MBA Experience

Dear MargaritaLuvr,

Kroll Background Screening Group has successfully completed your Columbia Business School application verification. The entire Columbia Business School community looks forward to welcoming you during Orientation in August.

Thank you for your cooperation.
Linda B. Meehan
Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid
Columbia Business School

Google.

I love Google. Google is not The Man. For example, Google offers excellent products, which are also F-R-E-E. The Man does not believe in free, trust me. Google's products are not just free, they also rock! And if they Google isn't so sure a product rocks, they call it a 'beta' version. Personally, I think every version of Windows should be called a beta version, but that's another story.



These are my favorite Google products:

1. Google Search - doesn't everyone use this, really?
2. GMAIL - if you don't have GMAIL, get it. 2G+ of email space on the web? damn ...and if you need an account, just let me know...
   
3. Google Maps - I could never use another map program now. The only improvement I would make if I was Google would be to add a map scale to show what the distances are
   
4. Google Desktop - this is my latest finding. It totally rocks. Basically, a program goes and indexes all your files and email, and then you can do quick google searches of your PC. I dunno about you guys, but I don't keep my files as organized as I should and have crap all over. Plus, it searches email! I tested this on my work laptop, and I had 15K files and almost 6K emails (even after I deleted TONS earlier this week).

I'm drooling, I think.

I saw THIS and was immediately IN LOVE:

I'm turning in to some sort of gadget junkie. Somone please stop me! It's really getting out of control at this point.

Today at work, I tried to copy some files from my work laptop so that I could move them to my laptop at home tonight, and all I had was a 64MB flash drive (which was thrown in --for free-- with my new computer); however, I have 1640 MB of data to move. A 64MB flash drive is not going cut it.... hence the impulse buy of the new 512 MB drive. I think the other might be a more useful bottle opener.

Anyway, isn't it beautiful?

When my friend called me to help her jump start her car because the battery died, I knew she was desperate. I can basically pump gas, and that's it; however, I am the proud owner of new, shiny jumper cables (which I think I've used just once before) and she didn't have any at all. I was even looking forward to learning something new about cars since I'd never jump started one before...

My friend took one end of the cables, I took the other end. We opened the hoods of our cars and I hooked up my end of the connection to my car's battery... she had the other end of the cables, and, not knowing any better, let the metal ends touch each other. This was a very... bad... idea.

It only took a moment for me to gather that sparks are not supposed to spew from the metal prongs like an Independence Day fireworks show. I could also tell she didn't really comprehend what was going on and, for some reason, wasn't pulling the metal ends apart either... I thought to myself, "Yes, THIS is bad, Margaritaluvr. This isn't how it works." We had our very own light show going on in the parking garage! Ever seen two chicks screaming and hopping around a parking structure in the middle of the day? It's not pretty. She finally realized what was going on and separated the ends. Who knew a dead battery could be so exciting?

Anyway, just one more example of why I am eagerly anticipating selling my car.

** I was educated that I shouldn't have put both clips on my battery. One of the clips should be attached to some metal on my car to ground the cables, or something like that. Yup, I am pretty worthless when it comes to cars**

I figure there are a few things I should keep from work, and much that I should throw away. Out of my 2 gigs worth of email (over the past 5 years) from my work address, I found some funny items.

I was surprised to find a picture that my mom scanned and sent of my brother and I from the early, early 1980's. I can only say that we started drinking at a tender age because, even at 3 & 4 years old, dressing up in the same outfits was not cool. Yes, we were smart enough to know this. We may look happy, but only because these are our first sips of alcohol, NOT because we are hip or stylish.

Young Lushes 

I thought the random fees and expenses would stop after I was accepted into a school. I was so wrong.

I fessed up $83 for my background check. Now, I see that I have this "Essentials of Accounting" homework to do before school starts which requires that I buy a book for $54 (plus tax and shipping, I'm sure). I also get to pay $35 for business cards (again, plus shipping, I'm sure). So, what am I giving this school $38,000 for? I thought these things would be rolled up in that enormous price tag.

I'm debating on whether I should go get my face book photo professionally done, or just send in a picture from my digital camera. I think I will opt for some professional photos straight from Sears, which I will include in my tally. I'm going all out on this MBA, woo hoo!

