Hold On To That Thought

Goin' South For The Winter

I have my first solo out of town assignment this Thurs and Fri. I'll be going to the well-known bustling cities of Fancy Farm, KY and Union City, TN. I'm helping the auditors with their year-end inventory counts. So yes, this is the part of my job that fits the stereotype of counting beans. Even though I am not sure precisely what I will be counting, the mystery element fascinates me. On another note, I do know I'll be counting donuts near Chicago as well at the end of Jan. It'll be nice to get out of the office before the International busy season throttles into full swing.

Ginger is More Than A Spice

My husband's childhood dog is staying with us until Christmas (they say mixed breeds outlive pure ones, but wow, she must be ancient). It was not difficult to persuade me once I found out she needed a place to stay. In my opinion, there cannot be enough animals in the house, or outside the house. In fact, we really should invest in a farm.

Thievery Comes In Garages

To my dismay, along with most everyone else in my office, I discovered that my registration tags have been stolen off of my car in the adjacent garage at work. Apparently, I have to go through the trouble of getting a form notarized in order to have them replaced. I pay over a hundred dollars a month to park downtown, you'd think tighter security would be imperative.

Babies Come In All Sizes

My husband has been under the weather lately. He will mutter things like "Can I have some soupie" etc. Then, he will do the pout. The "I know I can have anything I want" pout. His lower lip poofs way out and then quivers a little. It's adorable. Almost makes me want babies. I said almost....

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.

Babies or Bust

Right after the honeymoon I remember getting asked, and more than once, with a sort of gentle jab in the side and a wink, "So, when do you expect to start making babies?"

It was in my jarred response that suddenly I knew I had forgotten to make the connection of marriage with such, dare I say, multiplicative properties. (In fact, I think I challenge a kung-fu fight in my head with anyone when they make that sort of implication to me. If only they knew what I was thinking.) But after getting over my initial repulsion at what seemed an absurdly irrational idea at the moment, I thought maybe this lack of thought on my part was merely due to my frazzled state of mind from planning and executing a wedding in three weeks time, or that just maybe it was an idea I should get used to thinking about.

Well, to bring things up to speed currently, I can confidently state that everyone has and continues to tell me things like the following, "Oh honey, some day you will want them, when you're ready." I have no intention of dishonoring the mothers out there by candidly discussing this topic--especially for the sake of my own awesome mom, plus my first hand experience with one of my very best friends that is a mother of two. However, although I am consistently fascinated by the relationship a mother has to her children, I simply don't understand it. Although I naturally enjoy other people's children, I instinctually call down anyone that suggests these actions mean I am displaying some sort of "baby fever" behavior. I'm even down with the whole family unit idea in general, but holy crap, will I ever make babies? Right now, that's like asking can I shoot myself without committing suicide?

Fast forward again, specifically to today when I have concluded there is most definitely something in the water at work. Two of the ladies in my department, both good friends of mine, are pregnant. Two managers are on or shortly going on maternity leave. One male partner is on paternity leave. Another manager just got back from maternity leave and regularly makes use of our "mother's room" for breast-feeding. One of the female partners that actually has kids, asserts her ease of raising them with a live-in nanny. So, with the extent that I am surrounded by "oh the surprise!" people making babies, the question has again come directly at me. When are you going to make them? I get dumbfounded looks when I display the sheer honest fact that I have not given it much thought. Most women will do anything for their babies, but will also do anything to get ready to start making them. Still I answer emphatically negative to my friends, but my intrigue for the topic continues to grow furiously. Why are women prone to the "babies or bust" idea?

Overall, I just wonder, how can I be so dense on a topic that is expected as self-explanatory to a woman?

World of Warcraft, You Entertain Me

Fairly often I am annoyed at the amount of time Nick spends playing computer games. Mainly because it comes off as a threat to the precious little time we could be spending together instead. However, lately my reservations have lifted, and quite abruptly to my own surprise, especially since most of the time our options are limited to either crashing in bed after late night work/study, which is most of the time, or having some down time once at home in the evenings. But, I figure it's probably time I let him enjoy *and free of guilt* this enigma to his heart's content, World of Warcraft. Strangely, this admonition came to me after walking in on him the other day in the midst of this game and saying to myself, "Wow, that actually looks pretty cool." I think I winced at the sound of my own thought. What can I say folks, the threat runs deep.

Apparently, it also sounds pretty cool. I literally spent ten minutes listening to Nick play WoW with his buddies last night, and what I heard wasn't short of entertaining:

1) Anyone know how to pick locks?

