One Step Closer to the End

I already blogged about my midterms week. Today you’re in for a treat because I just finished my finals, so I want to give you a little bit of an idea about what last week was like. Let’s randomly start with Monday. I’ve heard rumors about weeks starting on Sunday or Monday (depending on where you’re from), but my weeks just blend in with no beginning and no end. Ever since I started school I think in sessions and months, so no weeks. But for the sake of this post, I’m going to start with Monday.

Monday…wow, I know what I did last summer, but I can’t even remember what I did last Monday. It’s a good thing I can turn to my faithful friend, the iPhone, and check out my calendar. OK, so it looks like I started my day at 5am. Oh yeah. Because my group and I had a presentation on EMR (i.e. Electronic Medical Records) at 8:00 am and met at 6:30 am at school to do a final run through. So,
6:30 am – meet with IT group to do a run through
8:00 am – EMR presentation and IT class
12:00 pm – lunch with our IT professor and my IT class (Dr. Williams invites everybody over to his house at the end of the class for lunch with his family. If you have a chance to take one of his classes, I strongly suggest it. He’s a really smart, fun, and fair professor.)
1:00 pm – Elyse (one of my close friends and accounting buddies) and I usually do our accounting homework on Mondays.
4:00 pm – meet with accounting group to do a run through of the presentation for Thursday
6:00 pm – economics study group for final Thursday
10:00 pm – I can’t think anymore, so I go to bed. My husband says something to me, but I can’t process. Information overload. Shut down follows.

Tuesday
I planned to read two of the chapters for my accounting final, but I have a presentation at 1pm, and I just realized I don’t have the cable (I think that’s what it’s called) that connects my Mac to the projector. So, I skip my lovely date with the accounting book and go to the Apple Store to buy one. I run back to school because at noon I’m supposed to meet my group to do a run through.
12:00 pm – meet with my OB (organizational behavior) group. I realize the Apple guy gave me the wrong cable, so it takes two runs to the school’s computer lab to finally get what I need.
1:00 pm – we give our amazing presentation on the leader of our choice: Hugh Heffner. ☺ We had a little bit too much fun with this presentation that doesn’t even count towards our grade, but everybody loves it and that’s what we’re there for. We live for our audience!
5:00 pm – the fun is over, it’s time for accounting study group
7:00 pm – more fun with my economics study group. A switch goes on in my head and I miraculously get the difference between the marginal rate of substitution and the slope of the budget line. ☺ YAY! I go home happy and feeling smarter than ever.

Wednesday
Did I mention before that Wednesday is my day off? That only means that I have no class, but I have a c*^& load of stuff to do. I allowed myself to sleep in, that is, until 8:00 am.
10:00am – I have my monthly one-on-one meeting with Gary Brinderson, TEC Chair and CEO of Brinderson Engineers and Constructors. I will talk more about TEC in another posting, but I will just say now that this is an amazing opportunity for any student and I would encourage you to take advantage of it, whether you decide to go to Pepperdine, UCLA, or USC.
11:00 am – grab some lunch with Elyse and dive back into the amazing world of accounting
5:00 pm – more econ study group. Originally about five of us, the group turns into about 12 people and we decide to take over one of the smaller conference rooms and make good use of the projector and the knowledge of one of our colleagues.
10:00 pm – I stare at the TV. I’m thinking this is a good way to relax, but I can’t tell if I’m staring at Obama or McCain, so I decide to go to bed.

Thursday
Almost the end of the week. I wake up at 6:00 am to make sure I make it to school at 7:15am. We’re the first of the four groups for our accounting presentations. We talk about Rite Aid, the accounting principles they violated, and how we can prevent that in the future in our companies.
10:00 am – after all the groups finished their presentations, we start our final.
1:00 pm – one final down, one more to go. I start my econ final.
3:00 pm – I’m the third to finish the final, so I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. I decide not to think twice about it, jump in the car, and drive to Newport Beach with my TEC buddy, Tim.
6:00 pm – we hate the traffic, but get to Newport in time to meet with a few other TEC people and have dinner.
12:00 am – the point of us going to Newport the night before the TEC meeting was to get some sleep. But one fun thing lead to another and we’re up talking until almost 1am. I decide to go to sleep with the lights on and people talking around me.

Friday
TEC group meeting from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm, then drive back to LA on the parking lot that is the 405 freeway.

Saturday
No, my week is not over. As the Director of Communications for Challenge for Charity, I spend my entire day in a board meeting with our C4C President, Lisa Steward, and members of the other C4C chapters.
To celebrate almost the end of a crazy week, my husband took me to the Greek at the Harbor restaurant in Ventura Harbor. It was an amazing night, with delicious food, and crazy great entertainment. I recommend going there.

Sunday
I took my “final” final. Our IT final was a take home exam due today, so I decided to get it over with on Sunday and not wait any longer.

This is the short version of last week. If you think it’s too long, try living it. ☺