A Life Less Ordinary

My Day In Court

by Helen 

At the end of July I got a parking ticket at Golden Gardens Park.  It was one of the hottest days of the year and I parked far away from the actual parking lot. Then I went to get a blanket and saw that there was a parking cop giving tickets to people parked in the lot. I asked her if it's free to park here and she said yes, as long as you are not here for longer than 3 hours.  So I parked but ended up parking in the HALF of the parking spaces that were reserved for cars with trailers.  Mind you, there was not a single trailer parked there, so you could see how I would be confused. When I parked, I saw the ticket cop still writing tickets and we even made eye contact, but granted she didn't look very happy.

Anyway, I went back to my friends on the beach and when I returned to my car I had a ticket on there for $38 to the City of Seattle.  I know the city is broke and all, but I really felt like I had a case of an angry ticket cop who let her job get to her personality.

So I decided to contest the ticket.  I called the court and they sent out paperwork for me to write a statement or show up in person. In California, I've used Ticketbust to contest speeding tickets, but they did all the work and I just paid.  Here, I was going to have to come up with the language and the argument. 

Long story short, with the move to the new place, my family in town, etc. I missed the due date for submitting a written statement so I went to court today for my preliminary hearing. I have been sick the last couple of days so taking a shower and getting dressed AND driving 2 miles to downtown (glad we moved so it wasn't 20 minutes of driving). 

I showed up and eventually was asked to follow a person in. I definitely thought I would be entering a court room with a judge wearing a robe.  Instead, it was the judge who called me and we sat in her office (I did see a robe, so she is legit I think) and we discussed my parking situation. She suggested that she can reduce my ticket to $10 and I agreed.  And that was that. 

Very anti-climactic. But I did get my ticket reduced. 

That was my excitement for the day. 

Two Years Later

by Helen

 

Another year has gone by and Adam and I celebrated our two year anniversary on July 31st-August 2, 2009.

On the 31st, we exchanged gifts, went to the Red Mill Burger place, walked around Magnolia Art Fair and watched ferries go by in Magnolia Park (oh and we stopped by a party). On Saturday, we drove out to Long Beach, WA where we stayed at Shelbourne Inn on the Washington Coast and had a great time accompanied with great food.  We came back to Seattle on Sunday refreshed and ready for the big move that's coming up on August 21.

Here is a quick snapshop of all the things we did in year 2:

1. Adam's birthday picnic at Alki Park
2. 2 couples we know got engaged
3. My grandparents visited and we went took them to Alki
4. Evergreen State Fair with corn dogs of course!
5. Weekend in Tahoe with great friends
6. Adam's parents visited
7. We carved pumpkins together - I made a pirate ship and Adam made a Barack Obama pumpkin
8. Great vacation on Kuaui that included a luau, horseback riding, a boat ride, snorkeling, hiking and eating awesome food
9. Shrek the Musical
10. Spring Awakening
11. Teatro Zinzanni 
12. La Reve
13. Play with Adam's parents when they were in town
14. Business school applications
15. Candy Cane Making Party
16. Our first Christmas Tree
17. New Years Party
18. Pet sitting in West Hollywood
19. Allison's Wedding
20. Rachel's Wedding at the Beverly Hilton
21. Eilene and JD's wedding in Las Vegas
22. My birthday in LA - tapas at AOC, drinks at O Bar and dancing
23. Snowboarding in Crystal with Zach and Danielle
24. Quality time in Seward Park
25. Trip to Victoria
26. Cheese festival
27. Valentine's Day at Kaspar's
28. Yellowstone
29. Lewis and Clark Caverns
30. In N Out in a Limo
31. Costumed scavenger hunt in Los Angeles (Adam was dressed as Woody and I was dressed as Barbie)
32. Bruins in Seattle Board, picnic, happy hour 
33. Kayaking to Golden Gardens 
34. Mariners Games
35. Deciding to move in together to a townhome in Capitol Hill!

Thank you for seeing me through a very difficult time in my life of preparing and applying to business schools.  Thank you for helping me get in, for supporting me all the way and for always being a shoulder to lean on.  Though I'm sure it wasn't the easiest of years, here is to hoping to many more together!

Life Without Work

by Helen

I am trying to figure out my life without work.  Today is the first day and it's going well so far. 

The goal for me is not to sit on the couch the whole 2 months that I have off. Though I may let myself do more of that this week in an attempt to help my ankle heal. 

Here is my plan so far: 

1 ) Plan my meals ahead and cook interesting, yummy, healthy food for breakfast, lunch and dinner (when I'm home anyway). Buy food for the week. 

2) Do an hour of apartment cleaning/organizing a day to help prepare for moving next month.

3) Look for apartment listings online this week and compile a list of places to go see this weekend with Adam or during the week by myself. 

4) See Harry Potter on Wednesday with friends.

5) Make serious progress on A Fraction of a Whole (bookclub read)

6) Begin statistics work to prepare for b-school.

7) Start figuring out what I need to do for my career center orientation which is coming up. 

I am hoping my ankle can be fixed sooner rather then later so I can get back on a work out routine. I have a workout class M-F that I plan to take from 9:30am-10:30am but it's no good with a gimpy ankle. Also I am excited to spend time with my friends who have kids and those who have flexible work schedules. Everyone says to take advantage of this time before school starts, so that's my plan. 

Dedicated to My Parents

by Helen

I sprained my ankle today while hiking.  Everything is fine, it just made for a somewhat painful 2000 foot decline from the mountain.  

But afterwards, Adam went to get me an ankle wrap and ice.  Here is the conversation we had while he was wrapping my ankle:

Adam: I think it takes a medical professional to make sure the wrap doesn't wrinkle.  You don't mind if it's wrinkled do you?

