Back to School

Last week, I got the amazing Paper Source catalog in the mail.

Hello, Gorgeous!

 I am just a tiny bit sad not to be going back to school this fall, but this mostly stems from my unnatural love of school supplies. Don't feel badly for me; I just got these pens, in a multitude of colors, I might add.

Anyway, this "back to school" edition of the catalog seriously stoked my nostalgia.

May I share my picks with you? Thanks.

#1

#2

#3

  

#4

#5

Tell me I'm not alone here:

what office supply excites you?

Finals Week

I am currently in my last finals week EVER. I have a take-home final for Public Economics that is due on Thursday afternoon, a Management final on Thursday evening, and an online final for Parenting due Friday afternoon. In between that, I have another job interview tomorrow morning! Don't feel too sorry for my busy self, though, as I've also been filling my little Lilly Pulitzer planner up with lots of fun "school's out" activities like...

*a Scrubs marathon with my brother & friends

*baking sugar cookies at my mom's house

*a much-anticipated graduation party with friends & family

*possibly adding to my shifts at the cat shelter

*an awesome photo session with Busy Bee Lauren

& on that note, I shall leave you with a very serious photograph:

Nigel Studying for Finals

Portrait

My mother wants me to have a picture taken to send out with my graduation announcements. Silly mother, I already have one.

Have a grand weekend! 

xo.

The Defense

I woke up fully alert at 5:30AM, a full four hours earlier than I usually rise. All that was running through my head was "thesisthesisthesisthesis...social norms...market norms...thesis". At 6, I got up and showered then read the notecards I'd written out last night. About ten times. I zipped up the skirt of my suit, put on my modest silver hoops and was out the door. I entered the conference room an hour and fifteen minutes before my defense was scheduled to begin. I read through my notecards a few more times...I got this. Then I realized...I didn't bring my computer. Many frantic calls were made to Noah, who agreed to bring my laptop on his way to class. Crisis averted. Thirty minutes 'til showtime when I realize that the projector is not able to hook up to Apple computers. As the IT crew works on fixing the problem, I head downstairs to meet my third reader at the parking structure. It's 9:55AM, but I figure we'll be back in the room in no time. Of course, the parking structure is full. I wait outside until 10:06 while my reader parks elsewhere, until finally I head upstairs. I make small talk with my other committee members, but I am shaken. The settings look weird on the projector, and I decide to scrap my PowerPoint presentation. I have old school notes written behind me on the whiteboard. It's fifteen minutes past ten when my reader enters, and we can begin. I start speaking but am horrified by the shake in my voice and my over-reliance on the notecards. My presentation is over before I know it and it's question time. The first question leaves me stuttering before finally admitting defeat with an "...I'm sorry." I stumble my way through the next ten or so questions before being asked to wait in the hall while the committee decides my fate. 

I am doomed. 

Two minutes later my director opens the door and with a hug says "Congratulations!" 

It was approved. 

No changes needed. 

You guys, I am floating on air.

You've Got a Prayer

weheartit

Tomorrow is the day of my thesis defense. 

It is also St. Jude's Day- the saint of Lost Causes. 

This is so not a coincidence.

Only the power of prayer can save me now.

{Oh, Lordy.}

Crunch Time

Graduation is two months away and, as I look at my to-do list, I just can't believe that it must all be accomplished within sixty days. My thesis defense is two weeks from today- I couldn't be less prepared. I have group projects galore, not to mention exams, problem sets, and papers. I applied for three post-graduation jobs last night online, simply to procrastinate studying for today's exam. It's weirdly challenging to be so close to the finish line but lack the energy to run the last lap. In two months I will not have to look at a textbook again. But today, the books are waiting...

Career Day

 
I just got home from the career fair where I met four prospective employers. I am totally on cloud nine right now, because I think it went really well. I wore my new suit and my hair was doing good things and speaking with the recruiters wasn't as intimidating as I thought it would be. I'm actually looking forward to applying and interviewing for these positions.

In all the excitement, I need to try to remember that I am still a bit away from all of this. I still need to finish my thesis (13 pages to go!) and finish out the semester's classes. It's nice to know that I'm working toward something, though.

Any fabulous weekend plans? None here; just taking care of business. Does anyone live anywhere where it's cool enough to do fall-y activities? I'd love to hear!

Working for the Weekend

This weekend is all about writing my thesis and that makes me a sad panda. Please have a fabulous weekend for me! Report back Monday.

Studiously yours,

A

The Last First Day

Today is my last first day of school. In December, I will again be a graduate. I don't remember a lot about my first first day of school, but I do have a few memories. My best friend from pre-school, who would go on to be my best friend through grammar school, middle school, high school, and college (and marriage and babies and...), was in my class, and this excited me beyond measure. My first teacher's name was Mrs. Woods, and she was very pretty and so, so nice. I remember how thrilled I was to finally be starting school. I was a lover of learning from a very young age, learning to read at three years old (my mom was proactive like that). On my first first day of school, I was just excited to have my very own backpack and (as Abby says, STOP.THE.WORLD.) a huge classroom full of new friends.

Today is my last first day of school, and I gotta be honest...the excitement is still there. No, not the excitement of getting to show off my name-writing skills or brand-new crayons, but the excitement that comes with finishing something that I've worked harder on than anything in the world. The next four months are going to be more trying than any before them, balancing working full-time with being a full-time student and writing my thesis while job hunting. Good thing I just bought that sequined binder from Target, right?

...& the Living's Easy

As of last night at 7:45PM, I am done with school until August (well, that's not entirely true; I have to write my thesis this summer, but allow me my denial for a few more days). I got home from my last final around 8PM, cracked out on adrenaline and wanting to celebrate. The thing is, though, I have to wake up at 5 o'clock for work, so partying it up with any homies wasn't really an option. I thought I'd have a couple drinks congratulating myself on taking FIVE FINALS in SIX DAYS, but then decided drinking alone on a Tuesday was sort of one step away from a twelve-step program and nixed that idea. So, I made brownies. But my brownie pan was already full of these disgustingly hard brownies that I had made last week that sort of didn't turn out. Long story short, after digging soggy brownie chunks out of the sink and chucking them into the trash can, I spent my last-day-of-second-to-last-semester-of-university eating two brownies in front of two episodes of Friends with my cats. College kids always throw the best parties.

Finals

I like to think of myself as a fairly level-headed person. I'm not overly emotional and I mostly keep my cool. The past week or so, though, I have been a basket case. You see, I have five finals coming up- starting on Thursday and carrying through to the next Wednesday- one for every week day. This has turned me into a coffee-guzzling, 3AM panicking, binge-eating mess. Since I'm graduating in December, this semester has been absolutely packed with upper-division honors, pull-my-hair-out classes. I'm trying to remind myself that I'll be free after the 12th, conjuring images of reading novel and novel and, of course, my trip to Europe in July. These thoughts make it worse though, kicking my guilt complex into overdrive. How can you fantasize about French boutiques and boulangeries when you should be thinking of Black-Scholes and buy-back contracts?! Anyway, let's pretend I live in an alternate universe, where instead of staring at text books and PowerPoint slides, I can gaze instead at these treats:

How absolutely Joan Holloway is this number? via Etsy

via Anthropologie

via West Elm

Wish me luck.

-a