Traveling for Work

As I'm currently traveling for work and bored out of my mind, I figured I'd write a little something on the perks and drawbacks of traveling. I know that some of my very few followers likely don't travel a lot (or at all) for work, so here you go.

I'm currently staying at the Westin in Cincinnati right on Fountain Square (aka in the heart of downtown). It's a GREAT location, and I'd definitely recommend the hotel - very nice. Maybe just avoid staying here during the summer - I'm only staying here two nights and both nights have had concerts from 7 to 10 pm on the square (like... right outside my window). Luckily I haven't had any work to do, but it's VERY loud and not all that enjoyable. It's kind of like sex boy is in the apartment next door all over again. Bummer.

Anyway, here's a few things I've noticed about traveling:

PERKS
1. Hotel points. Hands down the #1 perk. If you're going to start traveling for work anytime soon, BE SURE to sign up for like, every hotel rewards program you can think of. Marriott, Hilton, Starwood (they're the ones that have Westin), Choice... everything. It's basically free money, so why would you not?

2. Mileage. Making $0.55/mile is amazing. For example, my round trip to/from Cincinnati is banking me about $132. Considering it probably only cost me $30-40 in gas... that's awesome. Granted, yes, it's also paying for the depreciation on my car, which is actually pretty huge since my car is so new but... still. My car is kind of a sunk cost so... YAY PROFIT!

3. FREE MEALS. Oh my gosh, meal allowances are amazing. I'm even MORE jealous of people who have per diems but... you know. Can't complain. My company allows me to spend I think $20/day on breakfast and $45/day on dinner while traveling in Cincinnati. Awesomeeeeee. It's especially nice when you're with other people, so you can get some drinks or a bottle or two of wine and it's a great time. It's not so nice when you're by yourself because ordering a steak and bottle of wine and not having anyone to share it with gets pretty old pretty fast. Like... today I got Skyline. And wasted $34 of basically free dinner money. Meh. Anyway, it's awesome when you can spend it on alcohol/really nice dinners. Every night.

4. Variety. Traveling mixes everything up and is a nice break from the mundane work schedule. The days seem to go a lot faster and work doesn't seem quite as bad, for some reason.

CONS
5. Being away. Let's be honest, no one would rather be in a random city where they know no one by themselves for an extended period of time than be at home with people they love. When I'm traveling it feels like I'm back in college, doing the whole long-distance thing with Donny, only being able to catch up by phone every so often. Ugh. Enough said.

6. Access to the familiar. You just don't have the amenities you're used to having at home. For example, this hotel doesn't have Lifetime or E!. Who has the NatGeo channel but NOT Lifetime or E! ?? Slash... WHY would you have NatGeo and not those two channels? Blows my mind. I realllly wanted to watch some Project Runway reruns tonight but... alas. Always using travel-sized shampoo/conditioner is just sad, too.

7. Forgetfulness. You inevitably forget something important almost every single time. I haven't discovered anything I've forgotten yet during this trip, so that's good. Last time I left an entire drawer full of clothes in my hotel room. Thank goodness they found them and I was coming back the next week anyway, so I was able to pick them up. Phew. I've also forgotten contact solution, glasses, a toothbrush, and once I even forgot underwear. So horrible. Luckily a Walmart was close by. Eek.

8. Being alone. It's incredibly lonely if you're traveling by yourself. I just ate dinner by myself at Skyline Chili. How humbling/depressing. And now I'm going to sit in my bed for the next 4 hours, minus maybe a half hour to work out. Boringgggggggg. I'd leave and go exploring, but I would have to pay for parking twice and that just sounds like a pain.

All in all, I really like traveling if it's every once in awhile, and it's not for an extended period of time. Last busy season I had to drive to middle-of-nowhere Indiana every week for 5 weeks. It was terrible. Really terrible.

But these 1.5 week stints in places like Cincinnati really aren't too terrible :)

Due to a severe downturn in working hours for me this summer (yay!), I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the sense of accomplishment I feel in my job, and how starkly it compares to how relevant my job REALLY is. This is what I mean: I, as does any other person in their job, feel incredibly proud and relieved when I figure out an issue at work, regardless of how small. When I finish auditing an account (like inventory, accounts receivable, etc.), it’s a REALLY big accomplishment and I’m ecstatic.

