We interrupt your regular programming to bring you...India!

I’m leaving for India in the morning…naturally that means I’m going to bed and getting a good night’s sleep…oooor typing a blog entry. I’m kinda sad (cause I had to leave St. Louis on Christmas and drive back to Fayetteville…WITHOUT Gigi (who is staying with my parents while I’m gone)), but I’m also super excited. Honestly, I feel kinda like tonight is Christmas Eve, rather than last night. I always get this way the night before I leave on a trip - no matter how packed I am or how many lists I’ve made or how sure I am that everything is done, I sit up for a few extra hours going over everything that I could have forgotten…crap! Rent! Hang on…

Okay, rent is paid…and internet…that would have been bad. Anyway, so I’m leaving for India tomorrow! I’ll be there for three weeks doing all sorts of fun things. Wanna know specifically what I’m up to? You do? Thought so. You should follow my India blog while I’m gone! Go here:

chaiforchristmas.blogspot.com

I’m also blogging for the Study Abroad office, but it’ll be the same entries, so if you wanna read the updates twice, you can go there, too.

We’ll return to normal programming (i.e. updates HERE on school and internshipy stuff) after the trip. I’ll be back in January! ‘Til then!

It's not Christmas until...

Confession: I'm a creature of habit. I like routine, tradition, consistency. Every year, as Christmas time rolls around, several things have to happen for it to really be "Christmas."

First, I don't listen to Christmas music until I have seen Santa in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Then, for it to really be Christmas, there are four songs I need to hear:

1) O Holy Night ~ Josh Groban

2) Baby, It's Cold Outside ~ Zooey Deschanel & Leon Redbone

3) Believe ~ Josh Groban

4) Emmanuel ~ Amy Grant

Next, my mother and I do most of our Christmas shopping on Black Friday. After dinner, we sit down, go through ads, and develop a plan of attack with the same fervor and precision as an army general. Then, the next morning, list in hand and coffee in tow, we leave the house (usually before dawn), brave the lines and crowds, collect gifts, and convene for coffee and breakfast all by about 10 am.

Once I'm "home" for Christmas, the traditions continue:

First, we set up the tree (last minute, usually...which we make up for by leaving it up til Valentine's Day) and put on several key ornaments: a golden firetruck (for my grandfather), a few painted eggs (made by my Mom's best friend from high school who was taken from us by breast cancer), a singing teddy bear (from Mom & Dad's first Christmas) and a rocking horse (from my first Christmas).

We wrap presents (again, usually last minute...normally because Mom's forgotten where she's hidden them) and pile them around the tree...if we can get the cat to give up her self-appointed post long enough to arrange them.

We have Christmas Eve dinner and we open ONE gift. It's ALWAYS pajamas...always. But, we're always "surprised" to get them. Mom started this tradition years ago so that we would look "cute" for pictures the next day.

Then, we curl up on the couch, clad in our new Christmas pajamas, and watch The Santa Clause (the one with Tim Allen) before heading to bed.

Over the years, the traditions have changed a little, some things have been added and some have been lost, but it's the same general set. I love it - I love the regularity, the way I can depend on it every year, right down to the last minute wrapping and scrambling. It's my family and it's beautiful.

This year was a bit different. We opened ALL of our gifts on Christmas Eve (I have to leave early Christmas morning to make it back to Fayetteville for my flight to India). Also, my little brother couldn't make it home due to work obligations. But, despite the physical distance, he was able to Skype in and we still got to unwrap presents as a family. Thanks, technology!

So now, I'm curled up on the couch, with my puppy snuggled in my lap, sipping hot cocoa and watching The Santa Clause with Daddy. I hope you and your families have similarly happy traditions and that you are warm and cozy tonight. Merry Christmas, dear readers! Best Wishes to you and yours - enjoy every minute!

Procrastination Post!

I'm posting this so that I'm no longer tempted to sit here and tell you about my week. I have my one and only final tomorrow, and I'm supposed to be studying...but blogging just sounds so much more appealing.

Latenight-studyoverloadinduced-crazyperson-logic: if I post something short, I won't feel tempted by the option of blogging anymore

...this makes perfect sense!

So, yeah, that's it. Must go study accounting...

All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

For our last assignment in our Leadership class, we had to write out our "leadership philosophy" - basically what we believe leadership is, entails, and looks like. Now, if you can't tell from my blog, I'm a bit of a creative writer (technical stuff bores me). I like adding a spin or a bit of sarcasm or even some "cheesyness" to what I write. It (I hope) makes it more fun to read (sure does make it more fun to write).

So, for this leadership paper, I decided to approach it from a "different" angle. Here's what I submitted:

My leadership philosophy comes from an unconventional place. As an undergrad, I worked part time teaching two-year-olds (yes, voluntarily) at a Montessori school. My job was not to “teach,” but to guide and motivate these children through developmental stages to that they could “move up.” During my two years there, I learned more about leadership than I have anywhere else. Don’t believe me? Think about it. If you can “lead” a group of two-year-olds – lead, not command – you can lead anyone.  

The thought process behind my leadership philosophy is summed up quite well by a poem called “All I need to know I learned in Kindergarten” (by Robert Fulgham). Over time, I’ve added bits and pieces from my own personal experiences, and I have found the following to hold true in almost every aspect of my life.

• Share everything – responsibility, power, credit, and blame.
• Play fair – playing favorites does not foster team cohesion.
• Don't hit people. Use your words, instead – they’re much more powerful.
• Put things back where you found them – organization makes everything easier.
• Clean up your own mess – take responsibility for your actions and mistakes.
• Don't take things that aren't yours – don’t take responsibility for others’ ideas.
• Keep your promises – follow through, with both rewards and consequences.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody – fostering and maintaining relationships is a key part of being a good leader.
• Wash your hands before you eat – habits are hard to break. Form good ones.
• Flush – common courtesy goes a long way.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you – treat yourself every now and then.
• Live a balanced life – learn and think, draw and paint, sing and dance, and play and work at least some every day.
• Take a nap every afternoon – just stop and be still for a little while each day.
• Do unto others as you would have them do to you – they’ll return the favor.
• Make friends with the smart kids – then, if you don’t know how to do something, you know someone who does.
• If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all – praise goes a long way.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together – support, protect, and look out for your team members.
• God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak – listen to your people. How else will you know how to lead them?
• Be aware of wonder – never cease to be curious and never stop learning.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice - they all die. So do we – no one is invincible. Loss and failure are a part of life. It’s how we handle adversity it that shows who we are.
• Remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all , SEE – Get out of your office, look around you, and be aware of what is happening. How else can you help your team get to where they need to be?

I got an A, by the way :) Now, off to pour over survey responses and figure out what my data is telling me (thanks to y'all who took the survey!). Happy Thursday!

Excel Invaders!

Just in case you need another reason to get your MBA, this is an example of what I've learned to do at work:



Disclaimer: I was just kidding. This is not an accurate picture of what I do at work...

...but did it brighten your day at all? Hope so. Happy Monday!

Turkey Hangover

Just got home from St. Louis...Thanksgiving break was great (it's possibly my favorite holiday - I love family gatherings, and this one is usually the biggest for us), but the Sunday after break is probably my least favorite Sunday all semester. I tend to get "holiday vision" (kinda like tunnel vision, but lined with twinkle lights and snowmen), and coming back to school for a measly two weeks after such a short time at home is icky. My brain does its best to ignore those two weeks and pretends that once I hit Thanksgiving break, I'm done for the semester...I'm not. I got back to Fayetteville and opened my to do file, and this is what I saw:

Yeah...*sigh*

I look at this...and I KNOW I should start working...but I'm overwhelmingly unmotivated. There's Christmas music on the radio, and hot cocoa in the cabinet, and twinkle lights EVERYWHERE, and a Christmas tree in my car just begging me to bring it in and set it up (I'm very VERY motivated to do that...)

