"The Dog Days of Summer"

I feel I should let everyone in a little secret of mine. I am finally done with all of my undergraduate classes. Officially, I am graduated! Don't get me wrong, I have been done with my political science coursework for a while, but I filled those requirements very quickly - all I had left was credit hours to fill. It has been a point of great pride for me to have done school and work full-time. But my final grades for Master's pre-requisite classes that I have been taking were posted as of today and I am finished with my Bachelor's Degree.

For a while now I have been researching Masters programs and finally settled on several options. I will either be applying to get a MPP (Master of Public Policy), a MBA/MHA (Master of Business Administration/Master of Healthcare Administration) - this is mainly due to an introductory Health Policy class I took this semester; or a MBA/HRM (Master of Business Adminsitration with emphasis on Human Resource Management). I toyed with the idea of getting a Master's in Creative Writing and have the University help me with publishing one of my creative works, but I am not sure that would be the best use of time and resources.

I will say it has been nice for the past couple of weeks to come home from work and stay home, or go to a movie with Nersey or play with Buckley. Lately, it has been a constant to-do list of preparation items for Kenneth's arrival. Other than that I have kind of gone crazy just sitting around. My lunch hour is no longer filled with homework assignments, reading textbooks, or writing papers. I actually can go to lunch and eat or take a full-hour to myself to "relax". This has also been my greatest fear. What do I do when I am done with school? I no longer am working on deadlines, I have ample amounts of time to pick up a hobby but I don't know what to do, I feel like if I did something like that I would be missing out or that I was forgetting to do something. It feels much like sports during the summer, they are few and far between. Baseball games don't have too much affect on franchise standings, golf is really only watchable on Sunday (but without Tiger whats the point), unless your a fan of women's basketball there just isn't much going on, but you know, at some point, it will all pick up again and be exciting. I guess I just need to find something to do for the next 6 weeks to tide me over till all I look forward to is sleep.

Sorry if some of you feel lied to about my "graduating" last year. The fact is I had roughly 12 credit hours to fill when I walked last May but I took two fall only classes and then had two pre-requisite classes that I did the first part of this summer, after taking off spring semester to determine what I needed to apply for a Master's program. But, I am finished and that is what is important. I can't wait to see everyone coming in for Brian's wedding, you'll have the chance to meet your new nephew/cousin. See you all soon!