Day 1 of Quarter 2

Well, I finished my first day of my 2nd (of 3) quarters today. Same old. Nothing incredibly fascinating. I have a "Foundations of Accounting" class which sounds supremely basic but I have feeling that will be the hardest class I have. I truly have no idea what it's about, even after sitting through an hour and 48 minute class of it. It seems to be very, very conceptual. We'll see. We'll see.

My second class of the day was Assurance Services... aka auditing... aka what I'm doing for the rest of my life. I have a feeling this will be a hilarious class. Reasons:
1) My professor's hair looks a lot like this:
2) My professor's son's name is Chip.
3) He (the professor, not Chip) plays the synthesizer for his church.
4) He let us play a stock market game for about 45 minutes. We find out which team won on Wednesday. If our team wins, we EACH win $20. Like, real money. Um... clearly I am excited about this.

In other news, I unsuccessfully negotiated with Time Warner. That is, I'm actually paying $18 MORE a month than I was before just to get digital cable and DVR. DUMB. But... I AM waiting to hear back from WOW Cable to see what they can offer me. If it's anything below what I have now.... sucks to be Time Warner.

Other relevant news: I bought incredibly too many groceries today. Donny leaves Wednesday morning and I'm sad. I feel like this break brought us even closer together... something I never think is possible, but always is. I'm obsessed with watching the West Wing ever since I got the ENTIRE series for Christmas. I have to call back my apartment complex to have a discussion about Sex Boy. I am slightly nervous about this conversation slash happy that they are willing to hear from me.

That is all.

Email to my apartment complex RE: Sex boy

Copied and pasted directly from the email I sent 30 seconds ago:

Hello,

I previously wrote your office an email regarding the tenant living in the apartment directly below mine (I live at xxxxxxxxx, Apt D... I am speaking of the tenant(s) living in Apt B). The email stated that I was unhappy with the very loud music frequently coming from their apartment. Specifically, the bass was usually turned up so loudly that my family room floor vibrated. Unfortunately, the problem still remains.

I have now gone downstairs to complain about the noise six or seven times. Keep in mind that I have not gone down to complain every time their music is loud - sometimes I have to leave my apartment to escape, and sometimes I just give up. I have written them notes and put them on the door, as well, since often they do not hear my knocking (to me, that's a clear sign that the music is too loud). Since writing you the email, I have been woken up at 2 AM on a Monday morning because they turned their bass UP at that time. I had a final exam at 7:30 that morning and was especially annoyed to receive very little sleep. When I asked them to turn it down, they apologized and assured me that they would. It took them 10 minutes to do so. This is absolutely unacceptable to me. Currently I am writing this email from my bed, because I cannot stand to be in my family room due to the constant music blaring up from their apartment for the past FIVE hours. The fact that I cannot study or function in my apartment as freely as I should be able to is incredibly frustrating and ridiculous. I can't watch TV when their music is on, I can't work or study when their music is on, I can't sleep when their music is on, and I can't even entertain my own family and friends when their music is on. I am not sure what action was taking last time I emailed you, but it has failed to adequately resolve the situation. Part of the problem is that our walls our absurdly thin - this is not the tenant's fault. However, I am not willing to accept that I should continue to have my life interrupted due to the unfortunate thinness of our walls. I am sick of dealing with the tenant myself, and do not think I should have to do so anymore.

If you are going to take action, please forward me any communication you have with the tenant so that I may have it on file. I am certainly willing to call the police about this situation with my downstairs neighbor but I would rather avoid doing so.

I trust that something will be done soon.

Thank you,
Britney Peters


So now I'll just wait. Let's hope they maybe do something a little more impressive than stick a note on his door like they did last time.

2009

2009 was full of ups and downs. As Joanna said in her blog, I feel like this is one of the most life-changing years of my life thus far.

