Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Indiana! The weather is just a bit colder than Florida, but it's nice to be able to spend time with the rest of the family. It's been a big 2007 for me, and hopefully 2008 will be just as good.

Be safe where ever you may be!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from warm Orlando, FL! I've been here for a week, and it's been nice to escape the chilly Midwest, if only for a while.

Things have been a bit nutty this week, what with family running around and shopping to do. Nevertheless, it's been nice to sleep in and not worry about studying.

As per Perez family holiday tradition, there was a trip to the ER on Christmas Eve. Mom, while seasoning the "pernil" (a big piece of pork), stabbed herself in the webbing between her pinky and ring finger on her left hand. Of course she played the injury down, but it was off to the hospital to get her skin glued back together. Thankfully everything is ok, and there was no damage.

As per more family tradition, we opened our gifts up on Christmas Eve. Santa was busy writing checks this year. I had asked for a Wii, which I can now afford, but might make some of my family members kind of upset. Apparently there's some concern that I can balance the studying with the Wii playing. I haven't decided what to buy yet. I should probably spend it on something practical, like schoolbooks and electric bills. But ha! There's no way that's going to happen!

I hope you all had a great Christmas, whereever in the world you may be!

Weapons down

So, the verdict is in. All my grades have been returned. Of the seven classes I took this semester, I did better in some, what I expected in others and worse than in expected in one (really, apparently I CANNOT deal with people). Overall, I'm very happy with my performance, which leads me to wonder how things would have gone in college if I had "applied" myself better the first two years. Oh, well, I'll guess we'll never know.

One other thing that has resulted from my current academic performance is the grumblings of me being a gunner. I had a vague idea of what this was (it's not a good thing), but I still had to look it up online. So, courtesy of Wikipedia, here is the definition of an academic gunner:

• In The United States a "gunner" is an overly competitive student, typically in law school or medical school. Calling someone a gunner is usually highly offensive. A gunner is also overly ambitious and often excitedly volunteers oral answers in class that are, by turns, incorrect, off-topic, or specifically designed to demonstrate the questionable "intellectual" prowess of the person supplying them. These questions are often prefaced with phrases like "A cursory literature search revealed . . . " A gunner will compromise his or her peer relationships in order to obtain recognition and praise from his or her instructors and superiors, often by directly harming or attempting to harm the academic well-being of said peers.

As soon as I saw the definition, I knew this wasn't me. Considering I rarely talk in class, it's pretty obvious I can't be called a gunner. But when I made this argument to some of my section-mates, one of them agreed, but then called me a sniper. Really? How is that any better?

TSA poster child

I'm at the airport waiting to board my flight to FL. Considering we're supposed to take off in 15 minutes, I'm willing to bet the flight's going to be delayed, regardless of what the monitor at the gate says.

Anyway, my drive to Indy went well. The only bad part was the chunks of icy snow that flew off a few of the semis on the road. There's something about having things flying directly at you when you are doing 79mph on the highway that just isn't pleasant. My 18 hour stay at the Perez household was fun. I got to practice some strumming action playing Guitar Hero, and Nadia got to open her Christmas gift from me. I think Tatum liked it more than Nadia did :)

And a quick story to explain the entry title... I went through security and my bin got pulled over by the TSA agent. There were about 5 of us waiting in line to have our things inspected, and the guy ahead of me got yelled at for not having his liquids and gels in a plastic bag. His TSA agent was explaining to him how he needed to pack his stuff, and then he grabbed my ziploc out of the bin and said: "See how she did it?" It's nice to be recognized for being such a rules follower... never mind that the last time I flew I was the one getting yelled about the by TSA rep at the Orlando airport!

Boarding has commenced... Florida weather awaits!

Thwarted again

It may only be coincidence, or it may be becoming a trend. Once again, I tried to leave for break and had to push my plans back for a day. I got stuck here in Fall A working on a group project. This time, the weather decided to wreak havoc with my schedule. I was supposed to drive down to Indianapolis on Sunday, and fly out to warm Florida today. Unfortunately, the snow started falling on Saturday night, and the weather report was calling for snow all through Sunday, as well as strong winds. So I pushed everything back by a day, and thank goodness I did. The reported snow total in Ann Arbor? 10.5 inches. That's just nuts!!! I did manage to enjoy my extra day of rest. Because rest I did. After my messy finals sleep schedule, I essentially napped on and off all afternoon. It felt good to be a lazy bum. But now it's back to being productive. I just need to pack my bags and head on out. And I can only hope that Winter A break goes off without a hitch.

Finished

And blessedly, it's over. I've pretty much been studying and taking exams for 56 hours straight. In that time, I've slept a cumulative 11 hours and drank more caffeinated and sugary beverages than the average person should consume in a month. I'm bone tired right now, so I'm headed off to take a 2 hour siesta before I head out to drive people to the airport.

The good news? Fall 2007 is over and I get three whole weeks to recover before the insanity starts all over again.

