Tax Research

As I was flipping through the newspaper the other morning, I noticed a headline that would catch any accountants' eye regardless of whether we are in the practice of audit or tax. It read: "Sex changes as a tax break."

Hmm.

Interesting.

The world of accounting gets more exciting every day.

Perplexed

Seen today on a sign today at the post office:

It is illegal to mail ammunition, gunpowder, firecrackers, and nail polish remover.

Wait.

What?

Nail polish remover?!

I guess I don't get how that fits into the list of hazardous items. And really? Who sends nail polish remover anyway? Isn't it like $1 at Target?I guess there goes any idea I ever had of sending huge presents of nail polish remover to anyone. Because I would LOVE to have that as a gift. Giant, giant boxes of it.

So seriously, I get the liquid thing but why just distinguish nail polish remover and not like rubbing alcohol or something of the sort? Literally all they had on the sign was what was listed above.

Maybe I will think about it. Maybe I just don't know how threatening nail polish remover can really be.

Weekend recap

I love those weekends that seem to drag on forever even though they are just as short as all of the rest of them. This weekend was one of THOSE weekends. The weekends where on Monday you wake up feeling somewhat ready to go back to work instead of wanting to throw the alarm clock against the wall. And if there is seriously someone out there that doesn’t ever wake up on a Monday morning with the thought of “Oh man, I just don’t want to go to work,” then I want to meet you. Because I like my job a lot. But sometimes I just want it to be Saturday every day. Especially on Monday mornings at 5:30am. But today, I felt somewhat ready to go back to work, to start a new week. We had one of those weekends. The vacation weekends. The weekend that didn’t seem to be gone in two seconds. And by the way, does anyone have an explanation for this? I swear, I have no idea why some weekends seem to fly by and some don't. There is no consistency.

Friday I left work early and we headed to Madison beach park on Lake Washington. It’s on the west side of the lake (we live on the east) but it’s fun because it has a whole view of the east side and it has diving boards smack dab in the middle of the lake that you have to swim to and then dive from. It’s also a crowd full of diverse young people. I have to say I am somewhat of an Arizona wimp still and the water was a bit chilly for me by the time we got out there Friday, so I just basked in the sun and people watched. It was priceless. I could have lived without seeing as what I will refer to as the thong girl. To give more details would just be inappropriate.

After we left Madison beach around 7, we took a tour of Seattle… through the Capitol Hill District, to Broadway, through downtown, to the Queen Anne District, along the water front and then over the bridge to west Seattle where we stopped at Alki beach, one of our favorite places that we visited a few months ago. It is in west Seattle and the beach is the Puget sound, which is an inlet of the ocean. So from there you can see the mountains to the west, Seattle to the east and the ocean stretched out everywhere in between. It is breathtaking. When we got there on Friday night, it was still absolutely gorgeous out so we watched the sunset there (which, by the way, the sun doesn’t set here until like 9:30pm in the summer!) and then ate at the cutest little restaurant, Bamboo something. It was outstanding. Words don’t do it justice. We had the best time.

Saturday we got up, made a breakfast of champions (that would be eggs-chock full of protein), played with the kittens and then meandered our way to the river, which is east of where we live. We wanted to go back to Madison but the bridge across the lake was closed this weekend effective Friday at 11pm which kind of hampered our plans. (Btw, road closures on weekends? One of my biggest pet peeves. And one Phoenix was notorious for). We had heard about this river place so we decided to give it a try and it was amazing. We were told about a hike that leads down to a sandy beach part of the river so we hiked it and we camped on the sand and swam in the river all day. We were literally the only people there all freaking day and the river was absolutely crystal clear. We reluctantly had to leave in the early evening to make it to a friends house by 9 but not before stopping to eat yummy Thai food. The rest of the night was spent was friends and where can you go wrong with that?

