I hope I still have readers left. These past two weeks have been absolutely crazy. I've been playing with the numbers, and I've worked an average of 10 hours a day, six days a week this month. Rough. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Maybe. We as an office are so far behind where we were last year. I have 60 hours worth of work on my shelf, with more coming in, and I have two audits to plan. I'm taking my annual April vacation a little later this year. I'm going to visit my cousin and her family in Pittsburgh the last week of April, stopping in Indianapolis to pick up my brother. Although when I say that round-trip flights to Pittsburgh were only $250, I only half-jokingly told my brother to find his own way to Pennsylvania.

At any rate, I have to plan and do fieldwork for one audit before my vacation this year, which makes the 17th a little anti-climatic. I'm booked solid through mid-May!

Speaking of being over-booked, I got my assignment letter from Kirkwood Community College for the summer semester. I'm going to be teaching Financial Accounting, instead of the Managerial Accounting I had been doing. I'm very excited about this, because I know the material a lot better, and I can concentrate on making the information exciting instead of refreshing my memory on the material. This is the introductory accounting class: debits and credits, assets, liabilities and equity, the language of accounting! However, the class is on Mondays and Wednesdays, which means I'll only get to go to Tae Kwon Do once a week, which seriously puts a crimp in my plans to test for my first degree in October, since I've been skipping a lot this semester due to work obligations. I'll just have to make sure I practice more at home...at least I'll have some time!

Even the parking enforcement guys don't think I go home. When I went out the parking garage last night to go home, my tires were marked. Granted, I park in the same spot all the time, but I do go home every day, even if it's only for 12 hours or so. :)

7:14 (I hadn't changed the time on my camera yet.) The view from my bedroom window, facing east. Stupid Daylight Saving Time. I hate waking up in the dark. At least I trained myself to wake up at 6 a.m. last week, so the transition today wasn't too bad.


7:22 It's supposed to be 60 degrees today! Short sleeves all around.


Okay, I finally noticed the time was wrong. Taking time to eat breakfast this morning: Honey Nut Shredded Wheat. I am addicted to Honey Nut breakfast cereals. I think I went through five boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios in row there. But I had been putting a cup of oatmeal and some brown sugar in a ziplock to take to work, to eat breakfast at my desk, so this is a change.


Another sign of spring! Check out the daffodils! This is way too early in the year for these things. I hate it when spring's going on and I'm stuck at the office.


Starving! A picture of our kitchenette at work, while I wait for my english muffin to toast. We finally got a new microwave - the old one was probably one of the first models from back in the 80's. I was about ready to declare the old one an OSHA violation.


Running across the street to good old Hills Bank to deposit my tenant's rent check. Normally, between 20 after and half past, this street is swarming with college students, but it's spring break this week. Ding, dong, the students are gone!


I also need something to eat. Pita Pit is like Subway, but with pitas. I had the chicken ceasar pita.


I love Easter candy, especially Chicks, Ducks, and Bunnies. I bought this bag at CVS Friday before we went to see Pan's Labyrinth, and I finished them off today.


Yes! Someone brought cookies! I think I ate about six today. I have no self control.


Remember my construction zone from January? They're almost done. I know someone who works in those offices now, and they say it smells like grease all the time. There's a Taco Bell directly below them.


While Leah is in Charles City this week, she left half her stuff, and she said I should try her deep conditioner. This shit is awesome! My hair feels like a baby's. Can you get this stuff in the States?


And, another sign of spring. I couldn't figure out what the heck was making so much noise down in the basement. Duh! The dehumidifier. This little workhorse runs non-stop during the summer, even though I have it set at 50% humidity.

I'm back-dating this post, because I'm anal about having one post per day (for some reason), and I want to save the 12th for 12-of-12. And I really, really hate complaining about work here, especially about people I work with, but I have to get this out of my system somehow.

Her reaction to my I-don't-care comment was to write a whole new comment: "M-1 item is not showing as an expense." I know I'm writing in jargon, but the point is, Why didn't you just say that in the first place??? I can see why that matters, and that I can fix pretty easily. Her review comments just rub me the wrong way. It's like she wants me to try and guess what she's thinking, so she says things in the most obscure way possible. Just tell me what you want, and get it over with. I don't have time to interpret the Dead Sea Scrolls.

And then she brings files into my office and lays them on their side on the shelf. OK, even though all the rest of my files are standing up and I have bookends for that purpose, maybe she doesn't know that I prefer them standing up, so I have room for new ones and so I can easily see in which order they come into my office. So I ask her to stand them up. It is my office, after all. She says, "No. Move it yourself the next time you get up." And my jaw drops. Why would you ignore my specific request to keep my office neat? It's not like I throw files around in your office. Which makes me want to do so, but I feel like any type of response is going to be petty and immature, and I refuse to stoop to her level.

I finally did it - I wrote "I don't care" in response to a review comment. Actually I wrote "Doesn't matter - see workpaper 0999 for retained earnings reconciliation", but it's basically a roundabout way of saying "Why in the world do you want me to spend time working on this? IT DOESN'T MATTER!" I feel so liberated. But I guess we'll see what her response is.

I'll admit, I have been pretty cranky lately. Not enough sleep and too much upheaval. It's been awesome catching up with Leah, though. I love her stories about the kinds of questions her students ask (she teaches, among others, an American Culture class at a German University), like "Why are Americans so obsessed with guns?" and "Is it true that Americans marry young?"

It's been very odd living with another person again. I have to say, it makes me a little bit claustrophobic, having all her stuff around and not having a 'place' for it. But I will be very sad when she's gone, because I'll realize all over again how much I miss her.

I'm getting a little worried about my mind, here. Thursdays are long days...work, then teaching at the Gym-Nest, then UFC at Randal's. So I have to make sure I have everything before I leave for work in the morning. Yesterday, as I was leaving the house, I thought, "Crap! I forgot to put an extra pair of socks in my TKD bag. Oh well, I'll just wear the dress socks I have on." Turns out, it didn't matter, as all the while I was thinking that I forgot to pack something in my TKD bag, my TKD bag was sitting on a kitchen chair. So I had to stop by the house between work and Gym-Nest, which I hate doing, because it is absolutely impossible to turn left off my street in hospital traffic. (The closest thing IC has to traffic jams is the stream of cars from 7:30-8:30 and 4:30-5:30 going to and from the University hospital.)

Also, my office has turned into the roach motel for tax returns: they come in, but they don't go out. I have a week's worth of work stacked up, and the crunch is still coming. And Leah is coming to visit next week, which would be an awesome thing, since I haven't seen her in three years, but all this work! I'll definitely be sacrificing some sleep next week, I think.