Maybe I'm a nerd...

But it was the highlight of my day today to get this comment in an email from my manager: "You rock! Good auditing :) ."

I found a potential issue, so when I emailed my manager to let her know, this was her response. It at least helps me feel like there's a point to what I do!

Now if only I can finish the rest of my work by 5:00 on Wednesday when I'm supposed to be leaving for vacation! Maybe planning on leaving before an audit is due was a bad idea...but I'm excited to leave!

Bored much?

I am at work. And I am blogging at work. This is something I have never done before. But in light of the boredom I am feeling today, I decided to take the risk!

This week has been awful. We're working on a first quarter review. It's due tomorrow. So we've been working a lot. It's just not fun! And we got stuff from the client late, and then none of my areas were working, and my boss made fun of my hair when I went to work with it naturally curly. Man, I hated this week. I'm so glad it's almost over! Monday through Wednesday were really busy trying to get it all done, and now everything I have left I need help with, so I'm just sitting around waiting to get help.

I am really excited about the end of the month, though. I'm going on my first planned vacation since I started working! (Christmas doesn't count, since you always take vacation for that. And I had to work during Christmas break, anyway.) I have a cousin getting married on May 22nd in Boise, so I decided I want to go to that, and have a long weekend for Memorial Day. But then it was cheaper to buy a ticket to leave Wednesday night than Thursday or Friday, so I ended up making it a 6 day trip! I don't know what I'm going to do the whole trip, but I'm sure I'll find something. I still know enough people in Provo I should be able to keep myself occupied staying with my brother. I'm really just excited to get away from work and Houston for awhile!

In other news, Rachel will be back from her mission in less than a year! She's always asking me to ask people to write her, so please write her. Her address is:

Sister Rachel Lovell
775 NE 1st Street #E-19
Lake Butler, FL 32054

Well, I'm done with lunch, so now I will get back to trying to work. Happy Thursday to all!

Paris!

We left Barcelona to fly to Paris on Monday, June 16th. We were lucky enough to arrive in Paris during the Metro strike. This meant we weren't able to take the tubes to our hotel, and instead had to figure out, without knowing any French, which bus we could take to get to our hotel. It was rush hour, with no tubes running, so everyone was trying to get home on the buses. This was probably one of THE worst experiences of my life. At every bus stop, more people got on, and we got pushed farther and farther against the side of the bus, with our luggage between our legs. I was unlucky enough to be against a pole, into which I kept getting shoved harder and harder. There was a pole against my knees that they kept getting pushed into. Not a good thing with bad knees already. I also managed to end up with the pole in my chest. So anytime someone tried to reach for the pole to hold on, they would also grad my chest. There was much pain and groping involved. I believe I will never take a bus in Paris again.

By the time we found our hotel, we were all really tired, especially after another day of travel. So we spent Monday evening just getting dinner and walking around some. We got pizza at a little cafe, where the chef kept trying to hit on us, and made our pizza in the shape of hearts.

We tried going to The Louvre on Tuesday, only to discover that it is closed on Tuesdays. We didn't have any other plans made yet, so we decided to go straight for the Eiffel tower. As it was also Rachel's birthday, I decided to call her from the top to wake her up to tell her happy birthday. I called her when it was about 7:30 AM in Seattle, and she wasn't too happy about being called that early, especially for me to tell her where I was. I think it really made her happy, though.

The Eiffel tower took most of the day. We climbed up to the second deck, and then took the elevator to the top. I don't remember how may stairs there are, but there are a lot! I think it was 700-ish? But I'm not entirely sure on that. The view from the top was amazing! We were all worried about climbing that many stairs, but I was really glad we did it. Here are some of the pictures we took:

Wednesday was my birthday, and we spent it visiting Versailles palace. It was absolutely beautiful! It was a great way to celebrate a birthday! It took the whole day to travel to Versailles, see the palace and the gardens, and travel back to Paris. I thought it was worth it! The gardens were so amazing, it was nice to just walk around and enjoy the sun outside of the city. We also ate some crepes and ice cream. Is there a better way to spend a day?

It's a VERY large complex. I couldn't get all of it in one picture, even from this far away.

Me in the Hall of Mirrors with my audio guide. I think I could handle living here...

Birthday dessert!

Thursday we were planning on doing a bike tour with Fat Tire Bike Tours, founded by an Aggie, but this was the part of our trip when we all came down with a cold. We woke up Thursday morning not feeling like riding bikes. Instead, we found Notre Dame and spent some time there, before reading at a Starbucks for a while to enjoy a break and escape the rain. After Starbucks, we went to see Champs-Elysees, the famous shopping street in Paris, along with the Arc de Triomphe. We ate dinner at an outdor cafe on the Champs-Elysees before heading back for some rest!


