Happy Thanksgiving!

Got back into Bloomington yesterday afternoon after a couple crazy travel days trekking. It's great to be home!

Charlton's dad is here visiting us from Cleveland and to help us celebrate Thanksgiving here in the apartment. This is only the second Thanksgiving away from my family, so it should be interesting to be away from so many of the people I am thankful for. I plan on calling them all today or trying to skype so hopefully it won't be too bad.

We have had an amazing year, full of once in a lifetime experiences and have met some lifelong friends. We are truly blessed and I am thankful for all we have (including that turkey that is ready to go in the oven!)

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

New York, NY

I got into the city a little early, at 10:25, and hoped into a cab. It was awesome to see the city all lit up before me and reminded me a little of SATC with me dressed up in the back. I had no problems getting to the Roosevelt and took a quick shower and climbed straight into bed as we had another big day ahead.

First thing in the morning we headed down the block to find a little something for breakfast as we knew we would be getting treats at our first company visit. I settled on a yogurt parfait and a coffee and was ready to hit the town. Up first, Dylan's Candybar, where Kelley alum Maggy Siegel is the COO. She opened up the store for us and gave us a personal tour of the 3 floors of candy. It was a blast! We even got a sneak peek of the back room where all the inventory is kept and then we headed to the cafe for some treats (I got pumpkin ice cream) and some question and answer time with Maggy. It was a great experience and gave us a little different perspective of retail than Target and Wal-Mart who come to campus.

We had a little free time before our next visit and a few of my classmates and I went to Loehmann's nd then to Feline's. I ended up not getting anything but a proscuitto sandwisch from the Bed Bath and Beyond cafe.

Then it was time to head to Macys.com's offices. We were able to meet with HOUR and the merchandise, planning, creative and IT team. It was a really neat perspective on retail, and was great to see the differences between a brick and motar store and an e-tailer.

When we finished up there we were on our own, I headed back to the hotel with some of my classmates and changed into "something more comfortable" and then headed off to get some dinner. We walked to Serendipity, and were greeted with an hour long wait! We found a cute Italian place across the street and had an AMAZING dinner of pasta and salad. We hustled out of there to make our reservation at Serendipity, and proceeded to gorge ourselves on Frrrozen Hot Chocolate and a "Can't Say No" sundae. Everything was good but we needed at least 2-3 other people to help us eat everything. With full bellies, we headed back to the hotel making sure to look at all the holiday windows at Bloomingdale's before calling it a night

M-I-C-K-E-Y...

The flight to Orlando was great, got lots of reading done and picked up a Martha along the way. I got to ride the Magical Express to Coronado Springs to meet up with my Kelley girls for dinner. I was already smiling ear to ear and we weren't even in the park, I was already that excited!

We got up early on Monday for Magic hours and headed to Animal Kingdom before our meeting with Corporate. It was my first time in that park, and it was awesome, like a cross between our trip to Thailand mixed with the Wild Animal Park. We rode Everest (so much fun!), the Dinosaur ride, and the Kilamanjaro Safari. Then after a quick french toast breakfast we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our meeting.

Dressed in our business casual, we headed to the Maingate offices. There we met with the Parks merchandising team and were welcomed with our own pair of ears. We had a wonderful meeting and were able to learn a lot about the process from sample to production, I also got a few sneak peeks into the collection for next year.

Then it was time for me to head out, grabbed my bags and said goodbye to the girls and headed to the Orlando airport to make my way to New York.

My bags are packed and I am ready to go...

On the first of what seems like many treks. I left Bloomington at 1 and I will be headed to Orlando shortly. I have my first company visit outside of CMA week tomorrow and 2 more scheduled for Tuesday. Wish me luck!

Don’t know why I feel so on top of everything today? Is it because I spent 4 days on the couch reading, when I wasn’t coughing my brains out or watching Say Yes to the Dress?

Today I got a walk in with Addie in the morning, seemed more awake in class than usual, met with my peer coach, tweaked my resume, sent out loads of networking emails (to get GREAT responses!), got the NYC trek nailed down, started two quant problems for the assignment next week and then created charts for all my ops simulation data. In the words of NBA Jam, “She’s on fire!”

Tomorrow should be another jam packed day: with an informational interview, diversity conference prep, team meeting, and GA study session for quant. Here’s for keeping it up!

Did I really sign up for this? Hard to believe when I am studying for hours straight and then meeting with GCS to have a major overhaul of my resume that I voluntarily decided to do this. I know all the second years say that once you get through the Core it gets better, but it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now.

I found out today that I am behind in my off-campus search, I need to work on my interview presence, develop my CARs and start taping myself interviewing. Oh and become a student of retail; while I am trying to keep up with 7 classes, leadership and professional development and my academy prep. Not to mention trek planning, eating, sleeping and trying to spend time with the animals. Really feeling the squeeze.

One more full day of class before the Econ midterm. Have to try to crank out an Operations assignment in there too. Next week is hell week, I think we will put the Navy Seals to shame.

TGITh (Thank God It's Thursday!)

So week 2 is coming to a close, we have a powerpoint information session scheduled for all day tomorrow, but our real classes are done for the week.

We had a 2.5 hour management block first thing in the morning, where I got to be scribe (take notes of who is participating) While the scribe role alleviates some of the stress of participating, it is hard to keep track of everyone’s comments. It did help a little in learning people in my cohort’s names.

And with a 2 week build-up…we finally had marketing! I was really excited to have my first graduate level class of it especially since I am transitioning into the field. The class went really well, and although I know the information we covered was really basic today, I was on top of all the material.

Then after the quickest lunch ever, my team had our first Core recap session. We each were responsible for 2 classes and had to explain the material and go through any issues our teammates had. It was a great review, I learned more by having my teammate explain the journaling and t-accounts than trying to teach myself (again!) I led the finance section too, so helped reinforce my background.

With an hour or so before I had some presentations, I came home and let Addie out (where she attacked our neighbor’s dog!) and had a snack before heading back to campus. First up, was the Diversity Conference Information Session to help us prepare for all the MBA conferences coming up within the next few months. It was really informative and the second years offered up some great advice. Then it was off to the Kelley Marketing Club (KWC) where we got to meet the leadership team and find out about some of the events being held. I am looking forward to helping lead a trek out to Minneapolis to visit Target and General Mills. So we’ll see.

There is no homework due for tomorrow, I think we are going to just take it easy and maybe knock out an episode or two of Mad Men (can I call that research!?) Then maybe I will try to go to bed early, or at least before 1. TGITh!