Yesterday we got up and did tons and tons of house chores-including laundry, washing cars, all of the boring adult stuff- before finally deciding that it was still so hot out and making the decision to go lay by the water… again. We went to a beach just about 7 miles up the road from where we live and laid by the water and studied for a couple of hours. Then we came home, made dinner together (a la chicken pasta stuff and a huge, green salad), and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

I could not have asked for a better weekend. Seattle is outstanding in the summer. I am a little scared for October to hit (and the rain to commence) but that’s why I have friends in Phoenix! And anyone who wants to get out of the heat down there now, the invite is always open. Now, I am just back at work, counting down the minutes until next weekend… After this weekend, I am thinking I might have been a beach bum in another life. I absolutely love sandy, warm days lying in the water or around the water and playing by the water more than anything.

An excessive heat warning...

In Seattle?

Today it was 95, tomorrow high of 94.

Yay for it feeling like Phoenix! Minus the fact that in Phoenx right now it's 120.

Kansas vs. Missouri

Over the past month since I’ve been in Washington (and even when I was in Phoenix), people always ask me where I am from. I tell them Kansas City and they then ask, “Oh, well aren’t there two of those? Are you from Kansas or Missouri?” So we have this whole conversation about the confusion of the fact that there certainly are two Kansas Cities but I am from the MISSOURI side.

But it never fails, there is not a single person who asks me when I am going back to Kansas or what it was like growing up in Kansas or is there any civilization in Kansas where you grew up?

Maybe if I were actually from KANSAS I could say that I grew up in the middle of a hayfield, wearing overalls, chewing straw, and tipping cows. IF I was from Kansas.

Hello!? We talked for freaking hours about how I am from Missouri. I do not get why that is so hard to comprehend for every.single.person. I meet but it really baffles me. Next time I talk to someone that grew up here in Washington, I am going to make a point of later asking what it was like growing up in Oregon.

Ok, that’s stupid.

Whatever, it still annoys me. And to correct anyone that says Kansas instead of Missouri would go back to the whole “aren’t there two Kansas Cities” conversation which would still lead to them STILL thinking I’m from Kansas. So I just let them say Kansas and secretly wonder why the hell they don’t get it. I don’t know why there is this weird issue with Missouri/Kansas people. I can’t really say that one is better than the other. It’s all the Midwest. I mean, really, does it matter? To most people the Midwest is all one big blob. Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin... it's all the same. But even friends that I have that grew up in Kansas are absolutely adamant that they are from KANSAS. Maybe this whole Kansas/Missouri thing is some weird Midwest trait… although I’ve never noticed it in any Iowa or Nebraska people I’ve known. But maybe it's like how Wisconsin people call ATM machines "time machines." Hmm… well, it is what it is. And that means that I am from Missouri. Not freaking Kansas.

The Hair Memo

So here’s the deal on the hair: as noted in previous posts, before I left Phoenix, I went in to get my pretty brown color touched up and we.went.black. BLACK. Unintentionally, not to my knowledge BLACK. Maybe this word when talking about hair is not alarming to everyone but as someone who is naturally blonde and has always been blonde, just the thought of black hair kind of tripped me out. I never did the blacked out gig in high school so looking in the mirror after getting all of my poor hairs turned to black, I was nothing SHORT of alarmed. This may sound vain-in the same note as the missing eyelash post- but I walked around as someone who looked a little goth freakish for several weeks so I think that vanity in this case is excusable.

I always knew my hair lady in Phoenix was a little crazy. I can’t really seem to explain why other than she always talked about herself and her ailments, and referred to everyone I talked to as astrological signs. “Oh, how’s that Scorpio doing?” She only drives a radius of 2 miles and won’t go farther- even if its by boat, plane, bicycle, whatever. And the biggest flaw in her is that she blamed ME for my hair turning black because I didn't tell her it was going to be "that time of the month" soon... like a week AFTER I had my hair done. In that case, isn't it kind of always going to be that time of the month soon for women? It was insane. And this whole situation is comical in the fact that she always makes herself out to be a perfectionist (and tells all of her clients this about 500 times per visit). Anyway, she always HAD done a decent job on my hair and was reasonably priced. So I stuck with her. Hair people are excruciatingly hard to find. If girls were to develop 10 facts of life that never change, this would make the list. That being said, the effort it would’ve taken to find a new person was just not worth it to me. So I stuck with my lady knowing that she was slightly insane.

