'Twas a nice Christmas

I had a very nice Christmas holiday. On Christmas Eve, I somehow made the decision to drive into work even though the roads were still bad. Normally, I have a "take-the-bus-into-work" policy when it snows - especially if it's icy. And it was very icy. Yet, somehow, I decided the unpredictable bus schedule and the need for my fiancee to get into work with her deadlines meant a car ride downtown.

Thankfully, we made it into work downtown safely. I dropped G off at her work then proceeded to Active Voice. I was on fourth avenue (between Macy's and Westlake Mall) at a traffic light, waiting for my green-means-go light. From my periphal, I see this homeless guy looking at me from the right. He goes to the back of my car and loops around to my driver's side window.

What the heck does this guy want?

Suddenly, I see a huge "KOMO News" camera in my face. Intrigued, I roll down the window even though I knew my light was on it's way to green and I'd soon have to proceed down the road.

Cameraman: "Hi, I'm [didn't hear his name] from KOMO TV! Can you tell us how your commute was coming into Seattle?"

Uh, oh. I could see the light had JUST turned green!

Me: "I came from West Seattle. It wasn't too bad. You just have to take it slow,"

After my quick quote and a wave goodbye, I accelerated down the road. I wasn't going to keep folks behind me waiting. Although, I did notice there wasn't anyone actually following me. Through the rear-view mirror, all I saw was the cameraman in the middle of the road.

Funny how quickly it all happened. I kinda laughed at myself thinking, "Wow... I gave that guy nothing to use. There's no way they're gonna use that footage. They didn't even get my name!"

I was going to call G-Lo to tell her all about it but, once I got to work, I completely forgot about it and went about my merry way. Two hours later, I received a Facebook message from an old high school friend:

"Just saw you on KOMO 4 News on a report about driving in the snow!"

What? No way! After about fifteen minutes of searching the KOMO website, I finally found the video clip.

Click here

The clip's kinda long but I'm about halfway through. I can't believe they used my stupid sounding quote without even citing who I was. They must not have had any luck with anyone else.

...So much for me writing about how nice my Christmas was. I'll just save that for another day.

So hot...

I have five layers on top. And wearing two pants. I've overdone it. So hot...

More snow stories. Snow-ries?

Shoveled the sidewalk and cleared the deck on Thursday afternoon. Was a hard worker clearing all the white stuff. So what happens? It snows... again. I took a look at the new snow that dropped-it-like-it's-cold on the deck. I'd say there's at least three new inches. I can't remember the last time we had so many days of signficant snow. In just a week's time, there's been three different snowstorms. But at least I did a little more today compared to the past few days:

-Actually took the car downtown, did a little bit of shopping, then rushed home when the snow started coming down.

-Friend going back to North Carolina had a helluva time getting to the airport. Kept in contact with her via text messages. I originally offered to take her to the airport but decided not to risk the dangerous road conditions. She finally got a taxi to the airport from Capitol Hill and is now waiting for her flight. Sure, the flight's delayed until 1:30am, but that's only a couple hours later than originally planned. She can't wait to leave this city!

-I was offered tickets to tomorrow's Seahawk game. Sure, the 'Hawks aren't having a good year - but they're playing the Jets (with Brett Favre). AND, it's Holmgren's last game in Seattle. Ugh. Would be a great game but I just don't want to deal with the cold weather, the traffic, and everything else related to it.

-We bought our Christmas present. Yay! A new digital camera! Forget wrapping and unwrapping it... we're gonna play with it tonight...

Life interrupted. That's what this weather's doing to everyone. No x-mas shopping, no white elephant, no musical, no birthday party today, no birthday party tomorrow. But lots of warm cozy house and relaxing. Plenty of that...

(and solving the rubiks cube)

I think I've completely checked out

What a day... I have been so lazy. I mean, I've done some things around the house. I did a little bit of work. But, for the most part, I'm just bummin' around not doing anything. Watchin TV, surfin the web, trying to stay warm. Tomorrow, I think we're gonna try to go out and take the bus downtown to get a little shopping done. I'll try to be home before dark just to avoid the cold and icy roads.

Oprah's on in the background. "I Hate my Job" interventions. Am I happy with my job? Eh. Not so sure. I like what I do, I like my boss, but I don't like the company culture. Darn Strategic Management class showing me how wonderful it is at other companies. Actually, I'm not naive. I know that, no matter where you go, there are employees that check out and don't really care for their job than anything else but a paycheck. And, of course, that's our main motivation. Money. But there's gotta be more to a job and I want to work with people who are overly eager to make a difference. I wanna know what it's like to work for a company that's team driven with individuals striving to meet the organiziation's various objectives and strategies.

