Roomie Weekend 2006!

When I graduated last May, it was the end of an era. It was the end of the fabulous Apt 524 roomies that were together all 4 years of college. So when we left, we all agreed to have at least one weekend a year where we all get together to do something NOT associated with ACU (so Homecoming, Sing Song, and other ACU events don't count.) This was that weekend! My old roomies all came to Fort Worth and stayed with me last night for our first annual event. Deborah came from Houston, Lindsay from Abilene, and Nichole from Dallas. I treated them all to a dinner at P.F. Changs (because I"m the bad roommate who hadn't bought anyone a birthday present yet....) and then we went to Pete's Dueling Pianos in Downtown. From there I proceeded to tell one of the piano guys that it was Lindsay's birthday (it really is this week) and for a nice little tip, he called her up on stage and had her sit on the piano while everyone sang "You've lost that lovin feeling" to her. We also had our traditional late-night Whataburger taquito run (which we used to do at least twice a week) and then had lunch together today. All in all, it was truly a fabulous weekend!

Life + Flashing + Eyes = NOT GOOD!!!

Returing to the fabulous "I Click Stuff Too" post, a website told me that my date of death is Friday, July 14, 2062. This was before I became a commuter. I now believe that my death date has been moved up immensely and is now accompanied by an exact location: The intersection of Hwy 121 and I-35 trying to merge onto I-30.

This map shows what I have to do everyday in red along with what the rest of the world has to do in blue. You can see where there is a little bit of conflict. When I get off of 121 every day on the way home, I have to cross over 6 lanes of traffic, 3 of which are merging as well, to get into the correct lane to exit onto I-30. And the other 5 lanes are trying to merge in the opposite direction because the I-30 lanes are exit only. And the merging lanes are usually full of semis because it is heading South on 35. And the really fun part: I have about 30 seconds to do it.

How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

You know those people that are just lucky and things seem to work out for them without them actually having to do anything? I have decided that I am NOT one of those people.

Lets all remember by 7 interviews before getting on at Sabre, being passed around and really having to work to get where I am. I chalked this up to my lack of work experience - I was at a disadvantage compared to others. So now I'm in my job, its getting to be the end of the summer, several of my fellow interns are getting offers to extend their internships into the next semester, and I have heard nothing from my boss. I only have class 2 days a week next semester, so I would really like to work.

I finally decide I had just better ask if there was an opportunity. My boss said that he had never had an intern stay on during the semester before, but that he would see what he could do. Three days later, I get the offer to extend! Of course in between there was a lot of confusion, apparently the processes had already started for the end of my internship and now have to be reversed, but its all okay. And it was frustrating because rather than just having my position naturally be extended like a lot of other people, I actually had to proactively make this happen. And what made it even more frustrating is that my best friend at work IS one of those people who things just happen for...they were talking about her extension in the first week of her job!

So this is how I've come to the conclusion that I am not one of those people that things are just going to happen for. Its not work experience holding me back anymore, its just a fact of life. I know that I am going to have to fight for everything that I get, and thats okay. But if I have only learned one thing this summer, it is if you want something, go for it. Make it happen. Cause the worst thing that can happen in asking for what you want is for someone to tell you no and you go away knowing that you did absolutely everything you could....but it could turn into a job for the next semester. :)

GRRRRRR!!!!

Two absolutely heinous crimes were committed tonight. I am not a happy camper.

1. Allison Holker was eliminated from So You Think You Can Dance. She should have been the overall winner. Its ridiculous.








2. They announced the dates for the SYTYCD tour (thats what the screenshot is). I know you can't read any of the locations in the picture, but if you go to the website and look, none of the performances get anywhere even CLOSE to Texas or the south (no, Florida does not count as the south.) I actually wanted to go!

So I guess its time for ***Shameless Plug of the Month!***
Anyone want to Meet Me In one of the locations for the SYTYCD tour? And I'm really not kidding either. Just leave me a comment and let me know!!

Katie the Rookie

Apparently Katie hasn't figured out yet that if you take the pictures, we expect a post, and this story is too good to let go to waste. Hopefully she'll still post the pics and/or send them to me because I want copies anyways! :)

Last Friday, Katie, Stephen, Lindsey, and I went to see Lady in the Water. It was opening night, so we bought tickets online and got there an hour early to get our favorite seats in the first row of the stadium seating with the bar to put your feet on. So we sit down, start watching the pre-movie show (since its not a slideshow anymore), talking, etc. The movie is supposed to start at 10:30. 10:28 - The lights come on and the fire alarm starts going off! But this is a talking alarm that says "WARNING! WARNING! AN EMERGENCY HAS BEEN REPORTED!!! PLEASE EXIT THE BUILDING!!" (which Katie hears as "An EXPLOSION has been reported". Definitely gave her a hard time about that one.) So what do we incredibly smart Americans do? Nobody moves. A completely packed theater and we all just sit there, certain its nothing.

Stephen goes out to the lobby to see what is going on and calls us to tell us that they were making everyone evacuate. Do we listen? Nope! Lindsey, Katie, and I refuse to give up our "bar seats." Finally, after about 15 minutes, a security guard comes up to Stephen to tell him he needs to leave, and Stephen's response is "Do you know that Theater 7 is still packed?" (thanks for selling us out Stephen!) So they come in and make us evacuate. We leave our drinks at our seats, put a Mamma Mia playbill over Stephen's seat, and head out. We go out to the lobby and basically wander in circles, never quite making it out the door in hopes that we could still be at the front and get our seats back. We still wanted to see this movie.

Pretty soon, they start handing out the free passes. We are a little upset, but we walk up to a girl to collect our pass. Then we realize that everyone but our girl is taking up the ticket stubs before giving a pass. So we go to someone else to get another with our stubs. Katie can't find hers, so she starts digging through her purse. Then we notice several stubs on the floor. Thrifty Katie starts going around and surreptitiously picking up the extra stubs. All of a sudden, we hear someone call out a name and realizing they were reopening the theater, Lindsey takes off running about 100 miles an hour! She nearly takes out a couple of small children, but who cares? She got our bar seats back! Katie, having been in the middle of a stub pickup when the theater reopened, didn't get in before they posted someone at the door to take up the free passes before entering the theater. A problem for anyone else, but not "25 ticket McBroom"! Katie hands him a stub off the ground and says "I haven't gotten a pass yet!"

So, 1 hour, 10 free movie passes, 2 crying children, and several interesting pictures that we took in the lobby cause we were bored later, we finally got to watch our movie. Some people said it was burned popcorn that caused the alarms to go off, some people said electric fire in the elevator, while still others claimed it was a suspicious package left in the lobby. We'll never know the true cause of our adventure, but I'll always claim the suspicious package because it sounds much more dramatic. :)

LIMBOOOOO!!!

A couple of months ago, I posted about going to a Mexican Wedding with my friend Jaime and his girlfriend, Melinda. This weekend was Melinda's birthday which means.....another party! Melinda is also leaving on Thursday to go to Mexico to teach English for a year, so it was a farewell party also (with the running joke being "Melinda's being deported.") It seemed like a normal party at first - eating some Cousin's barbecue, talking over the DJ playing music that no one was dancing to - until they brought out.....the hula hoops.

