Class Partying

Well, the past two nights I’ve gone out to the bars and it’s such a weird experience for someone who’s not in that scene anymore. Ironically, I was out drinking for class! Monday night my small group for the Capstone class went to Claddagh’s for a strategy session (where we ended up talking about strippers and subsequently named our shoe company Hustlers!) and last night about a dozen of us went to The Pub in Rookwood for celebratory drinks that we got our sales prof booted. We toasted to the new, wonderful professor 3X and sat around and lamented about what a moron the old guy was. One of my classmates even bought our first round since to “make up” for being out of town and not having the chance to write a letter to the dean. Very nice of him! The act of having beer for dinner and feeling of being slightly buzzed is odd for me on many levels as I seldom drink any more.

Our class last night essentially started the semester over for our sales course. All grades are being wiped clean, the Associate Dean came in to personally apologize for the debacle, and our new professor is so far living up to her hype. She’s even given me an idea for an activity my potential business class should I ever go back into teaching. We have 7 weeks of class left and I have no doubt she’ll do all she can to make the best use of them possible.

Capstone practice year 2 starts tonight. So far our team is in first out of 9, but I doubt that many teams have fully gotten the hang of the game yet so that fact doesn’t mean a whole lot. The “real thing” starts next week.

Weekend of 3/10/06

Here’s the scoop on the weekend:

Friday
Believe it or not we did not have plans. Jim and I went to dinner at a little Mexican restaurant near our house and hung out, just the two of us, all night long.

Saturday
Jim, Dale and Karen (not me) judged Cincinnati science fair held at UC. Good times had by all (except for the getting up at 6:45am on a weekend) and interesting stories to tell after the fact. I slept in until 9:30 when I woke up to rain and thunder outside – prompting me to enjoy cuddling with my pillow and being tangled in blankets for another full half hour.

Dale had dinner with us which always makes me happy because 1) I’m not sure he eats enough home cooked meals 2) he brings good dessert with him. Afterwards, Dale, Karen & my parents came over for an impromptu game night where we played Scattergories, Mexican dominos, and Sequence. Fun times. Mom commented that Dale will have lots of Templin time on the cruise, to which he responded "Man Overboard!"

Sunday (today)
One of the best shows I’ve ever seen, Wicked, was on the docket for 1:00 with Mom as part of our Broadway Series Tickets. Fabulous all the way around. It was the kind of show that you forget you are watching a play and get wrapped up into it like it’s real life.

We won ¾ bowling games in our league which keeps our place in the middle of the pack. Jim snaked the bathroom drain and made some horrible-smelling, nasty-to-look-at gunk plop out of the drain. I was supposed to shine the light but didn’t want to look, making it difficult to keep a good aim for him.

I finished a book today- a Nora Roberts (my favorite author!) series that is very addictive as this book was the first out of 4. Jim’s working on other household items so I’m going to sneak back and try to get a good jump on book 2. :)

Lazy weekends are the best!

Retribution!

Dear MKTG 960 Students,

Thank you for taking the time to inform us of the situation regarding MKTG 960 and Professor Bowman. The feedback you provided was crucial and valuable. We realize that providing such information takes time away from you and your busy schedules. Student feedback is essential for successful resolution of the issues at hand.

Professor Bowman has been removed as the instructor for MKTG 960. Dr. Clint Schertzer has asked Professor Ginger Rothfuss to assume leadership of the class. She will be with you effective immediately. I have worked with Professor Rothfuss on many occasions. She has taught numerous classes for the Williams College of Business. She is at all times professional. She is highly knowledgeable and competent no matter the MKTG subject area she teaches. I am positive she will work very hard to make your remaining time in MKTG 960 valuable and beneficial.

On behalf of Associate Dean Tadepalli, MKTG Department Chairman Dr. Clint Schertzer, and Assistant MBA Director Ann Marie Whelan, we thank you again for your input. Student feedback is highly valued by each one of us. We take your educational experience at Xavier with the utmost seriousness. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any other questions or insights.

Sincerely,

Jen Bush


Jennifer Bush
Executive Director, MBA Programs
Xavier University

Maybe if we publicly harass her...