Then I compare that to what my job is REALLY doing and I get incredibly depressed. My job provides such little meaning to the world in general. I mean, I spend weeks auditing what essentially boils down to ONE NUMBER on an annual report that NO ONE reads. The worst is when I am on a non-SEC job (aka a client that does not have stock that’s traded on the stock market)… because literally no one reads those, because they’re not available to the public usually. So recap: I spend my life auditing numbers no one looks at.

So then you’re probably thinking, ‘what’s the point of auditing if no one reads this stuff?’ yeah, great question. Sometimes I’m not convinced there is a point. But technically, auditing is really important, especially for business that ARE publicly traded, because we provide assurance to you, the public who are investing in the stock market, that the companies you’re investing in are telling the truth about how much they’re making (because that, in turn, changes the stock price of the stocks you own). If you have a 401k, you should care about auditing because everything in your 401k is invested in stock. If the stock you’re invested in is for companies that are saying they’re making 2093480239482 million dollars, their stock price is going to keep climbing (making you money), but then turns out they’re actually only making 20 million dollars, your money is at risk. The stock for that price will plummet, losing you tons of money. So that’s why my job is important – we come in and make sure that they’re telling the truth about how much money they have and how much money they make/spend.

But really, when it comes down to it, I still just audit ONE or TWO stupid numbers in a sometimes 300 page report that no one reads. So really… fml. It’s just not gratifying. Slightly unfortunate.

Post Office Encounter

Well hellooo, everyone. Time for my quarterly update (or so it seems). But I don't really feel like updating so I'll just tell you all a story instead.

Today I had an especially awkward encounter with a gentleman at my local post office. I returned from vacation on Sunday, expecting to receive my mail on Tuesday (I had requested it be delivered to me on Tuesday). Tuesday comes and goes, no mail. Ditto with Wednesday and Thursday. I get incredibly annoyed by today and call them. They inform me that they are not allowed to deliver it to me - I must pick it up. Keep in mind that when I filled out my 'hold mail' request online, usps.com gave me the option to have it delivered to my doorstep. Silly me, clicking the 'deliver to me' button. Silly, silly me.

Anywho, guy at the post office tells me that I have to now come in to pick it up. GRRR. Slash... FINE BY ME if that means I can leave work early to do so. Thank you, government work hours.

So I make my way to the post office this afternoon. The following ensued:

Guy: Let me guess, your postal carrier didn't deliver the mail to you.
Me: No.... the person I talked to earlier today said that you're not allowed to deliver it to me anyway.
Guy: Oh well... I was going to have someone come take it out to you.
Me: Oh... Well... um... I'm here now.

[guy takes my ID]

Guy: Westerville, huh? (Note: I haven't changed my address on my ID... it's still my parents' address. Oops.)
Me: that's where I'm from.
Guy: So you're a richie, huh?
Me: Um... nope.
Guy: You don't have to lie to me.
Me: ................

[Guy awkwardly pauses, then goes to get my mail and returns]

Guy: Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. Your carrier's on vacation and the two people filling in for him don't have a single brain between the two of them.
Me: [awkward laugh #1]
Guy: Let me guess, you probably haven't gotten any mail at all this week, even though your hold was only through Tuesday, right?
Me: Right...
[Guy shakes his head in sadness]
Me: Okay... well... thanks!
Guy: You aren't wearing a ring. I'm very observant.
Me: ... nope, I'm not wearing a ring.
Guy: Let me guess, you're probably too good for me. Some brainy genius engineer or something.
Me: [awkward laugh #2] um... nope! I'm an accountant.
Guy: See I was close. Is that your Hyundai out there?
Me: Yep...
Guy: That's a brand new Hyundai. That's probably a 6 cylinder too. Is it?
Me: Um... I literally have no idea.
Guy: You don't know how many cylinders your car has?
Me: Nope.
Guy: Well it looks like a nice car, richie. So you going to be married sometime in the next year?
Me: Uh... maybe? Soonish?
Guy: You got a candidate lined up?
Me: [awkward laugh #3] I hope so!
Guy: Well that's just too bad. You remember me if things don't go well between you two, I'll be here.
Me: [awkward laugh #4]
Guy: Or hey, how about this - if he does something to hurt you, I've also got me a dark black ninja suit...
Me: [incredibly awkward laugh... like... what!?!?!?]
Guy: ... and a Louisville Slugger if you need me to whap him upside the head.
Me: You will be the first person I inform if he does something to hurt me.
Guy: Good, good.
Me: Okay... thanks... BYE!
[i run quickly out the door]

So. Bizarre.

