***

Sad.  Sad, Sad, Sad.  Epic Sad.  Summer is over.  To Wit:

This makes me sad.  Our summer was so short this year.  And rumor has it that we’re in for another very wet winter.  The lawn outside my apartment is already a mud bog, and it’s only been raining for a week or so.  I, at least, hope that we get some snow this year around Christmas time.

***

Speaking of Christmas time, it’s been cold and rainy lately, and every time the weather changes like that, it makes me want to start decorating for Christmas.  I know, I know.  It’s only September.  And I may not be able to control my impulses when it comes to money, but I will refrain from decorating for Christmas until November.  I may not have a lot of self control, but I think I can manage that.  I bought my ticket home last week, and got my time off approved, so I will be down in Utah this year again.  I will be home for almost a full week this time, so I might actually have some time to meet up with friends while I’m there.  Especially if you’re available during the day time during the weeks.

***

I seem to be running into a lot of people lately who are capable of hearing only what they want to hear, and not what I actually say.  If I say, "Once we start the project, it will take a minimum of three weeks to complete," the person to whom I am talking will hear, "The project will be done in three weeks."  If I say, "We don’t do physical distribution of audiobooks, we only do digital distribution," the person to whom I am speaking will hear, "We do both physical and digital distribution."  Did I all of a sudden (or is it "all of THE sudden?") lose my ability to communicate clearly?  Did I ever have that ability?

***

I’m completely sickened by the jackholes in Florida who are planning a book burning of the Koran (Quran?) this weekend.  I’m so, so, so tired of ignorant people making offensive decisions without at least trying to understand what it is they are fighting against.  Sure.  We’ll burn the Koran because some terrorists are Islamic, but we’ve never actually read the book, so we don’t know for sure what it teaches.  Of course, some terrorists are Catholic, but we won’t burn the Bible, because those Catholic terrorists don’t reflect the point of view of all Catholics.  All of the hatred, ignorance, and anger that resonates amongst people has really started to affect me lately.  I just wish we lived in a world where those who are religious wouldn’t use their religion as an excuse to stay ignorant of the world and the people in it.  It’s possible to be religious and still be enlightened and aware of the greater picture. 

***

I’ve been feeling a little bit of…what’s the word…homesickness, I guess, for my old classmates and life at BYU.  I never felt like I fit in all that much with the MDT kids (despite my trying desperately), but they were a really fun group of people most of the time.  In the last few weeks, I’ve been mentally reliving the "breakthroughs" that I had when I was in school.  Landing a supporting lead in a mainstage play the first week of school as a freshman, the first time I got really good scores on my acting proficiencies, the time in my first acting class when I made the class laugh doing an exercise when we were only able to speak in gibberish, doing The Fantasticks with Korianne and learning, for the first time, what it meant to have a fully two-way relationship with your acting partner.  Choreographing a dance piece based on MacBeth with Nicole that the teacher still remembers eight years later.  Taking coaching with Dave.  Ballet with Richie.  As difficult as the MDT program was (and, as worthless as the degree is in the "real" world), there were a lot of good times.  I miss that.

***

I also miss some of my old former friends.  I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life when it comes to my relationships with my friends.  I’ve lately been wishing that I could undo what I did and go back to the way things were.  We’ve all moved on in our lives, and a reconciliation isn’t really likely (and perhaps not even recommended) but I still miss having those friendships more readily available.

***

On a more upbeat note, my dog is apparently part squirrel.  The acorns have started falling off the oak trees here at my apartment complex.  He likes to pick up the whole acorns (he won’t touch the ones that are cracked open) and carry them back to the apartment.  Then he deposits them in a pile under the dining room table.  He doesn’t chew them, he just carries and collects them, like he’s preparing for winter.  It’s really strange.

***

I have two new neighbors who moved in a month ago who happen to be brothers of one of the guys I went to school with in the MDT program.  They’re really cool guys, but they’re both built like brick walls, and always find ways to go around without their shirts on.  (Let’s be honest…if I had a body like that, I would too.)  My neighbors exacerbate my body image issues. 

***

And lastly, here’s another photo from my photowalk on Labor Day

This is the underside of an old, abandoned train trestle over the Sammamish river.  The slats across the top are actually the railroad ties.

<rant>It seems that I am destined to constantly be thrust into situations in my life where I am surrounded by people who are not only okay with mediocrity, but they  actually work to hinder the progress of those who, unlike themselves, actually want to accomplish something of value, and to accomplish it fully, with more than a minimum of effort. I grew up in a town where mediocrity was not only expected, but required. I was taught by a faculty that went out of their way not to actually teach the students. (Mr. Spanninga, Mr Grey, I’m talking to you.  WORD SEARCHES ARE NOT APPROPRIATE TEACHING MATERIAL FOR HIGH SCHOOL!) I studied a major in college where students actually worked at not coming to class, where the teachers were always willing to let things slide, and where MUSICAL theater students were allowed to graduate from the program without being able to read music! I now work in a place where all people care about is “good enough” rather than “good” or “great.” I’m not wired to wallow in mediocrity. I find great pleasure in doing something and doing it well. I’m always striving to improve myself. IS IT REALLY THAT DIFFICULT?</rant>

Anyway, my Spanish class was a joke. We rarely made it through the week without some loud-mouthed jack-ass screaming at the teacher, getting sent to the principle’s office, and/or getting in a knock-down drag-out fist fight in the middle of the classroom. The class was full of people who didn’t even try. It was like being in the class of slow students Brian had to teach on Family Guy. (“Sure.  Go ahead.  Be the best damn prostitute you can be.”)  It was filled with people who, a year and a half into the class, couldn’t say “My Name is Concepción,” hilarious in its own right because the girl who couldn’t even pronounce “Me Llamo Concepción” was, in fact, pregnant. (This was also the girl who once asked in Biology Class, “And what about yeast infections? Does yeast cause those too?”). (Seriously. I wish I was making that up.)  One girl, in the second year actually asked me in our practice discussions: Yo Qwee-ero una quarderno.  (Yo quiero uno cuaderno). 

So, in the middle of my second year of Spanish, I dropped the class and became a teacher’s aid in the computer class, since I actually knew how to use computers and the teacher didn’t have a clue. And since then, my Spanish has been little more than a distant memory.

I decided, however, that I wanted to try and learn Spanish again. (I’ve decided this at least six times in the last decade). Now that I’m not in school, I figured it was as good a time as any to start trying to relearn a new language, so I procured a copy of Rosetta Stone (the computer program not the stone) and installed it on my computer. I even got one of those nifty little gamer headsets that in no way makes me look like a total dweeb.

HAWT!

Actually, now that I look at it, I look like that evil book from the Care Bear Movie if she had become an operator at Time-Life:

Just add a headset mic, and we could be twinners…except she’s got way better eyebrows than I do.  (They were drawn on.  HA!)

Anyway, every night starting at about 11:30, once I’m done working on whatever audiobook I’m reading (got a new one coming out in a couple of weeks just in time for Halloween!), watching whatever TV Shows Tivo was good enough to record for me, and eat a bunch of late night junk food in my never-ending quest to hasten my death by heart attack and/or diabetes, I sit down at my computer for 30-45 minutes and go through my latest lesson in Rosetta stone. 

I’m only a few lessons into it, but thus far, I have to say, I’m not making much progress.  I now know how to tell someone that “The man eats rice,” but that’s hardly Pulitzer winning prose.  The other problem is that I accidentally got the Spain Spanish version of Rosetta stone, not the Latin American Spanish version…ergo all the C and Z sounds are pronounced with as a TH…a pronunciation which makes an entire country sound like they’ve got a speech impediment.  So, now, not only am I trying to pronounce these words that I have completely forgotten correctly enough that the computer can recognize them, but I’m also trying to do it without sounding like a) I’ve had a stroke or b) I’m making fun of people with speech disorders.

The sad thing is, I’m not really even sure why I’m going to all this effort to learn Spanish.  I don’t foresee myself going anywhere where I would have to speak the language fluently (or at all) any time in the near future.  I suppose it will be useful some day when the SEC discovers the massive pyramid scheme I’ve been running and I have to flee the country and wind up in Costa Rica.  If Boy Scouts taught me anything (and it didn’t), It’s be prepared.

Until that day, however, Yo soy un estudiante de Espanol.  Or something.

During the Summer of 2007, I found myself frustrated.  I was unhappy in my job, which I had only held for four months.  I was looking for additional work, but was unable to get my foot in the door anywhere.  I had sent out hundreds of resumes, but had only been contaced by multi-level marketing scams.  I consider myself a pretty talented individual (and so humble, too!), but I wasn’t credentialed.  I had a BFA in Music Dance Theatre, and a scattered and random work history that was a direct result of the nomadic life of an actor.  I quickly realized that, while I could be very successful in the business world, I was going to need some more training and a few extra letters after my name to get my start, so I decided that it was time to return to school and get my MBA.

I also knew that I simply did not have the time, money, or desire to quit my job and go back to a regular brick and mortar institution.  Even in-person evening and weekend classes wouldn’t be a good fit for me.  I needed to find an online program that would provide me with the information I needed to progress in my job and, at the same time, allow me the flexibility to do my schoolwork on my own schedule. There are a plethora of online schools out there–some good, some little more than unaccredited degree mills.  Some were affiliated with regular brick and mortar universities, while others were for-profit ventures.  Some online programs required several on-campus visits during the year in addition to the online course work.  Finding one, and more importantly, the right one, was of paramount importance to me.

