The Good, The Bad and Midterms (2/06)

Much of winter break and all of our time since returning to school has been spent whipping each other into a frenzy about landing a summer internship. No talk of classes, social lives, politics or weather (well, maybe a little... Its COLD!!!) - its all about the J-O-B, baby.

So far I've interviewed with five companies...which brings me to THE BAD. I've been "dinged" (that's b-school speak for REJECTED) by three of them and am about to be dinged by two more early next week. Well, at least that's what its looking like. Rest assured, I'm not the only one in ding-land right now. All my friends are going through the same thing (not sure what that says about my choice of friends, but anyway...) and we've found some nice ways to express ourselves on our Skype/IM mood messages.

A few selections:
--Ding Me Baby One More Time
--Dinga What? Dinga Who?
--Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead
--Gettin Dingy With It
--Can I Get a Ding Ding?
--Proud Citizen of Dingestan

THE GOOD is that I have seven more interviews over the next three weeks and have been told that "it will all work out" by more than one second year. However, the real GOOD news came on Friday when I found out that I was accepted to the exchange program and will study abroad next fall at IESE in Barcelona, Spain. I am ecstatic! And in even more GOOD news, one of my partners in crime will be joining me!

In the midst of all this interviewing and exchange madness, we also had MIDTERMS to deal with. I had the pleasure of being violated by a Full-Reinvestment Average Total Cost Curve (Microeconomics) last Thursday and just finished my Statistics take-home exam about an hour ago. Nothing shouts "amazing social life" like a Stats midterm on a Saturday night... oh, how things have changed! My only consolation this week is that we don't have any problem sets due and have been given the assignment of "watching the Super Bowl" for Advertising Strategy.

Given my extreme dorkiness, I'm signing off to do some prep for interviews. Stay tuned on my future employment prospects! I'll be in touch with some of you shortly to a) ask for a job, b) ask for money, c) ask for pity, d) ask for a spot on your couch for the summer and e) find out when you're coming to Barcelona!

Hello NYC ::: Sullivan Room, Le Souk, Sol, Opus 22, Pacha and the NYE Party Parade (12/05)

To put it mildly, the return to NYC over the holidays was eventful. Below is the PG version - gotta keep it clean for the kids!

12/17 ::: DJ Garth and Keith Walter @ Sullivan Room - The official welcome home party included catwalks, conga lines, punches to tom's face, spankings to boo's ass, voicemails about going to hell in a handbasket and a very ODD combination of people at afties. My homie, Keith provided some wicked beats and Garth did his thing, too. Not a bad way to get things started. Thanks to Nora for saving the day!

12/28 ::: Sanctuary @ LeSouk - Back in city after hanging with the fam and ready to get the weekend started... mind you, it's Wednesday. I met big BLEE there and don't recognize a soul the entire night. The absence of witnesses fuels me to behave inappropriately. Night ends at 3am (hey, come on, it's going to be a long weekend!)

12/29 ::: Stadenco & Low End Specialists @ Sol - Wingo the cat throws a super secret pre-Sol party at Sean & Colleen's apartment despite the fact that they are in San Diego. Stadenco Beats' Chief of Staff seen getting into trouble ... open vodka bar, more vodka, a lost phone, friends getting into trouble, a nasty fall down the stairs (not me!), a lot of ass smacking, Ali trying to buy the advertising space on my back and some crazy, crazy dancing. Oh and something about Sai's cleavage. And that's just Sol. Despite it being a school night, afterhours rages on with Sara and I laughing for at least 2 hours. Stadenco lays down some rockin rekkids as the sun comes up. The day is a blur, but I didn't make it back to Shirley's (aka my home away from home) until .....

12/30 ::: Opus22 & Lawler @ Pacha - Of course WE (aka Nora) won the comps! Day 3, time to rally. After a drink at Opus22, we cruise up to Pacha, NYC's newest mega-club. Lawler drops some funky, electro goodness for a few hours and then Pete Bones takes over and keeps the nastiness flowing. We never did wind up in the booth with Lawler as promised...oh well, but we did stay till the wee hours before deciding it was time for a breakfast of champions...hamburgers! I almost killed the waiter trying to reinact my famous "bus incident" with Lisa from a few years ago. We laugh, we eat, we put Nora's hair in pig tails and throw on tube socks... and we call it a night. In bed before the sunrise and no afties - such good girls, we're so proud! Brunch the next day and y*y* falling from the sky. Ahh, life is good.