Me: I don't know if I mind or not...I've only ever had my ankle wrapped by medical professionals....

Silence in the room followed. 

Random Life Happenings

by Helen

Looks like I will be moving to the West Side to attend Foster.  Not sure which area yet - so far I have been told that Madison Park, Capitol HIll and Bell Town are all good places for me to live in order to go to school and have a relatively convenient commute to Microsoft.  I am excited to go apartment shopping, but will probably wait until the summer to do it. 

Last week, I had the pleasure of confirming my "citizenship" with the Social Security Administration office.  Apparently, when I became a citizen, I did not fill out a form that updated my records with SSA and so my financial aid could not be processed without that form filled out.  The building was a typical government looking establishment - hidden, cash only parking and incredibly dull looking.  While the people inside were relatively helpful, they were also very routine driven.  I guess you have to be in order to be good at that job.  

Speaking of financial aid, I am a little annoyed by the scholarship process and how it impacts waitlisted candidates.  Everyone knows that if you apply past the 2nd (or 3rd in some instances) round, then your chances at scholarship money get slimmer.  I understand that.  However, every business school admissions book talks about the recent strategy of schools to waitlist candidates that the adcom believes will not attend the school. So they do it to gage interest and if the candidate expresses desire to attend, then they let him/her into the school.  I appreciate that tactic as well.  

But what doesn't make sense to me is that when you get waitlisted, you are then moved to the next round and when you get off the waitlist, you are lumped with the said next round.  As a result - no scholarship money for you.  I totally understand how we get to this point, but there has go to be a way for those kinds of applicants to still get scholarship money somehow. 

The only advice I would have to applicants is to apply earlier.  If you get bumped from Round 1 to Round 2, your scholarship chances don't decrease. Easier said than done though. 

Additionally, a Foster student called me today and we had a lovely conversation about the school, classes, locations, etc.  She definitely was trying to feel me out to figure out if I was planning on attending the admit weekend and the school.  So I was very straight with her and told her that I am attending Admit Weekend and I will go to Foster unless I miraculously get off the waitlist for Stanford. And then I heard dead silence at the other end of the line.  Maybe I shouldn't have said that? But I feel that every Admissions Committee person would understand the position I am in.  Though replaying the conversation in my head, I probably should have been more vague and less straightforward.  Maybe they'll teach me how to do that better in business school.  

Anyway, the current student shared with me that she took a stats course before starting school and that really helped her.  She said Accounting was the other big topic but many students come in with zero accounting so its not as big of a deal.  She said to definitely not take calculus. 

Good News!

by Helen

I got the call and email today welcoming me to University of Washington (Foster).  For those wondering, all I did was call the school and inform them of my interest as well as send them an email restating why Foster is for me.

This is a huge relief because I really liked Foster and I think it's a better fit for me than Georgetown.  It also costs a great deal less due to in-state tuition and for jobs in the Northwest it beats GT.  I am going to think things over, but most likely submit my deposit to Foster after I get my packet.

I am of course still holding out for Stanford, but if that doesn't pan out, I will be very happy at Foster for the next two years.

Foster Interview

by Helen

Yesterday was my interview at Foster. It was conducted by an Associate Director and she was wonderful. She is an immigrant, who has experience on the Hill as a lobbyist, has  traveled the world, has a 2 year old baby and another one on the way. I really felt that I connected with her and would love to have her as a mentor (or someone like her).

I'm not sure how well I did on the questions necessarily (especially the career goals one, since it's the one I think I keep struggling with), but I was very honest and I think she got to get a feel for my personality (for better or for worse).

I stressed that I would love to go to Foster and it would be helpful in order to stay in the Northwest and get a job.  She offered me a person to talk to about my international travel interests.

Overall, I think it well, though now I am over-thinking it and worrying about it.

It is nice to be most likely done with interviews, as it seems that Berkeley and Stanford ones aren't coming my way.  So now I just wait.

The Economist, 1929

by Helen

Adam and I wandered around the Seattle Public Library today (photo courtesy of www.esto.com). Other than it being a stunning building, we ended up in the periodicals section and browsed the Economist from years past.

Given the economic times we are facing, we immediately went to the 1929 year and browsed headlines right after the crash.  Basically, we learned that the world back then dealt with the market crash about the same way that we did...slowly.  The coverage did not indicate that people understood the severity of the events that plagued the world.

I can definitely relate to that.  I can't say that I comprehended the consequences of the Lehman Brothers failing and Washington Mutual going away. I understood that it was not good news, but I didn't quite comprehend just how interconnected our economy is to every industry. 

Adam and I talked about taking an afternoon sometime soon and just sifting through pages and pages of the Economist in the 1930s for perspective sake, if nothing else.

First Interview Invite

by Helen

I have received an invitation to interview at University of Washington, Foster School of Business.  I am very excited about the invitation for several reasons:

1) I really liked Foster when I visited and the excitement that the students have
2) I am glad I got confirmation that I was not crazy in my school selections. It seems based on the timeline, that I got this interview invite pretty quickly considering I submitted the application only three weeks ago. Maybe that indicates that I am above average as far as applicants go for this school, which maybe means that there is hope for me at other schools.
3) This gives me something to prepare for and something to do other than bite my nails in hopes of more interview invitations.

Anyway, my interview is scheduled for February 24th on campus.  And then a month later, I will find out if I got in.  Things are looking up!

Candy cane party

I am preparing for the Candy Cane party tonight.

Friends are coming over and there will be a warm fireplace, a decorated tree, eggnog, lasagna, wine and candy cane making.

Let the holiday season begin!