A follower and a catcher complemented by the cuddler.

This is Tyson. Or Tyson the Bison. Or Ty. He loves to play catch. He's like a dog, literally. Emerson played catch but not with the gusto that Tyson does. It is probably the most adorable thing I've ever seen. He also appears to guests to be the more antisocial of the two cats but he just absolutely loves Tim and I. He follows us around everywhere and he cries (IE: screams) when he can't find us. Wherever we are, he's lying right beside us. He also plays so hard chasing stuff around that he gets out of breath and can barely stand up straight. It is hilarious. He is definitely the more athletic brother.

This is Calvin. Or Calvin the Kitty. Or Cal. He is the sweetheart. He just loves to be around anybody and loves cuddles. He loves to get licked by the dogs and to put his face in yours to get as close as possible. It is very cute! He doesn't play as hard as Tyson does but he likes to chase around obnoxious things (IE: things that jingle loudly). He explores a lot and generally just seems to be happy go lucky... especially if he has someone to cuddle with.

These boys just turned 1 on March 17 (which was also Berkeley's 6th birthday- unbelievable that I've had her for 6 years!!) It is so funny to me how each animal has their own distinct personality and quirks. I love them all so much!

How I know.

It is the end of the 5th day of a battle with the flu. The second battle of the year and the one thought that might reign over me. Tim and I both have missed days of productivity because we have been crippled with fevers over 101 degrees and aches that make us feel like we are 101 years old.

Today we were feeling slightly better. Sleeping an average of 15 hours a day for the past 5 days coupled with a slight addition to pain/fever reducers (aka Tylenol) has kind of boosted our bodies back into semi-functioning. We have actually regained our appetites and tonight we decided to actually make food. We were also starting to get slightly bored... another sign that maybe we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We thought about going outside but wait. Oh, we can't. Why? It's SNOWING. ARE.YOU.KIDDING.ME?! Last Saturday it was 82 degrees and now it is snowing. I think, just maybe, I could possibly be back in the midwest without knowing it.

Anyway, we decided to make burgers tonight and it was a royal disaster. We were going to make sweet potato fries to go with the burgers but those turned into a sloppy orange mush. It didn't really matter because we probably still weren't hungry enough to eat them anyway. The burgers were done long before we decided to chuck the fries and as we were putting mayonnaise on their rubbery goodness (as a result of getting overdone), I look up from what I was doing to see Tim bellowing over me with mayonnaise on a knife over my head. Uh oh. I grab the jar as my defense.

And then I have a smear on my nose. Damn. Score one Tim. I then chase him with the jar and get some on his face. Yes. Nicely done!! We are then running around the island in the kitchen full on in our mayonnaise war when it happens. I am held down by Tim with the knife of mayonnaise coming straight for my hair and screaming about how I have bad mayonnaise/hair related memories.

Flashback: when I was about 12 years old, my mom read some health article about how mayonnaise and the egg whites in mayonnaise is good for your hair. Well, my mom only used to buy miracle whip. Um, has anyone ever SMELLED miracle whip? In my 12 year old innocence, on a HOT summer day I allowed my mom to put miracle whip all over my hair. Though, I'll have to ask her why she thought that her 12 year old daughter's hair was in such bad shape to need this mayonnaise treatment... I know she had good intentions but the outcome? Horrible. I smelled like miracle whip for WEEKS. And not just smelled. Reeked. I do have to say though, my hair was incredibly soft.

To the present.... I am currently getting globbed by big knife fulls of mayonnaise. In my hair. On my face. On my clothes. I then, intelligent person that I am, decide to jump so that I can get mayonnaise in his hair. He was already in the process of washing it off his face though so in the meantime, he is protecting himself by the spray sink water. I got drenched.

I'm not exactly sure who won this impromptu war although by the end we were both dying laughing and hacking so much that it would have been amusing for anyone to watch. And here is how the story ends. At the end of a horrible sick week, on the verge of a disaster dinner, with mayonnaise in my hair, my shirt soaking wet, hacking up both my lungs, and looking at the snow falling outside on April 18, I am happy and content. Laughing.

Tim's version: Hi blogger land?!?!?! So apparently I'm talking to who knows who?? But anyway, I was about to spread some mayonnaise and decided to smell it myself when I got a tiny dab on my nose, but Jenny didn't see that, so I got the BRIGHT idea, but NO. I'm way too nice, so I tell her what I was going to do.. Then I proceed to tell her that it really DOES smell bad.. SHE BELIEVES ME?!?! Why? Must be her good faithful heart in her fiance. So naturally I put a HUGE smear on her nose! :) And thus the war started..

Hawaii

I think that the title of the post should be more appropriately titled...


HAWAII!!!!!!!


That is about how excited I am. I can barely contain it.


Tim and I are taking a 2 week hiatus over there at the end of October... leaving on October 15 (the day pension auditing season is over) and coming back on October 30 (we have a red eye flight on the 29th). Um.... I cannot wait. We will be spending a week on Maui and a week on Kauai.


The tickets were bought last night. I got a smokin' deal. Now is the hard part... waiting for six months!! Sigh. I will try not to talk about it too, too much in the next six months.

Spring Day in Seattle.

Today it was 65 degrees and sunny here in Seattle. I'm kind of laughing at myself right now because a day like today in Phoenix was a relatively "cold" day... not warm, by any means. It was a day that was used as an excuse to wear a sweater just because it was cold enough to. Today? Today at 65 degrees in Seattle? I skipped happy hour to go run. In a tank top and short pants. It was amazing. It was the first day since spring hit in March that I've actually felt like it's spring and legitimately going to be summer soon.

I also didn't have to go to my least favorite clients today. I'll go back out next week... which is fine because it wasn't today. Next week I'll just complain about it and it will suck even more because the deadline will be that much closer. Oh well.

I was feeling so springy and cheery today that I decided to paint my toenails pink in honor of spring. [Right now Tim is on a 48 hour shift but if for some reason he reads this before he sees me and my cute little toes, I know he is silently high five-ing some god of toes.] My toes have basically been neglected since the holiday parties back in December. Gulp. I know. Bad, bad, bad. But what's the point when you wear socks and shoes and have no reason to bare your toes?

Tomorrow is the last Saturday we have to work in busy season. Our busy season as auditors technically won't end until May but we are lucky in this firm to still be consistent with tax... at least in our work schedule. We'll still be busy but hopefully (fingers crossed) there will be no more Saturdays after tomorrow and there will be no nights at the office past 9pm. And at the end of this month? I get two days, repeat, TWO days off work for a long birthday weekend. I cannot wait.

I can't even tell you how happy I am today... I finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Summer is right around the corner and these mad work hours are this close to being over.

Happy birthday month to ME!

Rock Chalk Jayhawks!!!

I am and will probably always be a Kansas Jayhawk basketball fan at heart. It probably started because my dad is such a die-hard fan even though I didn't go to school at KU. Anyway, every year I follow them and faithfully pick them as winners in my brackets and usually just lose money. Not only did Kansas WIN the 2008 NCAA tournament last night, it was probably one of the best games I have seen in a long time. ROCK CHALK JAYHAWKS, baby! Ah, how sweet it is.

Random...

I am eating about 400 organic disney animal crackers. From the pile of crap that can be found around the office this time of year. Now, this is what I don't understand. WHY, WHY, WHY during this time of year, do we have to keep so much food around and fully stocked when all any of us do is just sit at our desks for 12+ hours a day? It seems very contradictive. I would think that even though we are working hard, this is the time of year when we should be eating less because, seriously? Who has time to work out?

