Quarter-life Crisis

So today I turn 25 years old.

It is harder than I realized it would be. I've been saying that for the past 6 months while trying to come to grips with the fact that I am A Quarter of A Century Old.

Maybe I should look at is as being 3/4ths of a century young.

Anyway, I have no big plans for today...I have a audit test this morning (whooo hoo, man, if only I could have one during every class...oh, wait, I do.) and have plans to make a trip to the mall this afternoon. Oh, and don't forget Chicken Enchilada's for dinner. Diet be damned, its my birthday!

I'm gonna go get some chocolate.

This is a picture of me in Palm Springs.... 

Oh No!

Today, my overly abitious plan to finish all of the accounting courses I have to take to earn my degree came to a screeching halt. After some confusion over whether I am currently enrolled in a class I thought I may have already taken (and a very embarassing call to the business advisor), I found out that there is NO WAY IN HELL that I can finish my degree by next May. This is for a couple of reasons...

1. Taking Cost Analysis without the pre-req would be educational (and quite possibly personal) suicide.
2. I can't take Cost Analysis I and Cost Analysis II in the same semester
3. Cost Analysis II won't be offered again until next fall
4. I may go insane before the end of this semester by taking classes that most people have advised me not to take together.

So, now I have a couple of options...I can either quit school after this fall semester and go to work in some internal audit dept somewhere or I can take on more school loans, beg my parents to let me live with them for 6 more months and finish my degree next fall. I'm leaning towards extending my education and finishing next fall and taking another internship next summer (experience, networking advantages).

Also on a school related note: $49 worth of class material packets from the local copy store doesn't make nearly as impressive of a pile as it should. I think that when you spend that much on copies, you should require the use of a dolly to carry them to your car. I'm kinda disappointed that it didn't....

Attention UT People

UT people, when is your fall break? Do you have a fall break?

Bouquets of Freshly Sharpened Pencils

The new semester started today at LSU and it promises to be a busy one. I'm only taking 12 fun-filled hours...and by fun-filled, I mean hellish. Let me explain: Internal Audit 2 (including the CIA exam in November), Accounting Information Systems, Intermediate Accounting and Tax Accounting (with Tre's Aunt Lettie). If any one (please) wants to stop by Baton Rouge and rescue me for a night away from the world of accounting, feel free...

The semester really shouldn't be that bad. I'll be busy, but I don't have a job right now, so I should be less busy than last Spring (Thank God).

All in all, the day is going well. Something funny...at the CEBA computer lab, like all of the computer labs at LSU, you have to sign into windows. Unlike other labs around LSU, CEBAs computers must be on a different server or something because while I had to use my paws login to get into the computer at other labs, I couldn't use my login at CEBA. Until last April, I used a generic one that every used (fred2000). However, they require that you now use your own login ID. Mine doesn't work. Maureen's does. Thanks Mo, I promise to log off the system everytime I leave (atleast until I can get my own to work) so that no one crashes the system under your login....

:)

Now I have to return to the world of accounting.....

You see doctor, my problem is that given complete freedom of choice, I don't WANT to squeeze the goddamn Charmin!

I just got back from Austin. Thank you Carrie, Taylor and Pierre for letting me sleep at your place. The trip was a lot of fun and I got to experience several new things while in Ausitn. Gelato's is a place that everyone in and around Austin needs to frequent, because it's great. Try the chocolate hazelnut either by itself or mix it with caramel....

Alamo Drafthouse was a very unique experience...the movie was good and the Schlitz beer bucket was entertaining.

We went to Trudy's on Sunday night because I didn't think I had ever been there...I was wrong. I have, but it was a long time ago and I certainly didn't have a Mexican Martini during that first visit. I'm sure I would have remembered that (or maybe thats why I can't remember...)

All in all, it was a great trip, it was good seeing everyone and I racked up on all sorts of things shopping. I even managed to find a pair of dressy brown sandals for $15 on the trip home. :)

Goodbye, So Long

Well, its my last 15 minutes or so at Northrop Grumman. We had a long, nice lunch at Ruby Tuesdays (it is pascagoula, don't forget), a nice windshield tour around the shipyard, and and LSU decorated chocolate boobie cake. All in all, a nice last day.