That's right, we had a hula hoop contest. Once that was over, I thought that would be the end of it, until they brought out.....the limbo pole! We limboed!!! I haven't done a limbo contest since I was about 8 years old, and I think that was on roller skates at the Crowley Skating Rink. That, combined with the fact that I am 5'9" and not in any sort of good physical condition, I was expecting to be out after the first or second round. But I made it through all the way to the 2nd to last round! Top 6 baby! The funniest part was the other girls left towards the end actually knew what they were doing, to the point to where they were giving me advice on limbo technique! The next round after I got out was the end - all out but one.

So now, its the day after the limbo and I am SO SORE! My quads and my back are killing me! Apparently, I am never going to leave a party that Jaime or Melinda invite me to without being sore the next day. Mexican parties are workouts!
Me and Melinda at the wedding in May.

Not just a pretty face here... :)

I've got the brains too!

In case you haven't heard, it is HOTTTT here in Texas. Like, the high was 106 both yesterday and today and is forecasted at 104 tomorrow. We have parking garages at Sabre and usually its not hard to find a spot; a lot of people would park in the surface lots too. Not right now. I got to work before 9 am and the entire garage was full at my building. So I had to park on the roof level. At the 2 of the roof corners, there are towers where the elevator shaft and stairwells are. One of these had some shade this morning and of course all of the cars up there were right around it, hoping for a bit of the shade. I thought to myself, "What good does it do to have shade now? It will still be an oven when I get OUT of work." So I went and parked at the other tower, all by myself and in full sun exposure just to see (and maybe a little out of bitterness that I hadn't gotten to the shade first...). So when I came out to my car this evening, here is what I found:





The poor suckers who parked in the shade this morning





My Durango in the beautiful, beautiful shade! Haha! I win!

Jennifer Connelly? Really?

Back in March, I took a stab at one of Ryan's "This Is What I Clicked" posts only I called mine "I Click Stuff Too." One of my links was to a facial recognition site that can supposedly tell you which celebrity you look the most similar too by uploading a picture. My original line said, "Ever wondered what celebrity you look like? This site can tell you! Apparently I look like Jennifer Connelly....I wish!"

Fast forward to today....

I went to get lunch in the Sabre cafeteria. The head chef usually mans the line that has what I refer to as "real food" (not sandwiches, salads, or burgers) and today they had a chicken dish that looked really good, so I got in his line. Right as he was handing me my food, he said "So how often do you get told that you look just like Jennifer Connelly?" (And I could actually say that I HAVE been told that!) Of all the people to pull out of the air, he chose Jennifer Connelly. I still don't see it, but its a weird coincidence, don't you think?



Edit: Okay, after looking up pictures, I can see it a little bit. Except she has that beautiful color of hair that I am dying to have. And she's a lot skinnier. :)

Also, important safety tip: Don't search Google Images for Jennifer Connelly. Turns out she was a bit of an exhibitionist at one point and the search turned up NUMEROUS inappropriate pics...

"The Shirt"

This is a picture of me and some of my friends at dinner for a friends birthday. The only reason I'm posting it is because I am wearing "The Shirt" that everyone wanted to see. Got 2 more compliments on it that night.

Guest Blogger Today! (seriously we got this email at work. ha!)

Hello Luverlys,

It’s the Roaming Gnome here. I was absolutely gobsmacked when I heard I was up for election into the Madison Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame. Have you had a chance to stuff the ballot box for me yet? I’d hate to think of the ribbing I’d receive from my fellow gnomes if I lost out to those pesky Keebler Elves.

It would be smashing if you could vote for lil ol’ me. And since they’re keeping me honest with only one vote per computer, I’d be tickled pink if you pass this link along to your family and friends:

http://advertising.yahoo.com/advertisingweek_06/icon_poll.html


Toodle Pip for now,

The Roaming Gnome

Two Posts In One

The Boring Post:
I know this is uninteresting but I have to say it cause it made me feel so good. I was one of the unfortunate people who didn't get work off yesterday. The whole building was pretty much empty besides my group. So we were having a meeting about a new pricing model that we were going to present to the product managers on Wednesday and I discovered a huge error in what we had. My boss was really impressed that I saw it and then we spent about 5 more hours fixing it. A small victory in my world! Okay, on with the interesting...

The Interesting Post:
For the past couple of days, my car has been feeling weird. Something in the front left side felt like when a washing machine gets unbalanced and starts freaking out in the spin cycle, but I didn't have a flat tire or anything. So my boss let us off early since no one was there and I decided that it was scaring me, so I stopped at Discount Tire to see if something was wrong with the tires. The guy thought my tires just needed to be balanced. About an hour later, he comes back in and says "Ms. Tate. I think we found the problem" Not a good sign.

I go out there with him and he tells me that I have basically been driving a time bomb. They took one lugnut off of the wheel and the wheel was barely hanging on to the axle. Turns out the wheel bearing was loose and about to fall off. The guy tightened it as much as he could, but told me to get it to a certified mechanic as quick as possible and to drive as little as possible. Thats a great thing to tell someone who has an hour commute every day on 4th of July week! So if you don't hear from me in the next week or 2, its because the wheel fell off of my car and I'm lying in the road somewhere (I'm not being dramatic at ALL)! :)

Is It Worth It?

The Scenario:
A little over a week ago, I went to Southlake Town Square for lunch as I do every now and then. As I was driving around looking for a parking spot, I saw a really cute shirt in the window of White House/Black Market. I knew it would look good with some white pants I had just bought that I wanted to wear the next day so I impulsively bought it....for $62.79. I immediately had buyers remorse thinking how in the world could I have just spent that much on a shirt? I vowed that I was going to take it back (probably to the one on University so I didn't have to see the same sales people!) Fast forward one week later: I wake up for work, I'm running a tiny bit late and realize that I have no clean laundry except my white pants and, you guessed it, the new shirt still wrapped up and in the bag. I decide that I have no choice and wear it. That day I got SIX compliments on my shirt - half of which were from guys who NEVER compliment my outfits (and no its not revealing). So now I'm wondering...can 6 compliments make a shirt worth $60?

Point:
I very rarely get compliments on my outfits. It made me feel so good all day long. And I'm making money now, I'm single with no responsibilities. Why not reward myself? Plus, I used to spend hundreds of dollars on formals that I would wear once, maybe twice, and never again. This shirt is something I will actually wear. Its totally worth it.

Counterpoint:
Are you kidding me? Sure I may be making a little money now, but in 2 months I've got to go back to the world of the broke grad student. Being frivolous now is a stupid move. And will those 6 compliments really feel that good when I can't even afford to buy food at the end of next semester? Totally not worth it.

Any thoughts from my readers?

By The Numbers: Emily's Golf Edition

2 Friends that bailed on our game (including the one who knew what she was doing)

9 Holes played at the Benbrook Par 3 golf course

98 degrees farenheit yesterday

0 Areas of shade on the course

4 Golf balls used in my game

3 Golf balls lost in the "lake"

7 Average strokes it took me to get the ball in the hole

27 Par for this course

66 My score on this course

1 Guy on the course (and a lawyer at that!) that asked me on a "golf date" for next week! :)

Look out Annika Sorenstam!