But capable of giving me black hair?? Seriously? And not realizing how retarded it looked? Oh that's right. She's a perfectionist and I am the retarded one because at one point or another during the month, I would be on my period. Silly me, I can't believe I forgot to tell my hairdresser that. Next time I go to get my hair done, I'll bring my medical charts, thanks for giving me the heads up on needing to do that.

Within 3 days of arriving in Washington, I already had an appointment made with William- Tim’s sisters and mom’s hairdresser for many years. He is a very eccentric man, so I was thrilled just to meet him after all of the stories I’d heard. When I walked in there, the first thing he said to me after giving me a huge bear hug was “What in the hell happened to your hair, girl?”

Um, yeah. It was that bad.

He still wonders how a hairdresser could have let me walk out of her salon with a) black hair and b) what he says was a terrible hair cut. Like I knew THAT. It wasn’t ideal but it didn’t seem like that bad of a cut.

Oh, and for the record, he has been doing this for 20 years and he says that apparently I don't need to disclose my menstrual cycle (and "he frankly doesn't want to hear about it.") That's good because I'm pretty sure that tracking down my medical records just to get my hair dyed could be quite the bitch.

Anyway, I spent FOUR HOURS in the salon with him that day getting my hair slightly back to normal. It look about three hours of leaving bleach on to get the horrendous black color lifted out. Then I was carrot top again. He then applied an ash blonde color to tone down the red so now it is a soft redish blonde. I went back about a week later to get a few more highlights in to make it even less red than it initially was (not many because he’s scared my hair is so fragile now that it will all fall out- now THAT would be a good post). He also cut my bottom layer up to the layer above it. The bottom layer was very stringy and I thought it kind of looked ridiculous. He confirmed it. So now my hair is short- above my shoulders in a very cute bob cute that I absolutely adore. It makes my hair look so much more thick and full. Now I just need the color to get back to normal. William says he just can’t wait for it to grow out a bit because he has no idea what my natural color even is. At this point, neither do I. But as I see it, now I officially know what it is like to have each color of hair in the hair color spectrum. I guess that’s like accomplishing a life goal or something. Or it at least makes me more in tune to knowing what hair color I actually love, and more importantly, what color actually fits me.

Pictures, as promised

The trip began on the night of May 30, 2007. I picked Tim up from the airport at around 10pm, cried as I was leaving Phoenix and we made our way to Palm Desert, California and finally arrived there at around 2:30 a.m. on May 31st. When we got to the hotel, we were finished with the most unpleasant part of the whole drive. We were completely wiped. We got up the following morning at 7am and headed to his grandma's house in Palm Desert for a quick visit. Shortly after, we headed straight towards the ocean. We stopped in Newport Beach and soaked up the sun for a few hours until we realized that we were most likely getting burned (we definitely did). Then we headed down to Laguna Beach and walked around, shopped, grabbed a couple beachy drinks and some food and then made our way back up to Huntington Beach where we ultimately stayed that night. In Huntington, we ate at one of my favorite beach restaurants- Dukes. Our hotel was right on the beach so it was nice to walk to the restaurant, around the pier and then to our hotel.



We crashed into bed early that night since we'd only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before. We were up early the next morning though (June 1) and went walking some more around Huntington. We stopped first at one of the regular breakfast places of our trip- Jamba Juice. As a side note, before I went to Jamba several times on the trip, I had forgotten just how much I love Jamba. I will never forget again. We spent the morning walking around Huntington and a little market going on down there and then headed up the pacific coast. This day of driving was absolutely breathtaking. We went through beach towns in SoCal and then once we got to central California we went through Big Sur and saw some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We took a lot of time and pictures on the drive that day. We ended up stopping in Monterey, CA that night and stayed at the Marriott in town. We walked around downtown Monterey once we got in and discovered the cutest little Japanese/sushi restaurant ever. It was absolutely delightful.