In other news, I have my mail. I just got finished going through it. Apparently that brand new possibly 6-cylinder Hyundai of mine has a recall. FML.

This may be a doozy.

Turns out I haven't updated my blog in awhile. And by awhile I mean it's been over 4 months. Oops.

Let's see. I last updated January 4. What's happened since then?

1. I'll get the boring stuff out of the way first. Work. I went through my first-ever "busy season" this January-March (even though I had one October-December... whatever). This entailed 5 weeks of traveling to random middle of nowhere Indiana, as well as some weeks spent in town. Unfortunately, those weeks spent in town required me to work 60+ hours for about 5 weeks straight. My record is now 74 hours worked in one week (7 days straight... Monday-Sunday). Of course, I also worked the next Monday-Friday, but who's counting? It was, to put it bluntly, absolutely miserable. I CANNOT (and will not) do this for the rest of my life. I can't even do this for the next five years. I have no idea how people stick around long enough to progress to a manager role. Like... I'm a staff 1. I'm the first to get sent home. When I go home, everyone else stays for another 1-3 hours. People go home and work until 2 AM. Every day. Like... no. I am NEVER doing that. Which means I will NEVER be successful at this job. Which is fine, it really is. I never thought I would stick around for more than a few years. However, this does kind of bring up the bad part - I have absolutely no freaking clue what I want to do with my life after I leave this job. Accounting is all I know how to do. I like it, but I want to work 40-45 hours a week. I also want to make the same amount of money I do now, if not more. There are like, 10 accounting jobs like that in the entire world that fit those criteria. I just don't have anything else I'm good at. Like... I can organize things sometimes. So... I'll be a professional organizer? But wait, I don't really have any awesome organizing skills that could change people's lives. Cross that off the list. I like to read. So... I'll... read to people? No, thanks. I love learning. I'll be a professional student for the rest of my life. Oh wait, that requires me to SPEND money, not MAKE money. You see where I'm going. It's a disaster. Oh well. My backup plan (if I don't find the world's most perfect accounting job) is to simply find a 9-5 job that pays the bills because honestly, at least I'll have a life. I'll be bored out of my mind but... at least I can have a family and friends. Womp. Depressing.

2. In the past few months I've been able to visit both of my frooms! I first went to Chapel Hill, NC to visit Kiley in March. I got to see her roommate Lauren's BEAUTIFUL house, play with her psycho dog Izzie, and just enjoy some quality one-on-one time with Ki :) We went to Duke Gardens, which was so beautiful and it was SO nice out. Pollen wasn't really an issue yet, so I got to enjoy nature for once!!!! So exciting. I was sad to leave!

But I did have something to look forward to, because less than a month later I went to Atlanta! I was able to see Jamie, Zach, AND Monica, which is awesome. They took me to this AMAAAAAAZING place called Tin Lizzy's where you get the most delicious chips and salsa/queso I've ever had in my life, plus some daaangerous drink called a 'sangrita' (a mix between Sangria and a margarita... yes please). We ended that night at a bar called Flip Flops (?) which is apparently owned by Dunbar and Ace from Real World.. crazy! I definitely attempted to talk to Dunbar... horrible experience. I just said the first thing that came to my mind, which was 'What kind of fish is that?' and I pointed to a giant stuffed marlin on the wall. Like, okay. Nice one, Britney. So ridiculous haha. At least I was a few drinks in and didn't really care. The next day Jamie and I went shopping (paper-source.com... such bad news), Jamie made us a delicious fajita dinner, and we went out to Blake's, which is the same gay bar we went to last time I was in Atlanta. Not QUITE as awesome as it was last time, but still a pretty great night :)

I was sad to leave both of my frooms, but it's never THAT sad, because I know I'll always see them again. I don't always know when, but never is never an option :)