In the end, I settled upon one of three choices: Walden University, Capella University, and University of Phoenix.  All three were nationally accredited, were well-known, and while they are not on the same level as, say, Harvard Business School, all three seemed to have a fairly decent reputation.  UoP was the first school that I ruled out.  They were the most expensive, and they relied entirely on digital texts.  I had no intention of reading two years worth of business articles and textbooks on a computer screen.  I already spent 15 hours a day in front of computers, I wasn’t going to curl up with a laptop and a .PDF about Fiscal Policy in Indonesian textile manufactories.  The choice then came down to Capella and Walden.  Capella had a lower overall rating in the online review sites than did Walden, and the folks I interacted with at Capella acted more like sales people than enrollment advisors.  It just put me off a bit.  And again, it was more expensive especially because, at the time, tuition did not include the price of books.

In the end, I went with Walden.  I felt that their program was the most solid, the enrollment advisors didn’t come across as slick-tongued salesmen, it was the least expensive, and books were included in the price.  On top of that, I was able to get a 25% discount on tuition because my father was currently enrolled in the MBA program for Finance. What follows is a review of a Walden University MBA education based on my personal experiences and opinions.  Your mileage may vary.  And if it does, please say so in the comments.

Enrollment

The enrollment process was fairly easy.  An online form, a few faxes, an admissions essay, a couple of phone conversations with my enrollment advisor, and I was accepted in the program starting on September 2, 2007.  I had known early on that I wanted to specialize in Project Management, and was able to get some decent information about the coursework.  I had a solid GPA (3.45) from a major brick and mortar university, and several years of work experience, so getting accepted wasn’t an issue.  I honestly don’t know what percentage of people that apply are accepted or not.  I would imagine that, being a for-profit venture, Walden takes a much higher percentage of applicants than does a regular school.  Overall, I felt that perhaps the admission requirements weren’t stringent enough as it was obvious that several of my classmates had no business being in an MBA program at all.  These students were quickly weeded out after the first few classes however, but more on that later.

Walden didn’t require any testing like the GMAT for admission.  They did discuss the ability to “test out” of certain courses based on my work experience, but I felt that, being so new to the world of business, I would be better served by taking the entire program from the beginning to the end.

Financial Aid

All things considered, getting financial aid through Walden was no more or less difficult than it was when I attended BYU as an undergrad.  It’s the same set of hoops: FAFSA, Promissory Notes, etc.  Walden does its loans through Sallie Mae, while BYU did most of its loans through Nelnet.  My loans have not gone into repayment yet, so I have no insight into how it is to work with Sallie Mae.

Student loan funds for the school year are divided up into three segments, one for each trimester.  The loans for that trimester are dispersed to the school two weeks after the start of the semester.  Those funds are used to pay off tuition and fees, and then any excess amount will be dispersed to the student another 14 days after that.  I think it’s a little silly for the school to hold onto that money for so long, but the wait wasn’t onerous.  I took out the full amount of loans available to me, although they were not needed for tuition. 

The Classes

The classes at Walden are a combination of your standard MBA fare: Marketing, IT Management, Global Business, Accounting, Finance, etc.  Keeping in mind that I have very little in way of comparison between the classes as offered by Walden and similar courses offered at other Universities, I felt that overall, these classes ranged from mediocre to pretty good.  Rarely were they stellar, and with only two exceptions, none were terrible. 

In addition to the standard business-type classes offered, there are a few courses which pander directly to Walden’s overwrought (and over-repeated) desire to create a group of what they call “Scholar-Practitioners”.  The first two courses of the program are designed to give an overview of the program and train students on how to use the Internet and the course system as established by Walden.  These intro classes were, for me, an epic waste of both time and money.  One was little more than a beginner’s level course on how to use email, the Internet, and how to send attachments.  For someone who has been using the Internet since 1993, the class was useless. 

The second intro course, which ran concurrent to the internet skills class, was an even more effective at flushing money down the toilet.  The entire eight week course was spent reading the Walden University mission statement, vision statement, educational goals, academic integrity policies, pledging allegiance to the Walden spirit, and electronically holding hands and while skipping through wildflower meadows and singing Kumbaya. The class was little more than a giant pep rally. It felt like a brainwashing seminar ensuring that all students believed in and could recite, from memory, the mantras and incantations of a business program that has been overtaken by a bunch of a new-age education professors who had spent few too many of their formative years in the 60s.  I wouldn’t have minded these first two courses so much if they had been a two or three week introduction, and had been free.  But as they were “for credit,” took eight weeks, and were charged at full price, I was exceptionally resentful that we spent our time talking about garbage like that and not actually working on learning real business principles.

The next batch of classes were the “soft sciences” of the business world: human resources, leadership, etc.  They were interesting, and the reading was often very informative, but it felt a little strange being graded on such abstract principles.  Overall, I felt as though the grading in these early classes was too lenient, as the quality of writing and discourse among students was less-than-stellar. 

After that, we began to move into the slightly more quantifiable skills: business strategy, global business, marketing, etc.  The hard sciences followed: IT Management, Accounting, Finance.

Then, after 16 months of general MBA courses, you FINALLY are able to begin working on your specialization classes—in my case, project management.   For each specialization, there are two courses, each lasting eight week.  That’s right.  Of a 22-month program, only four months were spent on specialization.  (And you wonder why I resented having to take the pep rally classes at the beginning of my program.)  Had I been allowed to focus more on my Project Management Courses, I feel that I would have left the program with a much more valuable education.

The final course in the MBA program is the capstone course.  It is during this course that you complete your program project ( a sort of “thesis” for your time in the program, which will be discussed later), and in which you do a whole-business simulation called Capsim.

The classes in the Walden MBA were a mixed bag.  Some were exceptionally helpful and informational.  Others were epic in their ability to waste time.  I don’t believe that this phenomenon is unique to Walden, however.  Many who have completed MBAs in traditional brick and mortar schools feel as though they have experienced the same thing.  That being said, Walden’s emphasis on hand-holding, community building, and ego stroking hindered the potential that many of these classes had.  Walden’s School of Education is one of its largest, and you can see that school’s influence on the educational methods employed in the School of Business.  You can feel a lot of those touchy-feely roots coming out in the method of instruction and the overall ecosystem of the school.  I wanted less of that type of content, and far more of the actual business acumen for which I chose to attend the school in the first place.

How the Classes Work

This is the question that I am asked more than any other.  Many people simply don’t understand how it is possible to get a honest, complete education without in-person classroom instruction.  While I will admit there are a few times during the course of my program that I wished I could raise my hand and ask for clarification, I actually felt as though my ability to work at my own pace allowed me to take the time to learn what I most needed to know.  As a result, I could spend far less time on those things which came naturally or I deemed unimportant.  Being able to set my own pace was one of my favorite things about the program.  If I were going on vacation, I could work ahead.  If I had something come up at work, I could wait until the last minute to read the assignment.  Overall, it worked very well for me, but I’m good at self-pacing.  If you’re a procrastinator, you might want to reconsider an online program entirely.

Each course in the program is eight weeks long.  When you log into the classroom you are given an announcement board, the course syllabus, grading rubrics, a discussion forum to ask the instructor questions, and another to discuss with classmates about whatever.  Then each week is given its own set of sub pages: Resources, Discussion, and Application.  You are given a list of resources (articles, pages in the course text, videos, PowerPoint presentations, links, etc.) that you will be required to review and utilize in the week’s work.  For each week you are also given one or more forums for class discussion.  Here you post your responses to the discussion question posed and respond to your classmates’ posts in turn.  Each week you are also given an “Application.”  Often this is a paper, group project, presentation, or other task that must be turned in sometime during the week.

Most weeks proceed as follows.  On Day 1 (Monday) you gather the list of resources and begin reading, studying, researching.  By Day 3 (Wednesday), you are required to write a post in the discussion forum about the week’s topic, and referencing the week’s resource list.  Between days 3 and 5, you are to return to the forum and reply to several of your classmate’s posts with questions, comments, discussion topics, etc. Oftentimes, you will be given more than one discussion topic.  In such cases, the first DQ (Discussion Question) will be due on Days 3-5, and the second will be due on Days 4-6.  In addition to the group discussions, your assigned application for the week is usually due on Day 7 (Sunday). 

There is also a discussion forum which is set aside specifically for use in group projects and is visible only to members of your assigned group and the professor. 

The weekly breakdown usually goes something like this:

• Week 1 – Intro to topic and abstract discussion questions.  Assignment is usually fairly simple.
• Week 2 – Beginning of a resource avalanche – Discussion questions get more specific.  Group project starts
• Week 3 – Resource avalanche continues – DQ – Group Project deliverable is due for application.  Usually a draft.
• Week 4 – Resource avalanche winds down – DQ – Group Project continued
• Week 5 – Fewer Resources – 2 Discussion Questions – Group Project Final Deliverable
• Week 6 – Fewer Resources – 1 Discussion Question – Most complex application assignments usually due now
• Week 7 – Very few (if any) new resources – DQ – Program Project Assignment Due
• Week 8 – No New Resources – DQ (usually a wrap-up, summary type post where you discuss what you’ve learned) – The “Blueprint for Personal Growth” or BPPG

This formula varies very little between classes.  Sometimes you will have a group project that will last a little longer, sometimes a shorter one.  Sometimes your applications might be submissions to a simulation, sometimes they will be four page papers which are submitted to the instructor via the class dropbox.  They vary, but not significantly.

The other issue tends to be that these classes appear to be designed by committee, and appear not to be very tweakable by the individual professors.  This can exceptionally frustrating.  Education by committee is never the most efficient way of doing things, never results in the best possible educational experience, and ties the professors’ hands when they get a group of students who don’t necessarily learn in the same way.  It makes for a very uniform education, but it also hinders the teachers from really owning their lesson plans.  (I imagine that it also saves the company a fair bit of money because they know that they will be able to buy books in bulk at a discounted rate.)  It also causes problems because the classroom templates aren’t always kept up to date as the curriculum changes so links are broken, page numbers are incorrect, and documents are outdated.

