JD/MBA = Real Ultimate Power

I’ve been accepted to the Indiana University School of Law!

With my JD/MBA in hand, I plan on being able to buy a real nice KIA one day!

So right, that’s what running feels like…

After the wedding, me and running took a little break. For many who know, I pretty much ran at least 15-20 miles a week from my Sophmore year of college on. Well, when the wedding started getting closer, my entire workout regimen took a hiatus. I hadn’t been running since October. Last night, the new nano and I went out and spent 30 minutes hitting the streets of downtown. It felt pretty good.

This weekend, for the New Years Celebrations, I’ll be a “bachelor” again. Why, you ask? Because the wife has the sorority sisters and town. Thus, I’ll be staying at my friend Prentice’s house. For the Actual Eve party, I’ll be going to Average Joe’s in Broad Ripple for a private party, the 9th Annual Toast for the Kids party. It’s business formal attire, $60, invitation list only. Open bar and appetizers till 3am. It’s too benefit Brooke’s Place, an organization for grieving children and families. Yeah, not exactly the New Year’s Eve environment I’m familar with, but my friend Boggs and Gelo will be there, so it should be pretty fun (but as they’re single ladies, I’ll try not to kill their game with the fellas).

Thoughts at the closing bell:
* Buckley and myself just sent out the first edition of the AKL Alumni Newsletter. I also just sent out the flyer for the new fundraising campaign for the chapter. I was telling Holly, I really do like the planning and such for the fundrasier, and I feel like it give me an idea of what I’d really like to do with my life. I really want to be an advocate to initiate change, for progress. That could be in alot of areas, whether it politics, not-for-profit board member, heck, I even think I’d like to be a University President. Raise funds all the time for a worthy institution? Sounds good to me.
* While I’ve never been big on New Year’s Resolution, the recent completion of “For America” has made me think about some things I could start thinking about to be a better citizen. The list includes: #9 – Set a volunteer quote; #12 – Adopt a Soldier; #18 – Practice Random acts of Kindness; #29 – Start a book club; #43 – Write a letter to the editor; #61 – Go to a pro soccer game (that one is to make me a better “global” citizen). There were 72 recommendations overall, so I think it’s fair to pick and choose.
* Sunday puts an end to another misserable Lions season, and the Colts are getting ready to be massacred in the playoffs. Fantastic. At least the Pistons are still playing fairly well.
* Holly and me are going to Khoury’s tonight, which means one thing – Hookah. Phenominal.
* The mother-in-law read my blog. That’s just weird. Not bad. Just weird.
* I’ve been listening to a ton of Indie Rock at work. Have my musical tastes matured a bit past all rap all the time? Nah, I still listen to rap in the iPod on the way to work.

One love to you all, holla atcha boy.

The Longest Christmas Weekend EVER

As Friday morning was winding up, I was picturing a relaxing weekend at the In-Laws. I figured me and the little lady would relax at home Friday night, then hed to her parents place, we’d watch my “Muppets Family Christmas” movie, her “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, open presents on Christmas Eve, then relax at the Savior’s Birthday, and come home. Then Friday afternoon, I received an email with the simple headline:
“So, want to drive to Colorado???”

Background: Holly’s brother lives in Cali. We was flying in for Christmas last week, supposed to get here Wedensday night. He was going through Denver. Anyone following the news knows that Denver was a clustermess last week. So his flight was pushed back…and pushed back…then cancelled…then his bus out was cancelled. On Friday, it was looking like he wouldn’t get to fly out till Christmas Day, then his work would require him to fly straight home. Holly’s mother would not tollerate a Christmas without her baby boy. So my wife and her parent’s crafted a “bust-him-out” plan, I was ropped in, and we were off.

