Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I'm on holiday for the next two weeks. Don't expect many posts, if any. I'm turning my brain off. I haven't been home for a year and I'm here to spend time with the family.

That sounded bitter.

It's not meant to be.

So everyone who reads my blog (and those of you who don't, you aren't reading this anyways), Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

I Think We Need a New Suitcase

For real.

See, our office is not paperless yet. So when we are out doing fieldwork, we have to haul a suitcase with us containing all of our perm files and workpapers. The bigger the client, the more files, the bigger (and heavier) the suitcase. And since I'm a lowly staff accountant, I'm the one who gets to pack and haul it all over. I frequently have to pay $25-50 for an overweight bag (more than 50lbs). You can imagine how that sucks to lug around.

Well, imagine pulling that weight behind you with a suitcase whose wheels aren't 100%...or 10%, for that matter. That's been the situation with our medium sized suitcase since the summer. Well, 3 weeks ago, under the 57 or so pounds, the back of it had a huge crack in it. Ryan decided to be classy and duct tape it. That surprisingly worked for two weeks.

Exhibit A:





When we got to New York, I pulled the newly named "ghetto blaster" suitcase off the baggage claim, set it upright, and watched it fall over.

The wheel had broken completely.

I'm wheeling/dragging this thing outside in the rain, through the puddles, to get to the cab. It is not good.

I get to the hotel and upon further inspection, this is what I see..

Exhibit B:




This thing still has to get back to Orange County by way of Chicago. There's no way.

Ryan and I go to Macy's, Bloomingdales, Kohls, Lord & Taylor (?), and even a luggage store: no one has hard cased luggage. No one. We can't do soft luggage; our printer would be toast. Who knows about the audit files.

Well we had no luck. Ryan managed to secure the wheel with some more duct tape. And somehow it made it rolling 4-6 blocks in Manhattan, through the airport, to Chicago, back to Orange County in one piece.

I go to the office on Saturday to unpack/pack for this week. I can't get the sucker open. What? Yeah, I guess TSA inspected it and proceeded to LOCK it. I noticed a little code engraved next to the keyhole saying "TSA 003." It leads me to believe that the TSA have a master key or something to open people's luggage. Problem is, it wasn't locked when they opened it, and we don't have a key for it.

I had to pry it open with a screwdriver. How I was able to find a screwdriver at an accounting firm is another story. But I did.

Well now the thing won't latch shut because we can't reverse the lock.

I hope by the time I get back from Minnesota we have a new piece of luggage for the busy season. Somehow I think we'll still be using the "ghetto blaster."

New York Photos

Here they are...


Bryant Park with the Empire State Building in the background (blue lights).



Times Square looking south (I think). I had trouble getting my bearings.



So close!



Not sure what this place is, but it's 1251 6th Avenue, if that helps.



I love this shot.



Rockefeller Center



Rockefeller Center



Rockefeller Plaza



I wish those dudes weren't in the way, but you had to pay to get an unobstructed shot.



I saw some lady taking this shot, told her it was a good one, and did it myself.






They turned out better than I had hoped. Can't wait to go back. And, I think being their in the winter enhanced the experience. It had to of. Look at it.

New York State of Mind

My first day in New York City, and my manager is sick. Being that he and I are the only ones on this job, that poses a problem. Monday morning, he basically just came to work with me just to introduce me to the CFO and get me started working. Then he went back to the hotel. I've never been left unattended like this since I started at the firm. Much less with a bunch of accented New Yorkers in a city I've never been to. Oh, the largest in the country at that. Well, after a minute of panic, it was no big deal. I figured things out. I got done what I needed to get done. I was a trooper.

Since we're at a culinary school, naturally, there was culinary (food?) to eat. I ate lunch with the CFO. Intimidating at first, but he was really cool. He gave me his little pocket map of the city and told me what to see Monday night. Oh, we also ate veal and some other weird looking stuff that tasted mighty fine. Loved it. And it was $2. Which the CFO picked up. Score!

By Monday evening, Ryan wasn't feeling any better, so I went out by myself. It was actually better that way. I was pretty much scared to go exploring on my own. They say it's safe, but I'm a Scandanavian from a small town in Minnesota, I was a little nervous. I left our hotel on 24th and 6th, intending toget to Midtown on the first subway I saw. Well, I didn't see one. I think I was a block over too far. So by the time I got to 34th Street, I decided to just keep on walking! It was mid 30s out; not bad actually.