As you can see from the way the courses are laid out, this is a program for those who are a) good a learning on their own, b) motivated to complete their assignments on time without prodding, and c) are smart enough to figure out difficult concepts without having to discuss the matter face to face with a professor.  For the most part, I preferred this method of learning to sitting in a classroom listening to a teach who is very smart but has the presentation skills of a salted slug.  The only major exception to this was during my accounting class, when I really needed to see the math drawn out logically on a white board with someone explaining the whats and whys.

Classmates

The quality of the classmates at Walden varied far more widely than I imagine they would in a traditional brick and mortar school.  Being an online university, as well as an executive program, I found that the demographics of the student body were widely varied.  I had classmates from across the United States, including several who had moved to the US from different countries.  (One of my classmates was even from Mongolia).  The diversity did allow for additional perspectives that perhaps one wouldn’t get otherwise. This is especially true since all of my classmates were working professionals in different industries and different stages of their lives.  There were young single folks, retired folks, middle-aged men and women with kids.  There were engineers, nurses, factory workers, a lot of military retirees, non-profit employees, etc.

However, despite the diversity of the student body, I found many of the students to be lacking in a certain level of base ability.  As mentioned previously, I believe that the admittance standards for Walden’s MBA program were simply too lax.  Nearly every class was replete with classmates who didn’t know how to write in complete sentences, spell, or make a cogent point in any of their writings.  Their analytical thinking and logic skills were, in many cases, non-existent.  This made meaningful classroom discussion next to impossible.  A GREAT majority of the students, for their discussion topics, posted simply-worded and regurgitated recaps of the surface points of the articles.  There was no synthesis of ideas, no well-researched or well-reasoned opinion forming.  Many of the students simply were not at MBA level, in my opinion.  In a discussion of debt and finance, one student responded to a long, well-researched point with the single sentence, “Taxes are the reason some people are poor.”  These students were often quite effective at murdering meaningful discussion.

This was especially evident in the early phases of the program.  It became blatantly apparent early on  in the coursework who was capable and who was not.  I found myself in the same classes with many of the same people, and I began to keep a metal tally of who I could work with, and who I would do my best to avoid.    If I was assigned to a group rather than being able to pick my own, I regularly “offered” (i.e., demanded) to be the person in charge of writing and/or editing the group’s final deliverable.  The lack of writing and editing skills in most of my classmates was staggering. 

Most of these less-than-ready students were weeded out over time.  By the end of my final several courses, the level of discourse had raised significantly, and I found that I was learning more and gaining more insight from my classmates.  I feel that, had Walden done a better job of screening its applicants, the classes found earlier in the program would have been significantly more effective.  However, as Walden is a for-profit company, there is very little incentive for the university to tighten down its admittance requirements.  The more students that they allow in, the more money they’ll make…even if they drop out early.  Meanwhile, those students who stick it out have to suffer through some frustration early courses.

The Teachers

Like most universities, including the major brick and mortar private school I attended for my undergrad, the teachers are hit or miss.  At BYU there were teachers to avoid, and teachers whose classes you tried to attend.  At Walden, the same situation takes place.  There are some professors who are quite good, and there are others who are truly terrible.  Unfortunately, when it comes to picking your teacher at Walden, you get no say.  You are automatically assigned to a section of the next class.  I never had to contact the university to request a change of section, so I have no idea if that’s possible.  I had a couple of teachers that, had I been assigned to their classes for a second time, I would have requested a change of section, but that did not occur.  I did have one teacher twice, but he was a good teacher, so I was glad to have him again.

As far as I could tell, every single one of my professors, save for one, had a PhD.  Some had their credentials for major universities.  One of my professors was a very prolifically published author, and head of a business department at a large state school.  He did a class or two at Walden in addition to his teaching load at the University.  Many of the professors, however, had PhD credentials through online universities, such as Walden.  The publish or perish mindset that is so prevalent in traditional academia seems to be largely absent in the online university experience, so many of the professors didn’t have significant research or authoring credits to their names.

However, it is a bit misleading to call Walden’s professors “teachers.”  Doing so would imply that these men and women are actually supposed to be doing any teaching.  This is a very false assumption.  The format of the classes as explained above leaves no real room for the professor to do any direct teaching.  Rather, the professor acts as a forum moderator.  He will watch the forums, respond to questions (sometimes) with varying levels of assistance, and will grade papers.  That’s it.  Certain professors try to be more involved in the discussion topics, and will provide additional sample papers, answer questions fully and clearly, and will even participate by providing new insights from their experience either in education or in the workforce.

A great majority of my teachers were pretty good.  There were a couple that were excellent.  I had two, however, who were not good.

One teacher had a major family medical emergency in the middle of the class, and simply disappeared for several weeks.  No notices were posted, no information passed along.  The class simply ran itself for three weeks with no feedback, no grades, no participation at all from the professor.  I eventually had to contact the university to complain and that’s when I discovered that this teacher was dealing with some other issues.  While I appreciate the difficult of a situation like that, simply disappearing is inappropriate and completely unprofessional.  If this had been a real university, someone would have been brought in to cover the class.  This was one of my specialization classes, and it was extremely important to me that I understand it, and not getting answers to questions for weeks at a time with no explanation is not what I expect for the amount of money I paid for the class.

My worst professor, however, is the single worst teacher I’ve had in my entire life.  It was in my accounting class—a topic that is difficult to understand in the best of circumstances.  In an online environment, it’s all the more difficult.  The students would ask the professor questions, and he would simply tell the student what page in the textbook he or she could find the answer…despite the fact that the student said they didn’t understand the textbook.  I actually sent this professor a question, and asked if it would be possible to discuss the issue on a phone call.  He responded to my question by saying, “Walden used to have conference calls where we could ask questions, but they stopped doing that.”  No answer, no offer of assistance, no phone call.  If I hadn’t had a father who had graduated from the same program several months earlier, I don’t know that I would have ever gotten through this particular class.  He behaved the same way with all of the students.  He wasn’t only worthless as a teacher, he was even worthless as a moderator.

These two teachers were the exception, however, and not the rule.  Generally, the teachers tried to do the best they could within the constraints of the classroom structure that Walden has set up for them.  The professor’s inability to cater their classroom to the learning needs of the students means that they are often stuck acting as babysitters and classroom aides than actual professors.  Considering the amount of education that many of these individuals have gone through, I imagine it has to be relatively frustrating to do no actual teaching.

The Texts

One of the nicest things about Walden, in comparison to many of the other online schools that I evaluated is that they use real books, not digital texts, and that the price of those books is included in the price of the program.  The books and other resources simply arrive via UPS about five to seven days prior to the start of a new semester.  (Digital texts would be good to use if the school provided students with a Kindle, but they don’t, and the prospect of reading 150 pages a week of a textbook on my computer screen makes my eyes hurt just thinking about it. 

In the first week, you often rely heavily on a Walden-produced DVD which includes several introductory videos by paid actors who stand in front of a green screen and read from a teleprompter.  The videos are decently produced but largely lacking in any valuable information.  They are often along the lines of “during this course, you’re going to learn” blah, blah blah.  I don’t really need a talking head telling me what I’m going to learn.  I’d just as soon start learning it.  After the first couple of courses, I stopped referring to these DVDs altogether.  The DVDs often contain video clips of interviews with various business leaders, etc.  Eventually I stopped watching those as well because I found that they didn’t provide significant value either.

The DVD is playable in a regular standalone DVD player, but it also serves as a DVD-ROM.  The computer-accessible portion of the DVD will often contain PowerPoint or PDF presentations with media (audio or video) embedded in them.  As often happen in real life (unfortunately) the media clip will be of a professor who will often read the slide to you as though you were illiterate.  (Semi-related rant: when will people who user PowerPoint begin to realize that you should never simply read the slide out loud?  If you’re not going to explain above and beyond the slide, then send out an email.  This is a lesson the presenters for Walden could have learned well.) The presentation value of these materials is pretty lackluster–not to mention the fact that Walden regularly breaks copyright laws by using unlicensed and watermarked clip art from sites like iStockPhoto in their presentations—ironic considering how much time they spend in the rah-rah classes talking about ethics, copyright, and plagiarism.

In addition to the DVD and the PDF/PowerPoint decks, most courses utilize a course textbook.  Many of these texts are published, recognized books which would be used at any major university.  In particular, the textbooks for accounting, project management, and IT Management were very useful.  Several of the assigned books are special, reduced editions of the full book which are specially printed for Laureate Education, Inc (Walden’s parent company), which makes reselling them practically impossible.  I had no instances of using books written by my professors, which is not surprising considering the lack of focus on Walden Professors publishing in the academic world.  Occasionally, the soft sciences classes utilized self-help books or those fuzzy, feel good books you’d find in the business section of the local Barnes and Noble.  Some of them are worthwhile, many are not.  A few books, like Keith Ferazzi’s “Never Eat Alone” or Margaret J. Wheatley’s atrocious “Finding our Way” were so bad that they made me hostile every time I sat down to force myself to swallow their tripe.  Ferrazzi advocates a merging of the work/life relationships that justifies spending every waking hour of your life working…a theory I disagree with wholeheartedly.  Wheatley’s book is so gag-inducingly, horrifyingly awful that I can’t even begin to describe how bad it is.

Lastly, nearly every class relies heavily on peer-reviewed articles published in recognized academic journals.  The Walden Library has access to tens of thousands of journals and databases, so finding what you need is often quite easy and convenient.  It is from these articles that most of the truly valuable learning takes place in the program.  The chosen articles are from some of the most important names in the academic business field, and pull from some of the leading publication such as the Harvard Business Review, Journal of Management, etc. 