I’m investigating whether or not you can block certain people from reading your blog. Like SARAH FORD for example. There should be a blogging law that states you can only read other blogs on days that you yourself post. Then the fact that SARAH FORD DOESN’T UPKEEP HER BLOG would be punished by not allowing her to read the nonsense that I think is worth writing about…

I love you, Sarah!

Sales Class Update

The ball is officially rolling. I sent a very comprehensive letter to Jen Bush, the MBA Executive Director, and copied both the Marketing Chair and the Dean of the MBA about the absurdity of my Sales class. There have been at least 4 other emails from my classmates that were sent to Jen that I was blind-copied on as well with the same concerns.

The marketing chair wrote back one of my classmates with the following update:

Mark:
I received a copy of your email from Jen Bush.
FYI I met with Mr. Bowman this afternoon and we had a very frank discussion.
Rest assured that the dean's office and I are working on solutions to this unfortunate situation.
Thank you for your concern and input. We will be back in touch with all of you soon.
Please feel free to call me to discuss at any time (513.235.7691).

Clint Schertzer, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Marketing
Xavier University

Additionally, one classmate did some gossip validation and found out that the Marketing Department has already contacted another teacher who does the undergrad sales class to come take over the rest of the semester – hooray! Perhaps this can be salvaged! Too bad about half the semester has been piddled away on this idiot.

Picture in Epcot

In "Italy" by Neptune's Fountain

Back to reality...

Today was rather uneventful. We got up, had breakfast, packed and flew back. Cincinnati welcomed us with constant grey and rain which made our drive home slow-going. As soon as I walked in the door I prepped to walk right back out and go to class.

Some general comments/updates (1 I will expand on at a later date):

• I sat outside by the pool yesterday and b-u-r-n-e-d my chest and shins. It’s unfortunate in a way that my skin’s healing so quickly- I have a persistent itch along my bra line that is very inconvenient to attend to while in public!
• There are NASTY people in this world. I watched a Latin guy blatantly pick his nose on the plane and later on in the flight spend 45 minutes gnawing on his fingernails. The man was having a full-out feast on his fingertips right in front of me. He’d even contort his hand and neck to get a better angle on them. I pity the next person who had to sit in his seat after his saliva-coated fingers unlatched the seat belt, opened the overhead compartment bin and twisted the air vent. I understand Howard Hughes’s view of the world a whole lot better…
• I got a 56.81% on my sales test. Mindy called me this afternoon in a frizzle about the whole thing. Apparently 1 person got an 80, 1 person got a 72, 1 got a 68 and the remaining 15 people were in the 50’s. He even gave an XU employee a 51%! This prompted 1 person to walk out, 5 people to drink and lament further action after class, 1 4-page letter to the executive director from the top guy in our class (current VP of marketing who oversees 1700 sales people at xpedx who got a 51%), and 4 phone calls to department and program heads by Mindy. Tomorrow I’m following their lead and your advice and writing the Exec. Dir.
• My capstone group finished 3rd out of 9 teams with an overall shareholder return of 1409%! :)

Menu Compliments/Concerns

I am eating a totally kick-ass lunch right now – It’s a sandwich with large sliced tomatoes, ½" thick fresh mozzarella, red onion slivers, olive oil and garlic on toasted ciabata bread. I’m so full but I just want to keep tasting it!! I got fruit on the side and Jim snuck me out a banana from his training and just dropped it off. Lovin’ life right now.

Speaking of food, there’s a new Long John Silver’s product out – lobster bites. It’s little balls of lobster that are breaded and deep fried. They come in packs of 10 or as part of a combo. The MBA in me is going nuts over this. Lobster does not seem to be to be a good product for them except for the fact that it’s seafood. Here’s my beef (hahaha) about it:

• Lobster is a high-end product that is top of the line cost and quality wise at most restaurants. When I, as a higher-than-average income consumer think of lobster I do not think of LJS. How can LJS think that their audience would relate to this?
• Why would anyone ruin lobster by breading and deep frying it?
• Isn’t half the point of eating lobster the experience of eating something fancy when you’re in an up-scale position (nice evening out, celebration, etc.)? Grease-drenched crustacean served off disposable plates is not my idea of fancy.
• I’d think more of the quality of the product if it wasn’t sold for %^#* $2.99. What kind of toxic waste-eating lobster are they serving for just $2.99?!

