Another year come and gone.

Yes, in another fifteen minutes it will be my birthday.  I’m not usually one that goes around telling people about it.  Some of my friends get a little upset because I don’t remind them, or whatever.  I’ve never been big on it.  Perhaps I don’t tell them because I don’t want to feel older. 

I know what you’re thinking…one should only feel as young as one wants to be.  Despite this brilliant line, we get so caught up in what we’re doing, we sometimes forget.  The longer you get away from it, the harder it becomes to reset that frame of mind.  It gets harder than you think.

I remembered a Pet Shop Boys song which sort of encapsulates the many nostalgic thoughts running through my head.  An interesting gife music gives to me…

 

New Professional site

Hey all!  Just wanted to let you know I am working on my “professional” site for job hunters.  Please take time to visit it.  Feedback welcome.  The link is under the blogroll box or click here

 

I also updated my video page…check it.

Wow…I’m busy

I thought summer was a time for relaxation.  It turns out that I have more anticipation and anxiety over the major amount of uncertainty, than I did when I was taking 15 credits and ouworking full-time. 

I have my heart set on obtaining my MBA.  It’s been a goal of mine for quite a while.  With this comes the long and hard process of choosing a program.  Full-time?  Part-time?  The school I would love to go to, out in the middle of a midwestern cornfield, or the local university that offers a decent program?  What can I afford? 

At the same time, I’ve been searching for a full-time job.  I’m employed, but drastically underpaid for the level of work I do.  I’m sick of scraping by and would love to get a nicer paycheck. 

I think most employers look at top ranked b-schools for people in their mid-twenties that don’t have much experience.  I’m in the conundrum of having a lot of great experience without ANY degree (although, I’m graduating with my BA this fall).  If I’m wrong about this, someone please correct me, but statistics say that if I were to graduate with my MBA tomorrow, without a corporate internship, I’m less likely to get a $90,000 salary than the 25 year old that just finished his full-time MBA program at a top 50 b-school. Sad but true.  Depressing, I know.

All-in-all, being a nontraditional undergrad, it comes down to doing whatever I want.  I have the world at my fingertips and can apply anywhere I choose.  Paying the tuition is a whole other story….

Nicole gets Engaged!

Last night, several friends and I attended the Andy Warhol Museum for the monthly wine and cheese tasting.  The event was great!  I was glad to see so many Pittsburghers show up to something besides a Steelers game. 

The best part about the evening didn’t happen until the next morning.  I checked my phone, like I do every morning, and found a text message from my friend Nicole.   She and her long time boyfriend, Gordon, got engaged!  Congrats! 

A Trip To Nashville

On February 29, 2008 I, along with several members of the College of General Studies Student Government, traveled to Murfreesboro, TN for the 2008 ANTSHE (Association of Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education) conference.  It was the first time University of Pittsburgh students attended this event.  The trip was a lot of fun and somewhat interesting.  CGSSG members gained some knowledge from the material but I think we all realized that the University of Pittsburgh is really far ahead in the way of non-traditional student life. 

Of course, the trip couldn’t happen without some humor.  On the way down, half our group went to eat before our connecting flight, and the other half went directly to the gate.   Heading off to the restaurant, we all checked our watches and had over an hour and a half from the time we landed until our connection departed.  After eating, we arrived at the gate 20 minutes before scheduled departure time, only to find the plane taxiing away from the gate.  “We gave your seats away to standby passengers” was the only thing I really remember about the conversation - that and Kathy freaking out because she thought she was stranded. 

charlotte1.jpg     charlotte.jpg

After we arrived in Nashville, about an hour later than anticipated, we headed down to Murfreesboro, TN, home of Middle Tennessee State University.  I was amazed as I stared out the window, at how much Nashville had changed since the last time I was there.  Highways expanded, buildings erected and traffic was everywhere.  As we were chaurfferred down I-24 it seemed like nothing but strip mall after strip mall.  I never saw that many Target and Best Buy stores in such a short amount of time!  I was freaked out by my realization of what it mean to be in, ”suburban America.” 

The hotel was nice but the conference was pretty uneventful.  I wasn’t impressed with the workshops, the organization, or the keynote address.  This speaker was a psychologist from Washington who created some sort of “self-awareness model.”  This model, which she stated she teaches to her graduate students, had no scientific backing whatsoever, no results evaluating the model’s effectiveness and lacked any clarity in her explanation  of the model’s process.  (Honestly, while I was sitting there listening to her, I thought she might break into chants and channel spirits from beyond.)  The workshops proved really ineffective and lacked any real interesting content. 

On a good note, Sherry Miller-Brown, PhD, an administrator at Pitt asked to conduct two workshops, gave an outstanding presentation to a pretty full crowd.  Our Pitt crew demonstrated school pride by wearing school colors, donating gifts as giveaway prizes, and making a great effort to interact with delegates from other institutions.  We even offered to the conference administrators that Pitt would like to host the ANTSHE conference in the future.

drbrn.jpg

I really need to praise the University of Pittsburgh for doing as much as it has for its non-traditional student population.   

We managed to partake in some fun activities.  Ric, JoAnn and several other members went to a Native American Heritage festival, held about fifteen minutes from campus. 

native-american-fest.jpg

And of course we couldn’t be that close to Nashville without visiting the Music City! 

ric-crystal.jpg Ric, at one of his four times to Crystal. 

We headed to Vanderbilt University and took a few pictures 2310913018_521e7d42ea.jpg  

2310926772_8b8e3c1fbd.jpg  Here’s a picture of me in the Owen School of Business.

A life-size replica of The Parthenon, Nashville, TN 2311189366_d59a590c10.jpg

All photos were taken by Ric Fera.  If you’re interested in seeing more, visit Ric’s Flickr Page.

Jimmy and Ben…

This is hysterical!  I had no idea Jimmy was so well connected…Brad? Robin? Cameron? McLovin?  Too funny…

Shouldn’t Friday’s be a good day?

They are if you work a Monday through Friday work week.  I, on the other hand, have completed little to no worthwhile work…

…at least that’s how I feel.  For the past couple Fridays, I have been working at an internship at the Katz Graduate School of Business.  I usually feel energetic, accomplished and get a lot done.  It gets me away from my normal routine, I have a cute office here and the atmosphere’s extremely laid back.  But today, I haven’t written one thing for my project. 

Not that I haven’t done anything at all…I’ve managed to write about 15 e-mails, post more things to my MySpace and Facebook pages, balance my checkbook, pay some bills and update my blog.  So, yes, I did do a few things but nothing I should be doing. 

I’ll blame it on the weather.  I woke up this morning to a little less than two inches of snow on the ground.  As I got across the street and began walking to the bus stop, it started to rain.  Of course, because of Murphy’s Law and the fact it was seven degrees last night, the percipitation began to freeze on the patches of cleared pavement, creating one, clean sheet of ice.  I almost landed on my ass twice.  Not pretty.  (Although, I’m sure the motorists driving by got a good laugh.  Glad I could start your day off right!)

Maybe I’m tired.  Last night, I was so preoccupied with updating my stupid MySpace page I didn’t realize it was 12:45 a.m.  I also think all of the stress from work I have been accomplishing is catching up with me.  For those of you that don’t know, I work 40 plus hours a week and take nine credits at Pitt.  I’m on the job hunt as well as trying to complete my internship project before mid-April.  Add in the responsibilities to, and the headaches from, the student organizations I’m involved with and you begin to you see what I’m talking about. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not looking for sympathy.  This is more me venting my thoughts onto the screen.  It occured to me this week I need to work on my writing.  So, I’m doing just that.