Happy New Year!!

to everyone out there in the world.  I hope 2012 finds you all healthy, happy, and excited for what's to come. I know I am. 

It's been a while. Yes, I know, but it's hard to blog about my life when I originally started it because I wanted to document my journey of becoming a FSO.   What's been happening in my life lately doesn't seen to coincide with that.  Obviously, I have mixed feelings about it.  IDK, we'll see.  Speaking of the foreign service....yes, I have officially applied to take the FSWE in February. Yay! I've taken it once so I know what to expect. The 'OH $#!& ' moment I had last time won't happen again and I'll be able to concentrate. I'm claiming it and speaking it into existence that I'm going to pass, make it the through the OA, clearance, and the register to be in the Foreign Service. I'm going to make it.

I got my diploma in the mail. WOOT! WOOT!  It's still so weird. I am the Master of something; International Business to be exact! Go me! Go me! I'm also flirting with the idea of going back to get a second masters in Diplomacy or International Relations.  I'm just bored, I think, but I don't want to be a professional student getting degrees simply because I can get them.  I actually want to use this knowledge I'm acquiring.

I'm also sick. Mandolin convinced me that all children are incubators of all communicable diseases. They just carry all sorts of germs.  I spent Christmas Day with her and since I hadn't seen her much she was like my 3rd leg. She gave all sorts of hugs, lovely super wet kisses, coughs to the face...the whole 9.  About a week later, the Friday before New Year's Eve, I get sick. Sick as a dog, I tell you.  So, I spent all of last weekend in bed with chills, back ache, shortness of breath, and a nasty cough.  Thanks, Mandolin. Her mom didn't believe me when I told her that Mandolin gave me typhoid.  She called me yesterday hacking and sneezing. Good luck on that a super awesome adventure that awaits you, Jill. She hung up on me. I chuckled.

I have to say I'm very optimistic about the year to ahead.  I'm excited about where my career is headed, the love in my life is progressing, and all of my family and friends are happy and healthy. What more could a girl want?!?

Adjustment....

So, I've been out of school for nearly a week and a half, and I'm bored.  My road has been extremely long and arduous; 2 years to be exact and in those 2 years I've always had something to do.  I've held down 2 full time jobs and gone to school. In those 2 years there hasn't been a moment where I wasn't thinking about school.  Even if I said I wasn't going to do any work, there was still work to be done. There was always this thing in the back of my brain. Now that thing is no longer there and. I'm. BORED! 

As crazy as it is, I'm bored. Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy to be done. I got 3 degrees in 2 3/4 years. Just saying it is exhausting and I'm the one who lived through it! It's crazy, I know.  I'm just bored. I don't have weekly deadlines anymore or papers to write or the pressure of it all. I don't have anymore pressure! It's weird, yet I'm happy.  I have a plan though, get back into Zumba, resume weight watchers, and give J more attention. I was doing really well and then school got serious and I stopped going to Zumba and about 2 months ago I told myself that I would allow myself to eat whatever I wanted. That, my friends, was a bad move.  A really bad one!  I went class last night with Adelicia and I wanted to pass out. The warm up was 10 minutes long and I started praying half way through.  I didn't give up though; I never give up. It's mind over matter and a few prayers of "God, please don't let me pass out."  However, I just may fall out when I go to my WW meeting and see exactly how much I've gained.  WTF was I thinking?

Thailand in Pictures...Part 2

These are pictures of the summer palace. The royal family resides here in the summer.

Hello, my name is Victoria....

and I have my MBA.  Yep, folks that right!   OMGEEEEEEEE!!

I finally made it!

I did it!

I knew I would...

(well, there was a period there last week and the week before that and the week before that)

I was a little worried that I may not make it. It was really scary, stressful, overwhelming, and rest of the adjectives that I've described countless times in my blogs as a ranted and worried.  I mean I woke up this morning and I don't have a single assignment to do. My nights of going to class (the live chats) are over. I don't have to worry about group projects anymore.  It really hasn't sunk in yet; I have an advanced degree!! I'm super proud of myself.   Graduation is in Chicago in the Spring and I can't wait!

In all seriousness, next to getting married and having babies, this is the greatest single thing I've done in my whole life.  EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!   J has been wonderful throughout the whole process. We have a 5 hour time difference and he stayed up with me late into the night so many nights I've lost count. I'm the first to admit that I can be a hand full and that's magnified when I'm under lots of stress but he stuck it out and took the moodiness in stride. I couldn't have done it without his love and support and also from all of my family and friends.  Incidentally, I mailed him a sleeve of my thin mints and my trefoils last week in his box. You know that's love when a girl gives away her thin mints.  IJS...

I also wanted to thank all of the readers in blog world who sent well wishes and/or offered up prayers. They are much appreciated. It took a village to raise me, and a village to get me through school.

And now, getting back to the task at hand....getting into the foreign service. If I can make it through that program, I can make it through the application process!

7 Days....

and counting.  That's all that's left.  Do you remember the tears I foreshadowed in my last post? Lots of tears this weekend. Stress and I have become fine friends. I have gray hair to prove it.  Next Monday, it will all have been worth it.

And then I can sleep.  I'm so excited to sleep!

Overwhelmed

I've been complaining for months now about school. Yes, I know. I apologize, sincerely.  I shouldn't have complained because my class right now takes.the.cake. into infinity and beyond.  I'm in week 3 of 5. There are only 2 1/2 weeks left and OMGeee! I don't even know.  Just thinking about it make me want to burst into tears but I know it's just the stress.  2 1/2 weeks seems like 6 months right now. This is my Mt. Everest.  Throughout this program, I've felt like I've been climbing Mt. Everest but really they were just hills, like the Western Maryland Appalachians.  Is this the rite of passage every graduate student takes when they are at the end?

I will make it.

I have no choice.

I don't give up on anything.

That was my pep talk to myself.

Pray for me.

Who cares about Strategic Management?

 I don't. Do you?  That is the name of my last class ever in my educational career.  Let me tell you, it is the bane of my existence.  I'm in week 3 of 5 and my stress level is through the roof!  And it's all over Strategic Management.  I'm finding that a lot of my graduate courses are recycled terms and such things from when I was in my Bachelors.  My problem...I didn't retain anything. As I've been in an accelerated program (1 or 2 classes every 5 weeks) in order to prevent myself from information overload I've had to compartmentalize all of this information. In doing so, I promptly forget it all once the class is over.   Elasticity of Demand? WTF is that?  I've had 2 classes about it and I still can't tell you.  For this class we're dealing with SWOT. If I ever have to do another SWOT analysis it will be too soon.  J says that this last class is like mile 22 in a marathon. I just have to push through to the end and then I'll be done. That seems so simple. I suspect that the next couple of weeks will be filled with more stress and lots of tears.

I've put all of my friends on notice, we're going out for happy hour and we're going to get sloppy drunk. That's right, I said it! We're going to Nacho Mama's and we're going to drink this:

They're famous for the margaritas in a hubcap. Yes, that is actually a hubcap filled with alcoholic goodness.  I deserve it after 2 years of going to school full time and working 2 full time jobs.  #iwon'tbeabletowalk