A Haiku Ode to Excel Shortcuts

Workplace deadlines loom

Quick F9 and CTRL+S

booya! Silent boss.

A Pop Culture Lesson In Karma

As I'm sure you all heard, Olympic extraordinaire swimmer Michael Phelps was recently photographed smoking marijuana. His decision to engage in such illegal behavior, amidst a time when he was reaping enormous marketing and pecuniary benefits, will be seen by many as incredibly irresponsible. I, however, chose to view it as an example of how karma affects people. You see, Michael attended the University of Michigan. Such a decision was sure to eventually cause him negative consequences.

Is business really about money?

Business Class 101- the goal of a business is to make money. Makes sense, right? Absolutely, which is why I wonder how some business stay open, because there is no way they can be making a profit. For example, have you ever seen the store Cartridge World? If not, it is a chain of stores dedicated to refilling ink cartridges...seriously. Or what about Batteries Plus, whose name fits perfectly? I just don't see how in this day and age (with Internet shopping, big box retailer, etc...) these companies survive. Do they know something I don't...is the joke on me?

Random

I went to Tucson to see Mindy this past weekend. We were watching TV and enjoying a few drinks on Saturday night, when a random commercial came on...I cant recall exactly what company it was for, but it had people who only had one eye. As Mindy and I died of laughter, she said "this commercial would not have come on if we had not been drinking". It made me think. How many times does stuff like that happen...where what is on TV/the radio, etc...seems too perfect for chance? I remember heartbroken times in high school where every radio station was playing the one song that reminded me of a boy, or being stressed about being sick and every TV commercial was about drugs/dying, or forgetting my license and seeing 25 cops as I drove, etc...Does this occur all the time and we only tune in when something strikes our fancy? Or, is there something that brings these "random" moments to us to test us? Not sure, but if you happen to see a commercial where everyone only has one eye, jot down the company for me!

Ode to the Jetta

A milestone occurred today. As I was running errands, I looked down to see the Jetta at 99,997 miles. As I watched it roll to 100,000 miles, I couldn't help but think about everything that has occurred over the time I have had the car. I got the Jetta in August of 2000, meaning that it has been with me for roughly 9 years, or 1/3 of my life! That is longer than I have known my husband, cats, and several of my best friends. When I got the Jetta, I couldn't even drive a manual (thanks Ryanne for driving it home from the lot). I was getting ready to move to Arizona for college and had no idea what was ahead, but I was ready to take it on. Looking back, what a great 9 years it has been! 100,000 miles and 100,000 memories. College, Friendships, Heartbreak, Graduation, Jobs, Travel, Marriage, House, Grad School...growing up. The Jetta has been a part of so many things in my life! Unfortunately, the Jetta is not as pretty as she used to be. More recently, her paint started to peel and the tint has begun to come off of the windows. As I think about getting a new car sometime in the future, I get a bit sad. If the Jetta gets old, what does that make me? When she finally goes, I will miss the Jetta and what she has represented in my life...

NY, DC, and O-H-I-O

Let me start by saying WOW! We just got back from our trip to NY/DC for the inauguration and it really was the trip of a lifetime. I think I will summarize day by day to give you an idea of how awesome it went:

• Saturday- Left Phoenix at 9.45 am and got into Newark around 4.30 pm after a smooth flight. Ryanne and Kevin picked us up and we headed to their place in Manhattan. After quickly changing (we got there around 6pm thanks to NY traffic), we headed down to meet up with friends from college (Claire and Paul for me and Hutch for Tim). The whole group had a great dinner and then hit up a bar, but decided to head home around 11 to prepare for the long day ahead on Sunday =)
• Sunday- Woke up and headed to breakfast at Ry and Kev's favorite local place. After eating, we walked to the park by their place and it was beautiful! It was snowing and very pretty. There is a great view of the Hudson, the George Washington Bridge, and a bunch of the city. We then packed the car and left to pick up Paul and Andrea and headed to Baltimore. After a 3 hour drive, we were there just in time to see the Cardinals win (yeah!). We stayed with Ry's family friends and they were so amazing! They even had vegetarian food!
• Monday- We woke up early and headed to DC! We got there and found a space by my the loft of my Sorority Sister Holly where we were staying, 1 mile from the Capital) and headed in to get our tickets. We even got to meet the Simi Valley congressman that gave us our tix! After getting the tix we toured around town and saw a ton (Monuments, White House, Archives, American History Museum) It was the first trip for Tim, me, and Andrea, and I feel like we got a good DC in a day overview and I really want to go back to have more time with the amazing sites.
• Tuesday- Wow, we woke up at 5 am and headed out. Bundled up in LAYERS, we went to the Silver Section. After feeling like a center divider (good quote Kev), we finally made it thorough to security. We made it inside after going through very lax security and then proceeded to stand there until festivities started around 10.45am. I cant even describe the emotion and pride that was felt. People crying, hugging, chanting, and everyone feeling the same thing. When Obama came out I couldn't help but to cry as I was overcome with what was going on. There were people lined up from where we were in the ticketed section (the reflecting pool) to the Lincoln monument. Everyone was waving flags and just so amazed and excited. There really was a feeling of hope. It was unbelievable. The down side was that it was SO COLD. It rivaled when I was on the Great Wall in China...I really felt that I was freezing to death. I couldn't feel anything. It turns out that it was 13 degrees. I am so from Arizona (anyone who knows me well knows that I am not a winter person)...So after the Inag. was over, we headed back to Holly's, rested, and packed up the car for the ride back to NY. Believe it or not, we had No traffic and made it back to NY in 4.5 hours! We crashed almost immediately!
• Wed- We woke up and Kev took us to the airport. The flight back was really smooth and here I am in Econ writing my blog!
• Other- So, my favorite part of the trip, besides the obvious of course (the events, sites and seeing my best friends) =) When we were walking the National Mall on Monday, a woman from CNN was handing out buttons. We all took one, and she looked at Tim and said, "none for you". Tim was wearing an Ohio State beanie. She moved her jacket to reveal a Michigan glove. Tim responded with a "I don't want one anyway" and walked away. Scarlet and Grey run deep. My grandpa would be so proud.

What you get for $40k

So, today was a great day! As an MBA student, I get to go to the Economic Club of Phoenix lunches for free, which is an awesome benefit as it costs like $5,000 to join and a $100 for each lunch. No students ever go, but I decided that I was going to check one out because, well, because I am me and I never pass up something like that. So, last month I registered for today's lunch. The keynote speaker was none other than Ret. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (who, as my mom pointed out, has the same initials as I did before I got married...my mom is so cute).

Anyway, the whole thing was just plain cool. I got there at 11.30, and schmoozed a bit with some business people from around town (there were around 400 people there). Then, we were seated and briefed on the wonderful economic circumstances we have ahead in 2009. After a lecture by the Dean of the ASU Law School and and awesome lunch (they served chicken but upon my request whipped up a yummy veggie dish), SDO took the stage. She spoke about the importance of judicial independence in the courts (she believes in a merit based appointment approach over elected judges). She was so interesting and SO funny and sarcastic, it was awesome. The woman is like 80 years old and such a spitfire. After she talked she did a Q&A and we were rolling on the floor laughing by her responses. I gained a ton of respect for her just because she was such an awesome speaker and jazzed everyone up (although, as Tim pointed out, he disagrees with her equal opportunity jurisprudence)

After it ended, I enjoyed the ride back to work with my windows down in 75* weather. As I write my 4 page paper tonight (my team just left after a 3 hour meeting), I will try to think about the great benefits (aside from learning of course) that I am getting from the MBA program...we will see how long that lasts