It's a Fabulous Life: Hey girl, ...

I haven't written in a couple of weeks (besides that hockey post a couple of days ago - but let's face it, that wasn't me. If I ever know that much about hockey, it's because I've moved to Canada and become the all-star hockey mom). I know that you missed me, but I was waiting for some interesting things to accumulate before I set off to writing again. I've also been faced with a slight case of post-marathon blues and an end-of-the-semester procrastination kick in the butt. (In all actuality, this blog post itself is a procrastination technique. That economics of law final at 1:30 that I haven't looked at yet? Meh. Later. Like after I chug this diet coke.)

So let's talk about life, shall we?

Marathon related.
Zero week was sort of all about recovery. When I woke up Monday morning after the marathon, I'm pretty sure that my first words were "Help". My legs just felt like bricks. I had stayed in St. Louis that night, so I had an early drive back to school for my first class at 11:30. Of course I was able to swing by SBucks to grab a venti cafe misto (which, you know.. everyone else just calls cafe au lait.. ne pas Starbucks). Monday was a long day because Mondays at Truman love me. That night I engaged in an intense and painful foam rolling sesh.

Classes were cancelled Tuesday so I went to get gelato with some fellow Cardinal Keys that also ran marathons/half marathons that weekend. I got nutella flavored and it was amazing. It was so fun to talk to other people about the whole ordeal and to celebrate our successes.

On Wednesday I finally decided it was time to stretch out my legs with some light cardio. I hopped on the elliptical and went at a moderate intensity and pace for an hour. Oh my goshhhh, this was a heaven send. After this, I felt back to normal.

Since then, I've been doing a lot of cross training (Oddly, I missed the rec soooo much!) I didn't go on my first run until tonight, 2 weeks later. It was an easy 6 miler. And now it's actually time to start training for the Red, White & Boom half marathon that I'll be doing in the Twin Cities on July 4th. I'm so excited to run in Minneapolis! It's supposed to be a great city for running.

School Related.

Finals are this week. Uhhhh yeah. Finals are dumb. BUT today was fantastic because my Target Case team presented for Target executives and we won! Our case was to build a business strategy for Target's expansion into Canada, and we came up with some pretty shweet ideas. And we won the $2000 prize!

My hair is nutso because I got caught in the rain right before our presentation.

Other school stuff.... yeah, it doesn't matter. I have to finish an econ development paper, and take my econ law and consumer behavior finals. It's really not too bad, I just don't have motivation to study as per usual. That's why I especially loved the Target case study and spent so much time working on it, because it was hands-on work and allowed me to avoid doing other things.

Miscellaneous Life Happenings

I'm going on an Eiffel Tower tour. Vegas next week and France the week after that. I'm beyond excited.

While abroad, I want to check out a couple of grad schools. The program I really have my eye on is "Strategic Fashion Marketing" at the London College of Fashion. It's a school that lets you create and execute your own project as a part of your Masters thesis. I'd be really interested in doing some work in the marketing of sustainable fashion. I'm also looking at Cass Business School (London), the London School of Business, Hult (London), and HEC (Paris)... all of which I'd be going after a Masters in International Business. We'll see. The hope is that I'll feel inspired enough to write a compelling personal statement while I'm over there. And travel time can be devoted to studying for the GMAT, which I'm taking this summer.

Related to all of this (sort of.. at least that's how I rationalize it)... I bought an iPad!

I had been toying with the idea for a while, and when I heard that my tax refund was approximately the same amount as this lovely gem (thank goodness the new iPad came out to help push the 2nd gen's price down...), I decided I would make the purchase.

I'm not a "Mac Head" by any means, but I have a high level of respect for Apple as a company. They make truly beautiful products. And honestly, the last Apple product I purchased with an iPod classic, 4 and a half years ago.

You can really use the iPad for so much. I already downloaded all of the apps that I'm super excited for... like TripIt (which organizes your travel reservations, plans, maps, phone numbers, etc), Epicurious (basically a cookbook), Netflix, Gmail, Chegg (for renting e-textbooks), GMAT Prep, Facebook, Linkedin, and of course.... BIG ANGRY BIRDS.

I feel so business-y now. Which brings me to my next point of excitement...