My Fisher Grad Life

It’s been a busy quarter and I haven’t written a blog post in a while. As of last Tuesday, the quarter has started to slow down a little bit. For about 3 weeks it was incredibly hectic with midterms, group presentations and projects on top of my busy work schedule. I know I’ve said it before, but there are 2 or 3 weeks ever quarter where things get really busy and before you know it the quarter is almost over.

I did go to the Fisher College Halloween Party at Callahan’s a week ago which was a lot of fun (and a good deal at $21 for 8 drink tickets). I was also able to get a round of golf in at Scarlet the next day. I can’t believe how quickly the year has gone by. Thanksgiving will be here shortly and then it will only be a week or two before the quarter is over.

Only 3 weeks of Ohio State football left and I am looking forward to the Penn State game this upcoming weekend and the Michigan game over Thanksgiving weekend. I look forward to the Michigan game every year but it’s always bittersweet after the game when you know there isn’t much football left. Luckily, basketball season is starting and the Bucks are ranked in the top 5 in the coaches and AP polls.

For those of you looking for a class to take winter quarter, you should look into Prof. Gray’s Global Sourcing – it’s a great class.

Programs of the games I went to over break

My 4 week break from school quickly came to an end. I’ve now had each of my classes once and it should be an interesting quarter with Real Estate Development, Union Negotiations and Pricing. It was nice to see some familiar faces too.

Here is a little recap of my break. Over the first 4 weeks of the college football season I have been to 5 games: the first 3 Ohio State games and 2 Notre Dame games. My fiancee is a Notre Dame grad so we went to their season opener and also the Notre Dame – Stanford game. This weekend I will be traveling to Champaign, Illinois for the Ohio State – Illinois game. I won’t be getting a break from live football until the Buckeyes play the Badgers on October 16 in Madison.

My favorite game of the year thus far was of course the Buckeyes win over Miami. The night game against Marshall was a lot of fun too but we didn’t really have any time to tailgate and that’s half the fun. To future WPMBA students: I highly recommend taking 3 classes Fall quarter to get the football tickets.

Other than football, I went to see Pavement at the LC Pavilion and Greg Giraldo at the Funny Bone and I was just told that Greg Giraldo died today – crazy.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed their break as much as I did. Below are some pictures from some of the football games and from the Pavement concert (thanks Lindsey!).

On Tuesday night I finished my 4th quarter in the Working Professional MBA program. I can’t believe that I’ve been in the program for 11 months and that I am halfway finished. It’s weird to think that I’ll be graduating at this time next year. It is going to be hard to go back to class after having 4 weeks off from class, but that’s life. I will be spending these four weeks relaxing and watching football.

I picked up my student ticket on Wednesday and was excited to see how close to the field I will be each Saturday. The last time I attended Ohio State football games as a student, the Buckeyes won the national championship. It would be great if it happens again this year.

I am really looking forward to the fall. During football season, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be than Columbus. It’s a lot of fun to get together and tailgate with friends every Saturday there is a home game…but I digress. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the end of the Summer. The next time you hear from me, it will be autumn. Until then – Go Bucks!

Last Wednesday I finished one of my classes for the quarter and now I only have one class left to go. The final is Tuesday night and I am really looking forward to the 4 week break from class. The break is going to sync up perfectly with the beginning of football season which starts in 10 days for Ohio State fans. I believe I have mentioned before that I was able to get a season ticket since I am taking 3 classes this fall and I am really excited about the season since the Buckeyes are going to be really good (preseason #2 in both the AP and Coaches polls). I also am planning on going to a couple Notre Dame games this fall since my fiancee is an alumna.

This weekend I also went to the Pelotonia activities Friday night and supported my fiancee as she participated in the Columbus to Amanda 43 mile ride.  Unfortunately, one of the riders, an Ohio State employee, died on Saturday. Pelotonia is still a great event and maybe I’ll ride in it next year.

View of Philadelphia's Market Street sign from my hotel room

I just got done meeting with my group to prepare for my final presentation on Wednesday for MBA 825. I really enjoyed the class this quarter and I can’t believe the quarter is almost over. I am really looking forward to my 4 week break from school and the beginning of football season though. According to my new Sports Illustrated, the Buckeyes are projected as the 2nd best football team in the country.

My trip to Philadelphia last week was good and unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of Pat’s and Ralph’s but I can assure you that they were both very good. Also, I was able to get a lot of reading done in the airport and on the plane, which is always a good time to get things done.