The next day (June 2) after another stop at Jamba for breakfast, we continued up the coast and straight into San Fransisco. We stayed in San Fran for several hours, stopping mainly at Fisherman's Wharf, Gheredelli Square and the best little Italian restaurant. As a sidenote, it was FREEZING in San Fran. I absolutely adore that city though. So much fun. I haven't been back there for a long time. As soon as we crossed the golden gate bridge and headed towards Sausalito, the fog lifted and the temperature increased by about 20 degrees. Maybe that was normal but it seemed bizarre to me.



We continued up the coast and got into wine country. As a pretty avid wine drinker, I was absolutely fascinated. Tim was too and he is not huge on wine. These vineyards were amazing- they went on and on forever for miles- over the mountains, up the coast, etc. It was unbelievable. After the vineyards, we started to get into the forest part of our drive. We found a giant tree park with a huge redwood you can drive through (see pictures below). We stopped in Eureka, CA right before we got to the Redwood national forest.



We ended up walking out of a restaurant for the second night in a row (we did this in Monterey too before we found the Japanese place) and we stumbled upon the best bar ever. The food was amazing and it was such a cool vibe. There was a giant stuffed spider over the door that moved every time the door open. It was such a trip and it was a small town so everyone was so friendly.It was crazy too because once I got back to Seattle, I found a glass in some store with the name of the bar on it from freaking Eureka, CA. Of course I bought it.



The next day (June 3) we continued up north and straight into the Redwood forest. The redwoods are just astounding. I don't even know what else to say. I was just in awe. We continued up north and into Oregon and I have to say that the transition from huge trees to ocean with huge rocks in it is a little bit beyond comprehension. It is so beautiful but so unreal. After about two hours up the Oregon coast, the drive was mostly forest until we got to Coos Bay, Oregon where there are huge sand dunes. Tim actually goes down to Coos for vacation quite frequently so he showed me all his vacation haunts, including a stop for the largest apple turnovers I have ever seen in my life. We continued up the coast because we wanted to make it to the Sea Lion caves. We got there 5 minutes before it closed and it was worth it! There were about 400 sea lions that we saw (literally). They were all over the coast. You can look at them outside and you can also take an elevator down 200 feet to an actual cave to look at them. It was pretty cool. After that, we ended our coastal part of the trip and cut inland to hit the 5 freeway and head towards Portland.



Tim has a sister that lives in Portland so we called her to see where we should stay. We ended up staying at the coolest hotel of our whole trip. It was called the Jupiter hotel and it was so trendy. Each room is different and the scene there was really cool. The restaurant was fabulous... so much so that we ate dinner there by ourselves and then had breakfast the next day there with Tim's sister and her boyfriend. We spent that next day (June 4) shopping around Portland's Pearl district and the district that is on 23rd avenue (I forget what it is called). Portland is such a cool city. I've been there once before but this time I really loved it. At around 5 pm we left Portland and headed for home. Around 7pm, we pulled into Kirkland, WA. My new home.



It was a crazy ride and such a fun adventure. I couldn't have asked for a more fun and amazing vacation. But when I pulled into Kirkland the real adventure started- the beginning of my life here. I'll keep you updated on how everything is going, but for now- pictures to document the trip.




Beautiful central California coastline. June 1, 2007.

Timmy and I in Central Cal. Notice the black hair. Ugh. More to come on hair updates in a later post (as a sidenote, right now it is RED. Yes, we are back to red. And it is short. I better not start taking about hair. But I will post about it soon).

Me on the central cal coast. Hella myspace picture.

Tim at Gheredelli Square in San Fran. June 2, 2007.

The wine country in Northern Cal.

Beautiful forests.

Winston fit through the 2400 year old tree!

Climbing through gigantic trees!

Absolutely breathtaking. I was facing this, the ocean was at my back. June 3, 2007- southern Oregon coastline.

Oregon beaches are filled with huge rocks in the ocean!



More huge rocks in the water.

Pretty southern Oregon coastline.

At the sea lion caves. We were actually in the caves at this point.

Look at all of those guys!

There were soo many! And they were cute.

Tim as a seal. He's pretty cute too.

Portland, Oregon. June 4, 2007. Outside of our hotel.

Headed towards the Pearl District in Oregon to do some damage while shopping.

And the final destination. It's been a journey. But now, I am home.