Friday night we left Indianapolis. We left at 7pm, and by 1pm Saturday afternoon, we were rolling in to lovely Denver. We grabbed her brother and lunch at Johnny Rockets. We spent an hour to stretch legs and shop, then it was quickly back into the truck. Now to paint the accomidations picture, this is an older model Chevy truck. While it’s an “extended” cab, that’s a liberal term. The back bench afforded the Mrs. and me about 1.2 inches of legroom a piece, and there was no sitting straight forward. Add in her brother to the mix, and it just got plain ridiculous. Some highlights from the trip included:
+ Holly and her brother digging into gas station hot dogs. No, seriously, there’s never a good excuse for that.
+ Holly’s mom blarring “Donny Osmond’s “Home for Christmas” in the truck (please save all Donny Osmond joke for the end of the entry)
+ Holly’s mom going into a rest stop and spending 30 minutes curling her hair so as not to look like she’d been in a truck for 12 hours…even though she’d been in a TRUCK FOR TWELVE HOURS!

The entire trip was Seventeen and a half hours there and about Eighteen hours back. About an hour and a half in between. Yes, that’s pretty much al of Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning in a space about four feet by two feet by one and a half feet. Feliz Navidad!

Sunday when we got in we opened gifts. Holly and me saved a few for Christmas day, but most were done Sunday since we had to take her brother back to the airport in Indy – five hours after we’d gotten him into Indiana in the first place. Honestly though, it was a trip full of laughs, and is a hilarious story to tell about our first married Christmas. I don’t really know if I’d change it one bit. Well…maybe a little more leg room.

Thoughts at the closing bell:
* For those wondering, my gifts received list included: An iPod nano (red, because when Bono speaks, I listen), an armband for the nano, a rainsuit, a new sheepskin coat (think “Brokeback Mountain” without all the man-love), two pairs of gloves, a gift card to Parissians, a shirt, some Michigan items, an AmEx giftcard, a decent bit of cash from various peoples, and a stocking full of candy. All in all, a very Merry Christmas. The wife and I as a unit got a great wine/bar piece from her parents. Drinks, anyone?
* Now for New Year’s. Holly will be spending it with the Couvosier Girls (her clique from the sorority), while I’ll be hobnobbing it at a Charity party in Broad Ripple. So I’ll be kissing a gin and tonic at Midnight.
* James Brown is dead. “The Godfather of Soul” and “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business”, he was truly an innovator. He also hosted “James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Show” (Ok, that was Eddie Murphy on SNL, but just as good!)
* So Ethiopia and started off with the bombing of Somalia airports. Am I the only one noticing that there is about to be a full scale war in the Horn of Africa? Not good, kids.
* While reading about his recently broken leg from skiing, I read the Arnold Swarzenegger is 59. Seriously?? This guy is the youngest looking near-60 year old I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m getting on the Arnold plan.

One love to you all, and I wish you all a Happy remaining Holiday season!

So very…very…tiiiirrreeed

Adding up all the hours of sleep I’ve gotten since Saturday night, you’d be hard pressed to come up with more that probably about 20 hours. Four nights worth of sleep, that averages out to five hours a night. But considering I got 6 probably on Saturday, and five on Sunday, you can see that the last two nights have taken a hit in the sleep column. My body just feels beat up, and I haven’t even gotten to work out (another thing causing me a little sadness). I remember reading a few years ago about this business in New York that allowed people to come in and rent a cubby hole for about 30 minutes to an hour to take a cat nap in. I’d kill for a cubby hole about this point.

Well, finals are officially over in the Heaton household. I took my Managerial Econ final on Monday night (I ended up getting one point off the average, not bad when the avg. was 19, the range was 31-12, and the Stan Dev was 4.23. Also, when near half the class are engineers or math majors, I like my standing among that group). Afterwards, it was out to Nicky Blaines for a scotch and a cigar, very nice reward. Holly took her last final this morning. So maybe, JUST maybe, we’ll actually get some sleep tonight. Then again, she does have ladies cookie making night tonight, so all that Estrogen may keep the house sleep free yet again. And no, I’m not participating or sticking around, I’ll be in Broad Ripple enjoying a few brews with the boys.

