Work, Work and Weekend Play

I'm sorry I haven't been writing on the blog lately.  I have, however, tried to divert some attention to writing my thesis.  Only 51 more pages!  Staying positive.

Today was the best day by far - 8:30 to 5:30 in the library.  I've been frustrated with the amount of work I get done at home, and by the end of the day, I usually beat myself up for not getting more accomplished, and Ryan comes home to a slightly blah version of myself.  Today was a completely different story.  I was Chatty Cathy with him all through lunch, wanting to tell him every detail of what I had just learned.  He got the same earful on the bus ride home.  Treating the second floor cubicle as my own personal office space is definitely at the forefront of my new completion strategy.

And speaking of learning, I have never liked a subject more than Human Resource Management.  So, even though the idea of a thesis is daunting, I'm reading scientific articles like they're page turners.  Signaling theory and social identity theory can fully explain an applicant's interest in a firm's reputation (oooohhhhhhhh).  And there's empirical evidence to support this claim (aaaaaaaahhhhhhh).  That Amy Kristof-Brown is one heck of a writer.  I can't wait until JSTOR comes out with her new stuff.

Moving on... I went to the Milan furniture fair for my internship on Monday, and it was fantastic.

I didn't have time to see everything I wanted... we were focused on finding manufacturers with products similar to our client's.  But it was still really interesting.  Plus, we got to meet more people from the company, which was nice.  Here's our group, proudly standing in front of our client's space.  It was a fun trip.  

And speaking of fun trips (this post is full of transitions), we are going to Barolo for the weekend!  We've got these great wine regions within driving distance, and we're finally taking advantage.  Barolo (Italy) is only 2.5 hours away, so tomorrow I'll pick up the car, pick up Ryan, and we'll be on our way.  The best part is that we've booked a room at a really inexpensive old farmhouse.  The actual rooms are incredibly basic, but the experience is worth way more than what they're charging (65 Euro)... it's family owned, and the  nonna and nonno (grandparents) cook you a lavish Italian breakfast (including lots of pork, homemade bread, jellies and cakes, local cheese, and really really good coffee).  They also have dogs, horses, chickens, and bikes, that you can play with/use at your leisure.  I picture us waking up in a rustic setting, having an amazing breakfast, taking bikes around to the various wineries, with dogs greeting us as we pedal baskets full of bottles home.  Best weekend vacation ever!!!