Appreciating Darden's Staff

One of the things that has always stood out for me at Darden is the strongly supportive attitude of the faculty, staff, and administration here.  I’ve heard it said that in many ways Darden is no different from any other business functioning in the marketplace, and good businesses should have good customer service.  It would be easy to say that there’s just a strong can-do “customer service” attitude here from which I, as a student customer, benefit.  But I think that over-simplifies what’s actually going on at Darden.  I don’t think that Darden’s staff members are simply good at or focused on customer service.  I think – and their actions confirm – that Darden staff members really care about Darden’s students, both with respect to our lives at Darden and the experiences that we brought with us to grounds or that we head off to explore after graduation.  They want us to enjoy our time at Darden, to succeed both here and in life, to relieve the burdens that they can so that we can focus instead on case prep/recruiting/family/etc.  Yes, they’ve been tremendously helpful in keeping our facilities beautiful, resolving my occasional woes with the university’s central financial aid office, registering for classes (particularly when the law school basically just throws up its metaphorical hands with respect to that issue), putting together a brochure for a conference at break-neck speed, helping me navigate the minefields of recruiting, fixing my sandwich order with a smile even when I clearly filled out the form incorrectly, and constantly convincing my computer that it still has the will to live.  And the list of ways in which I’ve benefitted from our amazing staff could go on and on.  However, in my time at Darden, I’ve been truly astounded by the ways in which members of Darden’s staff have gone above and beyond even that which could be called giving their jobs 110%.  The extent to which faculty open up their homes for various social functions with students (and to benefit various charitable causes) is often mentioned when students and alumni talk about their Darden experiences, but equally important to note is the willingness of staff members to stop you in the hall or to grab coffee or lunch (or sometimes even a glass of wine) to commiserate or celebrate or catch up or just to say “hello”.    

The Darden student body does regularly award Outstanding Faculty and Friend of the Student Awards to recognize outstanding faculty and staff members.  But yesterday, for the first time in virtually anyone’s memory, the Darden Student Association organized a Staff Appreciation Day through which students could show their appreciation on a more individual basis.  Students made baked goods and set up a table in Café 67 where staff members could pick up a treat and receive a personal thank you.  Students were also encouraged to stop and say thank you to staff members.  [Big props to the DSA Exec Board for organizing this event!]

I know I didn’t say thank you enough yesterday (and I certainly didn’t get to see everyone who deserves my thanks), but I am definitely thankful.  So “THANK YOU!” to any Darden staff members who may read this blog.  You’ve been integral to making my Darden experience as wonderful as it’s been so far, and I’m sure you will continue to make my next 18 months wonderful, too.  

The Last Cupcakes

It’s been a while, so here’s a brief summary of what’s going on with this “cupcake” business: one of my Class of 2011 classmates at Darden has a husband who did his 1L year at the law school at the same time she and I were doing our FY at Darden.  Said husband always referred to Darden as “Camp Cupcake” and insisted that the FY at Darden was much easier than the 1L year at the Law School.  So I decided to do a week-by-week comparison of the two programs, awarding a cupcake each week to the school that was easier/fluffier/more sugar-coated.  You can see the posts covering the first semester here, here, here, here, and here.  By the end of the semester, the final cupcake tally was Darden: 5, UVa Law: 13 (meaning that I found the first semester at Darden harder than the first semester at the Law School). 

And now, since I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with baited breath for the second semester cupcakes, here they are (I did actually keep a written list last semester, which I just uncovered in a heap of papers/outlines/notes/bills that I apparently just stuck on a shelf in my office…whoops):

The Week 19 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: We were technically on winter break at both schools, and since my family had started driving me absolutely insane, I was back in Cville both years.  In my FY at Darden, I generally chilled out at home, did some interview prep, and spent several hours sitting in the Admissions lobby talking to prospective students who were visiting for interviews.  On the whole, it was pretty fun.  During my 1L winter break, I drove back and forth to DE to interview with several law firms.  Since I hate driving around DC and since interviews themselves are more stressful than prepping for interviews (and since 1Ls are engaged in cutthroat competition for a tiny, tiny number of firm jobs), it was a lot less fun being a law student.

