I would like to give you a taste of what happens around here during finals.
Well...every teacher (almost) has some kind of project, paper, or presentation that is due within a week of finals. These are often group projects and are always a big deal. I've heard from various academia-based counterparts who are getting their degrees in other things, and I guess they typically only have either a paper/project or a final at the end of the semester, but certainly never both. Not so here at Kogod. Despite these big projects, many of which are due on the day of the final, every single class has a final. That means two big papers done by me alone, another big one done in a group, a business case presentation, and five finals. All to be completed between last Thursday and next Tuesday. Giddyup.
That's the recipe for sleep deprivation. Even if you don't factor in certain newly-added outside-of-school events that may or may not also be keeping me up late.
May 6 will be a glorious day.
But on a more fun note, and just to show the world that I can still manage to have fun despite the insanity, David and I ran a 5K on Saturday. But this is not your average run-of-the-mill 5K. This was the Run Amuck mud run - hilly trails, scaling walls, climbing over bales of hay, and running through the muddy lake - all ours. We owned it.
Our only complaint was that the lake washed off most of the mud. We were hoping for a messier finish.
I've always liked to drag out my birthday for as long as I can. This year it was unintentionally extended an extra two weeks (I had to be responsible on the actual day because it was a Tuesday - one of my busiest days - and both weekends surrounding it were already spoken for. I had a lot of churchy duties lately.) It actually made me a little sad to be so busy that I couldn't celebrate the actual day in style, but that's just the child in me still fighting hard to keep from growing up. It was actually still an enjoyable day, because I got to hang out at Institute where I get to see so many of my friends. But then, I did get to celebrate after all - after Institute, I went to Silver Diner and got dessert with some of my favorite people.
For some reason, though, I've been really excited to get to 27. I can't really explain why - it's probably partially because I know this is going to be an amazing year. But whatever the reason, my subconscious has been really impatient for 27 to come around - I've actually been rounding up for the last few months.
I began the year of awesomeness surrounded by my family. Really, is there a better way to start? I knew the parents and brothers (and families) would be there, but I was fully surprised by two mystery surprise visitors: Dana and Grandma Christensen. They love me! (Grandma turned 80 that day. Thanks for sharing your day with me! :)
They came out to support me for my first visit to the temple. I made some important promises that day. I'm excited to go back often so I can begin to attempt to understand it all.
It was also Easter weekend, so Dana and I got to help the Easter Bunny hide eggs for the kids! (It's a typical practice, for the favorite aunts to help the Easter Bunny. Did you know that?)
Mia got her ears pierced. She used to just be really cute. Now, she's stunning. Don't you agree? Yep, it's one of those days where I use my blog to shamelessly show off my cute nieces and nephews. Have you ever seen a face this cute?
This past Saturday was gorgeous outside. Gorgeous! I took advantage by participating in the Lupus Walk and taking David on a bike ride. (We had indoor plans, but had to cancel them due to weather. It just wouldn't be right to let the weather go to waste.)
I walked for Crystal.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Kim knows how to rally the troops! The group gets bigger every year!
The latest extension of birthmonth celebration: our 3rd annual Pirate Parrrty! I just piggybacked my birthday onto it. Nobody minded much. I felt loved. What a great life I have. What a great year this will be.
...but I finally got to see the cherry blossoms (not at night or in the rain) around the Tidal Basin!
My friend Jen and I decided to take advantage of the fact that they hadn't all blown away yet, so on the morning of Conference Saturday we did a lap around the basin and checked out the parade in fast-forward. It felt weird not being a volunteer this year. I almost wore my "Volunteer" shirt so I could take extra liberties with crossing the streets and ordering people around and such.
In short - it was beautiful.
Breathtaking.
Everything I ever hoped for and dreamed of.
Can't wait to do it again.
I just love the Kennedy Center. I don't pay homage to this place enough. Did you know they have a free concert of some sort every night at 6:00? It's true!
While they boys were at Priesthood, a group of the ladies got all dolled up for a night out at the KC to see Buster Keaton's silent film, The General.
Except ours was backed up by the National Symphony Orchestra. It was glorious.
Sometimes, it's just fun to dress up!
We went out for dessert afterward, and the servers accidentally gave me someone else's free birthday dessert. We didn't realize until after they sang their song and walked away that none of us had told them it was my birthday. Awesome.
