The reason I haven’t uploaded more honeymoon pictures or ones of the Sultana sail with Katie and Brian is because I’ve been studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam. I took the exam this morning, and passed it! OK, now to finish some work and then I’ll get to work on labeling and updating the honeymoon pictures.

I’ve been a hermit the last few weeks thanks to a huge work load plus needing to complete final papers and projects. The work load is still pretty high, as is the traveling, but I just turned in my final project, and I am done for the semester!

So, what have I been up to? Mostly traveling. I was in Richmond, VA and Glastonbury, CT last week, and I was in Stamford, CT last night, and Fishkill, NY tonight. I plan on being home tomorrow night, but I may be gone again on Wednesday night – depends on if our client gets their act together and agrees to pay us before then.

I flew into and out of Hartford airport last week, and our plane took off in about a foot of snow, and what I would call blizzard conditions. I know the pilot attempted a take off once, slid a bit, then tried again and we finally took off (3 hours after our original take off time). I’m just lucky I was able to get on the earlier flight out of Hartford – the flight I was supposed to be on later in the day was canceled. I took the train to Stamford, CT

Friday night was my company’s holiday party, which I think went well. Not as many people showed up as were expected, so we all got as many left overs as we could fit into the tupperware we were storing at work. My boss also got us all iPod Touches for Christmas. I just have to repeat that I have the most awesome boss in the world. Thanks Peter!

I’ve yet to jailbreak it, but I have loaded some of my iTunes TV shows on it, and I plan on watching a few on the train ride home tomorrow. I will probably jailbreak it tomorrow night.

Saturday night was Brian’s company’s holiday party, a formal affair. We decided to stay in the hotel it was hosted in because of the weather, and I’m glad we did. It ended up only raining, but we were able to dress in the hotel, and not have to walk outside in formal clothes (and women’s formal clothes are rather thin). I found a dress earlier in the month with Punitha, and I finished hemming it, and 3 other women were wearing the same dress – one I knew and was sitting at the same table as we were. It was comical

I made an attempt at getting my hair done, and I am not a happy camper now. See, I have super fine hair – won’t hold a curl if the curler was still in my hair. So, I went to the stylist and asked if they could do a permanent body wave with *very* large curls (and I held my fingers up for sizing – about 2-3″ between them). They said sure, so I said OK. Long story short, I don’t have 2-3″ curls, I have about 1″ curls and as soon as I brush them, my hair becomes frizzy. I ended up with my hair partially pulled back for the dance, and I’ve been shampooing and conditioning my hair more than daily to try to get rid of the curls (shampooing apparently relaxes the curls). I know there’s some kind of shampoo/conditioner/mousse/gel that keeps permed hair from getting frizzy, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it’s called. Until then, expect to see me with it pulled back as tight as I can in a pony tail – I don’t like it. Luckily, I tried this well in advance of the wedding, and I know from previous experience that a perm only lasts about a month or so in my hair.

Upcoming plans: Friday night, Brian and I have a dance lesson, Saturday morning, I am sleeping in or playing video games until Brian’s grandmother’s belated Hannukah party, then we’re driving to my mom’s for Christmas. Then we’ll be back late Christmas night in time to head to work on the 26th I want this year to be over already

This semester, I’m taking a quality management class – I’m sure that’s not what it’s called, but that’s what it is. I just got a grade back on a paper I turned in about three weeks ago. I got a 90 – why? Not because my content was bad, but because I didn’t have a table of contents. This is not the first time this has happened – the very first paper we turned in didn’t have one either (I’m sorry, 5 pages of content does not require a ToC in my worldview), but he gave me the points back because he hadn’t given us the grading criteria yet – go figure that one out. The previous paper specifically said “APA format”, which implies a ToC and abstract and all of that. The paper that’s due next week (we got an extension!) specifically asks for APA format. This paper I just got the grade on? No mention of APA format. The midterm – no mention of APA format, and no points taken off because I didn’t have a ToC. Elwing’s rational? It didn’t ask for one – the paper was 4 pages, it didn’t get one.

I wrote the professor a polite e-mail saying he didn’t ask for one and that if he expects one, he should reword the grading criteria to ask for one. But I will be very upset if the lack of a ToC causes me to get a B.

Rant over…

The Washington Post has a story on U-Va’s “One Year Wonder” – a student who got a bachelor’s degree in one year.

I know I started college with quite a few credits (37), and advanced in math and science courses, but he started with 72 credit hours! He also took 23 credit hours his first semester, 37 the second, and 3 in the summer.

I actually enjoyed college. I went from the fairly anti-social geek in high school to being among other intelligent people, and I gained a social life and some of the best friends of my life. I wouldn’t change my college years for anything. I certainly wouldn’t want to try to take that many classes in a year. 15 credits was plenty enough for me. It left me with lots of free time to work and explore.

My strategic management textbook had a good quote from General George Patton at the front of this week’s reading:

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.
- General George Patton