Hello, October!

So I was picking up Hernando de Soto's "The Mystery of Capital" today as my new read and paused long enough to realize it's already October. I guess I could have paid closer attention to the crayola crimson and blazing tangerine hues of the autumn foliage or the fact that I have actually started wearing a sweater on my commute to work in the mornings....but frankly, I just haven't had the time to breathe and bathe in the lavish beauty that accompanies this changing of the guard.

Back in September I was living, sleeping, and breathing work. Even my dreams had work-related acronyms floating through them. I escaped to Washington DC for a weekend sojourn to speak to the OneMBA 2010 class as a panelist discussing a day in the life of an executive working in the current US economic business environment. I blinked and found myself back in the throes of deadlines and stress-entrenched meetings (particularly outside of work--I sit on four boards). Sleep? What? Who, me?

I also spent a weekend in Indianapolis at the MotoGP race, cheering on my two favorites: Nicky Hayden of the US and Casey Stoner of Australia. Hurricane Ike decided to hit the track the afternoon of the race, and I'll bet the cyclists didn't expect to be running in 45mph winds with sideways-spitting rain on a winding track that would make even a rally car racer from Estonia proud. They called the race at the 20th lap, crowing Valentino Rossi the winner, but in my mind all these racers deserved a round of applause for being able to race at 170mph in these sorts of conditions. That's what I call true talent (or insanity--sometimes, they're the same thing).

Last weekend I flew up to Dubuque, Iowa for a retreat and alumni board meeting for my undergraduate institution. Between cooking brats and handing out 400+ buns in the course of 3 hours at the Homecoming tailgate, I managed to catch up with my finance professor (whose class I took 12 years ago, yet somehow he still remembered me as if I was his pupil yesterday), the president of the college (who interviewed me for the Board of Regents scholarship my senior year of high school and is one I am proud to call a good friend today), and the VP of Institutional Advancement to discuss a Facebook related branding issue. I ran around my old haunts and saw many friends from a decade past, and it was the best fun I've had in many moons.

This past weekend I hopped down to Charlotte for the Bank of America 500 and basically took a four-hour nap while my husband tuned in to his favorite racers on his headphones. I cursed myself for not having brought my new issue of Inc. or Reason to peruse, so I had to make due by just sleeping. It was probably the longest stretch of sleep I have had all week.

I miss the academia side of my life already. I miss the challenges, the world of discovery and new places. My xenophile nature has been begging for a fix of far-flung teamwork. I can't wait for the electives to come out. I have to take a few classes next year just to keep learning, to keep moving, to keep interacting with even more new people.