Danielle's Visit, Day One

Danielle arrived for her visit today. Though I'm not sure how much of this visit is about seeing me, and how much is about not being around her mom/not working and getting free REO Speedwagon tickets. This is kind of a stressful week for me, so it's good to have a friend here and balance that out for me. (We'll see how it all works out.)

I had an info session this afternoon and expected Danielle to arrive during that, so I told her how to get into my apartment. I arrived home though to find no Danielle. A little later I got an "I'm lost...mapquet/Garmin is telling me to go into a gated community" phone call from her. I think I've previously mentioned my hatred for her Garmin...it continues. Luckily, she wasn't that far away so I was able to talk her back to my apartment. When she arrived I discovered that she had forgotten the two things that I had requested from PA (Gazebo dressing and Reese's Peanut Butter) that I can't find in NC, but I decided to let her in anyway instead of sending her 7 hours back to PA to pick it up.

Then Danielle, Andy and I went to Ichiban where we dined on a platter of sushi (which I'm now regretting not taking a picture of). Danielle revealed some of the dirt she has on me (and she was sober) which is never a good thing...but I'm sure extremely entertaining for anyone that is not me.

The only thing I have yet to figure out is how I'm going to get some work done while she's here....oh well.

My Parents are Weird

Every Sunday I call my parents are around 10:30 or 11 in the morning. This morning I called my parent's house and no one answered, so I called my dad's crackberry. Below is a portion of the conversation that followed:

Me: Where are you guys?
Dad: In the car
Me: Where you going?
Dad: No where
Me: So you're just sitting in the car not going anywhere?
Dad: We sitting in the car in the garage making out.

Gross.

My Speech of Conviction

The final speech due for my communications course was a "speech of conviction." It was "our chance to share the passion we feel about a controversial topic." I must be the least convicted person I know because I'm am generally neutral on any controversial topic. After muling it over for a while, I was inspired by the show Whale Wars and decided my topic would be on whaling. My professor surprisingly loved the idea.

Around school we would discuss how preparing for the speech was going and when asked what my topic was, I would say "whaling." To which nearly every time someone would respond (either seriously or jokingly) "oh, are you for whaling?" Yes, I am for whaling, you jackass. Whales just take up too much space in the ocean and whale meat is delish. I think I'm going to go club some seals now for sport.

I did my speech taking the anti-Japanese whaling position (since that's mostly where the problem is). I think it went pretty well (I get my grade tomorrow). That evening I received an e-mail from my friend Andy that said "I think the Japanese have got a “giant creatures” phobia after the whole Godzilla thing, and now they’re therapeutically taking it out on the cetaceans." I thought this was hysterical.

So if you ever want to hear about why Japanese whaling is wrong and stupid, lemme know. Anyway I'm just glad that pointless class is over, but now I actually have to do real work. ::sigh::

Someone Talk Me Out of It

Dear God, I'm contemplating doing the 3-day again next year. Am I losing my mind? Probably. I feel this is somehow like childbirth (or so I hear) like after a few years or so you think about how magical and beautiful it was and forget how much it sucked while you were doing it and are like "I think I want to do that again." The other thing is I had PERFECT weather for my first 3-day experience and I know that I won't get lucky twice in a row.

So Good and Yet So Bad

At Wal-mart the other day, I discovered Molli Coolz Shakers. The concept is basically add milk, shake and voila instand milkshake...and who doesn't love milkshakes. So I thought to myself, can it really be this simple? Could this possible work? YES! Oh my gosh! It is FABULOUS! I wish I had bought like 7 of them...but then I realized how bad it would be to have milkshakes at my grasp 24-7...uh-oh

This Better Be A Sitcom

Well, I'm tired and pissed out so it must be time to blog. I swear that sometimes my life has to be a sitcom because things like this just don't happen in real life. So today I called my esthetician to make and appointment to get my eye brows done. She asked if i would mind if she called back in a little bit. I said no and gave her my home number (it's local). I waited and waited and no call so I called back. They said they tried to call me but it was a wrong number...weird...i didn't really think anything of it other than they copied the number down wrong. After a while I started thinking about other people I had given that number to and hadn't heard from. I decided to call "my" number myself and was shocked when a man who was obviously not me and not in my apartment answered. I verified the number and hung up. I pulled out the information the phone people had given me and verified the number they had given me. I also realized that when I got my new cell i called "my" home number as my test call and got my answering machine. I call Time Warner (who sucks apparently) and am like...what the hell? I had a phone number and now I don't. Well, they had no f***ing clue what happened as the number they gave me isn't even their number to give out and the "owner" has had it since 2000. WTF? I asked if there was anything they could do about it...uh...give you your actual number....thanks, you shit heads. So now I'm freaking out because "my" phone number is everywhere...including a bunch of job applications and Disney as of this afternoon....AHHHHHHH

