Reflections

I've been reflecting recently regarding my life and where it has taken me.

Almost 2 1/2 years ago I moved to Seattle to start my grown-up life as an accountant fresh out of school. In the next 3 weeks am packing up my life and moving back to Utah. I've had the opportunity to transfer to the Salt Lake Office with Ernst & Young and decided after much deliberation to take it. I am excited, yet nervous, for new beginnings...again.

Reflecting on my life in Seattle, I am not 100% sure what brought me here and why this was the place to be other than it was right. Nothing major has happened while I have been here--no life altering event. It has been the small things that has made being in Seattle the place I've needed to be for the past 2 1/2 years. The difficult situations and trials that I've faced that made me a stronger, more Christ-like person. The friendships I've built with wonderful people whom I will miss so much. The co-workers that made the daily grind bearable. Being able to spend time building a relationship with my brother. Becoming a strong and independent woman. And most importantly, continuing to developing a deep trust in my Savior that no matter what life brings, there is a plan for me.

A major theme that has been reocurring in my life is that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me and that He has a plan for me. I'm not good at change. I am a worry-wart and I struggle when life isn't predictable. But, I have a Savior who knows ME and is always there for me to help me through the trials as that path unfolds. I don't know where my life leads in the future, but as I reflect on my past and my experiences I've had, I start to see how that plan has shaped me and who I am. I know that as I put my faith and trust in my Savior, He will lead me by the hand.

So, in three short weeks, I say goodbye to Seattle. I will miss it...dearly! I would not trade the experiences I've had for anything. Yet, I look forward to change. I look forward to what my Father in Heaven has in store for me and bolster up my faith and trust that He will lead me where I need to be.

So, I am reflecting on new beginnings and am trying to enjoy the journey as I see the plan for me continue to unfold.

Monumental

Today is one of those monumental days in my life of an accountant - the offical two year anniversary since beginning my career in public accounting.



It is a day of celebration, or at least it should be. But, somehow, at the same time I have feelings of sadness and confusion. How did I get here? Why? And, what's next?

Although it has been a hard road, I am still here. Overworked and underpaid, but still kicking. I've always considered two years to be THE hurdle. My goal has always been to earn my CPA and get a couple of years of experience. Could I actually survive two years? Well, I have. I've begun to wonder if those like me who are still here are really to be applauded and congratulated or if I should be scolded for not having the guts to get out and move on. I used to read those emails about people leaving the firm and think, "Man, they just couldn't hack it." Now when I read those emails, a pang of jealousy sweeps over me.

Part of the problem is I feel like I've been driven like cattle for the last 5 years since I began the accounting program at BYU. It is like a big conspiracy. I didn't know the slightest thing about the industry before then. Yet, the path into public accounting is like a door that is wide open with neon lights flashing above it that can be seen for miles away. It is like there is no other option. And, after being herded for so long, I don't even know what it is like to turn the knob on a new door and open it myself.

It is easy to become comfortable. I don't know how one begins to feel comfortable working 500 hours of overtime every year. Yet, somehow, leaving work around 6pm feels like leaving work early. A conversation with a fellow co-worker this week began around 6:45pm and ended with, "If I get off early, I'll call you." When and how did 7pm become early in my brain? It took her pointing out to me that that phrase was wrong before I even noticed it was wrong. Obviously, I've somehow become comfortable with said overtime. Calculating it out, I even earn about $5 less per hour of my life due to the firm milking me for all I'm worth.

It all comes down to this--I survived two years because I am lazy. And to top it off, they reward this laziness by offering me a promotion and dangling a bonus over my head. And somehow it is working for the time being. Granted, my survival that far wasn't all due to laziness or lack of better options, it did take some sort of motivation to make it here, but I'll say this...my motivation is fading fast.

Mind you, the experience I've gained, I probably wouldn't trade. I wouldn't change the path I've taken or people I've met. I've learned so much and accomplished a huge goal in my life and really am quite happy I've made it this far. But, now that I've reached my goal, the big question that remains...what's next? Staying with EY? Hair school? Teaching? Or, something entirely unexpected? Again, something I don't know. I'm trying to figure out how to open that door. However, I will say that something is in the works and a change may be on it's way in some way, shape, or form.

Montana, Here I Come

Well, in about eight hours I head off to Missoula, Montana. Why am I going to Montana of all places you might ask? Well...nothing that exciting. Just work. Tax returns and more tax returns. Will it ever end? I guess I hope not; it IS what keeps me employed.