The Homework

Let me just get this out of the way right up front.  If you don’t like to write, or are not good at writing, do not even consider getting your degree through Walden.  Because of the structure of the classes as described above, nearly everything that you do for your entire program will be centered around writing.  You must write discussion posts, responses to your classmates, short essays, longer papers, a massive program project, etc., etc., etc.  My Microsoft Word got more of a workout during the last 22 month than it ever has before, and probably never will again unless I start writing a novel for NaNoWriMo.  One of the saving graces for me in this program was that I like writing.  I write fast, I write pretty well, if I say so myself, and I am able to quickly synthesize the ideas in my reading into a coherent and seemingly well-considered post.

Most of the time, homework breaks down along the lines described above under the layout of the courses.  You write one or more discussion topics each week.  Mine usually totaled a full page or page and a half of text in Word, but it was pretty apparent that my posts were easily the longest in most of my courses.  Many students got away with doing a couple of paragraphs or a sentence or two.  (Personally, I found the level of many of these discussion posts to be inadequate, but apparently, the professors didn’t mind.)  Even in my last course, one particular student generally posted discussion topics of only one or two sentences.  It’s pretty hard to write a response to a classmate whose discussion of a complex topic results in two poorly formed sentences. 

I’ll discuss working in group more later, but suffice it to say that most of the group work centered around writing as well.

For some of the math-based courses, such as Accounting and Finance, there is writing as well, but they generally involved far more problem solving.  You will often need to use Excel to do calculations, which you will then paste into word and submit.  But for the rest of the classes, it’s all about the writing.

Simulations

One of the most enjoyable parts of the entire Walden educational experience were those classes in which we got to use online business simulators to apply the principles we’d learned in class to a “real life” scenario.  During the course of my program, I participated in three simulations: one for Marketing, one for Project Management, and one in the final course which was a capstone experience covering R&D, Marketing, Production/Operations, Finance, and overall Business Strategy.  These simulators were quite fun.  They reminded me a lot of the old Lemonade Stand game for the Apple IIe, but significantly more advanced.  I could easily say that I learned the most from the simulation experiences, and found a great deal of applicability in their practice.

Specialty Classes

Walden’s MBA program allows for specializations in addition to the general MBA courses.  There are several: Human Resources, IT Management, Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Project Management, Entrepreneurship, etc.  Of the 12 courses required for graduation from the program, only two of the courses are toward the specialization.  My Project Management courses were some of my favorite courses in my program because I felt like I was finally getting an opportunity to work on the stuff that really interested me.  Plus, by the time we had gotten to that point in the program, most of my classmates who weren’t prepared for being in a strenuous MBA program had moved on to different specializations or dropped out of the University. 

Overall, I wish that a greater amount of time had been spent working on the classes directly related to my specialty, and that the classes had been spread throughout the program, rather than just crammed in at the end.  I found several of the general classes to be significantly less beneficial than those leading toward my specialization.

Additionally, I wish that Walden would have structured their specialization classes to lead students toward achieving their certifications.  For instance, it would have been fairly simple to rework the project management classes so that, at the end of your time in the specialization classes, you would be prepared to take the test to get your certifications from PMI and/or ASAPM. 

Working in Groups

I hate working in groups.  I always have.  I find that I get my work done faster, better, and with far less annoyance or frustration than I do with a group.  Walden does not agree with me, however.  In some of the early classes, students are indoctrinated on the importance of working in groups.  In the real world, group work is important, and so at least a small portion of every class is dedicated to working in groups.  Usually, the members of the class are assigned to a group of four or five students.  The students have the ability to send messages back and forth in the group’s discussion forum, and have access to the in-class chat feature as well. 

In theory, I agree that learning the skills of group interaction is important.  In practical application, Walden’s group methodology left a great deal to be desired.  First, Walden, hosting students from around the country/world, makes very little concession for where students live and the time differences involved.  I live in the Seattle area on the west coast.  Most of my classmates were on the east coast, three hours ahead of me.  I normally don’t get home from work until 6PM, at which time I have to get something to eat and take the dog out for a walk.  By the time I’m ready to start working on my homework, it’s 7:30 Pacific Time, but 10:30 Eastern time, and most of my group mates were in bed or winding down their days.  Were our schooling a job, we would be able to make the time to get on the phone or chat online, but since most of us had jobs already, those had to take precedence.   So, instead, we used our group forum to hold “discussions.”  This was severely less effective.  What usually ended up happening is that each person would get on and post their own thoughts, then someone would volunteer to combine them into a single document (which was usually disjointed and aimless) and submit it for the group.

This not only did not teach us real life group interaction skills, it helped to highlight the overwhelming incompetence or lack of commitment of some of the students.  Many group members would include posts that weren’t even related to the topic at hand.  If they would post at all.  Many group members’ writing skills were so poor that I felt I had to act as the compiler and/or editor before submitting the paper.  I had to work had to ensure that my hands were the last ones on the school work before it was submitted because otherwise, the quality of the work would be so poor as to be embarrassing. 

I truly do understand why Walden wants to include group work in its curriculum.  Unfortunately, the reality of working in a group in a online environment such as this is that it is not particularly easy to accomplish well.  As a result, group work was something of a joke among students.  Those of us who wanted desperately to learn found ourselves doing the absolute minimum in the groups because overall the experience was so frustrating and negative.

Program Project

One of the wisest things that the designers of this MBA program did was to create the MBA Program Project.  As Walden’s program is an executive MBA program, there is very little emphasis on true research.  There is no thesis to write or defend, as a fully researched and defended thesis would be fairly useless in the workaday business world.  Instead, students spend nearly their entire program writing their Program Project. 

For your project, the student has one of two options:  He can write a fully fleshed-out business plan for a new business enterprise, or he can write a business plan/analysis of an already existing business.  Most students opt to write a plan for a new business because a) it is easier since you don’t have to do the in-depth analysis of a company’s financial records and b) you can adjust your strategy to be the kind of business that you would like to run.  During my tenure at the University, I came across the whole gamut of original business plans: mobile video gaming company, tanning salons, personal shoppers, insurance companies, Target, electrical engineering firms, day care, masonry, etc.  My own project was for a business that records backing tracks for theaters that don’t use live orchestras.  It was roughly based on the business that I started with a friend several years ago, but adapted based on my experiences and far more in-depth than we ever went.

The way that the Project was incorporated into the program was relatively impressive as well.  For each class, the seventh week’s application was dedicated to the program project.  You took the information you learned in that particular class and used that information to write a new section of your program project.  The brilliance of this idea is that you are able to write each section of your business plan while that information is fresh in your mind.  Once each new section was written, you would post the updated section in the class discussion forum for the week to get feedback from your classmates, and you would turn the updated paper into the teacher, along with a copy of your document from the previous course so the professor could see what/how much you added.

In the final course, the first few weeks are dedicated entirely to the final updates and edits to your plan.  You are put in  groups and asked to peer review the papers of all your group’s members.  You review your paper and make sure it is cohesive and well written, then you turn in the final paper by the third week of the last class. 

My final paper was nearly 80 pages, included a full business plan, a set of five-year pro forma financial statements, marketing segmentation and strategy, financing, legal, ethical, and HR concerns, etc.  I felt as though, in addition to the simulations, this was perhaps the most valuable thing I did at Walden.  It allowed for the synthesis of the course concepts and resulted in a product that I am very proud of.  It’s a good business plan.  I would feel comfortable taking my plan into a bank in order to try to obtain funding…assuming that I was interested in actually running this particular business again.  It also gave me a great deal of insight into some of the issues that I needed to consider when I did actually start my new business, Open Book Audio.

I got 100% on every iteration of my program project from the beginning of my time at Walden.  The final version also got a 100%.  When I get home from vacation, I will like a PDF version so you can see what was done.  (Keep in mind that you absolutely will not want to plagiarize my work.  Walden will kick you out—they are very strict on plagiarism.  And considering that everything you turn in is already in digital format, it makes it relatively simple to check.)

Blueprint for Personal Growth

If the Program Project lays at one end of the usefulness spectrum, the Blueprint for Personal Growth (BPPG) lies at the other. The eighth week of each course is set aside for writing several new pages in your BPPG.  The BPPG is a self-reflection paper where you discuss what you’ve learned, how you plan on applying it to your daily life, and how ethics plans into what you’ve learned.  It’s the sort of new age, touchy-feely, self-absorbed claptrap that educators come up with to make them feel as though they’re teaching you something when you’re not actually learning anything new or gaining any new insight.  I considered these BPPG to be a massive time suck.  Most of the time, I BS’ed my way through four or five pages of self-reflective drivel.  In addition to being pointless, the per-course BPPG criteria were poorly explained and the grading applied to them was never constant.  Some professors would dock points for not including references while the questions were things like, “Why is the ethical management of technology important to you in your life.”  How am I supposed to source that?  Use myself as a reference?  Other professors wouldn’t dock any points at all for lack of references.

The creators of the program had this mistaken idea that the students would want to use the BPPG as proof of the educational progress that they had made, and as a sample of our abilities as a direct result of our education.  They suggested that we make backups of our BPPG, including hard copies.  I, for one, can guarantee that my BPPG will never see the light of day again.  It was 22 months of lame diatribe, pounded out on a keyboard as quickly as humanly possible.  It contains absolutely no real value for me, and I would sooner poop on my resume than send my completed BPPG to a prospective employer.

The Library

A great number of the documents that you use as resources for your schooling come directly from the Walden University.  For the business program, you will spend most of your time in the Business Source Premiere database.  This online database utilizes the EBSCO search engine.  A large number of documents are available as .PDF or text files.  The database can email you the documents and can even provide you with a correctly formatted APA citation for use in your reference pages.  The library is fairly simple to use, and I never had difficulties with finding the articles that I was assigned, though some of my classmates did.  (If you’re not well versed on search protocol for academic libraries, it can take a little getting used to.)

