Time for a Break!

This past weekend marked the end of my second graduate school class- Strategic Public Relations Management. I loved the class because it really focused on the management side of PR. I feel like I have a much better grasp on what it is going to take for me to someday be an effective manager. Also, Drew and I talk frequently about how graduate school has been such a wonderful decision for me. Not because I am dying to get that degree to put on my resume, but because I am really genuinely interested in affecting change - particularly organizational change. My final project for this last class was to create a strategic PR plan for a real organization and issue. I loved the presentation aspect of the project and can't wait to one day be doing the same thing for my own clients. Speaking in front of a crowd of people- particularly senior management (or in this case pretending my class was senior management)- gives me such a rush. I also loved learning from the projects of my awesome classmates. They used research to identify really smart objectives and also to create really creative strategies to achieving the objectives. The whole process is challenging but so fun. I am also really interested in reputation management and hope to one day be able to help organizations in this way. I have a long way to go though!

Drew is so supportive of me doing graduate school and cooked good dinners all last week while I was preparing for this big final project. The best was coming home from class Friday evening to his homemade fajitas. So great! Drew also embarked on a new house project this weekend- gutting the downstairs bathroom, and preparing it for painting. Our living room downstairs is a Tuscan beige with white trim and I think we are doing the kitchen in a chocolate brown above the chair rail and off white below. So, we are thinking "jungle green" might be cool for the bathroom, especially with all of the neutral tones we have going on. We saw the color at a friend's house Saturday night and loved it.

Drew and I also had a little time for fun this weekend. We went out for drinks with my classmates and professor after class on Saturday to Cous Cous and then took Kristina to dinner at our local sushi restaurant. We then went back into the city with Kris who was meeting a friend to celebrate a birthday and then met up with Carrington and Todd who were in town for a wedding, and also stayed with us all weekend. We had lunch at BW3's before they left on Sunday and then Drew and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

Here are a few pics from the bathroom construction, including the toilet which is currently on our deck. I am sure our neighbors are loving us!