where to start....

This time last year I had just come off a horrible job assignment on a construction site. I was worried about my job.

So, in March I jumped ship and left CH M H LL. I was able to finagle it so that I was done with them on the day before I left for a weeklong vacation with the family to Kauai, which was amazing. My first day back from vacation was my first day starting at C ffman Eng neers.

It's been an awesome ride. I've been busy, nonstop, since I joined them. I've lost track of how many projects I've worked on. Every time I finish a project, a new one is there to pick up. It's one of the best decisions I've made in my life.

This past year I was part of the Leadership Anchorage program, put on by the Alaska Humanities Forum. It was a 10 month long intensive leadership development program. I was able to have a state legislator as a mentor, and we were able to meet for breakfast for several months. Totally sweet insight into Alaska politics and the sorts of things that happen in the State Legislature. I was also part of a community service project group, and we helped a local nonprofit come up with a marketing plan for a recent program expansion. We also had some larger sessions with the full class where we would hear from a leader in the community on a topic of leadership and also do some group development activities. It was a great experience, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'd also highly recommend it to anyone here.

It was also another year of soccer. I finally got Josh and Lee to try it out. Hopefully they didn't hate it so much that they won't play again.

It's also been another year of classes. Last fall I took Alaska Native Politics, and learned many (more) intracacies of Alaska Native Corporations, 8(a) eligibility and corporations, and history about the state through the eyes of ANCSA and ANILCA.

Then, I had the bright idea that, since I've been taking all these classes at UAA anyways, I'd do it "for serial!" So, last semester I took a prerequisite for the MBA program and learned all about Fundamentals of Finance, and that not many people in the class can understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Over the summer I took the GMAT, which is a test tailored for MBA students. I was very happy to read my test scores, where I got 90% correct on the math, and 75% on the verbal. Then, I kept reading my test report, and my heart fell when I found out that I was in the top 25% of test takers with my verbal score, and the bottom 25% of test takers on the math score. The numbers are so skewed because most of the examinees are Indian engineers, who have a limited idea what English is, but ace a math exam in their sleep.

Just this week I started my first two for serial classes. One of them, Intermediate Finance, is taught by an Indian professor whose classroom student behavior requirements make me feel like I'm living in my college's classes again, what with all my Indian professors there and the caste system they had set up there. Oh yeah.

I'm already thinking about the PE exam, which I take next fall. October 2011. I won't be taking classes that semester. Right now my plan between now and then is take this semester of classes, take spring semester classes, and then once spring classes get out, immediately start studying for the exam, all the way up until exam day. So, I've got an interesting year to look forward to.

Anyways, that's all I have time for to write. I leave for Seattle tonight to be a best man for one of my college roommates. I'm coming down with a cold today! It sucks! Right before the wedding!