The Busy Season

Poor Richard is having to deal with one stressed kitty here -- it's the Busy Season in academia (the other Ivory Tower). The busy season starts in late February with midterms, followed by grading midterms, followed by what could best be described as "Banquet and Honor Season" -- just this week, I have been at an evening reception to honor Who's Who among American College Student recipients, a dinner and commemorative lecture given by an alum of the department who now leads the Family and Consumer Science and Nutrition section at the USDA, and tonight is the department honor banquet.

Next week, thank goodness, is Spring Break here, followed by more receptions and banquets: the honor society I help advise is receiving an Outstanding Student Organization commendation Monday, and I am invited to the Tower Service/Committment to Quality banquet Tuesday because I nominated one of the winners (I think). One of these days, I'd like to go to a banquet where I am actually being honored!

Ivory Towers

Hi everyone,

Just a brief update: today was the second day of working for an unnamed financial services company as a consultant. It's rather funny: back in graduate school, we talked about working in the ivory towers of business or academia, and now I find myself actually working in a tower ... even though I'm on the third floor of the building, it's still a bit daunting ... the cubicles are bigger, the goals are higher, the processes are even more complex than any I drafted at my old company.

It's nice to know that despite the new job and the new faces, that some things don't change except in degree.