Not on Academic Probation

Feeling good! Grades were posted today and though I am not at liberty to say what they were exactly, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised (and relieved) by the outcome. No academic probation for me. No sir. And next quarter I am only signed up for 3 classes (unlike this quarter, in which I had 4, plus LEAD), leaving plenty of time for studying recruiting! And more recruiting! Huzzah!  I’m back in Florida for the holidays and enjoying the down time with family and friends. My sister comes home from Mexico on Saturday. Looking forward to spending lots of time with her (when I’m not poring over PBS internship listings, sending off cover letters and resumes or preparing my SOAR framework for wInterview).  Funny thing about wInterview. In a moment of weakness, distraction, over-confidence, et al, I signed up to be one of 2 volunteers for the marketing industry segment who will be honored obliged to conduct their mock interview in front of the assembled masses, which means feedback! Lots of it! From anyone who cares to weigh in on my performance! So I have to be very, very prepared. Planning to spend much of my holiday practicing case questions.   Writing this post from the lanai (yes, a lanai, it’s so very Florida, just like the Golden Girls) overlooking the pool at my parents’ house, sipping on a glass of wine while Mom reads from Amy Sedaris’ entertaining book, I Like You. Life is good.  Tomorrow I am hosting a reception for prospective students at Spain in downtown Tampa, then off to Downtown St Pete with L, where we’ll meet up with friends at The Bar and other old haunts of mine.  It is strange and wonderful to be home again. But there is a part of me that misses Chicago. Even so, I am doing my best to enjoy the 70 degree weather while I can by doing things like wearing flip flops out of doors and driving around town with the top down, singing along with my favorite songs.  

Quarter in Review

It’s been an amazing quarter. To cover the things that have been left off in previous posts, here’s a high-level recap of what’s hot and what’s not from my first four months in Chicago and at the GSB.        What’s HOT:

1. Boots – stylish, citified, lined for warmth, waterproofed against the elements and treaded to prevent falls (of which we all know full well I am extremely capable of)
2. Public art – it is everywhere in Chicago, but I am particularly enamoured with the art along Michigan Avenue and in Grant Park and Millennium Park, as well as the You Are Beautiful campaign in and around Chicago
3. Meeting American Express CEO, Ken Chenault 
4. Walking. Everywhere. My calves have never looked better!
5. The novelty of one’s first real change of seasons – I think that I shall never see anything so lovely as ice hung upon a tree.
6. Whiskey Club – underground, unofficial, unregulated – also held exactly 2 blocks from my flat, the perfect distance for the kind of blistering cold days that merit a warming dram
7. LEAD Challenge – the most challenging thing I’ve done thus far has also been my most “transformative” experience at the GSB
8. Blommer Co. and the aroma of chocolate that wafts down the Chicago River and wraps itself around me like a delicious blanket as I trudge across the Michigan Ave bridge nights on my way home from Gleacher
9. Thrill Jockey
10. And the award for best use of award show format in a B-school setting goes to… Golden Gargoyles! [cue theme music]: hands-down the best GSB-sponsored social event of the quarter. What’s not to like about Old School parodies and Thrillers about recruiting? 

What’s NOT:

1. Technology at the GSB: Logging in 8 million times to the same system – cMore, Chalk, GSB Portal, faculty pages, Career Services databases (at least a dozen within that site alone: resume databases, company surveys, industry research), Mac/PC discrepancies, computer lab printer melt downs, and the surfeit of listserv emails
2. Apostrophe bars, esp. those after hours watering holes we have a habit of stumbling into when the lights come on at 2 (lessons learned through the ceaseless repetition and observation of unrecountable errors, are that no good, whatsoever, in any way, can ever come of drinks after 3 a.m.). Just as no good can ever come of burritos consumed past midnight. Yes, I know I’ve been on this rant before. It’s nothing personal really. So why do I keep going? Let’s just say that in the battle between my love for the people and my dislike for the apostrophe, the people win out every time.
3. Coffee prices at Kovler Café (and, for that matter, any prices at Kovler). Is this what Priscilla Parker meant when she cautioned us not to spend like CEOs as students, lest we live like students as CEOs?
4. Pizza Pirates at LPF’s. Yes you, swooping down with the other early birds like a pack of shrieking vultures. You, with your plate piled so high you have to keep one hand atop the steaming heap else the pile tumbles and falls to be trodden by the thronging crowd. You, dashing off to consume your ill-gotten hoard while the rest of stumble forward in awed shock to find the boxes stripped of all but the bare bones of crust and stray bits of cheese stuck to greasy cardboard. I don’t even eat pizza, but I swear now upon the growling stomachs of my lactose-tolerant classmates, we will have our revenge.
5. Course prices at an all-time high. Managerial Decision Making for 16,000+ points? Really?
6. Flip cup, beer pong, beirut, slap the bag – like the apostrophe, they are simply not for me
7. Stolen coats
8. Mailfolder stuffing – waste of paper, waste of time, waste of space
9. Rumors about the Hot List
10. I can’t think of a #10 for “What’s NOT.” That’s a good sign, right?