So, new plan: I do an assignment, and I get to put up a piece of decor. This will totally work...right?

In other news, the Razorbacks won and are now #7 in the BCS (FINALLY, some recognition!). Also, I got a new camera this weekend! A Cannon SX130. It's beautiful and has 12x optical zoom (and I got it for $150 off!). Expect many photo-ful uploads in the future. Til then. 

UPDATE (10:30 PM): ...the tree is up, I have hot cocoa, and none of those aforementioned assignments has been done...oh well

Hurry up, Thanksgiving!

Life is a little crazy right now - I feel like I'm running out of time to get everything done! Over the next week, we have a paper due, a presentation, another India class, and our first final. Not to mention we need to finish collecting data, start writing our research paper, finish another presentation, another project, another paper, and study for finals (all before December 2nd...eeeek!).

On top of that, I'm throwing a huge dinner party on Thursday (the busiest day I have this week...naturally), and so the house needs to be cleaned, food must be cooked, decor put up, etc. It's a lot and there simply aren't enough hours in each day to do what I need to do (and sleep...which I require...well, the people I interact with require it of me...)

At least work has slowed down. The past few weeks have been INSANE - trying to get this huge report ready for Walmart. We finally turned it in, though, so we can breathe a little (which I need right now).

So, yeah, you might not hear from me for a few days...

But, if you find yourself at a loss for things to do this week, you could always take my survey (in the post below) OR you could go enjoy this open house - I've mentioned Riffraff several times before. Kirsten, the owner, is a U of A grad, and she's brilliant. Her store is precious and if you're looking to find some unique gifts for the holidays, this is the place to go. Yay for supporting local businesses!

Take this survey and I'll give you cookies!

Okay...not really...I can't legally do that considering I have to keep all responses anonymous...but, you'll get a warm, fuzzy feeling 'cause you were helpful...kinda the same as cookies, right?

We're conducting primary research for our Marketing Research class, and we need to know what college students think about "immediate consumption beverage" purchases (i.e. the drinks you buy at a gas station/Walgreens/Club Red/vending machines...you know, the ones you're gonna drink right away? Those). We'd really appreciate your help - we need as many responses as possible.

So, since you're here anyway (and this only takes like ten minutes, tops), would you take it? Please?...pretty please?...pretty please with a cherry on top? Click below.

LINK TO THE SUPER AWESOME SURVEY YOU KNOW YOU WANNA TAKE

If you're still reading, but didn't click above...wrong choice...go back and try again. Thanks y'all!

I earned my white belt today!

In the Lean Six Sigma world, though...so don't worry. We spent all day in a professional development class learning the basics of lean six sigma, and what all is involved in the process. After a brief intro, we were asked to participate in a simulation.

We were all employees at Beltmart, and we each had a job, be it time keeper, customer, supervisor, truck driver, line worker, etc. Our goal was to get orders in from the customer, process them, and deliver them back to the customer, all in two minutes. The first time through, it took an average of 4:40 to deliver a completed project...and not a single one was accurate...obviously a problem.

The next several hours (i.e. the rest of the day) were spent going through the DMAIC (de-may-ic) method in order to solve the problem the six-sigma way. Just in case you are wondering, DMAIC stands for:

• Define the problem
• Measure the baseline
• Analyze the situation
• Improve the system
• Control for changes

After we'd gone through each step, we were asked to implement a new system in order to improve our process. In addition, we were split into two teams. Now, for those of you that don't know, we (well, I) are/am a bit competitive, so the "teams" made it that much more imperative that we do better (we had to win!). Well, it appears we learned SOMETHING because our team's new average time waaaaaas...18.1 seconds! (and ZERO defects in the whole bunch). Impressive, huh? Note, the other team's average time: 21.3 seconds. I believe that calls for a:

MWAHAHA!

(nope, not competitive at all)

So, what does all of this mean? Well, it means that I can put "Lean Six Sigma White Belt" on my resume and that I can now move on to training for the Yellow Belt (if I wanna keep going). But, more importantly, it further differentiates me in the applicant pool and shows that I've taken the initiative to improve my decision making abilities (yay!).

It was possibly the best PD class we've done yet (I really enjoyed it). There were pictures taken...but I don't have them. I'll add them when I find (and subsequently borrow) from those that had cameras.

In other news, it's Friday and tomorrow is the last "home" football game - against UTEP (I use the word "game" lightly). So, since I don't have to be up super early, guess what I'm doing? Blogging and watching Harry Potter while sipping a cup of hot cocoa (with french vanilla, snowman shaped marshmallows). Go ahead, be jealous. It's okay.

So, yeah, that accounting test I was so worried about?

Easiest exam EVER! I'm not kidding. I finished in like 30 minutes (which is unheard of for me...probably 'cause I usually check and re-check my answers somewhere around three times, but whatever). I was actually a little worried I'd missed something, like an essay question or instructions that said "please answer in pig-latin"...it couldn't have been THAT easy, right? Wrong. Everyone else seemed to think the same thing.

So, good news guys! Our exams are occasionally simple and to the point. "Did you pay attention in class, do your homework, and study (even a little)? You did? Well, yay you! You'll do great!"

I spent the rest of my day running around Fayetteville, delivering invitations to a party I'm throwing next week (on November 18th...if you can figure out the theme based on the date alone, we should be friends).

I love planning parties...probably more than most things...and this one has been in the works for about a year, so it should be awesome. There will be an entire update dedicated to it, no worries.

To those of you currently judging me (you know who you are): "Psh." I'm passionate about something...and employers like passion, right? This is a good thing!

After my invite delivery adventures, I spent a few hours at Rick's Bakery (one of the best places in Fayetteville to do homework), updating a survey and finalizing it for distribution. Once it's ready, I'm going to post a link on my blog. If you're a kind hearted individual and want to help out a few MBA students, we'd love to have you take it...please? Check back for the link. 'Til then, readers!

GWIB Meet and Greet

I know it's been a little while, but a) life's been a bit routine (i.e. uneventful & boring) and b) I went to St. Louis last weekend to hang out with Mom & Dad and didn't do ANYTHING productive. It was wonderful! We went to the salon, and shopped, and had lunch at this cute little diner, and drove aimlessly around small towns...yeah, I don't feel bad at all for taking a weekend off.

Now, however, I'm back to reality. We have an accounting test tomorrow that I'm NOT ready for (and that I'm supposed to be studying for right now...) and a presentation due, and another paper next week, and a survey that has to go out, and then more tests/papers/projects/presentations in an endless loop until December 11th...sigh. We do get a couple of days off for Thanksgiving, so that'll be nice.

We do have a fun event coming up this week, though. I'm part of a brand new RSO on campus called Graduate Women in Business and we're hosting a meet and greet this Thursday at PF Chang's (in Rogers). It's a time for the girls to get together and talk about life and what not (with other girls that are going through the same types of things). If you're interested in the program (even a little) and would like to come hang out with us and hear a little more about it (in a fun, half-priced-super-tasty-appetizer-filled atmosphere), you should join us. The invite is attached below. Everyone is welcome (yes, you too, alumni, faculty, and staff!) and we'd love to have you stop by! I mean, think about it, girl time AND lettuce wraps...can you really say no? Didn't think so.

Remember how I'm going to India over Christmas?

Well, I am. And I've started a blog specifically dedicated to that journey. Click HERE to read about our itinerary and be jealous.

So...I'm a little frustrated with life right now

If you couldn't tell from one of my recent blog posts, I'm kinda annoyed with my lack of fall break. This annoyance is manifesting itself in several different ways:

• I no longer understand the importance of my alarm...and tend to turn it off in my half-asleep state
• I lose track of what day it is (which, when coupled with the above means that my normal punctual self is occasionally late for class...which REALLY upsets me)
• I have minimal patience for inefficiency
• I become highly apathetic (as it pertains to things that actually matter...little things, however, continue to bug me at the same level)
• My emotions have kinda gone haywire (I'm pretty sure I almost cried during a 30 Rock episode...who does that?)