About 5 years ago, I was dating a guy who worked in a golf pro shop as some of you may remember. :) Somewhere during my 1st semester of college that year, I decided that I should take golf class at ACU because he wanted to go play with me. I had to take an Exercise Science class anyways...and this one didn't require the horrific ACU exercise science uniform. So that Christmas, Didad (Maggie and Katie's grandfather) made me a set of golf clubs and I embarked on my golfing journey. One semester later, I vaguely knew how to hit a golf ball and played my first game in which I shot a 97....on 9 holes. Other than hitting golf balls at a driving range one time during finals my sophomore year when I was in a really really bad mood, that was the end of my golf career.

Until now.

Last semester, Christina, another girl named Vineeta, and I decided to take golf lessons through TCU continuing education. We took 6 lessons (actually I only took 5 - I missed the last one) and our teacher was absolutely fabulous! I started off only slightly worse than I left off 4 years ago...and to be totally honest only ended up slightly better than 4 years ago! But tomorrow, I'm venturing back out into the world of golf to play my first real game since the end of my ACU class. And let me tell you, its going to be a really funny sight - Me, Christina, Vineeta, and our friend Jasmine (who actually knows how to play). Ironically, we're playing at the course that the afforementioned ex worked at that started this whole mess! How's that for life coming full circle?
















Me tomorrow!

For Stephen

Its Official

I got the scholarship. Its a little overshadowed with the whole Mavs thing...but its still good news! :)

Is that a "yes" or a "no"?

Last semester, I got nominated for the Texas Business Hall of Fame Scholarship, a scholarship for MBA students in Texas (I know, stating the obvious). Two Thursdays ago (June 8), I finally had my interview, the last step in the application process. My interview was really funny in itself...i'll make another post about it right after this one. But for now, I need your help in deciphering the letters that I just got.

Saturday, I checked my mail and had a letter from the TX Bus Hall of Fame. It was a small envelope, so I was pretty certain in was bad news...and I was right. "Dear Ms. Tate....I am sorry to inform you that you have not been chosen as a scholarship recipient this year....." I was a little let down, but okay.

Today, I checked my mail and had another letter from the TX Bus Hall of Fame. Small envelope again, and I thought to myself "What, did you feel the need to rub it in?" I almost throw it away but then decide to open it so I can post on my blog about getting rejected twice....but it says, "Dear Ms. Tate, On behalf of the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation, I am pleased to be the first to congratulate you on being chosen as a 2006 Scholarship Award Recipient...."

Both letters are dated June 15, 2006, so I can't even claim that the later date is the real one. Did I get it? Did I not? (I'm assuming I got it until proven otherwise. Ha!) I have included pictures of both as evidence. Can you pull any meaning out of them?















And if you're still with me...keep reading! My interview story is actually really funny.

The Interview

When I first got nominated, I was told that interviews would be conducted in April. May comes, and we haven't heard anything. So the MBA program administrator makes some phone calls to find out what was going on. MANY emails later, we move the date around about 5 times and set it up for June 8th. The email confirming the appointment gave me the name of the man who I would interview and the address of his "office."

So I take the morning off work, get all dressed up in my suit (with the hems still held up by safety pins!) and start following the mapquest directions to Dallas. I get in the area, and cannot find the street Manchester that is supposedly off of Northwest Hwy. I drove up and down the street for about 30 minutes, had my cousin Allyson on the phone trying to figure out where it was, and I was going nuts. This was a huge interview and I was late - a MAJOR faux pas. I finally realize that it is not called Manchester when it intersects NW Hwy and find where I am supposed to go. I get there really upset, and realize this isn't an office....its the guy's home address!

Another girl that was interviewing was already there and said no one was home. So we called his office and found out that they had given the wrong address! His office was in Lincoln Center right off the tollway. He had been waiting thinking that we had forgotten or didn't care or something! So we drive to his office (I'm feeling very lucky because I have been given a 2nd chance after being 30 min late for my 30 min interview!) and I go in to interview.

I am flustered after the events of the morning, i know i'm going to get back to work an hour later than planned, and although the interview went well, I knew that the other girl in the lobby would be a really good interviewee and I'm sure that the other candidates are great as well. I had to set myself apart. So I decide to be bold. I still can't believe that I said this, but it just came out of my mouth. Right as I was leaving, I shook his hand and said "I just want to leave you by saying that I know that I am the best candidate for this scholarship. With my commitment to Texas business and drive to succeed, I plan on making a contribution big enough to be inducted in the Texas Business Hall of Fame someday, so why not give me the scholarship now as well?" He thought it was great! He started smiling really big and was like "That is just great. That is good to know." Did it work? Well....verdict's still out I guess!

How I felt last Friday:

As soon as I got my pay stub from work, I immediately thought of this clip from Friends...particularly the line, "Who is FICA? And why is he getting all my money??" I'm still happy to actually have money, but in my first paycheck $700 was taken out in taxes, social security, etc.!! I knew a lot would get taken out, but by a lot I thought it would be like $300 or so. Welcome to the real world, huh?

1 Year Ago Today!

My friend Ashley Bruner married a great man named Matt and became Ashley Lee! Unfortunately, this was also the last time that I saw her because we both got crazy busy and never have been able to get together! Hopefully that will change soon, but for today, Congrats Ashley and Matt!


I think this picture is fun....and probably not one that her real photographer got, so thought I'd post it instead of a typical wedding picture. :)

Twas The Night Before Sabre

Twas the night before Sabre, and all through the room,
The intern was ready, as one might assume.
Her paperwork ready, her shirt pressed with care,
She picked up her suit pants - her favorite pair.

When all of a sudden she jumped in great fright
Realizing something wasn't quite right.
She meant to do it earlier but had messed up again.
She had forgotten to get those pants hemmed!

But rather than panic she came up with a plan:
Safety pins and markers would get her out of this jam.
She pinned up the pant legs and colored pins black
So no one would know her hems weren't intact.

The moral of this story I shared with you today
Take your pants to the tailor when you buy them, right away!

Mexican Wedding Fun!

One of my good friends in the MBA program is a guy named Jaime. Jaime is Mexican. Not Hispanic, he is "speaks fluent spanish, part of the family still lives out of the country, had Mariachis at his birthday party, mom makes the best food ever but speaks no English" Mexican. So he calls me on Friday and says "Have you ever been to a Mexican wedding?" I said no and he said "They're not like White people weddings where you have to RSVP and everyone knows everyone and stuff...its just like a big fiesta and you need to come." So I did.

The wedding was at the Texas Girls Choir building. I showed up around 7:30 or so and the party was already in full swing. We ate some fantastic Mexican food, they had an open bar with beer, wine, and tequila (I had to have some tequila....my Mexican wedding experience just wouldn't have been complete!) and a Mariachi band played for 2 hours. Apparently Mariachi's cost about $600/hr, so 2 hours was a BIG deal! Right at the end of the Mariachis, they did the bouqet/garter tossing. So I go out on the dance floor expecting just to gather in a clump when Jaime's cousin says "Get ready to run!" Before I could even say "What??" my hand was grabbed by the girls next to me. The bride and groom stand on chairs in the middle of the dance floor while the mariachis play a song and an aunt led all the single women running in a line around the room, snaking through the dance floor, the tables, into the hallway, back through all the people watching, etc. for about 4 or 5 minutes! I was exhausted! Then they threw the bouquet and the boys did the same thing before the garter.