A friend of mine told me about an accounting position opening at her work. They're a Microsoft owned company. It sounds perfect for me. I think I might apply just for the heck of it. Why not? We'll see...

Getting stuck

A coworker sent me an IM while I was offline. Poor guy!

I barely got home last night. my wife dropped me at the p&r cuz she was going to pick me up and go somewhere after work. That got canceled so I took the bus. Our exit was closed so they took the next exit and got stuck. I started walking the mile or so to the p&r and after walking one block, the bus drove by us all and didn't even pick us up. My wife was going to come pick me up but got stuck in the p&r lot so I had to get her unstuck and put the chains on just to get home. Phew. Glad I'm home right now.

I'm SO glad I'm not out there right now...

Snowed in

Wow. I guess my disappointment has turned into excitement! The snow is here. The white fluffies hit hard and is still going strong. I'd say there's about four inches on the ground. Active Voice is closed today so it's like a holiday... being paid to stay home & be safe.



Too bad I can't make lunch plans with a friend leaving for North Carolina this Saturday. I might not be able to see her before she leaves. That's a shame. I don't even wanna try taking the bus. The news is showing buses getting stuck. Ummm... not so safe. Interesting message on the bus website for Route 54 from West Seattle:

Due to adverse weather, this route is operating an unpublished reroute.

I understand what they're trying to say but doesn't that sound kinda funny? OOOooooo... a secret route.

My new beginning is right down the road

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed it didn't snow today. I wasn't hoping for it - but I was expecting it. I'm not a fan of the icy roads that are a result of the snow... But, aside from that, I think it's pretty purdeee... I had bundled up today, was all warm, and was expecting to leave early from work once the snow started falling. But nothing happened. It's 1am now and still no snow.

Well... I think the time has come for me to finally improve my health. I just weighed myself. 198 pounds. Wow. Yes, wow indeed! Whenever I step on that scale, the reading ranges between 194-198 pounds, depending on the time of day. I'm set to finally begin the long overdue changes to my diet and workout schedule. I've said that before... but this time I mean it. I hope I'll be able to write regularly about all the things I'm doing to lose weight, get stronger, and make the dramatic change.

What makes this more fun is that the new gym is right up the street. I just have to walk to the end of the block, up a steep hill, then up about three more blocks, and there you go. Anytime Fitness. I have an access key to all these machines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Can I ask for anything more? I can stop blogging, walk out my front door, and be to the gym in about five minutes. So exciting! I just received the key yesterday. I should start tomorrow night after Happy Hour with old coworkers... unless that gets cancelled. Then, the new beginning will... uhhh... begin.

Harassed during harassment training

I'm taking a company course on my corporate company's "Vision and Values". It's a bit dry and I'm falling asleep in my office. Coke break. The training reminded me of a course on the topic of harassment back in 2005. We had a guy from headquarters in Texas fly out to conduct the training. He was a big wig - been with the company for over 20 years. Friends with our CEO. But, man, what an event! I was reminiscing about the experience with a couple of coworkers and one of them said, "It was like a scene straight out of The Office." True. Very true.

After the whole thing went down, I sent an email to corporate about the whole incident. I wanted to confidentially provide feedback. But confidential? Yikes. Not so much. Below are the emails that were exchanged...


From: Me
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 1:25 PM
To: HR Training & Education
Subject: 06/06/2005 Policy Against Harassment - Seattle, WA

The Policy against Harassment training is a very important class for ALL employees to attend. I believe the material covered was thorough and the presentation of this material was clear and presented in a manner that everyone understood what was covered. I shared the enthusiasm of the instructor and recognized that he understood the seriousness of this topic.

However, I felt that the presenter’s opinions and examples bordered on inappropriate. For example:

1.In my class, he asked a female if he could use her as an example of physical contact which may be perceived inappropriate from a third person. In this example, he commented on her shirt saying it was nice. He then ran his fingers against the material on her shoulder to demonstrate that, though he was simply admiring the fabric of the material, someone from the outside could find this contact inappropriate in the workplace (not knowing the reasoning behind this contact). I had no problem with this. However, I wasn’t sure if he was done with his example or if he was still playing a role when he said, “Oh, that turns me on” or something to that affect. That comment seemed inappropriate, example or no example.