North Carolina's New Law

As of October 1st, it is officially illegal to throw away plastic bottles (aka not recycle) in North Carolina. I'm all for recycling, but I'm not sure making a law is really going to do anything. Most of the articles I've seen on this issue basically say it's a law, but we're not really going to enforce it...huh? What's the point of having a law if you're not going to enforce it? Well, theoretically waste disposal companies can refuse your trash if it has illegal plastic bottles in it. Really? Do we really think garbage men are going to look in a trash can, open the trash bag in the can, see a plastic bottle and then leave it at the curb? I think not. I really can't decide how I feel about this new law because recycling is good...obviously, but is it me or does this just seem like we're living in a land of make believe and passing laws just because we can?

What Did She Just Say?

One of the funniest moments in my recent memory happened today in my career management course. (Of course, this is only really probably funny if you have the maturity of a 12 year old and think poop is a funny word...like i do.)

Our professor was talking about all the things that are due in the upcoming weeks and said "I know from your Myers Brigg that there are a lot of "p" personalities in here, so that means you're going to want to put that off till the last minute, but try to reign in your p-ness." Which of course is the same as "reign in your penis." I was spacing out (like I do a lot) and all of the sudden heard "reign in your penis." It was like when you catch a conversation at the wrong point and are like, what just happened? Everyone tried not to laugh but it was no use and worst of all our professor had no idea what people were laughing about. The guy beside me hadn't heard what she said at all and I couldn't repeat it without laughing hysterically. It was both an awkward moment and the funniest thing I have heard in class so far.

I Swear I Have a Life

It seems like lately all I've been doing is stuff for school (class, meeting, study, repeat), so I've decided that this weekend I'm going to make a concentrated effort to participate in some out of class activities. (Maybe not the best weekend to launch this plan since I have an accounting exam on Monday...it's open book/open note though).

Yesterday I had signed up to help the youth group at my church sell pumpkins. We are "the pumpkin church" as seen in the picture. It was fine though a little windy and the girl I was assigned to work with wasn't very talkative. We also ran out of 1's within about 20 minutes of starting our 2 hour shift, but we called and got more, so it was ok.

Then after that I went to the B-school happy hour, which was fun. It was a little crowded and loud, so you could hardly hear people talking to you, but I'm not going to argue with free beer.

After studying this morning, I'm planning on going to the B-school tailgate and possibly the Wake/Maryland game...if I can convince someone to go with me. A lot of people are planning on going to the tailgate and then leaving, but we'll see.

Letters From Prison

Let's just get right to it. Shall we?

"Hey, what's up? (still not in prison, you?) My b-day is approaching very fast. I was hoping I'd be home before then, but I guess I'm not gonna make it. Oh well, I'm gonna do everything in my power to never spend another b-day behind bars! (yeah, it's a shame that the police are out to get you or you may have a shot at that).

WOW that's a really good proffession to choose (I told her i wanted to be a professor...no i did not spell it with two f's. I'm not sure where she got that from.) I can say I have a proffessor in the family now. (um...not really now, because you see I'm not actually a professor yet). haha make sure you are a hip one though. (when did the word "hip" make a comeback? am I just really out of it?) haha you'll be so having affairs with your freshman. (wait? what?) haha sike (do people still say sike?) that might be nice for you when your 50 though if your not married. (OMG...I am simultaneously offended and disgusted). So will you be Dr. Sto when you get your Ph.D.? (yes, but that does not mean that you can bring your friends who have OD-ed/been shot over to my apartment and expect me to fix them up. There's different types of doctors.) Where would you want to teach at? (wherever there's a job...and you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.) A college? (that's typically where professor work) Which one, in what state?

I like your business card it's very businessy. (I guess being businessy is good considering it's a BUSINESS card.) I'd like to look at your scrapbook from ND sometime maybe I can come visit you in NC like next year around my b-day. (no, that's ok...I can bring the scrapbook to you. Really, it's not a problem...plus you probably still won't be able to leave the state.) When I go home we'll still keep in touch thru e-mail and the phone. (and you'll have to check out my really awesome blog...haha)

Your classes arn't (yes, there's no e) that long, I though they'd maybe be like a all day process (see there's this concept called homework that I'm not sure you're fully grasping). the also seem very complex (well, duh), do you ever get bored in class (yes) or are you a very good and attentive student (no)? My stupid radio broke so now i'm gonna have to get a new one and they cost $25 but are worth like $5 (i'm not sending you money if that's what you're going with this.) we were just one lock-down for over a week. (did someone find a shank? shank shank shank shank) I was going crazy. well i'm gonna go. Miss you. (Don't miss you)"

Well, it sounds like she's going to be getting out soon and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad for all of you. Bad because there's no more letters from prison, but good because there will actually be real life accounts. The last time I actually saw her in person she threw all her Christmas presents in the snow in my grandmother's front yard.

