Stunning quote courtesy of Jason Whitlock. Here’s the entire exerpt from his last column:
8. Of all the teams in the NFC, the Washington Redskins are the only team capable of winning the Super Bowl.
After being down on Joe Gibbs early in the season, I have to credit him for getting things together. If the Skins knock off the Eagles, they will enter the playoffs as the hottest team in the league—hotter than the streaking Patriots, also winners of four straight.
Of course, we know the Redskins can play defense. What’s been impressive is their offensive explosion the last two weeks—35 points in each victory, over the Cowboys and Giants.
The Skins have a good offensive line, three good running backs, a big-play receiver (Santana Moss), an effective tight end (Chris Cooley) and a QB who has thrown 22 touchdowns and just nine interceptions.
I was up out of bed around 8am or so and cleaned up to eat some breakfast. I left Chris, MJ and Louie to sleep. Breakfast at the hotel was nice: desayuno tipical. Eggs, black beans, rice, toast, fruit, coffee and juice.
Our friendly front desk guy (Jason) helped us settle on spending the day in Cartago and Orossi. Cartago was the original capital of Costa Rica and only 30-45 minutes away. Orossi is a small town just outside of Cartago. To get to these places and back on the local bus system would cost a grand total of 1100 Colones ($2).
We were in Cartago just long enough to check out the Basillica, a huge Catholic church and prominent landmark. We then hopped on a bus for Orossi, a small and scenic village nestled in the heart of a valley. I rented a bike for C600 per hour and tooled around on my own. Soon enough (time flies!) the day was ended, so I returned the bike and we all boarded the bus for Cartago where we caught the bus back to San Jose.
We got back to our hotel just an hour or so before Bob and Bert got into town. After getting them settled in we walked about 15 minutes down the road to a restaurant that Chris had heard about from a girl he met who worked at KFC that we met our first evening in town. It was called Nuestra Tierra (our land). Dinner was pretty good and from there we walked back up the street, eventually settling on a bar called Sultan to start the night. As it turned out, Sultan was the first and last bar of the night. Despite a cover, the C300(~$0.60) beers were too good to pass up.
The flight was uneventful and really flew by. They screened “Cinderella Man”, which was actually pretty good. We landed in San Jose and hailed a cab to our hotel ($18 for four people). The drive took about 45 minutes or so. We (MJ, Chris, Louie and I) spent the day walking around our section of San Jose, had a late lunch at KFC(ha!) and rested back at the hotel before going out for the night.
So, while on vacation, I had this fantasy that one of the random times I checked my email at an Internet cafe that I would recieve good news from one of the schools I’ve applied to. It was a persuasive dream, to be admitted while on vacation in paradise and just before Christmas.
But, alas, it wasn’t to be. And I sit, no dings, no waitlists and no acceptances. My HBS app is due in exactly 1 week. I have the meat of it complete, and am currently refining the essays. I’ll be relieved once I submit it and this whole process (on my end) is over.
I’m back from my 10 days in Costa Rica. It’s a bitter sweet feeling. I’m happy to be back, but I had a really amazing time and wish I was still out and about, exploring the country and meeting new people.
I kept a journal while on the trip, in the tiny hand-made booklet that my old roommate Maryanne gave me for Christmas one year. It’s the same journal I took with me while travelling to London in 2001 and Asia in 2004. I’ll be reprinting it here one day at a time, along with pictures. If you’d like a sneak preview, you can see all the pictures on Flickr.
I had a pretty great time at my company’s holiday party down in Richmond. It was good to see people who I hadn’t seen in almost a year. The open bar was a nice plus too. Scotch, Scotch, Scotch. I love Scotch. Into my belly, goes the Scotch.
After the bash, I made my way to downtown Richmond to hang out with Will, Neela and Andy. We hung out at Europa for a while, before adjourning for some diner food at 3am or so. The food took forever, but damn I had a good breakfast burrito.
DCKickball threw a mega-bash at Tom Tom this past Wednesday to collect gifts for Toys for Tots while at the same time burning through our remaining social budget for the year. Everyone was invited, guests were encouraged, all you had to do was bring a toy.
Much thanks to Jimmy and Michael from the Marine Corps for coming down to help out. Marines know how to party!
ANC 1C07 SPECIAL ELECTION: Wednesday December 7 (7:15-9:15PM)
Josh Gibson recently moved and has lost his eligibility to be on the ANC in our neighborhood. The ANC will be holding a special election to fill the vacancy on December 7th. This is a map of the area you must live in to vote. This election DOES affect you. If you live in this area or have friends who do PLEASE encourage them to vote for Jonathan Halstuch.
He is concerned with the businesses of Adams Morgan and has no intention of trying to impede or stop businesses from operating in any way. He also has an extensive volunteer background and is interested in concentrating his energy in his own neighborhood.
Other issues he is concerned with include public safety, youth and rec activities, traffic and parking and GLBT issues.
Please come by the DINER at 6pm on Wednesday the 7th with your voter card or pepco bill and have a cocktail on us before going to vote. We look forward to seeing you!
The election is being held at the Mary Center (pink building at 2355 Ontario Rd.)
The early deadline for quite a few of my applications was back during the first week of November. Besides getting the on-line applications submitted, there were a few things that had to be mailed, primarily undergraduate transcripts. I get everything in under the gun for Stanford, Berkeley, Texas and UCLA and turn my attention to my NYU and HBS apps.
Fast forward almost a month. I get an email from Haas on the 23rd saying that my application is incomplete and that they have no received my transcripts. They state that if the transcripts are not recieved soon, my application will be bumped to the second round. I feel like I’m going to vomit.
The next day I head to FedEx. I address an envelope to William and Mary and include the following: a transcript form, a money order and an addressed, pre-paid FedEx envelope to Haas. I wait.
Last night I recieve a welcome email:
Dear Carter,
Thank you for submitting your application for admission to the Berkeley MBAProgram at the Haas School of Business. Your file is now ready for review by the admissions committee. Application decisions for complete files will be released on the response dates specified on the application form, and you can check your application status online at https://ssl.haas.berkeley.edu/admissions/application.