So I have since gained 7 of the typical 10 pounds I gain during January to April of each year. Although in December I lost 5 for some reason so I guess now I'm only 2 over normal. It's probably not a healthy cycle to be in though. Gain 10 pounds in 4 months, hit June, lose it all in a month... simply due to being able to actually move again. It's a bad sign when now just going on a walk can make me sore. I TRIED to get up everyday and do yoga. It worked for about a month. That ended, um, about a month ago.

I have to do my tax return completely over. It's been done since the end of February but because March 2008 SUCKED I totally forgot to file until yesterday I realized it was oh, April 1, and I am actually one of those many millions of people who do have to file my return by April 15... two weeks away. Oops. Good thing I didn't realize that April 16. It's pretty stupid too because I'm getting a decent enough refund. You'd think I'd be jumping at the bit to file. Nope, I'm retarded. Anyway, so I used turbo tax online because I know how to do my own taxes (thanks to starting off as a tax person... and, um, HATING it). So I had already figured out how much I was getting back before I even entered the stuff into turbo tax mainly because I'm a nerd and as I was collecting my various W-2s and 1099s I was figuring it out. So putting it into turbo tax took all of two seconds. Then I forgot about it until yesterday.

Yesterday I go to e-file and problem 1. I have to have my 2006 return #'s if I don't want to sign a paper form. Ugh fine. Call Arizona and check. Problem #2: I owe turbo tax $90 dollars to file my return. UM, HUH?! Apparently even though I clicked the FREE turbo tax box, I somehow got "upgraded" to the $60 "deluxe" edition. ($30 I expected to pay to e-file AZ taxes). Well that's retarded. So I call turbo tax and they tell me to delete my whole return and start over. So NOW it's going to take me longer because I have to get all of the information again and re-input it and hopefully not forget about it for a month. I was so annoyed. I should have just used the tax software at the office. Now that would have been smart.

Last week I lost my last contact. Because I haven't been to the eye doctor since 2005 in Arizona (and thus, my prescription had expired so I couldn't order more of the same contacts), I had to wear my glasses that I got my junior year of college. Do the math... it was about 6-7 years ago. And every year my eyes seem to get worse. The prescription was just a little bit outdated. So I have spent the better part of the last 5 days squinting and walking around feeling like a little old blind lady. Yesterday I FINALLY had an eye exam. Everything went fine... he told me he couldn't believe I was walking (much less driving) with that prescription. Well, duh, I'm the one who knows how blind I've been! My eyes, again, have gotten worse. THEN he freaking dilated my eyes. I don't even remember the last time my eyes were dilated. Well, it kind of sucked because my appointment was over lunch. And apparently when your eyes are dilated you really can't see anything. I probably wasn't supposed to be driving. I got back to the office and realized that I couldn't see ANYTHING. So for four hours yesterday I was basically out of commission. On the plus side though, this morning on the way to work, I was absolutely amazed at how well I can see now. Oh, and I'm going blind. Apparently I have a thin cornea. Maybe I'll get a seeing eye dog named Sophie. Hopefully she will be an english mastiff and be Simon's girlfriend.

I am done eating animal crackers. I'll stop rambling now.

Quote of the Day

"I see many people who depend so much on information they have lost their sense of direction- and the basic understanding and perspective of living. I find that our culture is in an epidemic state of misdirection as well. In some very fundamental ways, never have we had so much information and knowledge, yet been so lost. Information is good. But wisdom is even better. And life is best when you don't divorce living life from that which most gives life. Use information and knowledge but don't ever let information dissect and diminish your living and cause you to lose your way."
-Dr Mark

Hmm. Food for thought first thing in the morning.

Several months worth of pictures, as promised. And not an April Fools Day joke!

On Christmas, our favorite 3 year old, Savannah.


Jordan, our favorite 5 year old with her new recorder. We might have received a phone call a few days later regarding the revenge that we are owed for buying such a Christmas present.

Our favorite baby, Mackenna. I think maybe we just woke up.

Going back to Christmas, I got literally 4 coats (one of which is the black and white one behind me-Thanks mom!), hats, sweaters, gloves, etc. Washington is a LOT colder than Phoenix in the winters. Apparently I was quite vocal about how unprepared I was.

Happy new flat screen TV! Funny that all of the men are surrounding it...

When I went back to Kansas City just after Christmas, I was able to make it to an old family friends wedding reception. His sister, Katie (above) was my very best friend through elementary school and middle school and we have remained friends since. We were fast friends the day she moved to Kansas City from Pennsylvaina and sat next to me in Mrs. Parish's 4th grade class. It was so good to see her! Plus, I found out that SHE is getting married this summer!

Happy 2008!!

A rainy day in Seattle in January... but clear enough to see the mountains when crossing Lake Washington. It was pretty.

Please show me some other state where people wash cars WHEN IT'S RAINING. (Hence, the lovely hard hat). I cannot even tell how hard I was cracking up that day (and still even when I look at this picture).

The truck was also washed on this rainy day. It might have been its last car wash. Sad.

SIMON (the English mastiff dog... he weighs more than me!) and Meg. He might be my favorite dog ever.

Kaylene, Meg and I at the "Don't wear black" party. The theme came as a result of Simon (who kinda drools). And the party was thrown in honor of the first working Saturday of busy season at the end of January.

Girls valentines night out. Love it.

Anchorage, Alaska. Beautiful city. February 2008.

There were dog races going on up in Anchorage when we were there for the Fur Rondy festival. It was pretty cool.

More of Anchorage.

More Anchorage mountains. They are HUGE.

Beautiful sunset in Seattle, February 2008.

Sunset in Seattle over Lake Washington, February 2008.

New FJ. His name is Duncan, February 2008.

Different view of Duncan, February 2008.


I think that's all of the pictures that I have...and done. Told you I would get them up sometime. Happy April!

The conversation went something like this...

Controller at client to auditors: "My babies are doing good."
Us (auditors): "Oh really, that's good to hear"
Controller: "Yeah I just got them in the mail last week."
Us: (confused stares all around the table, someone glances at controller with a questioning look)
Controller: "Yep, I have 10,000 worms on my worm farm I keep in my living room. Just got em in the mail last week. They like to eat coffee grounds."
Us: (Trying not to absolutely crack up) "Interesting."
Controller: (In all seriousness. Literally.) "You all are invited to the baby shower. Only if you promise to bring in a piece of rotten fruit. I'm collecting it for them now."

...Um. Blink. Blink. Could it get much weirder? I guess maybe I should have prefaced this story with all of the other weird stories that have happened in the past two weeks. This particular story happened about 10 minutes before the controller darted up (in the middle of a conversation with us) for an "emergency." Two seconds later after he ran out for the "emergency" he informed us he was going to Starbucks. An hour later, he returns with two taco del mar bags, two sodas. One for then (10am) and one for later (which he ate-cold- at 3:30pm). Last week on one of the days he was only there for a grand total of an hour. He said he would return at 1pm that day and didn't actually return until about 1pm... the next day.

It's been a trip.

I am horrible at posting pictures.

