Work hard...play hard later

Here I am blogging when I should already be sound asleep gearing up for another week at work. I just feel like I was cheated out of a weekend because I ended up working late every day this week and all day Saturday too. Guess that's what happens when you take 2 weeks off for Christmas. But this is a typical Sunday night where I stay up late to try and hang on to the last few minutes of the weekend. I will NOT work on Sundays, which allows me to enjoy the Sabbath day, and also gives me a much needed break. But then I just want more, and hate for it to end.

Nathan is no better. The last semester of the 2-year MBA program at GA Tech is usually the easiest. By then you've got your job lined up and can just coast through classes until graduation. Well, that is the average student anyway. But as we all know, Nathan is not average. He's crazy! We had to come back earlier than originally planned from Christmas in Utah so he could attend a 3-day "Six Sigma" seminar, which will give him the first level of certification. This is a big deal. Bank of America is huge on Six Sigma, so if Nate already has the first level certification he'll be that much more ahead of the pack. That is always his goal--be ahead of the pack.

So after spending three days last weekend in business seminars all day, and then starting the semester this last Monday, he's been going non-stop for 10 days without much of a break. I think he was thankful for church this morning just to break the pattern. I don't know how he does it. On top-of the Six Sigma project he'll be doing this semester, he's taking FIVE classes. Yes, five. He fretted over whether that was a good idea, but couldn't bring himself to drop any because he's interested in them all and this is his last semester. Guess he's trying to take the most advantage of school that he can. On top of all that, as if that's not enough, he's still working 15 hours/week at the Altanta Technology Development Center, and THEN...he decided that he wants to compete in the Purdue University case competition like he did last year. The difference is that this year he is the one who organized the team and is heading all the efforts.

Winning a case competition like this is huge for your resume, so of course he wants it. Schools all across the nation participate. They are all given the case information on Friday and have until Monday to turn it in. That is the first round. The top 10 or so get invited to Purdue for a 2nd round in a month or so. Grand prize is $5,000. But if you don't get grand prize, you get nothing for all your hours and hours of hard work. He was very frustrated with his group last year (LONG story), so he just couldn't pass this up. So here is what I've seen all weekend.

That is the back of Nathan's head while he's sitting at the computer. Insert frantic typing sounds, and there you've got it. So after spending all weekend alone last weekend and loving being able to get all sorts of projects done around the house, this weekend I've tried to keep quiet as a mouse. It's really hard because our computer is in the corner of the living room, which is right next to the kitchen. It's either that or the bedroom. Not much space for me when I need to keep out of the way and stay quiet. So it worked out that I needed to work yesterday and went to the office to get away. Someday I will get to see Nathan's face, and not just the back of his head. Here's to another 5 months!