...and still no word about housing. hmmmmm, I see some couch surfing in my future. Anyway, I'm starting to think that only one person works in Admissions for the Business School. It seems like everything is excruciatingly drug out as much as it can be. Don't worry. I said as much in my student survey that I submitted earlier. Hopefully, future admits won't have to suffer the ineffiencies that the class of '07 has.

Who has time for blogging (outside of *work* anyway) when you have a new laptop to play with?!?!?! I am in love. I love, love, love this new laptop. Let me tell you about her (yes, her):

I named her "Gwen" after Gwen Stefani. She is part of a wireless rockstar network at home. We have a server called Folsom Prison, and another computer hooked up with two hard drive partitions named Johnny Cash and June Carter (I think I got that right, but I'm not the computer wiz at home). Gwen is now the third inmate. She kinda goes against the naming convention we have set up already, but Gwen is not afraid to break the rules.

She's sleek and sexy. I can't be carrying a brick of a laptop around NYC, so, naturally, I had to go thin and light. Gwen also comes with all the bells and whistles for a little laptop: CD/DVD burner, 1G of RAM, 1.8 Ghz processor, 80G Hard Drive, Windows XP Pro, all the software a girl could ever want, and a 5-hour battery. I've never owned my own laptop before, so I might have gone a little overboard. I don't care.

...I think my iPod is a little jealous these days...

Today, I interviewed two people who applied for my job. This is such a weird feeling. I've interviewed lots of people, but never for my own job. I can't help but to compare them to me. I think, "how would this person deal with the issues I face on a daily basis," "how would Jane Doe deal with punk-ass John Doe?" "could they perform the technical piece of my job at the same level? Would they be forward-thinking?" blah blah blah.

One person I interviewed today is about 25 years older than me. THAT'S weird. It was like interviewing my mom for my job. She was a great lady though and I am pushing for her to get the job.

Another thing that is unsettling is how I am only just interviewing someone to take over my job. I gave notice almost 3 months ago and I am JUST interviewing for my job. I love red tape. I will not be able to cross-train, or work side-by-side with the new person, who is SOL when he/she gets here because no one else can train my job. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I also have no back-up; so, I'm in documentation mode to try and help ease that.

13 more work days...

Today I went for my Locks of Love hair cut...I think 3 years ago was my last hair cut, so I was a little nervous, a little excited, a little impatient to get rid of all this hair that drives me nuts on a daily/hourly basis.

It actually looks really good, but I'm fearful that when I wash it tomorrow, it's going to suck. I hope not. It's about 2 inches shorter than I anticipated, but my hair hasn't achieved the Annie look, which is what I was realllllly afraid of.

So... what the heck happened to Megami and hammermba???
Did I miss something here?
Maybe someone could fill me in?

The cross-country trip begins in one month. For some reason I never understood before, my mom pays for a AAA membership for me. NOW I get it. If you forget about the roadside service for just one second, I have discovered that the travel services rock over in the AAA office!

We put in for this service called Trip Tik, and in 3 days AAA sent over 4 fold-out maps of various parts of the US, Trip Tiks (detailed foldout maps of our exact journey), and 10 tour books which are stacked about 18 inches high on my floor right now. This was all FREE.

What's almost just as good as free? Damn cheap. My friend has a hotel hookup and we are slated for a 3 night stay in a 5 star Intercontinental Hotel in Chicago... for $59/night. These are the type of places that have baskets of fresh fruit waiting for you when you get there, and chocolates on the pillows. It's going to be better than home, especially my bed-less, table-less, chair-less, dresser-less home.

Two people I *work* with just destroyed 3 months of my work in about 3 hours last night. Should I care? I have 18 actual days of work left... technically about 1 month on the calendar. Should I even care?

For the last two hours, I have wanted to punch someone out for destroying my work. I mean, I was fuming. Upset. At work. And I never get upset at work because it's just work. I can separate work issues from the rest of my life. But this is different.

I think these people are actually trying to sabotage the project my team is working on. And I'm not kidding. They knowingly went in and destroyed 3 months of work that 3 people were working on (myself included). How wrong is that? We all work for the same company and they are trying to sabotage this project. I work with some real psychos, I am totally convinced of this. You may want to stop reading this here, because I'm about to go on a rant.