I've been delaying blogging because a) I've been 1% alive and 99% dead for the past three weeks b) on top of being almost dead I have been on probably one of the (if not the) biggest audit my company has for the past two weeks... which, did I mention I am running? Because of the manager that took an indefinite leave of absence January 31? I love him right now. and c) I promised I wouldn't post until I posted the pictures I promised in my last post. Well b has affected c in that I haven't had the chance to actually put the pictures on my computer. It is on my to-do list this weekend. Along with updating the world about March 2008.... a month that I seriously cannot WAIT to be over. It is right up there with one of the worst months of my entire life and I say that with every bit of positiveness I can muster. Which isn't much after having lived through this month. But on the plus side, in 5 days my birthday month begins and I plan on throwing a huge party to celebrate March 2008 being far, far behind me.

Seriously. It's March?

I do not know where the first two months of this year went. And we even had an extra day in February. Speaking of leap year, I always thought a birthday on that day would suck. A gal I work with was this close to having her baby on leap day this year. I think her baby girl was born at 1am on March 1.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I feel like my life is in high speed and I can't get two seconds to slow it down to even do the mundane stuff. I've basically just been working like I mentioned a couple of posts back. Nothing has really changed significantly. This week I am in the office for three out of the 5 week days and then of course on the weekend. It's nice break and since I only have two new clients this week theoretically I should be able to play catch up.

The past couple of weeks have involved-
1) Buying a new car for Tim. We got him a 2008 Toyota FJ. It's black and with all of the off roading options (don't ask me what they are... all I know is that they are on there). Those cars are actually pretty cool. I was skeptical at first but when we went to look at them and I drove one, I really liked it. It will be such a fun car to take up into the mountains... I have pictures which I will post soon. I promise. The only bad thing about the whole experience was the idiot warranty guy. We were able to negotiate about $5K off of the selling price which we were happy with. But the warranty guy? Ugh. We were at the dealer from 11am to 7pm. About 4 of those hours involved talking with the warranty guy. A complete hick I might add. He was from Oklahoma. I bet our conversation was hilarious. Tim and I were just getting pissed and we hit a point where we didn't care how rude we were being because the guy wouldn't. listen. or understand. no. On our way out he called us stupid for refusing the warranty at his "low" price. Seriously, warranties are lame and if Toyotas really need warranties that badly, then we don't want to buy one. Anyway, the car is cool and of course Tim has all of these ideas for what he wants to do to it to make it more custom but I think that will wait... at least until both of us catch two seconds to breathe.

2) I was in Alaska. I mentioned that in the last post. I also have pictures of this. Which I will post soon. It was actually a nice break from being in the office at nights and on the weekend. And I only concentrated on one client. Not having to juggle was awesome and we finished the audit in a week.

3) Girls nights and friday night happy hours. Love it.

4) Frustrations with office politics. That's about all I can say here.

5) Saturday I was so frustrated and stressed, I left the office at 4pm to go get a facial. I don't get regular facials, I'm more of a "when it feels like it sounds good" type of girl. So it sounded good saturday. I go into the salon where I get my hair done (which is obviously also a spa). I'm on the table and the girl is looking at my face and she says, "You have really thin skin." And I'm all confused, like "so?" She then goes on to say, "well that basically sucks. You are prone to premature wrinkling and sagging." So basically you are telling me that by like my 30 or 40th birthday I'm screwed? And THEN she started picking at my face at zits that didn't even exist. My face was CLEAR when I walked in and I walked out looking like I got into a fight with barbed wire. And I'm paying you for this? It was such BS. I was looking for a relaxing, pampering facial experience not THAT. In hindsight it was actually pretty funny. I've had some good laughs about it.

6) I have been eating so. freaking. much. This started with the chocolate craze a couple of weeks ago. The chocolate continued and the yoga didn't. I'm about half way to the typical gain of 10 busy season pounds. This week I decided that I need to work out more during the week and not just on the weekend. So I have been getting up at 4:30 every morning to do yoga and various other exercises. I've felt pretty good this week so I hope I can keep it up. Usually weekends are my cardio workouts so if I keep doing this every morning and cardio on the weekends I should come out of busy season not completely out of shape (which is what typically happens).

7) On a rare day off a week or so ago, Tim and I took a drive in the new FJ about an hour and a half north to Bellingham after we got it. It was really pretty up there. We stopped by the ocean just outside of Bellingham and kinda hiked around these little areas by the water. I saw crabs and purple and orange starfish! It was crazy!! Western Washington University is up there and that campus is very pretty (I still like the Univ of Washington here in Seattle better though). Bellingham actually had the feel of a small midwest town, but with mountains and water. I've heard it's a lot more rainy up there though. We were so close to Canada. I have always wanted to go to Canada and I'm so close now! Maybe I should get my passport renewed....

8) I am thinking about a post busy season trip. I do not know where yet.

9) I really need to get back to work. I am seriously procrastinating.

10) Today is our niece's 5th birthday. She is getting so big. On Sunday afternoon, she had a party and we gave her cute little pink capri pants, a little red dress, some pink jewelery and a headband to match the pants, and a shimmery purple purse (that I'm pretty sure she slept with that night and didn't stop carrying around the whole day... it was adorable). She put her little wallet and calendar in her purse and proceeded to show me her calendar with dates where "her baby was born and when her baby got flu shots." I almost died from how freaking cute she is. I think a lot of people got her little learning games but Tim and I decided that it was more enjoyable to get her fun stuff every once in a while. Plus, I am better picking out clothes and purses than "how to count" books. I just have no idea about kids and what stage of their development they should be in and at what age. I'll figure all that out if and when I have kids of my own.

I think that's all. Pictures to come soon.

75% done...

I just found out on Friday morning that I passed the financial part of the CPA exam. Now I only have one more section left, which I will take after busy season is over. I'm aiming for May. We'll see. I am super excited that I am so close to being done with this stupid test!!

I just got back from a week in Alaska late last night. It actually wasn't too cold up there- in the 30s and 40s all week. And I saw a MOOSE! At the airport when we first got in, it was just walking around like people in Anchorage say they do. It was pretty wild. The hotel we stayed in was also haunted.

I'll write more later.

Last week I was craving yoga, this week I am craving chocolate.

This is highly indicative of my stress level.

I think I have eaten more chocolate today than in the past year.

I have worked for um, 19 days in a row.

Nineteen.

And not just short days. Long days. Well, Sundays have been shorter. But still. It doesn't make up for the 15 hour days I have been working during the week. Something is wrong with me. I have never worked this hard in my life. I'm pretty sure I'm not a huge fan of getting to the office at 6 every morning and not leaving till 10 at night. And then, repeat is on for the next 5 days.

I mean, I am actually working too. Well, not right now. Today has not been a productive day. I have been eating chocolate, drinking tea, checking email/blogs, writing on my blog (obviously), and I even took a long lunch with a group of friends... co-workers and non co-workers. I think I am burned out.

Tonight is girls night out in Seattle. We are getting dressed up although the prospect of keeping heels on isn't exactly exciting at the moment. As long as there is more chocolate involved, with a prospect of yoga sometime in the next couple of days, I think I'll be just fine and ready to be back at work tomorrow. At 7. Seriously. I have a meeting. If you're thinking "lame" times that by about 100 and that is how I feel.

Monday I head to Alaska for the next 6 days. Last week it was -26 up there. Sunday it is going to be 60 here. Unfair.

I do really like what I do but it's really busy right now. It is just the time of year and like I've said before, if I absolutely hated it, I wouldn't be in this profession. I know that at the end of it all, lies an awesome summer in front of me. Lots of water time, perfect weather, short work days, and long weekends. Ahhhhhhh... can't wait!