2.The presenter also made the comment that, on a personal level, he loves women and that his wife knows that he loves women. With that in mind, he likes to look but would never act upon it (or something to that affect). I felt that this comment was inappropriate as well. I feel that a presenter of harassment (and specifically sexual harassment) should not be sending a message that it’s okay to ogle over women. Instead, I believe that, as an instructor, he should have the professionalism to keep these type of opinions to himself because such comments can be misread saying it’s okay to ogle over the opposite sex. I feel that such behavior is inappropriate and, in itself, a form of harassment

3.I also feel that the presenter should have a better understanding of politically correct terms in reference and what is considered inappropriate. It is my understanding that the term “Oriental” is one that is offensive to Asian Americans. But, during the class, in making reference to Asian Americans, he stated, “…or Orientals as some of them like to be called.” I feel that such a statement is incorrect and that he should have a better understanding of such classifications before using these them.

4.Through a couple of people in another class, I heard that there was a story about his being part Asian – though he doesn’t look like someone who is stereotypically “Asian”. Since the instructor is part Indonesian (thus, being part Asian), he shared that his wife calls him “Chink” – a derogatory reference to Chinese/Chinese Americans (though he isn’t Chinese). He then proceeded to say that this was okay because she was part Native American and that the class could imagine what kind of names he could call her. My friend thought that he would leave the story as is but proceeded to say that he affectionately referred to her as “blanket head” – a derogatory reference to Native Americans. But he said that this name calling was okay because it was just between them. I found this story to be very offensive and inappropriate. I also found it interesting that this story was told in a class in which no one of Asian or Asian American descent. This, again, was according to my friend.

Overall, people in my class and other classes felt that some of the personal opinions/stories shared were inappropriate. One felt that some of these comments were made purposely in order to get “a rise” out of people to possibly spark comment. I think for the most part, people did not choose to participate. They simply wanted to complete the course. As a supporter of such education, I feel that our instructor needs to be a bit more sensitive and concentrate on getting people in the class more involved versus telling these type of stories. Maybe add scenarios/role-playing to the class? I’m not sure if that would be appropriate – but I do feel that the class should be tweaked a bit. Thanks for reading my comments…

So... that was that. I thought I might get a response thanking me for the response. But, instead, the trainer actually wrote me back!

From: Trainer
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 5:39 AM
To: Me
Subject: Training Critique

I just returned from my trip to Active Voice and was given a copy of your critique. Since you provided me with the courtesy of providing your name and contact information in your critique I believe you are owed a response.

First of all thank you for taking the time to let me know what your thoughts, perceptions, recommendations and feelings are about the training and the way it was delivered. I truly do appreciate your comments and am very sorry that I offended you or anyone else during the training.

All of your comments provide me with food for thought about how I can modify my presentation in better ways and I will do so accordingly.

Again please accept my personal apology for any discomfort you or any other student felt because of anything that I said or did during the training.

Sincerely,
Trainer

Are you friggin kiddin' me? They sent him the message? Just 'cause my email contained my name didn't mean I wanted it shared with MY name!!! I guess I didn't specify a request for anonymity - but, I just assumed... you know. Ugh. I felt my message was appropriate - but I didn't feel the need to be identified. So then I respond back...

From: Me
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 12:49 PM
To: Trainer
Subject: RE: Training Critique

Thank you very much for your reply… although an apology was not necessary. I simply felt that it was my duty to give you constructive feedback for comments which I felt (in my mind) to be inappropriate. Just as you taught us in class, it is all about a person’s perception. In my case, certain comments were inappropriate in MY opinion. However, I think you are a great asset to NEC. Your enthusiasm and passion addressed the seriousness of the topic and I applaud you for that. Keep up the great work. I hope my feedback does not take away from what you’re doing. That is not my intent… Thanks again for coming to Active Voice to train us. Everyone found the training sessions to be very helpful!

There. Done. Ugh. Felt stupid. I wouldn't have cowered in my response but felt I needed to be cordial in order to be politically correct. I don't mind standing up for myself but also know that the job is all about relationships. At least he was nice in his final response...

From: Trainer
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 12:46 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: Training Critique

I appreciated all your feedback. Sometimes we get too close to the forest to see the trees and need that third party to tell us what we are doing right or wrong.

Have a great day and thank you again.

I hope to never-ever-ever see the guy again. In over three years, I haven't. Good.

Final grades at CWU...