Big Life Events of 2009:

- Getting in to grad school
- Graduating from college
- On that same note, leaving my Miami friends
- Moving in to a new apartment/living by myself
- Starting grad school
- Doing big girl things like taking out loans
- Me and Donny celebrating our 5 year anniversary

It kind of blows my mind how much I accomplished in 2009. Granted, none of it was SOLELY accomplished in 2009... graduating from Miami was a 4 year process, and graduating from OSU will continue on into next year. But I feel like a lot happened. And of course, there were other great memories of 2009... Green Beer Day, our senior campus/bar crawl, 05 CRUISE!! (and winning Quest), spring break in West Palm Beach, Megan and Micah's wedding, spending time with Donny in Pittsburgh (a new city for both of us), getting to see my family much more often than I did while I was in Oxford, watching my friends move on to bigger and better things... it's been a crazy year. I'm SO proud of all that my friends have accomplished, but I'm still so sad that a lot of people have moved away. Some of my best friends are now living in LA, Atlanta, North Carolina, Colorado... but I am still fortunate enough to have some great friends still in Ohio.

2010 is shaping up to be an even bigger year, with even more grown-up things happening. I feel like 2009 is like the training bra for 2010 haha. It's tried to teach me how to handle 2010... hopefully. 2010 will include all of the following (plus more!):

- hopefully moving into ANOTHER apartment... WITH DONNY. AHHH.
- graduating from grad school
- taking and passing the CPA exam (I'm being optimistic)
- starting my full-time job
- doing things like paying off loans, buying a car, etc.
- Megan and Jake's wedding
- Donny getting a job
- Spring break to Atlanta and Pittsburgh
- Hopefully taking an RV trip west to LA with Donny (and others?)

Crazyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I'm SO excited and SO nervous for the new year. I hope you all have a wonderful New Years Eve/Day, and GO BUCKS!

I love Christmas :)

I just love the holidays. I know sometimes I get way too stressed out over it all (mostly just being at the mall and trying to park and just driving at this time of the year in general), but when it comes down to it, I really love this time of year.

I'll try to do a year-end wrap up between now and New Years. But for now, let's see. We're having our annual family Christmas Eve dinner (immediate family only) tonight... steak and shrimp, yum!! Then we'll rush around for a few hours, wrapping like crazy. Then we'll get our yearly new ornaments from my mom, put those on the tree, attempt a few family photos in front of the tree, and open any presents from relatives that have been sent. Side note - it's extremely saddening when you no longer get presents from relatives because you're grown up. It's just... awful. Not the fact that I don't get presents anymore... just the fact that I'm old. Anyway, then we'll wake up in the morning (as we're getting older, we're able to wait and wake up later and later... YAY!) and open presents. We always come down, wait for my mom to start the monkey bread we have every year for breakfast, then open stockings and open about half of our presents. Then the monkey bread is finished baking, so we eat it, then come back and do the second half. And the kids all get the same number of presents so we can all open one together :) Aaand then it's off to shower and get ready for Grandma and Grandpa's! Donny is coming this year, which is REALLY exciting for me. It's the first time he's come to our Christmas celebration! Then he'll leave to go to his family stuff, and I'll eventually make my way over there - first time for me, too.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS. THAT'S ALL.

Everyone that's traveling over the next few days, please be safe! And Merry Christmas!

Growing Up

It's weird how quickly time goes. Honestly, every single time a Thursday comes around, I'm shocked. I felt like I JUST was celebrating the end of the week like, the day before. On a more long-term scale, I was reminded of how quickly time flies today. For my job, I brought a group of students from a small, in-state liberal arts school to visit our program. There were 6 students and one professor. The students ranged from sophomores to seniors with varying levels of interest in doing a MAcc. It wasn't really a "prospective student" visit; it was more of a "here's what a MAcc is, here's why you should consider getting one, and here's why our program is good," thing. Just in talking to the students briefly I realized how INSANELY young they seem to me, and how absurdly old I feel around them. And I'm young for my age! I mean, I should be 23. Anyway, it was just crazy. The sophomore came up to me and asked about my internship experience and about applying for them. She said, "Yeah, I'm just now starting to look into them, like where I want to apply, and what kind of internship I want..." First of all, props to her because she's actually almost a full year ahead of schedule. Second of all, it seriously does not seem like that long ago when I was sobbing on a daily basis about getting an internship. But that was actually over two years ago. And think about how much has happened in those two years!! I had my internship, accepted a full-time offer, graduated from college, moved out of my parents' house, started grad school, saw good friends get married.... Like... I'm sorry, WHEN did this all actually happen? Because apparently I missed it!