The Week 20 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: While this week was also theoretically still “winter break,” at Darden, interview prep kicked up to warp speed.  I spent hours doing consulting case interview prep.  During my 1L year at the Law School, I managed to convince the administration to let me take a J-Week class (a one-week course that gives you a quarter’s worth of credit) at Darden.  So, I spent a week taking a course on Crisis Leadership, which involved a visit to the Darden Media Lab, complete with a one-on-one on-camera interview, and a mock press conference (again videotaped) and crisis plan development exercise.  I felt a little bit like Eli Gold from The Good Wife, so it was super fun.  Also, all my classmates at the law school were still chillaxing. 

The Week 21 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: At Darden, we started Q3 classes AND were doing hours of on-grounds interviews (and learning team).  At the law school, we were still on winter break.  I did fly up to Boston for a law firm interview (for the summer job I ended up taking), but I also got to see friends M & D and paid a visit to my former co-workers at The Consulting Firm That Shall Not Be Named, so that was much more fun than class.

The Week 22 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale:  The things that kept me fairly busy and stressed out at the law school were all non-law-school activities: the Wine & Cuisine Club Conference/Industry Day (complete will tripping over the carpeting in the PepsiCo Forum and falling flat on my face in front of Dean Bruner), alumni interviews for local applicants to Brown, a trip to Indianapolis in connection with the advising I do for the local chapter of my sorority, and a stress fracture in my foot.  Awesome.  During my first year at Darden, we were also doing interviews, dealing with snow storms, putting together presentations for the Management Communications course, and doing a bunch of other stuff.  At the law school, we were still shopping for classes for the second semester.

The Week 23 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: Plain old class at the law school; class plus learning team plus recruiting at Darden.

The Week 24 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Yes, Darden was busy, but it was the routine kind of busy to which I had become accustomed at that point.  On the other hand, at the law school, I was prepping for a trial advocacy tournament, attending info sessions for tryouts for journals and to be a Dillard Fellow, and I think this was the week that a bunch of 1Ls were doing on-grounds recruiting for summer positions.

The Week 25 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: I, too, am surprised that during the month of Feb Club (there are theme parties every night of the month at the law school), Darden is earning more cupcakes.  But while interviews were still underway at Darden, the stress was broken up by the SHE Auction and Gala.  At the law school, typical stress was compounded by continuing trial advocacy prep and a full weekend spent on my Dillard Fellow tryout.

The Week 26 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: This week was a close call.  During my first year at Darden, I spent this week in a bunch of interviews, including a trip to DC for a series of second-round interviews with a consulting firm and a branch of the federal government.  However, at the law school, I was still in trial advocacy hell, and I lost the second weekend in a row to a tryout, this time for journals.

The Week 27 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: It was exam week (always my favorite week of the quarter!) at Darden, and even though that meant it was almost Spring Break at the law school, I spent the first part of the week exhausted from two weekends of tryouts and then spent the first weekend of spring break  at the most mismanaged trial advocacy tournament I’ve ever attended (and this was my ninth year of mock trial competition).

The Week 28 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: Spring Break at both schools.  At the law school, this meant total rest and relaxation.  At Darden, this meant a trip to Barcelona.  Barcelona was great (duh.) but it was a week of “class,” therefore making it less cupcake-y than a week spent vegging out. 

The Week 29 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Darden finished up spring break and then started a quarter of mostly elective classes (3 electives plus LO and Ethics, so no learning team any more).  At the law school, our LRW (legal research and writing) briefs were due, and we held our first of two admitted student weekends (which means a lot of running around, especially when one of your closest friends at the law school is one of the ASW chairs). 

The Week 30 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: My law school friends and I had time to go grab breakfast before class and to go on a Friday shooting trip (no animals, only clays, were harmed during this outing).  At Darden, I was still recruiting and attending a bazillion and a half group meetings for deliverables for various classes.

The Week 31 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: Finals panicking hadn’t started yet at the law school (and I had plenty of time to attend various Darden social functions), but during my FY at Darden, I had several more interviews, which meant travel, and I also took on a club leadership role, which meant transition and strategy meetings out the wazoo. 

