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.

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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...

Commute times

One of the best parts of living where I do now is that my commute to work is all of about 8 minutes. I do get on the freeway but I don't have to. It's a crazy concept for me given that I just spent the past 2 years of my life in Phoenix and probably 6 months of that two years can be written off to sitting in traffic while commuting an hour (sometimes more) each way. I almost don't really know what to do with myself with the extra 2-3 hours a day that I now have. Luckily, I've figured out that now I actually have time to exercise! And to eat dinner NOT at 9pm! And maybe even to actually COOK dinner! And to go to happy hour! And to do errands! And to do whatever else I freaking want to do because I have so much time... I can't even tell you how nice it is. I had this same sort of convenience going for me in Iowa too, and surprisingly justified the commute enough in Phoenix to not really miss the short drives to work. Now that I have been reminded of what it is like to have somewhat of a life, I don't think I'll ever revert back to Phoenix commute times.

Some days I drive to work from Ellensburg when I stay with Tim over there at night. It's about a 1-1.5 hour drive into work only because I'm going up and over the mountains... which could get scary in oh, about 2 weeks when it starts to get snowy and icy over this particular pass. Right now I don't mind this drive because I only do it once a week-at most- and it's the prettiest drive in the world right now. Most of the peaks have snow on them, the leaves are all different colors and it's just so divine looking at the times I am driving through the mountains. I miss the music/car/me time I had in my Phoenix commute sometimes so this allows me some free time to enjoy the mountain beauty, to catch up on phone calls, to listen to music, and after enjoying all of that, it essentially reminds me that at the end of it all, I am glad that I get to enjoy this now but don't have to do it 5 days out of every. single. week. anymore.

Ah... more boring accounting talk...

When I moved up to Washington the last thing I really wanted to start thinking about was the whole CPA exam thing. It is such a process to meet the requirements (that vary by state), get billions of official transcripts and send them all over the freaking country, apply to the state board, figure out what you're missing from the application, resubmit, etc, etc. And then after that you wait to hear from the state board if you can sit for the exam, and then you wait to hear from the AICPA. The whole application process in itself takes several months. It's a drag.

Anyway, I don't really know why I wrote about how much I hate the application process given that I sucked it up and applied anyway. I just found it particularly annoying this time because I just went through it all in Arizona. I felt like it should transfer. But whatever. I'm done ranting about that. Until it annoys me again. Then there might be another post solely devoted to the annoyances of nothing being consistent when it. should. be.

So, I applied. I got my notice to schedule from the AICPA. I scheduled the test for August 23, 2 weeks before I was supposed to take it (most people would say this is not a very good idea... and yeah, it really wasn't). Then I crammed for 4 days before the test. Then I took the test for 4.5 hours on August 23rd and walked out feeling like I really just needed a glass of wine. People ask how you think you do on stuff like that and it's like simultaneously hitting your head against a wall while trying to shoot a fly with a rubber band. Damn near impossible. I had no clue how I did on that test. Some questions were ok, some were not. Overall I was just happy to be done. Anyone who has taken this test before will tell you that they either 1) walk out crying or 2) feel like it could go either way because it's just too hard to tell if you did good or bad. I was not the exception in this case.

Last Friday I got my results back from the August 23rd test. Yes, please do the math... that's ALMOST 2 months to get the score back from a computerized test. LAME. Anyway, it was well worth the wait- I passed! With an 84. Which means I studied TOO much (you only have to have a 75).

But I was excited... I really wasn't wanting to change my career but I kinda made a little promise to myself that if I didn't pass this section after using so much time off to study for it then I was going to look into another profession. I'm not a very patient person and wasting my time taking the same test over and over again just doesn't really fit what I have in mind for my life. Granted I should probably give it more than one try but I wasn't willing to. But now I don't have to worry about that. I'm scheduled to take another section on October 31, then another on November 20 and then the final one sometime at the beginning of January.

I'm scheduled to have about 7 days off in the course of the next two months for the two upcoming tests... I hope that studying proves to be worth it again! But I won't know until, like, next June. Wish me luck!

Accounting is a dangerous profession

Somedays I have to take my laptop home from work so that I can work at night. Last night, I decided that this was necessary. So as I was leaving, I was putting my laptop away into my computer bag and then I was unplugging my power cord. The next thing I know?

BAM!!! BZZZZZZZ. BZZ. BZZ.

I electrocuted myself.

Oops.

I never stuck my finger in a socket as a kid so I guess this makes up for that. It was very bizzare. The shock ran all the way up my arm and into my back. Probably not supposed to do that on a regular basis.

It's not the first time I've managed to injure myself on the job. A year or so ago, I fell down about 20 steps at a clients and landed in divebomb position on the floor... and the floor was marble so I skidded on my stomach about ten feet across it.

Now, that? THAT was classic.

Rainy weekend recap

Weekend was long, rainy, and overall excellent. Tim came back to Seattle on Thursday night to spend the weekend since he doesn't have classes on Fridays and he won't be starting his hospital time until November (which will then occupy all of his weekends as he will be working 48 hour shifts trying to meet various goals for the year- like 30 innubations/tubes, 500 trauma/cardiac patients, 100 IV starts, etc. I don't really understand what all of this means either, but I am learning...and hearing disgusting stories that remind me why I am an accountant in the meantime).