12/31 ::: NYE Party Parade aka Stadenco Road Show - I'm very cranky, but somehow manage to rally. Got to watch the ball drop with a great crew of peeps...thx so much to the host and hostess, you guys ROCK! After a few hours of good old fashioned fun, we head across the street to Afterhours Part I and get the play-by-play via text of problems at Sully. Lori keeps us laughing and Joel keeps our asses shakin, but the lights come on and its time to move on. Uptown baby, we gets down baby. Up to 76th for Afterhours Part II. The lasts for a few hours and suddenly we find the lights coming on yet again. Joel tells me he's going home (ha!), I tell him I'm going to Crobar yet somehow 2 hours later, we're reunited at Sully for Afterhours Part III. We get our boogie on, herd the cats and make another move. Afterhours Part IV was located at the scene of a famous 2005 crime (the howells to afterhours to bridal shower debacle). This time some homeless dude makes his way into the party as do some INTERESTING CHARACTERS. Joel plays for hours and hours (who needs Victor!) and in typical fashion, I dance my little thang around Ron’s place until I finally collapse in time to grab my bags and head to the airport. Ahh, good times my friends....good, good times!

Ski Trip to Steamboat, Colorado (12/05)

My first semester in b-school finally came to an end, which was definitely reason to celebrate. After finishing up exams and being greeted with our first major winter storm, we decided to take on Evanston for one last sloppy night out before parting ways for winter break. People were tackled in snow banks, a fire had to be put out at one bar, wallets were lost, snow balls were thrown INSIDE another bar, and yes, I danced on stage while a live band was playing. Let's just say the day after was not pretty.

The good news however, was that 650 of us did not actually have to part ways just yet... that's right, we were off to Steamboat, Colorado for the annual Kellogg ski trip - a week full of fresh powder and debauchery - here we go! The LUCKY ones (that's me) got the direct charter flight into Steamboat which in all honesty was a bit more tame than expected. It must have been the end of term exhaustion and after effects of the last night out that kept the booze hounds from getting too nutty on the plane. We arrived in good spirits and were ready to get the party started! The first major social event was a private concert with Tone Loc and Digital Underground and let's just say I got the week off to a good start. Lots of people were getting pulled on stage all night, but I waited for just the right time to make my move. Basically all the others just got up there and acted like "background dancers" but I proceeded to completely upstage Tone by shaking my ass all over like I was the headliner. He apparently appreciated it because when I backed-my-thang-up into him, he responded by smackin it and singing Wild Thing to me. People are still laughing about that one!

The next big party was The White Party held on the top of the mountain. I must say, I was relatively impressed with the level of participation and of course, I'd been waiting weeks to debut my new white look. DJ Angola of NYC's APT fame was on hand to provide the soundtrack for the evening and despite his better judgment, he played Living on a Prayer to close out the evening.

After The White Party we proceeded back to the condos for an after party, where I found people doing "dunkaroos". Yes, believe it or not, highly intelligent 30-year old MBAs will actually dunk their head into an ice bath just to make a shitty beer hit them harder. *SHAKES HEAD* The party went on for much of the night although only the strong survived till the wee hours. At one point a few of us ladies were "invited" to dance on the kitchen table, but apparently that didn't go too well because a few minutes later I was tackled by some guy and dragged out of the condo kicking. He tossed me on my ass and shut the door. Long story short, we took the party elsewhere, took the next day off from skiing and attended a fabulous kegs and eggs event instead. That night we enjoyed a few lovely hours in some local hot springs and then had an eventful ride back to the resort in a busted up van. Let's just say, we coasted down mountain roads with no lights and no power steering. Not sure how we lived through that one but it helped that we had a van load of girls with terrible voices that were willing to sing their hearts out to pass the time and the discomfort of wet bathing suits.