The Week 32 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: At Darden, I still had 3-4 interviews and my classmates were trying to pick their classes for the whole next year, but at the law school, I was prepping for my oral argument for LRW, doing my oral argument (on a Saturday morning), and outlining season had started. 

The Week 33 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Outlining stinks. 

The Week 34 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Outlining really, really, really stinks, even more than group meetings for LO, marketing intelligence, and data analysis and optimization.

The Week 35 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: The Landels' (my awesome operations professor and his awesome wife) annual Southern Dessert Buffet will make any week great.  Darden Days, including the annual BBQ at King Family Vineyards, was just icing on the cake.  Even though I also got to participate in these activities while I was doing my 1L year, outlining really does take all the joy out of everything.

The Week 36 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Exams at Darden are so much more pleasant than at the law school.

The Week 37 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Darden was done, so I got to go to my cousin’s wedding in CT and then fly to Cannes for the Cannes Film Festival (another GBE).  While Cannes drove me nuts in many respects, it was definitely better than a second week of exams at the law school.

SECOND SEMESTER CUPCAKE SCORE:

Darden, 12; UVa Law, 7

FINAL CUPCAKE SCORE:

Darden, 17; UVa Law 20

Final Thoughts: Darden is definitely not Camp Cupcake.  While the final scores were actually pretty close, the FY at Darden is generally much more consistently demanding than the 1L year at the law school.  However, the month leading up to exams and the two weeks of exams themselves each semester at the law school are pretty darn miserable (and accounted for most of the cupcakes Darden earned). 

Procrastination

Yes, I know, I have been completely, 100% delinquent as a blogger for the last six (Seven? Maybe eight?  Who’s counting?) months.  However, now that it’s just about exam time at the law school (and at Darden, but that’s not nearly as unpleasant an experience, as noted here), I’m looking for ways to procrastinate.  And blogging is an excellent way to procrastinate.  And, you know, to do that which I should have been doing for the last six several months.  So stay tuned, because I’ve got a few other things tee’d up for posting…

The 18 Most Awesome Hats at the Foxfield Races*

Yesterday was the running of the Foxfield Spring Races, and Darden turned out in style to enjoy the day.

There was seersucker.  There were bow ties.  There were popped collars.  There was the entire Lilly Pulitzer spring collection.  There were horses (allegedly).  And there were chapeaus aplenty.  Here are some of my favorites:

*Title inspired by "The 18 Most Awesome Hats at the Royal Wedding."  Yes, I did get up at 4 AM to view the wedding.  Yes, I also had people over to view it with me.  Yes, I am generally trying to insert some level of fun into the otherwise unpleasant process of studying for law school exams. 

A dozen cupcakes!

For those of you who have been wondering, here are the rest of the Cupcakes for semester 1:

The Week 7 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: My schedule at the law school this year looks pretty crazy, but most of what made me crazy this year was still Darden-related (WACC Oktoberfest, for instance). The Law School did Fall Foxfields, which was a lot of fun, and then it was basically just class, reading, and softball.

The Week 8 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: 2 words: Fall Break.  'Nuff said.

The Week 9 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: It was exam week at Darden, and even though I still believe that was the best week of the quarter, it did involve five days straight of 5-hour exams.  We had a midterm at the Law School in our small section class, but it was an hour long and ungraded.  Not too bad.  Definitely easier than 25 hours of spreadsheets. 

The Week 10 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: This week was really close, and I had a hard time deciding.  However, the fact that we started new classes at Darden (including Finance and Global Economies and Markets (GEM), both of which caused me much consternation at first), makes me think that Darden was harder. 

The Week 11 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: This is another week where my schedule this year looks crazy, but that's because I was trying to do some Darden briefings in addition to my regularly schedule law school commitments.  Nothing big happened at Darden last year, but I still think I was struggling more at this point last year than I was this year. 