The real problem is that they won't be held accountable for what they did. They'll lie about it, say it was a mistake, and just continue on their merry ways. My company won't hold them accountable for their actions. Like I tell everyone, 'we round to the nearest million.' Why does anyone care that they destroyed 520 hours of effort (3 people's time for 3 months), at a burdened rate of $75/ hour... that's $117,000. Shit, that pays for my entire MBA. And it only took 3 hours to earn!

OK, I'm done venting. I feel better and I think I'm over it. I'm just not sure if I should start over with what they trashed or what.

I've been tinkering with my blog this past week. Added a few things to the sidebar on the left:

1. Another Counter. It's the NeoCounter that tracks country stats. I just think it's kind of cool how people from 17 countries have checked out my blog in the past 4 days. If only I were more interesting who knows what random countries would have visitors to my blog, damn.
   
2. More music stuff in a new feature called "miTunes." I know what you're thinking, "that MargaritaLuvr is so clever." Well, not really. Anyway, I have links to either a song's music video or an MP3 clip and the band's website. Just click the song title for the clip and the band name for their official site. If you like alternative or indie rock, definitely check out some of those videos. In most cases, the entire song is there.
   

Why am I spending hours and hours messing with the blog? Because I should be packing, but this is way more fun for me.

I was running late to work this morning...
so I got ready in a hurry...
I arrived at work, talked to a few people...
Checked a few emails...
started chatting with my cube mate...
she starts looking me up and down...
with a weird smirk on her face, and says...
"honey, you need to go to the bathroom and fix your shirt...
it's on inside out."

LOVELY

big 'ol white tag sticking out the back of my black shirt was the highlight.

... blows

OK, to be fair, it's not that bad. It's just not that good either. But I'm so disappointed.

I woke up early to download this album to my iPod so that I could listen to it on my way to work, and I don't even like it. It's too sappy for me, I think.

Maybe the White Stripes new album has something redeeming to offer. I liked their last two.

...if anyone remembers, that's from "My Cousin Vinny." Apparently, some native New Yorkers can't say the word 'youths' very well, so it sounds like 'yoots.' What does this have to do with me? I bought some Columbia gear online - Two Youth size tee shirts (and I PRAY that they will fit). I noramlly buy Youth Large because those are the only tee shirts that usually fit correctly, but the very small child on the website wearing the same shirt I just bought kind of scares me. I think by getting the Large size I should be ok though. I also bought a decal for my parents' car and my car (which is also going to be their car soon, he-he). If they can sport 82nd Airborne stuff for my brother, they can sport Columbia stuff for me.

Yay! This is kind of starting to feel real now. I figure if I start soaking up New York culture and getting some gear with the university name or logo, I will get super pumped for school to start. I am also going to scour iTunes for songs about New York. These will come handy during my 4,000 mile trek next month (I know it's not that far to get to New York from California, but we have quite a few pit stops planned which will add just a few extra miles to the journey).

On a side note, when I visited Columbia back in January, I didn't notice the same level of school spirit as the students at Duke had (read: fanatics). So I'm going to change that. My wardrobe will be blue, blue, blue. I'm not really the cheerleader type but, damnit, if this is going to be my life for two years then I'm going to embrace it. And I will definitely be participating in the 'many' happy hours Columbia will be hosting in Uris Hall.

We've been on a selling spree over at my apartment. We're selling a lot of our stuff and many of our belongings are already gone. If I could work Photoshop better, I'd post some 'before and after' pictures, but I'm just not that interested in learning a new software... so I'll tell you about life without *stuff*:

• The Bed. My bed is officially sold. Thank goodness for the Aerobed or I'd be sleeping on the floor for 5 weeks. If you don't have an Aerobed, I highly recommend getting one. They're awesome.
• The Dresser. The new dresser is a Rubbermaid container.
• The Bookcase. The new bookcase is also a Rubbermaid container.
• The TV's. We've sold 4 TVs (crappy TV's at that). WHY do 2 people have 4 TV's? I have no idea. Now we have none. The plan is to buy a plasma in New York though, so I'll probably be watching TV for a month straight before school starts.
• The Dining Table. We never ate there anyway.
• The Computer Desk. The new computer desk is a cooler.
• The Computer Desk Chair. The new chair is called 'le floor.' ... the floor is going to be my best friend soon. My living room furniture is now for sale and soon I will have nothing to sit or eat on except for the floor.

I've always thought of myself as a minimalist, but this could get very interesting.

MargaritaLuvr, your mission: post 5 books.

