A Smattering of Random Stories

I am too tired to have any creative juices flowing at the moment, but I wanted to tell a few stories that have happened recently/general observations about what is happening in my life.

1- All of my classes are held in the newly finished addition to the Tanner Building. The classrooms are really nice and the addition has lots of great study rooms for our study groups/teams to use. It is fantastic . The only down side is that because they were in such a rush to finish the addition before schools started, they were not able to iron out of the kinks with the heating and AC. This has resulted in the AC running full blast constantly, creating FREEZING COLD rooms. It is okay in the mornings, but 20 minutes into class I am freezing cold and it just keeps getting colder. I am pretty sure that the temperature runs somewhere around 60 degrees (maybe as low as 57. My assigned seat (yes we have assigned seats, I think it is a throw back to 5th grade, but whatever) is directly under one of the vents. So while everyone else on campus is wearing shorts and a t-shirt to class, I am in wool sweaters and boots. I have considered busting out Furry Goodness (my fur vest) and my down parkas. It has been so cold that one guy has brought a blanket to class and wraps himself up in it. All I am saying is that I will be one happy camper if the heat works as well as the AC in the winter.

2 - The great thing about having all of your classes with the same people is that you really start to get to know these people and their true personalities start to shine through. We have some real characters. One of my favorite characters is a guy by the name of Jeremy. He is from Chicago and sounds a LOT like Joe Jr. from the movie While You Were Sleeping. I love it when he talks cuz he sounds so ethnic, plus he has VERY strong opinions about EVERYTHING, which I find totally amusing. The comments he made during our discussion on employment law were awesome. (He hates that the government can tell him who he has to hire. He says, "I should be able to hire who I want, if I don't like you, too bad!" - He said this in the presence of our guest lecturer, an attorney who specializes in employment law. It was classic!)

3 - This week I had an appointment to met with a member of the bishopric. I had a message from the Executive Secretary whose name is Aaron to set up the appointment and I didn't think much of it. Fastforward to Wednesday... I go strolling into the bishopric's office and the executive secretary greets me in what is a more familiar manner than normal, but I figured this guy was just a little on the friendly side. He then says to me, "I saw Doug today." To which I respond, " How do you know Doug?" He said, "Well a while ago you, me, Doug and Tedi all went and played some really bad golf." I was mortified! I had been out on a blind date with this kid a year or so ago. I remember going on the date, but I didn't remember what he looked like, which is weird because I VERY rarely forget faces. All I have to say about that is AWKWARD!!! What are you suppose to say in a situation like that? I tried to recover as best as I could. Thankfully the bishopric member was ready for me and saved me from further embarassment.

A Visual Discription of the Past Month

A classmate of mine sent out this picture/short movie which perfectly describes how I have felt the past few weeks. It has been especially pertinent the later half of this weekend when no matter how long I stayed at school or how late I stayed up doing homework, I kept falling further and further behind.

I knew that the MBA program was going to be challenging and would take a lot of time. I just didn't realize that it would take over my entire life and that the only thing I would talk about would be MBA and MBA related things. I have turned into one of those people who just 4 short weeks ago I despised. My deepest apologies to all of you.

Wasting Time Wishing

Today I was sitting at church listening to people share their feelings and getting a little frustrated. It seemed like every person who got up to bear their testimonies was talking about the "desires of their heart" (BYU speak for wanting to be married) being unmet and how they "wished they were at a different stage in life." I wanted to throw a shoe at all of these girls. Why do they want a life different from the one that they have? Is their current situation REALLY that bad? Do they not recognize that the Lord is using the experiences they are having now to prepare them for their future and to bless the lives of people around them? Do they really think that they don't have value or worth because they are not married? Why do they feel like they their life is not meaningful or adding value unless they are married and have children?

Sometimes I think I am broken and that there is something seriously wrong with me because I don't feel that way. I never really have. I remember sitting in a Young Women's meeting and our YW president (or maybe she was the Laurel Advisor at the time), Shanna Shirley, telling us about her life prior to meeting her husband and getting married. Shanna went to college, worked in several places and wasn't married until she was 25. I distinctly remember thinking that that was what I wanted. I wanted to graduate from college and then work and experience life before settling down. I wasn't going to get married until I was at least 25. There is a lot of world to explore and things to do that are very easily done when you are single and a little more challenging to do when you are married and have a family.

I have been so lucky to be able to be more involved in my younger siblings lives than some of my siblings due to the fact that I am single. I have been able to go places and experience things that I would not have been able to do if I were married. If I were married I would not being going back to school to get an MBA. I would not have met many of my friends who have greatly blessed my life. I would not have learned the lessons that I have from being available to serve those around me. Being "older" and still single has been a blessing in my life and I know that the Lord is mindful of me and that I am where I need to be at this time in my life.

I think that in society as a whole, not just in Mormon culture, we waste an awful lot of our lives wanting them to be different. I had fallen into this trap several years ago and it took a good friend, Maribah, say to me, "Connie, this is your life now." and that I needed to deal with it. What a wake-up call that was! Whatever we are experiencing, this is our life, and we only get one. Why do we waste so much of it wishing things were different? Sure sometimes I wish that I didn't have so much homework or that I had more time to spend with my friends and family. But I don't. I need to live in the moment, find as much joy and satisfaction in what I am doing NOW as I can.