Round two of layoffs for the Pacific Northwest area at my firm were on Tuesday. It was a rough week. Luckily none of the Seattle tax folks were "separated", "will be continuing their careers outside of the firm", or were part of the "headcount reduction" as management calls it. Why can't they just call it what it is? Nonetheless, I survived this one. Hopefully, another round won't follow in a few months.

So, me and a team of about six others will be out in Missoula for the next three to four weeks. I will be doing the tax return for a mine. It will be a different experience. Have you ever heard of "reclamation costs"? I hadn't, but I will be very familiar with them after this project. In case your curiosity is going wild wondering what the heck it means, it is the cost associated with filling back in the hole that was so strategically dug. Exciting stuff, huh? I'm probably just speaking Greek.

I also came down with some sort of illness Thursday. Talk about rotten timing. I am likely to infect my entire team out in Montana.

While I am out in "Big Sky Country" maybe I will get a chance to see some of this supposed sky and escape the Seattle rain for a few weeks. So, I checked the weather forecast...snow this weekend. I guess not.

The biggest perk of the whole project is that we get to fly back on the weekends. For me, that means I am going home to Utah a couple of the weekends instead of coming back to Seattle. Nothing against Seattle, but who doesn't enjoy a trip home on the firm?

Farewell Seattle for the month of April. Too bad I have to pay rent for an unoccupied room. See you in May.

Special Delivery

I've had my eye on this picture of the Salt Lake Temple for a while now. I splurged and bought it just a few moments ago. I'm pretty excited and can't wait for it to arrive.

Operation: Sanity

I am such a tight-wad when it comes to spending money (I inherited that from my dad). But, during busy season, a part of that goes out the window, because I am somehow able to justify spending $15/day to park downtown instead of riding the bus.

I tell myself it is for my sanity, but $300 per month hardly seems worth it to be in a cubical that I am spending way to much time in to begin with...

My New BFF, Brandi

Friday night, Stephanie, Lindsay, and I made the drive up to Bellingham to see their favorite artist, Brandi Carlile, in concert. They introduced me to her music about 9 months ago and she is definitely becoming one of my favorites as well.

I knew that tagging along with Steph and Linds meant hanging out for a couple hours after the show in order to get their classic photo with the artist. So, I am the benefactor of their obsession and have this great picture to show for it.



The concert was a lot of fun and I was captivated by listening to her music live. She was fabulous. My favorite song is "Turpentine" and hearing this one live made me so happy. She made it interactive and brought the audience in as her three-part harmony back-up 2/3 of the way into the song. It sounded awesome! I am excited for her new album to be released sometime this year and am looking forward to many more concerts together.

I finally made it!!

Well, it is official. All the years of school and work have finally paid off. I can FINALLY call myself a CPA and here's the proof!!



It always seemed like something that was so far from my grasp and so intangible, but here I am. Now what???

"Read it. I know you'll love it!"

From one of my favorite movies, "You've Got Mail", I quote:

"Confession, I have read Pride and Prejudice about two hundred times. I get lost in the language, words like 'Thither. Mischance. Felicity.' I'm always in agony over whether Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are really going to get together. Read it. I know you'll love it!"

Pride and Prejudice has always been one of my favorite novels and movies. However, I am going admit that I've found a new novel that I like maybe a smidge more.

It is called "North & South" by Elizabeth Gaskell. For those of you who have heard of it, you are probably wondering what took me so long to discover it. However, for those of you who haven't heard of it, you are probably having visions of the Union vs. the Confederacy and you are losing interest by the second.

No, it is not about the Civil War. No, Patrick Swayze does not star not in the movie. And, yes, if you love Jane Austen-type novels, you will love this one.



I bought the DVD about 8 months ago and decided to make the book my bus reading because I loved the movie so much. I just finished it and absolutely loved it! The book itself does move slowly, so if you don't have the dedication to reading the novel, the BBC miniseries with Richard Armitage & Daniela Denby-Ashe is fabulous. The movie also requires some dedication because it is about four hours long, but the ending is well worth it! Seriously...I loved it!

The words of Kathleen Kelly in "You've Got Mail" keep playing over in my head:

"Read it. I know you'll love it."

Tag, I was it...

So, it has been quite some time since I've updated my blog...I think I am still trying to get used to the whole idea.

Sarah tagged me a while ago, so I decided I will finally follow through. Here is the fourth picture from my fourth file.



A little explanation as it isn't every day I am rubbing the nose of some random stone creature...