1) How to get into the Top MBA Programs by Richard Montauk - no doubt, my MBA applications bible. Then, I sold it to some lucky chap on Amazon.com for about $10. I hope he applies to Columbia.

2) Hiroshima by John Hersey - eye opening read about 'the bomb'

3) Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet by Donna Kooler - admit it, you want to learn! By the way, if I ever write a book, I'm not going to put my name in the title.

4) Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - reminds me of my own troubled youth in New York. Just kidding.

5) Not For Tourists Guide to NYC - it's almost like moving to a foreign country, so I figure I need some sort of guide.

I received some official communication from the school today, and I like the way they think in Admissions: "Please join current students and young alumni in Uris Hall for the first of many Happy Hours on Thursday, July 21." Many Happy Hours?!?! Many?!?! Cool, because I LOVE happy hours. Along with encouraging new students to drink-up from the get go, they did provide some useful information about what I need to get done before I show up in August.... housing, facebook photos, laptop, male strippers, blah blah blah.

They missed one thing though: Columbia forgot to mention I need to get my $60K in loans figured out. And they forgot to mention I need to set up a meeting with the Devil because I have to sell my soul to Him at some point in order to finance this edgumacation. I guess all the happy hours I will be attending starting in July are to help dull the pain of my new debt. I'm fine with that. It's just money, right?

Kroll also called my recommender to verify he really exists. For all my applicant friends who will be dealing with Kroll soon, here is what they asked him:

How do you know MargaritaLuvr?
What is your relationship with her?
Did you write a recommendation for her?
What are her teaming skills like?
What are some of her strongest attributes?
How long has she been with the company?

That was it. He said the phone call was less than a minute long. Painless. So far so good with the 'ol investigation on me. I can't believe I'm paying for this, by the way.

...even though I have a buddy who works there, I still hate this company. I am buying tickets to an Eisley concert (you probably don't know who they are but you also should probably check them out). Let me break out the *great deal* I got on tickets:

$24.......Two general admission tickets at the Troubadour in Hollywood
$4.........Building facility charge (WTF?)
$10.50..Convenience charge (again, WTF? This is definitely an IN-convenient charge)
$4.10....Order Processing Charge (Need I reiterate what I think of this?)
$42.60..Grand Total: cost for two $12 concert tickets. Oh, hell.

This pricing scheme makes no sense to me at all. Ticketmaster is The Man. I bet if I check out the stats of the CEO, he's probably and HBS Grad. Wait, let me just go and do that. Oh, I'm back, and guess what I found out? John Pleasant, President and CEO of Ticketmaster, holds an MBA from... Harvard. I am biting my tongue right now, you have no idea.

On a lighter note, I'm getting my fill on concerts this month (courtesy of The Man). I've got a Hot Hot Heat concert this month at the House of Blues thanks to my boyfriend's generosity, and potentially a Doves concert as well. The Doves tickets might be a belated birthday present from my Bro that I'm not supposed to know about? I'm not sure, but when I went to buy tickets I was told not to. Hmmmmm, fishy.

I don't think this is my week. I started my application verification processes with Kroll, which is fine so far. However, thanks to Murphy's Law, I'm expecting some random thing to come up which will require me to dig up documents from 8 years ago.... except I don't have any documents from 8 years ago. In fact, I'm very bad about keeping records of any kind (unless it's purely in an email). We'll see how that goes.

Yesterday, I received a Jury Duty summons, which also wouldn't be so bad because my work pays for jury duty, but when I looked at the date, I'm supposed to go right after my vacation starts. I hope I can get out of that without having to go at all. I was bummed to see that California wants to squeeze everything it can from me before I leave this state. I will probably need to dig up records for that too since they may ask for proof that I am, indeed, leaving town for good.

Today, I received my financial aid package from Columbia, which is the most depressing of all. I've been approved for tons of loans to finance my MBA and received a very meager scholarship. I should be thankful for getting anything, but after being offered almost $40k from Duke, this does not come anywhere near that.

And I still have no home yet. I'm waiting for the school to (hopefully) approve my housing application. My hopes are dwindling though as I'm receiving mixed messages about who gets approved for housing. Some say Californians are safe because we are comingfrom so far away. Others say that the international admits have priority over everyone, which is fair, but that doesn't leave room for many others. I guess I will just have to wait and see for myself.