After that, the boys stripped the groom down to boxers and a tshirt and started throwing him up in the air! Once he got redressed, the money dance started. Girls and guys in pairs stand in line to pin money on the bride and groom and dance with them. So I danced with the groom. Then the 2nd band came - a mariachi polka band! We danced all night long. I danced with all of Jaime's cousins in true Mexican dancing style which I like to describe as Country dancing on speed. I had no clue what I was doing, but most of them were really good dancers and I was able to just follow. It was seriously a workout! I am sore today!

I had so much fun being the token white girl at the Mexican wedding...even though I couldn't talk to half of the attendants because they didn't speak English! But who needs to talk when you've got Mariachis to dance to!

P.S.
If Patty is reading this I'm sure she is freaking out right now! DON"T SAY MARIACHI!! (who can name the reference? Trey?)

Now THATS a finale!

Last year I was really disappointed with the season finale of several of my favorite shows, including Lost, Alias, Grey's Anatomy, and (half of) Gilmore Girls. This year, I was still disappointed by Gilmore Girls, disappointed with the series finale of Alias, and pacified with Greys. The problem with a lot of finales is they feel like they need a huge cliffhanger and do something really drastic that is totally contrived just to make one.

But Lost on the other hand - every show on television needs to take notes. THAT is the way to do a finale! The big twist of explaining how the plane crashed was just wild enough to be awesome but real enough to be plausible. The way they set things up for next season puts people in enough of a predicament to allow for a lot of future material but not so bad that it makes me mad for the entire off season (cough..Gilmore Girls....cough cough). And the very final scene introducing a new character.....I am pumped. It was just perfect. Way to go Lost! For a show that has annoyed me more than once, you really pulled it together with a season finale that truly lived up to the hype.

The Big One!

The Colonial has come and gone...I spent the last 6 days driving fully loaded Cadillac Escalades (sooooo cool!) around in circles and meeting a lot of neat people. I didn't have any Teixiera sightings this year, but I did meet a lot of cool people. Here are a couple of stories from the week:

1. As people get in the car, I usually try to make some small talk and learn about the people. I'll ask if they're there following a particular golfer, what they do for a living, etc. Well on Friday, a couple gets in my car and for some reason, the question came out of my mouth, "So are any of your favorites on the leaderboard today?" Never asked that question before, but it just came out. The man said "Awww, no our guy was awful today!" and the lady hit him and said "Oh you be quiet!" So I said "Who is it that you are following." The lady's response: "Our son is in 2nd place today." It was Stewart Cink's parents! I ended up driving them the next day too. They were really nice. Cink ended the tournament tied for Fourth along with Ben Crane, whose caddy I drove on Wednesday. :)

2. I drove the owner of Patron Tequila and Captain Morgan Rum today. He got in my car and we were talking about his company, their tequila, etc. If you don't know, Patron is a very expensive tequila and is apparently "really smooth" (whatever that means.) So I joked with him saying "You should have brought some free Patron to tip your driver with." He thought that was really funny, and we talked more on the drive back to his car. When we got to his car, he said "So what is your name?" I said "Emily." He said "Emily, I am about to make your day." And hands me this:
Two years of driving at the Colonial and on the last day, the second to last person I drive, I finally get one of the legendary $100 tips! I didn't think they actually existed! He definitely made my day - actually made my week! I finally got The Big One. :)

I may post more stories later this week as they come to me. Stay tuned to hear tales of drunken idiots.

Byron Nelson and Colonial

Yesterday I had the joy of attending the final round of the Byron Nelson tournament with my cousin Allyson. I was hoping to post some fun pictures...until I realized that you're not allowed to take in any cameras or cell phones. :) It was pretty fun. Hot outside, eerily quiet for the amount of people there, lots of walking, but once we set up camp at the 15th green, it was fun. But I definitely reminded myself why its been about 5 years since I've actually attended the Colonial.

Which brings me to the Colonial! It technically starts today with practice rounds today and tomorrow, the Pro-Am on Wednesday, and the official tournament Thurs. through Sun. You may be asking why I know the schedule if I haven't been in 5 years and am not planning on going this year. Its because for the 2nd year, I am going to be driving Cadillacs between the VIP lots and the clubhouse. Last year I had a very unfortunate experience in my driving. I am hoping to encounter the situation again only to come out on top this time! If any of you are going to be parking in the member or VIP lots this week at the Colonial, keep an eye out for me. I'll be the one in the fully loaded Cadillac while you're sweating in the hot sun. :)

They Finally Did It

Well, the afforementioned ghosts of the Log Cabin Village finally got the best of me and my phone. On Friday my friend Christina called me to go to lunch in the middle of running errands for the graduation hooding ceremony that night. When she got to my apartment, my phone had randomly turned itself off. I push the button to turn it back on...and it doesn't turn back on. So I got to spend a fun-filled afternoon at Cingular trying to get everything taken care of to get me a new phone. 3 hours later, I left with a phone fresh off of the truck that was actually ordered for someone else but they decided to give to me instead because they had taken so much time. Good things come to those who wait. :)

So I know that I am behind the times and 90% of cell phone users already have this one...but look how pretty! And its pink!

The Ghosts of the Log Cabin Village

The path from my apartment to TCU involves me driving south on University from I-30. I drive this path at least twice a day, many days more than that. Anytime I am on my cell phone while driving to campus, there is one spot where the call gets disconnected every single time. I will have full bars on my phone, it will suddenly drop down to zero bars, and then right back up to full. This has been happening all year long. Extremely annoying.

So yesterday I was driving down the street talking to my mom when it happened. But this time, I noticed where this "dead zone" is - it is the full length of the Log Cabin Village. I will have full reception, I hit where the cabins start and it drops to zero, and then back up to full reception immediately after the last cabin right before Park Hill Dr. So now I have determined that my cell phone problems are caused by ghosts in the Log Cabin Village. They are stuck in the 1800's when there weren't things like cell phones and don't want anything that wasn't from their time to work properly. So the cell phones drop out and then pick up when you're out of their territory. Somebody call Jennifer Love Hewitt and cross them over so that they will stop interrupting my important phone calls!!

Oh Blogger, Where Art Thou?

All of my blog buddies...I am begging you! Please post soon! Every day I have been coming to my computer in the middle of my Integrated Project Hades, hoping for a little relief through some fun stories, neat pictures, and general updates. But alas! Everyone on my blogroll (except for Megan) has reruns!! Not that I can say much, and I know we're all busy. But just a little shout out to your readership would brighten my day...which I promise you, needs brightening right now. :)

The Most Frequent Conversation Today

As I said yesterday, I am on a team with a couple of interesting people. In my 4 hour meeting today, I think three hours of it were taken up by variations on the following discussion:

Me: We can't do that
Them: Why not?
Me: Because its not an option in the simulation
Them: Why not?
Me: Because the simulation writers didn't make it an option
Them: So why can't we do it?
Me: Because there is no way to put it in the system. Its not in the simulation.
Them: Well that doesn't make any sense. I want to do this!
Me: We can't do that
Them: Why not?
(loud crash as I throw myself out of the window of the third floor team room we're in)

P.S.
Thanks for the birthday wishes! And Megan, it wasn't belated. It was May 2. :) And Ty, you're just sick. haha

Thought and Quote of the Day

Thought of the day:
Why do fast food mexican restaurants ask you if you want hot sauce? They're going to give it to you anyways. They ask "Would you like Hot Sauce?" You say yes, they give you hot sauce. You say no, they give you hot sauce. You say "Do you speak English?" They give you hot sauce. I bet they could cut some overhead if they'd stop handing out so much hot sauce.