Skiing was absolutely amazing all week - fresh powder, amazing weather and a great crew that stuck together much of the time and had a blast exploring all sorts of terrain. Ok, enough of the ski talk, let's get back to the fun stuff. I forgot to mention that when we first arrived at our condo we decided to move all of our beds into one room so we could have a slumber-party type environment. And while Bed Island was a hot topic of discussion and a great concept, it only works if you vote the snoring beasts off the island! BLEE!!! The last major social event was the 80s cover band on the last night of the trip. I'm going to keep it short and simple - I threw drinks, crowd-surfed, had a photo shoot in the bathroom, battled danced some second years, recorded a spanking video and watched the sun come up from the hot tub. Enough said. Well, enough for this website at least!

The trip ended with me, KJ and Lolita taking a nap on the airport floor, drinking bloody mary's and me trying to convince the airport employees that I was a celebrity who should be upgraded to first class. And, from what I hear, some of these ridiculous stories and pictures are going to be recounted for all in our school newspaper. Great.

Flip Cup Championships, Bollywood Bash & Reaching Out Conference (11/05)

The past few weeks have been pretty intense - loads of school work, tons of club commitments and lots of time spent reflecting on summer internships and future career prospects. After hearing that load of nonsense, you should understand why I need to get away from the b-school bubble and act like a fool more often.

Diversion #1 ::: Section Flip Cup Championships - Despite some serious shit talking and intimidation tactics, we came up a bit short. And by a bit, I mean a lot. We lost in the third round after getting a buy in the first! However, in true Big Dog fashion, we proceeded to play another six sets of matches just for good measure. Let's just say by the end of the night I had cups on my ears and had to pull a "look over there" to the ladies pictured above, as I ran out the door for my bed.

Diversion #2 ::: Bollywood Bash - In honor of all my South Asian peeps back in NYC, I decided to step up and put my skills to work in the India Business Club's Annual Bollywood Bash. For two weeks leading up to the event, I practiced night and day (well, not really) honing my Garba / Raas moves and providing comic relief for the other members of the dance squad. When the big night finally came, I gave a Kirk Gibson-esque performance by overcoming a serious injury I sustained in the flag football playoffs the week before (read: i'm old and bruise easily). Immediately following the show, I was wisked off stage and asked to co-star alongside Shahrukh Khan in the next Bollywood blockbuster. Actually, after the show, I stuffed my face full of samosas and naan and proceded to sweat off 5 lbs dancing to bhangra the rest of the night.

Diversion #3 ::: Reaching Out Conference - After making it through an interview, a case competition and a career expo, I was ready to have some fun. Yeah, there were some panel discussions and a few minutes spent networking... but mostly, this was about hanging with my peeps including Jizza, who was in town from LA. Just our luck - DJ Abel of Alegria fame was in town for one night only! Unfortunately most of the pictures from the hours spent on the dancefloor are not fit for print so I decided to include the one of my ghost jumping around the hotel somewhere around 4:30-5am. All this, while the entire room was being rearranged by my new buddy, Beau... and here I just wanted to "break bread!" BAG.

That's about it for now... I really need to pack since I'm off to NYC tomorrow. I'm so excited to see everyone and roam the streets all weekend! After that, its back for finals and then a trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a week of skiing!

College Football & Halloween (10/29/05)

Ahhhh, what a great time of year... college football and Halloween! Nothing like a full day of tailgating at the Michigan- Northwestern game, enjoying brats, beers and the prospect of defending our higher ranking in the college football polls. Well, so much for winning the game... at least we had the brats and beers! And, it's always entertaining watching the 30-yr old, future business leaders of America do keg stands in the parking lot. After hitting the tailgate for a few hours I went back home, watched five minutes of the game, took a nap and prepared for Hoot for the Homeless, our Halloween charity event.

Unfortunately having midterms last week cramped my costume efforts a bit, but luckily some good buddies had ready-made Daphne and Fred get-ups for me and B.LEE to jump into. Most people recognized us despite the racial disparities and, all in all I think China Fred is preferable to the real thing! We even found a drunk Skooby at the party to chase after! The night ended with us singing our hearts out to Thriller and Living on a Prayer (what else?!?!) at world famous, Evanston hotspot, THE KEG. Round about 2:30am, I realized I was already hungover and that it was time to go home. Let's just say flag football at 10am was not pretty, but we got the win anyway! Happy Halloween everyone! ***And, a special shout out to the glowborine posse in NYC who made sure I got a ton of laughs that night but no sleep. xoxox

2005 Move Against AIDS!!! (10/26/05)

Once again, it's time... to shake my booty for a cure!

