My "Day in the Life": Tuesday, April 14, 2009

6:30 A.M.—Seriously? Snooze.
6:45 A.M.—Wake up, hit the shower.
7:00 A.M.—Is it cold and rainy? No, sweet, only have to wear sleeves and a light jacket today, must be getting close to spring.
7:30 A.M.—Ear buds in, iPod on (nice medley of Good Charlotte, George Strait, and the Killers). It is only a 15-20 minute walk to school, which is enough time to eat an apple and peruse the left column of the Wall Street Journal. Reading the left column means that I know enough about the world headlines to be dangerous, but not enough to be useful—story of my life.
7:55 A.M.—Hit the Brand Center to print out the agenda for the GBA (Graduate Business Association) meeting. Leave enough time to swing by the candy jar on Carrie’s desk and get a quick chocolate fix for the first meeting of the day.
8:05 A.M.—Tell the GBA board that we will wait for the President to show up before we get started.
8:06 A.M.—Yep, that wasn’t a nightmare, I am still the GBA President so we will go ahead and get started. Topics to cover—Spring Ball, On Wisconsin Weekend, Habitat for Humanity day, Spring Study Break and the creation of the tailgating committee.
9:10 A.M.—Meeting over, but catch up with Abby Ballain (GBA Secretary) and Courtney Carlovsky (GBA Treasurer) to discuss the specifics for the end of year Town Hall meeting.
9:20 A.M.—Drop my jacket in my locker; run through the econ slides in case I get cold-called; Ask Joe if he read for class, he didn’t, so I feel better since I didn’t either.
9:30 A.M.—Macroeconomics starts; we are apparently discussing the GDP and something concerning apples and bananas. I was told to never compare the two, but Professor Davis has a different philosophy.
10:45 A.M.—Class over; now realize that the apples were simply a metaphor for production, good to know. Head to the Brand Center to check email, socialize, steal Carrie’s candy.
11:15 A.M.—I find myself enthralled in naming the VH-1 Top 100 Songs of the 90s courtesy of Sporcle.com. Amy, Corinne, Greg Rose, Shannon and I are in rare form. We should really video our performance. Who knew that Greg Rose knew all of the words to Marcy Playground’s Sex and Candy.
11:30 A.M.—Let’s get serious, time to read. Have five readings for Tom O’s afternoon class and I have only read one. Luckily, one of the study rooms across from the Brand Center is open.
12:15 P.M.—Dean Knetter and Coach K are holding a end of year session to answer questions about the program. Key here is that there is free food so count me in.
1:00 P.M.—Group meeting time. Sunaina, Katie W., and I are taking care of the Management Change Project for our group. Time to divide and conquer. Apparently there is more work to this than originally thought so we have three more meetings scheduled for the next week and a half—awesome.
2:00 P.M.—Back to the Center to finish reading for my 2:30 class.
2:05 P.M.—Who am I kidding? I can’t pass up a good conversation about reality TV and the merits of fantasy baseball. Going to roll the dice that I won’t get called on.
2:30 P.M.—Brand Strategy starts. We are discussing the theory of brands as entertainment and if TV can really influence the way people perceive the world. No cold-calling today so I will implement the “Jake Abel” strategy.
3:45 P.M.—10-minute break; time to get a soda for the second half of class
3:55 P.M.—Mark, Katie, Al, and Brian are presenting their case write-up on Starbucks. They did a great job with a really tough case. Still hate Starbucks though.
5:15 P.M.—Class over a little early, not going to complain.
5:45 P.M.—Time to head home. Maybe I will see one of the kids from MTV's College Life on my walk home. Need to call the fiancé as she is out-of-town. Definitely going to work out tonight.
6:00 P.M.—Quick change and head to the gym.
6:15 P.M.—Didn’t get to see SportsCenter this morning so I should catch up on that and then I will head to the gym.
7:00 P.M.—Make dinner and watch the beginning of American Idol.
7:30 P.M.—Time to multi-task: four readings for Marketing Communications, the Rangers-Orioles games on GameCast, create a powerpoint presentation for Center Director’s meeting tomorrow, start the Management Simulation, write up my portion of the IMC plan, and prepare for Operations. With two computers, osmosis, and a gift from God, this is all possible. Instead of the gym, I will take a quick jog later.
10:30 P.M.—Well, the Rangers’ pitching imploded again so that means I still have three readings for Communications, the powerpoint to create, and a simulation to start. Maybe I can lift a couple of weights. I think they are in a box somewhere.
11:45 P.M.—So the readings are done, the powerpoint is serviceable, but the simulation will have to wait for another day. Looks like I will be flying by the seat of my pants in Operations, but what is new. I am sure I will be able to work out tomorrow.
12:15 P.M.—Off to bed. I should be asleep in 10 minutes unless I get sucked into one of those classic TBS or TNT movies that you can’t help but watch. Anchorman? Sign me up.