Tomorrow night will be the huge Heaton Christmas Extravanganza out our house. Actually, we’re just having a dinner party. But nearly 24 people will be in our house…did I mention we live in an apartment? Things will be cozy, to say the least.

Thoughts at the closing bell (which will look weird, cause my toolbar isn’t working today for some reason on WordPress):
* China is now forbidding any foreigner who is obese, over 50, or single from adopting it’s children. I’m sure the poor, orphaned children will be glad to hear the standards have stepped up a notch.

* I’m addicted to two clips on YouTube currently, both SNL related. One I’ve seen before, but it popped up again in connection to the new clip, and it’s Natalie Portman showing a day in her life via a gangsta rap. “What you wanna do Natalie?” “Drink and Fight!”. The other clip was from J.Timberlake’s recent hosting, which turned out about five very clip worthy skits, including the best, a song that teaches the fellas out there what the perfect gift for their special lady is. “It’s my _____ is a box”. If you want to find out the blank, go search on YouTube. You’ll be taken back to groups like All-4-One and Color Me Bad. Just a great clip, makes me think SNL might be worth watching again.

* Wikipedia is currently having their yearly pledge drive. I’m thinking of dropping $5 in appreciation of all they do for me. My bank of knowledge would be fairly lighter without the wealth of information avaiable to me via the wiki community.

* “Rocky Balboa” comes out today. Seriously, I’ve never been so conflicted about how I feel about a movie’s existance (especially since “Rocky V” never happened…no, really, it DIDN’T HAPPEN).

* The Knicks-Nuggets brawl was worth it only to prove the Isiah Thomas really is a mean hearted mutha.

One love to you all, holla atcha boy.

One test to go…

My Managerial Economics paper looms before me, a epic battle between my memory and the aggressive questions of P. Powell. Let’s just say I don’t have the edge in this fight.

I got my Accounting grade back, it was a B. So now, I’ve got an A- and a B on the transcript of my MBA journey. The test Monday night is gonna be a toughy, but I’ll be spending the entire weekend doing a blitzkrieg on the book and different assignments, all in a terrible battle to try and gain an edge going into the test.

The trick is, the test is an online, open-book, three hour jobby. So it tricks you by lulling you into a false sense of security. “Open book? Andy, that’s easy!”. Yeah, keep telling yourself that. But I’ve seen a review of the Spring version of the final – this is no walk in the park, I assure you.

They put an APB out on my thug family…

This story needs no setup, only to be launched right into:

Friday night, I was originally going to go to a hockey game. I had called Prentice (who was interested), and left emails with AJ and Doug. Well, during the day Friday, neither Doug nor AJ responded. I left for our office Christmas party that afternoon at BW3’s, confident I’d call the boys later. While at BW3’s, a few hours later, I went to call Doug. D-Rock’s phone rang, and rang, and…stopped. Yup, my phone was officially dead. Not “let me turn it off and on and get the number” dead, but “completely useless, a lump of plastic” dead.

So, I headed home on the bus, and when I walked up to the house, a wonderful feeling surged through my veins – I didn’t have my keys. CRAP! So now, no phone, no keys. I quickly decided to head down to the circle and get on my email at Kinko’s. When I do, I see that Doug is there, so I leave him a vague message about being locked out with no phone. Well, AJ and Doug both responded luke warm on the game, so I figured everyone would take no follow up on the game as a sign that plans had fallen through. (Yes, my major mistake there, I concede). So, I proceed over to the South Bend Chocolate Cafe to see my former coworkers and talk to classmate Csanyi. Well, once there, he asks if I’m not doing anything and I’d want to throw an apron on and make some cash. I say, “Sure, why not”. I sadly had nothing better to do.

Fast forward: midnight. Csanyi and myself are headed to the Claddagh for some hard-earned Guinesses. As we round the corner, we see fellow MBA-er James. We say, “James, you ol such and such, what’s going on”. At that point James looks at me and asks “Ummm….have you talked to your wife lately?” Let me state for the record – THAT’S NEVER A GOOD THING TO HEAR FROM SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW YOUR WIFE.

