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...