the great u-haul question
I’m trucking my household from New York City to Cambridge, Massachusetts next week. (I should add that I do have the help of friends, and for that I’m grateful.) I started looking for places to book trucks online and started with the big obvious one: u-haul.
When I started sifting through their website, I was actually impressed. I guess I have a somewhat dilapadated mental image of u-haul, so when they had a simple, well-designed user-interface for renting trucks, purchasing boxes, and getting loader/unloader help, I was surprised.
Then I started walking through the process of booking a truck.
Toward the middle the process I noticed some language that stipulated that the truck couldn’t be guaranteed, and that if the truck was not available I would receive $50 from u-haul. So I took a spin over to consumerist.com and found this. Cue alarm bells and visions of showing up to u-haul in midtown only to be told “NO TRUCK FOR YOU!!”
So, now with my deadline bearing down on me, I finally decided to screw u-haul and pull the trigger on a Penske truck. It worked out to be only slightly more expensive, but I just trust the product a little more. So, here’s to a smooth move… let the packing begin!
now’s a good time…
Well it would seem that the economy isn’t embarking on the upturn that had been suggested a few weeks ago. Today was bad. And it looks like it could be getting worse. Good time to be hiding in the relative shadow by returning to school. But at what point do things need to hit rock-bottom by so that they really are starting to climb again by the time I graduate in May of 2010. This would be a nice question to have answered…
moving and the joys of purging
No, not that kind of purging.
As I’m getting closer to the actual day of relocation from New York City to Cambridge, I’m starting to look forward to the sort and toss that will inevitably take me 3 sentimental days. You know? Going through stacks of pictures, cards, and miscellaneous crap that I’ve collected over the course of 3 years in this apartment and countless trips for work and fun. There’s something daunting about it, but at the same time, I’m looking forward to getting rid of the stuff I thought I would want to keep when I received it. Looking through the lens of hindsight and realizing things aren’t needed any more can be a good thing. It’s also generally a good time loading up trash bags full of heavy junk and lunging them into the seven story trash chute, waiting for that great thud at the bottom.
I’ve relegated most of the little tasks associated with moving (ie closing my account with con-ed, damn energy prices) to an elaborate scheme of to-do lists and sticky notes. Hoping that I’ve accounted for everything - because I’m really looking forward to enjoying a mostly stress-free (though packing-filled) final few weeks in New York City.
coursework complete.
I have officially finished the prematriculation coursework requirements as of this morning. My finance final exam was fine. Glad that it’s over. The remaining big tasks are: Finance Tutorial and Quantitative Analysis Tutorial, both are online modules offered by HBS. I will likely finish those over the next few weeks, but for now I’d like to focus on the remaining time I have left with my friends in New York City.
I also have to begin to get my head around packing/moving. My boxes of supplies, including these rolls of tape, which are awesome, arrived this week. Sadly u-haul left a few things out of the shipment, so I’ve begun the customer service process, hoping to have the rest of my goods by week’s end. I don’t plan to officially pack until after I quit my job and go away for the 4th, but having the supplies here makes me think about it…
in memoriam
I was in Ohio the last two days attending the funeral of my grandfather (mom’s dad) in Cincinnati. He died Saturday at the age of 84. This morning we had a small, private burial service, and at the service there was a military honor guard and a bugler. He played Taps. My grandfather served in World War II. I was not old enough while he was in his more talkative years to ask about his service in any great detail, I just know that he was in the Army and served in the Pacific Theater.
This morning, standing in the sun in Cincinnati, Ohio, staring at his flag-draped casket and listening to Taps, I couldn’t help but wonder to myself about the remarkable service the men and women who fought in that war provided. I’m not just talking about service to the United States, but service to the greater good. That was an epic global war that threatened to overturn life as many knew it. Such a conflict has not occured on such a scale since. One may never occur again. And this man, to whom I’m related - served. I’m nearing the age where I doubt I’d be drafted even if there was another World War. I don’t know that I’d volunteer, because I haven’t spent much time thinking about it. But one can’t stand there, gazing upon that flag, and not wonder…
Would I? Could I? Should I?
Will there ever be an opportunity for ordinary men to have such a profound impact on the course of the world?
a word about twitter
I’ve been spending a lot of effort lately trying to explain Twitter and/or justify my enjoyment of Twitter to people. And while it’s hard to explain “microblogging” to people who don’t quite grasp the purpose of blogging to begin with, let me just say this about Twitter:
Tonight, while I’ve been sitting here studying for next weekend’s Finance final (zzz…), I’ve been tracking the progress of 1) the NBA Finals Game 5, 2) the Tonys, and 3) the US Open (major putt by Tiger Woods no doubt) via my friends on Twitter (one of whom is actually at the Tonys). Being able to watch 3 major events, in real time, while being 100% focused on a textbook, has been pretty sweet.
And while I’m sure this doesn’t help any of those naysayers out there… this is another one of the things I find fascinatingly useful about Twitter.
Reporting Russert
It is a sad day for television, journalism, politics, and frankly, the whole country. Tim Russert died this afternoon of a heart attack at NBC’s Washington Bureau. He was 58.
We became aware of the rumors about his death internally at ABC News around 3pm. It was almost 45 minutes later before Tom Brokaw interrupted NBC and MSNBC to report the death. By then several news outlets, including the New York Times and the New York Post were reporting it. There is a gentleman’s agreement between the television networks to defer to the shop affected before reporting news about the competition. When NBC finally went on the air, so did we, updating our site, etc. The same deference was given when our own Peter Jennings passed.
On the web, it was interesting to watch Twitter and Wikipedia through this ordeal. When we first heard rumors of the news, Twitter had only a few recent tweets about Tim Russert. Within 20 minutes there were a few dozen, and by the time I got back to my desk, after NBC had confirmed the news, it was in the thousands. Wikipedia had already been updated with his date of death before the rumors had even reached ABC’s newsroom.
Thoughts and prayers to the Russert family and Tim’s colleagues at NBC.
accounting update.
I just got my grade for the class and it’s an A. PHEW. So that’s one more pre-matriculation hurdle down. Still have the finance final to go and then I’m officially done with the course-work requirements.
“We regret that we are not able…”
This morning I received an email from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern thanking me for my patience while on their waitlist and informing me that they would not be able to offer me a spot in the entering class.
This, after I wrote them in March to tell them I did not want a place on their waitlist because I had been admitted elsewhere. I hope my undesired presence on their waitlist didn’t prevent someone else from getting onto the list who would have wanted to be on it…
Sometimes this process was so maddening…
plugging back in
Several years ago, I had a blog. I didn’t write much, and I didn’t have much to write about. Things have changed. Back in November I started rebuilding my presence online. I didn’t really have time to blog regularly (nor was I ready to begin publishing my thoughts yet). As I went through the application process for school, I felt like I was taking on a second full-time job. And I decided that when I did return to writing, I wanted to do it meaningfully. So, here I am, slowly taking the covers off what will be the place where I document the next chapter of my life, and begin to move the raging debate that happens inside my head on a daily basis into a more public setting…
In the coming weeks, I will leave my job. As I do that, I will begin to write more. Through the summer I will talk more about the application process for school - hoping to shed some light on it for others, and also hoping that 20 years from now I can re-read and remember how insane it was.
At any rate, I’m happy to be back here. Hello.