The Week 12 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: I know; you are all shocked.  Darden got a cupcake! Wahoo! This week at the law school, I was prepping for a mock trial tournament and working on rewriting my major memo.  At Darden, we didn't have many "academic" classes because we had Management Communications (MC), Career Management (CarMa), and a field trip.  Yes, a field trip. Clearly, this was a week for rest and recuperation at Darden. 

The Week 13 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: I spent a weekend in DC with my mock trial team competing in the Georgetown White Collar Crime Tournament and then turned in my major memo, plus I was behind in starting to outline for exams because of mock trial.  Yes, I was doing interview prep at Darden, but we also spent two days doing StratSim, which wasn't nearly as rigorous.

The Week 14 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: By this point, most people at the law school were panicking about exams and spending hours outlining.  I was doing stuff over at Darden instead (yes, that was maybe not the best choice).  But, last year, I was doing a ton of recruiting stuff and writing customized cover letters for hours upon hours, in addition to spending more hours in class.  AND, I was at Darden until 4 AM doing the Deloitte Case Challenge Friday night.  Oy.  It was Black November at its finest.

The Week 15 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: This was the beginning of the major outlining and exam prep panicking period at the law school.  The Thanksgiving break, if anything, made this worse.

The Week 16 Cupcake goes to: UVa Law

Rationale: We only had three days of class, and then a couple days off to study for law school exams.  I did write over 50 cover letters, but they were mostly form letters.  At Darden, we had five full days of class, and I wrote around 25 very customized cover letters (customizing "I really enjoyed meeting Mr. X at Event Y this Fall.  Our discussion about Z made me realize A, B, and C about Organization D" is a lot harder to write than "As my resume indicates, I have several years of experience working as a paralegal.  I believe this experience will enable me to serve Firm X's clients.").

The Week 17 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Exams at Darden are so much more fun than exams at the law school.

The Week 18 Cupcake goes to: Darden

Rationale: Darden was on Winter Break.  The law school was suffering through another week of hellish exams.

FINAL SEMESTER 1 CUPCAKE SCORE

Darden: 5

UVa Law: 13

Even though the end of the semester at the Law School was more rigorous than the end of the semester at Darden, Darden started off a lot more difficult, and the schedule was generally more demanding. 

Stay tuned for the Semester 2 Cupcake awards....

Sorry, sorry, sorry

Yup, I'm the most delinquent Darden blogger ever.  Thank you to everyone who has pointed that out to me (that includes the receptionist at a law firm where I interviewed over winter break and the admitted student at the Law School Admitted Students Open House student life panel!).  But, in positive news, I'm busy working on cupcake-awarding RIGHT NOW.  And, since it's final exam study period and my house is already spotlessly clean, I should be using posting as a procrastination tactic in the coming weeks!  Stay tuned!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Darden programming....

...to bring you an update from the law school.  Yes, I know I'm months behind on awarding cupcakes.  And weeks behind on posting anything interesting.  But right now, I'm stuck in the third circle of hell (i.e., law school exam studying period).  So, I'll just leave you with the following, which have made me laugh recently, even though this part of the first semester is generally pretty gloomy:

1.) A few weeks ago, the whole UVa internet system experienced problems due to a cable problem 40 or so miles north of Charlottesville.  Darden sent out a very succinct, bare-bones email right away letting students know.  A few hours later, the law school tech folks sent out the message below (originally available at http://lawnotes2.law.virginia.edu/lawweb/event1.nsf/0/4524CE42561A03AD852577E3006736FB?Open, which I don't know if everyone can access).

An Open Letter to the Law School student body from The Internet
Date Posted: Monday, November 22, 2010
Submitted By: Law ITC/General
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Students,

It's not you, it's me. I know that we have had our troubles before but this time, it's serious. I bet that a lot of you have been blaming yourselves but, the truth is, it's me that has changed. You see, my main fiber optic connection in Culpeper was cut this morning and things just haven't been the same since. If I thought that we could get past this by talking things out, then we would. But it's gone too far and clearly I just need some time. I never meant for anyone to get hurt and I know this was sudden, but that's just the breaks. I know that you are still spending time with our mutual friends Facebook, Gchat, and Pandora but it's just not going to be the way that you remember until I can get my act back together.


