First Week Back to
School
This week was the first week back at Ohio State for my MBA
program. I should be graduating in May,
so I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. But it’s going to take some hard work to get
there, including 3 nights a week of 6-9:15pm classes from now until May, and
many hours of groupwork on Saturdays and Sundays for the foreseeable future. I forgot how exhausting it is; I don’t think
I’ve been this tired since the day after my wedding. And unfortunately, I don’t have a sweet
vacation right around the corner.
This week flew by and felt so manic, so I thought I’d recap
some of the highlights, of course only highlighting those that can be
quantified.
Starting with Sunday.
Anissa and I ran 5 miles. We
haven’t run that far in a long time, but we both felt great afterward. Out of curiosity I went back to my running
log (it’s an excel spreadsheet, duh!) to see how long it has been since I ran
that far. Turns out it was almost a year
ago. It had been 310 days since I ran at
least 5 miles. It made me feel nostalgic
for the days of half and full marathons.
One day I’ll get back to it, but for now 5 miles will put a big smile on
my face.
Monday was my first class back at Ohio State. Let me clarify that Ohio State didn’t
officially start classes until Wednesday.
However, about 2 weeks ago they realized that Monday 9/1 is a holiday
(you know, that thing called Labor Day) and that they had not made enough
sessions for the Monday classes with the way they set up the academic calendar. I’m not sure how a major university misses
something like that. So lucky me, I got
to go back 2 days early unexpectedly.
The bummer of the day, though, was getting from work to campus. On a good day I can get there in 30-40
minutes. On Monday, it took over an
hour. Fortunately I had enough foresight
to leave extra early and to also stop at Tim Horton’s on my way, so I had a
bagel and iced coffee to keep me comfortable in the car. That day, including my commute to work, to
school, and then back home, I spent just shy of 2 hours, or 120 minutes in the
car. Add my work hours and the in-class
hours, it makes for a very long start to the week.
Tuesday was a day of no classes. I got home from work at a good time, got in a
run with Anissa (just 3 miles this time), and then we made omelets for
dinner. One of the things I love about
not living alone is that I can actually get through a carton of eggs before
they expire (and I don’t have to buy the weirdo 6-packs of eggs). If we eat eggs 3 times a month, we get
through them all. And we are that
uninventive of cooks that we actually eat scrambled eggs or omelets more than 3
times a month.
Wednesday. More class. More time in the car. Enough said.
Thursday. More
class. Except this time on my way to
class, an accident blocked the entire interstate going my direction. I quickly diverted to another direction hoping
to still get to class on time. Turns out
I was screwed either way. It took me
well over an hour to get to class. It
just baffles me that in a city the size of Columbus with a 2013 estimated MSA (metropolitan statistical area) population of just
under 2 million (good enough for only 32nd largest in the U.S.), and
what I consider to be a fairly decent infrastructure, it still takes me that
long to travel only 18 miles. Sure, it’s
peak traffic time when I have to go. But
I’m going into the city, not leaving it.
I am actually against traffic
when I go to OSU. Let’s just say people
need to stop shitting the bed and crashing their cars. Because mentally I cannot afford to be left
alone in my car for that many hours every week.
Friday. Alas, sweet
sweet Friday! Looking ahead to a 3-day
weekend and getting out of work a bit early just puts my mind to rest. Yes, I have hundreds of pages of thick, heavy
academic reading to complete. Yes, I
have a tons of stuff to do around the house.
But I can sleep 8 hours a night for 3 nights in a row. I can eat 3 square meals at an actual table
for the next 3 days. And I can spend 12
hours sitting on my couch in scrubs watching football on Saturday. Hallelujah!
There you have it, my week by the numbers. Let me tell you, putting it in written form
is almost therapeutic. I may be ready
for bed by 7pm tonight J
