A Little Less Studying, A Little More Fun

Let’s recap the test day events, shall we?

• Successfully took the epically brutal Financial CPA test on Wednesday.
• The test is 4 hours long.  I left with 1 minute and 45 seconds to spare.
• The first 3 sections of the test are 30 multiple choice questions each.  Rumor has it that the first section is always medium difficulty.  If you do well, your next section will bump to hard difficulty.  If you do bad, it will just stay with medium difficulty.  This is how my multiple choice sections went:  medium>>hard>>medium  So, I did good on the first section, got owned on the second section, and did okay on the third section.  When I saw the questions go back to medium on the third section, I felt like an idiot.  I almost felt like the test was mocking me.  Whatevs, CPA exam.  (For the record, on my last exam, I was so outrageously prepared, that my sections went medium>>hard>>HARDEST.  And I killed it.  Which is why I was awarded with a 90.  Booyah.)
• The last two sections are simulations which are comprised of about 6-8 mini-sections of calculations (think completing a trial balance, foreign currency translations, journal entries, statements of stockholders’ equity calculations, etc.), 2 written memos to clients, and 2 research questions.  I hate to put it this way, but the last two sections basically mind-rape you.  I literally buried my head in my hands during the last 30 minutes and wanted to cry.  The fact that my neighboring test-taker was stinking up the room didn’t help matters much.
• I am 100% certain that I did not do as well on this test as I did on the last three tests.  But I worked my butt off for 4 hours straight, so I’m happy with myself.
• If I pass, it will be a barely passing score.  That’s okay. I just want a 75 and to move on with my life.  I do NOT want to re-live those 240 minutes of torture ever again.

What’s next? 

• Letting my brain decompress by enjoying a little mindless entertainment in the form of these two things:

source                         source

• Operation get my booty back in shape.  I’m hovering around the 140 pound mark right now.  Not cool.  I like to hover around the 133 pound mark.  That’s my goal for mid-July when our beach vacay rolls around.  Have I not blogged about that?  Shame on me.  I’ll post about our beach vacay very soon.
• Fun, fun, fun.  I’ve requested from Lloyd that we do nothing but have fun (and work out) over the three days.  Saturday, Sunday, Monday will be nothing but fun.  Tomorrow Lloyd is taking me out (what a guy), on Sunday we are having a birthday bash/BBQ for Lloyd’s 31st birthday, and Monday we might go to the pool!  Woohoo!!!!!
• Operation organize my life.  My apartment has become a warzone during the final throes of my studying escapade.  I did a ton of work on it yesterday.  It’s slowly but surely starting to look normal again.  I am a bit of a neat freak and am not okay with living in clutter for very long.  Watch your back, messiness!  I’m coming after you!
• Blog more.  ‘Nuff said.
• Bask in the glory of not having a dark CPA cloud hanging over my head at all times.  Yesterday (the first day of no studying in over a year) was literally one of the best. days. EVER!!!!!

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Brody Jenner’s Career

After last night’s long-awaited debut of the sixth – and “final” – season of The Hills, I found myself wondering how exactly these spoiled reality show stars make a living.  Sure, they get paid ridiculous amounts to act like tools on TV and make out with their hussied-up “co-stars”, but after all is said and done, what are their real careers?

Take Brody Jenner for example.  Brody’s character on the show is the token good-looking guy that every girl fights over.  I’ll admit, I’ve found myself ogling over his boyish good looks from time to time.  But aside from his “job” on the show I’m not exactly sure what he’s qualified to do.

He obviously comes from good genes.  His dad is the infamous Olympic decathlon gold-medal winner, Bruce Jenner.  Bruce also happens to star in a recurring role on another hit reality show that you may have heard of called “Keeping up with Kim the Kardashians”.  But the difference between the two Jenner’s roles is that you can tell that Bruce knows that his reality stardom is a bunch of crap.  I have a bit of a soft spot for Bruce even though he did almost succumb to the Hollywood pressures with all that facial surgery (not a good move, Bruce).  In my opinion, he’s the funniest and most relatable person on KUWTK.  It could be because he actually has a real job aside from the show – motivational speaker – or that he is the only voice of reason in the Kardashian house (which I admit, is probably a pretty easy position to come by among those loony girls).