And then I think about how crazy this next year is going to be, and I have a feeling that it's going to fly by, too. One year from now, I will have graduated from my master's program, taken (and hopefully passed) the CPA exam (oh, you know, just the most important test I will ever take in my life), and STARTED MY FULL TIME JOB. Oh, and possibly moved in with my boyfriend (how grown uppp). It doesn't even seem possible. I'm freaking out haha. Slash... I'm really, really excited. The past few years went crazy fast but they were beyond enjoyable. So I'm certain this next year will be just as great :) But... oh man. Time is just crazy.

My life lately

My life has been pretty great lately :) Minus the copious amounts of work, which is why I'm currently in my house at 8:30pm on a Friday night... nasty.

Recent great things:
+ my birthday! It was wonderful. I received numerous cards, phone calls, messages, etc. and it just really brightened my day! I got to go home for a traditional birthday dinner at my house, consisting of my mom's lasagna (amazing) and angel food cake! mmm. My grandparents were there, too, which was nice! I also got some awesome presents... including Guess Gold perfume which is delicious, in case you haven't smelled it.

+The OSU/Iowa game!!! I am SO glad I was there! By winning in overtime, the Buckeyes clinched both the Big Ten title AND a spot in the Rose Bowl!! All of the students rushed the field and it was just an absolutely wonderful atmosphere. We got to just hang out on the field for awhile... people were just laying on the field, soaking it all in. Here's a picture of what we looked like:


Preeeetty amazing.

+MAcc friend situation = improving. I've hung out with them a lot lately, and I really, really enjoy them. They're just laid back and fun to hang out with. I wouldn't go so far to call many of them my FRIENDS, but... I have fun with them, they're nice to me, they include me in things... what more could you want haha.

+the thought of Thanksgiving being so close!!! Then the thought that AFTER Thanksgiving, I only have TWO WEEKS OF SCHOOL. And that INCLUDES finals!!! YAYYYY.

Other random thoughts:
+I can.not. wait for my boyfriend and my frooms to come back to Columbus (or even just Ohio, for that matter).
+I have to tell you about my experience with the Chinese businessmen. Sooo one of the MBA ambassadors at work had to help put together this visit for a bunch of Chinese businessmen. They were mostly middle-level managers... a few executives. There were probably about 15 of them in total. Somehow I got roped into giving them a tour of our building with another MAcc ambassador. So we went to the room that they were in so we could wait for them to be finished so we could take them on their tour. It was pretty awesome. They had a translator, because they really couldn't speak English much at all. I've never really been in the presence of a real translator haha I just see them on tv. And it was just really awesome to observe, because they were talking about how important it is for the US and China to work together in education... I believe this was the same day that Obama was in China speaking to Hu Jintao. So kinda cool. Anyway, so after that whole formal process of 'welcome to our school' was over, we took them on the tour. It. Was. So. Hilarious. They were obsessed with me for some reason? A few of the younger guys were like, clearly daring each other to come up and talk to me. Sooo funny. Then they ALLLLLL wanted their picture with me. At one point, I was about to take a picture with one guy, and their "leader" literally kicked him out of the picture so that HE could get a picture with me. Amazing. Then one of the guys spoke English pretty well and came up to me and said, "My friend wants you to have his name card so that you can have his contact information so you can come visit him in China sometime, maybe come to his business." Seriously, so awesome. I got a business card all in Chinese. So yeah... homeboy, I'll definitely just read the Mandarin and come visit you haha.

+I'm still emo about staying in on a Friday night. Sigh. But I'm going to be even MORE emo if I did it for nothing... aka I must get stuff done. Adios!

Grad School Pros/Cons

I have realized that, since coming to grad school, my life is both better off and worse off. Some examples:

Not-so-Good Things About Grad School
-My self-confidence has plummeted. Since coming to grad school, I have received a legitimate 0% on a quiz, and I have also failed a midterm worth 30% of my grade. The fact that I have to maintain a 3.0 to even stay in the program does not help alleviate my stress. In addition, I constantly feel dumb in class/group meetings. I'm surrounded by absolute geniuses, and after being sort of at "the top of the class" for every other year of my life... it's kind of hard to swallow.

