoughts out of me (and probably wring me dry), but for right now the snow has melted the sun is shining and it seems more like march 18th instead of february 18th.

Life is moving fast so I will update on the important things:

Winnie is still cute

Bill is still busy

And me, well this week:

I applied for two jobs (an improvement over the previous two weeks - one job)

I was elected co - chair of the public speaking group (yay)

I have listened to the tangled soundtrack like 15 times - i can't wait for this to come out on video - i am 5 years old sometimes

I have made a "grand plan" document outlining all the rest of the courses I have to take and the bid points I have to take them (we have to bid on the classes we want for school)

And in the rest of time I have gone to class, gone to group meetings and tried to stay afloat.

freezing cold

So I am down town at school studying and watching the end of the bears game... not a good game for chicago.

School is a bit crazy right now and I don't know why I can't focus as much as I need to. I think I have this problem every year at the end of January. Life keeps marching on no matter how cold and ugly it is outside. I just need to find some reserves of energy. I have midterms in two weeks and I need to be in a better place by then.

Anyway hope you all had an nice weekend.

More productive

I need to be writing up a memo on my case I just read, but I think that the act of reading entitles me to a bit of a break. I think that is where my studying always goes wrong. It is like when you try to lose weight and you do 30 min of exercise and you think that entitles you to half a tray of rice crispy treats.

Anyway I had a lovely weekend how about you?

First week back to school

So the new year ushered in the new quarter, which began on Monday. While I am only taking three classes this quarter I am already busier than I was last quarter. My classes seem like they should be hard but really good. I am taking Competitive Strategy (basically the economics/game theory of real world industry), Financial Statement Analysis (how to use and interpret the accounting stmts to make decisions and predictions), and Social Entrepreneurship (a "lab class" that entails working for a social startup while learning about social ventures in a class room setting). I am also doing a project with a group for a local non-profit board, which seems like another class.

In other news, Bill and I got Just Dance 2, a dancing game for the wii. We had played Just Dance at Erin's over Christmas and thought it might be a fun game to have. My idea is that when you get home from class and it is too late to go work out you can play this for a half hour and at least get a little activity. It is actually a lot of fun, and if you like making a fool of yourself dancing you might like this game.

I haven't done a lot of cooking recently - I think I have the January blues. I did break into a jar of my halved tomatoes and used it in some yummy chilli last weekend, and I am steadily going through my garlic. I think i have enough garlic to last until spring as long as it doesn't start sprouting. (I maybe needed to put it in a colder part of the basement.)

That is all that's fit to print.

Hi Cindy

So I went back to my old place of work this week (what isn't that what you do when you have 3 weeks off - you rub it in the faces of those working?) Cindy told me she reads this blog all the time, so I say, "hi Cindy!!"

I have now gotten two of my four grades back and am currently looking at straight b+. This isn't the best, but I would be happy with it.

Tonight we are going to go see tron. We'll see how it is.

Have a great weekend y'all.

One down...

Hi everyone... halfway through Monday of finals week and I have one down and one in an hour. Then I have one tomorrow and one Wednesday.

Needless to say the past week has been a little more than just busy. but fun things I have managed to squeeze in:

Thursday was Bill's Christmas party for work. Bill works with some awesome people and it was fun hanging out with them

Friday night Bill and I went to a new bar-b-q place: upscale (kobe beef brisket, prize winning ribs, etc) it was yummy and a fun date night.

Saturday played in the snow with the neighbor kids (so cute) and then threw snow balls for winnie (endless fun) - also got to see two of my friends from high school who i hadn't seen in a very long time.

Sunday - really wasn't fun, but we did make a trek to the west burbs just so i could get a burger and mom's gift

Not so fun things:

Thursday - spent the better part of the day at the car dealer - need a new transmission (under warranty, thank goodness) and new breaks for front and back (expensive but this is the first time we have replaced them on a car bought in march 04).

Friday - spent a few hours working on a paper only to realize I had misspecified something on Sunday

Saturday - 4.5 hours of review on campus starting at 9:30 (and it was snowing on my walk to and from train)

Sunday - "oh no! 2 finals are tomorrow and I haven't started studying for them!!"

After finals are done my daddy is coming for a visit. I don't know what we have planned, but it will not involve regressions, investments, accounting or economics.

Midterms over and yet finals are so close

I hope you all had a wonderful extra hour of sleep this weekend I know I did!

Things over here are going well. Midterms are over and we celebrated by going out with a large portion of my first year class on Saturday night. Everyone had a great time, and because the event started early we were in bed at a decent time.

I have some cooking updates to share (I made cookies with half olive oil and half butter!) but Winnie decided to start whining as soon as I sat down to blog.

Hope you are all having a great November. I am reading your blogs even if I am not posing here.

hope y'all had a nice Halloween

winnie says happy halloween, and please don't boil me in a pot


We had a fun filled weekend (after studying most of Saturday, that is). Since we moved into our house the number of trick or treaters has gone down in the last few years... so we had a surplus of candy. We had a lovely day though (the weather was never this nice when I was a kid). And our nice neighbors invited us over for ghoul-lash and pecan pie. This allowed us to not cook and enjoy some time with other people before hitting the books.

I have my fist midterm today and am being a bit manic depressive about it. as in ... i looked at the practice and all of this makes sense... therefore I will aces this ... and five min later ... crap if it is easy for me it is easy for everyone and i bet the questions will be all these hard things that we didn't practice on our homework and practice test.

I will let you all know how it goes.

Take your husband to school day

Yesterday, Bill took the day off to study for his midterm (tonight - good luck Bill) and accompanied me to the Harper Center (the name of the business school building). He decided that he liked the full time program, and I told him too bad go to work (not really). But mom did tell me not to take him in too often or he will want to join me going full time.

The tipping point of convincing Bill to come was the highlight of any Wednesday: cookie hour. I think I have mentioned this before, but the best part of the week is the 4:30-5:30 hour of cookies, coffee, hot cocoa, and tea sponsored (usually) by our dean of students. Bill hears about this event on a weekly basis usually in a txt msg as such: done with study grp, time for cookies!! I think he gets a bit jealous, so I am glad he could experience it.

Wednesdays is also the meeting day of the public speaking group, on of the clubs I have joined. I am getting better, but there are a lot of things to practice, and you can always improve.

Today I have an interview for this non-profit board experience that is sponsored by my Net Impact club. It would give me a chance to work with a board and it gives a board a chance to get a project done by MBAs for free. Hopefully I will get a spot - I will keep you updated.

Other than that, I will start studying for my midterms hardcore today.

I need a second me

Some how even though I am not working I am much busier than before and therefore my house is suffering. The island is getting messy, laundry is piling up and dinners are increasingly relying on trader joe/trader ming/ trader giatto.

I feel like I could really use another me.

On a side note This year I did prioritize getting out my fall decorations over a cleaner house this weekend. I now have all my fall decorations out (essentially my buffet is decorated). It is a little thing but between that and some super nice flowers I got over a week ago at Costco, my study room seems cheerier. I can't wait until we have more time to celebrate Halloween especially once we have kiddies.