So this one time a few weeks ago, the telephone pole in my front yard cracked in half. I was home to hear the BOOM! And then the power went out. Naturally, everyone in the neighborhood went outside to check it out. This is what we saw:
Except that it was on fire. Yeah...I've had enough of those in my day, thank you. Don't need any more flames so close to my abode. But would you look at that thing? Should've been replaced eons ago, right?! I actually felt strangely vindicated, because on more than one occasion after I parked my car right under it, I had said to myself, "Hmm...is that thing supposed to sound like that? One of these days, it's going to blow!" And Viola! Thankfully, I wasn't parked under it today.
When the firemen and cherry pickers came, they made me go back in the house. No one else in my neighborhood had to go back inside. Only me. What's that all about? So I had to document from within the safer confines of my prison home.
To their credit, they worked into the night (with THREE cherry pickers at one point) to get things up and running again. We had our power back before morning.
To kill time while we were powerless, we went out to a shooting range with some friends (pretty punny). The boys all taught us how to shoot lots of different guns, and then we had target practice. They impressed us all with their patience and attention to detail in teaching us. Definitely a good thing, with something as powerful as a gun. In that light, I guess they had extra incentive.
My personal favorite was the shotgun.
My opponent disagrees.
And finally, for April Fools this year, we decorated Jeph's car. :o)
Sadly, it blew away before he ever saw it. But we still count it.
I posted this on my fam blog awhile back, but I forgot not everyone checks that one. So here's my biggest update. It's such an intricate story of networking webbery, I just had to include all of it.
Everyone knows I've been on the prowl for an internship for the summer. And everyone knows the market is ridiculous right now, and the odds of me finding one are pretty slim. And forget about any kind of paycheck! My whole class is all just trying to find people that will let us do a bunch of their work for free. (So far, 4 of 70 have secured summer employment.) It begs the question: what do I like doing enough that I would do it for free, just to have the opportunity to do it?
School has helped me to focus my mind and find the answer to this question. I am passionate about microfinance. It is the kind of work that I could be proud to stand behind, a cause that would get me out of bed every morning so I could help it to move forward. Whether or not I actually need an advanced degree to work in this field, my MBA already feels worthwhile because it's helped me to figure this out.
So. AU has a search engine called CareerBeam to help us in our quest. One feature I discovered is that you can look up a company, then connect to LinkedIn (Think Facebook, except for working professionals) and it will tell you the degrees of separation between you and someone who is affiliated with that company. I looked up the microfinance org FINCA International, and learned that I knew someone directly who had worked there before. I hadn't seen him in over a year, but at least I knew someone!
Two days later, I bumped into him at a party. (This guy is married, and this was a singles ward party, which makes the fact that we crossed paths even more amazing.) He was very willing to help me out, and suggested that I talk to a guy named Otso, because he also used to work with a different microfinance bank. Interestingly enough, I had met Otso at Institute earlier that week.
I sought out Otso the next week, only to learn that he used to be the CEO of Yehu Microfinance, an organization based in Kenya. Not only that, but he was still on the advisory board and still conducted interviews for internships. We talked some more, and through his questions ("Have you ever been to a third world country?" "What were the conditions like - did you stay in nice hotels?") I realized that this wasn't a DC-based office job where I'd be doing good from afar. It would be in Mombasa, Kenya, on the frontlines. There would be some office work, but I would also get to actually be in the bush where everything is happening, to meet the people I'd be helping. This is the exact setup I hoped for the chance to try (knowing that this summer would probably be my last window of opportunity) but I did not expect to find it.
Otso asked me to send him my resume, and we'd get together and talk. Even this aspect seems divinely guided, because my resume had just come out of a major overhaul that same morning, where everything my resume said was now intentionally geared toward attracting microfinance-related employment.
Needless to say, after our conversation, I was starry-eyed. This option just made so much sense, and the way everything had fallen into place was just too perfect to be coincidence. I felt so compelled to follow this to the end, and so sure that it was already a done deal - to the point that all other internship pursuits dropped off my radar. I figured, why bother? I already found it. Even the way I talked about it was always "when" I go to Kenya, not "if." I haven't even considered being concerned about the location because clearly I'm supposed to go there, so I'll be taken care of. And as mom pointed out, I'll be going through the temple just a little over a month before I leave, so I'll be extra-protected.
As you may expect after a sequence of events like that, it worked out. I'm going to Kenya!
I love when the Lord uses timing to remind us He's aware of us, and to make sure we know we're moving in the right direction. In this case, He seemed to want to make it painstakingly clear. (He probably figured I'd be a little averse to the extra debt and would need the push.)