Disney Day 2

There are a lot of untamed children and a lot of idiot parents in Disney. Yesterday I was enjoying a Chicken Caesar Wrap by the pool for lunch and there was a 2 year old screaming his lungs out. I totally understand that kids will not always be angels in public, but for the life of me I can’t fathom why the grandmother would pace with the child the length of the eating area. Why should 40 other people have their lunch disturbed? Freakin’ take your kid to a more isolated area and let him calm down! GEEZ.

All day yesterday I was pretty much tethered to my hotel room and computer so I could uphold my arrangement with the boss to be productive on this trip. I was very good, if I do say so myself, about keeping up with emails and conference calls and only took 1 hour over lunch to eat and sun myself out on the dock around noon. I did spend some quality relaxation time on our balcony that overlooks a garden and a pool towards the end of the ‘work day” though.

Jim got done with his training at 5 and we headed up to the cocktail hour with his other SEC classmates. We stayed about 30 minutes because I was starving and Jim’s not one for randomly talking to strangers. We walked all around the Boardwalk looking for dinner places but at the end of a very pleasant stroll we ended up eating in a restaurant in our hotel. We stayed in all night after dinner and watched TV and let Jim catch up on email. He had training start at 8am this morning so we went to bed at our normal time.

Tonight we’re going to Jellyrolls, the dualing piano bar – one of the piano players is a Kilwein (for you UD people!) and though I didn’t graduate with him I think I’ll request the UD fight song and introduce myself! With a noon flight tomorrow we can stay out a bit later and enjoy the scenery.

PS- I’m starting to regret my no Soarin’ yesterday based on your comments…. Oh well… next time!

Disney Day 1!

The trip to Orlando was relatively uneventful which is always a good thing. We checked into the Disney Yacht Club in the afternoon and grabbed some lunch at a nearby brewery which was pretty good. There was this loud loud loud girl a few tables away from us who educated us on all of her boyfriends and rude girl friends over the whole meal. It was very obvious that tables close to hers were highly annoyed. It would have been more tolerable if she didn't speak fluent valley girl. :P

The property is really pretty as you would expect from Disney- a pool, lazy river, big room, and 78 degree weather! When we checked in the hostess asked if we had a floor preference. My reply was “if you see there’s a family with little kids in one room, we don’t want to share their wall.” Rude of me – probably. But this morning, as I’m working from the hotel room, I’ve heard CONSTANT whining from bratty, Disney-spoiled children since 8 am. UGH.

Yesterday we bought discount tickets to Epcot and went from 4-9 which was plenty of time for our liking. While we got a FastPass to the new Soarin’ ride we decided that after a big Chinese dinner we didn’t have the energy to walk back to that end of the park and have our stomachs turned. We did however get to see LOTS more stuff than we did a few years back when we came with my company. We hit the GM Test Track, the Ellen DeGeneres Energy moving movie, the Land’s boat tour through the greenhouses of Disney, and the new Space Mission to Mars ride that killed 3 people to date! We also toured several more countries in the World Showcase than we did in ’02.

Jim and I are currently debating whether we went to Animal Kingdom last time wer were here. I strongly contend that we did not and he keeps swearing he remembers being on an animal safari with me and "where else could it have been?" He claims he's now concerned about my long-term memory if I'm "blocking out entire days" of my life. I'm so sure we didn't go there I called Jonathan Wolf to vouch for me (which he did though Jim said that wasn't a valid witness as he wasn't with us).

Jim’s off at training right now and I’m keeping up on my email for work. I had a wonderful night’s sleep so I’ve actually got quite a bit of energy. Too bad this laptop doesn’t have wireless access, I could be working from the pool instead of my room!

Friday, 3/3

What a great night! Sorry I didn't write as it was happening, Carol, but we were incredibly busy!

Friday night we went to friends of ours for dinner to celebrate Erin's 28th birthday. They had gotten their January wedding picture proofs back so E and I giggled over them until we had dinner. Brushetta, Marsala chicken with fresh spinach and mushrooms, and garlic mashed potatoes! Mmmmm! Oh, and they LOVED Megan's pudding dessert- between the two of them they ate half the 9X9 pan!

