Favorite Restaurant: Sapori Trattoria

This is the first time I checked out this restaurant in Lincoln Park and I am utterly shocked I have not been before. This is by far my favorite Italian in the city as the linguini was homemade and my dish was fresh and absolutely delicious. The price was right too with entrees at about $15-35.

I am still dreaming about it.

Also, the chef, because we had to wait fifteen minutes for our table when we had a reservation, ended up giving us some bruschetta to apologize for our wait. Don't worry Alessandra, I pronounced it correctly and with your accent too. I am really excited for the next time I get to eat here. Below are some photos of our Saturday date! The editor on blogspot won't work, but the first photo is of Kelly and her Porchini mushroom risotto and the other is my meal, which was a special linguini and red sauce with clams, oysters, salmon, scallops and shrimp. See the website here as well

Favorite Moment: Meeting with Father Hesburgh

Last week, despite finals, my MBAA board and I had a meeting with Father Hesburgh. It took about a month of trying to schedule a meeting as his assistant was out on Christmas break, but my team and I finally got our 45 minutes with him!

Father Hesburgh's office is up on the 13th floor of the Hesburgh library (shocking name I know) and he has quite the office compiled of a seating room, a hallway full of awards and a huge office with a bowl full of MnMs and cigars. 

Below are some of the questions we asked and the answers that he gave us..of course not verbatim, but what I remember from our long conversation!

Favorite President he's met: Eisenhower (yea..eisenhower..i was expecting maybe a president from the past 30 years but no biggie) Favorite City: Rome from when he was studying to be a priest 

Favorite location on ND's campus: the Grotto and the Basilica 

Most Inspiring Person He Has Met: MLK Jr. 

Political stance: Independent (he repeated this a couple times during our conversation..."I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. I am an independent.") 

Where he gets his inspiration? Our Lady (every day when he looks out of his office

Greatest accomplishment: Civil rights. He repeated over and over again his enthusiasm for how many Hispanics the ND community has attracted and how proud he was when in 1947, ND had its first black graduate. He also is proud of his work with the blacks and about three time repeated that we had a black president and that it was because of what they did back in the 70s that made it possible.

..and on a fun note: Favorite Sports Moment: When Notre Dame wins the NCAA tournament this year or the BCS championship next year!

The Congressional Medal of Freedom

The MBAA Team with Father Hesburgh

The hallway of medals and honors

Rob, Chris and I outside Father Hesburgh's library

Favorite Forward: Women

Could this be why we only have 27 women in our class at school? Just kidding, but I personally LOVE the map of going to GAP. Check out below:

Favorite Friday: Jeff Hollender

Fridays are a day of rest for the MBA clan at Notre Dame. We are able to catch up on all the work we have been delaying, attend speaker series, practice interviewing...or play video games and watch movies (might as well give a realistic touch to things here.)

Today, I decided to be productive and studied for most of the day, but as I am a member of Net Impact, I also attended a speech and Q&A session with Jeff Hollender. Jeff is the founder of Seventh Generation and is the ex-CEO prior to getting fired this past October (yes, he was fired from the company he founded). Jeff started the company in 1988, his third entrepreneurial enterprise, and led it until this past year. Seventh Generation's motto is to ensure that each decision the company makes has considered the impact on the next seven generations; thus, its name. It makes non-toxic products for the household such as baby wipes, detergent, toilet paper and other cleaners and is located in many stores from Target to Walmart so you may have seen the products.

Jeff is a true idealist at heart. He believes that he can change how America is run and has worked on countless councils and boards speaking about sustainability and activism. When my turn came up for a question though, instead of asking the typical questions about greenwashing, sustainability and entrepreneurial "best practices," I was curious about how he positioned himself in reaction to the past several months. He discussed repurposing and repositioning himself. He mentioned not trusting anyone in business and in a matter of words, how when one founds a company, to never let go of the majority stakeholder. He doesn't know where his next move is, but I am sure it won't be a quiet one. It was interesting to see just one more person who has been deceived by shareholders, big business and corporate egos.

Anyways, to see the speech, go to the following website. It isn't up yet, but should be soon. Note that this isn't the talk I went to, but one he gave in the morning to the auditorium.

http://business.nd.edu/news_and_events/speaker_series/ten_years_hence/

Favorite Song: Sympathy for the Devil

After hearing the song on this radio I decided I must include it in my blog.