Still a little obsessed with the snow thing...

Mainly because that's all there is on the news and, of course, because it became all too personal a week or so ago. Apparently snoqualmie pass has gotten 12 feet of snow in the past few days? Crazy. Hearing the word avalanche tossed around like its an every day, normal thing just seems weird to me.

From the WSDOT this morning: Compact snow and ice on roadway. Drivers should be prepared for travel in extreme winter weather conditions. If the severe weather continues as forecast, WSDOT will perform intermittent avalanche-control as needed. Advance notification will be provided for planned avalanche control work. // Snowing, blowing snow and poor visibility

Yikes.

A week later... and still fairly nasty. Or maybe the title should be, is it summer yet?!

FROM THE WSDOT website: Pass is open. If the severe weather comes as forecast, WSDOT will perform intermittent avalanche-control as needed. Advance notification will be provided for planned avalanche control work. // Snowing

Above is the Snoqualmie pass (the main pass Tim usually takes back to school). It looks ok today but I guess there is another winter storm warning in effect that is supposed to dump another few feet of snow or so.



Above- Stevens pass (aka, the last place poor truck was seen not eaten alive by Semis). Looks ok today. Certainly not like it did last wednesday.

The thing I hate about snow.

I guess I should change one word in the title... from hate to despise. I wonder which is stronger. That's the one I want to use.

I haven't been able to write for a week. My mind has been trying to grasp, ponder, internalize, come to peace with a certain event that happened last week. The only thing that I can ever really come away with is that everything does happen for a reason and that deep within everything is a lesson somewhere.

Here is a quote that I found somewhat touching after the events of last week: "Life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death. Time- when pursued like a bandit- will behave like one; always remaining one country or one room ahead of you, changing its name and hair color to elude you... taunting you. At some point you have to stop because it won't. You have to admit that you can't catch it. That you're not supposed to catch it. At some point, you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you. This is the message I'm getting. Sit quietly for now and cease your relentless participation. Watch what happens."

This will make more sense in a minute. I promise.

Last Wednesday, Snoqualmie pass (the main pass on a major interstate from here to CWU- where Tim goes to school- was closed). It had been closed for over a day and half due to massive amounts of snowfall... like literally 6 feet in hours. [As a side note, the pass was closed for the better part of a week which has not happened since 1995 and got more snow than it's gotten since 1974]. Also, on Wednesday a natural avalanche occured on this freeway. That has only occurred a couple of times in history. I only say this because I feel it's relevant to note that it was massive snowy. Bad.

So, Tim has class on Wednesday mornings. He was still over here in Seattle and going to drive back to CWU that morning. Not a big deal normally because it's only 1 1/2 hours, he has a 4 wheel drive truck and it goes smoothly.

That morning he got up, pass was closed. Ok. Called teacher and told him he would not be coming. Two hours later... pass is still closed and teacher calls Tim and tells him to "get his ass over her otherwise you will fail." His teacher tells him to take the northern route over the mountains which, although it's open, is known to be way more dangerous (as it is not a major freeway and is a smaller road) and it goes over two passes.

So Tim runs out the door in a panic. Who wouldn't? I mean you start thinking, shit, I'll be fine. I don't want to fail. I'm working my ass off and just to get screwed because my teacher thinks that I can't make it over the mountains? (Also note, another of his classmates was stuck in Seattle and was told the same thing and subsequently also went over the two-pass, more dangerous route).

Two hours after running out the door, Tim's truck is totaled on the back side of the first pass, destructed by three semi's who had taken this northern route since the main freeway pass was closed. He was like a pin ball between two semi's, who spun him around and then he was hit on his drivers side by a third.

I almost threw up when I saw the pictures.

He is ok, miraculously. All morning long, even before I knew what happened, I was sick. I didn't know why I was so worried but somehow the intuitive side of me kicked in and I just knew something was wrong. So many variables went wrong that day but also so many went right. There were so many, "If this had happened..." "If he had been driving a different car..." The outcome could, scarily, have been much different. To say he was very lucky is an understatement.

After processing all of this since last wednesday and coming to terms with the scariness of it all, I really believe that the lesson here is that people just need to slow down. Listen. Observe. Live. Let your intuition guide you. And if yours isn't strong enough, use the people you love for guidance as well. It is hard not to get wrapped up in the heat of the moment... the job, the test, material items, the plans for the future. But really what matters is that you do all of that while taking the time that you need to care for yourself and to let the people close to you know that you love them. And most importantly, do everything in your power to not jeopordize anything permanent for something that is just temporary.

So, to end like I began, the thing I hate about snow, have always hated about snow... is driving in it.

Happy birthday mom!

Today is my fabulous mom's birthday. I hope that she had a great day! I heard it was sunny and 70 in KC which sounds pretty amazing to me. I love you Mom!

Scratching. Like. A. F-ing. Dog. Or worse.

I am scratching every piece of skin off of my body. Literally.

I need someone to come tie my hands together. And then please just rip every little bit of skin off my body so it STOPS ITCHING. Trust me, it won't hurt. It is numb to hurting after being red and inflamed from being scratched so much.

I have perpetually dry skin. Always have had it. Which I somehow neglected to forget about in between Iowa and Washington. You would have expected that I would have had dry skin in Phoenix but nope, in Phoenix I thought it would be fun to spend my time trying to give myself skin cancer (aka tanning non stop... probably not funny if I ever do get skin cancer...) so for whatever reason my skin was somewhat moisturized there.

Here I have no freckles after 3 years of freckles and am so white that sometimes I scare myself especially when I wake up and it's dark and my skin is glowing. It's that white.

And my skin is. so. DRY! It's not even flaky dry. Just dry as in it freaking itches.

It just started 3 days ago but please look back at my last post (aka... I have no life but work). I haven't had much time to even go to the grocery store. How would I make it to buy specialty lotion!? So for three days I have been itching my skin off, then taking scalding showers (which actually do hurt) to try to make. the. madness. stop. It would all be solved if I just took the time to go even just to Walgreens and buy just a bottle of like Jergen's or something with the title of "For super, super, super, super dry skin. Even works on reptiles." I know there is something I used to buy like that. But that was also in Iowa and things are generally a little bit off in Iowa.

The worst part about it is the itching in public. I mean, I have SO. MUCH. of my yummy smelling lotion on. But do I really want to go through a whole bottle of not exactly cheap lotion in oh, a day? Not really. I almost did today (which is how I know how much I used). But even with all of that lotion, about halfway through the day, I. am. dying. I am sitting there talking with my client and for anyone who has ever dealt with a perpetual itch or dry skin issue, do you even KNOW how hard it is to not itch? But you can't just DO that. Come on! You run to the bathroom, itch the hell out of your leg, arm, whatever, and then glob about 2 gallons more of lotion on. Only to repeat the process in an hour.

I think tomorrow this has to end. My skin is no longer white but red. And I am driving myself insane. Either I'm going to Walgreens or I am hiring someone to tie my hands together. But then, since apparently I need to work, I guess the Walgreens route is probably more efficient... I don't know how my client would feel about me arriving in handcuffs or tied up tomorrow, either. Actually they would probably get a kick out of that. An auditor all tied up? I'm sure that most clients may have had vivid dreams at some point about tying down the auditors... especially for the week out of the year where we make their life a not so pleasant experience.