We talked and laughed so much we didn’t even have time to pull out a game. Jim had a ball because the Hansma's are now up to 4 cats and 1 dog (in addition to thier other roommate's dog!). He was still cracking up yesterday thinking about one of the cats and the puppy who were fighting over the lazer pointer beam. Even after the same tricks for a half hour neither Jim nor the pets were tired of playing.

Only problem with the night - they live in Batavia so it was a little haul (40 minutes) home and we still had to pack for Disney. Their house location makes us especially sad because when the time comes we see ourselves moving MORE west, further from them.

We laughed so hard!

Last night was a very good night. Still happy over my flowers, I eagerly looked forward to my night out with the girls. Jen Johnson was in town for a training, so Kelly, Jessy and I headed out to Margaritas for what else? Margaritas! (OK, to be fair, only 2 of us had margaritas… you can’t expect a pregnant lady to be drinking!) We ended up talking about jobs and houses and grown up things like that over dinner. But, as conversation often does with 4 female friends, we ended up chatting about our escapades in "other" areas of our life. What a riot these women are!

It’s a fun evening when you can laugh along with others’ stories, glories and tribulations, and an chance to reaffirm if you’re “normal” or not. Of course as the conversation turned to me my dear husband comes home from martial arts- timing which made us all erupt in laughter and left him more than a little suspicious of our conversation. He’s a personable guy though and didn’t miss a beat in joining what’s normally conversation reserved for close friends. I think he just wanted a view of what we women do and talk about when men aren’t around. My outgoing friends don’t miss a beat and I think he got more than a little insight of the female mind! Not sure if he’ll be quite so eager to join us next time… Thanks, ladies, for a wonderful evening!

Very Pleasant Surprise

This afternoon I got a bouquet of flowers from a client of mine. Aside from flattering emails, in my four and a half years working here I’ve never gotten more than a Christmas card from a client, so I was incredibly touched at the gesture. The card read:

“Karen, Thank you for all your efforts. You are exactly what customer service means. Thank you very much! James and Rob”

Being appreciated is such a wonderful feeling!

3/1/06

Some random things I’d like to comment on today:

1) This morning Jim got a call from Chase MasterCard saying that our credit card information was attempted to be used for <$1 in West Chester, IL at a hardware store today. That, apparently is a common sign of fraud- thieves attempt a small amount to test the waters and then go on a rampage. What’s odd – we both still have our cards. Apparently identity thieves are now taking to actually manufacturing plastic cards and using them! Anyway, the charge got denied, the card’s cancelled and the credit bureau warned so no harm done.

2) I get a monthly or so e-newsletter from Aaron Karo, a comedian I started reading my freshman year at UD. It’s cool because he’s the exact same age as us so his Ruminations about college were quite literally a published version of my own experience at the time. Hysterical! He’s still at it in his 20’s and it still cracks me up.

3) I’m beginning to side with Tom P on the flirting thing – I’m not convinced most men can be totally innocent in the flirting they do. This goes for men that are not married to my girl friends (namely Danny and Kendall who are suggestive in jest but love and respect their wives dearly), but rather those random people we meet in the world and who I’ve noticed never quite seem to know where the line is drawn…

4) Monday night I spent a full HOUR trying to get links to friends’ blogs on the sidebar of mine. As you will see, I was mostly successful. For the life of me I could not completely figure out HTML coding and couldn’t get the font for the title just right. Just when I thought I had it and it looked good from my house, I get to work and it looks like *&^. UGH.

While this blog didn't have much excitement, aren't you glad I wrote something so you weren't disappointed by having nothing to read when you clicked on my page?

Mmmmmm!

Hooray! I just consumed my first marshmello peep of the year!!!

Does Bi-Directional Innocent Flirting Exist?

I recognize and freely concede that I am a very big flirt in general. Jim, who is quite the flirt himself, takes it as a compliment when others flirt with me. All of the flirting I do, especially due to my marital state, is with a sole intention of innocent fun. I flirt to haze the recipient, bring about blushes, and to make the other person feel good. And I admittedly love being flirted with in return. For example, I smile EVERY time I get an IM that starts off "Good Morning, Sunshine".