Anyways, back to Brody.  Seriously, what does he do?  His Wikipedia page claims that he has three occupations.  Guess what they are?  Wait for it…. wait…. for….. it……

• Model
• TV Personality
• Socialite (!!!!!!!!)

I think I heard once that he was into modeling, but I’ve never actually seen him model in anything.  And, socialite?!  Since when did that become an occupation?!  I am astonished by how jaded Hollywood is to actually *think* that a SOCIALITE is an occupation. 

After The Hills is over, what will he do with himself?  How will he make money?  Will he fall back on his socialite certifications and training to support himself and his family?  Maybe he’ll write a book about how to be a socialite?  (Sadly, I think Paris Hilton has already beat him to the punch.)

Well, good luck with all that, Brody.  I am sure that your socialite career will make you quite prosperous in the years to come.

Warm Weather Delights

Kansas City has been experiencing some outrageous weather lately.  Not outrageous in a horrible-6 inches-of-snow-on-the-first-day-of-spring-way, but outrageous in the 80-degrees-and-sunny-everyday-makes-me-so-happy sort of way.

Here are all the ways I’ve (and sometimes Lloyd joins, too) been enjoying this fabulous weather:

• getting my run (and tan) on outside (adios boremill treadmill)
• studying on the deck
• drinking wine on the deck
• chatting on the phone on the deck
• perusing the interwebs on the deck
• surveying the general neighborhood debauchery – which mainly includes little kids riding their scooters up and down the street and our neighbors taking their dogs out – from our deck
• pretty much doing anything and everything on the deck
• walking about a mile to the liquor store for some wine and then being totally embarrassed to walk the mile back with a big, brown bag in our hands (we received glares from passing drivers and impressed nods from other walkers)
• biking really fast along the trails in KC because I’m paranoid some freak is going to jump out of the bushes, steal me, take me far away, and make me his/her personal slave (note to any weirdos out there: I am armed and dangerous)
• taking walks at night (tip to the guys: one of the best dates in my humble opinion)

Here are the ways we have not been enjoying the fabulous weather:

• not going to the park for a romantic picnic because Lloyd would rather watch the Masters (I watched a bit too, but was really just looking for more planes flying overhead with funny messages directed at no golfer in particular)
• That’s about it.  I tried to convince Lloyd to spend the day at the park last week and he promptly turned me down at least 5 times.  Fail.

How have you all been enjoying this fabulous weather?

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If you’re reading this post from a feed reader, feel free to come over and check out the actual site since I’ve updated the layout this week.  Nothing too special, just a bit of a change.  Hope you like. 🙂

Bye Bye $10 Drinks; Hello Friday Night In With Pals

Like most post-college 20-somethings, I enjoyed the bar-hopping nightlife scene for a few years after I graduated.  Many young adults coming out of college are single, finally making their own income, and just looking for a good time.

As we grow older and settle down into serious relationships, get married, and even have kids, our preferences for what constitutes a rockin’ Friday night seem to shift.  While a loud, dark club blaring the latest hip hop music was once high on my list of weekend to-do activities, now it seems I would rather snuggle up with my honey, a movie, and a sweet glass of wine on a Friday night.

Enter: adult game night.  Of course I still want to socialize with my friends on the weekends, I just don’t want to do it shouting at the top of my lungs as I get bumped into at the average rate of 2 strangers per minute.

Game night in my group of friends has started to become a regular occurrence over the past couple years.  My friends and I generally rotate houses and each host/hostess will provide an array of appetizers and drinks.  We usually sit around and have a few drinks and chat for about an hour before getting down to business on the board games.

After being out of the board-game scene for a good 10+ years, I completely forgot how much fun they can be.  We all find ourselves doubling over with laughter at some point during the night (alcohol may also be a factor here).