Move Against AIDS, the 5-hour dance-a-thon to benefit Gay Men's Health Crisis is back again this year. Last fall I raised $2,220 -- making me the #18 fundraiser overall -- THANKS TO THE INCREDIBLE GENEROSITY OF MY FRIENDS. I felt strongly that my new location should not be a factor in whether or not I support this amazing event again this year. Since I can't be in NYC in early December (I'll be taking my final exams), I've decided to try and organize a crew of friends in Chicago for my own little, virtual dance-a-thon. As most of you know, I don't need an excuse to get out and dance for a few hours so I PROMISE, you will still get your money's worth!!

As you all know, this is a very important issue to me and this fundraiser serves as a way to send a message to the world that AIDS is still a crisis and to raise money for GMHC, the nation's first and most comprehensive AIDS service organization. GMHC provides direct, life-sustaining services to people who really need the help. Did you know that in the US half of all new infections occur in people under the age of 25 and that one in 50 men in Manhattan is HIV+? That's enough to make me wanna get off my ass and do something about this awful disease.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE!

We Came to Make Party ::: Bill Patrick & Lee Burridge @ SoundBar (10/14/05)

Finally... a well deserved, crazy night out in Chicago! It only took Bill Patrick and Lee Burridge playing at SoundBar and a good buddy in town from NYC to bring me out of retirement. What a night! As expected, Billy and Lee tore the place to shreds and me and the crew rocked out on the dancefloor all night. We even got to "ride the white horse," woot!
A special shout-out goes to the Germans who "came to make party" as well as the bschool heads who made a stellar showing. A pleasure rockin out with all of you... finally! And, of course I have to give all the love in the world to Steve who let Nora and I take the party to another level at afterhours. There's nothing quite like spinning records that are still in the sleeve! Afterhours was sponsored by Urban Promotions...ha!

Nora and I finished off the weekend with a bit of sleep, some bloody marys, fish tacos, darts, cheesy dancefloor antics and some flag football. What more could I ask for? Well... Nora, could you come back next weekend? Until next time! xoxo

Orientation (aka CIM Week) (9/18/05)

Finally, after almost two and half weeks, CIM Week is finally coming to an end...thank god! There's only so much forced teamwork, cohesion and binge drinking in the name of "section pride" a person can take!

For those who don't know, when you arrive at business school, they divide you into sections, give you dorky names, provide a constant supply of alcohol and force you to compete in various activities. It only took a few days to realize they're just testing out their latest research on teamwork, networks and organizational behavior using us newbies as their guinea pigs. Oh well, at least I'm not at work.

I'm a BIG DOG (defending CIM Week Champions) and our moto is "WITH GREAT PRIVILEGE COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY" which basically means "if you're a Big Dog, you have to win and you have to drink." I've been trying my best to Big Dog-it, but it hasn't been easy. Below are the highlights from the past few weeks...just to give you an idea of what that $130,000 is going toward.

*Cheer Contest - In a nutshell, 500 drunk 28-year olds standing on the chairs in the auditorium yelling derogatory cheers at one another. The Jive Turkeys chanted "mutts, mutts, you sniff butts" at us while we lifted our legs in their direction as if we were pissing on them. Classy, I know. Big Dogs got 1st place...'nuff said!

*Name Game - Each person has to memorize the names of all 70 students in their section which would be hard enough without the international students... I'm still having trouble with some of the names! Big Dogs did alright...let's just say we were lucky to have a guy in our section with a photographic memory!

*Chicago Day - We took a break from the madness to actually do something productive... community service. My group was assigned to clean-up the playground at Cabrini Green, one of the most notorious housing projects in all of Chicago. I spent the afternoon picking up mounds of glass and dime bags (including one that was full!) The Big Dogs should have earned some additional CIM Week points for that score.

*Talent Show - After such a selective application process you'd think the people who get into business school might actually have some real talent. Nope. Our entry consisted of jugglers, mediocre singers and pie eaters. I was supposed to do some doggie dance and the worm at the end of our skit but we ran long and it didn't make it in. What a travesty! The good news is we spent the hour before we went on finishing a keg and pounding shots of vodka so despite our terrible performance we all felt just great afterward! We even carried the empty keg above our heads into the auditorium just for good measure. Big Dogs got 7th place...it was ugly but at least we were drunk!