While back in my single days I would flirt a bit more than I do now with my customers; admittedly with the intention of making friends and winning business. I've never been called out on it being a bad or unwanted thing. In fact, my actions normally accomplished what I was after in the first place. A new friend of mine suggested today that I should be flirting a lot more at work. He mentioned that a lot of IT guys, like himself, appreciate a friendly smile, an overly-friendly attitude, and a skirt on an appointment because 1) there aren't many women in technology 2) I can get away with it 3) who doesn't like to be flattered, and 4) it's rarely unappreciated, even if both parties know it's just a game.

Not ironically, this advice is from a person who, though married, has spent quite a bit of energy flirting with me over the past week. Perhaps I'm naive, but because all the flirting I do is innocent (Jim is quite literally one of the best things to ever happen to me & I wouldn't jeopardize that), I assume all the flirting done with me has the same, non-serious objective. How can you tell if flirting is done with serious intent versus just teasing? How far is too far before flirting becomes disrespectful (say to this married person's wife) and the compliments should be cut short by the recipient (in this case me)? Or reversely, how far is it before you start making the other person wonder if you're serious (which of course I never am)?

SAI Slumber Party

Last night I hosted some SAI sisters for a girl's night slumber party. Jen (Prengaman) Ortiz, my sorority little, brought over her pledge book and we all reminisced over our answers to the interview questions. Can you match the SAI sister to her given answer to “What quote best describes your life?”

1. I’m not a bitch, I just look like one.

2. People will not remember what you did, they will not remember what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

3. It’s okay to look at the menu as long as you go home to eat.

4. A friend is one who knows you but loves you anyway.

5. There’s only now, there’s only here. Give in to love or live in fear, no other path, no other way, no day but today.

6. Shoot for the moon- if you miss at least you’ll reach the stars.

A) Kelly Sheets
B) Lisa Hoag Erdahl
C) Karen Templin Eutsler
D) Sarah Ford
E) Sarah Wahn Williams
F) Viki Rill Johnson

Fun Links!

I have exciting friends:

Karen Cruse in the News (again, but this time not for something related to death): http://www.cinweekly.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060222/COV/602220321/1076

Sarah Ford’s new blog!!: www.seford.blogspot.com

Class Update

OK, I know this subject is going to get boring… but a general update from last night. There are 6 people (including me) that overlap from my Tuesday class into my Capstone class that meets last night. As you can imagine, the test and the cases were the only topic of conversation going on. Who knows what the rest of our class must think of us as we rambled on for 20 minutes.

Mindy threw out her idea of going to the Executive Director of the MBA and sending an email with all of us copied to show Jen we’re all feeling the same way (suggestion of a “unified front” was based off of your comments in my blog! Thanks for the advice). People were pretty willing to do this with little hesitation. Jeana, a perky blonde who sits in front of me and participates quite a bit in my S & SM class, got a D on her case and as you can imagine was stunned. Her course of action (prior to this conversation in class) was to send him a personal email stating that she wrote her case in the format she has for her 3 years of MBA previous to this class and she has always gotten an A. She also made some other points as well about the format of the class. He responded by the break in Capstone so we all gathered ‘round her computer to read: he said he understood her frustration and others had made similar points. The most frequent grade given on the cases was a B-/C+ with many C-/D's thrown in too. [Any NORMAL teacher would have seen this as the first indication of a problem....] He was doing some contemplation on the class and was going to consider some changes that might lead to improvement. He also said for her to bring her case in and he’d reevaluate it. His closing was annoying: “remember that everything in class, good and bad, is a learning experience to be appreciated”. What BS.

I’m now considering following her example and writing to him directly (hell yeah I want him to review my case again) and using his response to my request as my ammo for going or not going to the MBA office. Thoughts?

Course of Action?

Advice solicitation: All day my classmates in my sales class have bounced emails around about how bad yesterday was. There’s been much buzz about what course of action we should take to remedy the situation. I’ve voted for going to the MBA office and asking for the Executive Director to sit in one of our classes to get a first-hand look at how bad the instruction is. Another guy thinks we should politely converse with the teacher 1-on-1 and tell him our frustrations. I think that the guy is too full of himself to accept creative criticism and will punish those who are negative by hurting their participation grades (30% of our final). What’s your opinion?