Whew!

Well, I'm home. In particular, I'm lying on my own bed in pj shorts with the AC blowing comfortably down on me. I've missed being home. I love my grandparents and I love the lake, and I love my parents and our house in PA, but this apartment has come to mean a lot to me, and it's nice to be back. It feels like a while since I've been here (it's been a little over a week). Weekends are nice. I do have a lot planned, including going for a run, doing laundry, going to the Taste of Chicago, getting my bike fixed (finally GAHHH), transferring my iTunes music to my new computer (ALSO FINALLY), dropping off the dry cleaning, church, and hopefully also seeing Get Smart (I've been dubbed Agent 99 already at work...). I was thinking I might see it tonight, but after I sat down I realized just how tired I was. My legs are sore and they're enjoying being propped up on the bed. ;)

But yeah, so far work is really fun. I really do love working, and I am happiest when I feel part of a team doing meaningful work. And I'm doing better with more unstructured time than I thought I would--I think the main issue for me is just having a dedicated work space and a dedicated relax space. When I try and mix the two, nothing gets done, but I don't really relax either. Hence, I can't really do work at home (the reading room is where I always read or write papers at school), and working at an office is much the same. I like all my coworkers and I love having my own cube and laptop and journal that I can fill with wild ideas for where I think Whirlpool should go. It's exciting. Part of my research this week has been around sustainability best practices, and I've gotten to learn a bit about some really cool companies. In fact today I felt a really strong desire to move to Sweden and work for IKEA. I really would like to work abroad for a while. It'd be a lot harder when I have a family, and why not now? I am so itching to get back to Europe, and to Latin America, and Australia (probably in part due to Mom and Dad's trip--they're somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean right now, heading to Paris). I'm planning on going with Mom, Dad, Michael, Grandma and Poppa to visit Todd when he studies abroad in the winter in Tubigen, Germany, so I'm sure that'll be really fun. Again I come back to wishing I was in a three-year MBA program, so I could study abroad for part of it and TA for some cool classes and learn a bit more econ/marketing theory. I also think it'd probably be a wise choice to pick up a concentration in Finance as well, so I'm not positioning myself as a total right brain!! But yeah, we'll see. Also feeling energized about the marathon, which has morphed into a bit of an emotional journey for me...like I mentioned in another post, I always sort of surprise myself when I stick to things independently, and I feel like this race is something I really desperately want to do, for myself, to prove I can do it. I'm also really enjoying running, and I definitely enjoy feeling healthier and stronger, and in general more in control of my own body, which is nice. Anyway, I'm off to read...yay!