*Olympics - Our chance to redeem ourselves. We spent the day outside competing in relay races, memory games, the spider web and dizzy bat. One of my comrades even dislocated his elbow in the name of a Big Dog victory! Our performance most of the day was mediocre at best but it all came down to the marquee event...the four-way Tug of War!!!!! Let's just say it was probably the most painful and intense two minutes of competition I've seen in a very long time. At one point we were inches from a win and all of the sudden the momentum swung in the opposite direction and we almost lost. Just when I thought we didn't have anything left to give, I looked around and saw everyone screaming at the top of their lungs (mostly obscenities for encouragement), we yanked the rope into our quadrant and pulled out a victory. If you have a minute, download the video at the link below (it takes awhile but is well worth it to see the look of excruciating pain on my face). The Tug of War win was enough to get us 3rd place in the Olympics...we're right back in it!

http://www.savefile.com/projects/286908

With only the attendance competition left, the Big Dogs are sitting pretty (tied for 2nd and only 5 points behind the leaders). If everyone can manage to make it to class this week, we just might repeat as CIM Week Champions. I'm sure the anticipation is just killing you! Stay tuned!

Peru ::: Inca Trail & Machu Picchu (9/4/05)

All good things come to an end and so is the case with my 2005 Anti-Reality Tour. This year has been one amazing adventure after the other and luckily I got to end it on a high note this past week in Peru.

Days 1 & 2 ::: Me and 27 other Kellogg students (and significant others) left Evanston last Sunday for a pre-orientation trip to hike the Inca Trail and visit Machu Picchu. We left Evanston around 2:30pm and arrived in Cusco, Peru via Newark and Lima about 24 hours later. After quickly dropping off our bags, showering and drinking some coca tea (to help prevent altitude sickness), a small group of us decided to explore the streets of the ancient Inca capital by foot. All those years of Spanish classes finally came in handy as we cruised the markets, chatted with locals and sat down for our first Peruvian meal. Thank god it all came rushing back to me otherwise we might have unknowingly eaten guinea pig, a favorite of the locals. Instead we nibbled on arroz con curry, sopa vegetal, papas fritas, berenjena, ensalada y lentejas (and don't worry, I did get more adventurous!)

Day 3 ::: We woke up bright and early, organized our packs and drove two hours by bus to kilometer 82 of the Inca Trail. We met up with our leaders, cooks and porters (there were more of them than us!), snapped a few pictures for posterity and set off on the trail. The first day is supposed to be a warm-up, which means we hiked about seven miles on fairly flat terrain, stopping along the way to see a few ruins, drink some water, take in the spectacular views and play some high altitude stickball. One of my classmates was pitcher for the Cal baseball team so we decided to make a "tape ball" and have some fun. I promptly took his fastball out of the park with my bamboo walking stick while a mule played first base. Oh yeah! That night we camped in Huayllabamba.

Day 4 ::: Dead Woman's Pass. I'd been hearing about this part of the trail for months and one of my friends had even gone as far as to say it was harder than the NYC marathon. Just over seven miles long and about 5.5 miles up. Yes, I said up. It's also the highest point on the Inca Trail at just over 13,600 feet, which means altitude sickness and fatigue can be a real problem. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty damn hard, however I was pleasantly surprised at how well my body responded to the challenge especially considering I'd been on the no-workout workout for over 6 months. I was the second one to the top and despite a pounding headache I decided to indulge in a shot of homemade whiskey with one of the trail guides I met at the top. After basking in the glory of our accomplishment for quite a while, we made our way back down that damn mountain to our campsite in Pacaymayo. Everyone was pretty beat that night so after dinner we called it a night (8pm) and tried to get a good night's sleep while rain pounded our tents the entire night.

Day 5 ::: All along the guides told us that we'd be fine if we could just make it to Dead Woman's Pass. They failed to mention that the third day of hiking would be 10 miles and a lot of up and down including 2,400 downhill steps in the afternoon alone. You're probably thinking that going downhill is a helluva lot better than going uphill but really quite the opposite is true. While the ascent is painful, the descent puts a ton of stress on the knees and is draining mentally. You really need to focus and take care with each step to be sure you don't slip on loose rocks and/or gravel.

