Confession

Happy Thanksgiving, all! My favorite holiday. Y, I and my sister trekked over the mountains to have turkey at my parents' house. I haven't celebrated this holiday there for about 11 years, ever since I left home! Whoa. My mom usually comes to my house in PNA these days while my dad stays home to 'hold down the fort' literally - they can't go anywhere at once because of the risks of not having someone there at all times. Fun. Anyhow, the drive there took 6 hours given the snow on the passes. It was a very scary drive and we were so relieved to get out of the car. Our pitiful Honda Accord doesn't really do the job like the Subarus I grew up on. Anyhow, we took a longer route to get back to avoid the worst pass and it only took four hours to get home. Much better. My parents haven't had hot water for about 7 months, ah, just like old times, so that was exciting too. Nothing like a nice cold shower while gazing out at snow covered mountains to start your Thanksgiving out right. Brrr!

My confession is that I've hired an MBA consultant to help me through this application. I was working on my essays last week and since I don't have any friends or family that have ever gone to business school or have any ambitions to ever do such a thing, I decided I needed some professional feedback. Really, I don't get the controversy over bschool consultants. They aren't doing the work for you, you're just paying them for advice. They didn't take my undergrad tests for me, or the GMAT, or build my resume or write my essays or act as my recommenders. How is it any different for signing up for a GMAT course or paying a career coach? And for folks who don't come from a family of HBS grads or have any friends who have any interest in making a profit in life, I think it helps level the field. I feel like an outsider in this whole process and I wouldn't mind a little help. So there :)

This afternoon, Y and I are going to my first doctor's appointment. Well, she's actually a CNM (certified nurse-midwife). I am very excited. I've finally got some baby books - my life is all MBA/GMAT all the time but I'm trying to eke out a little baby education in the process. I just finished Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy. An amazing book though maybe better not to read while pregnant. It's funny, I've never been scared of pregnancy, birth or motherhood until I started reading all of these books. The women in my family never made it out to be very scary. My mom contends that she loved being pregnant and had both my sister and I without drugs and never went through post-partum depression, at least not that she tells me. So after I read all these terrifying stories and start to get doubtful, I call her up and she tells me it's not a big deal and that I was made for baby-making. (We come from sturdy Eastern European stock - no too small pelvises here.) My grandmother popped out 8 babies without any problem. But then I think about the fact that just because my family had no problem doesn't mean that I will find it as easy and that in fact birth really is painful - something my mom doesn't really concede. So maybe it's good to be a little scared. Well, it is definitely an adventure.

Oh, and it looks like I will be employed after all. Oh well.