I thought about emailing my International Business instructor in protest. But I'm not going to. The website for my class showed that I received a 93.5% in the class. According to the syllabus, that should equal an A. Instead, the official grade posted was an A-. I've scored many 93-point-whatever in other classes and received an A but I guess this guy rounds down. I don't feel like being disrespectful and asking for a correction considering I missed about five classes (equivalent to two and a half weeks of classes).

My Strategic Management grades were just released. I can't believe I got a 204 (out of 200) on my final - the highest grade in the class. I really, really, really don't understand how I score so well on tests. I'm one of those people. "A good test taker". I barely read the chapters. My method of studying was reviewing chapter PowerPoint slides and creating an outline of all the topics given by my professor. I'm not gonna complain though... I scored one of the five As in the class of twenty five. I don't understand this whole curve grading process but at least I did what I needed to do to get a good grade.

It's all done now. No more CWU. Goodbye school...

The weather outside is snowful...

There it is. The first snow this winter. It's so beautiful. SO purdy. But it's a bit sad thinking that tomorrow night's dinner may be cancelled. I was looking forward to seeing a bunch of people, eating some good food, and just relaxing. For us, no problem. The festivities are planned for right across the street. But guests are coming from everywhere else and who knows how the roads will be tomorrow. If the temperature stays below freezing (as forecasted), then I think it just might be icy and not so good for people to be driving. I hope it ends up being okay.

Trip for Portland was cancelled 'cause we decided to not risk potentially dangerous driving conditions. I think we would have been okay but... sigh. It would have been nice to have gone away this weekend.

By the way, props to online shopping. I'm finding lots of good deals via the Internet. Although it doesn't seem like the brick and mortar stores are too crowded this year.

The office in the background

I'm at home today, cleaning a bit, and watching The Office (Season 3) in the background. I'm so glad I have this DVD. Cracks me up. I'm waching an episode where Michael finds out that one of his new employees (transferred from another branch) is a criminal... I mean, "reformed confict". Not knowing what the crime is, Michael confides in Dwight... who, of course, overreacts to the news. In a confessional, Dwight says:

I am greatly concerned about having a convict in the office. And I do not care if that convict is white, black, Asian, German, or some kind of halfsy. I do not like criminals.

Halfsy? Heh heh heh... ever since watching this episode long ago, I've used that comment. Not in a racist kinda way. In a, "I can't believe he said that" fashion. My fellow Office folks understand the reference. Horrible Dwight.

I'm thinking it's all over with

When can I officially say I'm graduated? I choose now. Sure, all the grades need to be officially submitted by my professors. Then the classes will be reviewed and all the admin stuff will need to be done. Heck... do I get my degree in the next six weeks? Or will I only get it when after the graduation ceremony in June? Who knows. But what I've decided is that I'm done. It's unofficially officially over with... I've graduated from CWU!!! "I can't believe it," is what I've been saying all night. In Facebook, I changed my status to, "Rodney unofficially has his accounting degree from CWU!!!!!!!" People have already sent their congratulations... and a couple of folks have emailed me best wishes. I called my fiancee first thing after class. Then I called my mom, then my sister. Everyone's happy for me. But nobody's happier than me! It's been a long journey and I'm just so proud of what I've done. I'm soaking it all in and just on top of the world right now! There's more to come... more classes to qualify for the CPA exam, taking a review course for the test, then taking the exams late next year. But I'm taking some time to reflect on what I've done and be proud of all the hard work. I'm so thankful for everyone who's been supportive and encouraging. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

One more left...

Oh my goodness. One more left. Took me an hour to take my first final. Ate a quiche at Caffe Ladro. Now I'm on my way out for Int'l Business final. I've got butterflies! Last final ever for my undergrad! Was evereyone else this anxious when they finished school.... Can't... Breathe. :)

The day is here

My last day at CWU. It's here. I can't wait. I've got five plus hours to take in whatever info I can for these final finals. My FINAL finals. Well... I'm still taking classes next year in addition to getting ready for the four-part CPA exam. But, yeah, after today, the grades will be tabulated and I'll be awarded my degree in friggin Accounting. I was emailing Eric... telling him that today's my last day. His response:


Good luck! I'm sure you won't need it, but it's still an important accomplishment nonetheless. If my dad was still around I could get him to quit bugging me about "Is Rodney ever going to go back to school?..." :)

Eric's dad was great. I do wish he was still around... just so he could see this. When I took my "break" from school, Mr. Ecker gave me a hard time and wouldn't stop. I barely saw the guy but, when I did, he'd tell me how smart I was and that I needed to get my degree because of the potential I had. I'll always remember that about him. And... awwww... my dad too. He was always about education and, though he was a man of few words, I know he was proud of me and my high school accomplishments. I know he was a bit devastated when I dropped out of college in the early 90's. At least he was still alive when I made the decision to go back to school. I hope he's looking down on me saying, "Stop blogging and get your ass back to studying! And, oh yeah, good job..."