-Everyone talks about the CPA exam and it stresses me out beyond belief. Literally just hearing "CPA exam" gets my stomach all fluttery. I do not even want to think about it. I have to start studying in the spring :(

-MBA students. They suck. They think they are the shit and they are not. The end.

-As MAcc students, we tend to get called on during classes in which there are other non-MAcc students (MBA, HR students, etc.) to answer technical accounting questions. This is not fair. I cannot have my entire undergraduate accounting textbook library memorized. I'm sorry. It's just not possible.

-Grading seems inconsistent. In some classes, the curve is enormous. In others, it's either non-existent or very minimal. One professor said he will "decide at the end of the quarter whether or not he feels like giving out plusses or minuses." Um... that could possibly determine whether or not I'm allowed to stay in the program, so feel free to "decide" a little earlier.

-Just the horrible, horrible amount of time required to do ANYTHING. Projects, memos, case studies, reading... anything. I'm so sick of staying up until 2 AM researching accounting rules.

Awesome Things About Grad School
-As mentioned before, I am getting a definite reality check about my intelligence level. However, I also view this as a good thing. I guess we all need one every once in awhile, huh?

-This might seem kind of minor, but whatevs. The average age of people in my building is probably around 25 (due to the MBA students being older and whatnot). This is INCREDIBLE news. Why? Because I am no longer using the same bathroom as people who think they can leave pee on the seats. Seriously. It's awesome. You never have to worry about people leaving the seat a mess, or not flushing. You can pick ANY STALL and actually get to use it. I am very thankful.

-My resources. By being a MAcc student, I'm truly able to access a LOT of resources I wouldn't have been able to access before. This includes access to research materials/databases, great physical facilities, a staff that will bend over backwards to help you fix something or get you access to something, etc.

-My professors. They. Are. So. Smart. It blows me away. I am being taught what is essentially how to do the research I'll need to do for auditing... by a guy that was a partner with Arthur Andersen for 15 years. I'm being taught corporate tax by a guy that writes the most commonly used tax textbook in the country. Like... who even ARE these people and why on earth are they teaching?? I'm in a corporate financial reporting class with a professor that hasn't bragged about his credentials, so I have no idea what his background is, but he is probably one of the smartest people I've ever met. As of right now, his class is the most helpful class I've ever taken in my life. I'm just so happy that I get to interact with these professors on a daily basis.

-My classmates. As I mentioned earlier, they are unbelievably smart. Part of me hates them, because they are making me look bad, but part of me LOVES them because they are simply so good at what they do. Most of them are just naturally smart, but some of them have worked SO hard to get here. There are people here that weren't accounting majors. I'M struggling, and I WAS an accounting major. Some of them did not take intermediate accounting until 6 weeks before our program started... and they're still here, so they're obviously doing okay. I am SO proud of them for working so hard. And plus, they're fun to go out with :) And we make corny accounting jokes and everyone laughs. Haha love it.

-My job! I love being a student ambassador. I mean, I get 1/2 of my tuition waived because I'm doing something I love to do. I just answer emails all day from prospective students. For example, international students have a lot of questions about the language exams they have to take (TOEFL) and the also have to get their transcripts evaluated, so they have questions on that, too. Or people want to know certain things about the application, etc. The other part of my job is scheduling visits for people who we think are legit. If you know anything about me, you know I LOVE bragging about things I'm involved with, and i LOVE planning things. Therefore... I have the best job.

-Overall, just feeling like I'm learning a lot. Now... this is very class-specific. Do I feel like I'm learning anything in finance? No, not at all. I was lost in that class from day 1, and I've stopped caring. Am I learning anything in corporate tax? I hate the subject, and it's not INCREDIBLY relevant to me, so I try not to, which is probably horrible to say. But do I feel like I'm learning a lot in my research class and in my corporate financial reporting class. They're the most relevant to me, and I like those professors the most, which probably says a lot. But I just really feel like I'm learning stuff in those classes that is SO RELEVANT to my career... which is exactly why I decided to do the MAcc to begin with - I knew I had a ton more to learn.

Well... I should be doing homework as usual. Vom. Bye. :)