3. Still living with Donny (thankfully!)! Things are going well! We're looking into moving to Victorian Village or the Brewery District this fall, so that will start taking up some of our time this May-July. I was hesitant about moving downtown (I have a hard time rationalizing paying WAY more money for WAY less space), but I think everyone's convinced me that I have to at least try 'city living' for a year. Which I can do. Donny keeps telling me that we have our whole lives to live in the suburbs, which is true. I just really like our place now and don't want to move! Oh well. It's not really fair to him to live here... he drives 45 minutes each way to work every day, which is just horrible. Living downtown would cut that in half. I work all over the place in Columbus, so it doesn't really matter where I live. I'm excited about looking for a new place, though, now that we've pretty much decided that we are definitely moving!

4. I've started weightwatchers, which is a whole new thing for me. I'm still struggling with it, but overall it's really worked! I've lost about 12 pounds to date. I have been fluctuating up and down by a pound or two the last few weeks, but that probably has something to do with 1) The copious amounts of Easter candy I've been eating, 2) the copious amounts of alcohol I've consumed lately and 3) the fact that I'm still not exercising like I should be. Once I get a constant workout schedule, I'm sure I'll lose even more weight, but for now, I'm just pumped it's working!

Not sure what else there is to say! I've got a few things to look forward to in the coming months:
- Kiley moving home!!!!!!!! Ahhhhh, finally someone to be nerdy with again! I can't wait!
- Random vacation days I've scheduled from now until August, just because I can!
- My cousin's wedding in Colorado in August
- The annual EY bus party. Omg. Yes. So excited already. This is all you need to know: literally hundreds of jello shots.
- and um, DUH BEACH HOUSE! My high school friends and I rented a beach house for a week in the Outer Banks, NC in June and I am just so freaking pumped.

Yay! :) Lots to look forward to!

Update: Dallas

I no longer like Dallas.

Reasons:
1. The people here are weird. I realize this is a huge generalization. Let me revise. The people I'm in training with, all of whom are from the Dallas office, are weird. Maybe I just got stuck at a table with the weirdest, but they are all just... so intense. I feel like at the trainings I've been to with other Ohioans, we generally try to make it through the trainings without a lot of exertion. That is, we don't try incredibly hard to complete our tasks. We'll DO them, but we won't try to overachieve. Dallas? Slightly different story. These people are INTENT on finishing everything to the best of their ability, even if it's a stupid game or something we've already done 10 times. Again, maybe it's just the table I'm sitting with but... sigh. They wear me out. And I feel like I probably look like a bitch, because I just sit there and watch this all go down and don't offer to help in group assignments. Why? 1) I don't care 2) they seem to have enough trouble deciding among the 4 of them. Adding my opinion would only complicate things. They also like to tell stories about absolutely nothing. I'm sorry, I really don't care that your boyfriend is going to Mardi Gras and you're paying for his hotel room with your Marriott points and now you think his friends should pay you for part of it since you're essentially paying for their portions of the room too, but then that made your boyfriend mad. I DONT CARE!

2. Another reason I don't like Dallas is that it creeps me out. Granted, I've been confined to about 5 blocks of Dallas. It's just... empty. It's creepy. There are skyscrapers, but barely anyone going into them in the morning. My walk to the office was about 3-4 blocks today, and I passed two people. At 8 in the morning. Just... bizarre. When I walked home today, I felt kind of unsafe. I got honked at twice and someone told me 'I like your walk.' Who even knows.

3. Oh, and I got hit by a car.

Yes. I literally got hit by a car today. NBD.