Can you believe I blogged about going back to school over three years ago? My how the time's just passed.

I'll take that fortune

Safeway Chinese food for dinner. Yeah, I know. Sorry, but sometimes you eat what's available. Anyway... fortune cookie ancient chinese message:

You will be rewarded for your efforts within the month.

I likey.

Done prepping

I've been pretty much prepping for my finals this entire weekend. I finally got through it all today. For International Business, I cutdown the notes provided by our instructor throughout the quarter so it only consists of the areas he said to focus on. I also compiled all the quiz questions & answers into one document. For Strategic Management, I copied and pasted into a Word document only the parts of the chapter powerpoint presentations that my professor highlighted. Also, I took the online chapter quiz questions & answers and stuck them all in one doc. All the prepping is out of the way. Now comes the learning and reviewing.

I'm at the Starbucks in the Barnes & Noble at University Village. Whenever I'm in a Starbucks, I steal the internet connection from other unsecured Wi-Fi's. Right now, I'm connected to the World Wrapps connection (they have Wi-Fi?)... When's Starbucks gonna get with the program? They have the AT&T crap that you can get two free hours of - but, really, that's just not enough for a student. Plus, to get access of that, you have to buy a starbucks gift card, register it, and use it at least once every thirty days. I got a card and registered it but haven't used it in awhile. Plus, I lost my username and password.

Prior to coming here, I was at Zoka's - a really good coffee place at UW. Free internet there. I spent seven hours straight there. My friend, Michael, joined me. He's also got finals this week - he's back to school working on becoming a Physician's Assistant. We were reminiscing about our ol' freshman days at UW back in '92. The topic came up 'cause, recently, an old classmate was wanting to have a reunion of the dormmates who lived on my floor. That would be, ummmmm... interesting. I don't think I want to see many of those people. There's this one girl who I'm no longer friends with and then another one whom I used to "date". Nah, not a good idea.

Michael & I were totally laughing about different stories and the nicknames for different people. There's this one guy Michael used to refer to as "Goatee". Sophomore year, he didn't have the facial hair anymore. He was then renamed "Goatee-no-more". Heh heh heh... funny. And that one guy who confronted us all around 10pm for being too loud. "Can you guys shut up, like... [pause for dramatic effect] ... A LOT?!?!?"

Then there's the story of my old roommate. He's a good guy and all but, one day, I was with Michael and another friend. We got back to my room, unlocked the door, then... SLAM! My roommate shut the door on us and put the deadbolt on. "WHAT THE ???"

"Gimme a second!" he yelled. A few moments later, he unlocked the door and we went right in... And, ummm... (another), "WHAT THE ???"

It was 3pm in the afternoon, after he had gone to classes for the day, and he was in a robe. I only ever saw him wearing a robe in the morning... but now he appeared nervous and wearing only a ...

oh.

Nevermind.

Yuck.

Michael, my other friend, and I all stared at each other like... gross.

Awkward!

I don't think we spent more than a couple of minutes there before I came up with an excuse to go eat a snack at the cafeteria. We left the room, headed down the stairs, then started cracking up! We were in hysterics... Awww... how funny to catch him...

you know.

In the middle of...

tee hee!!!!

And now I'd better get back to my studying.

Worst week

Hmmm. Not me. Not my worst week. The show. I'll retype that:

Worst Week.

An awkwardly funny comedy that's got low ratings but which CBS is sticking with. I'm watching the most recent episodes on Comcast On Demand. Every episode gives me at least one gut-busting laugh. But so much for laughing at a time that I should be studying. Today went NOTHING like it should have. Today was supposed to be Day One of studying but I ended up having to work all day. All day. ALL DAY. Oh well. Had great sushi for dinner. I'll get a good night's rest and start the cramming tomorrow.

Careful who you text

My teacher just sent us the scores for our presentations this past week. I was glad we scored "average" so I decided to send a text to my classmate:

ME: Nordstrom: our score = 127... other teams: 144, 131, 118, 116; Article: our score = 42... other teams: 48, 40, 40, 35. Not bad!!!