Written as a resident of Washington

It's official: I'm here. As of about 7pm last Monday night.


Just so everyone knows that 1) I am alive 2) I am in Washington and 3) The trip up was absolutely phenomenal. I am so excited about my life here.

More to follow once I am more moved in and can find my camera gear to post pics. I think they do a better job explaining than I do.

Moving Day

9 1/2- hours left in Phoenix as a resident.

7 approximate hours I cried yesterday. Not so bizarre considering how many good friends I have here and how many memories I made here.

0 hours cried today (but I still have 9 hours here... give it some time).

2 hours yesterday spent at my hair lady's salon where my hair was subsequently died BLACK. BLACK, PEOPLE! Do you realize I have gone from blonde, to red, to brown and now to black? What is freaking going on?? And now I look like a freakin emo girl... I feel like I should paint my nails black, wear all black and put pink tips on the end of my hair to really fill the part.

0 hours spent at my hair lady's salon today. But don't worry that will change- I have an appointment in a half an hour to attempt to get it back to brown. Cross your fingers that it doesn't turn to red again.

5 number of days I have been without a clump of my eyelashes. Black hair and missing chunks of eyelashes go GREAT together. I look awesome.

24 hour road trip ahead of us- if we were driving straight through

1-the highway number we will be taking all the way up the California coast.

I start my move to Washington today. TODAY.

Um, holy freaking SHIT. Seriously.

Update: Spent two hours at the hair lady's salon today. I think it is now a nice shade of brown. She had to put BLONDE on it to get it to go lighter if that is any indication of just how black it was. And then, the craziest part- it was MY fault. I didn't tell her if "that time of the month was close or not." Because apparently 1) I am supposed to tell my f-ing hairdresser if I am on my period and 2) if it is close to that time of the month (which, granted, it is-sorry if that is too much information) then hair takes color a lot stronger. That is the stupidest thing I have honestly ever heard in my life. Because my period is a few days away, my hair turned black. That is ridiculous. Does anyone know if there is validity to this?

And still no crying. Whoo hoo! On a roll!! Now time to pack. Only 6 more hours.

Freaking Vanity

So yesterday morning, I'm getting ready for my (last!) day of work. Everything is going normally... I stumble out of bed and into the shower, put lotion on, brush out my hair, put clothes on, start the process of makeup.

I'm almost done with the makeup part of my routine and I'm finishing it up with curling my eyelashes. Now, I have to say, I've been intrigued with the damn eyelash curler since I was in about 5th grade. At first it was just a fascination with this crazy looking thing. It was like some funky medical tool that somehow was supposed to make me look prettier. And the craziest thing was that somehow this thing went by your eyes! Woah. 8 years later in high school, I finally caught on to what it was supposed to really do. I perfected the art of curling and it has been full on love ever since. Without curling, my eyelashes are long but they stick straight out. Trust me when I say it is not hot. Since I picked up the thing in 5th grade, my mom has always warned me about it and her experience of one time managing to pull out all of her eyelashes with the stupid thing. I didn't really pay attention because I've never pulled any eyelashes out.

Well, I'm not exactly sure what happened yesterday morning, but something made me jump while I was curling my eyelashes and GUESS.WHAT.FREAKING.HAPPENED!?

Yeah.

A chunk of my eyelashes fell out. I am now eyelash-less in the middle of my left eye. Big clump. Missing.

I googled eyelash growth and I am happy to report that it takes FOUR to EIGHT weeks for eyelashes to grow back. Ugh. Hello, fake eyelashes!

I hate it when my mom turns out to be right... even if it is 15 years later. But, mom, as an FYI, I still refuse to give up curling my eyelashes. Yes, I am that stubborn. I am dad's daughter, remember?! I just need to make sure going forward that, when performing the curling process, I am in a secure, soundproof location so that nothing can cause me to make sudden movements which in turn causes the poor little eyelashes to rip out which subsequently causes me to either 1) look like a freak show or 2) Have daily fights with fake eyelash glue. For four to eight weeks. Awesome.

Changes are a'brewin...