Friday I left work early and went with Tim across the water to Seattle to run errands... pick up transcripts, try on uniforms, etc. It wasn't such a bad deal for me because I got to spend time with him, I love going into Seattle, regardless of what I am going for, and the day ended with a trip to Cactus- a restaurant that has the best margaritas and mojitos I've ever had. Strange, considering I lived in Phoenix for 3 years, where there are as many mexican restaurants there as there are starbucks up here.

Saturday was cold and rainy. We were going to go to a Washington U huskies tailgating/game day but opted out once we got up and saw the weather. Instead, we spent a lot of the day working and studying, which seems lame but it was the perfect day for that. We worked, drank tea, and sat under blankets. It was actually really nice. We got the newly released season 5 of family guy so we spent an hour or so watching that after we finished studying and working. Saturday night we went to Pen Thai... probably the best Thai food I've had. I crave Thai food on a weekly (and sometimes multiple times weekly) basis.

Yesterday was also rainy and cold. We hung out with Tim's three neices (ages 4, 2, and 4months), made breakfast, and then ran a couple of errands before he had to leave.

Overall, it was a really low key weekend but it was so relaxing. It was a nice change of pace from what both of us keep up with in our weekly lives.

Drunk on coffee

Note to self: As tired as I feel on Monday mornings and as easy as it is to get caught up in the Seattle coffee-holic syndrome, I will cease consuming starbucks peppermint mochas, as much as I love them... especially without eating first.

I am actually buzzing right now.

August and most of September...MIA.

I have been absolutely missing from the blog world for almost 2 months. I figured I should update everyone on what I've been up to in these past two months..if I can remember. This is the cliff notes version of what's been going on but I think it will suffice for now.

1) At the end of July, I became completely swamped with work as I am now the lone person in my position at the firm I am with. The two other people at my position quit within weeks of each other. Needless to say, it got busy as all hell... and has yet to slow down. I'm not holding my breath.

2) Much of the free time we had in August we spent at the water... on the river, at Lake Washington, at Alki beach at the ocean. We swam a lot, we hiked a lot. One weekend we hiked a total of 25 miles in two days. And much of the "hiking" involved running up mountains... and running back down. Tim got me new "northwestern gear" including Keen shoes and a nalgene water bottle with a leak proof lid. And as proof that I am becoming even MORE of a northwestern girl, I am going camping for the first time this weekend in the mountains east of here and I bought more northwestern shoes... hiking shoes.

3) The middle of August was consumed by Tim wrapping up his intense anatomy class and me cramming for the CPA exam. I took off several days from work to completely focus but I still don't know if I passed or not. I am holding my breath on this one.

4) Did I mention that we got two kittens in June? Their names are Tyson and Calvin. They are the cutest and sweetest boys ever. I will post a picture someday soon. Tyson is a grey/blue cat and Calvin is black. They are getting pretty big now. I still miss Emerson and Berkeley so insanely much but I love Tyson and Calvin just as much.

5) At the end of August, over Labor Day weekend, we made the trek back to Kansas City. It was a short but busy weekend. We saw most of Kansas City as well as some of Iowa. It is amazing how much different Kansas City looks from Seattle. I never realized how flat it is out there (and in Phoenix, too) after living so close to mountains in Seattle. Tim was completely shocked at how cheap houses are out there... compared to here, anything is cheap though so I guess that's not really saying much! It was so good to see my family and some friends, though... I haven't been home in so long so it was much needed and so much fun.

6) Also towards the end of August we took several day trips to see Washington more. We drove east to Leavenworth, a little Bavarian town in the Cascade mountains and walked/hiked around there for a day. It was the craziest little village. You drive in to town and immediately feel like you are in Germany or something. It was bizarre. A couple of weekends ago, we took a ferry across the Puget sound and went to Bainbridge Island. Then we drove northwest towards the Olympic mountains with the ocean on one side of us, the mountains on the other. It was so beautiful. We took a ferry back to a different island and then drove up and around and back down to the Seattle area. We basically spent the whole day exploring the Puget sound area. I was completely in awe.

7) The past couple of weeks have been consumed with getting Tim ready to go off to Central Washington University. He is starting a program over there to become a medic. It is going to be one of the toughest and most intense years of his life but it will be worth it! The program one of the top programs in the country and they only accept 20 people a year so I'm pretty excited for him. The school is about an hour east of here- just over the mountains- and the town reminds me of Lamoni and Phoenix combined. Meaning, it looks like Phoenix but is small like Lamoni. It's very strange. It is weird to not have him over here.

8) I just found out that I have to have a root canal. LAME. It's on that freaking tooth I had to get fixed back in Iowa. The one that taught me the lesson to never skip going to the dentist again.

9) I'm loving fall here. I haven't seen an actual fall in a few years. So pretty.

10) I am in a fall fitness "whole body health" camp thing. I am not doing it to lose weight or anything, it was just something that sounded fun. I am doing it with my friend Emily and it is kicking both of our asses. We have conditioning classes three times a week where we do what seems like 500 push ups, run 500 miles, do 500 sprints, do 500 lunges, jump squats, alligator push ups (you don't even want to know) and get pushed physically harder than I've ever been pushed before. It's pretty intense but I LOVE the people doing it and really like their ideas on whole body health and fitness. It's been really fun so far. Even more fun for people who have been watching me attempt to walk in the past two weeks. I have never been so sore in my life, and like I said, Tim and I have been consistently running and hiking so it's not like I was that incredibly out of shape. It's pretty crazy.

I can't really think of anything else that happened or is happening... this is kind of the boring version of the past couple of months. Hopefully I'll start to get more consistent again at posting. That's the goal, anyway.

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.