2) I think you just pulled one like "Peppy La Pew"

3) Shutup and take that!

4) There's a box over here, d'you want it? Ooh... and armor-lift-leggings.

5) Can anyone use scrolls?You know, scrolls of strength?

6) Where's my cape of intellect!?

7) I got to hit something! Yay!!!

8) Ha, I can use that when I get to level 37.

9) I just killed a bunny because you insulted me!

10) Oh this is that fun one where that lady comes out and stones us right?

Crap, I want some Scrolls of Strength. Maybe it's time I place my prejudices aside and learn to play as well. Hmm...did I actually say that?

And Now, Busting Out With Some Updates

As I was trying to think of what I wanted to write, I realized my last "normal" post was on July 9th. Then I started thinking back that far and I realized (oh another realization!) how my sense of time has become so warped from the goings on between then and now. So here are some of those major things:

A Tribute To The Master/Slave Relationship:

Uhhh...seriously, it's not like that. I just really mean my full time job which I started in July at PricewaterhouseCoopers, or known to me better as "Price" or "PwC." Let's just say the term "cyclical" applies and becomes ever so clear (even if there was the foggiest bit of doubt in your mind) with tax accounting. I've noticed the trade off, however, between working insane hours (70-80 a week even) contrasted with the slower times where I can take off to do something normal 8-5 people would never be able to do, like go hiking with my dog or leave early to study for an afternoon without taking vacation. It's also interesting how the mentality shifts between "let's all work together as a collective team" to get work done during a busy season, to "it's my work, not yours so suck it up" during slow periods. The politics is outrageous, yet quite entertaining. Even though I worked odd accounting jobs through school giving me roughly two years accounting experience before I began at Price, I am quickly learning my place among the ranks. Like today for instance after I spent three hours doing a reconciliation (and very happy with myself nonetheless), I was told the number they really needed was staring me right in the face (a task which literally would have taken 2 minutes to complete). The nice thing about big companies (besides, pay and maternity leave of course) is that there's an overwhelming network of people and knowledge available for me to tap on a whim if I need anything at all. I still have much to learn, but overall I'm having a blast and the toss up of the new and uncertain only keeps things fun...

The Dust On Our Pontiac G6

Nicholas is realizing quickly that his new job in Houston involves much more responsibility than his previous ones. I commend him for the long hours and hard work he's invested already. Not to mention his stay in Houston for two, sometimes three weeks at a time with the CIO, his wife and three young children (with a zoo of animals to boot). He's already started re-vamping the IT department to his own liking and been in charge of interviewing several prospects which he will oversee. Need I say more? This man is a freaking genius. Oh, and I need more reasons to move to Houston.

Dane Cook: His Edges Were A Little Too Rough

I knew I had a break coming up between CPA studying and off-season at work so I ordered tickets to see my favorite comedian, Dane Cook. I went a little crazy - I got a steal on pre-sale tickets for $100 per seat (um..yeah I said it was crazy). I first got acquainted with him through my bro-in-law's Vicious Circle DVD, which is a masterpiece, hands down. However, I must say I was rather disappointed with his performance this past weekend, mainly because I thought his subject matter was out of balance with too many sexual references (not that I mind that stuff, but that's besides the point) and he didn't incorporate enough new material into his routine. Now I'm not hard to please when it involves comedy, but I felt like this guy could have done better. Perhaps he is over occupied in the aftershock of doing movies with Jessica Simpson and Jessica Alba (or maybe he just has a thing for pretty Jessica's). Or maybe it's time for me to move on...




Wow, I've only scratched the surface of busting out.

Well, Screw That......

glumbert.com - Women: Know your limits

He's Finally Getting It

I thought it was just me. Turns out, I'm not alone. That is, in my irrationality.


It all became so clear the other day when my husband stated emphatically that my lip gloss tasted like the smell of cigars.


......huh?


That's what I said. Yeah, and I think spring makes me think of polka dot blog templates. Yes, I pride myself in being irrational. Sometimes. I like to think of those as my special, creative times. But I love pinning my husband on his unwary boffles. Oh how exciting since generally this category is reserved for...I'm not going to say it. Ah, what a womanly feeling. Or maybe I should say womyn with a "y." That also makes me feel better, and it's so....rational as well. Why don't you tone up that estrogen, and give it some giggles. Join the club, sweety.

And When Persians Would Become Lions

Chaos would begin. But it was only a matter of moments before I realized what had happened.