Anyway, this annoyance/"need for a mental break/neverending to-do list"/"avoidance of said neverending to-do list"/"sense of impending doom due to the fact that time continues to pass despite my denial" has not produced the happiest week of my life.

In fact, I'm quite easily annoyed as of late...here's my current list of Most-Annoying-Things-Ever (it changes regularly and is in no particular order):

1. People who correct me...especially when I know MORE about the subject than they do...
2. Habitual tardiness...once I can understand...every day? Really? Try harder
3. Talking just to hear your own voice...it's not pretty. Unless you have a valid point, shut up
4. Excessive, selfish interviewing. You KNOW you aren't going to take that job, DON'T interview! It's mean.
5. Cynicism
6. Elitism
7. Ole Miss & Houston Nutt
8. Paid parking on Dickson Street
9. People who don't do their homework...but expect the rest of the class to do it so they don't have to answer
10. Our neighbors...they're really loud and seem to have no idea that most people like to SLEEP at 3am, not rev engines and have cackling contests

I guess it's fair to say that the "I love being back in school" honeymoon phase is over. It's not unexpected, though - this happens every year at the end of October when I realize I still have a whole month before I get a break of any sort. And I usually try to be happy on my blog ('cause I'm generally a fairly happy person), but today you get the annoyed me.

Wanna know what it's like to get an MBA?
Sometimes it's frustrating.
Sometimes you get overwhelmed.
Sometimes your classmates drive you insane.
Sometimes your neighbors keep you from a good night's sleep three nights in a row.

But most of the time it's actually pretty great. Most of the time I like my classmates...and my loud neighbors... Life is just frustrating right now. This will pass, it always does. But I won't hide it. If you came here looking for info on what life as an MBA student is really like, you should get the whole picture, not just the fun parts. After all, it's all part of the experience, right? We learn from everything...or at least we try.

MBA Campus Visit Day - Come Hang Out!

Hello friends! So, you know how you've all been faithfully reading my blog and thinking "Gee, I wish I could go check out Walton. It sounds like such an neat place,"...well, guess what? Now you can!

We are hosting an MBA Campus Visit Day on Monday (November 1). It starts at 8:30 and there is a presentation, a tour, lunch, and a chance to meet with current students and alumni. The lunch I mentioned will be a "lunch and learn" opportunity with one of my favorite professors, Jeff Murray (the one teaching my favorite class this semester - consumer behavior). He's awesome - it'll be really fun.

A bunch of us will be at lunch, too ('cause, well, Dr. Murray is speaking and have I mentioned he's awesome?), so it'll be a great time to pick our brains about the application process, our daily schedules, challenges, etc.

We'd love to have you. I'm attaching the evite below (it has more info and RSVP information). Of course, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask (via email or a comment below). Hope to see y'all there!

Burn Out

Dear U of A,

For years now we have begged you to give us a Fall Break. You continue to insist that we get one. Just FYI, the day before Thanksgiving isn’t “fall break,” it’s “Thanksgiving break.” We’re dead by then. Do you realize what you’re doing to us? I mean really. It’s ridiculous.

Your reasons in the past have been that the workload is heaviest towards Thanksgiving as we’re preparing for finals. Another FYI, it isn’t the workload we need a break from. We need a mental break, not an academic one. A chance to step away from the daily routine and enjoy time away from campus, away from people, away from responsibility.

We’re one of the only schools around that doesn’t get a break. All of those other schools have realized the problem, why are you so slow on the uptake? We even did all the work for you! We wrote up legislation and recommendations. We got student body approval. We suggested dates and procedures and policies. All you had to do was say okay. Is that really so hard? Come ON, U of A. What’s your problem?

We all get to this point in the semester where the days start blending together. We have trouble remembering which class to go to (because we aren’t sure if it’s Monday or Tuesday), we run out of clean clothes, we turn our alarms off in our sleep. Our brains essentially take a fall break whether WE get to our not. It’s not fair to run us into the ground like this.

You want a prestigious university with top ranked students, right? Here’s a hint: Don’t burn us all out before we get to finals. Listen to the people you claim to care so much about and give us a damn fall break.

Sincerely,

Everyone

Happy Birth(week) Heather!

So, my roommate's birthday was last Tuesday. I understand that not everyone embraces the awesomeness that are birthdays, but I like them...a lot. So, we kinda spent a whole week celebrating Heather's birthday.

On Tuesday, her actual birthday, we had lunch at Rick's (naturally), then spent some time wandering Borders. Kinda laid-back (but that was mostly 'cause we had real plans for Thursday....and, she didn't know, but there were surprise plans for Wednesday, too).

Wednesday: we surprised Heather with cake, frozen yogurt (at 3 Spoons, a new place on campus) and presents after our RUF large group meeting.

Then, on Thursday we had dinner at Kobe. Did the whole Hibachi thing AND got free dessert. It was pretty awesome.

Yay birthdays - and roommates. Happy Birthweek, Heather!

The phrase "War Eagle" and I have a love-hate relationship

Every year, on the third weekend of October, northwest Arkansas is flooded with scads of crafters. There are (at least) three HUGE craft fairs that happen – with War Eagle being the original (and best, in my opinion). My “Tutu” lives up in Rogers, just a little ways from War Eagle Mill, so we almost always go together. The setting is just beautiful. This is the mill:

See all the people on the bridge? It gets crazy. Oh, while we're at it, how bout a view from the bridge?

The fairs start on Wednesday or Thursday, but I normally drive up to Rogers on Friday evening and Tutu and I make the rounds on Saturday morning. We get up super early (like 6 or 7), drive out to the farm and have breakfast at the mill. Now, there is a strategy to this early start. If you don’t get out to the farm before 9am, you have to sit in traffic for about two hours just to park. Then you have to wade through the thousands (yes, thousands) of people who got there before you in order to see anything. If, however, you are War Eagle experts like me and Tutu, you: get there early, park relatively close, have a freshly made, whole-wheat buttermilk biscuit with sausage, then wander the tents without having to move like you’re on a Tokyo subway car.

Now, you may be thinking “Why are there that many people at a craft fair?” This is a legitimate question if you are imagining the fair as a little area of a few tents with people peddling things like marshmallow guns and homemade candles. If that’s the case, you’re half correct…in that way that there are a few vendors with homemade candles. Otherwise, you’re way off. These fairs are gigantic and the vendors come in from all over selling everything from, yes, marshmallow guns to handmade wooden benches and gorgeous artwork.  

With War Eagle in particular, the fair is divided into “hobby” crafts and “professional” crafts. The professional section is grouped together on one side of the river and is judged. The hobby section is on the other side (and is a bit less organized). We normally start with the judged tents (there are 4 tents and a barn, each with four rows of about 15 booths). This year one of my roommate’s friends was in the judged tents. Her name is Autumn and her stuff is really cute…see? After a couple of hours, we head back across the river to briefly peruse the hobby tents. I have one tent that I visit every year, Vega Pottery. I buy one piece each time and I’ve built up quite a collection (Tutu got me started, my first few pieces were graduation presents). This year I also got Gigi some biscuits (with flavors like Blueberry and Steak and Mashed Paw-tater…she could care less what they’re called).

After the fair, Tutu and I normally have lunch. We opted out of fair food this year (everything from funnel cakes to Indian tacos to strawberry crepes) in favor of a tea room down on the Rogers square.

I then collected Gigi and we headed back to Fayetteville to meet up with some friends for the football game (we played Auburn) and Dickson St. Oktoberfest. This is only the second year they’ve done Oktoberfest, so it’s not very big yet, but there was a semi-entertaining brat eating contest (semi-entertaining…semi-really gross).

