School (grad school, at least), doesn't start for me for another two weeks, so I'm trying to finish as many books as I can. I'm in the middle of a whole bunch. Reading for pleasure is going to be unlikely for me for awhile. I have a lot of stuff that's good, but a lot of stuff that I've kind of been slogging through for awhile.
We went to Hawaii over the New Year, and for months I didn't read stuff I planned to take with me on the trip, so I could read it then. Of course, I packed too many books (better than too few!), and didn't finish any of them, actually. Now I'm racing for the finish line. Well, that and writing, apparently.
I managed to make As in all three classes I took last semester. I think my Analytics professor may have padded my grade a bit, because I was really on the edge. One of our assignments was tough for everyone, though, so maybe he decided to curve it.
Grad school has been a fantastic decision. I had a week at work where I was pretty frustrated by what I saw as some bad decision-making. I have to remind myself that, traditionally, we haven't paid enough to attract top talent. Well-meaning, yes. Best at what they do? Ummm... Perhaps not. Or maybe, like an old boss once said, I hold people to standards that are too high. Not everyone has the intense insistence on perfection that I do, and if they do, they still may not have the means to achieve it.
Anyway, being in grad school gives me the patience to deal with less-than-stellar performance at work (by other people), because I am working toward a goal, and achieving that goal will give me the means to compete for a job outside my organization. I really love what I do, and I love what we achieve at work for society-at-large. But it's nice to be able to tell myself that when I finish my degree, I could go somewhere else, and maybe even make more money, too.
Hawaii was lovely. Now the husband and I are planning on saving up enough to take his parents, and my mom, too, maybe, if I can ever get her to take time off. His parents will probably offer to pay for themselves, but I really want to be able to take them all as a gift, so it might be summer of 2019 or something. I know my mom-in-law really wants to go, and I think it might be fun. They're really wonderful to us, and I think it would be really awesome to be able to do one of those grand gestures. Travel is expensive, but also priceless. Even after going to paradise, I'm still really happy to be home.