I woke up dazed, like usual, and mildly amused at the idea that yet those first few moments of waking up would probably be uncomfortable, but I found encouragement in knowing the transition to full consciousness would happen quickly. But, never did I suspect the subsequent, should I dare say SHOCKING events which would later come into play.

Won't you let me illustrate?

On a normal day, I can surely depend on waking from my dreams rather abrubtly. Waking from rather bizarre ideas such as this:



And this:



Anyway.

Those things are quickly replaced by the sensation of this lovely person below kissing me goodbye in the morning. At this point I'm still not sure precisely what is going on.

But you know, it's all good.



Then at some point I also see this:



And this:

But on this day, instead, I would see something entirely different from that last photo. Amidst the sounds of profuse husband-giggles, on this day I was determined to find out what had happened.

(Now, briefly recall the very last picture above.)


To my astonishment, I saw THIS:





Oh, and after a long silence and a double-take,

I saw this:














And after a discussion with my husband on the practical nature of this hair-style, and after much time regaining my self-composure, I saw this again:

Gayle Trice: A Strong Woman Worth Knowing

The Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius once said in his Meditations that when we die we lose only the present moment, for the past has ceased to be and the future has not yet to come; so to comfort ourselves we have only to look around and ask whether the present moment is really worth keeping. To this idea I would contest, as the notion of “death” itself can be shown to invoke a much more complex mosaic of responses for an individual than merely reflecting on the present moment in which we experience death, whether it is our own death, or the death of another.

What his words do provoke however is the idea that it is necessary to gain an understanding for precisely how we as humans, consistently bombarded by the idea of death, should react. We can think of circumstances in which many individuals die but are individuals which we don’t have a formal acquaintance with, such as in war. But a situation in which we are continually affected, and affected to the greatest extent personally, is when a friend, a loved one or a family member close to us passes away. It is these things which I intend to address here, as my grandmother certainly represented all of those things to me — friend, loved one, and family member.

Growing up, my grandmother became a strong female figure in my mind. Having never met my grandfather, I chose to look up to her early on in my life. I spent long days with her as a child, and her impression quickly grew in me, although I don’t think she was aware of it. As I grew older and she moved away, time and distance didn’t allow us to know each other as well as I think we both would have liked, but there were certain qualities she had that always reverberated within me about her. So much in fact that I think they have shaped a part of who I am; they shape who I strive to be to this day. Thus in reflecting on her death, I choose to make this a moment in which I must give my sincere appreciation for those qualities in her which have had the most impact on me:

I admire the steadfast persistence she conveyed in all things she deemed important in life. For instance, she placed extraordinary value in expressing clearly to others what for her had deepest meaning—she was a public woman— articulate and confident in all matters. Everything she held dear: her love for her husband, her children, her music, for God, was known by all that knew her. When she met with resistance to her values, her strong-will allowed her the persistence to carry on no matter the consequences; she always pressed forward whether one agreed with her or not, and all because she believed in herself and for standing consistently behind what she knew was right.

I admire the confidence with which she carried herself when putting into practice her enormous talent for music. This served as not only encouragement for my own personal musical development early on in life, but also for discovering those different areas which I would choose to follow in place of music later in life. In putting her talents into practice, she thus not only edified herself, but gave an example to those around her that she valued knowing herself, her potential, and once discovered, these things should never go un-pursued. Once she mastered her skill, it gave her something she could freely share with others. Her rigorous pursuance of her talents set a standard that wasn’t easy for others to emulate, but in turn her example challenged others to do the same for themselves.

I admire the compassion she relentlessly showed to others by her actions. Some might say she didn’t have much to give, since her material wealth was not substantial. But she never hesitated to give what she did have; and it is not unobvious that material wealth should be no arbiter of one’s degree of compassion. She showed zero hesitation for giving what was possible for her in circumstances which she thought necessary to ameliorate. Simply put, her heart bled for sustaining the well-being of others. In this way, she was selfless. In this way, she also had to know herself. By understanding and knowing her own experiences, this led her to care enough to take great strides in helping others in all ways within her means.

I want to finish with a final quote which I do agree with, and to which I think my grandmother would also agree. It is the place where Aurelius says, “It is not death itself one should fear, but one should fear never beginning to live. Thus, when you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” Surely that is a mentality my grandmother would have wanted us to have, and a state of living in which we should remember her by. She cherished the life she had very much, and she wasn’t afraid to live.