In the fall of 2005, while I was an undergrad in the accounting program at BYU, I participated in the Deloitte Tax Research Competition. It is a pretty intense competition. You are basically locked in a room for 5 hours, left with copies of the Internal Revenue Code, Regulations, and a case study. As a team, you then solve various tax issues relating to the case. Although provided food and drink...the serious teams wouldn't take the time to eat. And serious we were. We would do practice case studies on Saturday mornings and even order a pizza to "practice not eating the food." I'm not going to lie...we always gave in.

My team, Matthew Fresh (left), Jessica Hardy (right), William Horn (taking the picture), and myself made it to the national competition in Orlando. This picture is of us at our hotel the day before the competition rubbing this random boar's nose for good luck. We didn't rub quite hard enough because we only walked away with the second place title. But, it was a lot of fun and was such a great experience. My team members became my best friends throughout the accounting program.

So, I guess I am supposed to tag someone, but I really hate these chain things. So if you actually read my blog and want to consider yourself tagged, so be it.

This is my life...

So, I'll admit, I've had a blogger account for some time and couldn't break down to be "one of those people" who blog. But, I've finally done it. Here is the update on the goings on of my life.

I graduated from BYU with a master and bachelor degree in Accounting (Tax) in April 2007. I moved out to Seattle in July 2007 to work for Ernst & Young (a large public accounting firm). I recently completed my first year with the firm and my first year in Seattle. It has been an interesting and good year.

For those of you who have seen the movie "Stranger than Fiction" you will appreciate my blog title. And if you know me well you would probably know that I have some commonalities with the main character in the movie. I am a tax accountant...and I do count my steps. I am a nerd...this I know.

From October 2007 through May 2008 I studied and passed all four parts of the CPA exam. It was a long few months. I have recently been lazy and haven't actually filled out the paperwork to apply for my CPA license, but you could say I am one fee payment from being an actual, for real CPA. What an accomplishment and relief to have that 99.9% behind me.

I had a less than ideal roommate situation for my first six months in Seattle. It was a difficult and trying time. I relied upon the Lord and grew so much as a person. Although difficult roommates are generally preferable to avoid, I really learned so much from the experience. As horrible as it was, I probably wouldn't trade the experience because I really grew spiritually and as a person. I put my trust in the Lord and everything has worked out and I am so much better for the experience.

I live in a new place now and have a great roommate. Janelle gets married in two weeks though, so I will lose her. I am sad to lose her but am excited for her. So, I am on the hunt for a new roommate. I love my apartment and the area I live. My new couch and love seat arrive at the end of the month and I am excited to re-decorate. Now that the CPA exam are behind me and busy season is wrapping up, I will have some time to enjoy it.

I have discovered that I enjoy cooking and that I am decent at it. I realized that I learned a lot from my mom and that I paid attention a little bit while growing up. For a while, my roommate and I were experimenting with new recipes every Sunday. It was a great way to try new things and have fun as roommates.

I really love Seattle and love the weather. It really isn't as bad as people lead you to believe. The summers in Seattle are perfect...and I do mean perfect. If you have lived through a Seattle summer, you know what I mean. There are many fun things to do and I have enjoyed exploring them in my spare time. I love being a city girl.

The ward is good...very different from being in Utah and the BYU ward experience. For about 8 months I was a relief society teacher and have subsequently been the compassionate service leader for the past few months. I have been blessed with a couple of great friends from the ward that live just a few blocks from me. Stephanie and Linsday keep me laughing and I enjoy their random bursts into song.

I've learned a lot during the year at work. The hours during busy season can be rough... but I enjoy the work and am learning all the time. I don't know how long I will be cut out for public accounting, but I am enjoying the journey. Yes...I still want to go to beauty school and I still want to be a part-time professor at some point in my life. I just don't know when that point will be.

Anyways...this is my life. Yep...I'm still single, but I am doing the working professional thing and I'm finding joy in the journey!

Along came a spider...and sat down beside her!

I have always hated spiders. All growing up, I always made my mom or sister kill any spider I happened upon. When I moved out, that obviously changed. I'll never forget the time Sarah and I tracked a spider across her living room while watching a movie. Neither of us would kill it. When we decided one of us should probably kill it, we lost it and we were left in a terrified state the remainder of the evening.

One thing I hate about Seattle is the amazing increase in the quantity of spiders compared to Utah. I've had a few recent encounters that have made me remember why I hate moist, woodsy places (aka...Seattle).

For those of you who don't know the parking lot of my apartment building is basically surrounded by evergreens, blackberry bushes, and other trees and shrubbery. I am convinced that the all the birds do all day is contemplate when to do their next dive bomb on my newly washed car. My car is never clean...

