Econ continues to confound me.

Not the material, at least not when I read it.

Then it makes perfect sense.

But these damn multiple choice exams?

Oy.

I did five points better on this one than the last one.

But that's only just barely good enough.

WTF? I'm smarter than the average bear.

Just not, apparently, as smart as the average economist bear.

I just finished the second test in econ.

Sheesh. Hard!

It doesn't help that the text is fairly conservative, while the prof himself is liberal. The conclusions we draw in our online discussions sometimes contradict the text. Confusing. So I just ask myself, WWMFD? And then it's easier to find the answer.

I finally got my economics test results, and they weren't great.

A gentlewoman's C.

I have yet to bring myself to look at it to see what I screwed up.

Now, because the prof is generous with extra credit, I could probably pull myself back up to an A. But I'm not sure the benefit is worth the cost.

Work will pay as long as I pass. Merely pass. And what's wrong with merely passing?

How much less work would I have had to do, how much less stress would I have been under, how much more time might I have spent with the boys - or asleep - if I hadn't been chasing As?

I need to think about this some more. But I think the decision has already been made.

Took my first exam of the second quarter yesterday.

Econ.

Closed book.

Which is actually easier than open - you either know it, or you don't. Much easier, no research. I also appreciated that it was an online, timed test. Better to have a time limit than to spend far too much time worrying over questions.

I think I did well, but it's hard to tell for sure. Some things in econ are counterintuitive, at least to me.

In related news, the residency prof finally started posting grades. I got a 97 for the post-residency discussion. Which of course makes me wonder what happened to the other three points... but only for a moment. If I don't end up with an overall A in that, I'll be seriously shocked. I worked my rump off, and my results were very good.

No grades yet in Leadership/Professional Development, but I did receive a message from the prof complimenting me on my contributions to the class discussions, so I'm confident there.

So I am shopping online.

For little boy clothes on sale (though with alarming shipping costs, WTF?) and for work clothes for me (from the 50% off everything sale at Coldwater Creek), most of which I'll end up returning since their clothing is always slightly off somehow - if I'm lucky, I'll end up with a sweater and a pair of trousers.

MBA-wise, I'm feeling behind the 8 ball in econ (or just behind?), but I'm enjoying the other course, Leadership and Professional Development. Just wrote a post about South Pacific (we're discussing bias, including racism, this week).

And now I've got those glorious melodies in my head. Not a bad way to fall asleep. If I can manage that. If I don't get sleepy soon, I'll go clean the closet. The mere idea of that should bring on the Zs.

The econ discussion board is rather quiet. Maybe folks are still recovering from last weekend's exertions?

I'm enjoying learning about David Ricardo, a Sephardic Jew born in Britain who expanded the work of Adam Smith, who preceeded him by a couple of generations.

Though his model of comparative advantage is flawed. As if anyone would choose British wine over Portuguese, regardless of how efficiently it was produced! They simply don't have the climate for it.

Wow.

Intense. Challenging. Educational. Fun.

My team won it all - the team building olympics, the management simulation, and the board presentation.

Most importantly, we worked beautifully together.

I suspect the online interactions of our entire cohort will be different after this experience.

And now I'm going to bed. I was up until 3 AM tweaking our PowerPoint slides and trying to memorize my material, and I got up at 6 AM so I'd have time to run over to my office and print out copies for the board of directors on good paper with our swank color printer (one of the board members commented favorably on it; every other team had just used the university's black laser printer and skimpy paper).

With me away, #2 has spent the past three nights sleeping in the crib in his brother's room. Looks like we're going to just keep him in there.

No more baby in the bed. That practically breaks my heart. He's growing up.

You did a good job for shareholders. Your annual meeting should turn into a nice celebration! May we suggest Maui? The management team can expect swift approval of a proposed increase in your compensation package.

Ferris Wombat rules!

We still have to present our results to the Board of Directors tomorrow. But we have a good story to tell.

Yeah, baby! As in both of my classes.

Some people did not take the work as seriously as I did - just did enough to get good grades, not enough to really master the material. Their loss, I say!

The residency's been much more fun than I'd feared. My team, Wombat (long story), won the morning's team building challenges, and now we're all sporting gold medals.

We also performed very well in the evening's practice management simulation, which bodes well for the weekend. We all have different skills and strengths, and thus far we've been working together seamlessly. And having fun (which in fact is one of our team's stated missions).