Quote of the day:
Some of you might have heard that for our Integrated Project, they broke up the team that I had formed and reassigned about half the class randomly. I get put on a team with a lady in our class who is....we'll leave it at "interesting." It hasn't been nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be (although its only been 2 days....8 to go!), but I have gotten some really funny quotes out of it, such as the following:

Today, we were talking about passwords people use on the internet. A guy in my group said, "I know a lot of people use their kids names and birthdays as passwords. So sometimes its really easy to figure out if you're not careful."

She says, totally serious: "That's why I use my kids' names and their conception dates."

Its going to be an interesting week. Please pray for my sanity.

A Letter to My Love

My Dearest McDonalds,

It is with great regret and deepest sorrow that I write you this letter. I feel the time has come for us to go our separate ways. We’ve had some great times over the past few years, but this is just something that I have to do.

I know what you’re thinking – there’s another restaurant. And I promise you, I am not just running into the booths of another burger provider. I know we had the whole Whataburger incident last year, but I told you then, and I’ll tell you again, it meant nothing. It was just lunchtime and you were too busy for me. I had to get food somewhere! But it is your chicken nuggets that I crave; no one else’s can come close!

You say you can change, and I know that you’re not lying. But its not you, it’s me. You have tried your best to offer me grilled chicken sandwiches, asian salads, and other healthy options, but as long as you have those delicious fries on your menu, I will always just fall back into my old habits and we both know its not good for either one of us. I can’t live in this kind of codependent relationship anymore. The best thing for me right now is to make a clean break. Pretend we never met. Believe me, this is harder on me than it is on you. You will find other college girls to share your golden arches with, but me; this is then end of my fast food excursions. I’ll always look back on our times together with fondness, and I hope you’ll think of me in the same way. I wish you the best of luck in the future.

With love,
Emily

Just for Stephen....

Since I have definitely MIA over the past few weeks (crazy busy!) and Stephen is claiming I'm just a cast member of Pleasantville, a jab, I'm assuming, at my black and white profile picture, I have changed my picture to one that is a) in color and b) more recent than 4 years ago. Enjoy.

I am also posting a picture of me with a couple of members of the 80's cover band that I talked about a while ago, The Spazmatics! They were here last friday during the Main Street Arts Festival, so a few of us went and saw them. Integrated Project starts this Friday, so it may be awhile before I post again. Then again, maybe not. I'll keep you on the edge of your seat. :)

Studying Fun

So I'm in a TCU team room right now with two of my friends, Andrew and Alfredo. We are supposedly studying for our Operations final that is tomorrow, but keep getting distracted. So I started singing a little song and without prompting, each person added on a line. It actually came out pretty well. Sing to the tune of "Frere Jacques" - Hope you enjoy our studying humor, cause its not far from the truth! :)

Emily: Motivation, motivation, where are you? Where are you?

Andrew: Someone come and help me! Someone come and help me!

Alfredo: I am screwed. I am screwed.

We also have studying fun with the quotes on our Google Talk. On Friday, we had our IT final which consisted of analyzing a case study about Schwab. My gtalk quote paid homage to Billy Madison by reading "Stop looking at me Schwab!" Right now, a guy named Hud has up a quote that has me cracking up because I just think of Trey, Kody, and the Bammel VBS a few years ago. His says "I'll price break you!" Okay, I know that none of these are really THAT funny, but we have to cling to what we can get - its MBA finals week.

Race for the Cure

So I wrote a post detailing the events of last Saturday at Race for the Cure. Then I realized it was really boring. So now I'm summing it up in 4 short phrases: I came, I saw, I ran, I went to Yogi's for breakfast. :) Here is a picture of a few of the people that were on my team. We really had a great time. Thank you to everyone who donated and hopefully we can raise even more next year!

Just Thought You'd Like To Know!

Fat Club!

Maggie has started a revolution! In her daring post declaring to the world that it was time to lose the baby weight, she has enticed the rest of the world (and by world, I mean our blogring. Its the world that matters, right?) to stand up and say "I'm fat as a word that rhymes with "gel" and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" (shout out to the movie Network).

Lindsey started Fat Club which is basically a contest to motivate people to actually lose the weight we've been claiming we will and me, being the MBA girl, took it to the next level and designed a spreadsheet that would calculate the % lost (that is our evaluation of who wins) and we've started a blog! So everyone (except Ashley Lee...you're too skinny. haha) come join our contest. Check out the blog by clicking here and shoot me an email to sign up. It'll be a really fun contest with benefits even for the losers!

P.S. Tomorrow I'll post about Race for the Cure. It went great, but I just wanted to get this up ASAP so people can start. :)

The Promised Email Story!

What happens when you add 1 fake gas price lowering scheme, 93 TCU email distribution lists, and 8,000 undergraduate students? Mass email hysteria!

An undergraduate psychology major by the name of William Jackson got a forwarded email saying that boycotting Exxon and Mobil gas stations would lower gas prices (easily debunked by snopes.com). For some reason, he thought it would be a good idea to email this to everyone at TCU using the distribution lists for the different colleges. These lists are supposed to be available by permission only (as in I have access to use the MBA Full-Time (1st) list but not the MBA Full-Time (2nd) list), so I don't even know how he got access to them. But once the email was sent around noon, it somehow opened the lists and allowed people to reply-all.

At first the replies to all were no big deal - just a couple of people saying that the rumor wasn't true. Then it moved into people telling people not to reply to all (which is stupid because they're replying all themselves!) Pretty soon a couple of people started sending really stupid things like "Chuck Norris is responsible for the high gas prices". Then people decided it would be a good idea to say "take me off the list", prompting other idiots to say "take me off the list too" - like THAT's going to do any good! It eventually got to where the only emails being sent were people saying "Don't reply to all" and "Take me off this list", not realizing that if they would just stop saying that, the emails would stop! About 11:30pm, we had probably gotten about 85-90 emails from this thing. Thats when the real fun began.