I will try to take this journey of discovery as quickly as I can but it looks like it's just going to take some time to get things back to the way they used to be.

I'm sorry that I let you down.


Sincerely,
The Internet

I was amused.

2.) Today, the law students also got an email full of exam reminders.  Written "Buddy-the-Elf Style."  A-mazing.  (Originally available at http://lawnotes2.law.virginia.edu/lawweb/event1.nsf/0/8BA9252DFBF6ADF2852577EE006B20BE?Open)

Final Exam Best Practices, Fall 2010
Date Posted: Friday, December 3, 2010
Submitted By: Law ITC/General

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good afternoon Law School boys and girls,

It is that time of year again when Jack Frost nips at your nose and the sublime thrill of the exam season electrifies the very air around us. As a public service we are again presenting a jolly recounting of all of your favorite Exam Best Practices in order to allow all of the good boys and girls of UVa Law to stay off of the Naughty List. And, before I begin, let me share one very important administrative note. To better serve the student body, we are moving the entirety of our student Help Desk down to the exam table in the Withers-Brown hall for the duration of the exam period. So, starting on Saturday, if you have any technical questions or concerns either exam or non-exam related, please don’t trundle yourselves up to WB399 but instead just come by WB exam table for help of any sort. Without further interruption, come with me as we walk together through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly, twirly gum drops, and then emerge in a mystical land known as “Law School Exams – Buddy the Elf style.”


"First we'll make snow angels for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle."


Take it from Buddy…it’s important to have a plan. In the mystical world of exams, much of your advance planning can benefit from a thorough review of the Exam Calendar. Now you might say to yourself “Oooooooooo….what’s an exam calendar? I want one!” But the beauty of it is that the Student Records Office has already created one and you can review it online or in poster form in the WB Hallway. The calendar lays out all of the exam dates and times for the next two weeks. You can see that 1L exams are Fixed on Monday and Thursday morning during both weeks which means that no Flex exams can be checked out during those times. You will also see that there is no Flex exam period available on Thursday, December 16 so the last available Flex exam checkout is Wednesday afternoon. Finally, you will note that Flex exam checkout is available from 8:30-9:30 and 1:00-2:00 on eligible days and that Flex exams longer than 4 hours MUST be taken in the morning Flex period. So grab a plate of cookies with milk and start hatching your plans for a successful exam season.


"OK people, tomorrow morning, 10 am, Santa is coming to town!
SSSAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNTTTTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAA! Santa, here?! I know him. I KNOW him!"


For 2Ls and 3Ls picking up Flex exams, there is one important goodie that you need to bring to the exam checkout area and that is your UVa ID card. That’s the best way to make sure that none of you are South Pole elves. With your UVa ID you can just swipe the card, request your exam, and go. Anyone with only a driver’s license will be asked to go to the end of the line and will have to be checked out manually. No driver’s license and no UVa ID means no exam so please remember to bring that and Student Records will be happy to verify your existence and get out going. Especially if your name is Francisco. Frannnnncisco. Fraaaancisssscooooooooo.


"I've been to New York thousands of times.
Really?
Mm-hmm.
What's it like?
Well, there are some things you should know. First off, if you see gum on the street, leave it there. It isn't free candy.
Oh.
Second, there are, like, thirty Ray's Pizzas. They all claim to be the original. But the real one's on 11th. And if you see a sign that says "Peep Show", that doesn't mean that they're letting you look at the new toys before Christmas."

Just like New York City, there is something you should know about each exam that you take. Fortunately much of that information is shared through the magic of the Exam Cover Sheet! While many cover sheets might look the same, each one has been specifically crafted for you by your professor and often contains specific information such as preferred font and spacing, word limits, and allowed resources. Please take a few minutes to read each cover sheet before you dive into the hustle and bustle of your exam answers.

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup."

