Update

Things are always crazy at the end of the semester. I kind of thought this one would be different, but it's not.

Here's a quick life progress update:

Work: I'm over a week into my new job. And, honestly, still don't have the hang of things. Not that I expected to walk in the super-genius and know everything. My new group is quite small, but they're all such nice people, and very, very smart about the business. Best of all, they have such big plans for me! It's impossible to not want to work hard in such a supportive environment. I thought I'd be sad that my nice little work group was going to be split up, but with instant messenger, some still close by, and a communal cafeteria, I don't feel too lonely.

School: Ah yes, the end of the semester. Homework due tomorrow, presentation due Thursday, and final project deadline coming up quick. I don't feel too stressed about it, but it's hard not to let it get to you every now and then. Luckily I have some very hard workers in my groups!

Summer semester starts only a week or so after spring finals, so I don't get much of a break. And, sadly, the one final exam I have is smack in the middle of May, and very, very hard. I'm scheduled for two classes in the summer term, but I'm hoping to switch to a data warehousing class. The downside is, it's likely very hard, two nights a week for three hours a night, starts at 4 in LA, and requires a near-complete rearrangement of my work schedule. Yikes. I discovered I can't qualify for the official IOM concentration, despite having taken four classes to date with two more scheduled (really??? come on!!). But I still want to take the class. I might be a little crazy.

Next week I register for my last semester. Somehow, all of the classes seem entirely less appealing than they did last fall, when my class was finally allowed to choose their electives. I started a second countdown on my igoogle page: 254 days until the end of Fall 2008 semester!

Home: Oh, my. Last Friday was, what Andy calls, our -1 anniversary. That's right - less than a year to go! And there's so much left to be done. I still don't have a dress, or a wedding party, or hardly anything else, and a load of family drama that I can only hope will work out. We had a nice night out before I got back to work the rest of the weekend.

Lately, when there's a little time, we've been catching up on past episodes of the Office (new season starts Thursday!), and watching an anime called Full Metal Alchemist. It's a pretty simple story with a lot of heavy themes, but definitely a good escape from the usual.

By the end of the year I'll likely have a new car and a permanent home, but the thought of that is simply overwhelming. Honestly, crushing. Those, on top of everything else I need to do?? Eek! All I want is a little time this weekend to clean up my desk, file the wedding paperwork that's accumulated in a pile, finish my blog on my Japan trip, and do some spring cleaning around the apartment. Such a simple thing, but I don't see it happening this month. Ugh.

Well - enough of a break. Tonight, I need to finish off a homework assignment, start writing a 2 page paper with my group's input so far, and finish filling out a worksheet comparing institutional voids between Brazil, Japan, US, and EU (doesn't an MBA sound like fun??).