I don't know if people were just fed up or if maybe some were starting to get a little drunk or what, but the emails started getting more and more ridiculous, eventually moving to inappropriate. Another 30 emails between 11:30 and 1:30am when I went to sleep. The emails around that time were consisting of "My cousin's best friends' uncle is chuck norris" and stupid stuff like that. I wake up the next morning, check my email around 10:30am....58 emails. About 15 of them were real emails that I needed (yes I get 15 emails between 1:30 am and 10:30 am.) The rest were more fallout from this mass email mess! By now they had proceeded into people claiming they had slept with the Chancellor and making VERY inappropriate comments. I guess that was finally the point at which administration decided they needed to do something, because all of a sudden, the emails stopped. Eventually I got an email from our MBA director apologizing for the emails and saying that IT was working on fixing the distribution lists and that Student Life was looking into actions against people who had made inappropriate comments. But all in all, we had 24 hours of mass email hysteria. Hopefully they'll figure out how to prevent this happening again.....but I do know that William Jackson has been signed up for quite a few email newsletters that he might not appreciate. :)

National "Emily is an Airhead" Day

Apparently today was National "Emily is an Airhead" Day. It has been an....interesting day. :)

This morning I had a meeting with Americredit's CEO for a project I am working on with him at his office downtown. I parked in the Burnett Plaza Garage because he can validate my parking there and I won't have to pay. The meeting was supposed to end at noon, giving me just enough time to get out of downtown, grab some fast food, and get to class at 12:30. The meeting ended at 12:15 so I rushed out to the garage to leave. I get in the elevator, push level 6 which I had taken great care to remember, and get out. Then I can't find my car. I am walking up and down all of the different ramps (all of the rows in this garage are ramps to some place or another) looking and looking. I set off the alarm and start heading that direction, and still can't find it. It took me 15 minutes to find my car in the garage. I felt like an idiot, and I didn't get lunch. But that was only the beginning.

Because I was now late for class, there was no parking by my building. TCU just tore down the old Staples on Berry and made a parking lot with a shuttle that goes to the business building. I decide to try it out. It was great - drove me right up to the door so I could run into class (about 20 minutes late). So after class was over and I finished a group meeting (that took longer than necessary because I was an idiot and did a totally wrong thing on a stats problem. Another Emily is an Airhead moment but too boring to explain) I go out to the shuttle stop and get on. When it starts driving the opposite way from the lot, I realize that more than one shuttle picks up there and I got on the wrong one! But me being me, I am too embarrassed to tell the driver I'm on the wrong one and get dropped off on the back side of the football stadium AKA the exact opposite side of campus from where I needed to be. I get out and walk all the way back to the business building to pick up the right shuttle. I ended up walking about 4 times further than I would have had to if I had just walked to the lot that my shuttle drove to!

I have decided that I am not leaving my apartment for the rest of the night to avoid making any more stupid mistakes. I also have a really funny story about what happens when an undergrad decides to mass email the entire TCU campus with a false forward (Ashley, was your inbox as full as mine?), but that one will have to wait til tomorrow. :)

$30 From Goal!!!!

So I'm $30 from my donation goal........ PPPLLLLEEEEEAAASSSSEEEEE donate! Come on! Its just a little bit! The link is right over there to the right >>>>
To entice you, I"ll even show you a picture of me and my friend, Ed attempting to make sad faces (he's running too.) Okay, I don't know if that is really what we were doing - this was taken sometime last semester, but we're both those people who can't keep a straight face to save our lives so its very possible. And it was the closest thing I could find to a puppy dog face on my camera. So this is me and Ed begging you to donate - even just $5. 6 people donating $5 will get me my $30! If nothing else, me putting up a horrible picture of myself (which i would normally never do) should be enough to merit a donation! You can do it!

We took a good one right after and I just can't bear to end this post on the horrible picture. So here's the real one too. :)

Random Thought for the Day

What happens to roadkill? Where does it go? The animal carcasses don't lay around rotting forever, so something obviously happens to it. Does someone come along and scrape it up periodically? If that is the case, who wants that job? I can't imagine walking into an office and saying "Hi. I'm here to fill out an application to be a roadkill scooper." So thats my topic for the day - What happens to roadkill? Any thoughts?

3 Thoughts About Procrastination

1. I've heard of boredom eating. I've heard of emotional eating. Tonight I discovered a new one: procrastination eating. I have work to do, but I've got to eat dinner. So I make dinner and obviously can't work while I'm eating, so I start a TV show. I manage to drag it out until the end of America's Next Top Model and the American Idol results show. Time to work. Oh wait, I need something sweet - how about some fruit? So I eat a banana and watch Unanimous (disturbing by the way.) Okay, ready to work. Nooooo, I need a drink. To the fridge for a diet coke...and I see a pudding cup. That sounds good - I'll jst eat it really quickly and get to work. So I start watching Lost and eating my pudding. Well of course, I can't work until I finish Lost now. I have procrastinated for 2 1/2 hours solely through eating. And I wonder why I've gained weight since high school....

2. This week started out for me with procrastination at its finest. Tyson assigned a book for us to read (The Goal in case you were wondering) at the very beginning of the semester. The paper for it was due on Tuesday. He even puts on his syllabus over Spring Break "Don't forget to be reading The Goal!" So when do I start reading? Monday afternoon. I started reading around 3pm. 11pm: I finish the book (337 pages). I took an hour for dinner, 30 minutes talking on IM to my friend John, and 30 minutes on the phone at some point, so overall it took me about 6 hours to read. And then I still had to write the paper. This is when I stopped focusing quite as much - a few emails to friends back and forth in this time, but 4 am: I finally get into bed. My procrastination reached a new....would you call it a high or a low? Either way, I'm oddly actually a little proud of it! Kinda like a scar from a dumb fall you had years ago that you brag about even though it was really stupid....

3. Me being who I am, I procrastinated in sending out my donations emails for Race for the Cure (you only thought you were going to get away without me hounding you!) So now I'm still $150 away from my goal and realllllly want to meet it. I figure it kinda looks bad for the community service chair of the MBA program to not do well. SOOOOOO, take minute, donate to The Komen Foundation by clicking on the "My Donation Page" link! Seriously, $10 will barely buy lunch at Boston Market, but it can help save lives! $20 is less that you'll spend on a shirt, why not spend it on a little cancer research? Great cause + tax deductible = warm fuzzy feeling inside! Come on....all the cool kids are doing it!!

Race for the Cure!!

To my dear blog readers:

On April 15th, I am going to be participating in the Race for the Cure sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The goal of the run is to raise money for breast cancer research. I hate to use this forum for shameless self promotion, but after much consideration, I have decided that this is less self promotion and more "great cause" promotion. Now I don't know who reads this everyday, so if you can't or don't want to donate, I'll never know and you don't have to feel bad. But if you are feeling particularly generous today, click here! This will take you to my race page where you can make your TAX DEDUCTIBLE donation online to help me reach my fundraising goal. Any little bit helps and I, along with the Komen Foundation, with thank you greatly!

With much love,
Emily

April Fools!

I have kind of started dating a new guy named Alan. Nothing serious, we're just having fun. Well last night my brother Ben really wanted me to invite him to come out with Ben, a couple of his friends, and me. So I called him and invited him and he said yes. Now I hate Ben meeting new guys because he will either 1. REALLY dislike them or 2. Like them and say something to embarrass me. But I took my chances.

So Ben, his friends, and I are standing in line and Alan was on his way to meet us. I'm giving Ben the "don't embarrass me" lecture and he says "Hey, I've only known one Alan in my life and he was awesome. So if this guy is anything like him, then we're all good" and goes on to tell me how he became friends with this guy because they dated the same girl.

