One down, five to go

My first semester is just about over. I only have one exam left to take, Global Economic Management, and it's next Thursday. The next week will be spent mostly by studying but knowing that I am that much closer to a much needed break is making the time studying go much smoother.

I am also glad to say that I am much more in the holiday spirit as the holidays are getting closer. Today is the first day of Chanukah and I look forward to lighting my beautiful Tree of Life Menorah that my parents got me as a house warming gift from the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in Raleigh last year. I am finally almost done with holiday shopping and most of the shopping I do have left does not bring me to the mall which makes me very happy. Plus I got to have a girl's night last night with two of my favorites, which was much needed....Wine, tofu parmigiana and laughing hysterically at the "Guidos and Guidettes" of Jersey Shore, especially "The Situation" and "Snooki", who my friends think I should dress as for Halloween next year.



"The Situation"____________"Snooki"

I also have somethings to look forward to such as the iContact holiday party next week, I got a really pretty dress that I love and cannot wait to wear. I am also looking forward to going to G105's Show Ho Ho Gram with Ryan next Friday, something I have always wanted to do. Last but not least, I am really looking forward to going to Connecticut after Christmas to see my family and friends~ especially the two new additions to our family that the storks will drop off on the 16th if not earlier.

I am no longer allowing myself to be a Scrooge.

Bah Humbug!

I have not written in so long, as my life has been complete and utter chaos! I am so ready for a break- which luckily, I will soon get, as my first semester of grad school is just about over. Truth be told, I cannot believe how quickly this semester went by. With the holidays fast approaching, I should be very excited. I only have one more actual class on Thursday night and then two finals and I can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Typically this is my favorite time of year...growing up celebrating "Christmakah" (Seth Cohen's coined phrase from The OC that I have adopted as my own as it is very appropriate)....Christmas trees and menorahs? Rock on...

This year however, is different. I cannot seem to get into the holiday spirit. I have decorated my house, watched holiday movies, gone shopping for gifts and have even force fed my ears with holiday music on XM Holly. However, with both my grandfather and dad in skilled nursing facilities, I am not looking forward to celebrating this year. Thanksgiving was really tough, even though Mom, Justin and I visited Dad before going to have Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors, a tradition that was started about a decade ago with our other "transplant" neighbors with no family in the South...it just wasn't the same...Plus, I didn't realize until after the fact that there was no cranberry sauce with turkey dinner! Preposterous!!! That's my favorite part!!

I truly hope holiday cheer hits me soon...'til then I will be counting the days until 2010, wishing for a better year!

Sincerely,

SCROOGE

Gotta go back, back, back to school again.

Grad school started for me last Thursday. So far I have had one Econ class and one Career and Management Effectiveness class. So far everything is going well. Mondays are going to be really tough though...of course, they are already hard being right after the weekend, but now my Mondays will consist of getting up at 5:15, being at work from 7-4 and then class from 6:30-9:30 and getting home around 10- LONG DAY!!! At least half way through the semester, my Monday class changes to 6:30-7:30 which won't be quite so bad. This whole schedule is definitely going to take some getting used to though. Yesterday after work, I had to run some errands, then I went to watch my friend's softball game and later met my friend Jess at the gym (at 9:00pm). My time at the gym was spent well...Since I am still battling what seems like the never ending cough, I rode a bike for 50 minutes while reading a book for my Career class, I felt very productive. However, I didn't leave the gym until about 10:30, so by the time I got home, got ready for work and school today, I didn't get to bed until midnight! Needless to say, when my alarm went off at 5:15 this morning, I was less than thrilled...Who am I kidding? I wanted to through my alarm clock out the window.

Despite the schedule, I am actually really excited about my classes and the program. I have already been able to implement some of what I have learned to my job- I suggested an Effective Communications training course since work has been slow and the first training class was yesterday where I was able to provide feedback that I learned in class Monday night. I am looking forward to learning more that will be beneficial to iContact as well as myself as I proceed through the program.

More soon, I'm sure.