The prof's a little wacky, which I find endearing.

The hotel is wee but nice. Alas, no bathtub, only a giant shower, which I plan to make good use of in the morning - we reconvene at 7:30 AM.

Our schedule is so packed. I hope I have time to introduce some of the out-of-towners to some fine Philly food. (Please note I resisted the temptation to start all three of those words with ph.)

I'll be off at my first MBA residency today through Sunday.

We'll be pretending to manage imaginary companies. Or we'll actually be managing virtual companies. Something like that.

Anyway, I probably won't have time to keep up here. I will miss you all!

After an alarmingly long silence from my Financial Accounting prof,  he e-mailed me today.

I got an A in his class.

Not the A- I was (barely) clinging to.  An A.

This means either I got every single question I answered right (I left a couple of components incomplete); I got extra points for some of the questions I answered in multiple ways or in superhuman detail; or there was some creative accounting going on.

I still can't quite believe it.  I keep reading his e-mail.

A.

I certainly deserved one for effort.  I haven't worked that hard in a class since Environmental Studies at Simon's Rock, [edited for content] years ago.

I also had a lovely meeting with the other prof, who again thanked me profusely for my contributions to the class discussions.  No grade yet, but no worries.

I spent a lot of my undergrad years (and some years since, in the workplace) feeling like an impostor.  I don't think I need to feel that way anymore.

Too much to do in too little time.

Ack.

I've now completed the first term (of 6 - they operate on a trimester system) of my MBA program.

I had precisely one evening to enjoy this, and now I'm cramming preparation material for the first intensive residency.  That will run from 7:30 AM breakfast to 9 or 10 PM from Thursday to Sunday (though Sunday they take pity on us and dismiss in the early afternoon).

Between now and Wednesday at 9 PM, I have to read 12 chapters of material and run four years' worth of business simulations.

At least work is calm for a change, and my new ergonomic chair is finally here.

Just e-mailed that bastard to the prof.

Cocktail time!

Just finished a read-through.

It necessitated some edits and some cuts.

Back down to 10 pages now.

Argh.

Fortunately the boys (all three of them) are asleep, meaning less guilt for mama.

I am so close to being done with this paper I can almost taste it.

Like delivering a baby, I just need to manage a few big pushes.

Is there an epidural for brain pain? Maybe I need a cocktail.

I sure deserve one when this is over.

It's done and submitted. I'm just waiting for confirmation that it was received - it was too large a file for the basic system, so I had to e-mail it to the prof's main account.

It wasn't perfect. But I hope maybe it was good enough.

I'm not sure if it's because the material is all so new to me, or because it's been so long since I was a student, but material that makes perfect sense when I read the textbook and do the homework seems much more complicated with the word exam attached.

Ah, well. Onward and upward.

I've entered into the exam form all the answers I hand wrote last night.  And I'm pretty happy with them.

I've resolved some issues I had, and I've e-mailed the prof a few remaining questions.

Now I'll go home and spend some time with the boys, eat dinner, then check for the prof's response and tie up any loose ends.

Then I e-mail it to him.

And then I'm done.

(Until tomorrow, when I have to finish the term paper for the other class.  But that's tomorrow.)

I finished the exam (first draft) at 1 AM.

I worked at a calm pace, including spending about an hour with #2 so that the spousage could check his mail, use the bathroom, etc.

This mostly involved watching #2 sleep, which was lovely. I even got a few of his fingernails trimmed, though after a bit he caught on, snatched his hand away, and rolled over where I couldn't get at him, with his hands underneath his little body. Clever baby.

The exam's not due til midnight. With luck, I can complete it before the end of the workday. Even without luck, it'll be done in good time.

Here I go.

I've made some measurable progress on my exam.

Not as much as I'd hoped, by now. I just think til my eyes glaze over (the dreaded MEGO!), then take a sip of Diet Coke, and think some more.

This is how it was with the midterm - I had to give myself a lot of time just to process the questions, since all the material is new to me this semester. I envy those in my cohort who have a business background, either undergrad or employment. They have less catch-up to play.

Every time I catch myself feeling good about approaching the end of the trimester, and I lurch into abject terror that this is only the first trimester of six standing between me and an MBA.

Hopefully they will not all involve lumbar issues and family-wide bronchial ooze.