I stopped in Bryant Park to watch some ice skaters; I wandered through Times Square and gawked like an idiot; I hiked it up to 52nd and saw the Ed Sullivan Theater - where David Letterman tapes; I saw Radio City Music Hall; finally, I went to Rockefeller Center and saw the big Christmas tree and all the ice skaters. It was pretty much surreal. To finally be in NYC and verify (to myself) that it exists beyond tv and folklore was pretty wonderful.

By the time I returned to the hotel, I'd walked for 2 and 1/2 hours. I was pretty much shot by then, but it felt good. I only saw one hobo. And I actually felt safer walking around Manhattan than I did walking around San Francisco. No idea why. Less weirdos (at least that I saw)?

Tonight we're off to Long Island for the rest of the week to audit a sister company of the one in Manhattan.

As I was walking back to the hotel last night, I couldn't help but be thankful that the $800 hotel bill (for only two nights! not even that nice of a place!), airfare, and food are being expensed. You can't beat that.

I hope to come back to New York on my own sometime and see the plethora of things I didn't get to see this time. Thankfully I hit two of the major sites. Success!

Alabama, Y'all!

Although Alabama isn't the most exciting place I've ever been, it sure has some of the nicest people. How can someone speaking in a slow southern drawl sound angry? I think it's impossible. We worked with some really nice people last week in Birmingham. We got there on Sunday, so that makes for a long week, but it went by pretty fast.

It was kind of a bittersweet time, though. Mike, my co-worker and friend, is moving on to another firm. This was his last trip and I'll be out of town this next week, so I guess our working relationship is over. We had such a great time this week, though. He's really enjoyable to work with, and I'm gonna miss him. Good thing we still have the batting cage to hang out at.

Wednesday night we managed to land tickets to the SEC-Big East Invitational college basketball doubleheader at BJCC Arena in Birmingham. The first game was Georgetown vs. Alabama followed by West Virginia vs. Auburn. I've never been to a real Division I event before, so I was super pumped. The place was electric. The band was playing. The cheermanleaders were throwing the lady cheerleaders up in the air. It was so much fun. We somehow landed good seats, too.

Being on the road for work is definitely worth it when we get to do fun stuff like that.

Tomorrow I leave for Manhattan and Long Island for the week. We're auditing two schools in four days. I'm a little concerned I won't get everything done that I need to. But I guess that's what late nights in the hotel room are for. My first time to New York, and it's looking like I won't even have time to sightsee. We're auditing culinary schools, and I hear that they feed us like no other. Five-course meals for lunch!! Sounds good to me.

Here's some pictures from Alabama:








Mike, Nicole, and me. The coolest accountants ever.






Mike and I with "Bear" Bryant and some other guy.

It's Not Even Busy Season Yet!

Yeah, it's been over a week since I've checked in. I know. I've been going and going for about two weeks. Well, really since the beginning of November. What with my trip to Connecticut, then a local job, Thanksgiving, Oakland last week Alabama this week and New York the week after....I'll have four days in the office then I'm home for Christmas. Just like that! Six months of my career, gone. Vamoose. I don't think I've ever written that word before.

I'm glad it's all going by fast but the biggest bummer is that I have DVDs from Netflix sitting here from two weeks ago that I haven't watched yet. That's hard for me to accept. The pre-career minded me would have hated that idea. I don't really hate it now; it just bugs me. Well, it won't get better. Work will only get busier. Is it almost summer?

Things are going well, though. The weeks on the road seem to go faster than I would have thought. I think I need to start being more conscious of how much I'm eating. Last week I ate at California Pizza Kitchen twice, PF Changs twice, and Cold Stone THREE times. There wasn't much selection obviously. Problem is, even if I'm full, I keep eating. I can't leave food on my plate, right?

Maybe I should buy a scale?

The goal for this week in Alabama is to eat a salad or something light for lunch every day, to not finish my meal at dinner, and to not buy a beer every night. Oh, and Cold Stone or something similar only once the whole week. Sure, when my role is to be an accountant during the day, I like to pork out at night. One, because I look forward to it, and two, I'm going to expense it anyways. But I don't want to start getting a gut.

Back to back east coast trips is going to totally mess with my sleep. I'm going to start complaining right now. It's going to be brutal. I'll be back here for one day next weekend, then it's off to NYC. I suppose I'll just stick to eastern time next weekend. Might as well.

I'll try and post something this week from Alabama if they have the internets there. I'm not sure if it's reached the deep south yet.

When the heck am I going to study for the CPA exam?