Last weekend my Seattle man flew in to help me move. We got the moving truck early Sunday morning, packed up my stuff, and he was on the road by himself-with all of my stuff- by 2pm that same day. [And, as a side note, he then drove the next 25 hours straight up to Seattle. Yes, I just gave an example of craziness in its finest form. But, I must also mention that it was the sweetest thing ever because now 1) My stuff is up in WA 2) My stuff is unpacked 3) Now we can travel up the beautiful coast of California and Oregon over the course of 4-5 days starting May 31 without worrying about being in a huge truck that is towing my car. I am a lucky girl. ]

After we got the moving truck, I led us home so that we could start loading the truck. The most bizarre thing happened: I started crying and I'm pretty sure I only stopped for a few brief periods throughout the day until I went to bed Sunday night. It was completely unrelated to hormones and more related to the fact that all of a sudden all of THIS- these huge, huge life changes- was reality, as evidenced by the mostly empty house. I was crying but I was both happy and sad. Sad to be leaving this place, happy to be going to a new place. Sad for some of the changes that occurred while I as in Phoenix, happy for the people that I've met and who I am today.

Tomorrow is my last day at work in Phoenix and I'm feeling sort of the same way. Happy and sad and it's unclear which emotion is more dominant. I'm mostly happy but still sad to be leaving the place that is familiar to me, the place that I know. Regardless of how exciting and fun it is to go to a new place, it is always somewhat intimidating to start over completely from scratch.

But next week, on Wednesday night, I will be driving west on the 10 and out of this place that is home to me, on my way to another place that will become home to me over time. It's a strange. That's really all I need to say is it is just flat out strange. Almost incomprehensible. It's so funny how things do or don't work out. And many people may not understand me or agree with decisions I've made in my life-particularly in the past few years, but the thing is that the future works out in a way that is perfect. Now is the future of my past and things have fallen into place in a way that I never in a million years would have expected but looking back I know I will say without a shadow of a doubt that it couldn't have worked out more perfectly. I am happy and I am at a place where I feel is right, where I am content.

The one thing that I am a firm believer of is that with anything in life, all you need is love- love for your work, your family, your spouse, yourself. You need a love and passion for all things- the kind of feeling that creates joy, that completes you, that makes you feel whole. It's a joy and a feeling that can never be asked to be anything more than it is and you know when you find it. The paradox is that what it is, is beyond imagining- it is real, true, and more powerful than anything else that exists in this world. I have never felt so sure of anything in my life and know that I am on my way to getting to this place of complete, utter joy. It doesn't mean that I am not sad to be leaving here (I most definitely am-I know I will cry even more in the next few days) but it means that I know that even though I don't know exactly what the future will be like in the place where I am going, I am making the decision that's right for me at this time in my life, and as a result, the future will work itself out in a way that is undeniably perfect.

From the city of transience to the city of rain?

Although by now most people are fully aware of what's going on in my life, for those who are unaware, I am moving to Seattle, WA at the end of this month. May 31 to be exact. As much as I have loved Phoenix, it has never felt permanent especially given the events that have gone down in my personal life, starting pretty immediately following my arrival to this city. Most people don't find roots in Phoenix and mostly everyone you meet along the way is from the Midwest, from the northwest, from Cali... anywhere but from here. And generally people come for a while, or they have vacation homes here, and then they leave. It really is the city of transience.

Seattle, to me, feels more like home. Maybe it's because everything surrounding my decision to move to Seattle has just fallen into place without any additional effort. Or maybe it reminds me of the Midwest- at least in respect to the green surroundings and friendly people who have lived there for more than a year. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but I feel home there. I also met a boy there, upon my return trip from Alaska. As much as I have wanted to discuss this for the past 6 months, I couldn't due to the fact that some other personal issues were not finalized. They are now. To try to describe how I feel about this person would not do my true feelings justice. I'm sure there will be more to come in posts down the road... so I won't gush now. I also love the organic lifestyle of the northwest and the fact that so much of life in the northwest revolves around the outdoors and the natural living, irregardless of the rain. I am kind of over some of the "fakeness" that I see in some certain parts of Phoenix. As a Midwest girl, that has never been my favorite thing about here. And also as a Midwest girl, I have to admit, I am a little sick of the brown.