Tis the season... the busy season.

Was up at 4 this morning. Have been at the office at 6am for the past three days. Have worked late at night for the past two nights. Just found out today that another manager in my department at work is taking an indefinite leave of absence in oh, um, a week and a half. I don't really need to touch on anything that involves the words bad and timing. I feel awful for him but it will serve to make all of us much, much busier... as if we aren't all busy already.

I do like the beginning of the season... I don't mind the long hours and the tough work... especially on the fun clients. It's a few weeks to a month in when you're sick of long hours, tough work, work on Saturdays, dreaming of work, emails at midnight, getting confused on which client is which because you have about 20 open that you're trying to juggle. That's when it gets to be somewhat of a drag. It generally isn't too bad... even though I know I complain. But if it was absolutely the worst thing in the world, I guess I wouldn't have stayed in this profession for this many years. It is hard, though.

I think in some ways it's harder on the people closest to you... family, friends, kids if you have them (not me!) It's also hard to juggle the everyday life stuff... it's the time of year where you have slight amnesia about everything NOT involving work. Paying bills, reconciling checkbooks, buying groceries, going to the cleaners, cleaning house, doing laundry. It all kind of becomes a last minute thought and gets a bit neglected. I've already sort of started to do this during the course of this week. It only gets really annoying when you wake up one morning a month or so in and realize that you have absolutely zero clothes to wear... nor do you have any toilet paper... nor do you have any pet food... nor have you eaten a meal at home or not on the run in oh, about a month.

Cheers to the next three months... breathe in and GO!

Stupid, stupid cars.

I had to take Winston in to the mechanic Tuesday. I was overdue for an oil change and he has been making a rather obnoxious noise when I shift into first gear. My friend up here has an audi S4 and knows a mechanic who specializes in European cars. He is so in love with his car that I really trust the person he takes it to. So I called this mechanic and took my car in on Tim's day off. It was rather a long haul because the mechanic is all the way up in North Seattle... and slightly in the ghetto, I might add.

Anyway, the dude was really cool. But I get "the" call the next day. Winston got his oil changed. Sweet. He also might have a couple of leaks. Groan. Ok. And he needs a new clutch. GRRROOAAN. How much is that? I'm told that it takes TWELVE hours to put a new clutch into mini coopers (and we called the dealer to verify) so twelve hours at $100 an hour PLUS the parts. Do the math. It's freaking stupid.

I opted not to do the clutch. Stupid, maybe but when we called the dealer to verify the hours, we also got a quote and it was quoted only a few hundred dollars more... for someone who works on minis everyday (not every single European car). So we considered just taking it to the dealer.

Well, we go to pick up Winston with just having had the oil change done and we find out that a) they aren't even sure that he's leaking from those two leaks that we "had to replace" according to them. They tell us when we get there that it's actually pretty hard to tell. There is "just dirt collected on some of the parts that could indicate a potential leak. But at best a slow leak." HUH?! Um, ok. Cool I guess. And we find out that b) The clutch does not have to be replaced at all right now. [Awesome to know after I almost died of a heart attack when I got quoted the entire price and literally looked into whether or not putting $3k into my car right now was even worth it...] Apparently the clutch is not even slipping and they don't even freaking know if the noise is the clutch or not. The only way they would find out is to just spend twelve hours to get in there and at that point they might as well just replace the clutch. But there is nothing to indicate that the clutch is bad or even remotely close to being bad at this point in time. Makes sense, right?

I mean, it was good for me but COME. ON.

THEN, THEN!! This is the part where I really get pissed off and I don't even know why it pisses me off so much. The day after I pick my car up, I'm at the clients getting my computer bag out of my trunk. I notice that instead of my chrome license plate frame, instead I have a f-ing black. license. plate. frame. with the name and number of the stupid ass auto shop I just took Winston to! They. didn't. even. f-ing. ask. But NOW! Now, my car is a freaking driving advertisement to these dumb asses who just slapped it on without even asking me!

I THOUGHT they just put their stupid frame on the back of my car but nope! Tim and I were out to dinner last night and he pointed out that I also have a lovely (aka f-ing piece of shit) stupid dealer advertisement surrounding my front license plate (which happens to be the BMW dealer plate). And I have no clue where my chrome frames went. They just jacked them and put these stupid plastic retarded ones on.

I mean, someone please tell me who f-ing does that!? Without ASKING!? I mean, seriously people, next time don't change how my car looks. Just fix it! Or if you really want me to consider advertising for you, just give me a sticker or something. And not a sticker that you replace my GU alumni sticker with. A sticker that I can take myself and just throw away. Similar to what I would have done if I had been given these stupid frames.

They are so ugly and make Winston look so ghetto that I am worried I am going to get pulled over. Which is not great considering that my tags expire from Arizona in 13 days. And to get the title transferred to WA takes 2 weeks. I'm basically screwed with that whole thing. Not sure why I put that off till the last minute. And no, I am not interested in thinking about how much time I had up here to take care of that because the truth is that I didn't.

Needless to say, first thing on the to-do list is to find a freaking screwdriver, get new frames and take these stupid ugly frames off Winston. And stat. And then I really need to call the Arizona DMV.

And funny thing about the noise he was making that I initially took him in for? He hasn't made it in two days. Cars are just a pain in my ass.

Random quote of the day...

As promised. You know who you are.

"In love there is always madness but within madness there is always reason."

The art of bodywork

Tim's mom is a massage therapist/Bowen practitioner. She has routinely done bodywork on me... She always tells me how much she loves to do it and of course, I happily oblige to let her practice on me.

Mostly she has done Bowen on me which is a form of energy work. I actually really, really love Bowen. I like the whole mind-body connection thing though so it always works really well for me. I don't know that it would always affect people this same way. Not meaning that it wouldn't be effective, but I think that the more intuitive you are, the better it works. It's kind of a more holistic approach to healing the body with the thought that the body is capable of healing itself, especially when it's given movements that redirect energy to allow it to align in the way that it wants to and is supposed to. It's not like massage or acupuncture or any sort of body work that uses pressure or manipulation. It's just gentle, subtle moves that affect your body surprisingly more than any massage I've ever gotten. It's pretty astounding.

The other night instead of Bowen, Liz opted to give me a massage. I will say right now that I like Bowen better but the massage was amazing. I would not say something if I didn't mean it and hands down, it was the best massage I've ever gotten. Along with the massage and Bowen nights always come really good, candid conversations. This night was no different. After finishing a pretty phenomenal dinner (stuffed peppers) I got the benefits of bodywork, Liz got to practice on me for an hour and a half and we had great conversations.

I would highly recommend that anyone having problems with their body- whether it's physical pain or something deeper or even nothing at all- take the time to get some bodywork done. I am truly a believer in taking care of your body from what goes in (nutrition), what is exerted (exercise, yoga), and how you take care of it (bodywork, staying away from artificial things that can harm it, etc). I think that getting a massage, acupuncture, and especially Bowen can really benefit everyone.

A productive Saturday

It's one of my two last free Saturdays before busy season- possibly the last one, given I have an audit starting next week- and I had it all to myself. It has been so much fun... well, at least fun in terms of feeling very productive.