The library also has a document delivery service, for those items which aren’t available as full text through the databases.  Unfortunately, my experience with Walden was that it would have taken so long to get the articles that, by the time I would have received them, the assignment would be several days or weeks late.  When your assignments are weekly rather than long-term, having documents delivered to you is simply not feasible.  So, you are limited only to documents that you can get in full text from the online databases, or that you can get from local or nearby college libraries. 

Overall Evaluation – The Value of a Walden MBA

While I was in school, I talked about my MBA a lot.  Partly because it was consuming such a large portion of my time, partly because I wanted to make sure everybody remembered I was getting my MBA (and would therefore be learning valuable new things which would help to facilitate a promotion and/or raise when I was finished), and partly to reinforce in everyone’s mind how much work was involved in achieving my degree.  Often, when I would bring up my MBA experience, people would ask me, “Where are you going?”  When I would explain that I was getting my degree through Walden, and that it was an online-only program, some people would seem interested, some dismissive, some apathetic.  Despite what the recruiters at Walden or any other online-only school not associated with a Brick and Mortar University may tell you, there still is a bit of a stigma attached to going to a for-profit, online-only school.  That stigma is fast diminishing, but it is still there to a certain extent. 

Whether or not that stigma is deserved is another question altogether.  Walden is a regionally and nationally accredited school.  It has passed certification by several different certification organizations.  Yes, it is a for-profit venture, but it is still a real school.  It isn’t a degree mill.  It also isn’t easy.  For 22 straight months, I spent between 10 and 20 hours a week reading resources, writing papers, responding to discussion posts, and running simulations.  Certain aspects of the education were quite simple for me.  Others were extremely difficult.  Learning complex accounting and finance principles from a textbook without the benefit of classrooms or attentive teachers is extremely difficult.  If I had not had access to a family member who had completed the same program seven month earlier than me, than I would have had a much harder time of it. 

An MBA from Walden University is not, nor will it ever be, comparable to an MBA from Harvard Business School.  It seems unlikely that someone will graduate from Walden with an MBA and go immediately from waiting tables to working at a huge wall-street brokerage making a $500,000 salary and multi-million dollar bonuses (although almost nobody is doing that in this economy).  This is an executive MBA program, meant specifically for people who are already working.  The skills and knowledge that make up this program are honed more specifically for people who are already in the workplace—people who want to get a raise or a promotion, who find to find a better job, or make something more of their lives.  In that respect, Walden is more valuable for the knowledge it imparts than its credential.  Yes, having an MBA on a resume looks impressive, regardless of what school granted it.  But an MBA from Walden will not be the same as an MBA from the top-ranked business schools in the country.

A Walden MBA is also not really suited for academic use.  Following the completion of my Walden MBA, I would not feel comfortable jumping into a PhD program in business at a brick and mortar school.  Nor, I believe, would a PhD from Walden be good enough to help land a teaching position at most brick and mortar business schools.  The audience and purpose of an education through a vehicle like Walden is just too different.

Does my Walden MBA have value?  Absolutely.  On completion of my program, I received a nearly 20% raise and a promotion.  I was also interviewing at the time, and was called into interviews during this very difficult economy due to my MBA.  I understand and can speak the language of business now.  I thought I understood what was going on before, but I always had a difficult time explaining myself or justifying my business decisions because I couldn’t speak the same language everyone else was speaking.  That has been the greatest value to me.  The skills I’ve acquired have come in handy all along as I was finishing classes.  The act of reanimating my brain, of working out my learning muscles, has also been of exceptional value, as it has helped me to keep sharp and learn new skills on the job as well.

I have also found a great deal of value in the hard work of it all.  When I clicked my submit on my final paper, I nearly cried because it was like such a weight was instantly relieved.  I worked really hard during the last two years, and my schooling ruled my life.  I had no time for friends, for cooking, for cleaning.  It was work and school, work and school.  So anyone who things that a degree from Walden is a walk in the park is completely wrong.  It’s hard work, and I learned a lot.

I am under no delusion that a resume credential for Walden is the end all and bee all of educational pursuits.  That being said, immediately upon graduation, I am instantly at the average starting salary for an MBA graduate.  Not bad, considering I’ve only been in the business world for two years.  And my placement on the salary scale is, I think, a pretty good indication of the value of a Walden MBA.  It’s valuable, but not the most valuable.  It’s a prestigious credential, but not the most prestigious.  It’s a good education, but not the best education.  It’s better than average, but not by a whole lot.

Am I glad that I went to Walden?  Absolutely.  Would I do it again?  Well, I have no intention of EVER going back to school for another degree as long as I live, but if I had known then what I know now, yes, I probably would have gone through the Walden MBA process again.  It allowed me to work a demanding job, to work on my own time, and spend my focus on those topics which were most valuable and important for me.  Overall, I would consider Walden a good experience that could be improved, and my degree a very good, hard-earned degree which has helped me transition into the world of business much more smoothly.

So, that’s it.  11 courses down.  1 to go.  Then I will have my MBA, and I will be done with school.  It’s so close that I could cry, but seems so far away that I think I just started to cry.  *Sob*  It still feels just out of reach.

(By the way, this is one of the best animated shorts EVER!)

You know, when I graduated from BYU with a degree in being poor Music Dance Theatre, I didn’t understand what all the hoopla was about.  Why was everyone crying and hugging and getting expensive presents from family members.  I mean, what was the big deal?  It was just college.  I suppose I didn’t realize at the time that my feelings were because I had just spent five years playing.  I didn’t have to exert myself (mentally, at least) to be an MDT major.  I just had to show up to class…and I had a hard time doing that.  Getting a degree in MDT didn’t feel like any kind of accomplishment at all.  (Plus, I didn’t get a big, expensive graduation present like a lot of my friends, so I was bitter about that.)

This time, though, I will celebrate when I graduate.  I won’t be flying to Dallas, or Minneapolis, or wherever they’re holding my commencement because, by that time, I will have had to start paying off my accumulated $70,000 in student loan debt *shudder*, and a thousand dollars for a flight, car rental, hotel, and food to walk across the stage without my family even being there just doesn’t seem like a good use of money.  Plus I will have used all my vacation for the year by then. (Coming to Utah for 9 days–June 26th through July 5).  But the instant I turn in my final paper, I’m going to celebrate.  Don’t know how, but I will.

I can’t wait.

I will NOT be doing any work from home this weekend.  I don’t care if the Xbox Live and Zune video marketplaces suddenly develop into a sentient being, infiltrate the world’s computer networks, and try to take over the world by forcing everyone on the internet to watch episode after episode of A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila and The Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious (motto: “Inside every woman is a Pussycat Doll”–man I wish I was making that up).  I don’t care if the building in which I normally work is burning down.  I don’t care if the company was descended upon a aliens, and the only way I could save the human race would be to come into the office and publish an episode of One Tree Hill.  I would let everyone I have ever known or loved be devoured by little green men before I set foot in that office.

But fortunately, I don’t think it will come to that.

Instead, I’m going to have my very first guitar lesson ever.  That’s right, for the first time since I was 16 years old, I am voluntarily taking music lesson for which I will not get graded or receive class credit.  I’m paying for them with my own money instead of Stafford Loans.  I figured it was finally time.  I’m stuck on the same five or six pages in the third guitar theory book (you know, the ones that I keep saying I’m going to complete before the end of the year?) and I have been for several weeks now.  So now, every weekend, I get to go to the mall with my guitar and take lessons.  I hope the teacher is actually good, and not some 20-year-old punk rocker named “Digger” who things that because he knows how to play a few power chords that he also knows how to teach. 

Why the mall, you ask?  Two reasons: the music store from which I purchased both of my guitars is in the mall, and it’s a great music store, so I like to bring them my patronage.  It’s the kind of store where they actually remember your name, where the folks are knowledgeable, and they go out of their way to help.  The other reason is that I am completely addicted to Red Mango frozen yogurt, and the closest Red Mango is in the mall.  Seeing as how I have been at the mall every single weekend since the beginning of the year to get my regular weekend treat (Red mango, and a single Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookie), I figured I might as well do something productive while I was there. 

In completely unrelated news, I very recently began playing the stock market.  I have a 401k through my work, which is invested conservatively and for the long haul.  But my recent business school training got me excited about the possibility of using my money to make me even more money, so I have done that.  And, I have to say, I have done AMAZINGLY well thus far.  In fact, I have made an 87% return on my investment in less than six weeks.   I know, right?  Unfortunately, my investment was only $400, but still.  An 87% return in this economy?  I’m just a little proud of myself right now.  I’ve discovered that investing is just as much about understanding group psychology as it is about reading a business’ quarterly reports.  A share of a company is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and in this market, the prices people are willing to pay have less to do with what the company is really worth and more to do with what people are afraid of.  So, I’ve been finding stocks which are fundamentally pretty strong, but which people are afraid of, and I buy those.  So far it has worked.

I’m surprised how much fun investing is.  I thought it would be torture, but it’s actually quite enjoyable.  Of course, having significant returns has got to be helping that sensation.  I imagine if I had lost 87% of my money, I wouldn’t be feeling quite as giddy…

So this weekend, it’s homework, a little website design for a project that I’ve been alluding to lately, and sleep.  And a guitar lesson.  And maybe a stock purchase or two. 

Goodness, I have the strangest way of relaxing.