Die, CTools, die

It's a little after 5am, and I've finally finished my MO final (due today at noon). All I want to do is go to CTools (the website where you find all your course information including syllabi and slides, and also where you submit homework assignments and exams) to submit my "masterpiece." But, of course, there's a stupid outage right now, meaning I can't log on, meaning I can yet submit my exam. And it's not like it's a big deal, because I still have 7 hours. But it's been a long night, I'm finally done with this paper and I just want to get it off my hands. Plus, there's always the worry that if I go to sleep right now, I may pass out and not wake up in time to submit my exam. Damn CTools for killing my joy of finishing MO!!!

Six on Six

Six on Six was a success! Last Friday night, about 2/3 of Section Six (and some of their Partners) headed off to dinner at eight different locations. Each house had a different kind of cuisine (including French, Chinese and Indian) cooked by a section "chef." I was supposed to be eating the food made by our actual professional chef, Matt J, but a last minute rash of RSVPs required some reshuffling, and I actually hosted a dinner in my apartment. And before you start to worry, no, I didn't cook. Lorraine volunteered to make the 8th meal, so we had Filipino food, which was really good. I even enjoyed the spinach dish!

After we ate, the seven of us sat around for another hour, just chatting. It was a great way to get to know my section mates better (or in some cases, get to know them at all). Clean-up wasn't QUITE as fun, so thank goodness for the dishwasher. After dinner, everyone met at Leopold's for some more bonding. All in all, from the reports that came in from all the different dinners, all the food was great, the alcohol was flowing, and everyone is ready to do it again next term!

The lucky recipients of the Filipino Feast. From L-R: Amy and Chris N, Jose and Maria, Lorraine (the chef), and Christtian.

The last Sixers at Leopold's. From L-R: Dmitriy, Gopi, Me, Audrey, Lorraine, Christtian and Brent

Countdown part 2

It's that time again. Feel free to count down with me.

DONE: MO final, Finance final, Marketing final

Ice skating

Wendesday was MBA1 ice skating day. We reserved the rink at Yost for 2 hours so we could jus hang out and not think about work for a bit. Given that I had already fallen down that day (my bruise is looking pretty gross right now), I didn't do too much skating. I think I may have only done two laps around the rink, and one of those was when Brent grabbed my arm and took me along for a ride. Here are some pictures of skating and the subsequent night out (photos courtesy of Michelle).

Consortium Sixers - Audrey and LaTisha

Sixer chicas

Michelle, looking like she just walked out of the J Crew catalog

Four random guys standing in a bar - Matt J, Brent, Joe M and Hugh

Quick hits

Last week was fairly stressful considering all the work that went into our Marketing group project. I know I've been MIA for a week, so here are some quick points to get you all up to speed.

• Schoolwork: Within the last week I had two MO assignments (one group, one individual), two finance problem sets, and our Marketing mini-case (including a paper and an in-class presentation), all with due dates between Tuesday Nov 27th and Monday Dec 3rd. Some things went better than others (finance said hello to failure), but fortunately it's all complete now. Of course, not that the workload ever lessens. Classes are done next Tuesday (the 11th), and all my finals will be complete by the 15th. In that time, we still have a group case due for finance and a potential in-class presentation for marketing. Basically, there's a crapload of work still to do before I can make my Christmas escape. And a random note about our Marketing mini-case. Our project was on Yellow Tail, an Australian wine. Because CLEARLY no one is more knowledgeable about alcohol than I am!
• Social activities: Last weekend I went to a performance of Handel's Messiah. Super cultured of me, no? It was mostly fun, but three hours of sitting in the cramped theater seats were a little much. Other social activity on the horizon? Ice-skating tonight (hopefully I won't be falling on my butt) and Section Six on Six dinner. I'm currently slotted to eat dinner cooked by our section's professional chef. I'm excited and a little afraid at the same time. You all know how picky I am, and let's just say that the menu that I saw is a bit terrifying. However, this may be subject to change due to last minute RSVPs, so I will keep everyone posted.
• Weather: It's Michigan. It's cold. And snow keeps falling. I'm not happy.
• Bump, bump, bump: I consider myself to be a fairly intelligent person. Unfortunately, everyone sometimes has lapses in judgement. When I woke up today, there was a blanket of snow outside, but left my routine unaltered. When I got to the b-school today I had some things to take care of before class. This lead to some sprinting up and down stairs, all the time shouldering my absurdly heavy backpack. Now, as I just said, it was snowing outside, so of course everyone that's walked into the b-school has tracked in snow, ice and whatever form of moisture you could think of, leading to wet tiled staircases. I'm sure you've figured out where I'm going with this. While running down the stairs to get to my marketing class, which wasn't even due to begin for another 20 mins, I took a spill, landing flat on my butt, HARD. And proceeded to slide down a few more steps. Very movie-like. End result? Broken skin and bleeding on my middle finger on my right hand (not sure what I even hit it on), and a VERY bruised and tender back left thigh. Clearly I'm a genius. Fortunately, there were no witnesses...

Only 12 days until I am down in warm Orlando!