Born in the Detroit metro area, I have a very strong fascination and adoration for any type of classic rock and oldies. Therefore, I am very apt to tune into my oldies station in South Bend as this is one of only four stations I actually will listen. In South Bend, note that radio truly means probably four stations for each individual depending on their likes (unless you like Christian Rock). I personally listen to: NPR when I feel intelligent; my classical station 88.9 when I am driving to class to wake me up; U93, which is modern music when I don't want to think; my oldies station when I want to flex my vocal chords. Hence, I was listening to my sing-along station when the Rolling Stones came on. Thanks to Janet and Ray, I am a huge Rolling Stones fan. They have been to probably 10+ concerts over the years and each time they go to one, I am graced with nonstop Stones music in the house. Therefore, I know most of their songs and loved (loved, loved, loved) when Mick Jagger performed at the Grammys. I personally question if I could even jump and move around that much although I am 42 years younger than he. Anyways, here are the lyrics to one of my favorite Stones' songs. It isn't that I am satanic (obviously not if you met me), but I think it is just one of the most creative and thoughtfully written songs of all time...with an awesome rhythm and tone.

Here it is via youtube.com performed live from 1968 and the lyrics below (woo woo's and who who's taken out for purely space reasons:

Rolling Stones LIVE in 1968

Please allow me to introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
I've been around for a long, long year
Stole many a man's soul and faith

And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
Made damn sure that Pilate
Washed his hands and sealed his fate

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

I stuck around St. Petersburg
When I saw it was a time for a change
Killed the Czar and his ministers
Anastasia screamed in vain

I rode a tank
Held a general's rank
When the Blitzkrieg raged
And the bodies stank

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name
Ah, what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

I watched with glee
While your kings and queens
Fought for ten decades
For the gods they made

I shouted out,
"Who killed the Kennedys?"
When after all
It was you and me

Let me please introduce myself
I'm a man of wealth and taste
And I laid traps for troubadours
Who get killed before they reached Bombay

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name
But what's confusing you
Is just the nature of my game

Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint

So if you meet me
Have some courtesy
Have some sympathy, have some taste

Use all your well-learned politesse
Or I'll lay your soul to waste

Pleased to meet you
Hope you guessed my name
But what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game

Tell me baby, what's my name
Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
Tell me baby, what's my name
I tell you one time, you're to blame

Favorite Paper: Pepsi

 Below you will find a link to take you to an article that contains a PDF I find absolutely hilarious. In our marketing class, Carol Phillips, my professor, was discussing the personalities behind a brand image. We went throughout our class discussing iconic brands like Coca-Cola, GAP, YMCA and Blackberry and identifying the strengths and weaknesses behind changing their logo and identity. All of this resulted in some hilarious looks at what companies will do, and the amount of money they spend, to identify their new logo.

Here are my two favorite...

The first, like I said above, is a link that contains a PDF that you can download by clicking on the "illustrating the copious..." It details the effort Pepsi went through to change its logo. Some say that it is a farce and that competitors put it out to the public, but I am not sure who would take this much effort. I personally love the smiley face section near the end and also the Mona Lisa comparison.
Pepsi Logo

The second hyperlink below is Peter Arnell explaining how and why the Tropicana box was changed. He never admits failure, but instead ends up making a mockery of himself. Wait for the part regarding "squeezing" the bottle and how he compares it to life.

Peter Arnell Discussing Tropicana Redesign...AdAge.com

Favorite Video: Life lessons from 40 films in 7 minutes [video]

Really cool video from tons of videos discussing the lessons learned in life. No order so you can flip through it if you don't have seven minutes. Love that they use movies from Ratatouille to Star Wars from Forrest Gump to The Pursuit of Happyness:

Life lessons from 40 films in 7 minutes [video]

Favorite Thing I Learned Today: Widgets

So I started "twittering"/"tweeting" or whatever you call it to stay abreast of the news with OnStar and some other industries I am currently interested in. It is so cool how you seriously can type in any word and then suddenly everyone's opinions show up from all over the world. I really took a keen interest in checking out what was going on in Egypt and then also last night with the Superbowl advertisements. Any favorites?

