TCU Bookstore Fire

Dear TCU Students,

I know many of you were shocked by yesterday’s fire at the TCU Bookstore. Certainly watching the building burn and seeing the dramatic pictures of the fire used by the media might have been a little unsettling.

Many of you are asking what the university will do now. We don’t yet have all the answers to your, or our, questions. Engineers are looking at the building to help us decide what to do. What we do know is that TCU is committed to providing a new bookstore facility that will be aesthetically first class and will offer books, supplies, TCU labeled items and more in a convenient and efficient way.

We are also pleased that no merchandise was lost in the fire and that you still have opportunity to shop for your textbooks for class, school supplies, and purchase other Horned Frog memorabilia in the temporary bookstore located just in front of where the bookstore will be rebuilt.

As a pedestrian campus, we realize the importance of providing excellent services that are easily accessed. We will keep the campus posted regarding our progress related to the bookstore.

On a totally unrelated note, tuition for all education levels will be increasing next year by 15%. We hope that you understand as we strive to rebuild the bookstore...i mean...um...improve the quality of your education.

Sincerely,
Chancellor Victor Boschini

The 5 W's of American Idol

Who: the heck does Ryan Seacrest think he is? He is getting really annoying with his incredibly rude behavior towards Simon. It really bugs me that someone can perform horribly, but when Simon says as much, Seacrest attacks him like Simon is the antichrist! Ryan Seacrest - you have no talent whatsoever and need to get over yourself. Bring back that Dunkleman guy!!

What: is the deal with Paula and the puns? I think that she has completely stopped listening to the songs and spends the full 2 minutes trying to figure out what clever phrase to say when its her turn to talk. Heard back to back last night for those of you who missed it: "A new religion has been formed tonight with 40,000 converts and that is the Church of Mandisa." (after Mandisa sang a gospel song) and "Forgive me if I stutter, but what if, what if, what if I'm your biggest fan?" (after Chris sang "What If?")

Where: do the families of the contestants stay? Do they have jobs and just fly in once a week for the show, or are they taking time off too? That wouldn't make sense, because even if their family member wins, they won't be able to just quit their day jobs. Random question I know, but something I've always wondered because the same family members are always there every week.

When: are people going to realize how freaking awesome Katherine McPhee is? Okay, I know most people already do, but I couldn't think of anything for "when".

Why: is it that Randy can say that he thinks a performance was bad, but as soon as Simon says the exact same thing 30 seconds later, all of a sudden Randy disagrees? It really is okay to agree with Simon every now and then - he really doesn't have that bad of an ear.

Obscure Movies

So this is totally inspired by Megan's post, but with her mention of Drop Dead Gorgeous, she got me thinking about obscure movies. One year at ACU, Nichole and I got really bored and went through a few weeks where we would go to the video store and rent random movies. Our only criteria was that neither one of us could know anything about it. Some of them were REALLY bad, but one that I really enjoyed is a movie called The Very Thought of You. It stars Joseph Fiennes and Monica Potter and is about a girl meeting 3 different guys separately, but then they all turn out to be best friends. I like the pace of the movie, the style, and the tone...and Joseph Fiennes isn't half bad either! I don't really have a point from here, except to say that I enjoy obscure movies. Maybe if you're lucky, someday I'll tell you about the time that I had to convince Nichole that just because it is an "independent film" doesn't necessarily mean its either "artsy" or "good." :)

Anyone have an obscure movie they'd like to recommend? I need some good random options.

Things That Make Me Smile Part 4: Entertainment Weekly

Its the highlight of my week...I go out to my mailbox, open it up, and there it is: the new Entertainment Weekly! I love reading about all of the goings on in the entertainment business, making lists of books that I want to read, movies I want to see, and plays that if I ever happen to get out to NY I want to watch. I find the Nielsen ratings fascinating, look at the best-sellers list for books, and love reading the featured articles about movies that are coming out. The writers are witty but keep the magazine's integrity by staying (mostly) away from interpersonal Hollywood gossip and sticking to the artistic issues. Even so, its not so stuffy that they can't take jabs at famous personalities (ex. "Failure to Launch rules box office. And this despite football guru Terry Bradshaw getting naked. (not exactly Sharon Stone in that department. Or Sly Stone for that matter.)) Entertainment Weekly, you make me smile. :)

Things That Make Me Smile Part 3: This

This makes me smile. :)