We went to Hog Haus to watch the massacre that was the football game (Auburn isn't THAT awesome...the dumb SEC refs just made it look that way...besides, they're schizophrenic, what does "War Eagle" have to do with Tigers anyway?), then spent the rest of the evening listening to an 80’s cover band at Jose’s. 

Long day, but good times with some of my favorite people. I should probably do homework now…*sigh* 

Midterms? Psh. No big deal. (Oh, and Lauren & I rock at shuffleboard)

The level of calm that surrounded this semesters midterms (for me, at least) was a little unnerving. I’ve always been one to kinda panic about tests (the Type A overachiever in me freaks out), but not this time. Like I said before, they didn’t sneak up on me – I felt prepared. And so, I didn’t do a whole lot of additional studying…it felt kinda surreal.

We started out with our Leadership exam on Monday. I studied an average amount – I went through and made my “review pages” like I always do, flipped through the book skimming over passages I’d marked and making sure I hadn’t missed anything on my sheets, but that was about it. It went well – I ended up with a 98% (aside: it should have been a 100, the ONE question I missed was rigged…the rest of the class agrees).

The exam I was most worried about was on Tuesday – Marketing Research. I think I was worried simply because there was no “best” way to study…and that just made me nervous. I filled out the study guide then went over it pretty thoroughly with a friend. We discussed the more “vague” areas and looked over the analysis problems we’d done. That was about all we could do, but I didn’t feel super prepared still. I went home and skimmed through several of the chapters and went over the study guide one more time before I felt comfortable enough to sleep. I did alright on that one, too, another 98% (don’t scoff, that’s a 98% with a 12 pt. curve…so yes, it’s “alright” not “good”).

Wednesday was our Ethics FINAL. It’s an 8-week class, so instead of a midterm, we just had a final. I probably studied the least for this one – mostly under the mindset of: it’s ethics…shouldn’t I be able to figure out the answers…? Well…yes and no. The class covered a lot of theory, so I made sure I went over those several times. I made review pages and flipped through the slides (and skimmed through the book that was never officially assigned to the class but that I have thanks to a classmate who’s taken the class before). I ended up with a 92%...for how I studied, I’ll take it.

So, midterms are over now! Yay! We’re halfway through. Does this semester seem to being going by really fast to anyone else?

In other fun news, we had our Fall Social last night. We all met up at Powerhouse and mingled with the part-time (MMBA) class as well as a few prospective students who'd come to hear more about the program. Afterwards, several of us went over to Sideways for a game of shuffleboard. The boys made the mistake of letting us play Guys v. Girls. Lauren and I beat them 23-9. Yeah, we're awesome like that - not competitive at all :) 

War Eagle Arts & Crafts Festival is this weekend. Check back for updates on that. 'Til then.

This is sort of an update

Schedule for the week?

Monday - Midterm, Class, Study, Work, Dinner, Study
Tuesday - Class, Midterm, Work, Study, Dinner, Meeting, Homework
Wednesday - Class, Final (yes, final), Meeting - then? - FREE TIME!

Hopefully I can give a full update on Wednesday. That's about as much as I can handle right now (I'm typing this during my break tonight...during which I'm watching Castle and NOT feeling guilty about it...well, not totally).

More later - 'til then.

Adventures in Puppy-Sitting

My friend Holly has a sweet little Cavalier-Poodle mix named Bella. Precious, right?

She’s a few months younger than Gigi, but they’re about they same size, so they play well together. Holly and her husband went to Dallas this weekend for the Arkansas-A&M game, so Bella and Gigi had a sleepover.

It was funny to watch them play. Gigi was SUPER excited at first and Bella was pretty upset that Will had left her in a new house with a crazy ball of white fluff, but she eventually came around. Gigi quickly changed her “OMG let’s play” attitude, though, once she realized that playing involved sharing her toys. She is not accustomed to sharing ANYTHING – toys, beds, couches, me…so she once the excitement of having a friend over wore off, she no longer wanted to play. As a matter of fact, every time Bella would pick up a toy, Gigi would run to me and poke me like, “Mom! She’s got my rope! Look! Don’t you see this is a problem?! Why aren’t you helping?” Then she’d go take the rope from Bella, bring it to me, put it in my lap, and sit on it. 

Eventually they learned to share and the rest of the weekend was full of epic tug-o-war matches (with Bella generally winning a) cause she’s bigger and b) cause Gigi would get annoyed and come tattle to me – forfeiting her shot at winning). This was one of our better moments:

We went to the farmer’s market on Saturday morning and they had a BLAST. They got cooed over and loved on and got to play with kiddos. 

They’re a sweet little duo. Today we went and hung out on Old Main lawn. The leaves are starting to change and it’s just beautiful. It was a great weekend.

Sidenote: the football game went well. We won, and in the end, that’s what matters, but I’m glad we weren’t playing an SEC team. We’d’ve gotten stomped. We HAVE to play better next week. Oh, and Bama lost…I can’t decide if this is good or bad.

I have midterms tomorrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday…blerg. I’ll let you know how they go. ‘Til then…

Week 'o Networking

We started out this week with our first midterm – accounting. Surprisingly, I was not all that worried about the exam. Just as surprising, midterms didn’t sneak up on me this year like they always do. I wasn’t at all caught off guard, which may have attributed to how easy it was to prepare. I think I did really well, so yay! (UPDATE: I made a 99%!)

After the exam, the rest of the week was, in a word, fun. I had an “interview” on Tuesday, that I think went very well (fingers crossed!), and on Wednesday, we spent the entire day at the Center for Retailing Excellence Annual Conference. Before I continue, I should warn you, I’m a bit of a geek…okay, that’s out of the way. Now, you know how some people get excited about going to a concert or seeing their favorite sports team play? Well, I was that excited about this conference. Why? Well, Kevin Roberts was one of the speakers!

Are you staring at the screen thinking “who on earth is Kevin Roberts?” Yeah, not surprised (if, however, you do know who he is, we should be friends). For the rest of you, Kevin Roberts is the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and the author of Lovemarks – the book that made me fall in love with this crazy business we call marketing. If you haven’t read it, you should. It’s brilliant. As is he. Click the link on his name for more info.    

Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed by his presentation. It was hilarious and informative and interesting – I could be biased, but I was pretty impressed. He included some pretty funny videos, too (links below…but read the rest of the post first, please). The rest of the conference was good, too. Bill Simon & Bob McDonald spoke along with several others. Plus, there were a lot of “networking breaks” for us to meet some of the presenters (I got to shake Kevin Robert’s hand!...yes, I know I’m a geek…we already covered that, move on). I think we all really enjoyed the conference, and I’m glad we were able to go (especially for free since none of us could have afforded to attend without Walton’s help).

On Thursday, our week of networking continued with a visit to Saatchi & Saatchi X’s office here in Fayetteville. We met with several people (one from each of the divisions) and got a tour of the office. We got some useful information out of it as well as several business cards (which are always nice).

Today was fairly uneventful – I worked from home since my bosses are out of the country again. A friend is bringing her puppy over later to spend the weekend with us while she and her husband travel to Dallas for the game on Saturday. Gigi is pretty excited – she wiggles every time I say Bella’s name. A puppy sleepover should make this weekend fairly entertaining. I’m sure there will be pictures.

Oh, almost forgot, those links to the videos. Here you go. Enjoy!

Cadbury - Gorilla

Cadbury - Kiddos

Weekends? What are those?

Um, so this weekend was Bikes, Blues, and BBQ - I try to convince myself each year that it wasn't so bad last year and that I might even enjoy it this year. I'm always wrong.

It was also our second India class - more about that later.

In other news, the Hogs didn't play this weekend. Bama did. They won...again...but the way they played made me feel much better about last week.

