Speed

September went by fast. October is going even faster.

Weird to realize that I was actually finishing up a summer class the week before Labor Day. I had to write a long paper (apparently, not long enough). And then fall classes started up at the end of September, which was just two weeks ago, but already feels like a lifetime.

I'm taking three courses, two of which dovetail nicely: Corporate Governance and Bankruptcy. The first focuses on how boards of firms and non-profits make decisions and do their job; recently we have focused on CEO compensation. The Bankruptcy class is taught by Ed Altman, something of a father in the field, and focuses on measuring risk and identifying firms that can be invested in during a distressed state. Several guess speakers from either class may as well have addressed the other. Where was Lehman's board in the run-up to it bankruptcy? How do boards manage their managers in a turnaround situation? It's all very, very interesting.

Alas, it goes by very quickly. Both of these courses are six weeks long, and we are already three weeks in to the semester. I have papers due in each next week.

In the meantime, the weather has turned from warm to mild to downright chilly; the Indian Summer evening of Fashion Night Out has been replaced by a snap that requires layers in the morning. In just over a month it will be Thanksgiving, and then sure enough Christmas. My life is planned out at work as projects underway should hopefully be resolved by then.

Then, there is also the Big Project, which will have to be detailed in another post.

Deutschland

In Germany. More later. Otherwise I will be late to class.

A haunted monastery, class trip to the Euopean Central Bank, a pub crawl, schnitzel in a cellar, new friends.

Later

The past six weeks have been all-consuming. I feel like I am just now waking up out of a haze, worried that I'm going to look at everything that's happened and see a lot of broken pieces.

So, school is over for the semester. Spring term is over. I took my law final over the weekend in a group. Hard! And important to me bc I am still, in my heart of hearts, lawlorn.

Work has also been busy, or at least annoying. many stupid little things have gone wrong, requiring me to right them. The big event has been an argument with one of my vendors. It is a long story but, if all goes well, we have a resolution at hand.

Finally, one of the non-profits I work with has been dumb-stupid regarding their budget, which I have been shepherding. In the past two months they've voted to approve specific projects that increase their budget significantly, in a year when they need to be reducing their expenses. Not only that, but the source of their funding is at a critical point. I've sat through three meetings now that ran very late, and they STILL don't know what they're going to do. We parted last night with a bigger gap than we walked in.

This weekend I travel to Germany, for a little work-study-travel. When i get back, I'm off to California for a conference. In a way, the next month seems just as busy as the last, effectively blocked out, but hopefully, less hectic and less stupid.