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
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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
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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
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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
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
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Well so *that* was one of the most mentally exhausting days I've had in a long time. My head was nodding the whole drive back to Cape Cod (dangerous but true!), and when I got home I staggered into my bedroom, changed into sweats, and collapsed in an unsightly heap and slept like a stone for two solid hours.
LIKE A STONE.
Of course I didn't help my case by only getting about four hours of sleep and then spending all day trying to charm the pants off of a room full of strangers.
I don't know why, I can't help it! I meet new people and I get all lounge act-y.
No, actually I was pretty well-behaved. I did have a heck of a good time with someone I had met in the spring at the Simmons Leadership Conference. Liana and I are similar in age and professional background, and it would seem in temperament as well. We're also both commuting from over an hour away to the Simmons SOM night classes, which makes us a special kind of crazy. Really looking forward to being in classes with her.
One of ... more »
Posted: August 23, 2008 10:53 pm | 1 comment
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Foundations of Business starts tomorrow, it is past midnight, I need to leave at 6:00 am to make it to class by 8:00 am (stopping for coffee and gas along the way, and making time for the unexpected).
Am I the least bit tired? OF COURSE NOT.
I finished working on my homework -- the McCaskey case -- last night, reviewed it during lunch at work today, and printed it out with a shrug (what do I know how good it is? It's my first case!).
Tonight I've been reviewing and memorizing my route, even though I know it by heart after all the trips I made to 409 Commonwealth Avenue in the spring while I was applying. I also needed to figure out where my parking garage was, so I don't have to go spiraling around early morning streets of Boston in a panic, trying to find parking. It'll be expensive, but I don't have the patience for the T just yet, and I can't be feeding a meter every 2 hours during orientation.
Do the meters run on weekends in the Back Bay? I have no idea. I am sure I will find ou ... more »
Posted: August 23, 2008 12:27 am | 0 comments
Tags: anxiety, clothes, first day at school, mom, school, shopping
Start another blog? Sure, why not? I already write a blog over here (http://www.smalldots.wordpress.com) and have maintained a personal blog for years (anonymously, mind you), and have been a weekly contributor to a few humor blogs, but never have I blogged my SCHOOL experience...
And that's because when I was last in school, blogs hadn't been invented yet.
That makes me sound hysterically old, when I am not. I am only 37, which I believe technically makes me *adorably* old. Just for the record.
So yes, I am apparently starting my MBA in a matter of days, as orientation begins this Saturday. At least, I *think* it's orientation, despite the SOM's clever attempts to disguise it as an actual, ever-so-brief business course. (I'm sure it's very business-y, really. Something something case studies something.)
But I also imagine there will be a few ice-breakers, and maybe some team-building exercises, and if we're lucky, maybe we will at some point in the weekend do that trust-exercise t ... more »
Posted: August 19, 2008 12:26 am | 0 comments
Tags: blogging, fall, foundations of business, new student, SOM, trust
