Accounting

My father is a Controller at a manufacturing facility.  Accounting is not something I am too terribly fond of, but for the past 3 plus years I have been involved in the field more than I thought possible.  I have worked for my father and his department for 3 summers plus other breaks from school.  For the past two school years and last summer I worked for an accountant at the university I attend.  Sure, I am only an assistant and perform menial fililng and clerical tasks for the most part, but every once in awhile I get an interesting job to do.  For example, today I was basically hunting for illegals.  I had to verify social security numbers of the most recent hires.  I may have found one.  It wouldn’t be the first time at this place of work either.  I only have a day and a half of work for my job this summer.  Then I am off to school for the last time.  And in a week and a half will start working for my accountant at school again.  She’s a really nice woman, so I am looking forward to working with her again.  I enjoy working with my Dad as well.  I’ll miss him when I leave.  I learned a lot about his personality and sense of humor in working for him.  I have this running joke (sort of) with him.  Pretty much every day, (sometimes more than once a day) I tell him that I quit.  I am clearly not an accounting major.  I’m not one for the numbers.  (Although I am getting much better.  As I was scanning invoices yesterday I was doing long division for fun.)  I’m not entirely serious when I tell him I quit, but usually it is around MY normal quitting time, which is not the same time my father would like to leave at the end of the day.

High School Teachers, post-graduation

Two of my best friends and I met our ninth grade English teacher for dinner this evening.  We’ve always gotten along rather well with her and after our conversation tonight, I must say that hanging out with your teachers is fantastic.  Once you graduate (and turn 21 for that matter…) everything is different.  I will not divulge any secrets–those are between us–but honestly, I think we’ll meet up for drinks whenever we’re in town.  Scary thought…this will be the the 8th year we’ve known her.  Speaking of years, I have been dreading turning 22 lately.  (I know, right?)  I feel like I am getting old.  What kind of messages are being sent to us these days?  Younger is better?  Well, it’s all downhill from here!  Now that I am of legal age to drink alcohol, what countdowns are left?  Now we just get old.  I think I am predicting some serious battles within myself this school year.  I really don’t want to think about graduation.  I have less than 9 months.  And then I’m cut off.  To the real world I will go!  (For real this time.  College is just an extension.  At least in my case it was.)  I feel more adult now that I can still chat with my teacher from 7 years ago and drink beer with.  Odd scenario.  But I like it! 

School again…one last time.

In about a weekand a half I begin my senior year of college.  I’m terrified of the future.  But also cannot wait.

I was looking at my book list for the semester and realized that I will be reading all the time.  There will be no time to waste.  No, no.  Not when I have 11 novels, 6 history related books, one text book, and a literature anthology with various short stories, poems, and essays to read.  So 19 books total.  In 15 weeks.  Maybe taking a literature class along with my senior seminar wasn’t in my best interests after all. Good thing reading is my favorite, huh?

I am pleased with the look of my schedule.  I begin at 10:10 every morning Monday through Thursday.  With work hours I am done between 5 and 6:30.  And Fridays are completely clear again, which will help when I have those 500 plus pages to read each week.  Not to mention all the pages of papers I will be writing.  I am guessing 45 pages total.  It will exceed that number I am afraid.

But I’m a writer…right?

Also: Michael Phelps has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated 3 times this summer.  I wonder who the sportsman of the year will be?  Hmm…

The Ghost of Brett Favre

Did Cris Collinsworth really just compare Michael Phelps to Brett Favre?

WHY?

And also, why is it news when Favre runs a penalty lap?

Are we really not over this yet?

Honestly!

Thoughts

-Could the Twins please remain in first place for more than a day?

-Can we stop the Favre updates already?  I’m over it.

-I’m not sure how I feel about this cooler air.  Under normal conditions, I would gladly welcome the break from the heat.  Last summer in the cities it was unbearable.  But now that I’m at home and don’t have to walk to work, it really doesn’t bother me.  It helps that the office is air conditioned.  Even if it is too much sometimes.

-I really enjoy that on the 7 day weather forecast on the Green Bay station, they had a small graphic of a Packers helmet on tomorrow’s slot.  We can get pretty ridiculous in the fandom around these parts.  But I love it.

-Does Brian Williams ever take a day off?  Why is he reporting on weekends now?  Is this just an Olympics thing?  Will he be in China for the duration?

