All About Me

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes. My dad named me after his favorite character on a soap opera. Yep, you read that right. My dad used to watch soap operas. He is very manly, but loves crap like that. And Lifetime movies. If I had a nickel for everytime my mom walked into the room, exclaiming, "Paul, are you watching another Lifetime movie?" I'd have at least a dollar. I guess he likes the smut!

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? During Grey's Anatomy on Thursday.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? I hate it. My mom claims I never learned to hold a pencil right. Maybe that is why I have the handwriting of a doctor?

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Turkey

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Not yet, someday hopefully.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I would hope so! Who would say no to this??

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? Who me? Never.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Nope. Got them taken out when I was a Freshman in college.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Yep - did it in New Zealand. I'm a chicken and am afraid of heights, so I have a VHS tape of it to prove it. I would do it again - it was AWESOME!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Used to be Cracklin' Oat Bran. Now that I am Gluten Free, it's Corn Chex.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Rarely

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Vanilla. I'm a purist.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Whether or not they are smiling.

15. RED OR PINK? pink

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? My complexion. I want my older sister's milky, blemish free complexion.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My Grandpa

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? Yep, leave a comment if you do this so I can read it!

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? I'm wearing pink scrubs and no shoes.

* what happened to #20?

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? James Blunt

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Probably pink since that's my fave color.

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Coffee brewing

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My mom.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Yep.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I don't really like sports... but I love the Summer Olympics

27. HAIR COLOR? brown

28. EYE COLOR? Dark brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yep, I am blind as a bat.

30. FAVORITE FOOD? Sushi

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy Endings

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Before Sunrise

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? White and blue striped. I used to wear it to work at my previous job... until one of the guys I managed said I looked like Beetle Juice. Now it's part of my pajama t-shirt collection...

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?summer

35. HUGS OR KISSES?hugs

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? This chocolate pie that my mom makes. It's the only choc pie I like, though.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?? Maybe Abby??

38. LAPTOP OR DESKTOP? Laptop!!

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? A Homemade Life

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? No Mouse Pad, I have a laptop.

41. WHAT DID YOU LAST WATCH ON TV NIGHT? Millionaire Matchmaker. I'm sort of addicted to that show...

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Australia

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?I can tie the stem of a cherry w/ my tongue.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Breckenridge, MN

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? anyone who will actually do this!!

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!!

With paper-writing that is. I still have 5 weeks of classes, one midterm (which should technically be called a 3/4-term since it falls on week 10 of 14, but whatevs), and a bunch of Derivatives homework.

But the paper re-writes, which have been weighing on me, are done. I cranked out both papers today, so it's been a long day. But it's finished. I will NEVER write an academic paper again. Ever. Alleluia. I'm kicking myself for not picking up a bottle of $3 buck chuck when I was at Trader Joe's today, so I could pour myself a glass of wine and toast to being done with these damn papers. But the toasting will have to wait. Plus, it's not good to drink alone, right?

My mood has improved about 1,000-fold. Seriously. The finish line is in sight. Grad school is nearly a thing of the past. Amen. Now I can start focusing on figuring out a restaurant to go to for my Graduation Luncheon. I'll walk through on May 18th, which is 7 weeks from Monday. How lame is it that my graduation is on a Monday morning? Luckily my parents are going to come and my awesome aunt & uncle, Barb and Paul, might come too, so I'll have some fans in the audience.

Finishing this degree has been WAY more challenging than my undergrad degree. I will say that my Math Degree was more academically challenging than my MBA, but working full time and doing school part-time has made this degree tougher & more rewarding than my undergrad degree. So to reward myself, I am throwing a big party at my parents' cabin. My brother is going to bbq something amazing (he's uber talented in that department), and I am going to serve a fun drink - maybe a margarita or mojito?

Oy, I can't wait. I just hope it has warmed up by then! If I had been in a coma and woke up this week - I would have told you it's November, not March... here's hoping spring is on the horizon!

Enough with the whining...