On Saturday I played in the WPMBA golf scramble at Mentel Memorial Golf Course. Our team hit the ball well but didn’t putt well and thus we only finished -3. It was a good time and it was fun to meet some classmates outside of class.

Right now I am sitting in the Southwest terminal of the Columbus airport. I am heading to Philadelphia for a few days. While I am there I have plans to go to Pat’s, the creator of the Philly cheesesteak, and Ralph’s, the second oldest Italian restaurant in the country. I have been to Pat’s once before when I was in college but I am excited to go back and very excited to go to Ralph’s which I have heard a lot of great things about. I’ll post some pictures (if my camera battery doesn’t die) in my next post.

Over the weekend I managed to make it up to the Dublin Irish Festival. I couldn’t believe how big and crowded it was. When I was a kid, the festival was not that big and really not a big deal, but now the size of the festival is incredible. If you’re looking for something to do next August, I recommend you check it out.

Lastly, I can’t believe my quarter will be over in 15 days. Where has the Summer gone? The 4 week break will be a nice break from school and I am looking forward to having some nights free.

An example of a Brahma and a Dominique chicken

Sunday I went to the Ohio State Fair with my fiancee. I probably haven’t been to the fair in 20+ years so I was kind of curious to go back. We started off by getting a large lemonade and followed that up with a steakburger from one of the many food stands. Both really hit the spot.

Lastly, there were tons of different fried foods available: deep fried buckeyes, twinkies,  snickers and smores just to name a few; however, we got an elephant ear which I hadn’t had in years and was really good.

After that we walked around the different pavilions and got a good look at some of the horses, dairy cows, cattle, pigs, roosters and chicken. These animals can be huge!  Some of the horses we saw were probably 10 feet tall. After that, we called it a day and went back to the comforts of air conditioning. All in all it was a good experience and I was glad we went.

The fair runs through August 8 so there is still time to get over to the fairgrounds. Check out my pictures from the fair below.

Midterms are over and I had a pretty good weekend to relax and enjoy myself. Friday, I went to the Jazz & Ribfest with my fiancee and some friends for dinner. I had a pretty good pulled pork sandwich from Ray Ray’s Hog Pit from Columbus while the others sampled ribs from multiple vendors.

Saturday night I went to see Inception which lived up to the hype and I recommend you see it if you haven’t already. Sunday I spent a chunk of the day doing wedding planning stuff – things are starting to come together. Tonight season 4 of Mad Men starts and if you haven’t seen it before, there is something wrong with you. CHECK IT OUT! It is the best show on television.

Lastly, I can’t believe that July is almost over and I am about to begin the 6th week of Summer quarter. Where has the Summer gone? Luckily, the end of Summer means one thing – college football season. Less than 6 weeks until the Buckeyes season starts and I can’t wait to see where my student ticket will be.

Local radio DJ Andyman of CD101 died over the weekend. For those of you who grew up in Columbus, you have probably listened to him on the radio.

My first introduction to CD101 was in the fall of 1994. I was a freshman in high school and Ben, the senior that drove me to school, listened to CD101. I grew up in Dublin and went to high school at St. Charles so we listened to the radio for about 30 – 40 minutes every morning. It was on these drives that I was introduced to bands like The Clash, The Smiths, The Ramones, The Replacements, Wilco, etc. and also heard new music from my favorite bands like Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters.

Although I don’t listen to CD101 as much as I used to, it still holds the #1 preset spot on my car radio and is what I turn to first when I want to listen to music.

CD101 doesn’t play great music every time (a recent example is Owl City’s “Fireflies”) but they do play good music the large majority of the time and for that we owe CD101 and Andyman a huge debt of gratitude.

Ted Leo at Skully's on 8/10/10

Saturday night I went to see Ted Leo & the Pharmacists at Skully’s. It was their first headlining show in Columbus since 2006 and it was worth the wait. Mr. Leo was frustrated at the beginning of the show since he was playing with a substandard (the real adjective he used is not suitable for the blog) guitar because the airline had broken his guitar; however, he and the band put on a great show as they always do.

The quarter so far has been pretty good. I am learning some interesting stuff in my Organizational Behavior and Enhanced Professional Interchange classes. In Organizational Behavior we are learning how to communicate better and in Enhanced Professional Interchange we are learning how to become better speakers and presenters. As I have mentioned in previous posts, it has been nice to have Monday nights off. This Monday my fiancee and I are going to another concert, Cake at LC Pavilion.

Less than 2 months left until football season!