Yeah, so, I have an accounting exam on Monday. And a paper due tomorrow. And a memo to write. And no clean clothes. Don't expect an update 'til at least Tuesday. Happy DayThatWasSupposedToBeAWeekendButWasn't.

Mwahaha - take that, boys!

Okay, a break from the slew of "catch-up" themed posts you've been getting lately. Wanna know what happened last night?!?

Well, we had our poster session. What was that, you ask? Each student that did an internship this summer designed a poster that highlighted their responsibilities, experiences, learnings, etc. Then, we all gathered with our fancy (and expensive) posters in the Alumni House and invited all sorts of businesses and students to come wander around and ask us questions. Wanna see my poster? Here you go:

Throughout the session, those walking around were filling out quiz sheets. Each student had submitted a trivia question about their company. If the employer/student filled out their sheet and turned it in, they won a prize (gift cards or Razorback tickets).

My trivia question: How many cups of Dannon yogurt are eaten worldwide every minute?
Answer: Ha! You'll have to read the rest of the post to find out!

Anyway, in addition to awarding prizes to the attendees, we found out what rank each of the four presentation finalists got - AND we got trophies! Well, I'm sure you're all on pins and needles to know the results (pretend you are and humor me, okay?). So, here goes:

Fourth: Issam, Third: Alex, Second:  ME!!!, First: Jamie

Excited? I was! Oh, Jamie and I LOVED that the girls got the top two! In the years they've held this competition, they've never had a girl win (though Stacy and Sarah were finalists last year), and THIS year, we took the TOP TWO SPOTS! Ha! Yay us!

That made the remainder of the poster session even better - people had something specific to come talk to me about, so it really drove traffic to my station. I met with several great employers and everyone was very encouraging. It was also really fun to walk around afterwards and look at the posters all of my classmates made. Wanna see a few? Here ya go:

In other news, the Chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi came to one of our classes today (eeeek!). His presentation was really interesting, but then again, I may be a bit biased. We also had the career fair today. I handed out several resumes and took quite a few business cards. We'll see what comes of it, there were several promising leads! I'll keep you updated, of course.

Okay, off to do more homework like a good student. I'll finish up my "catch-up" posts tomorrow. 'Til then, reader!

Oh yeah, trivia answer: 78,000 (I know, be impressed)

Congrats, you won! Now...go do it again...but for more people

Okay, recap, post 2. The next thing I wanted to tell you about was our Internship Presentations. To get credit for doing our internship this summer (yes, you can get credit for making money), we had to make a presentation about our experience with our company - what our responsibilities were, what learning objectives we set, whether we'd accomplished them, and so on. In true Walton style, they made these presentations competitive. The class was split across six rooms, with about five people assigned to a room. Each room had two or three judges who evaluated each presentation, and the student with the highest score won the room and moved on to the second and final round to be held the next week (i.e. our reward for winning was MORE work and stress...oh well)

Now, I didn't take credit for my internship (something about trying to take too many hours...who me? Never!), but, since I'm a bit of an over-achiever (and a little too competitive for my own good), I did the competition anyway. I ended up winning my room (yay!)...which means I got to participate in the final round the next week. This round was a bigger deal considering the Career Center (who organized the whole thing) invited fifteen judges and had us present in this huge auditorium on a stage...see?

We found out that day who the top four was (I made that cut, too!), but we won't find out until tonight what rank we go (i.e. first, second, etc). The top four are guaranteed a trophy, though, so that'll be fun.

What's tonight, you ask? Well, it's the final portion of our internship review. We all (even those that didn't place in the presentation competition) have created posters detailing the highlights of our internship experience. We have a networking event tonight at the Alumni House, and there will be people from tons of different companies coming to check out our posters. We get to stand there, look pretty, and talk to everyone about what we did. It should be a fun evening. There will be pictures and such available soon, so check back!

I'm gonna keep this entry short ('cause I have to go prettify myself for the event tonight), but I'll talk about one more of the things I mentioned earlier, the networking lunch with the Arkansas Executive Forum. After our first round of presentations, we were all invited to have lunch with the AEF, a group of execs from around the area that meets twice a year on the U of A campus. We all gave our "elevator pitches" (speeches that define who you are and where you're going with your life but that are short enough to be given on an elevator ride), then spent lunch talking with those in attendance. Walton always has such great networking opportunities like this, which is one of the MANY reasons I love this school.

So, that's about it for today. I have to go get ready for tonight, but I'll take pictures and let you all know how it goes! (fingers crossed, right? Thanks). 'Til then, readers. Happy Monday!

Ragweed is mean. End of story.

Yeah, I know I told y'all to "check back tomorrow" like a week ago for another update. As you probably noticed, there wasn't one. The ragweed in the area decided to attack my sinuses and rendered me a bit... loopy to be honest. Well, I guess it was actually the meds that caused the loopieness...either way, I was not in a blogging state of mind.

I'm a bit better today - or at least I've tricked myself into thinking that. So, here's an update:

Let's start with our first India class. As I've mentioned before, I'll be spending Christmas break in India with about nineteen other students. As part of the prep work for that trip, we attend five Saturday classes to learn more about Indian culture, business practices, geography, history, and other fun stuff. During our first class, we did the perfunctory "go around the room and introduce yourselves" bit, followed by some informational presentations by Dr. Anand and Dr. Ellstrand (what will happen in the classes, what to expect, etc). Then, we walked over to Ella's (a restaurant on campus) for lunch. On Saturdays, they do an Indian themed menu, so it fit perfectly into the class. After lunch, we spent the remainder of the afternoon watching a Bollywood movie (which we will do every class in order to better familiarize ourselves with the culture). I LOVE Bollywood, so this was probably my favorite part. This week's movie was 3 Idiots - it tells the story, largely through flashbacks, of three engineering students trying to get through college. It was a nice blend of funny and moving (and had a few of those dance scenes Bollywood is famous for) - I'd recommend it if you can find a copy.

Okay, next...oh yeah, our first Professional Development class. Every semester, Walton hosts several PD Seminars (speakers come in every couple of weeks and speak on a topic for a few hours). This semester, our first opportunity was with Adam Arroyos. He's doing a series on networking. We spent the first session (there are four in all) focusing on our elevator speech - a short schpeel about yourself that you can deliver in the time it takes to ride an elevator with someone. We had our second session Wednesday and focused more on the "how to" of networking and its importance in our future careers. The next two sessions will be on organizational culture - I'll let you know how they go.

Last for today: the Supplier Joint Business Plan Summit at Walmart. Every year, each supplier has to submit this gigantic excel file detailing their plans for the upcoming business year (sales, store promotions, new businesses, etc). International suppliers (so...people like Dannon), have to submit a report for EACH country they sell product in (for us, that's 15) and EACH business unit within that country (taking our total business units up to around, oh, 45 or so). Guess who gets to compile all this info? Yup, me. Anyway, before we have access to these files, we have to attend the summit where we get all the instructions, details, and changes for this JBP file. This year, the meeting was at the new Sam's Home Office (which is NIIICE, by the way). It took about two and a half hours, and we got some good information (some of which means we have some changes to make to the files we've already started working on...oh well). It was an interesting experience - I'm glad I got to tag along.

Okay, now I have about three tons of homework to get through before tomorrow morning, so I need to stop procrastinating. I'll post another update...tomorrow? (fingers crossed). Til then, readers.

Wondering where I went?

Confession: I have been a bad blogger…I’m sorry. I promise to do better from now on.

So, as you might have guessed from the lack of updates, I’ve been a bit busy as of late. In order to give you a better picture as to what has kept me so busy, I’m going to give you the hi-lights in this post, and further elaborate in subsequent posts throughout the week. Good plan? I thought so, too.