Apparently, when Holly couldn’t get a hold of me by phone, she was slightly worried. Then, as the night went on, she proceeded to increase her worry percentage. Then, when she got ahold of Doug and Prentice and neither had seen of heard from me, she went into full freak out mode. The story proceeded with the boys meeting Holly at the house, people driving around downtown looking for me, folks scouring Facebook for numbers of my “facebook friends” who might know where I was. That’s right, full on Civilian APB.

How’s the story end? Ehhh, what can I say, it felt good to be so loved and worried for. I’ve learned to always keep a phone charger handy, and that in marriage, there’s never anyone “not worried about you”, which I figure is a pretty cool thing. Oh, and I made $50 bucks.

Thoughts at the closing bell:

• Pistons are looking ok, but there’s no championship in their near future. Red Wings…I’m trying really hard to care about hockey, folks, but it’s hard.
• New accountability system at work for the FSM’s in my region. Actually, I’m pretty happy about it, one more thing to help me keep the nose to the grindstone.
• I got a library card! Maybe that doesn’t sound exciting, but I’m pretty jazzed about free access to books I want to read and CD’s I want to bur…borrow.
• Some of the AKL’s are looking at putting an Investing Club together behind the market wizzardry of Ben Greer. Wow, we’re ridiculously grown up at that point.
• Accounting paper is done, Accounting Final wednesday, then on Monday it’s a Managerial Econ final and victory cigar and scoth at Nickey Blaine’s afterwards!

One love to you all, holla atcha boy

Come on Sammy, let’s go to the lunch cart…

Many times, I’ve lamented the fact that I was born in the wrong era. I longed to be a part of the swinging 60’s. Not the freaky, psychedelic, tripped out late 60’s, but the early years. The time when guys wore nice suits, women were always dressed to the tens, and everyone had fabulous parties and just lived life to the fullest (yes, I know that in reality most people DIDN’T live like this – but that distracts from my point, so I’ll ignore it). The models for this were a collective group of Hollywood entertainers known as “The Rat Pack”. Originally started by Humphrey Bogart and being much more associated with movie stars, eventually it was taken over by Frank Sintra, and it became synonymous with a period when Frank and his crew ran Las Vegas.

While filing movies like “Robin and his Seven Hoods” and the original “Ocean’s 11″, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., along with a collection of others who rotated in and out, would rule the nightlight of Las Vegas. If one was headlineing at a casino, the others would show up.

Tuesday night, I was given a taste. Going to see “The Rat Pack – Live at the Sands!” was like stepping back in time and getting to see one of their shows in the flesh. It was everything I could have hoped for, short of it being the actual men themselves. The sang, danced, made politically incorrect jokes – it was entertainment at it’s purest. And I’d see it 100 times more.

Thoughts at the closing bell:

• With my third and last letter of recommendation arriving at the LSAC this morning and promptly being forwarded to IU, I am officially applied for Early Admissions the the IU School of Law, and should here something by the end of this month. Cross you fingers, kids.
• This is the Weather Channels current temp for Indianapolis “19 Degrees. Feels like 3 Degrees”. 3 DEGREES! Why the hell am I up here again? On days like these, how could Holly not think more about Birmingham. I’m just saying. I’m not saying…I’m just saying.
• When I am once again reunited with an iPod at Christmas, it will be like all is right with the world.
• With my accounting paper done and overwith, I only have two finals, and then I will officially have one semester of MBA work in the books. Feels like progress to me.

One love to you all, holla atcha boy.

The Iceman Cometh…

On the way to work this morning, I had to work hard to keep my hands from freezing off. My poor little black gloves just weren’t up to the task of warding off sub-freezing weather. There was a scattering of ice and snow around, but not anything that could be called even a marginal fall. So, we wait a few more days to see if old man winter will deal us a major snow blow.