I also don’t think she would be happy for us to perpetually grieve in sadness, but would instead be comforted to know that we choose from this moment on to recognize and hold with us the qualities about her that affected us the most; as with her influence instilled in us, there is virtually no limit to the presence she can have in our lives. In our hearts, she is immortal. In this way I choose continue to remember her, to love her, and to know her.

Boys & Games

When I was a young girl I was that annoying little sister that always wanted to play/emulate/follow along with what my brother was up to. I didn’t have a big sister to play dress-up with, or put on makeup or talk about boys to (although, mind you, this did come later under influence with my girlfriends. I don’t even want to think of what my parents went through on this, especially my dad). I know my brother probably had no idea at the time and neither did I, but – playing with my brother – all of those things are some of the best memories I carry with me about being a little girl. Remember those things like Nintendo, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, to name a few? Well we also did crazy stuff like make Superman videos and brown bag puppet shows. I didn’t even care when he used our home-built Ninja Turtle catapult to launch my Barbies across the room. After all, it was for the sake of Baby Ninja Shamoo's command which was my brother through proxy.

Need I say more?

Now that I’m a big girl (heaven forbid too big – I do work out). These memories have driven me to a state of befuddlement on another issue I must contend with. So folks, here it is:

My darling husband.

I must admit it is different being married. It’s a challenge standing on its head, with great rewards. The best times of the day that I consciously savor are when my husband and I come home from our work/or studies and actually get to spend some time together bantering on about current events, philosophy, business, programming, politics, art, and other topics of interest to us. But it stops somewhere. And precisely, that is when the games begin.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not a self-inflicting martyr or presenting a “woe is me” argument by any means, (if you think that, you’re forgetting I’m a reasonably big girl and I lift weights) but I’ve definitely got something to say. And here’s what I’m talking about: Boys & Games. When they are together, I don’t like’em.

So what gives?

My perspective is this: You can assume once you’re married that in most cases people will expect you to go to work, in some shape, form or fellowship (that last one is for the über-smart or in the case of affirmative action, lucky). But, you also assume that you have in a sense created a new household separate from your parents. This household is a unit in itself that should take great pains to be properly nurtured, maintained, and stimulated. It’s a community of partners that creates a sense of well-being for each party. With that, comes the proper balance of work and play – we must not only sustain ourselves, but we must constantly take up things that will keep us happy. It’s also a partnership that demands encouragement and belief in the other partner’s capacities, even when the other partner refuses to grapple with their shortcomings or disbelief in those things.

But, what is the proper balance for work and play?

The more one plays the less time they have to take care of other things that must be done. In the case of a household that means one partner either leaving things impartially undone or taking up a disproportionate amount of things like care of the house itself (assuming you have one), routine domestic duties that simply must be done whether one partner helps out or not, or making sure the house is in a pleasant condition when visitors are present, or even perhaps making sure to meet financial budgetary obligations that simply have no fudge room.

Once again as for play, too much of a good thing can have adverse consequences for all of the above, especially for the continuance of the well-being for both parties. It is in affect a long-term mode of displacement. Too much play (i.e., too much time wasted on games, boys, ahem) will be pleasant temporarily, but only until other things get out of whack.

Whenever boys come into contact with computer games or any games of that sort it always causes a severe disruption in other things and I thus contemptuously remain unabated on this topic until compelling ideas to the contrary are presented.

Edit: Ekhehh... have I been reading too much Violent Acres or what? ;-)

My husband is such a dork. There. I said it. I feel much better now.

My Cloud Bro & Sis :)

Some Good Ole' Psychology

Because of power outages this past weekend (Florissant is always the first/worst hit it seems! ugh!) I had the chance to get to know my family's dispositions in a more quantitative way. With nothing else constructive to do, we all decided to take this little test to see how we'd measure up:

Jung-Myers-Briggs-Typology Test

I am INTJ, what are you?

I Need Physics!

So, I'm in my first night of Fixed Income/Equity Securities and Markets class and the Prof says if you want to make the big bucks on Wall Street you really need to get a PhD in either mathematics or physics. I had been thinking that an MBA, MACC, or MFA were degrees missing a certain element for a while, but it didn't reverberate quite as effectively in my head until I heard it coming from my prof. So yeah, way to go Bro (who's getting a PhD in physics)! We need to talk. You chose the correct path to enlightenment. In the meantime, I'll be getting by with the missing elements. Why couldn't someone just pay me to study everything pertaining to an understanding of business?

Just a hopeful thought for any capital contributors out there.