Okay, highlights:

¨      First India class

¨      First Professional Development Class

¨      Supplier Joint Business Plan Summit at Walmart

¨      Internship Experience Presentations, Round One

¨      Networking Lunch with the Arkansas Executive Forum

¨      FOOTBALL

¨      Forest Gump and Pancakes

¨      Internship Experience Presentations, Final Round

¨      Farmers’ Market and Ozark Harvest Food Festival (oh, and more football!)

So, any of the above have you intrigued? Even if it doesn’t, you should check back tomorrow. Plenty of fun-packed posts to come. ‘Til then, readers, and welcome to September!

More Back to School!

Okay, so, those "Tuesday/Thursday" classes I said I'd talk about:

Shopper, Buyer, and Consumer Behavior ("Behavior") - Jeff Murray
I am probably far more excited about this class than is socially acceptable, but it's what I love. I would love to eventually work in shopper insights/consumer behavior, so THIS is the class I've been looking forward to taking. It's an interesting format, too. Dr. Murray (who I've never had before but who everyone raves about) hasn't assigned us a textbook. Instead, we're reading more "pop culture" themed books - the Gladwell trio (Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers) and a book called Mind Wide Open (which I like as of the first chapter). The books are meant to complement the lectures and give us references to cite when we write our essays (basically the only graded component of the class). We have six essays, spaced throughout the semester, and one group project. No exams. Quite different from the classes I've taken in the past, but the emphasis is on creativity - so that's just plain exciting!

Consumer and Market Research ("Research") - Scot Burton
Although I may be less excited about this class than I am Behavior, I am still glad to have it on my schedule. With what I'd like to eventually do (focus on shopper marketing/insights and then *eventually* teach in a university setting), I need the skills this class will provide - the basics behind research design, implementation, and evaluation. I've had Dr. Burton before, and I liked the class I took with him as an undergrad, so I see this going well. We do have a HUGE group project that will take the entire semester, but once we get going, I'm thinking it may actually be fun...we'll see.

These are my two "career track" classes, the addition of which is new this semester. Up until now, we've ALL had class together. With the tracks, we split up into four sections (marketing [yay!], tlog, finance, and entrepreneurship). As a result, we are now taking classes with sub-sections of the class...which means my normal little study/social group is split up. It's kinda odd to not see them all everyday...

Anyway, we had normal lectures today, and I'm still just as excited about Behavior as I was on day one. Plus, I'm already getting into the reading (a good sign!). Research seems to be going well, too, with the only hiccup as of yet being the "group formation" time we had at the end of class.

Dr. Burton said we could team up in groups of, at minimum, five people. Well, conveniently enough, the little piece of our "group" that is enrolled in the class happened to be a five person version of the whole...so I assumed we'd work together. Yeah, I was wrong and that didn't work...at all. Team formation was actually a bit tense there for a sec (I'm honestly still a little confused as to how all of that happened, but, no matter). Turns out, this will probably be for the best. Those of us that ended up together are getting to work with some of the class that we don't normally get to hang out with, so, yay new friends!

As mentioned before, we don't have class on Fridays, so I'll spend all day tomorrow at the office. We're gearing up for a big meeting with Walmart on Thursday, so there's a lot to get done before then. After that, it's weekend time! Oh, and we have our first India class on Saturday - yay! That'll be a fun post, I hope.

And, did I mention that it felt like fall today? Oh, it was so nice. Almost football weather! Can't wait for that to start back up - Go Hogs!

Back to School!

We started class on Monday! (and yes, I'm actually very happy about it) I'm one of those 'weirdos' that actually LIKES school, especially the first few weeks - I love new school supplies, and meeting new teachers, and getting to write dates down in my calendar, and then checking those same things off that calendar - all of it.

Plus, as much as I love Dannon and the people I work with, the idea of only working 15 hours a week is quite refreshing. My schedule this semester has me in class every day except Friday (just like last semester). So, I'll work all day on Friday, but only go in on Monday and Thursday afternoons - leaving Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons open for fun...I mean homework...*sigh*

Monday was fun, to be honest. Other than that whole getting up really early thing (I hate 8am classes), I enjoyed my day. We haven't really gotten to see everyone this summer, so it was nice to get the class back together and hear how summer break had treated everyone.

I got there a bit early (first day of class compulsion of mine), and, though I could have picked basically any seat in the room, I went back to the same seat I sat in last semester. I am a creature of habit, so that's really not all that surprising. Then, as everyone else started to file in, the confusion began. We had some new non-MBA students in this class, and they, naturally, were unaware that we all had "seats." This caused some returning students to take OTHER seats which furthered the confusion. Nothing too crazy happened, but it was a bit hard to tell if everyone was there simply because I didn't know where to look for people.

The day was pretty standard - we went over the... syllabuses? ...syllabi? ...you know, those things with all the class info on them, and the course matrices (ha! got that one). We went around in both classes and introduced ourselves and then the professors lectured for a bit...nothing too exciting. Oooh, funny moment: the guys on my row (well, all but one) managed to wear the same outfit - blue shirts and khaki shorts...needless to say, people noticed. Made the day that much better. We ended up going to lunch afterwards and (semi-jokingly) decided to all wear yellow on Wednesday...but we apparently didn't tell Brock. We all showed up in yellow today, and poor Brock was the only one on the row in another color. I'm not sure what the class thinks of our row now...though we did provide a bit of a conversation topic.

Anyway, want to know a bit about the classes we're taking this semester? Of course you do...that's why you're here, right? Okay, since it's Wednesday, we'll start with Monday/Wednesday classes (the names are all quite long, so naturally we shorten them. I've included the shorter name for clarification of future posts. You're welcome):

Managing and Leading Organizations ("Management") - George Wibben
Our first class of the day/week. We'll be covering stuff like interpersonal skills, motivation, diversity in the workplace, recruitment, compensation, HR planning, etc. We'll also focus on team building and implementing organizational change - so, it's basically a people focused class - which is new. Up til now, we've mostly focused on numbers/warehouses/supply chain/ANYTHING IN EXCEL...I'm kinda excited to talk about people. As for our professor, "George" as he wants to be called, I like him. He's real. He's been out in the "real world" and can bring that experience into the classroom. Those are always my favorite kind of teachers. 

Accounting for Supply Chain and Retail ("Accounting") - Rien Bouwman
Well now, we couldn't get away from numbers completely, could we? Admittedly though, I don't mind accounting. It's like a big matching game - it's logical, cut and dry, black and white. Not like finance where your decision depends on about a thousand different "what if" scenarios. THIS I get. We'll focus mainly on managerial accounting (i.e. the stuff managers actually look at) instead of financial accounting (the stuff most people are familiar with - balance sheets, income statements, etc). I know enough about a balance sheet to read one (which is all that really matters), but I DON'T know much about managerial accounting, so I'm glad we're focusing on that portion. I've had Dr. Bouwman before, and I liked him, so this should be a good class.

Ethical Decision Making ("Ethics") - George Wibben
This class is set up a bit differently from the others. First, it only meets on Wednesday (so our Mondays are actually fairly short). Second, it's only an eight week class (meaning our final is in October...hmm). Our first class was today, and I'm not quite sure what to think yet. It was a lot of: here's a topic, discuss, but I'm not going to really weigh in on what's "correct." As I've mentioned before, I like black and white, cut and dry. This class will NOT be that way, I can tell already. He even said several times today "ethics is not always black and white." This class could either be really fun or really frustrating...I'll let you know.

And our Tuesday and Thursday classes? Check back tomorrow for info on those (hey, I have to have SOME ploy to get you back here, right?) Til then, readers. Happy Back to School!

Alana and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend

It didn’t start off terrible OR horrible. Thursday evening was actually quite nice. My roomie and I decided to enjoy the Perseid meteor shower from a blanket in the middle of the soccer fields across the street from our house. It was nice and dark (so the stars were clear), and the weather was wonderful – 75 and breezy. Also, since it was a relatively new moon, there was little light interference. We saw a pretty good handful of shooting stars (much better than airplanes…which did keep tricking us…). I even made us cute star shaped snacks and lemonade for us to enjoy during the show.

Then, about a second after midnight, the ickyness of the weekend set in. I should have seen this as a sign of unpleasant things to come, but no. We’re lying there, enjoying the sparkly show, minding our own business, when the automatic sprinkler system in the soccer complex kicked on. I grabbed my phone and puppy seconds before they were soaked by the evil sprinklers. We then had to gather up the blanket, cups, and picnic basket and make a run for it before we, too, were doused. We made it back to the house relatively dry and decided to call it a night.

The next morning, as I was out running errands, a guy in a mini-van managed to back into the front of my Jeep. Now, normally, I wouldn’t have been super upset. I mean, the damage wasn’t even all that bad, see?

The problem was, I had JUST had that bumper replaced, I kid you not, a month earlier. The hoops I’d had to jump through to get it fixed the first time might as well have been flaming AND spiked, so I was NOT looking forward to fixing it again. It was like re-living the nightmare.

So, I tried to brush it off and went to my doctor’s appointment (oh, I didn’t mention I was sick that day? Well, by the way, I felt icky. So that made everything better). Anyway, I made it to my appointment, got my prescription, and drove to Rogers for the last half of the work day.

That evening I went out with some of the guys from the program, and that was a nice little break. It was so nice, in fact, that I actually thought the weekend might be redeemable.

The next day, though, life got worse. I got up, planning to do several loads of laundry and ironing (which I knew would take most of the day). Halfway through my first load, the washer breaks and starts leaking water all over the kitchen floor. So, not only are half of my clothes soaking wet, the other half are dirty, the maintenance line is closed on Saturday, and my kitchen is covered in water. Great.

Well, I couldn’t go anywhere (no clean clothes, well, I had clean dresses…but it was Saturday at 10 am and a cocktail dress would have been inappropriate attire), I couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone, and I had no clue how to fix the machine (or keep the puppy from playing in the newly created puddles and making things worse).

So, I did what any girl does when an appliance brakes. I called Daddy. Of course, since he’s five hours away, he couldn’t fix it. So, I opted for plan B in the “Girl’s Manual for Fixing Anything that Breaks”: I started kicking the machine…and pushing all of the buttons…and turning it on and off…and lecturing it…and begging it…and smacking it…til it finally kicked back on.

I then composed myself, cleaned up the water, re-ran the load in the machine, and finished my laundry. The rest of the day (what was left of it) went smoothly, thank goodness. And Sunday was nice and relaxing – Heather and I spent a few hours at Starbucks while I uploaded long overdue pictures to Facebook and then we came home, assembled a shelf, and watched the Sting. Turns out, Robert Redford and Paul Newman (plus a little quality roomie time and coffee) can make even a terrible-horrible-no good-very bad weekend better.

The week promises to be pretty light (which is good since I still have a good deal of prep work to do before school starts back on Monday). Can you believe it’s time for school again already? Yeah…well, ‘til then, dear readers. Happy Tuesday!

“Can I add ‘Efficient swag-bag packer’ to my résumé?”

Yesterday, my friend Lauren and I were able to help out filling “goody bags” for the golfers participating in this weekend’s Will Golf 4 Kids charity tournament. According to their website, “Will Golf 4 Kids is a nonprofit organization that raises funds to support the mission of Arkansas Children's Hospital.” They sponsor an annual golf tournament (originally started by Walmart but now coordinated by vendors/suppliers) and charity auction. It apparently does pretty well - in 2009, the tournament and Color of Hope Charity Gala raised more than $770,000.

As part of the event, all participants are given a swag bag – full of sample product from all of the tournament’s sponsors. Thinking it would make for an entertaining morning away from work, we volunteered to help stuff these bags. Now, I had imagined that these would be basically gift bags with a few small product samples and some coupons…nope. They’re huge, 45-can capacity thermal cooler-bags that we stuffed TO THE BRIM with all kinds of stuff: detergent, brownie mix, dog treats, rubber duckies, sunscreen, granola bars, lotion, toys, mustard, golf balls, Duck tape… And it wasn’t all samples, some of this stuff was full sized.

The bag stuffing happened in Walmart’s layout center (so I couldn’t take pictures of the event…no cameras allowed in the building). Each of the volunteers grabbed a bag and walked down a long line of tables, putting one of each donated product into the bag. Our first few times down the line, our bags were almost too full to be zipped, but after about bag 4, we both had a nice little method and the bags zipped easily (by “nice little method” I mean my compulsive nature had taken over and all of my bags from that point forward matched because I had found a perfect spot for each item…). Anyway, we were there for about two hours and filled about 15 bags each. In total, all of the volunteers assembled 1400 bags. Bonus: each volunteer got to take a bag home! Nice, right? Gigi, especially, was SUPER excited. She could smell the dog treats through the bag.

Until I unpacked it on the living room floor, I don’t think I realized just how much stuff we’d put in that bag. I ran through what was there, and my roommate and I played our own little version of The Price Is Right. By our estimates, each bag is worth about $200 (NOT including all the coupons for free stuff)…(and if they gave away 1400, that’s about $280,000 worth of product). Wow, thanks Walmart.

One thing I LOVE about Dannon – they actually believe in social initiatives. It’s not just words in an annual report or a plaque on a wall, it’s part of the culture. They believe that it is our duty to give back – to our communities, to the nation, to the world. And they live it. I told my boss that I needed to miss the morning to help out the charity, and he was excited that I had found an opportunity to lend a hand (not annoyed that I’d be a few hours late to work). Reactions like that make me love my internship (and company) more and more every day.

A Drive-Through Zoo?!? (and other fun NWA weekend activities)

Greetings! Want a weekend update? Good, ‘cause that’s what you’re getting. As I mentioned last week, two of my very best friends came to visit this weekend – Kevin and Vicky Henderson. Kevin graduated from Walton, too (or is almost there…he should be defending his dissertation in the next few weeks!). After he “graduated,” he took a job in Minnesota, and so he and Vicky don’t get to come see us very often anymore. Which means, naturally, that when they are here, we have to get as much Fayetteville in as possible. Well, that’s exactly what we did this weekend.

They got here Thursday evening and we had dinner and Orange Mango (a new frozen yogurt place on Dickson Street – it’s wonderful). They were pretty tired from their 9.5 hour drive, so that’s about all we did that night.

I had to work on Friday morning, but for lunch we had Taste of Thai (another one of my favorite restaurants in town), checked out the absolute adorableness that is Riffraff (a store on the square owned by a fellow U of A grad), and had cupcakes at Bliss. I had a lavender honey flavored cupcake and it was SO yummy – just the perfect hint of floral with this lovely, light honey-ish icing. Vicky had a chocolate-maple cupcake, and yes, that is bacon on top of it. It actually wasn't as weird as we expected it to be.

 Next, we stopped by the U of A bookstore. They have just opened a new location in the Garland Center (our new parking deck on campus), and it’s incredible. I know I’m using lots of “happy” adjectives today, but really, look at this place! There’s even a computer store (with Apple Genius support which is nice since the closest Apple store is in Tulsa), a coffee bar, and a Clinique counter!

 The best part of the weekend, though, might have been Saturday. We decided to drive to Gentry (yeah, I didn’t know where it was either) to visit the drive-through zoo (called the Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari). Okay, so, to be honest, when I heard “drive-through zoo” and “Gentry, AR” I figured it would be like a loop around a few acres where you might get lucky enough to see a few cows/deer/buffalo, maybe a camel or two. Well, I was wrong. Here’s a short list of some of the animals we saw: kangaroos, zebras, antelopes, giraffes, tigers, lions, bears (go ahead, say it, you know you want to…), baboons, hippos, crocodiles, rhinos, etc. The drive around the park took about an hour and a half. We would have to stop occasionally to let a camel/buffalo/deer/goose/zebra cross the road, and more than once we had emus walk up to the car and peck at our windows. Admittedly, there WERE cows, deer, and buffalo, so I wasn’t totally wrong.

 There was also a “petting zoo” type of area, but once again, not the kind you would expect to find in Arkansas. We petted kangaroos and held (and were bounced on by) capuchin monkeys (one named Chloe stole my hair clippie…I was not happy), baby baboons, a teeny-tiny, precious ring-tailed lemur, and two of the sweetest lion cubs ever. I could have stood in that corral and cuddled that cub for hours.

Oh, it was SO much fun. I would go back again and again. The entrance fee is only $10 and you can stay for as long as you like. And Gentry is only about 45 min from Fayetteville, so it’s an easy Saturday trip. I’d recommend it to anyone, no matter how old.

Despite our full day, we ended up going to a movie that night (it’s a Kevin and Vicky tradition). We saw The Other Guys. I’m actually not sure if I liked it…I laughed a lot…so maybe? It was…different.

Anyway, Sunday was very laid back. We had lunch, hung out at the house, and had dinner at Grub’s (a Fayetteville classic). Monday was slower, too. I had to work, so Kevin and Vicky spent the day running around town, seeing other old friends and doing errands. We met up after work at Rick’s Bakery (Vicky used to work there and it’s one of our favorite places to sit and talk) and had dinner that evening at Powerhouse (yet another Fayetteville classic). We spent the rest of the evening back at the house, dreading the fact that Kevin and Vicky had to leave the next day.

I also had to finish my internship reports – they aren’t perfect, but they ARE just drafts, so I can perfect the final version to my heart’s content. Once I have those results a little more nailed down, I share details on them, too.

Kevin and Vicky headed back north yesterday morning (sad day). We did get to have breakfast at Rick’s before they left, though, so that was nice. Now it’s back to the routine work week – reports, analysis, meetings, etc. I’m participating in something (potentially) fun today. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Did August sneak up on anyone else?

So...yeah...how is it August already? Not only that, but how has a week of August already gone by? It amazes me how quickly time disappears. Also, it is HOT here. Not, "Oh, it's summer" hot, like "I think my skin is melting and I'm pretty sure I can swim through this air" hot...it's upsetting. Hurry up, fall!

Anyway, I don't have a tremendous amount to report from last week. I had a lovely weekend in St. Louis with my parents and family. We took my cousins to the Arch, the City Museum, and the Zoo (entertaining kids is exhausting!).

I got home late Sunday night and didn't really feel like I'd had a weekend before it was time to head back to work on Monday morning. The week went by quickly, though, full of Retail Link, Excel, conference calls and meetings.

I did have a little treat on Wednesday evening. We are blessed to have a great performing arts center in downtown Fayetteville - the Walton Arts Center. They bring in all of the big, touring Broadway shows, and on Wednesday nights, students can get discount tickets (in this instance, 50% off!). The theater is small enough that none of the seats feel very far away from the stage, so even with the "cheap" seats, you still have a great view of the show. My friend Lauren and I went to see Beauty and the Beast. It is my favorite childhood movie, and I've seen the musical several times, but no matter what, it always makes me smile and giggle like a little kid. Afterwards we grabbed a quick dinner at Kosmos (a cute, affordable little Greek place on Dickson). I love laid back nights with girlfriends - they make the occasionally boring work week go by faster.

Now it's Friday and this weekend is going to be PACKED! Two of my best friends are in town from Minnesota (Kevin got a job and took Vicky away to the frozen north last summer, so we rarely see them). We have all sorts of fun "Fayetteville" plans, so I'm sure I'll have a great "Life in Northwest Arkansas" post for you in a few days (which should involve, wait for it...a drive-through zoo! No, I'm not kidding).

On top of all of that fun, my internship reports are due on Monday, so that's going to add some unwanted "work" time to this weekend. We have to submit: an executive summary (how did the summer go, what did you accomplish, what did you learn type thing), a poster (a pictorial depiction of the summary), and a presentation. They are just drafts, but my perfectionist nature doesn't always understand the concept of "drafts," so it's probably going to take me longer than I'd like to get everything put together.

So, dear readers, I'm off to enjoy a few (unnecessarily warm) days with my favorite people. I'm sure there will be many, many pictures and fun stories to share, so check back (I mean, drive-through zoo, I KNOW you're curious...). 'Til then, friends!

Business Plan Boot Camp, Day 2 (and more Birthday fun!)

Okay, I know I disappeared for like a week, but I did promise a Boot Camp update, so here you go. We had our second class last Saturday. The focus of this session was mostly plan analysis. We went through a copy of Biologics’ plan and “graded” it according to the Governor’s Cup rubric. Going about it that way allowed us to see what exactly was expected out of these plans – type of background info, research, planning and foresight, etc. This way, once we start the semester, we aren’t writing blind – we have some solid plans to look to for reference.

After lunch we discussed our assignment for the week. Dr. Reeves had charged us with identifying a “pain” in someone’s life – big or small, personal or public, solvable or not. We then had to explain whether we thought that our “pain” presented a viable business opportunity. The point of the assignment was to get us thinking like entrepreneurs – since that’s kinda the point of the class and all. The responses were all so varied – it was interesting to hear what some of our classmates came up with. It shed a little more light onto how everyone thought (which will be helpful for forming groups).

We also listened to a presentation from the on-campus patent office – he shared several technologies and ideas that the U of A has patented (or is working to patent) that could be turned into businesses. THIS was what we were all waiting for – the IDEAS! The atmosphere in the room changed after that presentation. You could feel people tense up – in that excited, semi-competitive, itching-to-get-going way. All of a sudden the class felt more real.

That night I went out with several people from class and a bunch of my other friends from Fayetteville to celebrate my birthday. We had dinner at Hammontree’s (complete with cake from Rick’s Bakery and fantastic brownie cupcakes with fudge icing), then spent some time at the Wine Cellar (one of my favorite places in Fayetteville).

Oh, but that wasn’t my only birthday celebration. At work on Monday, the office surprised me with a cake (and, of course, that embarrassing singing thing…is there anyone out there who doesn’t feel uncomfortable when an entire room of people sings to them? At least it’s embarrassing in a good way.) My office is so sweet – they really make me feel like part of the team.

Honestly, the rest of the week kinda drug by – full of excel crashes, heatstroke, and packing. Thursday was especially full – I had three meetings to attend, the CEO and SVP of Sales were in the office all day, AND we moved out of the apartment. Moving went smoothly, though, thanks to all the help – several guys from the program came over to help my roommate and me move the “big stuff.” Another perk of Walton’s smaller program – you make good enough friends that they’re willing to help you move your couches across town in 95 degree heat. Thanks, guys!

On a side note, Gigi did NOT help - she made messes all week. This was my favorite. I left her for five minutes and she killed an elephant...and strew it's fuzzy insides ALL over the living room...thanks, Gigi...that was lovely...

After that, the weekend was a welcome treat. It started off (early) Friday afternoon with an office pool party and BBQ (our boss scooted everyone out the door at 3pm – no one complained). One of the guys in the office has just moved into a new house, and he and his wife were gracious enough to have us all over for dinner. Most people even brought their families over, so I got to meet all the wives and kids (who spent the whole night in the pool). I’m starting to feel like a “real” employee at Dannon, not just an intern or a temp – it’s nice. I’m happy here.

The rest of the weekend flew by – unpacking, ice cream socials, laundry, surprise dinners with old friends, etc. Now the week has started up again, and it’s back to work. Nothing too exciting planned for this week – mostly trying to get the new place all set up (I’ll post pics when it’s done). Oh, and I’m going BACK to St. Louis this weekend (we’ve got family coming into town). Should be a fun time, I’ll keep you updated. ‘Til then, dear readers! Happy Tuesday!