The days of Trouble and CandyLand are long gone in the much-improved board-game industry.  Some of our newer favorites are:

• Loaded Questions: this game is hilarious.  Each person has to answer a (usually funny-answer-provoking) question and then one person guesses who had what answer.  Towards the end of the game, people start coming up with pretty interesting answers!
• Apples to Apples: similar to Loaded Questions, but one person picks the answer that they would have answered with.  Also ranks high in the “LOL” category
• Scattegories: an oldie but a goodie!
• Scene-It: some of our favorites are “The Office” and the pop culture editions.  I can’t get enough Michael Scott on Thursday nights, so Scene-It is my perfect weekend fix.
• Poker/Texas Hold ‘Em: you can never go wrong hussling your pals with a good, old-fashioned poker game!

I recently picked up the new “Loaded Questions: On The Go” for a weekend trip that Lloyd and I took with some friends this summer.  It was just as hilarious as the regular version and perfect for long, boring trips in the car!  It also came in a cute little compact case so it was easy to stash in a suitcase or overnight bag.

I know our game night tradition will keep going strong as we get older and as each of our lives continue to change.  What it really comes down to is having a good time with my circle of friends versus a room full of strangers (on the cheap, too!).  Game night is the perfect solution for those of us in our late-twenties that just can’t party like we used to.

Do you have game nights with your friends?  What are your favorite games to play?

Let’s Take A Closer Look At The Male HDTV Obsession

Ladies, we’ve all seen it.  You stop by Best Buy with your guy to pick up the latest version of Quicken and before you know it, you look over and find him in a trance.  His eyes are glazed over and he’s gazing at something across the store.  There’s a faint hint of a smile on his face and just the tiniest bit of drool making its way down his bottom lip.

“Lloyd!  Hello?  Anybody in there?” I say loudly.  Nothing.

He doesn’t hear me.  As if pulled by some magnetic force he seems to glide effortlessly to another section of the store.

That’s when I see it.

He’s fixated upon the bevy of LCDs and plasmas plastered up on the back wall.  They seem to be shouting colorful, crisp, sweet-nothings to Lloyd.  Do they speak in some sort of secret dialogue to males that females can’t understand?

Truth be told, he may be close to perfect, but Lloyd does really have an innate infatuation with HDTV flat screens – or any flat screen for that matter (we have two very large old-school tube TVs in our apartment).  Every time he lays his eyes on those flat screens, he becomes more delirious than every girl in the world was the day that the Sex & The City movie premiered.

I, on the other hand, watched TV on this 13-inch gem for a good 20 years and was more than confused when my parents bought me a new (tube) TV for Christmas a couple years ago:

You served me well, RCA.

In my female mind, it displays any show you could ever dream of watching just as well as those fancy 40 inch LCD screens up on the wall at Best Buy.

If it were up to me, we’d watch TV on our perfectly functional tube TVs until they day they stopped powering on.  To me, they work just fine.  To a guy though, this tube TV we have in our apartment is pure blasphemy.

Further proof of the male HDTV obsession?  Just check out the comment that Lloyd left on my post back in June titled “Do you have HGTV Envy?“.

The good news is that Lloyd has an abnormal amount of self-control (he must if we don’t already have a 50-incher on our living room wall) and we’ve made a little bit of a compromise as far as his dream television goes.  We’ve decided that what’s much more important now is to save for a house in the future and once we’ve bought said house, we each get to splurge on a big item for all of our hard work and dedication to saving.

What will our splurges be you ask?  If you haven’t guessed his, it will be a HDTV flat screen (the exact size has yet to be determined).  For me, it will be the biggest, firmest, most extravagant KING BED I can find.

What would your splurges be?

Let’s Celebrate Like It’s 1983!

I have finally emerged from my cocoon of flashcards, CPA books, notebooks, post-it notes, and CPA exam software and returned to the real world!  On Wednesday, I did nothing but sit in my living room and study.  ALL. DAY. LONG.  From about 9AM to 9PM.  Which inevitably turned into a night of insomnia fits.  I took the 2nd part of the CPA Exam yesterday and let me tell you – it was the hardest 4 hours and 15 minutes of my life thus far.  There were several points during the test where I either 1) was on the verge of tears or 2) laughed out loud.  The latter resulted in many glares at the Prometric testing center.  But alas, I made it through and am now just hoping for a pass when the results are posted on September 21st.

