I'm All Jacked Up on Mountain Dew!

Well, the GMAT came and went. I feel like that might be all I have to say, which probably gives you some indication about how pleased I am with the result. I did raise my score slightly. Sadly, I went from a 95% to a 97% on verbal and from a 66% to a 67% on math. Since we all know that speaking english clearly is not a requirement for college professors, the verbal score is hardly worth the paper it's printed on. I am moaning about an overall score in the 92nd percentile, but I had hoped for a little more mathematical progress. *************************************************************************************I selected my top five schools before taking the test and here's the list: 1) Univ. of North Carolina 2) Univ. of Wisconsin 3) Univ. of Maryland 4) Univ. of Arizona and 5) Univ. of Utah. I will leave the obvious conflict between my love for alcohol and my applying to a school in Salt Lake unexplored. I will also have to pretend I am in jail if I decide to select the Univ. of Arizona since my family is composed of die hard Sun Devils. For an ASU fan, it would generally be better for a family member to be incarcerated than to attend U of A. Carolina is my dream school all around, but don't let them know, I don't want to seem over eager. I will add 1-2 more schools to the mix, but these five lead the pack. ************************************************************************************* The best part of taking the GMAT was how I spent the rest of my day off. I got to eat lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with my husband, get a massage and then finish the day like any budding accounting scholar... I drank a bottle of champagne while watching Talladega Nights and then sang my heart out to a few of my favorite Guitar Hero World Tour songs. I can almost guarantee that a person who gets a good score on the math portion of the GMAT probably wouldn't enjoy an evening spent in this manner, so I guess I am happy just the way I am. If I have to pick between Ricky Bobby and grad school, I'll take Ricky Bobby any day.

And Now it is Upon Me

On Wednesday, I take the GMAT for the 3rd time. While I have consistently scored in the 90-95th percentile on the verbal section of this test, I have earned a 49 and 66 percentile ranking on the math part in the earlier sessions. While that means I am better at math than 66% of people taking the GMAT, many PhD programs like to see scores in the 90s and well, that's just plain unlikely to happen for me. Often people assume that my accounting background would make me good at math. What it makes me good at is excel and that's not allowed in Wednesday's effort. When's the last time you calculated 13! by hand? How many of you even know how you would begin to caluclate 13!? ************************************************************************************* Either way, Wednesday will be the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. For a while I can put the study books away (at least until I take linear algebra in the spring...woo-hoo party!). On Wednesday, I will begin the month long process of actually applying to schools. Last time I applied to eight schools, got three interviews and accepted admission at Michigan State. (Enter economic crash - stage left.) This time, I will apply to at least six schools and max out at eight. (The schools have a 3-8% admission rate for this sort of thing, so I think it's wise to cast a wide net.) I have selected two of the finalists, but can't seem to fill in the rest of the list. As I explained this dilemma to my husband yesterday, he suggested that since the decision is such an important one, one that will likely impact the rest of our lives, we use a highly scientific system. Essentially his system involves examining NCAA football records and applying to those schools with the best records. I asked him what we would do about schools that didn't have football teams and I believe his response was something like, "Why would you apply to a school that doesn't have a football team?" ************************************************************************************* Ironically, my mom would tell you that my dad selected his PhD school based on the football team and it seems to have worked out okay for them. At this point, it's probably as good of an indicator as any in the school selection process. That and the proximity of a Chipotle.

The Time of My Life

I've been MIA from the blogosphere for a few weeks. First I got sick (thankfully not H1N1) and then I started my studying for the GMAT. (Last week, I studied over 15 hours of algebra, geometry, etc. It was a real party.) Excuses, excuses, but even more unfortunately, I took two full weeks off from running or really exercise of any form. Last week I was mostly back on track with the training schedule for January's marathon and finished the week with a respectable 18 miles ran. Tuesday was an easy 2 miler, Thursday was a 6 mile death march. (As a tip, no matter how hungry you are, don't ever eat a hot dog, a tortilla and several handfuls of beef jerky and then hit the road for a six mile run. Around mile 3, I was praying to throw up and considered committing my first bulimic act. I kept my food down and finished the run, but it was ugly.) ************************************************************************************* On Sunday, my 10 miles represented my first double digit run since the marathon. Up to this point, I have seriously doubted the existence of the "runner's high" that I have heard so much about. The best feeling I have ever felt during or after a run was a combination of disbelief and relief at the completion of each mile. Well, call me a believer, but I think I caught a glimpse of the running holy grail on Sunday with the best run of my ten-month long running career. The weather was perfect, I felt great, I was in the zone and my pace felt completely natural. Through some magic feat, I was able to keep a pace just below 11-minute miles for the entire 10 mile run, something I haven't done in a long time. Since I am targeting a 12-minute mile pace for January, I am thrilled with any run that adds distance and keeps me below my goal pace. Essentially, I kicked that run's ass! At the end, I felt like I could have kept going, but we were running late for a Humane Society event that involved us walking two miles with our dog. I will admit that some of the euphoria was gone at the end of the dog walk and I didn't have much desire to move for the rest of the day. I was ready for bed at roughly 8pm, but as I fell asleep, I was still very much on the high of my best run ever.