Things That Annoy Me (Yes, two in a row)

I went to the post office to get a postcard stamp. As the postal worker was sticking the stamp on the postcard, she began to read it, and then commented on what I had written. Isn't that like illegal or something?

Things That Annoy Me

I haven't really done a "Things that Annoy Me" blog lately (nor a "Psychotic Thought of the Day" blog on that note), but yesterday I had something that definitely was annoyance worthy. I was on my way to Zumba (yes, I've drunk the Zumba kool-aid) and decided to stop off at the community compost bin down the block from me to dump off my compostables. After dumping my stuff, I realized I had composty juices on my hand. As I was driving, I realized I had hand sanitizer in the middle console. I got it out. Flicked open the top and hand sanitizer exploded all over my face (including in my eye)...keep in mind that I am still driving. I stop at a red light and read the warning (with the eye that is not stinging like a mo fo). "In the event of contact with the eyes, flush immediately with water and seek medical advice." Shit! So (while still driving...probably not the smartest move), I flush my eye with water from the water bottle that I was taking to Zumba, do not seek medical attention, and still making to Zumba on time. I guess everything's ok since I woke up this morning and wasn't blind.

Reunion Ridiculousness

I can't sleep because Jimmy Clausen (who according to Danielle looks like a fat Nick Carter...though I would argue Nick Carter is pretty fat) just saved Charlie Weis's fat ass one more time in the closing seconds of the game and my adrenaline is still chugging away. (sidenote: I originally just said Weis's ass and went back and added the word "fat" during editing which I think is a nice change.) I thought rather than waste this time..oh...i don't know...reading a book or something, that I'd blog. Because we all know that the very best blogs can be written at 12:15 AM.

Today I opened my mailbox and found....::drumroll::...an invitation to my 10 year high school reunion. (Oh the humanity!) I thought I'd just comment on the ridiculousness of several part of it. Remember these are only my very favorite excerpts.

1) It was sealed with a gold sticker with hearts on it (like you would use to seal wedding invitations). Really? You couldn't find anything better than this?

2) "$40 at the door. (Price includes heavy horderves, 2 drink tickets & entertainment provided by EVERY DAY HEROES" ---holy crap, $40 bucks. It better be heavy hors d'oeuvres. It's at the Appalachian Brewing Company, so it's not even like it's at a hotel and we're paying a crapload for the room. And "horderves" really looked correct to you? Didn't notice anything bizarre about that spelling? That really speaks volumes about Middletown's Education system, doesn't it?

3) "Please no hats or sneakers." --does this really need to be said? Man, I come from one classy hometown.

4) In giant letters at the bottom "We're Going To Party Like It's 1999." --Thank you Prince, for creating that song so that we could cling to it like a remora to a shark. This song will follow me around FOREVER and to think, I actually used to like that song.

Anyway, I'm still debating whether to go or not. Like there's no one I really want to see that I don't already talk to, but I have been doing pretty awesome since high school, so I kinda want to go rub that in people's faces. Is that wrong?

Do you Know How to Peel a Banana?

Today in between classes someone was eating a banana and someone else informed them that they were peeling it wrong. He referred us to this YouTube clip:


I have multiple favorite parts of this: a) when he says it "blew his mind", b) when he tries to bite the banana open and c) the fact that he has monkey pants on.

Henna Really Isn't As Cool As I Thought

Today at B school was the "International Food Fest." Each "team" (each academic team has 5-6 students in it and you basically do a bunch of stuff together with them) had to prepare a dish from a foreign country. There's a guy names Xavier on my team who is from Belgium originally so we made Carbonade a la Flamande (aka A Flemish Beef Stew). It was basically beef, carrots, onions, bread, dijon mustard and a crap load of dark beer. (That's an official culinary term: "crap load" which is a little smaller than an "ass load") There was a ton of food. Pad Thai, quiches, chicken curry, spanikopita, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't even know the name of. My stomach just took a trip around the world. Some people also had different activities from around the world. A couple of students from India were doing Henna tattooing. I always wanted to get Henna, and when I was walking by there was no line so I sat down. This is my Henna:

Henna is not as cool as I thought it was for three main reasons. 1) It's a lot oranger than I thought it's be. 2) I thought that like they painted it on and you waited like 15 minutes or something and washed it off. No...you have to wait like an hour until it gets dry and just cracks and falls off. Do you know how hard it is not to bump intricate painting on your right arm? Also, do you know how hard it is to take a clear picture of your right arm when you're right handed? 3) It's supposed to stay on for like a week or something, but I just took a shower and it already faded significantly, so we'll see. So, I'm not sure if I'd do it again or not. It didn't totally suck. It just wasn't all that I thought it'd be.