In May of 2003, I finally did what I had been threatening to do on and off for seven years.  I graduated from college with the second most worthless degree of all time–a BFA in Music Dance Theatre.  (The first, of course, being a degree in art history.)  As part of the graduation requirements, all graduating seniors were required to participate in a senior showcase.  It was, in essence, a 30-45 minute show that allowed the graduating students to show off their newly acquired skills and audition for theatre agents.  2003 was the first year that the university had ever attempted such a thing, and so the process had been long, arduous, and often annoying.  The biggest problem with putting together what was essentially a variety show for a bunch of graduating musical theatre students was that you had to spend time around a bunch of musical theatre students. 

For those who don’t know about theatre students, let me give you a little primer.  There are four rules you must keep in mind about actors:

1. They’re crazy 
2. They’re LOUD
3. They’re emotional train wrecks–all of them.
4. They always need to be center of attention

At my school, these prerequisites to being in the MDT program were also heightened by an intense sense of competition and judgementalism that make the Pharisees of old look downright accepting.  Everyone wanted to be the star of the show, everyone wanted to be noticed, and everyone wanted to be signed by an agent so they could go directly from college to Broadway and be famous actors and actresses.  So, we spent two full semesters, five hours a week, picking material, rehearsing it, and trying to weave it together in a clever, but not overly theatrical manner.

I don’t have an objective enough remembrance of that time to determine if the show we created was any good or not.  Knowing what I know now about theatre, my guess is no, it probably wasn’t very good, even though we thought that the world would be stupid not to hire each and every one of us (except maybe two or three people who were only there for pity’s sake.  I told you.  Judgmental.)  I can tell you this, however.  These were people we had known since we started the program together.  These were people we had been in the same classes with for years.  These were people we had rehearsed with in shows and done projects with for class.  These were people who drove us crazy.  And now we were all thrown together.

The day after graduation, I along with the other seventeen actors and our chaperones, documentary crew, and other assorted hangers on, hopped on a plane to New York.  We left at the butt-crack of dawn on a Sunday morning.  With a loud group of theater performers, sleeping on a plane is next to impossible.  So, some of us chatted away, a few of the boys flitted to the back of the plane to flirt with the male flight attendant, and I tried, unsuccessfully to read my book.  We got to New York and checked into the hotel–a Days Inn that, if memory serves me correctly, was on 8th Avenue in Manhattan.

I had never been to New York before.  I know some people just feel alive in the city.  For me, New York was not pleasant.  The hotel, which cost us an arm and a leg, was dirty and run down.  Despite being on the 14th floor, the sounds of the street were so cacophonous and raucous  that sleep was an impossibility.  And, to make matters worse, I was sharing a hotel room with three other men: one I didn’t care for, one I loathed, and one toward whom I was rather indifferent.  We had to shared queen-sized beds, something I’m not used to.  The air conditioner was “less-effective.”  It stank, it was noisy, and a had to sleep in the same bed with another man I hardly knew.  Not the best experience I’ve ever had, I have to say.

The next morning, the real whirlwind started.  We got up, had a dance class, had some free time to run around the city, then we had to get ready for our first showcase.  It bombed.  Well, that’s not fair.  It went fine.  There just wasn’t anyone there.  I think the showcase drew one, maybe two, agents.  We left the “theatre” (I use that term loosely.  It was more like a room that could seat 20) somewhat dejected.  Tuesday, same story.  Class, city time, prepare for the show.  This time, NO agents came.  It was awesome.  Wednesday was Broadway day.  I caught the matinee of Urinetown and the evening show of Thoroughly Modern Millie.  Then we had dinner at a Thai restaurant.  Thursday, I walked about 15 miles trying to find a pair of tap shoes because I wanted to go to the open call auditions of Millie, but hadn’t brought my shoes along.  Found the shoes, took the train to Chelsea, and sat around for three hours until they told us there was no way we would get into the auditions because we weren’t members of Equity, the actor’s union.  We did some more sight seeing, visited Ground Zero, went on a couple of tours of some of the Broadway theaters, then it was back to the hotel.

During this time, I was riding an emotional roller coaster.  I hated New York, I loved New York.  I wanted to be an actor, I never wanted to do theatre again.  I was surrounded by people who I loved, but who were driving me crazy.  It was like going to an extended family reunion, putting everyone on speed, and then asking them to share a hotel room for a week.  My bedmate snored, my other roommates talked late into the night, or came in at ungodly hours.  I was lucky to get three or four hours of sleep a night.  Then during the day, I was running all over creation, trying to find my way around, scared that I would get raped in some alley and end up as a “ripped from the headlines” inspiration for an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.  It was flat-out exhausting.

After our short New York jaunt, the church (who owns the university) asked our group if we would be willing to fly to Washington DC to perform for a special open house that was being held for international diplomats by the church.  For a proselytizing church, good relationships with foreign governments is exceptionally important.  This trip was a last minute addition to our itinerary, and in true cheap Mormon fashion, the church asked local members to serve as host families, taking as many performers in our group as possible so they wouldn’t have to pay for so many hotel rooms.  

The house I stayed at was breathtaking.  Think modern southern plantation.  It was in a wealthy area of Virginia on a huge plot of wooded land.  Huge columns flanking the door.  Perfectly manicured lawns and flower beds.  Just stunning.  The patriarch of the family that owned the house was a “General Authority,” somewhat equivalent to a bishop responsible for a regional arch diocese.  There were several extra rooms, so they had been willing to host five of us.  We arrived very late at night, after the house had gone to bed.  We were shown to our rooms.  Each of us had our own room, except for two of the guys, who shared a room with two queen-sized beds.  My room was at the back of the house on the third floor.  It was pitch black outside, the house was silent.  The California King bed was covered with a deep feather mattress cover, and all of the linens were crisp white.  The room was frigid, which is just to my liking, and the bedspread was a heavy, dense, white feather comforter.  It was heaven.  I kicked off my shoes, put on my PJs, and climbed into bed. 

Now, I have to pause in the narrative for a moment to explain something.  I don’t sleep well.  I never have.  I’m a very light sleeper–I need complete darkness and complete quiet.  I always wake up before my alarm, when I hear someone walking the door, when the sun even thinks about starting to rise.  It’s common that I awake at least once in the middle of the night to use the restroom or get a drink of water.  This is my normal state of sleep and has been for my entire life.

That night in the plantation, however, I crashed.  Hard.  Very uncharacteristically, my eyes were closed before my head hit the pillows and I was out.  I remember it being the most peaceful, dreamless, deep, relaxing sleep I’ve ever had without the use of prescription opiates.

I was awakened suddenly at about 6:30 in the morning, however.  Very suddenly.  I laid in bed for a moment, trying to focus my mind and discover what had caused such an abrupt change.  I was exceptionally warm and comfortable.  In fact, I was a little too warm.  And, I gradually realized, wet.  How did I get wet?  Then it dawned on me.  I ripped back the covers to find that I had peed the bed.  Peed. The. Bed.  At the age of 25.  PEED THE BED!  And, I have to say, it wasn’t just a trickle or a little leak.  Niagara Falls had nothing on me that morning.  My PJs were soaked, and, even worse, the heavy down mattress cover was drenched.

There are certain times in a person’s life where, no matter what kind of training or preparation they have had, they find themselves ill-equipped to handle the situation at hand.  Such was the state I found myself in at that time.  Here I was: a 25 year old college graduate on a trip with my fellow alumni, representing the University, staying as a guest at the home of a highly-placed and extremely wealthy family.  And I had just dehydrated myself trying to irrigate the mattress.  What is a person to do?

I got out of bed, and changed my clothes, leaving my soiled clothes in the sink of the en suite bathroom.  Then I pulled off the comforter, which had, thankfully, been spared due to the fact that I sleep on my stomach, and stripped the bed of the mattress cover and sheets.  Those rested on the tile floor of the bathroom while I spent the next ten minutes pacing around the room, freaking out, and trying to decide what the HELL I was going to do.  The first course of action I decided on was to do what any self-respecting man in my situation would do.  I called my mommy.  Or, more accurately, I tried to call my mommy.  See, this plantation was WAAAAY out in the boonies, and my little T-Mobile cell phone didn’t get reception.  So that was out.  Then I thought I would try to ask my friends Rob and Tom for their advice, but they were asleep. And besides, I did really want to ask other 25 year old guys what to do about peeing the bed?  (Answer: no.)

Finally, I decided I would see if I could find the family’s laundry room and just take care of the problem myself.  I prowled around the third and second floors of the house trying not to make any noise and seeing if I could find any laundry facilities.  There were a couple of problems with this scenario.  First, I had never been in this house before.  I was a little weird to be sneaking around in a stranger’s house trying to find a laundry room.  Second, I couldn’t open any of the doors, because I had no idea which rooms were the laundry rooms and which were, oh, I don’t know, occupied bedrooms.  Third, I was certain if I did find the laundry room, the noise of starting up the washing machine would be sure to rouse a family member who would undoubtedly wonder why this complete stranger was wandering around their house and using their washing machine without asking.  But it was the only thing my increasingly mortified mind could think of.

Eventually, I decided that I wasn’t going to have any luck on the second or third floors, so I headed down to the ground floor.  As I came down the stairs I found the woman of the house in the mammoth kitchen cooking a gigantic breakfast for all of us.  (By the way, it is from this woman that I learned how to make the forever sublime Baked French Toast.)  I stepped into the room and she looked up. 

“Oh, you must be one of the boys from BYU who’ll be staying with us for a couple of days.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.  I figured since I was in the south, I should probably use the local parlance.  “My name is Matt Armstrong.”

“Nice to meet you Matt.  Breakfast will be ready in about 30 minutes.”

“Oh, that was nice of you.  You didn’t have to get up early to make us breakfast.”

“Early?  I’m always up this early.  My husband’s an early riser.  We’ll be having baked french toast.”

It was difficult attempting to carry on small talk with a complete stranger while, at the same time, trying to determine how best to ask her to use her washing machine to clean the urine-soaked bedding that was still festering on the floor of the bathroom upstairs in my room.  I’ve had few experiences that were quite as surreal as that one.  Eventually, after a little more talk about the breakfast menu, I broached the subject.