Over the weekend, I reconnected with the procrastinating student within, as I worked on an Accounting paper due Wednesday that I’ve known about for weeks but only choose to start on this past week. I know, tisk tisk. I also needed to work on some reading for accounting. In the end, though, I feel comfortable that I’ll meet all my deadlines and do fine on my finals, but the next two weeks will def. not be too fun filled.

Friday night was just spent at the house. Saturday was spent working on papers, as well as finishing up a little Christmas shopping. Saw my first holiday movie of the season, with “Elf” being on USA Saturday. Sunday was church, group work for Managerial Econ., and then more work at home. Holly was in study mode as well. Seriously, we’re gonna look like huge nerds the next few weeks.

Tomorrow night, I’ll be seeing what promises to be a great show – “The Rat Pack - LIVE at the Sands” at the Murat Theatre just around the corner from our house. Holly’s parents are coming in to see it as well, and we’re making them dinner. All who know my love and obsession with the Pack will understand how exciting this is for me!

Thoughts at the closing bell:

• Michigan was robbed. Really, what more can I say. Florida? Whatever.
• The lady next to me at work is watching “Sweet Home, Alabama” on a little DVD player. That can’t be conducive to efficient work. Then again, I suppose this blog isn’t either. Oh, the hypocrite I am.
• Pleasure reading is having to take a seat to school work the next few weeks. So sad, but rides home should still provide chances to get through some of “1688″, hopefully finishing it up before the holidays.
• Still no sure plan for New Years. Where the crap am I going, kids?

One love to you all, holla atcha boy.

I want to be just like Paris…

Today is the first day of December, and is coming in with a bang. The weather this morning has bee particularly rough, with strong wind gusts, and now, it’s official, the first snow of the season. It won’t stick, won’t be more than a half-inch, but it’s arrival is mighty symbolic. It’s winter, and it’s going to be here for awhile.

Last night was date night, and a great night it was. We went for dinner at Thai Cafe in Broad Ripple where I had my first encounter with Pad Thai (Very Yummy!). Then it was onto “The Nutcracker”, as performed by Butler University’s ButlerBallet (apparently a top 15 program in the country). We scored last minute, prime tickets from a friend of ours who plays in the Indianapolis Symphony, she was contracted to come in and play French Horn in the show. She asked us at the end if we heard her mess up. Now, I can’t tell you the difference between an Oboe and a Tuba when listening to music, how am I gonna tell if you messed up one part on an instrument that I couldn’t pick out of a listening lineup?

Today’s closing bell will be replaced with a soapbox:

• Many of us felt that Britney Spears had hit a low in her marriage with K-Fed. We assumed that now, with her freedom from his conniving and shady ways, that she would start to rebuild her shattered image and make something out of herself. But then…Vaginagate. That’s right, on at least two separate occasions in the last week, Britney has treated the papparazzi, and subsequently the world, to shots of her mother-of-two-vagina. Now, this would be one thing if she were in different surrounding, maybe just going to the grocery store, or at a restaurant, and some pervy photog was using an ultrascope. Alas, this is not the case. Instead, each time, she has been on a late night bender, reclaiming her freedom through hard partying. The capper – she’s been with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan much of this time. That’s how’s she going to reclaim her career?? Newsflash, you twit – Lindsay Lohan hasn’t been in a movie of any worth (or money making worth, at least) since “Mean Girls”, and Paris Hilton’s album and TV shows are TANKING. These are not the woman to bring back your career. Get your name in the papers? Yeah, obviously, they can do that. Why, though, does Britney’s team think this is the right, or only, road to recovery. Are these the woman we lift up and allow our young children, especially girls, to idolize? South Park did an episode, which captured this movement perfectly. Paris Hilton was opening a line of stores where young girls could come and buy the equipment needed to be just like her. The name of the store? Stupid Spoiled Whore. Congratulations, Britney – you’re bought ownership in stock of this company. Enjoy your new status as a Stupid Spoiled Whore.

Now, I’m off the soapbox. One love to you all, holla atcha boy.