Wow, my last post was uber whiny. I guess I was having one of 'those days'. I have this complex which I like to title the "Chicken Little Complex." I am going to assume that no matter where you lived or grew up, you read this book. In case you didn't, it's basically about a chicken that gets hit on the head by an acorn that falls out of a tree. The Chicken freaks out, gets all aflutter, and assumes, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"

I think I have always sort of been like this. I remember many conversations that I had with my mom during my childhood where she'd remark, "Lisa, you are making a mountain out of a mole hill."

But I am feeling much better than I did days ago. My professor returned my email and we are meeting today at 4:30. So soon enough, that class will be history. Graduation is a mere 8 weeks away, so the finish line is in sight. I can do this.

I was thinking about the stress I was feeling yesterday and realized how trivial it is in the grand scheme of things. I have a job, a house, a car, health insurance, and money in savings. I'm sure we've all received that forward about how a shocking % of the world's population doesn't have food to eat or a warm place to sleep, etc, etc, so I am really doing pretty darn well.

And the vacation to NYC will come together, just like all of the other vacations I've taken have come together.

I just need to calm the heck down and realize that life can't always be perfectly planned and doesn't always fit in the confines of a excel spreadsheet. What can I say - I am a work in progress...

This is so my theme song right now...

Earlier this month, Jess, a blogging friend (yes, I have blogging friends - don't judge!), talked about how she sometimes thinks - if life was a movie, what song would be playing at this moment?

Being a music-lover, I sort of do the same thing.

And right now, if my life was a movie, the theme song that would be playing would be "Under Pressure" by Queen. (Btw - everytime I hear the opening sequence of the song, I immediately think of the song "Ice, Ice Baby")

Last week was spring break and I was feeling oh so carefree and stressless. Classes resumed last night, and the stress bug, or whatever you want to call it, has returned. And when I start stressing about one thing, it sort of snowballs and before you know it, I'm tossing and turning at night, worrying about the most ridiculous things.

Like last night, it dawned on me that my NYC trip is less than a month away and I have no idea what I am going to do when I am out there... I have 5 people to visit and haven't even started coordinating everyone's schedules so I can figure out who I should visit on which days while I am out there.

Then I thought - this is ridiculous. I am stressing myself out about a freaking vacation.

I know that once my strategy professor returns my phone call/email to set up a meeting to discuss my paper re-writes, I will be feeling much better. But the stress of that whole re-write situation is spreading to other areas of my life, making me feel very tightly wound and on edge about darn near everything.

And it's making me wish I could hop in a time machine, and re-do this semester. If I could do it over again, I would NEVER have taken that class & instead would have signed up for a finance one instead. So I am sort of kicking myself for registering for a class that is making my last semester of grad school pretty darn hellish.

If only said time machine existed.

Until then, I am sucking it up & waiting until the soundtrack of my life switches from something like "Under Pressure" to "A Good Day" by Priscilla Ahn... (a very good, mellow artist that is worth checking out, btw)

The Sharper Your Knife

I just finished reading, "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry," by Kathleen Flinn. In this book, the author chronicles her time at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, France. It reads part memoir, part cookbook. Each chapter concludes with a recipe - either a recipe learned at Le Cordon Bleu or a recipe crafted by Flinn or one of her culinary friends. This book was a great read - I'd recommend it to any foodies out there! Especially if you are curious about what it is like to attend Le Cordon Bleu! It sounds like quite an intense, intimidating experience - it's definitely an impressive accomplishment to add to a resume!!

I guess you could say that I am a culinary-wanna-be. I've really only started to branch out & try to make things besides spaghetti during the past year. I am easily intimidated in the kitchen and always doubt my ability to successfully execute a recipe. I come from a family of amazing cooks, but I somehow missed out on the culinary gene! I don't want to be the kid that always shows up at the family gathering with a box of crackers or a bag of chips, so this is a skill that I am working on developing!! The recipes in this book are downright intimidating... but when things slow down a bit, I might enlist my aunt Barb's help, and see if she'll do a culinary boot-camp session with me. The woman can cook anything, so I am sure she won't be intimidated by the recipes!!