“Would you mind terribly if I used your washing machine?” I asked, purposefully leaving out the reason for the request.  I was still hoping to save at least of modicum of face.

“Oh, of course not.  It’s downstairs in the basement.”  Of course it is.

“Great, thanks,” I said, starting to head back up the stairs, wondering how I was going to carry her own bedding past her in the kitchen without letting her know what I was doing.

“What do you need to wash?,” she asked as she was scraping freshly pureed raspberries from her garden through a wire mesh sieve to remove the seeds from the juice and pulp. 

My heart sank.  Well, it was time.  Time to own up the to inevitability of my humiliation like a man.  A man who can’t control his bladder.

“Well…umm…see, the thing is…” I stammered.  “I was…well…really tired and I…umm…well…I,” this was getting painful.  “I had a little accident.”

She paused her scraping for just the shortest of moments, and tried frantically to wipe the shocked expression from her face.  Not completely succeeding, she bend back over her sieve and tried to suppress a smile.

“Oh.  Of course.  These things happen.  It’s just downstairs.  The laundry soap is on the shelf above the washer.”

“Thanks,” I murmured, glowing fuchsia.  I ran upstairs, gathered up the bedding and my PJs, went back down the three flights of stairs, and through the kitchen.  The whole time I was thinking, “I hope this doesn’t smell like pee.  I hope she doesn’t smell anything when I go past.”

I laundered the bedding, dried it, made the bed, and nothing more was ever said about it.  In fact, Mrs. ____ didn’t say another word to me the entire time we stayed at their house.  I was so embarrassed that I basically just hid the entire time we were there, except at meal times.

It’s now been six years since that day (SIX YEARS???  I’ve been out of college THAT long?  Yeesh) and I haven’t peed the bed since.  I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was completely horrifying.  I told my friends, who commiserated and laughed about it.  Then, they made me tell the entire cast of the showcase.  A few years later, I related the story again to a couple of other friends who laughed so hard at the abject horror of the experience that one of them had to excuse herself to use the bathroom so she didn’t pee her pants.  Then they termed the phrase pee-the-bed funny.  So now, if they watch something on TV that was really funny, they don’t say, “That was so funny, I almost peed my pants.”  Instead, they say, “That was so funny, I peed the bed.”

I’m glad to know that I can bring so much joy to so many people.  Now, I’m off to drink a glass of water before bed.

So here they are: the top ten reasons why 2009 will probably be a year of fail as much as was 2008.  That’s right!  My resolutions!  Rather that be vague, grandiose life-changing resolutions, I’m going a bit more granular this year.  Some of these are nearly done, so they’re almost already wins.  Others are actual, quantifiable goals.  Come December 30, 2009, we’ll see if that’s a better approach.

1. Graduate with a 4.0 GPA.

On June 23rd, I will be turning in my final exam/thesis/program project for my final class of a nearly two-year long MBA program.  (It’s so close I can almost taste it!)  Thus far, I have maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA through my schooling–something I wasn’t able to do in high school or college.  Not that I tried that hard.  Like that one time where I couldn’t find the classroom, so instead of asking someone, I just went back to my dorm and dropped the class.  That was awesome.  I didn’t really want to take Physical Science that semester anyway.  So, anyway, I want to do this for two reasons.  First, it’s just a personal goal thing.  I want to prove that I can do it.  Secondly, my dad, in his MBA program from the same school, got a perfect 4.0 in his program except for one class in which he got a B+.  I MUST beat him.

2. Make it through the Hal Leonard Guitar Method Books 1-3. 

Yes, I got a guitar, but that won’t do me any good unless I actually learn how to play it.  So, this year, I want to make it through the entire series of guitar method books that I’m working on now.  I think this one will be a pretty easy goal as long as I can keep with it.  Thus far, I’ve practiced at least 30 minutes every single day since I’ve gotten the guitar.  Yay me!

3. Buy a pair of 32-waist jeans and be able to button them

Ever since I was in Jr. High, I have worn size 32/32 jeans.  In the early part of last year, I purchased a pair of size 33/32 jeans.  Then, in the summer, I purchased two pairs of 34/32 jeans and donated my 32/32 jeans to Goodwill.  Before the end of the year, I will fit into a size 32/32 jean once again. 

4.  Spend less than an average of $50/month on dining out

I live alone.  I like to cook, but I hate to do dishes.  I work 50 hours a week and spend 20 on school.  So I eat out.  A LOT.  It doesn’t help that there are lots of good chain restaurants, local joints, and even decent fast food at hand.  Panera, Acapulco Grill, Jade Dragon, Panda Express, Dairy Queen (mmmm…blizzards), Quzinos, Pizza Hut (one of my guilty pleasures), Taco Time, Acacia Teryaki, What the Pho (pronounced "What the Fuh"–best restaurant name ever), Whole Foods, Starbucks, even the occasional McDonalds breakfast sandwich.  Last year, I estimate I spent about $2,000 on eating out. 

5.  Cut grocery budget from $400/month to $300/month

This shouldn’t be too hard.  I throw away so much food it should be criminal.  I try to shop for two weeks of eating at home, but I end up throwing out most of it after a week because I don’t get to it fast enough.  So, I’m going to shop more often, but buy less.  Also, in order to reach resolution #3, the $25/month ice cream budget will be excised, so that will help immensely.

6. Find a new job

I like my job.  And lately, I’ve been liking it more and more.  But with my new degree, it will likely be time for me to start looking for work once again.  I’ve decided I’m really open to relocating, too.  As long as I don’t have to move back to either Michigan or Utah (*shudder*), I’ll be fine.  I have though about looking in the Georgia/Carolina areas for work.  Somewhere a little warmer, but still green and close to the water.  Or maybe Portland.  Who knows.  I would be happy to stay here and get a full-time gig at Microsoft.  But, as I have said often, I didn’t go back to school to get my degree just so I could keep doing what I was doing before I went back to school to get my degree.

7.  Make it through the whole year without buying another computer

I DON’T NEED ANY MORE COMPUTERS.  I have enough.  The only exception to this rule I will make is if I accomplish #6 and get a new job that requires me to provide my own laptop.  Other than that, no computers.

8. Pay off all my credit cards…again.

Every time I get close to finally paying off all my credit cards, something happens, and I end up filling them back up again.  I go to the dentist and walk away with a $3,000 bill.  I have to get new tires for my car.  My dog needs special medication for his skin allergies.  I buy another computer because I "need" it.  I want to get them totally and completely paid off.

9. Built a 3-month rainy day fun

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m terrible with saving money (see above).  Due to these troubled economic times (drink!), however, I’m worried.  There are rumors of over 15,000 layoffs coming at Microsoft next week, and I realized that if I got laid off, I’d be SOL so quickly it would be tragic.  I don’t have a single month’s worth of rent saved up in case I got laid off.  I would have to immediately abandon most of my possessions and move down to live with my parents, because I couldn’t afford to stay here and look for a new job.  And since I don’t have any friends here, I don’t even have someone I could stay with while I looked for a new job.  Not a good situation.  So, using the remnants of my unused student loans and savings from reducing my ludicrous spending, I want to build at least three months of savings in case I lose my job at some point.  Plus, if I have savings, it will prevent me from having to use my credit card when something comes up.

10. Write a novel.

I’ve blogged about it here.  November 2009 is the year that I write a novel during the National Novel Writing Month event.  I’ve already got a rough story outline, and will be working on the character profiles during the year.  But this year, I want to write a novel.  I’m sure it will be garbage, but I don’t care.  I just want to be able to say I’ve done it.

So there they are: my 2009 resolutions.  None of this "be a better person," "touch more lives," "change the world," or "discover a way to control nuclear fusion" garbage that I usually resolve.  This year, it’s just a little more realistic.  Should be interesting to see if I do any better.

Happy 2009!

_____

When I was in school, as part of my four and a half year program to learn how to be a bitter, poor gypsy when I grew up, I studied dance.  It was not uncommon for me to spend the majority of my day in Adidas workout pants and a sweaty t-shirt.  I didn’t feel particularly self-conscious about it, because everyone else I knew in school wore the same thing.  In fact, by the time I graduated from college, my wardrobe was so pathetic, I had to spend a great majority of may paycheck for the first paying job I had after I graduated buying new clothes. 

But this isn’t about my wardrobe conundrums, which continue to this day.  (Can I just say how depressing it is to have to go out to buy new clothes because you’re too FAT to fit into your old ones?  Not cool.  And it’s just hard to be cute and fat at the same time.)  Anyhow, one of the side effects of my dancing, aside from the aforementioned wardrobe malfunctions, was that my feet were crammed into dance shoes for several hours a day.  Jazz sneakers, bear claws, tap shoes, jazz flats, and worst of all, ballet slippers.  These shoes were always too tight.  And I got in-grown toenails.  LOTs of them.

I got so many in-grown toenails, my podiatrist started recognizing my phone number from his caller ID. 

For those who don’t know, an in-grown toenail is when the edge of the nail begins to grow into the side of the nail bed, as is diagrammed below.

This hadn’t happened to me since I stopped dancing several years ago.  But, back in March, I noticed that I was starting to get an in-grown toe-nail again.  So, I found a new podiatrist here in Redmond, and went to him.  He did a quick trimming (which was much cheaper than the full-blown outpatient procedure) and told me that I would need to come back in three months or so, because the symptoms would return.  This worked out well for me because I (ludicrously) thought that I would finally be hired on as a full-time Microsoft employee and I would have insurance that could over the procedure.