Check that off the list

Now that I finished summer school, I have a good six weeks to get things done...make some check marks on my ever-growing to do list. Last night I was able to check off passing calculus with a C or better... After checking My Pack Portal for the umpteenth time, I finally found out I managed to get a B+ which was very exciting.

Yesterday, I also got to finally go grocery shopping...It is really nice to finally have some food in my house. I also signed up for my new gym membership at Lifestyle Family Fitness, since I was recently kicked off reject island by Peak's recent closing. Now I just need to figure out how to get out of my personal trainer contract since it is now null and void, especially since my trainer has literally gone awal, I haven't heard from him in about 2 weeks. That should be a good time (getting out of my contract). Also after working out only twice at Lifestyle, I must say I am getting the better end of the deal, even with being uprooted from my gym. Lifestyle is awesome...all of the machines have their own tvs so that I don't get stuck watching the same boring thing as everyone else and all of the weight machines are in good shape and are not falling apart. I worked out for two hours last night with my friend who has been going there (and has been trying to convert me to a Lifestyle member for quite some time).

That's another thing, I started my new shift at work yesterday now that school has ended, and I feel as though I have literally gained 3 hours of my life back each day. It is so great to get out of work and have a good three hours to run errands, meet up with friends, get in a work out, cook an actual meal not not just a tv dinner, or just relax....The world is suddenly my oyster!

I still have a lot more items to check off my list in the weeks to come but I also have a couple of vacations planned to keep me sane before my three years of school take up my life.

School's Out For The Summer...

Today was my final day of Calculus class...All I have left is my final on Monday morning...I found out though that my professor is dropping our lowest test grade which wasn't too low to begin with so I should be sitting pretty right now as long as I don't screw up on the final which is 50% of my grade. Although, I don't see how I can possibly do poorly on my final when I have done well on my midterms and the professor has also said he intends to keep the final relatively simple compared to the other tests...

After class, one of my classmates and I went to the library to work on our last MAPLE assignment, and once again MAPLE's programming was as dependable as can be expected. We both came up with the same answer on one problem and it was correct for her and not for me and then another problem, I got right and she got wrong even though we had the same input....Gotta love screwy technology. Ah well, I still got an A on my homework.

So glad summer session is over and I have the rest of the summer to relax and get acclimated to my new work schedule before my MBA program starts mid August.

I like syrup, but I am sick of MAPLE

I only have two more weeks of Calculus and I am ready for it to be over. Today I had my midterm...It was on derivatives. I either did really well or absolutely terrible. I then tried to work on my homework assignment which is done on MAPLE, the online math homework submission program that NC State uses to torture math students. Every demand, parenthesis, + , -, x, /, etc. etc., etc. have to be added in a specific way (the way Maple wants it, not necessarily the way you would write it out) or the answer will not be right. Also, it tends to remember old answers so even resetting your answer does not always work. I finally got my assignment done with mere minutes to spare before starting work, when really all I want to do after this long and exhausting week is go home, get in my pjs and hibernate in my bed this weekend...No such luck, I have another busy weekend...Maybe someday I will be able to catch up on ZZzzzzzz's.

Groundhog Day

I feel like it is Groundhog day, or month rather. Today was my second day of my summer Calculus class in preparation for grad school starting in August. For the next five weeks, I have the pleasure ( and I say pleasure very sarcastically) of waking up by 5:30am to be to NC State for Calculus from 7:30am-9:40am, heading to Durham to work from 11-8 and then getting home at around 8:30 to eat dinner and go to sleep just to wake up and do the same thing again and again. On the plus side, after June 22nd, I will have a little break before my grad school classes start in August and I definitely plan to utilize that free time with trips to the beach and my trip to California to see my friend Erin...I cannot wait for Cali, it is definitely the light at the end of my very dark math tunnel. I also get to go to NY/CT and see my friends and family in June which I am looking forward to, especially since one cousin is now engaged and another is pregnant with twins! So I guess I will just tough it out...it will be worth it some day...in three years when I am done with my Masters...I HOPE!!!