Back to the spiders...ok, so the spiders also love the shady tree environment and make many a web in their branches. On evening after work, I went out to my car to run some errands. I was inches from walking straight into a massive spider web between my driver's side door and the truck parked next to me. Obviously, neither my car nor the truck next to me had moved for a few days (this was clearly before I was driving to work every day during busy season). Instead of being a grown-up about it and getting a stick or something to destroy the web, I decided crawling through the passenger-side door to the driver's seat would be the logical solution. Then as I put my car in reverse and backed out, I found devilish pleasure in destroying the spider's carefully crafted web. I then proceeded to take my car to a car wash.

Thursday, I decided to drive to work. Janelle, my roommate, works in the building next to me, so she hitched a ride. As she got into the car, she noticed a web between the passenger side-view mirror and the car door. We were entertained all the way to work as the spider clutched to it's web and the mirror for dear life. As we neared downtown, the spider suddenly disappeared and we decided he just got too weak to hold on any longer.

Friday, I woke up at 7:17. Normally I catch the 7:30 bus...that clearly wasn't happening. So, I drove again. Janelle was running late as well, so she tagged along. I happened to remember that Stephanie, a friend who works across the street from me, waits for her bus around 7:50, so I swung by her stop and picked her up too. As we were driving towards the city, Janelle yelled something to the effect of "oh, my gosh...there is a spider!" A spider was hanging from the car's roof right next to Janelle's head. I proceeded to let out a deafening scream. Then we had a pretty good laugh.

Who knows...maybe it was the same spider from Thursday which mysteriously "disappeared" on the way to work. Perhaps he found a way to get back at us for trauma I caused him during the prior morning.

So, if you've made it to the end of this post, the point to this story is I am highly considering paying the $50 per month for a covered parking space in our garage.

September 15th has Arrived!

First off...welcome to my first blog post! I know...it has taken me long enough to jump on this bandwagon.

As a tax accountant, I revolve around the 15th of each month. Some are worse than others. To the general populous this means the infamous April 15th. What many probably don't realize is that September 15th tends to be more chaotic for most...the reason being the corporate tax return extended deadline.

Much to my relief September 15th has arrived and my life returns to a semi-normal life...if such a thing exists.

Since I've basically neglected contact with the world outside of my cube for the past few weeks, I've decided to share some of the highlights and my lessons learned this past busy season:

• I succeeded in justifying myself that it was acceptable to pay $15 per day for a solid month to drive to work and park in my building's garage in order to keep some level of sanity during the craziness. I learned it doesn't take much coaxing at all for me to be convinced such a frivolous purchase is entirely worth it.
• Driving home at 11:30 p.m. is not fun...especially when greeted by an utterly wasted dude in my driveway who decided to lay in the road so I could pass him. He was the only thing blocking me between parking my car and getting some much needed shut-eye. I proceeded to call and wake up my roommate Janelle wondering what the heck to do about it. The important lesson I learned is that you can call 911 from an out-of-area cell phone and magically the police know what city you happen to be in.
• Contrary to popular belief, you can leave food in the work freezer and not have it devoured by scavenger auditors. My lean cuisine was unscathed after a full two weeks of neglect given by myself.
• Colds spread like wildfire in a cubical environment and are nearly impossible to avoid.
• Sick days don't exist...even when you really are sick. You CAN actually get over a cold and work 70 hours a week. Taking a sick day would be the cop-out answer.
• Some clients are bozos and hire complete idiots. Unfortunately...I am the one that suffers and has to deal with them.
• "Mr. T. in my Pocket" has a way of expressing exactly how yoau feel at 7pm while still sitting in your cube. "Don't make me mad...grrrrrrr!"
• Hoops and Yoyo have the right idea when it comes to Wednesdays. (See E-card)
• Starbuck's "Treat Receipt" is ploy to force people to spend an extra two dollars a day for an extra pick-me-up in the afternoon. Lucky for me, it meant a really cheap frappachino blended cremes thanks to friends' morning wake-up purchases. Thanks Christie!
• FedEx doesn't always pick up daily as one would think. If the freight elevator is out of order...the FedEx truck passes you by. This is always bad news when a tax return was supposed to go out overnight to a client in order to make a tax deadline. However, if you have an awesome mailroom guy...he will chase after the FedEx plane the next morning.
• My anger and frustration can be unleashed through drawing stick figures. What does it matter that the picture included the words "I QUIT!"??? It was in the heat of the moment....

I think those are the highlights. HAPPY SEPTEMBER 15TH!