day in the life of an MBA at Ross

I've been at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan for a full semester now. I've completed 1/4 of an MBA degree.

and what a trip/adventure/wacky ride it has been!

it's like they set it up so that there is no way you can do everything you want. class, studying, recruiting, networking, hanging out with friends, spending time with hubby . . . no way to do it all. spending time with hubby however, comes a little easier than hanging out with friends. we're BOTH at Ross together.

and yes, we pay a boatload every semester for tuition. but we just keep saying to ourselves, it's an investment, it's an investment, it's an investment.

so what's a typical day like for me? what's my schedule like that prevents me from blogging (b/c i barely have time to cook!)?

6:15 am Wake up, get ready for the day

7:15 Leave house to catch shuttle

7:30 Shuttle to Ross, read NYTimes on my phone

8:00 MO 503 - Leading People & Organizations

10:20 FIN503 - Financial Management

12:40pm Grab a really quick lunch

1:00 Cover letter review, Resume review or Mock Interview

2:00 Finance group meeting

4:00 Marketing reading

5:00 Head home

6:00 Dinner, then head back to Ross

7:00 MO group meeting

9:00 Head home again, do some chores to clean up apartment

10:00 Continue Marketing HW

11:00 Sleep and start over again the next day

this would be a not-so-bad day. probably even some minutes to chat with friends or call my parents here and there.

when hubby and i were visiting campuses during application season, we received a brochure from another school that had a student's "typical day" outline. we thought they must have been exaggerating. i mean, nobody can be this busy ALL the time. we were very wrong. we really are this busy ALL the time. i'm tired just thinking about it

but it's currently winter break. no academic assignments. just the other responsibilities that we signed up for. i will be spending the next two weeks on vacation and working on:

- grant process for Orchards Children's Services, i'm their Board Fellow

- market information for next round of Michigan Business Challenge for WestView Education Institute, a new company I am working on with a kick-ass team

- cover letters so that i can land a summer internship that i will love and that will love me

- holiday cookies b/c we didn't get gifts for anyone other than immediate family this year (that double-tuition payment!)

so, with a little luck and slightly more sleep than i've been getting this past semester, i'll hopefully get everything done and even check back to blog about it. hmm . . .

crunchy granola

Really good granola costs anywhere from 4-7 dollars for a few servings at the store. But most of us actually have the ingredients for granola just sitting in the pantry. No extra cost. And, it’s actually a really simple process to make granola.

Preheat oven to 350

2 cups oatmeal (any kind of oatmeal will do, just not the instant kind)

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

Mix it all together. Spread onto a baking sheet and bake for 10 min.

Then sprinkle on about 1/3 cup almonds. Bake for another 5-7 min.

Take out of oven, let it cool down for about 30 min and then break it up.

I like to mix in 1/2 cup of dried cranberries. Or mix in whatever you want. Enjoy!

i realize it's getting cold

but the back-to-school thing has me craving classic things like pb&j, except i have it in the form of ice cream.

right, peanut butter and jelly ice cream.

you can eat it for lunch.

it contains healthy fats. and NO cream. just milk. and peanut butter. and strawberry (or any flavor you'd like) jelly.

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups whole milk

1/3 cup sugar (i like less sweet, so use 1/2 if you like things sweet)

1/2 cup grape jelly or strawberry jam or raspberry preserves, whatever you'd like

that's the whole ingredient list.

blend the pb with the milk in a blender. add the sugar. blend again. stick in fridge to cool.

freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. it takes mine about 20 minutes.

layer peanut butter ice cream with the jelly. freeze for a few hours to get the "swirl" effect when you scoop.

no need to cut crusts, so much better than a sandwich.

once upon a time, i used to bake

and waayyyy back then (all the way back to august, oh my!), i made a coconut cake with my sister. it was for my dad's birthday. we tried to make it really pretty. tried to see if we could trick my dad into thinking we bought it. i think it might have worked.

new title for "case of the mondays"

so here's the thing, i'm no longer working and am no longer susceptible to a "case of the mondays." i LIKE mondays. it's the beginning of a whole new week with endless possibilities (and endless recruiting events, endless group meetings, endless coursework . . .)!

but i'm loving it.

it's great to be a michigan wolverine (again)

being a ross mba is an adventure and i'm glad hubby and i are traveling down this road together.

we actually drove across country this summer. the cadotte's very own m-trek.

so in case you're having a case of the monday's, take a cross-country trip and visit our beautiful national parks, even if it's just visually.

driving "across" the country from west to east: Yosemite National Park

Arches National Park

Canyonlands National Park

Pike's Peak (Colorad0)

Badlands National Park

Hope you enjoyed the short tour of our beautiful nation!

another late case of the mondays

beautiful utah

a couple weeks ago, hubby and i went to st. george, utah for his sixth ironman.

that's right, his sixth!

in case you are unfamiliar, an ironman consists of:

2.4 mile swim

112 mile bike

26.2 run

swim, bike, run for a long, long time.

hubby can be a little intense.

(that jacket, btw, is from a 50 mile ultramarathon that hubby completed)

in the past for races, we've gone to florida, idaho, arizona, etc.

but utah is by far, the most gorgeous place out of all his race sites.

here's some proof . . .

view of the the lake where the swim portion of the race was held

the area behind our hotel, with a trail in a lava field

view of a canyon nearby

wildflowers growing in the lava field

beautiful utah

(late) case of the mondays

destination: london

recently got adobe lightroom

played around with presets

here is my favorite so far

coming up next: flatbread and hummus

case of the mondays - santa fe

going crazy here folks.

my top choice for an MBA is sending out decisions on this Friday. however, if you're accepted, they start making phone calls a few days prior. so i wasn't going to start to worry until wednesday afternoon. then, some jackass on the online forums actually pretended that he/she got a phone call today and threw everyone into an anxious panic, including myself. until i read a few posts down that they were just kidding and that we should all relax. my response to him? go to hell. i was relaxed until you posted, shithead.

so for today's case of the mondays, i'm imagining going to a calm, peaceful place while i push away the demons in my mind.

i've posted on Santa Fe before - http://doughmesticity.blogspot.com/2009/02/our-santa-fe-trip.html, but i'm really just taking you to one place on our trip

let's all go to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument.

here's a view from hiking among the rocks

in particular, i'd like to escape to this narrow passageway. the rock walls were tight and high. i remember feeling like this was my own space. my own world of hard earth.

if felt like there was nowhere to go, but up towards the sky.