Wedding Aftermath & Rec Strategy

I am back from South Bend! As you may recall, one of my best friends from high school just got married on Saturday and I was a groomsman. South Bend isn't that exciting (didn't even have time to see Notre Dame) but the wedding was great. It wasn't gaudy and ostentatious like the kind I would personally want (hehe), but weddings between two lovebirds is just a beautiful thing in general. I'm really glad to have been a part of it. Luckily for me, I was the only groomsman who had to walk two bridesmaids down the aisle. And they were the two prettiest ones too. Unluckily for me, they were both married.... at ages 19 and 23! There were very few single people for me to hit on. Everybody over there just gets hitched at a younger age. Oh well. I did do some extended dancing in public though. And it wasn't half bad from the reviews :P

My flight actually got into Chicago (since South Bend is such a small airport) so I spent all of thursday checking out the city. I walked around the Miracle Mile, around Northwestern (undergrad and medical campus, not the Kellogg campus in Evanston unfortunately), took a cruise on Navy Pier, saw Wrigley Field, ate some deep dish pizza, caught the free blues festival in Grant and Millenium Park, and went out in Lincoln Park. Great time despite the humidity. Chicago really impressed me as a city. The closest thing that I've seen to NY. In my uneducated, completely biased opinion, it's probably the 3rd best city in the country next to San Francisco and New York. This is good news because I originally thought that I wouldn't want to live in Chicago but it was a great city. Too bad I didn't get to see University of Chicago GSB's campus (didn't have time and I was with a friend so he wasn't interested) nor Kellogg's. But like we all know, I'm obsessed with Columbia so hopefully it would've been moot.

Back to the wedding for a second... the song for the 1st dance was "Me and You" by Kenny Chesney! Beautiful!! I don't know if anyone knows this but I love modern country. Sad that I probably won't get married til a couple years after b-school graduation which will make me around 30 years old. I'm a romantic at heart but a bit too ambitious/competitive sometimes. I'm really scared of becoming one of those people who fall into the trap of becoming obsessed with work and start ignoring their family, friends, and relationships. :(

I am making zero progress with my essays and it's nearly the middle of June! Ack, I will not speak of this any further. I also want to get my consultant to review my crappy resume.

Let's talk recommendation strategy. For me personally, I want to give 2 months notice to my recommenders. Since I'm targeting a mid-August submission date, I need to notify my recommenders immediately! I know they're not going to do anything for a while but at least I'll know they've agreed. So my strategy is this. I'm going to use my latest project manager (the guy who just resigned for a rival firm) because I don't think the current ones will write a good enough of a rec. He already said he would do it which is good. He volunteered a month ago but I just asked him formally today and he agreed. The difficult part is that he'll need a ton of coaching. For my second recommender, I want to use my old manager from Deutsche Bank who knows I'm applying for b-schools but doesn't know (though may suspect) that I'm going to ask him. I emailed him yesterday saying that I'd love to treat him to lunch in 2 weeks when I visit NY... I plan on springing the question on him over a free meal hehe. Unfortunately, he has yet to respond. I will text message tomorrow afternoon to check his email.

That's it for now. My stock portfolio continues to suck. I am sad that Hilary did not win the Democratic ticket. I'm catching a cold.