-Woke up.
-Watched CNN for a half an hour just to get my fill of the latest election info as well as economy info since the past two weeks I've been MIA. In between study sessions I barely managed to see the results of the Iowa and New Hampshire caucuses.
-Showered.
-Checked email, responded to emails. Finally.
-Stopped at Starbucks
-Shopping. Had to buy things that I had run out of over the course of the past two weeks but had not had time to run and do. This included groceries, makeup, etc. Kind of essential stuff. I also made a stop to get treats for the kittens. I bought organic treats. Apparently they don't like organic. It was kind of funny but I felt bad.
-Came home and cleaned my whole place. I mean like deep cleaning. It needed it. I love a clean house more than anything.
-Did laundry.
-Organized my whole closet. I have a rather large bag of clothes for goodwill. This took like 3 hours.
-Watched the Seahawks lose to the Packers in between organizing and cleaning.
-Posted on my blog.

And it's now it's 5pm... Time to enjoy the night. Hope everyone had a happy Saturday!

Ah....

I had a very vivid dream last night that I was lying on some beach (Hawaii, maybe? Cali?), in a bikini, soaking up the sun, walking around in flip flops. It was one of those dreams that just kind of sticks with you throughout the next day.

I don't think this was a sign that I need a vacation or anything... the thing that was most prevalent in the dream was how warm and nice the sun felt. I think it needs to be about 80 and sunny here today... I wonder how likely that is.... So far, no sun. And about 50. Probably not going to happen.

Maybe tomorrow? Or maybe I'll just have to keep dreaming... until about July. Unless I make a trip back to Phoenix before then. Hmmm...

Not always wanting to talk about the serious stuff... but here we go.

Yesterday night I found out that one of our friends in college was in a very bad car accident on the way to work, so bad that the last I heard was serious or critical condition. I wasn’t extremely close to this person but the way that things work when you go to a small school or live in a small town is that everyone and everything is relatively close. Graceland is such a tight knit community that you find yourself making connections with people just solely because you experienced Graceland at one point or another, not necessarily because you knew someone while you were AT Graceland. I have already decided after being out of Lamoni for 4 years that I will probably experience this “Graceland connection” thing with people I have never met for the rest of my life. That’s how prevalent it’s been even in just the past 4 years when I’ve lived in places no where even close to Iowa. And while you are at Graceland, you basically know everything about everyone and vice versa. It’s just the nature of a small, closely knit campus and community. It’s actually pretty cool. I could not and would not ever choose to live in a small town again but I am glad for the college experience I had in one.

In these types of communities, news spreads. People are aware. When stuff was going on in my personal life, I was irritated and annoyed by the fact that everyone seemed to KNOW. I got several phone calls of “I heard this…,” “Is it true?” And I would sit there baffled… how does someone in Texas, New York, Iowa, wherever know about very personal details about my life in Arizona?? But, like I said, it’s just the nature.

Needless to say, I did hear relatively quickly about the news of this friend yesterday. I don’t need to go into graphic details here or to say how horrible it is because 1) I don’t think it’s the forum to discuss intricate details and 2) saying how horrible it is would be just redundant and obvious.

I can say that when stuff like this happens… to anyone, in any form… it really makes you think about what’s important in life. That sounds sappy but it is true. I mean how crazy is it to think that one second you’re driving along to work and the next second you are about this close to not ever going to work again? You don’t ever think that anything like this will happen to you or to anyone you know but when it does hit close to home, it’s kind of like someone takes you by the shoulders, shakes you hard and yells in your face, “WAKE UP! LIVE! Life is short! Be aware!” It kind of makes you evaluate or re-evaluate your life just to make sure that every moment you’re living now is the moment that you want it to be and that every person in your life now knows how much they mean to you. It also makes you kind of let go or just realize that some of the small things you sometimes dwell on (ahem, CPA exam) are not really that important in the grand scheme.

In the past two years my life has gone through some significant transformations. I have never really discussed my feelings about anything on this website mainly because the feelings were too raw and too personal to share in a format like this. It just didn’t seem right. Plus, there have been many, many people that have disagreed with my actions and the path that I decided to take. To talk about why I made some of the choices I made here seemed to be just an extended form of an argument with all of these people who either didn’t agree with me, didn’t support me, or flat out thought I was wrong, rude, ignorant, whatever the descriptive words were… and I know there were plenty floating around. Needless to say these people aren’t really in my life anymore. I guess I could use the same descriptions on them but it isn’t really worth my time. It has always amused me, though, that these people, the least supportive and the ones no longer in my life, were also the least invovled and unaware of the situation. They just judged. The people who did support me got me through it and as much as other people don’t want to believe it, it was hard for me and to just say it that simply is the only way I can say it because I can never fully explain to anyone what form of hell it was like in much of the process… for the past two years up through changing my life so drastically to move to Seattle.

There were days I wanted to turn the clock back so far it felt like I would have to go back to second grade to get things right again. At the time, two years ago, I felt like I was fighting for the greater good, without anyone supporting me or understanding that I wasn’t just crazy. I tried to do everything with some form of grace but I know that I failed miserably in that respect. It just doesn’t happen like that. I cannot look back and say that I was always proud of who I was at the time, only that I tried to do everything in a way that was both respectful and graceful. Some people do not understand and to these people I can only say how very sorry I am. I never set out to hurt anyone in the way that I did. I am hopeful that someday it all makes sense and people do not see me for the hurt that I caused but instead that I really was doing what was best for me and what I thought was the best for everyone involved.

The point of all this is that horrible events like what happened to this guy I knew in college do make you evaluate your life. I am a living testament to the fact that if something isn’t working in your life, if something doesn’t feel right or if you are not ultimately happy, you can and you have to do something about it. It is hard. It is still hard for me… two years later. You do live with the decisions you make. But if you make the right ones and learn from the missteps, it’s worth it. Today I live in Seattle. Today I know that making the tough decisions got me here, to a better place, to a place where I feel independent, strong, loved, and most importantly happy. It is not always easy but when you encounter the fact that life really is so short you must make the decisions to get your life to the point that it should be… and now.

There is no excuse to stay in a situation just because that’s what everyone else thinks you should do or it makes sense in a variety of ways except the one most important to you… the one where you feel right about it. Life is too short to just sit around hoping things will happen to you or that things will get better and you’ll just magically start to feel happy. You have to just get out there and make what you want out of your life to enjoy it to its fullest. I did. And I walk around now knowing that it is possible to feel happy, to feel confident in choices, to not feel like there has to be any defense of the decisions made and in that respect, to not really care so much about what other people think because you know deep down you did the best you could, with the choices you made in the circumstances you had. At the end of the day you feel peace about your life and that you are where you are supposed to be. And that’s really what it’s all about.

In the meantime, just say a little prayer, do meditation, chant a mantra, throw some good thoughts out to the universe- whatever you do- to my friend from Graceland across the country. I sincerely hope he will be ok.

I have so much to write about...once I can think again.

I spent the better part of my day today taking the financial accounting part of the CPA exam and the better part of the last two weeks studying for it. Two seconds ago I almost forgot how to spell financial accounting because my brain is so over trying to function at a high capacity. It was so over it that I basically crashed... hard... after the exam today.

Last night at around 11pm when I was getting ready to go to bed after studying for about 15 hours Saturday and at least 8 Sunday and yesterday, it occurred to me that 1)I might try to find a new profession if I don't pass this part of the exam solely because I do not think that I want to give up any more effort and large time periods of my life studying for stuff like debt securities, that honestly, I could care less about. I am an accountant but knowing stuff like that (times about 200 in 400 different subjects) is not. my. job. Why don't the people at the cpa exam get this?! Oh course I will finish (mom). I just hope to god I pass. 2) It also occurred to me that I might be slightly jealous of computers. I mean if I could just download all of this stuff into my brain in about 2 minutes it would be much more time efficient. And I'd never forget it. Hmmm...