Alan gets there, walks up, and he and Ben start going "OH MY GOODNESS! IT'S BEEN FOREVER!!" and talking about this is the guy he was talking about earlier and how we can't believe how small the world is. I'm freaking out because I just can't believe it and don't really know what to do with this new bit of information.

They go on for about 2 hours letting me believe this ruse and right as we're leaving, they tell me that they've never met and it was an April Fool's joke! Apparently, Ben stole my phone yesterday afternoon at a family birthday party we were having and called Alan and planned the whole thing. Nice one Ben. Two thumbs up.

In other news, after I got home I decided I was hungry and wanted a sandwich (for some reason Turkey sandwiches always sound good around 10 or 11...). Fast forward to this morning when I woke up and very suddenly realized that the turkey I used must be bad. Morals of the story - always check expiration dates on lunch meat (should be common sense I know, but I just bought it!) and rubber bands to hold back hair are a girls best friend. :) Hopefully I'll be in better shape tomorrow - busy week ahead! But if you need to find me today, I"ll be on my couch, anxiously awaiting a new episode of Grey's Anatomy.

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!

Mr. Tate Goes to College

So my grandfather is in the hospital right now (nothing life threatening, don't worry) so we have had to figure out what to do with my Uncle Brian during the day. Brian has Down's Syndrome and hangs out with my grandfather all day every day, so figuring out the logistics of having someone with him has been complicated.

So today after my Operations Management test (Tyson if you're reading this one...your test killed me today!:) ) I drove to my mom's office and picked up Brian to come to class with me. Brian had his bag of goodies with magazines, DVD player, and walkman, sat down on the front row, and didn't pull out a single item the whole class! He just sat there listening to our stats professor talk about z-scores and the like. He did fall asleep for a little bit, but overall actually listened and looked at my computer screen! Then we hung out in a team room and Brian watched Grease while I worked and then we went to another meeting.

After subjecting an unwilling party to statistics, I was certain Brian would never want to go anywhere with me again! But apparently tonight at dinner, he told everyone about how he went to college today, showed them how I type on my computer, and told them all about how the professor (Dr. Dielman) talked to him and said "Hi Brian!" Overall, it was a pretty good day for Brian in college.

Here is Brian hanging out in a team room in between class and meetings.

Weird Food

If you haven't eaten with me in a while, you may not remember that I am a plain food eater. My ordering typically goes like this:

"I'll have a Cheeseburger plain and dry."
"Could I get the enchiladas with no onions?"
"Chicken quesadillas with just chicken and cheese"
"Victoria's Filet with steamed broccoli, please."
and on Taco Tuesday at Rosa's, "Taco special with no tomatos."

I don't like anything that is too spicy, too hot, involves onions or peppers (unless you can't tell they're there, which I usually can), or tomatos.

So now onto my life right now...I am constantly with people who eat weird food. These are the kinds of calls I get now:

"Hey! We're going to go eat Greek food tonight!"
"Wanna go to Bombay Palace for some Indian food?"
"I'm having a goat roast next weekend..."
"Let's go to Pho Bella for dinner." (me) "Whats Pho Bella?" (them) "Vietnamese Food."

And the call last night: "We're going to go eat Egyptian food tonight." (me) "Okay, now you're just making up food types." (them) "No, seriously. Its a restaurant called King Tuts"

So I am now being forced to venture out of my "plain and dry"/"chicken and cheese" world and into the world of Chicken Shwarma, goat thighs, Shrimp Tandoori, and Nhan. Now is the part where I'm supposed to say that trying new things has expanded my horizons and I actually like stepping outside of my food box...but I can't. My stomach has never hated me more.

My name is Emily, and I click stuff too!

I am definitely not as good as Ryan at this whole game, but I've been collecting some links over the past few months that I keep meaning to send to Ryan, so I thought I'd just make a one-time attempt at this clicking stuff.

- Apparently my date is Friday, July 14, 2062. I'll be sure to mark it on my Outlook.

- For some reason, I really enjoy this game.

- I've always thought it was common sense not to take advice from The Simpsons. Apparently not.

- This is fun to play around with! "Emily" and "Maggie" are almost exact opposites of each other.

- And speaking of Maggie....this should make her very happy! Mighty Casey is back again!

- Ever wondered what celebrity you look like? This site can tell you! Apparently I look like Jennifer Connelly....I wish!

Hope you enjoyed my clickings as much as Ryans. I'll let him stick to finding fun stuff from now on. :)

A song my Mom used to sing and I have been singing to myself lately

Be patient
Be patient
Don't be in such a hurry

For when you
Aren't patient
You only start to worry

Remember
Remember
That God is patient too

And think of all the times
That others have to wait for you.

For Ashley Nichols

Ashley, if you happen to read blogs while you're overseas and are sitting around in Budapest freezing, wishing you were in warm, sunny Texas...you're not missing much.

Here is Frog Fountain this weekend:

A Real Example

Last week I posted about hearing half of the story and how the news is the worst at it. Well tonight, I'm watching a show (on Tivo of course) and hear this exact phrase:

"You wouldn't give poison to a child would you? Maybe you already have! Next..."

Are you kidding me???? How do you leave that one hanging out there?

For Trey

Duck Hunt

Game Code 4 your page

And now.....the rest of the story.....

My dad and I used to listed to Paul Harvey every day on WBAP 820 as he would pick me up from gymnastics. He would always tell the first half of an interesting story and then stop. Then he would say "and now.....the rest of the story." The rest of the story would basically tell you how the interesting 1st half was actually someone really famous, and would end with a comment like "And that young man....was Winston Churchill." I always appreciated Paul Harvey because he always told you the rest of the story.

And now....the rest of MY story.....

The reason I was thinking about this today is because I hate only knowing half of the story. I hate it when someone starts to tell you something and then you get interrupted and don't get to hear the other half of the statement. It drives me nuts because I spend the rest of the day trying to fill in the blanks...the rest of the story, if you will. The news is the worst at this. They always have commercials saying "There is one thing that everyone has in their kitchens that will kill you if you don't throw it out now. Find out what it is....tonight at 10." And me, being the Tivo queen, doesn't see this until the next day, so now I've just got this thing hanging out there unanswered without even the possibility of seeing the news!

So today, I was in a room with 2 people before a meeting. They were having a discussion about an issue that they didn't know has a big impact on me. Right when they got to the meat of the information that they had, the guy running the meeting walked in and got us started, so I never got to hear the ending! And they don't know that it affects me, so I can't just ask them what they were saying...and now I'm freaking out. It could turn out to be nothing, but it could impact me in a very big way, and I have no opportunity to hear "the rest of the story!" I'm going crazy!

And that young man....was John Lennon. (sorry, I couldn't resist!)

Happy Bloggiversery!!!

While most people are celebrating a happy day with their loved ones, I'll be celebrating a different type of holiday....my bloggiversery. Thats right, folks. I have been blogging for 1 year today. 111 posts (including todays)...more comments than that....all in all its been a pretty good year. I'll have to take my laptop to dinner tonight to celebrate.