After we made it through the first and most treacherous half of the hike, a small group of people started to run down the trail with one of our guides. Me and a few others caught up with them and all shit broke loose. Ten of us and the guide ditched the rest of the group and bolted down a very steep section of switchbacks. It got really crazy and to be honest, quite dangerous as people jockeyed for position and left the trail for shortcuts between switchbacks. I wound up blindly following someone through a shortcut and sliding ten feet down the mountain on my ass, thankfully in a spot that was loose dirt and not rocks. I quickly bounced back up, looked at the shocked faces of the people who had lost the lead and took off in the front pack trying to hold back laughter about what had just happened. When we arrived at our camp we laughed our asses off and realized we were pretty lucky to have come away from it all injury free.

Day 6 ::: We woke up at 4:45am to have breakfast, tip our porters and try to make it to the Sun Gate for sunrise. We left a bit late but it didn't really matter because there was cloud cover when we arrived at the Sun Gate around 7:30am. Thankfully we waited it out because the sight of Machu Picchu once the clouds rose was absolutely stunning. We hiked the last mile to the complex and then took a 2.5 hour tour of the major areas. After the tour we drove to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes for lunch and then took the train back to Cusco. We had a group dinner that included rocoto relleno (a deep fried green peppers stuffed with meat and vegetables) and monster shots of tequila. After dinner we stopped at a bar to throw back a few pitchers of local beer before finishing off the night around 3am at a disco called Mama Africa.

Days 7 & 8 ::: Despite being a bit tired and hungover, we managed to get up and do some last minute sight-seeing and shopping around Cusco before catching our flight to Lima. We had a long layover so our tour company picked us up at the airport and took us to see the beach and to a very nice restaurant for dinner. Our guide told us all about Lima and it's odd climate - apparently it's only sunny three months of the year and the rest of the time it's overcast and 99% humidity... but, it hasn't rained since 1972! And apparently the surf swells up to 7 meters in the towns just below Lima. We got to see a few brave souls in the water during our stop-off.

The highlight of dinner was my delicious ceviche (cold raw seafood marinated in lemon juice, peppers and onions) and getting a chance to finally hear everyone tell the group their personal stories (during the trip we weren't supposed to discuss where we were from, where we went to college or what work we'd been doing). There were definitely some surprises! After our final meal together we left for the Lima airport and started our 24-hour journey back home to Evanston. What an amazing trip and summer! For the full photo album go to (and don't worry, it's only 125 picutres):

http://amazon.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=1379kkan.1bd10lzv&x=0&y=-hysdlw
So I guess that's all folks! I gotta get some sleep and get ready for orientation on Tuesday. Lata!

Settling In (8/27/05)

Ahhhh, what a difference a week makes... I'm finally feeling settled in my new digs (see picture). This week's "excitement" included a pilgrimage to IKEA, the arrival of the movers, two keg parties, some beach time, my first run in five months and a few trips to downtown Chicago. One of the trips was to meet-up with one of my old college buddies, Ernie, who was in town for business. I couldn't have caught him at a better time as he was still glowing from the birth of his twin boys, Ernie and Cole, on August 8th - they were both over 7 lbs! God bless Kathleen for birthin those babies (and putting up with big Ernie)!!!

My second trip downtown was last Wednesday night to catch the final SummerDance party in Grant Park featuring DJs Terry Hunter and Farley "Jack Master" Funk, two Chicago deep house legends. It was a PS1-type setting with a Body&Soul crowd and let me tell you, the place was a-rockin! A few thousand people were jammed in there, hootin and hollerin with their hands in the air. I even had a few b-school friends with me willing to brave the dancefloor - what a great introduction to Chicago house! After Grant Park we headed to the Mamby party @ Moonshine to catch DJs Diz, Justin Long and Mazi and to meet up with NYC party people Steve (aka nyc420) and Eric (aka bassboy). Moonshine is a cool little spot (with GOOD pizza!) that, within in a matter of minutes, turns from restaurant to bumpin lounge. We sat down to eat around 9:30pm and by the time we had finished our meal the place was packed with a line around the corner and people dancing between the tables. I got my groove on for a few hours and then decided to call it quits when my ride was leaving around 12:30am. Listen kids, before I get any comments, this ain't NYC and I'm still trying to keep it under control (-:

That's all for now... I gotta pack for Peru (I leave tomorrow)! Lata!