I'll write more later.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy last day of 2007 and first day of 2008...

Quote of the day today, explaining my first day of 2008: "What? I only drove head on into traffic for a little bit."

Happy holidays! (And Happy Birthday, Dad)!

This entry is wishing everyone a very merry christmas and a happy new year... and a happy birthday to my dad (today!)

Here, there and everywhere.

I spent last week in Anchorage, Alaska. It's kind of bizarre that I was up there this week because it was the exact same week I was up there last year. But this year I was up for an entirely different reason than last year. I live in a different place, I work for a different company, I know different people. I think last year if I had known what the future year from that point held, I might not have ever wanted to leave Alaska and just hibernated there for a while. But, then again, maybe I am lying because if I would have hid out in Alaska, although I would have missed the bad, I would have completely missed the good and there was so much good in this past year.

My time in Alaska this year was rather uneventful and mostly involved me working rather hard, freezing my freaking butt off in almost zero degree temps (walking outside looking at projects for 6 hours does not help the freezing factor), seeing old friends, and becoming closer to new friends that were working with me up there. I remained amazed at the purity that Alaska has to offer. Every time I have visited, I feel some sort of serenity. It is so pure and beautiful and has some sort of pristine grace that is hard to find in many other places...even in the winter when it is only light out for 5 hours a day.

The night I flew in from Alaska, I had a bottle of my favorite pinot noir, fresh salmon and basil pasta, and fresh green beans waiting for me at home. Who can really complain about that? Granted it was 10:30 at night when I walked in the door but it was amazing, nonetheless, and exactly what I needed after a long week of work.

Saturday morning, we were off and running again back to the airport to catch a flight to Reno, NV. Reno is not pristine or pure or beautiful. Sorry if that offends anyone but I just don't really love that city. I do love Tahoe though and it did not disappoint this time, either. We stayed in a cabin in the north lake and drove to south lake for dinner and a concert the first night. I ended up dancing on stage at the concert. Basically, we were in the front row and the crowd was so energetic that I was getting pushed all over. So I got to go up onstage and dance. It was so much fun... and definitely not something I can say I've ever done before especially with anyone remotely famous.

Sunday morning, we, er, Tim, ended up saving some kids life. It's so funny how timing works out. People always say that you end up in the right place at the right time and I have to believe this happens more often than not. That morning we took our time getting moving and decided to go out for breakfast sometime around mid morning. Driving down from the cabin, we saw the lake in all its glory and decided abruptly to alter our plans to go take pictures. When we arrived at the shore we saw two people on the ground. We weren't sure what was going on and realized that one of them was having a seizure. To make a long story short, this 18 year old kid from Brazil fell and hit his head on ice, hard enough to have seizures for 3 minutes, to lose consciousness, to become unresponsive, etc. Tim had to open up his airway and stabilize him while I sprinted to call 911 to get medics with drugs/tools on the scene. It is just so astounding to think that we were there because the guys' friend did not have a cell phone on him and there was absolutely no one else around. Things like this make me believe that every action happens in the exact right moment, in the way that it's supposed to. If we had been there either 30 seconds before or after we were (or not at all) the outcome could have been very different. We, er, I was pretty shaken up for the rest of the day Sunday as I don't really have to deal with that kind of stuff very often... well, ever.

The rest of the weekend in Tahoe was spent exploring, shopping a bit, playing in the snow, eating, drinking, warming up in front of the fire and just enjoying each other's company in the woods... finally having a few days to relax, recoop, and reenergize.

>

The guy on the left is named "Roadkill." Literally. I kid you not. I checked his ID. He was absolutely hilarious. I work with the guy on my right. He's ok too.

My alaskan friend and I... DJ James! We met a year ago when I was in Alaska. He's a very cool guy.

After dancing on stage at the concert. Hopefully the guy doesn't remember me for either how sweaty I was in this picture or for my dancing. Although Tim says I was awesome. I'm not sure I believe him.

Timmy and I at the beautiful lake... on the southwest side at Emerald Bay.

Freezing. And windy. But so snowy and pretty.

Are there any words?

And again. Picturesque.

Santa, baby! We stopped at a fire station in south lake tahoe that was hosting a santa booth thing. We actually stopped because a) they had a fire engine completely decked out in Christmas lights and we wanted a picture and b) we needed advice on where to eat. Turns out we got to sit on Santa's lap as an added bonus.

Cute little wooded cabin.

SNOW!

50% done.

Just found out I passed the second section of the CPA exam that I took up here in Washington. So far, two for two up here. Ah, how sweet it is... I'm finally starting to see the finish line. It's definitely nice to put in the time studying and to just pass the first time around. I don't know why I didn't get around to really doing this before... like four years ago. Anyway, now I'm just waiting on one score, and I take the final section January 8.

I have lots to update on... I just got back from 5 days in Alaska followed by 4 days in Tahoe, Cali. Will write more later...

OH.MAN.

Sometimes I am so retarded. I'm going to share this story because I am still laughing about it.

I've said it before and I will say it again- being an accountant is dangerous. So, the other day I was at my clients. We are in a conference room with tile floors, wood chairs, and it's all encased in glass. So it's pretty much like we're in a fish bowl.

Well, being the smooth person I am, on this particular day, I decided to reach over to my left side to get something out of my purse. This proved to be a very bad decision. Instead of achieving success in getting whatever it was I was trying to get, I basically managed to put on a show for the whole office. It went something like this:

Girl auditor reaches over in her chair. It's too MUCH of a stretch and wood chair on tile doesn't stay stable. Wood chair flies out from underneath girl auditor, girl goes flying in the opposite direction of the chair. Not only that but girl and chair manage to pull down everything on the table on top of girl. Including laptops, notebooks, papers, calculators. [Luckily no drinks fell. That would have been TOTALLY disastrous.] Being that there were multiple large items falling there was quite a bit of noise so people came to look at the ruckus and the girl auditor splayed out in the fishbowl with a barrage of laptops and paper on top of her. People laughed. Hard.

The worst was the first guy who was so red from trying NOT to laugh I thought that he could give himself a hernia. I mean, for. the. love. of. god. I just made a total ass out of myself. Don't pretend like I'm not a total dumbass. Just laugh with me.

Busier and busier...

This week started off with my three hour flight back to Seattle after almost a week in Kansas City for Thanksgiving. My week in Kansas City was splendid (I actually don't think I've ever used that word before... but it's fitting, nonetheless). I was happy to be home and to see my parents, brother, and family who were in from other parts of the country. I also got to see a few old friends, too, which is always a huge bonus.

It was the first trip in a long time where I didn't feel like I was rushed and was in and out of there, seemingly without blinking. We ate and ate and ate... and then ate some more. We did the same in terms of shopping. I'm having trouble getting started on my Christmas shopping because I am tired of shopping after last week. I never thought I'd say that. Like ever.

I was also able to go out with my brother and his friends to Westport in KC- a place that I haven't been on a Saturday night in oh, um, years? We had a tasty dinner at the Jerusalem cafe (an old fave) and then spent the rest of the night hanging at Harry's. I do have to say that I am surprised that people can smoke in bars in KC. I guess I'm just spoiled by the northwest. It was a good time though and so fun to hang with such cool people for a night.