I was walking home from the office and was crossing the street to get into my hotel (like... the door was right in front of this crosswalk). There was a guy turning left. Obviously I have the right of way. He was not paying attention AT ALL. When I realized he had no intention of stopping, I started running but he hit me in the hip/butt. Seriously? How do you not notice a person until after you've hit them? In the split second before he hit me, I put my hands out to slam down on his hood, as if to say 'um, what the fuck.' I had a bag from CVS in one of my hands. It was hanging down from my wrist so when the car actually hit me, the bag got hit and broke open and everything went flying. The guy stopped his car, but never got out. That's right. He never got out. He never asked if I was okay, he never even rolled down his window. Some random guy down the street came running, asking if I was okay. I was terrified and mostly just overwhelmed so I just burst into tears, gathered my scattered belongings, and ran to my hotel haha. The people in the hotel had luckily seen it all happen, and they came running out. One scary black guy went up to the car, which was still parked, and got the license plate and everything. Not until I was INSIDE THE HOTEL did the guy get out of his car and asked the scary black guy if I was okay. Heaven forbid you ask ME if I'm okay. What a douche. Anyway, the hotel employees were incredibly nice and kept asking me if I needed anything, and if I wanted to go find the guy, and if I wanted to press charges, etc. I told them no and went to go get on the elevator just because I wanted to get back to my room to compose myself. When I was waiting for the elevator, the guy who hit me came walking into the lobby, so I just bolted. I had no desire to speak to him. A few minutes later, one of the managers came up to my room. They had collected the guy's info and gave it to me in case I did want to press charges, which was nice of them. A few minutes after that I got a call from the front desk asking if I needed anything, or if I wanted any freshly baked cookies hahaha. I declined. I am somehow not hungry at the moment.

Aaaand then here I am, writing this. This literally happened like 15 minutes ago. My heart is still racing.

Sooo.. I don't know that I want to go out in Dallas tonight haha. I was going to go about a mile away to what I think is a Buckeye Bar to watch the OSU game but... I don't know how I feel about that anymore. There's a TGIF about 20 yards from my hotel, so maybe I'll wander over there if I feel like getting a drink and watching the game but it's completely possible I'll just sit in my hotel room now. Womp.

I want to come home :(

Dallas

Well friends. It seems it's been awhile since my last post. Sorry about that! Things have been a little crazy with work and then the holidays. I was lucky enough to have a few days off in late December, and although they were jam-packed with other things, it was still great to get almost two full weeks off.




New Years was wonderful, but I had almost no time to rest after that. After my iPhone failed to wake me up on New Years' Day, I feel like I've constantly been running late. I was late to my grandparents' on the 1st because of the iPhone alarm glitch, and it seems like I haven't stopped. There is always just so much to DO now that I'm working.

Yesterday (Sunday) I flew into Dallas for more auditing training. Believe me, I'm beyond excited to be somewhere with a high of 60. However, I'm completely by myself and it's a little lonely! That is, no one from my office or the Cincinnati office is here (they're the ones I've gotten to know through other trainings). There are about 30-40 people in my training class, and EVERY single one of them is from Dallas except one other girl from Witchita. This is just very sad to me. Usually trainings include people from multiple offices, and you go out to eat with other people and hang out all night. But all of these people are just... going home every night. Hence I will be spending 4:30 PM - bedtime alone every night. I'll be eating by myself, which is maybe the worst part of it. Guess I'll get room service every night? I'm not really one to just go to a restaurant and eat by myself at a table. Maybe one day I'll have the courage to do that but... I'm not there yet. Luckily there's a TGIFridays nearby so I can walk there and get carryout if I get sick of room service.

The other not so exciting parts of this trip:
- my return flight gets in at 11 PM on a Friday night. Not only that, my training will be over by 3 PM at the latest. Which means LOTS of time sitting in the airport on Friday. Lame.
- My room's heater makes TERRIBLY loud noises but I'm too lazy to pack up all of my stuff and request a new room
- I have no car which means I'll have to request a shuttle to/from training every single day. This is made a little more difficult by the fact that we have no idea when we'll get out on any given day.
- I have no one to watch the OSU game with. This is perhaps the most depressing aspect of the trip.
- Everything is an hour off. I'm terrified I'm going to miss SVU on Wednesday. Or the OSU game.

However. Several good things about Dallas/this week:
- I am allowed to spend $45 a night for dinner. Yes, please.
- The employees at this hotel are super friendly and are so chatty whenever I am in the lobby
- Diet Dr. Pepper is in the pop lineup for training. This is awesome. Usually it's just your standard Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and water. Diet Dr. Pepper is just... nuts. This is really all I have to get excited about during training.
- Southern people are hilarious to me. Not all of them in this office are Southern-born. You can definitely tell who was born and raised in Texas and it's awesome. So many 'y'alls' and silly phrases like 'holy smokes.' There is one girl who also says 'um' really oddly but it's fascinating. MANY of them are married/engaged, which is bizarre to me. Not a single person in my class in Columbus is engaged. I'm the only one that's even in a long-term relationship. Also, there are multiple guys with the Southern Boy Swoop as I like to call it. See below for an example.