We ITC types try to stick to one document format and that format is Microsoft Word. Feel free to use OpenOffice or another word processing program if you don’t like Word, but when you are saving for submission, please save as a Microsoft Word compatible format (.doc or .docx). Please don’t submit documents in PDF, WPS, WKS, or ODT format because that grinds the automated print system to a halt and then those documents then have to be printed manually. If you are using Microsoft Office on a Mac, just verify that the “Append File Extension” option is checked on the File\Save As menu in Word. And feel free to use document headers and footers to include such information as the course, instructor, your blind grading number, and page numbers. If you don’t know how to manage headers and footers, feel free to stop by the exam table for a quick demo, well in advance of your exam.

"This is the North Pole.
No it isn't.
Yes it is.
No it isn't.
Yes it is!
No it isn't! Where's the snow?!"

We would all love to trust your beloved laptops not to lead you astray or crash outright. But bad things happen to good people so you know that you should always be saving your document during the course of your exam to prevent a major catastrophe. Just like the manager at Gimbel’s, you can’t let your computer decide what is important to save in the case of a computer failure. Your laptop hard drive is the most reliable save location but you should be using Save As every 15 minutes to save to your hard drive AND a backup location (i.e. USB flash drive or Home Directory). Autosave sometimes helps if your computer locks up but often it doesn’t and is not a replacement for regular saving to multiple locations. If you find yourself wondering when your last save was and pondering whether or not it is time to save again, just ask yourself “Is there sugar in syrup?” And your answer will always be YES!


[whispering] "I think we should call security.
[whispering] Good idea.
[whispering] I like to whisper too!"

If you do encounter some sort of trouble during the work or submission portions of your exam, please don’t sit and whisper silently to yourself in the classroom. Come to the exam table so that we can try to help you to keep a small problem from becoming a big problem. If your wireless conks out during submission or you can’t seem to find the final version of your document to submit, please come and see us. We can stop your exam clock and assist you with minor items so that you don’t freak out and cram 11 cookies into the VCR.


"Who the heck are you?
What are you talkin' about? I'm Santa Claus.
No, you're not.
Uh, why of course I am! Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
Well, if you're Santa, what song did I sing for you on your birthday this year?
Um, Happy Birthday of course. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. How old are you son?
Now what can I get you for Christmas?
Don't tell him what you want, he's a liar.
Let the kid talk.
You disgust me! How can you live with yourself?
Just cool it, Zippy.
You sit on a throne of lies."

So you think that you have successfully submitted your final exam document but you can never be sure unless you look very, very closely. To that end, please be sure to verify each document submission by clicking the resulting blue hyperlink that pops up immediately upon submission. Only a cotton-headed ninnymuggins would submit a document without double-checking that it was the completed copy and not an outline or and incomplete answer. If you ever want to double-double check, feel free to stop by the exam table where we can pull up your submitted document and then share a pleasant conversation regarding our mutual affinity for elf culture.


"Hi!
Hi!
Do you remember me?
I do! I didn't recognize you!
I know. I'm in work clothes!"

After you have successfully submitted and verified your exam document, go off and make gingerbread houses, eat a nice Ziploc bag of spaghetti covered with maple syrup, or maybe just hold hands. But please don’t delete, view, or modify your original exam document in any way. If a document is determined to have been modified in any way after the stated exam finish, it will be like Buddy the Elf in work clothes and will be essentially unrecognizable as a valid document in the event that your document needs to be recovered for resubmission. Feel free to make a copy and view the copy or you can view your original submission on LawWeb until it gets printed. But if your original submission gets compromised in some way and the original exam document has been modified past the end of your original submission period, you might feel like you are in a place that smells like mushrooms and everyone will look like they want to hurt you.

"Why are you smiling like that?
I just like to smile, smiling's my favorite.
Make work your favorite. That's your favorite. Make work your new favorite."

Finally, be sure to budget time for both work and smiling. Make both work and smiling your co-favorites. It will be a stressful and spirit-crushing two weeks for you if you don’t take time to study hard but also eat well, sleep well, and get a bit of exercise. I know, I know, the children love the books! But we always see some bad effects of exam exhaustion as the exam period draws nearer to its end so please keep your exam favorites balanced. And if you take a minute to sit still and be quiet you might even realize that your finger has a heartbeat!

