Thumbing Through Chaos

Crunch Time

I take another section of the CPA exam (i.e., forced state manipulation on accountants for extra revenue) on the 30th of Nov. Hence, my engagement in various social frequencies will decrease rapidly during the next couple of weeks, but will resume in time for the PwC christmas party (oh yeah, and I already have a dress. Dress = chocolate halter worn at Megan's wedding. Reduction in "cost per wear" is my objective here. Less shopping makes me happy. Although shopping with other people's money and for shoes certainly makes me happy, thus the statement before that is not an absolute statement.) Oh damn the mindless banter! Anyway, the temporary plug is all encompassing except the social functions below, of course. Now that I think of it, I do think the months of Oct, Nov, and Dec, would be better off blurring into one ginormous month of holiday festivities and strange traditions that bring people together. Can we have an "Octovember" once a year or something? Gosh, it's hard to find time to study without saying "no" to various activities and friends a seeming thousand times and feeling like a jerk for saying so.


Hold Me, Texas

I will play in the annual PCS PwC Texas Hold 'em Tournament this Tuesday. Can I bring home the cash and prizes? It's almost an $800 dollar pot. Let's hope so. Shhh...I've been practicing my bluff in my room at night. I won't lie, this is my game of choice. However, I will have to watch the increased expressiveness that comes with beer though, as that could certainly mark the beginning of my demise. Keep all fingers crossed.


May You Give Me Cincinnati

It's winter, meaning excellent training time. I've got the hotel, time off work, and I'm already registered for the Flying Pig Half-Marathon in May. My hair diva and friend Kate pulled off the Full for this same race last year, while I was still recovering from running the Spirit of St. Louis Half two weeks earlier. What a role model for me, she is. I'm also ditching Club Fitness since it doesn't do a great job keeping its stuff up-to-date at its north county location. Instead I'm joining the huge Gold's Gym which just opened up next to our house last month, complete with extra cross-training must haves Club Fitness did not have, like a lap pool, yoga ambience room, and hot tub. Not to mention the membership includes access to a real-sized theater room with tons of workout machinery, and the theater room shows continuous new-releases throughout the day (and it's 24 hrs M-F). Enough said for Gold's.

I'm also getting accustomed to ripping through old town florissant again regularly with my fresh New Balances. Also, been trying out and enjoying my "Nike Plus" shoe microchip which syncs excellently with my Ipod Nano. I've gotta admit, running regularly again feels pretty good. I need to keep my rambunctious body in check, or I know it will control me. Summer busy season kinda killed that. Oh, but to start from ground zero once again. Gotta make it through the pain to the other side. Will not give up.


Going International

As a newbie at PwC, they place us in starting "classes" and we do rotations into different specialty departments. This is much like getting to try out a field of knowledge before choosing a major in college. Many of the "rotaters" get vitriolic in discussions over the pros and cons of this rotation program. Most are against it, and, like all big corporate programs, negative feedback might cause it to fade away rather quickly. However, I am an advocate of this program mainly on grounds that short term cuts to efficiency will pan out in the long-term through the increased adeptness of its employees. In any case, I find myself a part of this program for the time-being. Given that, I am currently in the process of transitioning into another department, specifically from Private Company Services (PCS) into International Tax Services (ITS). I'm very excited about this transition, as I know the assignment I have coming up will be challenging. It's with a fortune 500 company which includes dealing with very current research and reporting issues in international law and taxation, namely the Foreign Tax Credit, subpart f, controlled foreign corporations, and disregarded entities. I will post more on these subjects once I delve more in depth with them. In the meantime, my excitement hardly suffices to contain me.


Nicholas' Birthday

I can't believe my husband just turned 26. Yeah he's now got more Bastiat, Rand and Mises. For sure, good times went down at the Cloud house with our buddies this weekend. In fact, I think its been at least a good year since we've thrown a kick-ass party at our house. Go figure, I always said I was going to be cool when I grew up. How lame is that? Too much work and study I suppose. Which is not so bad, actually. It's weird too when you're laughing with beer in hand, just having a good time and you think "Wow, I'm tired, it must be getting late" and you look at your watch to realize it's only 10pm. That kind of goes along with how I randomly found myself cursing out loud at a Cosmo magazine recently. After saying to myself "gosh if only these girls would just put on some clothes" I immediately lashed out at myself for sounding like my grandma when I was nine years old. That line of thinking seriously freaks me out. I imagine that's why people get married. Yeah. Since it's not only me that's getting old, too. And fat with wrinkles. Yuck. We can do it together. Yay.

Disclaimer: I did not just say you were old and fat, honey. It's nothing on you.

Getting Into The Spirit...

Of St. Louis and its glorious half-marathon...

23 pounds lighter. Four sizes smaller. Many weights stronger. 16 weeks of training down. Five weeks to go. With a competitive eye for Chicago, New York, and my dear friends, it’s no secret I lust for Boston. Last week I successfully made a continuous mile seven. Let's push it up to thirteen miles before training is up. But that’s not to say that I haven’t endured immense loads of pain and obstacles getting to this point of physical satisfaction…

There’s something to be said for taking a thing one knows and likes out of curiosity, something which could be enjoyed, and initiating oneself to the point of enjoying it.

I do not by any means have a natural skill for running endurance, but I have set myself on the goals my interests have in mind. I would think there is nothing more mind-blowing, nor more edifying than to achieve what one might naturally think to be impossible in spite of one’s current situation. In my early weeks of training I had hefty bouts of shin splints, even to the point where I thought I may have minor stress fractures. Having had chronic bronchitis and pneumonia as an infant thus left me with asthma now which has surely been a consistent obstacle through this winter’s annoyingly cold weather. Additionally, extensive over-pronation of my right foot leading to subsequent hip problems (which may actually have been a mild case of iliotibial band syndrome) has been an issue I have had to keep in mind. Nonetheless, I would argue for running’s merits – despite all the pain, since it is immensely satisfying as a physical discipline— or more generally for me as a method of carrying out an interest for what seemed to me at first impossible. But really, this principle could apply to many things besides running.

There’s nothing comparable to challenging oneself despite known or unknown obstacles until the uncertainty of success is penetrated so intensely and with a motivation such that the existence of any inital uncertainties are obliterated in the face of victory. Let's just hope the last few weeks of training go as well as my first!

Oh, and many thanks to the help of my ipod, Dane Cook's Retaliation CD, and my dog too. ;-)

Feelin' The Burn...Soon At Least

Six months exactly from yesterday. No time to lose. That is, for the Spirit of St. Louis Half-Marathon. It’s 13.1 miles, begins at 7:00am April 15th, and my stamina for running is currently laughable. At first, I thought a 5k would be sufficient for my newly found desires for running, but why not go for the gusto? I've been thinking about this for some time, but I kept telling myself I’d never be able to seriously contemplate this task. So, in tackling some lingering inner demons of mine, I’m planning to do a half marathon in April. Wish me luck, or.. um happy training. Geesh. I’ve got work to do.