The other thing I've seen that I am PRETTY sure is a Southern thing (but I could be wrong) was when I drove by a GIANT building on my way from the airport that said in HUGE letters formed by Christmas lights 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS.' I mean, really, I've never seen anything like that in Columbus.

Amazing.

Life update!

Not so fun stuff first: work is fine. Long hours still to come (I'm working on average until about 7 PM every night now... next week will turn into 9/10 PM), but it's all going well so far. I feel like I've learned a LOT in the past month and a half, but I know I still have 23094820823 things to learn. I've got my own parts of the audit that I'm in charge of, which is terrifying but also nice to have my own thing to work on. Granted, my senior is basically doing the work with me because I don't know how to do any of it on my own, but still. It's nice to 'own' something. I also have a lot more things on my plate now, which is both good and bad. Before, I would finish my assigned task and then just sit around waiting for another. Now I have enough tasks that I'm never really sitting around waiting. It makes the day go by a LOT faster. Getting food is also going well... I haven't terribly messed up anything yet. I'm also not getting food two times a day anymore, because a staff 2 has generously offered to trade off with me every meal. Yay! And finally, I think I'm starting to slooooowwwllyyyyy build some client contacts, which is nice. I received my first phone call from a client today (eeeeeek), so that was fun. I had to be like, 'Um... I'll have to talk with Jen about that..." because I didn't know what the answer was but still. I felt like kind of a big deal. Plus, I was able to answer PART of the question, so I don't think the client thought I was a complete idiot. And my coworkers are SO NICE. I just love them. It makes having to stay late SO MUCH more enjoyable.

Slight worry that came up today, though. My senior on this engagement I'll be on in bufu Indiana from January-February IM-ed me and told me that they are going to put us in a room that basically has no heat. Um, hi. That will not work for me. She said she spent last winter there and literally spent the entire day in her coat, scarf, boots, and GLOVES. She did work in her GLOVES. Also, they wouldn't let her bring a space heater. I'm so screwed. I asked her if she thought it'd be okay if I brought an electric blanket, and she said she'd have to ask. FML. Oh, and this is ALSO the town in bufu Indiana whose only claim to fame is MAKING CASKETS. I kid you not. I really kid you not. Caskets. Alsoooo, they have three places to eat in town, one of which is a deli inside a gas station. Sweet. .....send me care packages?

Other not-so-fun thing in life... I randomly have bronchitis. Who knows. All I know is that Wednesday night I turned deathly ill and could barely move. Friday I went to see a nurse practitioner who tried to diagnose me with like 18 things I was NOT there about, and finally told me i MAY have bronchitis and prescribed me amoxicilin. It's taking me forever to recover, but I'm finally feeling better! I have basically every flu/ear infection/sinus infection/bronchitis symptom you can think of (except stomach issues), so I'm pretty worn out still. I left work early both Thursday and Friday, which was kind of frustrating. I hate feeling like a slacker after only being there a month. Boo.

Onto the better things in life. Aka everything but work and being sick!

Donny and I early-celebrated my birthday on Sunday! We went to Las Margaritas so I could get my staple of beef and cheese nachos :) No margarita, though, since I felt like death and am on antibiotics :( So sad I couldn't get one. Then we came back to our place and he gave me my present, which was this AWESOME wine cooler!!!!! I'm SO excited. I've wanted one of these forever. Wine and cheese night SOON!!!


The blue light is the coolest part fo sho.

I get another birthday celebration next Sunday with my family, too! My mom's lasagna = best birthday meal EVER. Mmmm. Also, possible funfetti cake... it's going to be amazing.

Then, somewhere in the midst of working 60+ hour weeks, there will be Thanksgiving and Megan's bridal shower and the OSU/Michigan game and maybe the 05 reunion and MIAMI FRIENDS!!!! :) Soooo excited.

Okay. Laundry time. Ugh, I'm so domestic now.