I hope that each and every one of you is looking forward to this exciting time as much as we are. If you prepare yourselves properly and make smart choices, then everything is going to work out fine. If you have any questions or get attacked by raccoons along the way, please stop by and see us at the exam table. But hopefully, at the end of it all, we can get together and say to ourselves “You did it! Congratulations! World's best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody!”


Best of luck to all of you for exams and safe travels over the approaching winter break.

Most sincerely,
Papa Elf

Maybe nobody else is amused, or maybe 8+ hours a day of studying is getting to me....but I appreciate the humor.  A lot. 

Another reason UVa is generally awesome.  :-)

Please vote....but leave me alone!

I love voting.  Sending in my voter registration was the most exciting part of my 18th birthday (I also had two papers due the next day, so that may shed some light on the day...).  I vote whenever I have the chance.  I think it's an important part of being a citizen in a representative democracy. 

However, I hate election season.  Hate, hate, HATE.  The last time I thought an election season was fun was when I was 17 years old and got to go to one of then-Senator Biden's victory speeches at an election party in 2002 because I was "interning" for Senator Carper and was somehow apparently "well-connected."  Since then, I've been consistently irritated by the election season process.  Sure, there are candidates that I've supported and for whom I've handed out stickers at small town parades.  I've even "staffed" out-of-state fundraisers.  I've also dressed up as a certain former candidate for Halloween (hey, the costume was basically a business suit and a bump-it, and I'm a Halloween cheap-skate).  Like I said, I like voting, and I think civic engagement is important.   But I HATE election season.

In case you haven't watched the national news any time in the last few weeks, I currently live in one of the most hotly contested congressional districts in the country.  Basically, that means that for the last several months, I've been bombarded with huge yard signs, nasty commercials, and dozens of robo-calls.  Every single time I've left my apartment in the last four days, I've come home to a Tom Perriello hang tag on my front door.  Every single time the phone rings in my apartment, it's a robo-call (Dear Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Rush Limbaugh....I didn't give you or the organization on behalf of whom you are allegedly calling my number, so that means I really don't want to talk to you.  I hate phone calls so much that I am on the Do Not Call Registry.  Trust me, I will go vote.  But please stop calling.  I don't have an executive assistant to screen my calls.  And you call at ungodly hours of weekend mornings.  Don't take this the wrong way, though.  I wouldn't want to talk to a recording of Bill Clinton at that hour either.).  Every single time I forget that I have a DVR and actually watch part of a commercial break, there's a horrible campaign ad or PAC message that makes me dislike every candidate.  Seriously.  Every time.  There is not ounce of exaggeration in this paragraph. 

I guess propagating nastiness and annoying the voting populace have been key parts of the election process for decades, if not centuries.  And I understand that it's important to educate voters and motivate them to get out to the polls.  But even I - who LOVE voting - am tempted to put my foot down and/or throw my hands up and say, "Why bother?!?!  Just leave me alone already!!!"  [Note: I am still planning to go vote in the morning.  I'm just saying that it's tempting to put on the blinders and say "screw it" instead.] 

I would say that there is a fine line between educating voters and harassing them, between pointing out your opposing candidate's weaknesses and exploiting sentiments and fear....but there isn't really a fine line.  There's a huge freakin' chasm. 

I know I'm not the only person who feels this way.  In fact, I've spoken to numerous folks at both ends of the political spectrum who HATE election season as much as I do, for exactly the same reason.  Maybe someone's done studies that have shown that you really do get more people out to the polls with smear campaigns than with anything positive.  Maybe a big part of the problem is all the non-campaign-funded (i.e., "independent"....hahahahaha) publicity.  I don't really know.  But here's something for the political campaign gurus out there to consider:  I think there are plenty of people out there who, like me, are more likely to vote for your candidate if you actually tell us something about his/her platform and what he/she actually will do if we help elect him/her rather than just slamming your opponent.  If you don't, I think we're all going to be tempted either to stay home on election day or to to walk into a voting booth and vote for whichever third-party candidate hasn't shown up on our TV screens attacking another candidate. 

Just some food for thought.

And, to all my readers: make sure you DO vote tomorrow, no matter your party affiliation!