Mutual Admiration

This past weekend we went to Virginia to meet the lovely Selena. What a sweet babe!

We had the first meeting of The Mutual Admiration Society. If you look closely at Selena’s face, I believe you would agree that it was very successful. We hope to have many more such meetings to accomplish the goals of The Society. A major obstacle threatens the frequency of these meetings--namely, the many miles that separate the members. A Feasibility Committee may need to be put in place to look for potential solutions to the problem.

Meet-And-Greet

Note to self: Leave earlier next time.

I left in what I thought was plenty of time this afternoon to head to Owensboro for my first meet-and-greet with accounting firms, but I got caught in school-just-let-out traffic, which set me back in my time schedule. As I headed up the parkway to Owensboro, I began to realize that I had scheduled too closely, and I would probably end up being late. I stepped things up a notch, and mercifully, the five cops that I met over the next hour or so were either on their way home to a chicken dinner or had blinders on. Either way, I was grateful they weren’t sitting in the median waiting on some speedster to come along.

As I arrived in Owensboro, I gauged that I would probably end up being only five minutes late—if traffic cooperated. Well, traffic wasn’t the problem—my map was. I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that had a helicopter been following me from the air, they may well have gotten quite dizzy while attempting to follow the car below through its turnabouts.

I finally found the right street and arrived at the accounting firm only fifteen minutes late. I was pleased to find a parking space right near the front door. I grabbed my resume from the passenger seat and walked inside. The entrance was one of those that you enter and two businesses have their entrances going off the small entryway. I was rather puzzled by the fact that neither business represented the accounting firm that I was looking for.

I picked a door and walked inside to the receptionist’s desk and inquired upon the location of the accounting firm. She was pretty sure that it was located next door, and someone else confirmed that the place I needed to go was, in fact, one door down. (No wonder I got a parking place near the front door—it was the wrong one!) I exited the building, found the correct entrance, and entered.

I was greeted by their receptionist and gave her my name. She gave me an information packet and nametag, and I gave her my resume. I was then greeted by an older gentleman, and he asked if he could take my picture. “Uh, sure!” I smiled for the large camera he was wielding and waited for him to snap the picture. As he fiddled around with it, I could feel my smile wilting. By the time he actually got the picture taken, I’m sure it was nothing more than a sick little smile, since a genuine smile can only last for so long!

After the picture, another guy stepped forward to shake my hand and escorted me down the hall to a group of four college students being shown around by two of their associates. They told us about what they do (tax work) and then fielded questions from us. Another girl joined us (and later another), and she appeared to nearly be in tears because she had also gotten lost. I was gratified to find out later on that, out of the seven of us in my group, at least five us had gotten lost on the way there.

We were escorted from office to office where different people told us about different aspects of public accounting. After talking with several of their associates, we went to their conference room for refreshments—the part I had been dreading.

We stood around conversating for a period of time. I chatted with two girls from WKU that will be in at least one of my accounting classes this fall. It had begun storming soon after I arrived at the firm and after about fifteen minutes of chatting, one of the partners made an announcement that since there was a lull in the storm, it would probably be a good time to wrap things up. We did so. Happily.

I made up for my trek to Owensboro by returning at a far more sedate pace. And I met exactly zero cops. Go figure.

On another, more delightful note, I stopped at the university on my way back through to take my final at the library—less distracting than doing it at home. I’ll just have to say that it was a good thing that the course was an open-book course. I’d have had to work way too hard on it otherwise—not cool to work hard on school during the summer! I worked as hard and as fast as I could on that final and I still ran out of time. I had to submit it without even attempting the last twelve problems. Oh well, I still got 127 when I only needed 40 to make my grade.

So now I’m free!!!! For two whole weeks and three days. Short break, huh?

Bloomin' Weeds

It certainly is a sad day when you have to take a weed eater and Roundup to your flowerbeds, but that is precisely what I did this evening.

I’ve had my hands full just trying to keep the lawns mowed. Now that I have just a teeny bit more time to do Stuff, I decided to try and do something about the Shag look we’ve got going on around here. So I mixed two gallons of Roundup, untangled the weed eater cord, and went to work. I didn’t get very far, but hopefully in the next few weeks, I can douse a good majority of my problems with roundup.

On the upside of weeds, some of them do end up blooming. This one stands at the edge of the drive. I didn't have the heart to chop it down, so it still stands. If it hadn't chosen to bloom in the past few days, it would have been a goner!

