So today was the first day of classes at the School of Management, and the first day that I ventured to take the bus in from Hyannis.
All spring long I've been driving myself in to Boston, interviewing at the SOM, visiting, attending the odd lecture, stalking the odd professor of whom one thinks a great deal... and forking over various ungodly amounts to park and gas up my vehicle for the privilege.
That was all fine when I was only an occasional visitor. But now that I am a full-time student, with classes five days a week, I am a committed bus commuter.
It's not so bad. By car, with no traffic or impediments whatsoever, I can make it from my house to 409 Commonwealth Avenue in one hour and fifteen minutes flat. The buses are not quite so cavalier about the speed limit, sadly. That mode of transport takes a solid two hours.
But it's so great to be chauffeured and carried about effortlessly, you have no idea!
Here are just a few reasons why it's so great to take the Plymouth and Broc ... more »
Posted: September 4, 2008 10:55 pm | 0 comments
Tags:
We had our second (and second-to-last, alas!) class of Communications Strategies this morning, and spent a lot of time talking about how to create and deliver a powerful presentation.
In fact, our final deliverable for the class is a brief (seven-minute) presentation, recorded by a Simmons media specialist sometime over the next two days.
So, knowing this was coming up, over the weekend I took my friend Cindy Caughey out to lunch.
Cindy is an independent presentation design specialist, which basically means that she gets paid to create and edit powerpoint presentations.
Cindy wishes, and many of us join her in this wish, that the very word "presentation" didn't necessarily equal "Powerpoint presentation," but it still does to most people, so that's what you sort of have to go with.
Yes, you can give a great presentation without a slidedeck, but I think that there is a real chance that someone in the audience will be quietly snickering to themselves, "She doesn't know how to use Powerp ... more »
Posted: September 8, 2008 5:07 pm | 0 comments
Tags: interview, powerpoint, smalldots
you know what isn't nearly as refreshing as it sounds? Sleeping on the Plymouth and Brockton bus each day for an hour each way.
My everything hurts.
Posted: September 11, 2008 7:36 pm | 0 comments
Tags:
I drove in to school today, thinking that I would enjoy the change of pace, and the freedom from the tyranny of the bus schedule, that would allow.
I did enjoy zipping along at my usual somewhat-more-than-legally-posted speed, and arriving at my destination in half the time it takes me to cover the same distance by bus.
I also didn't miss descending into the Arlington T stop, waiting for th T, and then climbing back out two stops later. Yes, it feels self-indulgent to me, too. But my laptop and textbooks are REALLY HEAVY and I am REALLY OUT OF SHAPE. Sue me. I'm lazy.
So I liked being able to park two blocks from school, in the D&D lot on Newbury Street.
But, not surprisingly, I did NOT enjoy forking over $30 clams to park there.
Also not surprisingly, I resented having to sit in rush hour traffic on the way home.
Perhaps more surprising than anything, however, was how much I missed just being able to sit back, zone out, and let the driver do all the work while I listen to podca ... more »
Posted: September 16, 2008 11:20 pm | 0 comments
Tags:
A bunch of us went to the first Gardner After Hours of the season tonight at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, one of my favorite places in Boston.
I marked the occasion with another first: walking from the SOM to the Main Campus. Of course, I've been to the Main Campus lots of times before, but never walked from point A to Point B.
What a glorious walk! After only a few hundred feet of concrete and highway, you are encased in green, surrounded by gardens, flowers, birds, and trees.
I will definitely be enjoying that particular stroll more often, now that I have learned my way.
The Gardner was great, of course, very well-attended by a rather diverse group of swanky and fascinating people. But I am afraid that I must dive directly into bed without writing more about it. I am *trying* to adhere to a strict midnight bedtime these days.
It isn't easy -- late night is when I do my best work! It's very hard to turn my brain off at this hour.
BUT my capacity to take in new info ... more »
Posted: September 18, 2008 11:58 pm | 0 comments
Tags:
