Class Over, Soup Time

My class from hell finished on Monday. The presentation went well, I rocked out the exams and ended up with an "A." Not bad, but the work definitely went way over what it should have been. It's just good to be done. So my next class started Wednesday. Yeah, I know, no rest for the weary. But the best part of my new class is that NO GROUP PROJECT, I REPEAT NO GROUP PROJECT!!!! I like individual effort. It's a good thing. If you screw up you only have yourself to blame. And no one but you can make you go back to square one. So even though one class ended and another one started, it's like I am on vacation.

Yesterday was interesting. I've been trying to learn my new gig in record time. I've been doing pretty well with that goal. See the thing is I have always felt I can do pretty much anything I want by thinking it through and I've been resourceful enough to make it through the most difficult situations. But the downside is that aspect of my personality can also get me into some "interesting" situations at times. So yesterday I found myself in the situation where I was trying to find yet another workable solution to a seemingly impossible problem. So in pursuit of a solution, I skipped lunch, ran up and down a flight of stairs like 20x, and worked about 12 hours straight. Needless to say, I finished what I wanted and completed some good work, but I was F-R-I-E-D!!! I suppose having a never say die and never give up attitude has its drawbacks.

So I get home, it's raining. It's been raining for days now on the East Coast. We haven't seen the sun in a few days. So I was hungry, tired, and needed to decompress. Rainy day? Comfort, feel good food? Hum... So Sharkey and I went to one of our favorite Japanese establishments and we had some good sushi and I had a nice hot bowl of soup, tempura udon to be specific:



There's just something about a hot bowl of noodles in yummy broth with a little chili powder that just puts things back into perspective!!! Oh and the deep fried shrimp and veggies didn't hurt either!!

Day Off

So I haven't posted since my birthday. I have been for a lack of better words, "burning the candle at both ends." I have been taking a graduate class and it has been just brutal. Actually, let me be more specific, the group I've been working with has been just brutal. Well, to be even more specific, one person in my group is EXTREMELY bad. In my experience, typically on the graduate level you usually will get to work with other working professionals who are for the most part very reasonable. Everyone realizes the class is in addition to your full time job (because they are in the same boat you are in) and everyone appreciates and works towards just getting the class project done. However, from time to time you get stuck with people who are a far cry from professional. So what's been happening is that for every 3 steps we take forward on the project we are working on, we take 5 steps back because of this person. These setbacks have meant pulling extra days to meet with my group after work, which was pretty unnecessary, and redoing things from square 1. And anyone who knows me will tell you I am SO NOT into doing unnecessary rework.

Finally, the other week I had enough of this person, and while everyone in my group was still trying to be accommodating (which in turn was putting us way behind), I finally had to take hard line and bluntly said "No sorry, we aren't making any more changes, we are moving forward." See, the thing is that for the most part graduate level courses are all about breaking into project teams, because that's what happens in the "real world." Man do I miss just doing individual effort!! I keep telling myself I just need to hang in there for 1 more week.

So it seems this is the first weekend I've had where I actually have nothing going on. So it was nice to sleep in and just RELAX!!!!! Sharkey had made some awesome pumpkin pancakes and it was a great way to start off the day:



Of course the gigantic mug of pumpkin coffee didn't hurt either!! Oh and ummmmmmmm bacon....