The book had a wonderful message to it - throughout the book, the Chefs at Le Cordon Bleu instructed the chefs-in-training to "taste, taste, taste" - they cautioned against plating a dish without tasting it throughout the cooking process. By tasting, the chef will be able to make adjustments to the dish that will enhance the taste of the finished product... and possibly prevent a train-wreck from occurring. It is difficult to fix a dish once it is plated and presented to the Chef for judging. This "taste, taste, taste" concept should apply to all aspects of a person's life. As Flinn says, "you can't wait until the dish of life is done."

On an off-topic note, I'm still feeling so drawn to France... I really think that sometimes, God puts these passions inside of a person for a reason. So I am going to follow this passion. I finish grad school this spring, and plan on taking a break from classes. But after a summer and possibly a fall off, I have decided to take French Language classes. There is a branch of a great international organization, Alliance Francaise, here in Minneapolis. They offer a language lessons, cultural events, lectures, etc, so I think this will be a great place for me to develop my language skills. After all, if I am going to return to France eventually, even if just for a vacation, it will help to have a better grasp of the language! I'm sure my mom is sort of chuckling as she reads this... I always proclaim that I am D-O-N-E with school and never intend to return... but here I am, 7 weeks from graduation, and already planning to take more classes in the future. What can I say? I love learning - especially when it's something I am really interested in. I mean, learning about financial derivatives is great and all, but it's not nearly as interesting as learning how to speak another language.

I wish I had a green thumb....

A month ago today, my Grandpa passed away. It's kind of hard to believe it's already been a month. The last month has been so busy between work and school - it's probably good that I have kept so busy.

My grandpa got so many plants & floral arrangements at the wedding, each of us grandkids got to take a plant home. Um, I am terrible at keeping things alive. Seriously. I got one of those bamboo plants when I was in college as a gift. And it died. I don't know if I under-watered it or over-watered it? No clue. It turned brown & died.

So when my aunt encouraged me to pick out a plant, I tried to explain that giving me a plant was not a good idea. She persisted and said that I could keep it alive. Oh, she's a florist, by the way. So basically a plant goddess... I should take a class on the proper care and feeding of a plant someday or something.

So it's been a month, and I was pretty proud of myself since it was still alive. Then I came home from work yesterday, and the plant looked like this...

If you can't tell, it's extremely droopy. It's basically the plant equivalent of the sad Christmas tree on the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

It's perking up now that I watered it again... but now I am worried I am going to over water it... Word has it, I can get some sort of contraption that you fill with water & stick in the dirt, and it will release water when the plant needs it?

I clearly need to look into this... I will feel incredibly guilty if I kill this plant... I am considering sending it home with my Mom at Easter - she's great with plants, so I know she will keep it alive...

Dating & tips...

So I got into a bit of a discussion argument with a co-worker yesterday about tipping.

Why would we argue about such a thing? Well, I recently went on a date, and the guy really under-tipped.

It's customary to give 15% to a server, and more if their service warrants a better tip. On this particular date, my date left a tip of approximately 12%. Yes, I realize that is close to 15%, but it's still under-tipping. Plus, we had great service & had sat in the waiter's section for about 2.5 hours. That's a long time. Servers are all about turnover - the more times your table turns over, the more money you will make.

I feel strongly about this since I worked as a waitress all through college. I realize in other countries, tipping is not customary since the servers make a higher wage. But in the US, if you don't properly tip, you are a complete arse in my book. And if you don't 'believe' in properly tipping, you should stick to establishments like McDonalds or Hardees.

Am I being a snob here? I mean, said date was in his 30's - there's no reason why he shouldn't understand dining etiquette. His poor tipping leads me to believe one of the following is true: 1) he is extremely cheap, 2) he has poor manners, or 3) he is not very refined.

And no, this wasn't the 'deal breaker' that made me decide not to go on another date with him. It was just one of multiple 'red flags'. Like how he swore a few times during the meal. Or when I said I was trying to come up with a restaurant for my graduation luncheon, he suggested Famous Daves. Seriously????????? Gee, that would sure be a 'special' graduation lunch. Nothing like rewarding 3 years of hard work with a plate of ribs and some fries.

I had already agreed to see this guy before I put the moratorium on internet dating. Big mistake.