A Letters from Prison Excerpt

I received another letter from the big house (no not Michigan)...though on that note isn't it kinda fitting that "big house" is the name of both Michigan's stadium and prison...hmmm...I digress. Anyway, the whole letter wasn't that interesting, but a few lines really pretty much summed up her whole issue.

"I wish I didn't have to work hard and everything could just be handed to me for the rest of my life but I know that's not the case and I'm gonna have to work extra hard when I came home to do otherwise. I can't be lazy any more I won't get anyway in life!!"

Wow....wow... (yes, she actually did say "anyway in life" not "anywhere in life") Do we think she actually understands the hard work thing? I mean its easy to say when you're sitting in a jail cell with nothing to do but read all day, but then when you actually have to work, it's a whole different ball game.

Like a Band Aid...Right Off!

There are certain things in life that should be done in one quick, painful motion: removing a band aid, giving bad news, taking duct tape off of a hostage's mouth (not that I have any formal training on this...just what I've seen on TV), and body waxing.

After moving one of the most difficult things I've had to do is find a new esthetician to get my eyebrows waxed. I've had some bad experiences. No real eyebrow butchery. Just not really done up to my expectations (if it takes less than 5 minutes...you didn't do a good job). So Friday, I crossed my fingers and went to get my eyebrows waxed. She did a decent job except instead of just forcefully ripping off the strips of wax, she like slowly (and agonizingly) peeled it off. Now I have this dilemma. Do I try someone new and risk having horrible eyebrows for a week or so? Or do I go back and grit my teeth for a few minutes of pain?

And the Maintenance Guy Went Crazy

I had this huge bush out by my front door that was approximately 12 feet in diameter (with a standard deviation of about a foot and a half...sorry quant is seeping into my everyday life . Never read Super Crunchers). It was a big f***ing bush. It hung over the flower bed onto my patio. I came home two days ago and found this.

Apparently the apartment maintenance guy went completely ape shit on it.

The Care Package

I found one other thing that differs between undergrad and grad school. Care packages. When I was at ND, my mom sent great care packages. They had things like food and hot chocolate and stuffed animals and stickers and other fun things in it. I got a huge box on my doorstep with my mom's handwriting on the front. I was super psyched. I opened it up and inside was a suit, a photo album and coupons...no note, no card, no explanation what so ever. She's so weird.

It's Different

So I decided after a week and a half of classes that I would blog about some of the differences between my undergrad and B-school experiences. Now granted these are only my very narrow assessments from four years at Notre Dame and a week and a half at Wake Forest, but I'm pretty sure they're relatively accurate and will carry over to others.

1) Dress code: Wake has a business casual dress code for all its MBA students. Which means I have to like iron stuff and do laundry on a regular basis. Gone are the days of wearing pajamas, sweats or wind pants to class (my freshman year roommate, Maryn wouldn't know what to do with herself).

2) Beer: There is probably still as much beer around as there was when I was in undergrad it's just better quality. No more Natty Lite. Yuengling, Coors, Sam Adams seem to be staples.

3) Stealing: Stealing seems to be more frowned upon. Back at ND we were really into stealing things (from campus of course...sticking it to the man...we paid for it right). At one time or another we stole an entire dining hall set including tray, sugar dispenser and salt and pepper shakers. My parents also still have a section 13 sign from the JACC. (It's in their basement...check it out if you're ever over). We also found it humorous when someone stole the giant inflatable gorilla from Farley and the picture of Edward J. ("Jomama") Debartolo from Debartolo hall. In grad school...I haven't really tested this out...but I'm thinking that if I stole the giant Deacon from the student lounge that I'd kinda be in trouble.

4) The ratio: I'm not sure what the ratio exactly was at ND, but I'm thinking it was about 50/50. My first year MBA class has 68 students in it and 12 of them are girls...not that I'm complaining. (I get to talk about football a lot).

5) The whole married/kids thing. I have friends that are married and have kids, but it's still weird to me when someone has to leave the team meeting because they have to take their kid to the dentist...I'm just not used to the family thing in a school setting.

6) Going to class. You have to go to class. If you miss, not only do you have to e-mail the professor, but you have to e-mail the MBA relations person...weird. I can't tell you the number of times I didn't go to Genetics at ND.

7) Calling professors by their first name. It's just awkward calling them Jon or Sherry or whatever.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I think I had something else to write, but it's gone now...maybe later.