All By Myself

As I enter my third year of college, I will be branching out on my own in a number of ways. Heretofore, Kris’s major has required many of the same classes that mine does. Since she started school one semester ahead of me, she has gone through many of the requirements one semester ahead of me. I have been a willing sponge—using her notes when I needed a supplement, using her study guides, etc. Her methods of organization are great, and I have enjoyed being a sponge.

In the fall, I will only have one class that Kris has gone through. In the other four classes, I’m on my own. In a chat that I had with Dr. L, my accounting professor (one that Kris had taken in the spring), he told me in no uncertain terms that I am to tell Kris that she needs to change her major to accounting. “You are going to need a buddy,” he said. “From here on out things can be very difficult, and you need a buddy. You could go through the accounting program together and be very successful.”

He went on to tell me that they would be willing to customize Kris’s program to gear it toward the health care field, but he wants her in the accounting field! (I didn’t tell him that the English, Math, History, and Foreign Languages (did I miss any?) departments also want Kris. They love a successful student.) Alas, it is a bit late for Kris to change her major so she can go through the accounting program with me. I’m pretty much on my own from here on out.

And then about a month ago, I got a letter from an accounting firm in a town an hour and a half from here. The letter was an invitation to a reception for junior and senior accounting students. I thought it might be a little early in my college career to start with the Courting The Students game, so I asked several people for their advice. Kris thinks I should go; Sara thinks I should go; Dr. L thinks I should go. Everyone seems to think I should go—except me. I really don’t want to go by myself!! It could be very, very awkward for me.

I suppose it’s time for me to just take a deep breath, square my shoulders, and be a Big Girl. The word in the accounting department is that a lot of this type of reception/recruitment goes on, so I’d better get used to it. How better to break myself in than to go to a town that I’ll probably never see the people again?

I’ve sent my reply in, and I’ll go to the reception…all by myself.

Gaining Ground

Even though it feels like I’m cheating myself out of a summer break, I am very pleased with the fruits of my labors. I will be starting my junior year of college as a junior. I didn’t think that I’d be able to do it. I’m very pleased!

To achieve junior status, one must have 60 credit hours to their name. If I had only taken my standard four classes per semester for the past two years and left it at that, I would only have ended up with 49 hours, but last summer (was it just a year ago?) I took a single summer class and this summer I’m taking four classes. Once I finish my current class, I will end up with 64 hours, which will shove me to the rank that I should possess after two years of college. I really am very pleased.

Having said that, I now have to admit that I’m kinda nervous about my fall semester—for several reasons. First of all, I’m taking five classes instead of my normal four. In reviewing the number of classes I have left, I decided that I’m going to have to step up the pace if I want to finish in any sort of timely fashion. It feels like I’ll be in school ‘til I’m 40. Can’t have that.

In addition to entering the new world of more hours, I also will be taking Accounting 300—the “weed out” accounting course—next semester. The content is supposed to be similar to my spring accounting class (financial accounting), except supercharged. It separates the “gonna-make-its” from the “not-gonna-make-its.” I keep hearing the horror stories about the class. It’s time consuming and just plain hard. Recently, Kris talked to a survivor of the class that said she has actually worked in the accounting industry and considers herself to be an A student, but in this particular class she said she had to take what she could get grades-wise. Yup, sounds frightening to me.

Not only am I taking Weed-Out 101, I seem to be taking Weed-Out 102 at the same time in the form of Accounting 310. It’s supposed to be like the accounting class that I just finished this summer (managerial accounting), except supercharged. From what I hear, the instructor isn’t greatest (in fact, they say he’s awful), and from what I know of the course content, it will prove to be very challenging. Add to the accounting classes two management classes and an economics (in the form of statistics) class and I can see my free time disappearing very rapidly this fall.

I was talking to my accounting instructor this summer, and I asked him how feasible it will be to carry the workload of five classes, as well as work 20 to 25 hours a week. His response? “Oh, Sharon, don’t do it. You need to drop something.” Help!

One comfort I have is that each class is only two days a week, except one of my management classes is a night class that will meet once a week. Also, since the fifth class doesn’t cost me any extra, if I see that I can’t handle the pressure of the fifth class I can just drop the class and no harm done (except for having already purchased the book). Another comfort is that I now have a reliable assistant at work. I may have to rely more heavily on her to pick up the slack if school becomes overwhelming.

So while the fall looms large, I shall savor the fruits of the summer and deal with the fall when it arrives (in less than 4 weeks).