I am so excited to be moving, to a place I love, to start fresh. Life is a journey- a journey full of choices, choices that not everyone will agree with, nor do they have to. It is a journey that takes you places that you never saw yourself going but once you are there, it makes so much sense that you wonder how you missed seeing it beforehand. As I recently discussed with a dear aunt, it is a journey filled with ups, downs, surprises, joys, sadnesses, beauty, and wonder. Mostly you hope to find beauty and wonder but sometimes you do have a little bit of the yuck in between. That is what makes the steps that you take even that much more meaningful. I can't wait to turn the page and open this next chapter of my life- I know that my friends and my experiences in all of the places I have been-the Midwest, Phoenix-will be the backbone sustaining me in my new life in Seattle and they will be with me all of the way- whether they are physically present or not. It is always an adventure... and I can't wait to see what's in store. I will always treasure Phoenix and my time here.

From the city of sun, the city of transience, the city of hot, warm winters with no rain:

To the city of beautiful nature- full of mountains, water, greenery, mild temperatures and yes, of course, some rain:

Transformations

From blondie.... To a brief stint (IE: one day) as a redhead (the picture is a reminder for the future if I ever think I want to be a redhead again, I will RUN)...

To the end result- life as a brunette!

I've never been a brunette before (at least not this dark) and I've been surprised by how much I like it. It started off as just a temporary change. I get bored and I like to mix it up a little. I've been growing my hair out for what feels like DECADES (even though it's only been a year and a half) so cutting it was out of the question. The first round, it was a nightmare. I was a redhead. But at least now I know what it feels like to be a redhead for a day and can honestly say, I'm never going down that road again. This is so much fun- it brings out my eyes and I've been surprised at how many compliments I've gotten. I assume that one day I'll go back to blonde but this is so fun for now- and with so many life changes going on right now, it seemed like the perfect time to make an image change as well. And really, it takes guts to make such a drastic change so when you're feeling it, you just have to buckle up and go with it!

Overheard...

Just now at the ghetto client's I'm at:

Hick lady with voice of a 60+ year smoker, whose name is Mary Lou, for the love of god and who also hacks and sneezes about 2.5 million times a day... it is absurdly annoying: Happy cinco de Mayo tomorrow!
Younger girl: What?
Hick lady: Happy cinco de mayo tomorrow!!
Younger girl: Tomorrow would be cinco de april.
Hick lady: No, it is cinco de mayo!! I am going to have me some salty marjoreeetahs (seriously how she pronounced margaritas).
Younger girl: No, mayo in spanish means may.
Hick lady: Oh, wow. Well that makes more sense then. Because Kenny Chensney is coming to town on Cinco de Mayo and they kept saying it was a friday and I kept getting confused because tomorrow is thursday.

Umm... seriously. You just have to shake your head sometimes.

Pondering the deeper questions of life

I have always been an independent person. Many people have their ideas about who I am... some are right, some are wrong, some are probably very subjective. I live in a way that is best for me. Not everyone may see it that way, especially on certain things, but I have to believe that at the end of the day each choice is a choice that I've made based on what is right for me in this path that I'm on in my life. I don't feel a need to justify any of the decisions I've made.

Going back to the first sentence: I'm very independent. I always have been. I remember growing up, I'd always get mad at my parents for trying to help me on my homework because, "Gosh darn it. I can freaking do it myself!!" Or something along those lines. Probably said meaner with the snobby teenage girl voice.

Now that I'm in my mid 20's I feel even more self sufficient. I have a career, I feel like I know who I am so much better than I did even two years ago, I feel like I have surrounded myself by a positive group of people. I am capable of supporting myself. I am self sufficient. I am strong. Earlier today, someone made an interesting comment to me. They said, "One day you will not want to be self sufficient." My initial reaction was confusion. HUH?! But then, I tried to think about this objectively. Could this person really be right? Could I really someday wish that I'm not who I am and crave dependency?