-I still miss Tim Russert.  Meet the Press is not the same.  I love Tom Brokaw, don’t get me wrong, but…(sigh).

-Michael Phelps isn’t really that hot.  I don’t understand the attraction really.  Yeah, he’s a fast swimmer, but the lack of armpit hair really weirds me out.  He also has enormous ears, which oddly, I like.  (Probably because I have two completely different ears.)

-I only have three weeks left before I go back to school and have yet to clean my closet.  That was my one goal for the summer.  And something I’ve been meaning to do for…two years or so.

-Russia fascinates me, I think that’s obvious, but…the country frightens me more than Iran.  It’s a Psycho situation I am thinking.  The first time I watched that movie, all I could think about was how attractive Norman Bates was, despite the crazy murderous intentions and such.  I don’t know what to think about this attacking Georgia business yet.  Putin is insane.  We should be afraid of that man.

My Two Cents…

Brett L. Favre,

WHY?!?!

I have the perfect metaphor for this soap opera.  He is the state of Wisconsin’s collective abusive ex-boyfriend WHO WON’T GO AWAY!

Now that he’s “back” I have to say I am not happy.  He should have remained retired with dignity and honor.

What happens at the end of this season when we have to go through the “will he or won’t he” drama AGAIN?  He’s been doing this stringing everyone along thing for a few years already.  Just when we were getting over him, he comes “back”…again.

Here’s what it is like.

We had been with Brett for 17 years.  We loved him.  He was always there for us and we couldn’t see life without him.  To us, he had always been there and he would always be there.  For the last couple years, things were getting a little rocky.  It looked like he was thinking about breaking up with us, but we ended up working things out and football life was wonderful.  This past year, everything was perfect and it really looked as though we would be together forever.  Suddenly, out of the blue on one cold March 4th day, he DUMPED us.  I personally was very upset, as we all were in our cheesy glory.  As all difficult breakups go, however, we eventually moved on and got over the shock of the relationship actually ending.  There were many false alarms which led us to believe that the inevitable may never occur.  We were wrong.  But there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  His name was Aaron Rodgers, a younger hotter version of our ex.  We still don’t know much about him, but he seems like a good enough guy and we really want to give him a chance to prove his worth.  Just when we were really starting to fall for this new QB in our lives, BAM!  In comes our ex, Brett Favre begging for forgiveness and wanting us to welcome him back with open arms.  He was wrong.  And drama ensued.  But we are very stupid when it comes to this guy because of all the history.  We want to believe that everything can go back to the way it was a year ago, when everything seemed perfect.  I have my doubts, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the next chapter of this ridiculous soap opera of a football story.

How did I miss out on this fad?

The name of the series is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.  The fourth (and final) installment is out in bookstores everywhere tomorrow.  (My copy will be delivered to my door sometime (hopefully) in the morning via DHL.)  I read the first one last Friday.  In approximately 13 total hours.  Probably slightly less due to the fact that I cannot read constantly for very long.  1700 total pages in 6 days.  Three of those days being work days, so I didn’t have all day to spend reading.  How did I do that?  War and Peace is a measly 1350 and it has been well over a year since I began that one and I am barely on page 300.  Well, it helps that this new series is young adult and a quick and easy read.  And the main male character is (seemingly) perfect in the eyes of its main female character.  My mom started to read the first book and I think she likes it as much as I do.  There is a movie coming in December, complete with a (very) attractive leading male.  I’ve admired Robert Pattinson ever since he played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter 4.  Which is funny because people have been known to compare the Harry Potter books with the Twilight books quite a lot.  I can’t put them in the same category, however.  Potter had me going for eight solid years with the books.  Twilight has had me going for a good week.  Harry is battling the ever cliche good versus evil thing and Bella and Edward in Twilight have an immortality/mortality love kind of crisis.  Personally, I find Edward (the leading male) to be seemingly attractive and the perfect gentleman, but I think he’s a little too possessive and a creepy stalker in a way.  Let’s just say I like my independence and Edward doesn’t give that to Bella so much.  (Bella is the female lead.)  In any case, I will be spending my weekend reading Breaking Dawn and hoping for a little closure, despite the fact that I have much much less of myself involved in these characters than I did with Harry and the gang.