Things That Make Me Smile Part 2: Sunny Days

It makes me smile when I go outside and the sky is blue and it is warm. I am cold natured, so when this switch between winter and spring starts happening, I get very happy! I love being able to pull out my short sleeved, bright colored shirts. I love being able to take my time walking from my car into a building because it feels good enough outside to not have to run. I love when my friends can suggest sitting outside at a restaurant and I don't have to cringe at the thought. We've had about a week of returning to the cold, but this afternoon was beautiful and I'm thinking that we'll be able to be in full spring-time mode any day now! :)

Things That Make Me Smile Part 1: Old Friends

Recently my life (and blogs) have been filled with stress and annoyances. So I have decided to devote one full week to things that make me smile.
It makes me smile when I can talk to an old friend and its not weird. So many times after someone stops being a part of your daily life and you lose touch, when you talk to each other again it is a little awkward and never goes past small talk about what you are doing in life. Well today I got a message from one of my old friends from ACU, Brad Benham, on myspace. We exchanged IMs and talked for about 2 hours. It was really great. He's in California in Pepperdine Law School now, so we really haven't talked much since graduation, but it was one of those conversations that went beyond "So, how's school?" and into actual dialogue. It made me very nostalgic and although it really made me miss my college friends, it made me happy tonight. It feels great to find another friend that I really think will continue into the next part of my life. It always feels good to end a conversation with the other person saying " i like this, it makes me smile, bye!!!!" And it makes me smile too. :)

Down With Work!

In protest of my last post, my friend Christina are going down to Austin for a couple of days. South by Southwest is going on and we might check that out a bit, but really we're just going so we can say that we went somewhere over Spring Break. Have a good weekend everybody!!

Spring Break! WoooHoooo!

I've already discovered that graduate school is very different undergrad in many ways, and this week I found another one....Spring Break. To illustrate my point, I am going to present to you a side by side comparison of this years Spring Break to last years Spring Break.

Saturday:
2005 - I am on a plane flying to Vienna, Austria. Get into my apartment at 11/12 Davidgasse and watch some German music videos on MTV.
2006 - Wake up feeling sick, trade out cars with Stephen so he can set up for the bridal show, spend my Saturday night at my friend Erin's house working on our consulting job for LSG Sky Chefs.

Sunday:
2005 - Go to church in Vienna, tour the city looking at LOTS of pretty old buildings
2006 - Work at a Bridal Show all day. Go to Dallas to go to dinner and a movie. This is the highlight of my Spring Break.

Monday:
2005 - Took tours of the International University, ate some German food, saw Stephensdom and generally hung out in Vienna. I think we went to Schonbrunn Palace this day too.
2006 - Sat in Smith Hall on TCU campus from 8 am til 4:30 pm working on consulting. Ate dinner, worked on Sky Chefs more

Tuesday:
2005 - Went to the UN, sat at the desk that has the United States name plate, saw Karlskirche, fell in love with Europe
2006 - Sat in Smith Hall on TCU campus from 10 am til 6:00 pm

Wednesday:
2005 - Vienna, Vienna, Vienna
2006 - Sky Chefs, Sky Chefs, Sky Chefs.

Anyone sensing a pattern? So now when people who are working try to tell me that I have it easy because I'm in school and get things like Spring Break, I'm just going to refer them to the fabulous week that I've had. I'm going to need a break to recover from my Spring Break! Someone tell me a fun Spring Break story so I can remember that they still exist. :)

Seventh Time's A Charm!

I haven't been updating about my internship search recently because I figured you would all get bored with reading "I had an interview with Sabre today. It went well" and then the next day "It was between me and one other person, and they took the other person" over and over again. I have had 6 interviews with them to date.

So today I wasn't expecting a whole lot when the recruiter, Nicole called me again and said "Another position has opened up in Airline Solutions and the managers would like to speak with you. I was calling to see if you're still available." She told me that she was hoping she could get them to do it in a phone screening so I wouldn't have to drive out to Southlake yet again and that she would be in touch this afternoon to set it all up. I called my mom to tell her and joked around about how I wish they would just call me and say "Yeah, we don't need to interview you. We're just going to offer you the job...."

Fast forward about 2 hours. I'm walking into Pei Wei with some friends for lunch and my phone rings with Sabre's number. Nicole asks if I have a minute to talk and I say yes. Then she says the magic words: "Well, I have some good news. The managers looked at your interview transcripts (**My thought: they've got plenty to choose from**) and have decided that they don't need to interview you again and would like to extend you an offer!"