Okay, enough of that. A lot of you from Altamesa know Tyson Browning. He is a professor in the MBA program as well and I am in his Operations Management (OM) class. Well today he said that he was talking to his wife (Meredith) about making candy hearts with Operations themed messages, but decided against it because they might be a bit risque. So my friends and I took it upon ourselves to email back and forth for the rest of the class time making up OM themed candy heart messages. Here are some of them.....and yes, we are huge nerds.

• Be My Bottleneck
• You Increase My Output
• My utility is rising
• You maximize my flow rate.
• Process This
• Baby, I wanna "six sigma" you up.
• U Decrease the Variation of My Normal Distribution
• You control my processes.
• Wanna buffer my zone?
• You complete my sample
• The Variation in my Heartbeat is Assignable to U
• You Project My Band
• You’re just my sample size.

Happy Operations Management Day!

P.S. - We did pay attention too. I am a master multi-tasker; I can make up funny comments while learning all about p-charts, R charts, and x-bar charts. That's my official disclaimer so no one goes and tells Tyson that we don't pay attention in his class. :)

Stress = Mess

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a naturally messy person. Its always been a long-running joke, as evidenced by Ryan's Gift List this past Christmas. I don't know why I'm messy - I really hate it! I really like it when things are clean and organized, but for some reason I just can't keep it together.

As I've gotten older, I've begun to realize that the messiness of my apartment/room is directly related to the amount of stress I'm under. When I am not busy, not stressed out, I have the time and energy to consciously keep things clean. I can get my papers under control (70% of my mess) and keep my clothes washed and off the floor (20% of my mess) and generally clean things. For example, over Christmas break, my apartment was spotless. However, when I am extremely busy, the pendulum swings exactly the opposite way. I just put things wherever they'll fit and if I have a free hour or so, the last thing that I want to do is clean - I'm going to take that time to try to relax. Its not gross mess though - no food is involved. I'm only messy with non-perishables. My kitchen tends to stay clean.

My roommates used to know how stressed I was by how messy my room was...it is actually a fairly accurate gauge. This was a big adjustment for Nichole (AKA Mrs. Clean) and caused a little tension at first because she didn't recognize the correlation between stress and mess and didn't realize that the last thing I needed when I was stressed was for someone to remind me that my room was messy, but after a while she learned to let it go for about a week til things calmed down and I'd eventually get my life and mess under control. So today I have been in my apartment for more than one hour straight (which hasn't happened in quite some time) and as I am looking around, I am realizing something. These past couple of weeks have been the most stressful weeks I've ever had in my life. Use your imagination.

The Challenge

It has been pointed out by more than one person that the guy in the middle on the Nextel commercial looks exactly like our good friend, Stephen McBroom.



So Stephen...you have no excuse now not to learn this dance. You said you hadn't seen the commercial recently enough - well now you can watch it over and over again on my little blog. Challenge extended.

I'm Bored

I had class today. Then I had Graduate Assistant work to do. Then I stayed on campus for a bit and finished some work that I needed done for a meeting I have at 5pm. That was done at 4:00. So I checked my email (none, cause I've checked it pretty consistently all day), looked at myspace, read the 1 or 2 blogs that I haven't checked yet today. Now its 4:09. I am out of worthless things to look at on the internet, its too close to the meeting for me to be able to go home, I forgot to bring my Operations Management stuff to work on, and I have literally nothing to do for the next 45 minutes. Any suggestions?

Emily vs. Sabre - Round 3

Well, I didn't get the Sabre Travel Network job that I had the interviews for last week, but they asked me to interview for another position with Sabre Airline Solutions. So I'm rockin the business suit again today to endure Round 3 of my quest to work for Sabre. And this morning I got to listen to the CEO of Travelocity (another Sabre division) talk about the company's strategy and the Travelocity turnaround, so now I'm really pumped! Unfortunately, I had some extenuating circumstances after the speech, so I didn't get to take my picture with the Roaming Gnome like most other people did, but it still inspired to me to do well today in my interview! Wish me luck!

Grizzly Man is Coming!!

In case you haven't seen it...Grizzly Man is premiering on Television tomorrow on the Discovery Channel. It is quite possibly the funniest thing you will ever seen and made even more hilarious by the fact that there are people out there who actually take it seriously and think it is sooo insightful and touching. It is about a crazy man who went to go live with bears every summer for years until he finally got eaten by one. He always took his camera with him and he seriously thought these bears were his friends and that he was protecting them. But yet, when he would get close to the bears, there was no sign of friendship in their eyes and they never "accepted him as one of their own" like the monkeys did with Jane Goodall. He was just nuts. So you have to watch it and think about the fact that there is a whole group of people who think this guy was a misunderstood genius and actually gave this documentary an award. It is seriously reminiscent of a "Best in Show" or "Waiting for Guffman" mockumentary, but it is real.

THE Interview

Remember this post? Well take away the 2-way mirrors and add 1 interviewer and you have my interview today! Hardest interview I've ever had in my life!!

It actually went rather well...I think...you couldn't really tell because both interviewers kept this little smirk on their faces the whole time like they had a huge secret. They were throwing questions at me left and right, would interrupt me and challenge what I had just said (even though a few times I KNOW it was just to try to get me to back down from an answer that I knew was right), and asked so many questions I can't even remember any of them. It feels like when you drive somewhere, get to your destination, and then are freaked out cause you can't remember the trip you just took.

I talked to the other 3 people that got callbacks and we all basically feel the same way - no one feels particularly good, but no one feels bad about it either. I guess we are all on level playing fields and just have to wait! The good thing is, all of the other people are awesome candidates too, so if i don't get it, I won't be feeling like the job went to someone that I was better than. I guess I'll have to post an update on this in a couple of weeks when we find out who gets it! Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!

Prayer of a Godly Woman...

If you read my last post, I had 3 interviews today. 1st one went really well with RadioShack. 1st Sabre interview was all case based (ex. You have a $100,000 marketing budget for a B2B product. Ads are already bought for TV, Radio, Industry magazines, trade shows, and sales staff training. What do you do with the extra $100,000?).

Then comes the 2nd Sabre interview. We were a bit ahead of schedule, so I was in there a little before 2pm. The first couple of questions, I was stumbling over myself a little bit, thinking in my head how mad I was at myself because I had such a great 1st interview and I was totally blowing this one! Then, all of a sudden, words just started coming out of my mouth. Phrases I never thought I would have the guts to say, totally putting myself out there and just saying that I really want this job and I know I'd be the best at it. The interviewer's face changed significantly at that point, and I could tell I had just won him over. I got a call about 30 minutes later letting me know that I made it to the 2nd round interviews tomorrow!!

Then I check my blog and find this comment:
karen b said...
1:49 pm : prayers going up for emily from my house

Thinking back at the interview....that was right at - or at least VERY close to - when my interview totally turned around for the better. So thank you Karen!! I owe my 2nd interview to you (and God, I guess...)! :)

So now for the 2nd request for prayers...the 2nd round is a set of panel interviews (AKA Emily vs. 6-8 Sabre executives). Anyone who's been through those knows that they are really intimidating and difficult because you have questions coming at you from every direction. The interviews are tomorrow morning, not sure exactly what time, but I think starting around 9:30am and going through lunch time. So if all of you out there think about it, pray for me....I'm going for at least one prayer per interviewer! :)