As happy as I am to be finishing this and moving on back to school, leaving is very bittersweet. I've made some good friends and I really like working for this company. I've learned a lot this summer...a little bit about internal audit, plus a few extras.

A quick recap:

• Changing the bottle on the water cooler is tricky
• Doing shots in front of the boss will only get you an offer for more employment
• How to expense body piercings through the company
• How to use a coupon without getting anything that is actually on the coupon
• Traveling to Palm Springs from Gulfport is rather tricky
• What to do when you have a car accident on your lunch break
• High class livin' at the Suburban Lodge isn't all its cracked up to be.

Well, I'm on my way to BR tonight, I'll be in Houston tomorrow and Austin on Sunday!

Just Give Me A Tiara and Tell Me Where to Sign....

Saw Princess Diaries 2 last night. Very Cute.

Advice

Just a word of advice for those of you at UNO...if you ever have to work on a group project, make sure this guy is not in your group. He'll do about 5 minutes worth of work and then expect you to finish it all up. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Sonic...do you tip?

That's the burning question of the day...Do you tip when you go to Sonic?

I personally think the order process from beginning to end discourages patrons from tipping, but I've been told that people do. I'm under the assumption that Sonic employees get paid minimum wage and therefore do not require tips as a supplement to their income. Am I wrong? The only reason I could possibly think that Sonic employees (unlike other fast food joint employees) would earn a tip would be because they actually bring the food to your car, but that's the way Sonic is set up...you can't go inside a Sonic and get your food. So, my position is that Sonic employees don't need to be tipped.

Today, for lunch, I went to Sonic. When the girl brought my food, I handed over my debit card as my tender of payment. Before she rolled off on her skates, she asked me if I would like to put a tip on the card and, if so, how much. I couldn't tell her no, but I didn't want to tip her. It makes me never want to go back to Sonic again....

Any thoughts?

(sung off-key) Up, Up and Away In My Beautiful, My Beautiful Balloooooonnnnn....

As Claire mentioned, the Baloonfest is in Baton Rouge this weekend. I spent a great deal of time sitting on the tailgate of my dad's truck watching the balloons float by our house. The first 50 or so that we saw were a little distance away. Close enough to make out the designs on them (like the tooth and the partridges), but not close enough to actually see the people inside. After a while, it didn't look like anymore were coming so we went in and ate mom's saturday morning biscuits. As mom and I were doing the dishes, we heard one of the balloons outside. We rushed outside to see two balloons hovering just feet above our house! We were shocked that they managed to clear the oak tree we have in our front yard. As one of them passed over our neighbors house, we heard the guy say "Good Morning" to our neighbors in their backyard. One of the balloons landed in the empty lot behind their house.

After that, Renee' and I jumped into her car and tracked down the rest of the balloons landing on the levee. I'll post pictures soon, I just need to find the cord to download them onto my computer (I hate moving).

Ice Age

Movies have been a big part of my entertainment this summer and I've seen pretty much everything out there. I haven't really been in the mood for movies that will make me cry, so I haven't seen The Notebook and since I'm not a huge Will Ferrell fan, I haven't seen Anchorman. Other than that, there's not much that I've missed. I've discovered a theater in Mobile with stadium seating that plays movies that have been out for a while. I'm not entirely sure how the place stays in business since I'm normally the only one in the theater for whatever movie I'm watching.

I finally saw The Day After Tomorrow a couple of nights ago. While the plot is a bit impossible, I enjoyed the movie. The theater had a hand in making it more realisitic by keeping the a/c set at sub-zero temps and I walked out of the theater expecting blizzard conditions to have taken over south Alabama.

I was happy to see that if an ice age would suddenly develop, Louisiana would be ok other than all those cajuns trading in their 4 wheelers and cajun reeboks for snowmobiles and ice-shoes. They'd probably really enjoy getting new breeds of animals to shoot at. Can you imagine the smoked meat festival with fried moose?

Uh Oh

"Virgo: You'll finally break the endlessly mounting tension at work when you cause the rollback of that aggravating 'days without an accident' sign."

This worries me.

Weird But Kinda Neat

This