After I thought about it, I really think this comment is one of the more funny comments I've had anyone make to me. It speaks volumes about how little some people know about me and my personality. Maybe my aversion to never NOT wanting to be self sufficient is a generational thing. Maybe it has something to do with my stubbornness. I am perfectly content to be a partner to someone else and to be perfectly self sufficient in my relationships. I believe in 50-50 and I believe in sharing responsibilities. But to ever feel like I don't want to be self sufficient?

That's absolutely ludicrous.

Busy season: The fourth time around

Busy season is officially underway and when I look at my calendar now, I only see the next 15 weeks as nothing but some form of hell. There are and will be many invigorating days where I know I will go to sleep at night thinking that somehow, someway, in my job I am doing something good for someone. But I know that at the end of it all, I am going to be exhausted from trying to remain so focused for such an extensive amount of time. For the next 15 weeks, each and every day on my calendar has a little pink box on it telling me where I'm supposed to be, what client I'm supposed to be working on. There are no blank days. Next month, if someone can get me a blank day, I would probably be willing to give up my left pinky toe in exchange. I mean that is a huge sacrifice- part of my body for a free day!? Well, ok, so I'm not exactly sure yet if that would be a deal. Ask me in a few weeks.

Up until this week, I've been very busy but it hasn't seemed that bad. Granted, I had to stop going to my class and I work on average from 7am to 9pm every day but it was tolerable. Until this weekend. I spent most of yesterday in the office and all day today working at home. And then I opened my calendar. That's when I saw all of the little pink boxes lined up, mocking me.

In busy season, we are trained to be "professional focusers." I don't really know that focusers is a word, much less a job description, but you get the point. Anything unrelated to work basically goes out the window. So far this year, I've still managed to hang out with my friends at least one time a weekend but that will dwindle down as deadlines start to get more prominent over the next few weeks. We will all lose a little bit of touch until around April when we start to feel more like we're on the downslide and we'll look at each other and say, "Damn. It's been a while." And then we'll move on from there as if we didn't just lose two months of our life to work. It's good to have friends who are in public accounting as well because there is a certain level of understanding already there about what we go through this time of year that we have to explain to our friends not in public accounting.

I am getting to be a veteran at this busy season gig. It's my fourth one- I spent two in tax, this is my second in audit. Audit busy seasons are longer- mine went through the end of May last year- but the hours we work are also drawn out over this period of time where tax people cram all these hours into a shorter amount of time. I have to say, I'm down with the audit side of things.

Now that I just sufficiently spent 20 minutes posting about work, I guess it's time to get back to work...

You just have to shake your head sometimes

On my way to work this morning I saw a bumper sticker that read, "I used to be normal... now I'm natural."

Whatever that means, I don't think I want to know. Judging by the look of the person driving the car with said sticker, I would say that, yes, I was definitely scared.

I love my girls.

Jessica, Jaimi, and I
Cracking up at who knows what- Pam, me, Jess

Jess, Jaimi, Pam, and I

The above pictures are of the three girls that I have become rather close to in Arizona. We met through work, although now we probably see each other more outside of work than at work since we all do different things in our firm. Two of us are from Missouri, one of us is from Wisconsin, and one of us if from Oregon. It may seem strange that we all met in Phoenix but it's really not given that probably 70% of the people in Phoenix are not from here. These women are so amazing... we have such a good time together, laughing, talking, supporting each other. They are the kind of friends that I know I will have 50 years from now, regardless of where we are in our respective lives. The pictures above are just a few from our latest outing last Friday night. As always, it was so fun, mostly because I was with them and everything is more fun when we're all together.

Nose piercing

I did this the first week of January. I really like it... I've been wanting to do it for a while. The only scary thing was that I didn't really think about any of the consequences. I did it on a Saturday night and had to give a presentation in front of all of the partners at my job at work on monday. I didn't know if the nose ring would fly given that I'm in a very conservative profession. Needless to say, I appparently had no reason to worry. All of the comments I've gotten on it have been very positive. It's fun for the time being, anyway.

It's been a while.

I know. Life has gotten somewhat strange and somewhat crazy lately. It's nothing I care to discuss here, but I am still alive and will be back soon.