I restricted myself from taking my computer to Kansas City so that I would be completely free from studying or working. If my computer was there, I just would have felt guilty but I didn't WANT to study or work so this was a much better alternative. I'm glad that I took several days away from working/studying because on Monday I hit the ground running at work. I was at a client all week and then in the office at night a couple of nights this week. Apparently busy season here starts, um, November 26?! For the next three weeks, I'm busy out at clients doing year end planning/interim work. One of the weeks involves a trip to Alaska for one of our clients. It's actually the same exact week I was up there last year which is weird. But I'm glad to be going back... it's beautiful up there.

When I get back from that late on a Friday night, I turn right around and head off to Tahoe for a long weekend with Tim the next day (which is subsequently both his birthday and the day that I met him a year ago). We are taking the short trip to have a few days off together to a)celebrate birthdays/anniversaries b) spend time quality time together which we don't seem to get much of anymore with the craziness of both of our lives and c)relax for one last time before I lose my life officially in January. Literally. I do not exaggerate. I am not taking any time off for Christmas basically because I can't.

And then, somehow it's 2008. How did that happen? It's so cliche but I swear to god, I don't know how every year goes by so much faster.

Reflections

This whole weekend was spent cramming for the next section of the CPA exam- the business section- that I take, um, yep, tomorrow at 11am. Tim was working all weekend saving people's lives or something important like that and when he came home he asked me how my weekend was and I looked at him all like, I have no clue how to understand anything right now that doesn't involve the 500 pages of business shit I've been attempting to cram into my brain. Oh, and as a side note, it's like freaking all four years of college crammed into 500 pages. College that happened, oh, 5 years ago. And since then I've been doing public ACCOUNTING. Nothing related to this crap. I feel like I should have my MBA after this torture.

Enough complaining. It will be over tomorrow at this time.

Whoever wants to be critical right now and say that I should be studying can just take a seat. I do not think studying anymore would be effective. Enough hours are into it... Including about 30 over the course of the last few days. If I don't know it by now, I won't learn it in the next hour.

I think the difference this year is that I actually want this now. Last year I didn't know what I wanted but putting all of about 10 hours into studying for this exam leads me to believe that I probably didn't really care a whole lot. I guess that kind of happens when your life is all disheveled, though. Everything else kind of loses its importance until the pieces get put back into place.

I have to say, I've learned so much in this past year... not the least of which include finally finding a place where my life really is in order. The choices and decisions I made getting here were not always easy but sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest. Through it all I've finally found a place where life just seems to work. I know who my true friends are and I am so grateful for them. I've learned that it is possible to have best friends as a people you've been to hell and back with and that to keep those friendships speaks volumes about the character of the person as well as the relationship to begin with. I've also learned that there are some people who are shallow and fake and only see the reality they want to see. I've seen the strength and love of my family in action. I've met some new wonderful people that fulfill me and teach me things that make me want to be a better person. Most importantly, I found someone who shows me what this world is all about. He gives me hope for the future, strength in the present, and love to know that regardless of anything else in life, that will remain.

Funny how a little business and CPA exam can put so much into perspective and cause so many reflections about life. If only I was tested on that and not business crap... but I guess life really is just one huge test... And if you come out knowing you did the best you can, you pass.

That time of year

Today the holiday season officially started for me. I was surprised last weekend when I went to the mall and saw red and green all over the place. I was shocked when I was out running on November 1 and saw a Christmas tree in the window of someone's house. But I kind of chalked it up to overzealous marketers and crazy people who are just trying to force the holidays to come earlier and earlier every year. I mean, seriously, I still can't get my head around the fact that Halloween has already passed, it can't be almost the holiday season! I don't know where time goes...

But today, marks the beginning of the holiday season for me. When I went to Starbucks, the drink of the day was a peppermint mocha. The store was decorated in red and green with candy cane cups. There was Christmas music playing. And most importantly, the cups were the red holiday cheer cups and they put red sprinkles on my drink.

I don't know why but those red cups just do it for me. They make me happy and all warm inside... and apparently they jolt me back to reality and tell me that the holiday season IS right around the corner.

I'm not going to start to listen to the music just yet or put up a tree. I'm just going to let myself be a little bit excited about red cups and sprinkles and peppermint mochas and knowing that the holidays really ARE that close.

Restricted from ranting

Although I just spent an hour or so at happy hour with a bunch of my co-workers ranting about my day today, I still wish I could rant more. And I wish I could in this forum. Unfortunately I can't.

I can say that I freaking hate stupid people, in particular stupid clients. I also hate office politics.

On the plus side, the senior manager I've been working with directly and I are probably a lot closer after today as our days were basically identical. And because I failed the parallel parking part of my drivers test. I was headed to happy hour and noticed this manager of mine holding a spot on the street for me to park, but after attempting to parallel park Winston, he had to do it for me...thus stopping traffic and acting like gumby getting into little Winston. My senior manager is like 6'6" or something crazy like that and I don't think he moved the seat back to move my car. People were staring. And laughing. I was dying. That humorous end to a crazy day coupled with happy hour with a great group of people made the events of the day much more tolerable.

Interesting day at the office

So I'm at work and right now one of my co-workers is trying to pull out my other co-workers hair. I think he is annoyed. She is just, um, maybe slightly immature? I mean I did that in 2nd grade. I'm not really sure what the point of it is because as far as I can tell nothing is wrong with his hair. They are both fairly new staff people and he is more new than she is so maybe it's some weird form of new staff initiation.

Almost Famous

I spent the weekend away from Seattle and on my way back to Seattle this morning I was approached by a reporter at the airport who asked if I had a few minutes. I said, sure and the next thing I knew there was massive lights and camera action. She started asking me all about my travel plans and spent about 5 minutes talking to me about various items regarding my trip.

Apparently tomorrow I'm going to be on TV.

I've never been on TV before. 25 has been an exciting year.

It's just too bad it was 6am and I was practically incoherent from lack of sleep (about three hours to be exact). But at least I had gotten up and taken a shower thanks to the fact that I was headed straight to work after getting off the plane. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure the camera lady would have avoided me.

October 15...

I have never been more happy to have October 15 behind me as I am this year. It marks the end of our pension auditing season and for whatever reason, this year it seemed as if every.single. client was just trying to be as difficult as possible which in turn made last week challenging, at best.

I had to cancel three dentists appointments as a result in the past three weeks and finally was able to make it in today. Can't really say that I'm glad I finally made it. I freaking hate the dentist. I had to get a crown for the root canal I had about a month ago. I thought that the root canal was supposed to make the root die. Well, to anyone that knows anything about dentistry, I would love to know why the crown freaking. HURT?!

Seattle is due for a huge wind/rain storm today equivalent to the one on December 14 last year (the day before I flew into town from Anchorage and met Tim). That one knocked out power for two weeks for some people and it was NASTY around here (I can testify to that...) Today the remnants of some tropical cyclone are headed over... and it is not looking pretty out there right now. I kind of wouldn't complain if all of the power was knocked out here and everyone just had to go home.

Although maybe it doesn't really matter. Basically I have no life for the next couple of weeks. I pretty much have to study my ass off since I take the tax/law part of the CPA exam in, uh, 13 days and just started studying about 2 days ago...