Made it!

I have officially finished my first year of graduate school! I had one last project due this morning. My team and I stayed up on campus until 3:30 in the a.m. to turn around and come back by 8:00 a.m. BUT we presented and everything seemed to go well.

I am now free to sleep in, read books, watch movies, hang out with friends and family and run to my heart's content...at least for the next 2 weeks. Then I'm off to Palo Alto!

I Wanna Be a Part of It...New York, New York

Oh, how I do love New York! Last week I went with the MBA girls to the first annual LDS MBA Conference. A group of guys at Wharton decided to put it all together and they did a fantastic job with about 150 attend for the first year. Not bad, I say. Cornell was the stage and New York was the backdrop. Because pics are much more fun than my ramblings I'll just get to it.

We stayed at a great hotel downtown. Just one problem...only one bed. Luckily, we discovered this before going so we packed an air mattress and a pump and had a very cozy weekend with the four of us in that tiny little room.


We had complications with our layover in Las Vegas, so instead of landing at midnight in New York, we arrived at 6am. Ouch. After getting some rest we hit the town. We dined at Carnegie Deli and then wandered down 5th Ave. This was perhaps the best (and hugest) corned beef sandwich I've ever eaten. However, the strawberry cheesecake still showed it up, I'm afraid.


Later we went to a networking event to meet fellow MBAers from around the country and followed up with some delicious Serendipity. My favorite was the cinnamon ice cream atop a piece of apple pie. Brilliant combination, is all I have to say about that. In case you are wondering about all this food intake, I will confirm that I gained 5 pounds over the weekend and I enjoyed every bite.


Saturday was filled with conference events. The highlight for me was listening to Clayton Christensen. Such a brilliant, spiritual and humble man. He had so many insightful things to share with us and I felt that his talk alone made the whole trip worth it. That night we all went to a Mets game. So fun and yet oh so cold! We lasted a few innings before we all bailed and headed over to Magnolia Bakery for some killer banana pudding and steamers.


On Sunday we went to church and then spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. We wandered all through central park, stopped off at the library and had dinner in Little Italy. I just love cities with great architecture so you'll have to humor me and my pictures of buildings.


The only thing I missed was wandering through Anthro. But I did get some great window shopping in. It's probably safer that way.

My Foot

Not to gross anyone out. But simply telling you I got a blister running the 1/2 marathon just didn't seem to do it justice. I earned this beauty and decided to show it off.

13.1

I completed my first half marathon! A group of us (along with 5000 other runners) went down to Moab this past weekend, some to run the 1/2 and the rest to just play. So, while some of us were killing ourselves on the run, everyone else went on various hiking and biking adventures.

I am not ashamed to say that I crossed the finish line at 2 hours 30 minutes exactly. I walked away with a lovely blood blister on the bottom of my foot and some severely chapped lips from the wind but all in all I feel pretty great. Later that day a small group of us hiked up to Delicate Arch (a 3 mile round-trip hike). Crazy, I know. But it was a beautiful hike, amazing view and a great way to top off the weekend.

Auntie M

I love being an Aunt. I mean to brag when I say that I have the cutest nieces and nephews around. This week was an especially cool week to be Aunt Mina. On Wednesday I went to see Karli's school play with Karl, Teresa and Emma. Karli played Woman #3 in Fiddler on the Roof and her performance was spot on. I look forward to more from her young yet blooming career. At intermission I took Emma to get some refreshment at the concessions. As we were walking back with bottles of water, popcorn and chocolate she looks up at me and whispers, "You're the best aunt." Melt. Not sure if that was the popcorn talking but I'll take it. I sure do love my Emma.

Then tonight I went to see Kaitlyn perform in a colorguard competition in AF. I sat in the "Proud Parent" section as I stood in for Kaitlyn's mom who is now traipsing through Venice. I'd be jealous except for the fact that I got to witness an awesome performance from the Mountain Crest team. I caught Kaitlyn's attention before they started so she knew I was there. "I danced that one for Aunt Mina!" she tells me when she comes out after their number. No wonder it was so good!

Needless to say, I'm a sucker for these kids. They know it, I know it, we're all okay with it.

Aloha

Aloha!!

I got back from a fantastic trip to Hawaii last Thursday and have been running ever since. But I have to say it was so worth the trip!

I went to Oahu with these lovely ladies (Sarah, Me, Julie & Jennia) and I could not have asked for a better crowd to hang out in Hawaii.

Some of the highlights on the trip include...

1. Seeing Heather & Robert with their new baby, Hadley. They let us stay with them Friday night and even woke up Saturday to make us breakfast. Pancakes or no, they are fantastic friends! We also went to church with them on Sunday and they had us over for lunch. It was a perfect way to spend our Sunday afternoon in Hawaii. I'm so glad I got to see them and even more so that I can call them my friends.

2. Hiking Diamond Head. Rich (a fellow MBA student who had the same idea to spend his week off in Hawaii) took Jennia and I to Diamond Head. It was a fun hike with a great view. We even had our own "Rocky Balboa" moment after running up the stairs to get to the top.


3. On our way to Hanauma Bay we passed this cool staircase (turns out it's an old set of railroad tracks) and it was calling our name. So, Sarah and I decided to take it on. I guess you're supposed to wear hiking shoes but when you do things spur of the moment flip flops will have to do. There turned out to be just over 1100 railroad ties/stairs to the top. Killer. But the best part was seeing some whales from our view at the top.


4. Food. I threw caution to the wind and ate a lot of great food on this trip from a snow cone at Matsumoto's to bubble drinks at the asian market to malasadas puffs full of custard. One word: YUM!

5. Temple trip and day at the PCC. The last time I went to Hawaii they closed the temple 3 days before I arrived and I was so disappointed. But the wait was well worth it. The celestial room is now one of my favorites. We hit the PCC right after and had a great time watching show after show.

6. Water Sports. We signed up for surfing lessons. Yikes! I think we were all a bit nervous but had a great time. Jennia made it up every try but the rest of us had our ups and downs, mostly downs. We got a few cuts and bruises from the coral which just made for some great bragging rights. Wednesday morning Jennia and I went to Hanauma bay to get in some snorkling and saw some awesome fish. Made me miss Mombasa!

Now it's back to homework and classes...

HAWAII

I bought a plane ticket! Some other girls in the program and I decided that winter+school is taking its toll so we are off to warmer weather. I had some skymiles saved up and got my ticket for $10! Perfect for a budge-conscious graduate student. We are going to Oahu which means I also get to see my friends Heather and Robert and their new little baby, Hadley. In the meantime I get to finish accounting projects, piles of readings, and a midterm. Needless to say I am counting down the days, 18 to be precise. Can't wait!