Hittin' The Books

Hi Everyone,
long time... no write!  Sorry I've been absent.  All I can say is that I have spent waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time in front of my computer studying.... and if I spent anymore time in front of my laptop (even to write a fun blog) it may have tipped me over the edge and brought me to stab myself in the eye with a pen - youch!

So, for the past year, finishing on Friday, I participated in the HR Development Program through work and run by Cornell University.  I am now an (un)official Ivy League graduate!  The work for the program was extremely intense for the 12 months, but moreso in the past couple of months, so much so my weekends have been spent writing a white paper on building "PMI as a learning organization" - I know it sounds fun and you're all jealous, and you too want to live in NY just so you can lock yourself away to study... The truth of the matter is is that I could have been living anywhere in the world the past few weeks and it wouldn't matter because my weekends and nights were all consumed with writing this paper.  Happily, the program finished last week and we all got our beautiful certificates.  The problem was for the final week of the program, not only was I a participant, but also the organiser, so needless to say it was extremely stressful, but it was successful. 

So, you'd think come Friday afternoon I would be ecstatic that I no longer had homework - noooooooooooooo, in fact my uni semester kicked off again a few weeks ago, and I had an assignment due in on Monday and as my time had been consumed with my Cornell White Paper, my poor Monash assignment was neglected - well, you can't be neglected if you haven't even been created... anyway, so this past weekend was 48 hours ful of reading countless articles and typing a 3000 word paper.  It was horrific!... Now, I hope you can understand why I was at risk of stabbing myself in the eye with a pen.  No greater relief could be felt than when I pressed submit on that paper - suddenly the world turned from grey to bright, fuzzy to sharp, painful to delightful... and on and on and on....

Spring just started here this week (random fact - US seasons don't follow the same months as ours - i.e. Winter finished on March 21, instead of Feb 29)...and it was 25 degrees today, so fabulous.  The trees are starting to bloom, the NY uniform of black and grey has been replaced with spectacular colours, and the days are now much longer... ahhhh :)

Another random fact for you, two weeks ago was the 100 year anniversary of the Oreo, the number one biscuit in the USA.  The Oreo was first made in the site that is now the Chelsea Market - for those not familiar with the Chelsea Market, it is a beautiful old warehouse style building that now houses a really fabulous, trendy, gourmet market.

A friend, Jodie, has just arrived in town tonight, so watch out NY!!!!  It's my first NJ house guest.  A little more roomier (lucky for her) than my old apartment, where only a mother would put up with someone in that space.  More importantly (just kidding Jodie), on delivery was a big jar of Vegemite and a couple of packs of tim tams (trust me, these hips don't need them....), but yum, yum, yum!   Jodie and I have a jam packed couple of weeks, so I look forward to reporting in with more antics.

I hope you are all going fantastically! 

Signing off!
Michele