Well, June came around, and I still wasn’t a Microsoft FTE (full-time employee) and I still didn’t have insurance.  Plus, my ingrown nail hadn’t come back.  Well, it’s now November (I’m still not an FTE) and now I actually have insurance for the first time since I left my parent’s plan.  And my ingrown nail had come back.  In fact, it got infected!  (There are few things quite as gross as squeezing your big toe and having a fluid come out the color and consistency of melted butter.)  So it was time.

So today, I left work early to have my in-grown nail cut out.  The doctor numbs your toe, which is, by far, the most painful part of the process.  Then, he cuts a straight line down your nail about a 1/4″ in from the edge…all the way down to the root of the nail, and pulls it out.  (See picture at the bottom of the post).  Then he uses a chemical to deaden the root in that area so the nail will never grow back on that side. 

This is the fourth time I’ve had this particular procedure done–once on each side of each of my big toes.  Since the nails never grow back, my big toenails are shaped like large popsicle sticks…rounded on the top, and then straight down on either side.   So, now my toe is wrapped in gauze, and I’ve got to let it heal for a few days.  It’s really a shame.  I was going to start my new marathon training program today.  (Yeah, right.)

Anyway…I don’t know if my insurance is actually going to cover this or not, so that will be interesting.  We shall see.

And, as promised, here’s the gross picture.  This isn’t my toe, as I didn’t have the foresight to bring my camera to my operation (silly me).  But it looked pretty much exactly like this.

Gross, huh?

But aside from the change in decades, my life has continued to roll on with very little excitement other than the drama I can’t seem to help but manufacture everywhere I go.  Frustrations with work, with life, with money…you know, the standard issue.  I wish I could say that I’ve had brilliant flashes of insight, moments of sublime understanding, even moderate swaths of peace and contentment in my life, but I can’t.  It’s not that I’m unhappy with my life.  Life just is.

This is something I’ve always wondered:  Is this blasé sense of being just part of living the not-particularly-ideal life of a working adult, or am I truly missing out on something in life because I seem to be incapable of finding joy even in the mundane and ordinary. I have struggled with depression in the past.  I’m not ashamed of admitting it.   But even that makes it sound more dramatic than it actually is.  Rather than feeling bad or good, it’s more like I’m just not feeling anything at all.  A defense mechanism, perhaps.  Or maybe dealing with, for the first time in my life, dealing with a routine that almost never varies. 

Back when I was gallivanting around the world, performing in a new theater every six months, or starting a new business, or teaching a new semester of students, or moving 25 times in 11 years, or working on a new album project, or taking new photographs, or declaring bankruptcy, I never really learned how to deal with the monotony of a routine.  I was always trying something new, learning new skills, proposing new changes, developing new ways of looking at the world or doing things.  I had the leisure time to garden, or read, or play computer games, or try to become a professional bowler, or try my hand at golfing, or, or, or.  I can’t do those things anymore.  Every day is exactly the same. 

The fact is that, deep down, I’m not naturally wired to be a working stiff.  I like my job, I like the people I work with.  I make pretty good money.  But because of the nature of my training and former profession, I have never had to learn to deal with the lack of ups and downs–with that slow, steady, relatively boring life that I imagine belongs to most people.  Perhaps my lack of excitement is just my spirit trying to wrap itself a life that is a foreign body, a mild irritant. 

Or maybe I’m just screwed up in the head.

And speaking of being screwed up in the head, I’m pretty sure stupidity, thy name is Matt.  I haven’t felt this stupid since I thought I might want to go to Law School and I decided to start studying for the LSAT…then got in the 22nd percentile on my first practice test because I am simply incapable of doing logic puzzles.  And what, you may ask, is the culprit responsible for my recent increase in vacant expressions, swearing, and general drooling? 

Accounting!

The gentle art of management accounting, to be specific.  For the first time since I started this MBA program, I feel as though I am patently incapable of succeeding.  I can not seem to wrap my head around these concepts.  Understanding the interaction between line items on balance sheet, income statements, and cash flow statements seem to be outside my personal realm of possibility.  Although I joke about my inability to do math, I can do fine when it’s arithmetic.  Where I fall apart is in understanding the interconnected nature of any financial reporting. 

I feel like I am sitting behind Jessica Grey in Mrs. Farley’s Geomety class my sophomore year of high school and doodling on my notebook instead of paying attention because I couldn’t understand what Mrs. Farley was saying thanks to her very thick Bostonian accent.  Or, more accurately, I feel like I did sitting at our dining room table late at night crying because I couldn’t understand the math that I was being asked to do while my dad was trying (with waning patience) to corral an increasingly hysterical son who just knew that he wouldn’t be able to get a job in life one day because he wouldn’t be able to discover the volume of a cheeseball.

(Story Tangent:  Once, in 9th grade when we were studying Geometry, we were learning to determine the volume of a sphere.  I, in case of adolescent snottiness that I never really outgrew, asked my teacher why, in the name of all that was good and holy, did I ever need to know such a thing.  Mrs. Farley’s response was, “Well, someday you might work in a cheesball factory, and you’ll need to determine how much cheese is in the cheeseball.”  This, of course, became a fantastic joke for me, and both an indictment what Mrs. Farley really thought of my future prospects as well as a metaphor for why I’d never need to learn math.)

While I would like to think that I have matured mentally and emotionally in the fourteen intervening years, the truth is that I am still not a math person.  And I’m really not a math person when I’m trying to learn said math via a British textbook and online course interaction with a professor who answers pleas for help with nothing more than, “It’s really not that hard.”  I only have 5 1/2 more weeks of this accounting nightmare, then eight weeks of finance.  Then I will finally get to start focusing on Project Management, which is what I really want to learn.  Unless of course, I fail this class or the next class and have to take the d@#$ things over again.

Until then, does anyone have a calculator (or possibly a brain) that I can borrow?

"Don’t know why
There’s no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather"

- Harold Arlen, Stormy Weather

Mother Nature can really be a bitch. 

Last Saturday, it was nearly 80 degrees outside. I was walking around in shorts and a t-shirt.  I got a sunburn.  I took Luke to the dog part two times in the same day because it was so nice I wanted to be outside. 

Today, after I got home from church, this happened.  (Click the picture to see a bigger version.)  I’d like take a moment to point out the date.  APRIL 20th!  Seriously?  Seriously.  That’s right, at 12:35 PM, the hail/snow started coming down and actually accumulated more than it has all winter.  What makes this so ironic is that I was out on my patio planting herbs and flowers in several large ceramic pots sitting on a table out on the patio.  I had to plant all the flora then move all the pots inside so they didn’t get frozen.  Grrr.  I think I have been exceptionally patient to last throughout this long, wet, drab, and gray winter.  I have been able to do so because I have held onto the rememberance of how glorious the summer was last year.  But I’m losing my grip.  I need some sunshine! 

***

Last week, I made what for me is a momentous decision.  I have decided to stop attending the young single adult congregation of my church and instead attend the local family ward.  I figured it was time–especially before all of the 19 year olds got home from college at BYU-Idaho.  I have been doing a lot of thinking (big shocker, I know) and I realized that one of the things I was missing from my attendance at church was the familial kind of atmosphere that I had in my ward growing up in Michigan.  I’ve missed playing peek-a-boo with the little baby in the pew in front of me, watching the 12-year-old boys line up to be first in line at the potlucks, I’ve missed the gospel perspectives that come from people with much less experience than I have and those with much more.  Plus, I’m getting tired of people always talking about marriage.  I’m tired of having to explain to people why I am not married.  "It’s none of your d#$% business, that’s why!"

One of the wonderful, glorious benefits to switching to the family congregation is  that church is now at 9AM.  Most people don’t like morning church, but I really do.  I get up early every day anyway because of sleep habits due to work, I might as well go to church early, then come back and take one of my glorious Sunday naps.  In fact, I wasn’t the only one who had the same idea.  This is what I found when I came home from church today:

Ah, to be a dog.  It wasn’t but about five minutes before I joined him.

***

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I spent a large chunk on money on decorating my apartment.  I have decided that now is not the time to purchase housing (I’m going to write another post on this tomorrow.)  So, I’ve decided that I wanted to spruce up my house.  I purchased some new curtains for my fabric wall–a pale pea soup color and a deep salmon.  They lighten up the space and give it a boost of color.   I got some picture frames for some tulip prints I’m going to make for my guest bathroom.

I bought a new desk to replace the old Library Table I was using for my recording studio setup.  The table was moved to the deck and (as mentioned before) has become a giant plant stand for my mini garden.  It also gives me some cover to move all my recycling bins from the studio bedroom and out onto the deck. 

Most of the day yesterday was spent ripping apart the studio, removing the desk, and rewiring the studio with the new, smaller desk.  Rewiring a studio, even a small home studio, is a daunting task.  It takes several hours.  I’ve lived here less than a year, and I’ve already done it four times.  In fact, I’ve rewired my studio more than I’ve actually used it!  Hopefully with this new, far more convenient and inviting setup, I’ll be tempted back into the recording studio a little more often.  Plus, the way I’ve set it up, I can now set up a vocal booth in any room of the house to do recording.  Likely, my clothes closet will be the best place, but I’ll have to play with room sounds.

I’m still trying to de-clutter the mess I made from moving everything around. When I do, I’ll take some pictures and post the link here. 

***

Thursday of this week, I finished another semester of school and with it, my marketing class.  I find marketing to be fascinating.  And I was surprised to find how in-depth it really is.  I always thought that marketing=advertising, but that’s only a very small part of it.  In any case, I am still running with a 4.0 GPA in school. Grades haven’t come in for the final two assignments, but I think I’ll be in pretty good shape unless I completely botched the final assignment. (Which is always a possibility).

Now starts a week with no homework, no reading, and best of all, my mommy is coming to visit in five days!  Now if I can just get it to stop snowing…