So my official offer packet will be in my hands via FedEx tomorrow morning and assuming my background check and/or drug screening doesn't come back poorly, I will be a marketing intern in the strategy group of Sabre Airline Solutions! The position is exactly on par with the direction I am hoping to go in my career and the pay is more than I could have ever expected for my level of experience. I consider myself extremely lucky right now...I'm going to be one of those people who are getting paid to do what I actually want to be doing! Seventh time's a charm!

Unanticipated effects of weird food....

So you're probably expecting something really gross out of this post. Sorry to disappoint any 12 year old boys reading today, but this post is about my check card.

Today I went and checked my mail and had a letter from Wells Fargo with a new check card. My card is just fine and doesn't expire until 11/07, so I was a little confused. Then I actually read the letter: "In fulfilling our commitment to detect and prevent fraud on our customers' payment cards, Wells Fargo regularly reviews cardholders activity to identify unusual purchase and ATM transaction patterns. As part of this review process, your Check Card number was identified as being at risk for unauthorized transactions." Then it goes on to say that my old card is cancelled and I have to activate the new one.

I was curious as to what triggered this flag, so I started looking at my purchases recently: King Tut's egyptian restaurant, Edohana Sushi, Pho Bella Vietnamese, Bombay Grill, ATM withdrawl (for a small amount), and a purchase at Fiesta grocery store (I wanted to buy some Guarana - a brazilian soft drink). Everything else on my account is totally normal...rent, WalMart Neighborhood Market, Jack-In-The-Box, so the weird food is the only thing I can pinpoint! Stepping out of the box can have unintended consequences - a new check card number!

Language Barriers

We have a few international students in my class, and have discovered that sometimes American colloquialisms don't quite translate in another language. For example, a Ukranian guy named Sergiy was wearing a shirt a couple of days ago that was what I think of as a beach volleyball shirt - a sleeveless t-shirt. You can definitely tell that Serg works out, and as we were about to go into class, my friend Caleb joked "Hey Serg...I don't think they'll let you bring guns into class here!" Serg, not understanding the joke said, very seriously "I bet they wouldn't allow rockets either."

On the other hand, some phrases are used throughout the world equally. One of my friends, Jaime, bought a Hummer H2 (we're all still in shock!). The first night he showed it to most people was at Doug's Goat Roast. Everyone was talking about it and someone asked a German international student, Julian, what he thought of it. Julian said (and its best if you imagine a nice, thick German accent as you read this) "In my country, we have a saying....that if a man buys a big car....(and now Julian turns bright red and gets embarrassed)...he is probably making up for being very little...somewhere...else...." We all started cracking up and Doug said "Yeah Julian, we have that saying here too."

Oh the fun of language translations!

You know you're too busy when...

Anyone who has talked to me over the past month has heard one of three phrases in our conversation:

1. I am about to go to a meeting
2. I am in a meeting right now
3. I just got out of a meeting

I feel like its all that I do now - jump from one meeting to the next. I get to school at 8 or 9 in the morning and leave around 7 each day because of them.

So when I got an email a couple of days ago from a guy named Brad telling me I had a meeting this Wednesday at 5, I really didn't think twice about it. I wasn't totally sure what it was about, but he is the current MBA community service chair and I am taking over his spot next year, so I just put it down on my outlook calendar and went on my merry way.

Today I showed up for the meeting at 5 and was really confused what it was about. They were talking about this golf tournament that is in April and how people were doing on their assignments and I realized...this is a meeting of the Supply Chain Organization! I am not even a supply chain concentration much less a member of their organization! But at that point, it was way too late to stand up and be like "Ummm...I'm not supposed to be here." So I ended up just staying and taking on an assignment of calling a guy from IBM who might want to be a sponsor! After the meeting, I talked to Brad and was like "I don't even know why I was there!" He said "Yeah...I was kind of wondering what you were doing here." and I said "You sent me an email saying I had a meeting at 5, so I just showed up!" and he replied "I did? OHHH! There's another girl named Emily in the group and I guess when I put Emily in my address book, it just popped up your name automatically! Well, welcome to the Supply Chain Organization!"

How sad is it that I am just so used to meetings that I will just show up when someone tells me I have one and assume I just forgot that I told someone I'd do something? I'm ready for life to slow down a bit!