Matt's been a good teammate. He's been the one person to show a little bit of leadership. We've been texting each other throughout the class, complaining about our other team members who have been lacking in skill. Thank goodness he's been on my team. But, then, I received a strange message:

MATT: I don't know what this means? Who is this?

I'm lost. Why would Matt respond this way to me? Ummm... duh, I'm the guy in your class. I've helped you so much this quarter and you're acting like we don't even know each oth...... oh, wait. I look at the text again:

MATT ROGERS: I don't know what this means? Who is this?

Whoops. Not only had I messaged the wrong Matt... but it was American-Idol-Season-3-Matt! Holy crap! I wrote him back immediately:

ME: Sorry... Wrong Matt! I'll delete ur number. I drove u for Detlef Shrempf foundation years ago... Again, sorry!

What a goof! I felt stupid but, at the same time, thought it was a bit funny. What a good sport. He didn't even have to respond. Everyday Rodney text "somewhat-of-a-celebrity" Matt Rogers. And he was kind enough to write back. His last text?

MATT ROGERS: Haha! no worries! When can we golf again?

That was nice.

Thank goodness for flexibility

Active Voice is way too kind to me. While at work today, I spent almost the enitre time working on my Nordstrom presentation. I really paid for it though. Whenever I finish the visuals the day OF a presentation, I do horrible. And it showed. I spent most of the time reading my sheets of notes. I was really embaressed. And, I felt pressured to quickly get through my part since my teammates spent eighteen minutes on their parts. I was last and we're supposed to keep the whole thing to only 20-25 minutes. I was really unhappy with how we did. That's what happens when a GROUP assignment is put together by basically one person. I miss my old classmates who actually care. I'm so sleepy right now. Off to bed I go. Only finals left to study for. I can't wait for this to be over with.

Old news but still clean

A few weeks ago, I didn't feel like working at the end of a particular day. I didn't feel like surfing the web, chatting with anyone, or starting up a new project. Instead, I decided to clean up my office. I was a shredding-slash-filing madman. I threw out documents as old as 1999. That was when Active Voice was a public company. My how things have changed! And, my, how I'm able to better interpret old reports and financial statements.

At the end of my day of cleaning, when nobody was looking, I went ahead & took a picture of my shiny clean office. Two weeks later, the office is still clutter free. I'm so glad I'm utilizing my shelves and no longer Rodney the Grouch. Get it? Not "Oscar" the Grouch. Goodnight.

Things I noticed after posting:
1. Man, I have a lot of computers. Can you count how many total?
2. This picture is older than my posting on the Rubik's cube. Can you see the unsolved cube?
3. Wow... what a reflection off my exterior window.

Three more drives left

I got through last night. It was tough but I'm still chipping away at my tasks. Sure, it's hard being sick, having a flat tire to deal with, and staying up late to work on school & reports. BUT... I'm getting through it. Just a few more challenges to get through:

1. Nordstrom presentation: I just need to finish the Powerpoint and rehearse my portion. One last project to present to a class on Thursday.
2. Study for finals: A final exam in both classes. Luckily, they're not cumulative. I have five full days to study eleven chapters.
3. Take the exams: Oh, man. They're both multiple choice (with a couple of short essay questions for one class). But I can do it. I can make educated guesses if need be.
4. Graduate.

Oh, man. I'm very excited. This is becoming a reality. From feeling hopeless a few years back to actually getting a degree. In accounting. This feeling is awesome. I'm going to enjoy my finals days at Central Washington

I've got a "blank" load left to do tonight...

It's shortly after midnight and I have to do so much more before I sleep. I've got to finish the consolidated financial statement for work. I'm not looking forward to that because it's the second month of the second half of the year. So now I've got to make sure that these first two months all roll up correctly for this current period.

I just got done sending an email to my group in Strategic Managment. I've spent the past three hours fixing people's parts and making the presentation look uber pretty. It's nice, let me tell you. But, content-wise, there's a lot missing on this one section. And, yikes, I haven't even begun my portion yet. I'm so in trouble.

And, on a sad note, a coworker of mine is leaving. I'm gonna miss her. She hasn't even been part of the company for long but I really enjoy her sense of humor and the fact that I completely get her way of thinking. That's a very rare person to find in the workplace. It sure is gonna be different when she leaves. I hope I'm able to stay in contact with her better than the other folks who have left. Having her around at work was like having my little sister there. You know, my little 25-year old sister. Who's white. And from North Carolina. And into way other things. Okay, they were completely different... but similar. I rant because it'll be different. Darnit. Why must the good ones leaves? Yo... bad ones. Be gone!