My roommate has a card that is posted in our kitchen that has a picture of a girl walking down a path. On the path there is a sign at a fork in the road, with 2 arrows. One reads "Your Life" going one direction and the other arrow going in the opposite direction reads "No longer an option." Each of us has made decision that have brought us to the point that we are now. We can't change the past, we can only control today. So my advice to those girls (or any of us who may find ourselves wishing things were different)...STOP WASTING YOUR LIFE WISHING!!! Live in the present! Enjoy what you are doing (even if it is finance and accounting homework -UGH!) and trust the the Lord has you right where you are needed.

MBAMA (M-BAM-A), Moab, & Bank Alarms

Prior to starting my MBA program last week, I went with a bunch of classmates (Members of MBAMA, the MBA Marketing Association) to Moab, UT over Labor Day weekend. Apparently all of the "fun" majors (Marketing & OB/HR (Organizational Behavior/Human Resources) have activities prior to school starting where we have the opportunity to get to know one another in a less formal setting. Along with students, professors and recruiters are also invited. (Finance majors lose out, but I guess that is probably okay as they tend to be kind of boring people, bless their hearts)I have to say that Moab was great fun. I was able to make more new friends and decide that Marketing is probably the best fit for me.

After 3 days with the group, I am pretty sure that I can answer the 3 major questions about each of them: Where they are from (hometown), Where they have lived prior to the MBA, and What they were doing prior to the MBA. For most of them I can also tell you random facts about them, including whose wife was hit on by John Mayer, who had a crochet needle shoved through their thumb, whose mission companion at 68 bananas in 6 days (NASTY!!) and who is addicted to "Rock Band." I also learned that married guys seem to be fascinated with the psyche of single women in the MBA program. I had all sorts of questions about what I want to do, my perspective on my single male peers and whether or not I plan on having a social life for the next 2 years. It was all very interesting.

As for our adventures, they started Friday morning with our drive to Moab in 12 passenger vans (I had flash backs to family vacation in "old yeller", evening getting my preferred seat - middle row, driver's side window)Upon our arrival at the Big Horn Lodge (apparently a few steps up from where they stayed last year, but definitely not the Hilton or even the Holiday Inn) we had free time for several hours. Myself and the Clements' sisters decided to hit the pool... little by little others joined us and pretty soon it was a happening spot. The guys decided to have a competition to see who could swim the furthers underwater without breathing. I believe Brandon won with 4 lengths.

After pool time we went to dinner and then listened to 2 recruiter presentations. We had presentations by Union Pacific Railroad and Wal-mart. After presentations we had the option of going to play laser tag, mini golf and race go karts. I was exhausted and opted to go to sleep instead. Unfortunately sleeping in a strange bed with a mostly (I met my bed mate, Michelle Quinn, that morning) complete stranger did not make for a restful night sleep. I was awake for at least 20 minutes each hour. I was relieved when 6am finally rolled around and it was time to get up!

Saturday morning we were picked up by our friendly tour guides and headed off on our Hummer safari. It was a lot of fun. It was a little windy as you will see from the pictures.After our morning of off-roading, we changed our clothes and headed up the Colorado River where we spent the afternoon rafting down the river. We don't have any pictures of that, but it was SO MUCH fun!!! I have all kinds of bruises from paddles and people trying to pull my out of the raft.

After another dinner, we had two more recruiter presentations (HP and Nestle). Once those were over, Elisa and I were ready to go, so we headed to what we thought was the door. We tried one and couldn't get out, so we pushed on what appeared to be an exit door. Once we did that, an alarm started to sound (did I mention our recruiter presentations were held in the basement of Zion's Bank). Apparently we tried to go out the emergency exit and in the process had all kinds of alarms going off. We had to evacuate the building and wait for the police. A little extra drama, just to keep things interesting.

1. The view outside the window as we climbed our first (and smallest) hill.

2. Elisa, Me & JJ as we are loading up in the morning.

3. The Clements Girls: Alison, Elisa & Me 4. Another fantastic vista from the Hummer windows. 5. Hell's Revenge - not much else to say 6. Elisa and Me - self portrait to show how tired we were. (Oliver, Union Pacific recruiter, Alison & Phil are in the background) 7. Alison, Nicole, Me & Elisa (Nicole is our neighbor and was part of our car pool group for orientation. She is also in my section) 8. Mike T: our fearless driver. This is exactly how he drove the Hummer, it didn't matter how steep the assent or decline.

Avoiding Homework

I have a 30 page case to read and an balance sheet and statement of cash flows to finish tonight, but I have NO motivation to do them.... It is REALLY hard to be motivated for school when you have already spent 4 or 5 hours on homework. I HATE homework, which is one of the reasons I put off grad school for so long (well, that and having NO clue what I want to be when I grow up).

There are definite perks to being in school (not having to be anywhere until noon is pretty awesome) and having the ability to decide when you are going to "work" and not work, but all of that homework is WAY less than fantastic. So I am currently avoiding my homework by checking out Facebook, chatting with friends and updating my blog. I really should go to bed before 2 am, but my insomnia is back. I should probably figure out what the root of all of that is.

Okay, I have to be motivated....wish me luck!