Bound for Our Nation's Capital

It's official! I booked my work conference in Washington DC today. Occasionally, this job does have its perks and I will be headed to a national meeting of accountants in early December. I haven't been to DC in several years, but loved it the last time I visited and this time I have a husband to take with me. Hopefully I will run into the Obamas out for a stroll or at a bare minimum a few friends I know that live in the area! Can't wait for December 4th!

Your Rat is Dead

Almost two weeks ago, my husband and I were sitting in the family room watching some TV. We heard water dripping in the kitchen and couldn't figure out what it was. My husband walked in the the room and realized our "water dripping" was two mice, eating bread wrapped in foil on the counter. I've never had a mouse in my house and I did much screaming and crying. We quickly went to a store at 10pm and bought traps and bleach. We set the traps and went to bed. I didn't sleep much as I envisioned mice crawling on my face while I slept, Daniel slept like a baby. Within a couple days, two mice had been caught, the kitchen had been thoroughly bleached and all was well with the world. Cut to last night... ************************************************************************************* Daniel was out of town and so my mom came to visit. Around nine, I headed into the master bedroom and saw a really fast "critter" run behind the elliptical (thank god someone is exercising around here, but that's another post.) I ran screaming from the room and for the next thirty minutes, my mom and I screamed and jumped around, a la Lucy and Ethel, as I tried to gather up the courage to run into the bedroom and grab my purse. (You know my new Coach purse wasn't spending the night with the mice.) We set traps and barricaded the door so the mouse wouldn't continue to explore the house. I "slept" on the couch, although images of mice crawling on me wouldn't leave my head. ************************************************************************************* This morning, I had my carpet replaced. Part of that job was recarpeting my master bedroom closet. I felt bad sending our installer into that room and warned him of whom he was sharing a room with. About two hours into the job, I was debating my mom on how much to tip the installer. I wanted to tip him something since it was Sunday and he was doing the job all alone, except for the mice. Was it $20 or $50, the two bills at my disposal? As we talked, I heard a cracking sound and then he walked into the room where we sat and said with a thick accent, "Your rat is dead." At this point, he wiped a hatchet clean on a cloth and dropped a baggie containing the mouse in a garbage pile. I felt the need to explain that it wasn't a rat, since that would be really disgusting, but decided against and decided that a $50 sounded good. ************************************************************************************* So, this is an ode to Fernando, the Lowe's carpet installer. He went above and beyond the call of duty. While I doubt I will sleep in that room tonight, (some combination of mouse murder and potential mouse friends lurking in wait has me envisioning mice attacking me while I sleep), I really appreciate his effort.

My Exciting Life

I am an accountant by trade and I mostly do research accounting. When I tell people that, they usually respond with a snide remark about how exciting my life must be. I can easily take that in stride, since I actually like what I do most days and find it plenty interesting. I guess that would indicate that I have a lower "excitement tolerance" than most people and it probably explains why things have been a little too exciting for me lately. ************************************************************************************* Per last week's post, I live in a neighborhood that would be voted "Most Likely to Have Regular Shootings" if neighborhoods participated in high school superlative contests. Then Monday night as I left work, I was notified by our security guard that we were banned from leaving the building. Apparently, two suspicious packages were within a block of our building and the bomb squad was called in. After sitting in the lobby for two hours, we heard two massive explosions as they blew up the suspicious packages and then we received a police escort to our cars. ************************************************************************************* Tuesday morning, as I went through airport security, my bag was selected for additional screening. Through the course of the screening, they detected trace amounts of explosives on my bag and then went through a process of searching me and removing every item from my carry on and individually checking it. I still made my flight, but I saw the way other people were eyeing me and hoping I wasn't on their flight. If I can see one positive, it's that no one wanted to sit next to me on the Southwest flight and so I had extra room. *************************************************************************************Tomorrow I head home and I am hoping that the return flight is less eventful. The last few weeks have had more than enough excitement for me!

Back in the Saddle Again

On Monday, I officially started my training plan for the Rock 'n Roll Arizona Marathon in January. In the three weeks following our marathon, I was the runner's version of a sloth: I vacationed, I went to an out of town wedding and I ran ten miles. For a normal person, or non-runner, this probably doesn't sound like sloth-style living, but my former catholic guilt has apparently transferred to my running life. I felt lazy, purposeless, like I was losing tons of fitness and a little dirty for my three weeks "off." ************************************************************************************* In order to make up for three weeks of pain-free living, I set ambitious goals for my training this time around. Since I would really like to cut nearly an hour off my marathon time for this next race, I need some serious commitment to training. That's something I didn't exactly have last time. I probably did about 5% of my cross-training, 50% of my core work and about 75% of my running. This time, I would like to average about 80% of each. It's unrealistic to think I won't need a break here and there in the next fifteen weeks, but I should be able to complete most of my training days. ************************************************************************************* Well, here's the report of week 1. I did 66% of my running and 33% of my cross-training and core work. That leaves me at 50% for this week's training. I could make excuses, such as: "due to a shooting in my neighborhood and fear of death, I didn't run on Wednesday" or "my parents were in town and it would have been rude / impossible to cross-train during their visit". Both those things would be true, they just don't get me any closer to a 12-minute/mile pace in AZ. So, as I close out week one and head into week two, I am going to be optimistic. I spend four of my six training days this week in Dallas and the hotel has a top notch workout room. No excuses this week!