Just think, that was only the 2nd of four tests! I get to start studying for the next one on Tuesday!

Until then, it’s all fun and relaxation!  After all it IS my birthday this weekend!

Here’s what’s going on this weekend:

FRIDAY

• Birthday party with all my friends at a really fun bar.  Can’t wait!

SATURDAY

• Massage
• Pool!
• Birthday dinner with Lloyd at one of my favorite restaurants!  Actually, I just love their dessert, I could care less about the main course.  Ha!
• Maybe comedy club?  Not sure about this because I just found out those place are pricey!

SUNDAY

• Relax more!

MONDAY

• My actual birthday!  No work on Monday!  Woohoo!
• SHOPPING!!!!!
• Birthday presents from Lloyd. 🙂  I wonder what he got me?

Thank you all SO much for your words of encouragement on twitter!  I was so overwhelmed about how many of you actually remembered my test and wished me good luck! 🙂  I think all your good luck vibes really helped!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Going To The Lake Of The E.Coli…Er, Ozarks

I know the bad economy does crazy things to people, but endangering the health of the entire population of the state just to keep tourism coming in?  Not cool, Missouri.

Apparently, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources failed to release a report that the great Lake of the Ozarks (a place that thousands of Midwesterners frequent each summer) was a breeding ground for “unhealthy levels” of E.Coli.

EWWW!!!

“All the reasons DNR gave for not releasing the report have to do with the economy,” said Ken Midkiff, who writes and advocates for water quality in Missouri. “The Department of Natural Resources is supposed to protect water quality and the environment.”

Lovely!  I just can’t wait to go to the lake in a couple weeks and come back with a raging E.Coli infection.  Luckily, they said the levels in the lake are back to “safe” levels – but how I can I believe them now?

Damn economy.  You can read the entire article here.

Do You Pamper?

Last week, I spent a girl’s day with my Mom.  We shopped, ate, drank, gossiped, and pampered ourselves.

Now, in my opinion, pampering one’s self mostly consists of a ice-cold cocktail on a warm summer day.

But, during the extravaganza, my mom and I spent $40 on….a pedicure.

Good Lord, when did those things become so damn expensive?!

To be fair, my mom actually paid for my pedicure (hey, I bought lunch, okay?)…but still – forty bucks?  The personal finance side of my mind cringed.  Yikes.

During the pedi, I actually said out loud “I can’t remember the last time I pampered myself like this.”  And it’s true – I really don’t partake in too many unnecessary luxuries.  I’ve gotten 2 pedicures (counting this one), 2 manicures, and 1 massage in my life.

In my opinion, they’re not really worth it…I can just as easily buy a $4 bottle of toenail polish at Wal-mart and then guilt trip Lloyd into rubbing my back for free (kidding…).

So, I wonder, am I alone?  Do you pamper?  I’m curious…

Happy Hour At Granfalloon Did Not Win Me Over

 I had yet another work happy hour at the Country Club Plaza last night.  I think I’ve mentioned the Plaza (pronounced “Plahhh-zahh”) in some earlier posts.  It’s a more prestigious area in Kansas City, yet somehow boasts the cheapest happy hours of all.  Tomfooleries happy hour is one of my favs.

Last night, we picked the popular Granfalloon Bar & Grill for the get together (AKA get tipsy and loudly nickname the oddballs in our office.  “Birdwoman” and “Jersey” were a product of last night’s session.).

For starters, our waitress was horrible.  She did not smile once.  Now, I’ve never been a waitress, but I’m pretty sure smiling or acting somewhat friendly are in the job description.

Secondly, the food “special” was a select few of the appetizers for $5.00.  Yes, you read that right.  Note to Granfallon:  That’s a horrible special.

It wasn’t even the full appetizer menu.  The first two appetizers I tried to order weren’t even on the “special”.  I finally decided on “Gator Tators” which is code name for potatoes with their insides scooped out and replaced with melted cheese.  Served with a side of Sour Cream.