Here are my top three. I, of course, am putting the Detroit advertisement first:

 1. Detroit. Classic. Loved it and made me proud to think that hopefully one day we will be a city that fights back. I hope that we are able to diversify broadly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc

2. Volkswagen's Darth Vader. My professor in strategy brought this up to look at the consumer benefits in the car and said that the kid "obviously had a sister." To that I said that it could have been a girl! And it could have. Anyone who knows me well knows that I dressed up as Bat Man for Halloween when I was younger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRt2BmYy-5s

3. Doritos Pug. I personally laughed the hardest at this advertisement. The pug reminded me of Chesney, Mike's sister's dog. He just loves to eat, but is a little puggle (beagle & pug mix).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpjaOUjUPUc

Favorite News Article: Cairo

With all that is going on in Cairo, it is interesting to see acts of peace occurring. Check out this amazing photo of Christians protecting Muslims as they pray. Kudos to the twitter user who took it as it is an amazing shot:

Favorite Day: SNOW DAYS

Snow day 2011. This was the first time in 11 years that the University of Notre Dame had the day off of school and it just happened to be the day of my first Microeconomics test. My professor is one unhappy man or possibly he is happy, but loves to be hated. He is married so I am actually curious to meet him wife if that is ever possible. That is completely off topic. What is on topic is that I am SO happy that I do not live in Chicago right now as Lake Shore Drive was typically how I got home. Just think of being stuck there for 12 hours in the middle of a blizzard. Awful!

Well, we had our own mini blizzard here and have about 15 inches I would say, but with snow piles reaching about ten feet. Here are some of the photos. Granted, if Tommy were not staying with me, I would NOT have been outside at all.

This was at 9pm at night before the blizzard officially started. Gusts were 30 mph and Tommy was loving life.

Here is a picture of the parking lot outside the Pointe. The drifts were very intense, but luckily, the plowmen in the complex had started clearing our area at about 3am.

Tommy LOVED the snow piles. Here he is on top of one. He almost jumped in the trash afterwards because of his excitement for all of the smells.

Party with the other dog owners. We had a group of MBAers outside with all of our pups and the guys were playing football.

Stanley, Tommy's 2nd favorite bulldog....Britches being his #1 (and Truman is up there too!!)

All the dogs: Stanley, Britches and Hank

Favorite Events: Cristian's Hockey Games

Firstly, I want to congratulate my Aunt Nancy who was able to get her old job back at AAA after being laid off a little over a year ago. Despite the ups and downs and temporary positions, she was able to get rehired and we are so happy for her!

Over break I had a ton of free time and most of it I tried to spend with my family and friends that are in the Detroit area who I never typically get to see that much. The Walk's are some of my favorite kids to hang out with so I went to about four or five of their games over the break I believe. Cristian, 1st grade, and Brendan, 4th, both play hockey over at Orchard Lake and are so much fun to watch with my family. The "Pirates", as their teams are called, are adorable. Cristian scored two goals at one of the games we went to in which he did a victory dance, tripping and falling smack down on the ice after his second goal. Check out some photos from the games:

Face Off

Brendan was one of three boys in the penalty box at this point.

Old Favorite: My blog

It was just brought to my attention that I don't do my blog anymore! I guess I get caught up with all the things going on in school, but after thinking about it, this is definitely something that I loved doing and so I am going to make an effort to keep it up!

School is going great and I am in my third "mod" aka quarter here at Notre Dame. My friends, professors and classes are awesome this semester especially compared to last. The past quarter was very difficult. Granted, my grandfather finally lost his battle to Alzheimer's in November and that took quite a bit of time away from me, but it was difficult all around. Macroeconomics + Financial Accounting + Finance 1 + Marketing = Slow and awful days

I am currently very happy though as I stepped into my position as President of the MBA Association. For those of you who know me well, I loved being the President of my sorority, fundraising for the Alzheimer's Association and serving on the Kappa Alumni board as treasurer so I am very happy to once again be taking on additional responsibilities to serve my classmates. It is great insight too, especially since my goal one day is to be a professor.

I also got an internship this summer in Detroit! I was aiming for Chicago, but am happy to say that I accepted a position with General Motor's OnStar division. I will be doing work with a team on the new product OnStar is launching in its aftermarket division with non-General Motor's vehicles. It seems as if it will be fulfilling work, especially knowing that the product I am working on makes a difference in people's lives.

Mike is wonderful and Tommy too! We have been able to still see each other a ton..although NOT as much as I would like. I can't wait until school is over sometimes (despite loving every moment) because I miss just hanging out on a random Tuesday night doing nothing with him. Or beating him in Fifa.

Well I am off, but welcome back to a new year of my favorites!