I'm really happy for this article, but it's a shame it's only in Esquire. I mean, how many people really read that?

Why I'm Happy the Stock Market Crashed

If I were more eloquent, or intelligent, this is what I would say to people. My parents know better than to bring up the current state of economy or politics because I really get fuming.

And then I read articles like this in the news. Now, I know times are rough, and people have lost their jobs. I've lived paycheck-to-teeny-paycheck before ($40 for insurance a paycheck??), and I even got offered food stamps the first time I filled out my tax forms with my fancy new post-college job (that's a little demoralizing).

Here's the thing: I didn't take them. You know what? These people don't need food stamps, or public aid. If you've worked and accumulated unemployment, by all means, use it! But don't cry over struggling to pay your bills when they include cable TV, cell phones for your kids, or your leased SUV. Grow up and learn to budget! Ugh!

The only way the economy has affected me are the number of available houses to buy. I'm picky, and I want to live in a certain neighborhood (although no one is going to want to live here, including me, if you've seen this). Just after the market tanked in October, almost every house went off the market. Now, a week after the election, there are a few coming back on. Believe it or not, we could have always gotten a mortgage during that time, and I can still get a 0% auto loan.

This should be a sign to you: lifestyles of convenience and easy credit are over. And that's OK. In fact, it's better for us all.

I have to admit I was a little bummed to register for plain white dishes. The popular red flower pattern was really calling to me and I love pretty dishes (hm, wonder where I got that gene?). And then in comes Pier 1 with these:
Love! That got me thinking - I like seasonal dishes too. But who can justify (or store!) snowman plates? So why not have the basic set, and pull out some fun holiday or seasonal dishes when the time comes?
I haven't been to Pier 1 in ages, despite having a store right across the street. Their current Christmas decorations are making me want to go in if for nothing else but to look at all the pretty ornaments.

Bidding for spring semester classes starts today. And I don't have to.

Instead of just registering based on seniority (and speediness!) the business school uses a bidding system. You have something like 300 points to allocate among the two classes you want to take, and you can bid as many as 300 or as little as 0. If you want to take more than two classes, you have to sign up once open registration begins at the end of the year.

It seems to confuse people to no end. Of course, get a bunch of business school students together, and they're going to come up with all kinds of strategies to get the classes they want. Popular ...ahemeasycough... classes get a lot of points, but fear makes people bid just 5-10 points on that other class they really need to take. I never had a problem because I took dorky classes - and you know what? They were a lot less work and easier than my finance classes!

Don't ask me how this is more efficient or fair than just having a free-for-all based on hours earned. I'm done.

This is our front closet door. Andy made this countdown and 9 is the number of class periods I have left in my program.

There are 6 weeks left.

38 days.

New meem for you:

Remember how excited I was about the 100 push up challenge? Yeeeeah. I sort of fell off the training program. It turns out one probably can't actually go from 0 to 100 push ups in six weeks. Bummer.

At the same time, school has been really busy, and the sun sets really early now, so I can't really go out and run. That, and about a week or two after I ran the half marathon (with no problems at all!) I hurt my knee and couldn't run more than a mile or two without it hurting. Sigh.

That being said, my knee is better, and it's not like I stopped with the push ups altogether. As I was resting between sets, I thought, "maybe I should be doing some sit ups while I'm at it? I don't want to wear a corset under my dress... " To be fair, the reason I started to do the push up program was because I thought it would be cool to do 100 push ups; shortly after I learned about this horrible problem that I didn't even know I should be worried about. (FYI - it's nearly gone. I didn't notice it there, and I only recently noticed its disappearance.)

So Friday consisted of:

• Treadmill: 15 minutes at 6 miles per hour
• Stairmaster: 8 minutes (I was tired - and on a really high level)
• Push ups: sets of 10/10/8/8/20 (yes, 20 in a row)
• Teaser: sets of 10 in between push up sets
• Expert boxing on Wii
  

This year I went to the Women's Conference. Each year I forget about it, kind of hear that it was really great after the fact, and think about getting around to going one day. But this year I was sent, and I went despite having a midterm the next day.

I wasn't sure what to expect. A bunch of women in a conference? 14,000 to be exact? That's a lot of estrogen. Between that and the election, I expected a lot of protesting, political pushing, and man-hating.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I met a friend of mine and we carpooled to the convention center at 6:30 in the morning. But traffic really wasn't bad going in or out. You first go in and they give you a giant bag full of stuff - to be filled with more free stuff as you go through the exhibit hall. And the exhibitors literally force free stuff on you! A lot of it is sample-sized, but there were an awful lot of full-sized products given out (Dancing with the Stars for Wii, reuseable grocery bags, light bulbs) and coupons (some of which I used, and some samples I plan on buying).

The first session was everyone, all in one arena, for the first speakers. The most memorable was Arnold Schwarzenegger, Warren Buffett, and Chris Matthews - they didn't really talk about the economy, but all three talked about how important women are (especially in their homes!) and all three were quite funny. Christine Amanpour spoke, but she was just a little too political-soapbox-y - we went back to the exhibit hall.

One bummer of the day were the breakout sessions. They tended to fill up quickly, so you almost had to leave the general sessions early to get in to the popular ones. I wanted to see Madeline Albright, but that was full almost instantly. Instead I went to the session on entrepreneurship. I'll just say this: Heidi Klum really is perfect in real life. Even her wrinkles are perfect. She is also very upbeat.

Over lunch Maria Shriver spoke, and she really is an amazing speaker. She was so personable, and it was so easy to relate to her, that regardless of politics I have to say I like her a lot. There was not a dry eye in the arena and I was really in to it until she read a poem that she and her mother wrote while her mother was in the hospital. Um, what?? Condoleeza Rice, Indra Nooyi, and Campbell Brown also had a little discussion that was entertaining but Indra Nooyi really stole the show. And then I saw Campbell Brown on the TVs at school that play CNN constantly! Of course the best part: thinking about the logistics of 14,000 boxed lunches that were very, very good. Mmm... logistics.

In the afternoon, most of the sessions were full. But I wanted to see Michael J. Fox anyway, and he was great. Very funny, and very sweet - of course it was probably more interesting to me for a variety of personal reasons.

Afterward, though, was kind of a snafu. The conference hours were extended this year, and while they served a boxed lunch there was nothing to do about dinner! Sure, you could have left, or gone to one of the concession stands that were open throughout the convention center, but somehow this didn't seem quite right. Anyway, it didn't really matter. Safeway and Pepsi had exhibitor booths right across from each other, and had plenty of snacks!

The evening session was very exciting. I'm still not sure what a Minerva is, but the awards winners were great. My favorite, and probably the most popular, was Betty Chinn - you should read her story. I wasn't really looking forward to Bono speaking because I don't really agree with his politics either - but he was so charming! I learned a lot about his organizations. The night ended with a concert by Bonnie Raitt, but by 7 pm who had the energy left to dance?

Next year I think I am going to try and volunteer, since I won't be in school and likely bored out of my mind by then. Even if your workplace doesn't send you, and even though it's hard to get tickets, and it's a little bit pricey if you're on a budget, you should try to go at least once.

The Women's Conference