Friday we decided to go on a walking tour of Montmartre, where many famous artists have lived and worked, including Van Gough and Picasso. We also saw the only vineyard left inside the city of Paris, Montmartre Cemetery, the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur Basilica, and some of the remaining famous windmills. It was a really fun walk! Friday night we went to The Louvre, after discovering that they have free admission on Fridays from 6-9 PM for 18-25 year olds. We didn't have a lot of time, but we still saw most of the highlights, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. We met up with my friend Lexa from my job at A&M for dinner, and also got more crepes for dessert.

The real Moulin Rouge

One of the famous windmills

Sacre Coeur Basilica

Inside the Louvre - I've read The Da Vinci Code, so I had to take this pic

Kristin and Lexa at dinner

Saturday we spent the morning doing laundry and getting some French baked goods from a bakery down the street. FYI - the laundromat we went to was pretty sketchy, including a crazy, foaming-at-the-mouth guy and all. Then we packed up our cameras and books to go take some pictures in front of the Eiffel tower and read in the park.

Me and the Iron Lady

There was this really cute little French girl pushing her baby doll around in a stroller, and I just had to take a picture

Happy Post-Client-Filing Weekend!

Well, my client finally filed on Thursday afternoon. They were planning on filing on Wednesday, which meant I would have had Thursday and Friday off. But instead, we had to work Thursday, too. I didn't leave till 8:30 on Thursday, leaving me with a total of 54 hours in 4 days. Not fun!

But I did at least have Friday off! I slept till noon, and it was glorious. Then my friend Melissa came to visit Friday afternoon, so we spent Friday and Saturday eating out and watching tv. I really enjoyed having some time to relax. Friday felt so weird, though. I kept thinking it was Saturday, and anytime Melissa reminded me that it was Friday, I would freak out thinking I was supposed to be at work. Or I would start worrying that I forgot to do something at work, and since the client filed on Thursday it would be too late to do it now. I know that everything was reviewed and done, but for some reason I was still worried that I hadn't done something. Apparently, this is known as post-client-filing anxiety.

I took a four hour nap today. I think I might be able to handle another week of work now. I have no clue how much we will be working, I only know we're scheduled to work 55 hour weeks for at least the rest of March. I'm really hoping it's not actually that much!

Seriously?

Come on, guys! Do we really need to make the Oscars political? This is supposed to be an event to celebrate cinematic achievement. Do you really need to chastise and tell people they will be 'shamed' for their political feelings at an event such as this? I think not. Very dis-tasteful and disappointing.

I just wanted to vent on that, and thought it would be safer here than on my Facebook status.

And I apologize for the lack of blogging, yet again. 'Busy season' at work hit, and hit hard. I worked 65 hours last week, 60 both weeks before that, 55 the week before that, and I can't even remember how much any farther back than that. So, another 'Seriously?' comment. Since when is salary so great? I think it's a lie!

I'm hoping I will be able to find time soon to do some real blogging again. I still have more Euro-trip blogs to add! My client is supposed to file their financial statements this week, so hopefully I'll have some free time soon! My disappointment in the Oscars tonight drove me to finally add this little comment. Hopefully, I'll be able to give you some more fun blogs again soon!

Sick Day

Now an interlude from my Europe postings to comment on another milestone in life. My first sick day. I've had a cold for almost 3 weeks, and then it decided to turn into a sinus infection. I felt awful all last week, but didn't want to ask for a day off of work because we already had 2 people out for most of the week. I finally started feeling better on Sunday night, so I thought I was getting better.

Then Monday at work, just before lunch, I got an awful headache and started seeing spots. I couldn't even read anything on my computer the spots were so bad. So I went to lunch and drank a Dr. Pepper, hoping the caffeine would help the headache. I started feeling a little better, and went back to work the rest of the day. Then Tuesday about 5:00, the headache came back, and worse. This time I saw spots and swirls and the pain was worse. I left work a little after 6, went home, put on some comfy pants, and sat down to watch NCIS. I only made it to the first commercial and passed out for the next 3 hours. I woke up in the middle of the 10 o'clock news and realized I probably shouldn't go to work the next day so I could see a doctor.

So this morning, I called my senior (the audit term for my boss) and told her I wouldn't be in for part or all of the day. I went to the Memorial Hermann clinic at the HEB in Pearland (who knew they have those now?!?) and was told I have a sinus infection. Not fun. I would suggest NOT getting them. I don't usually have sinus problems, so this is something I'm not used to, and I don't like it. I have another of the spots and swirls causing headaches as I'm typing now.

Therefore, today I am grateful for the wonderful days known as 'sick days' in the grown up world. I'm also finally learning that I should use them, even if I'm afraid of asking to. Now I'm just waiting for the antibiotics to kick in, and trying to decide if I'm going to need another sick day tomorrow.

Euro Trip Part 2

The second part of our trip we spent in Espana. We decided to go to Barcelona and experience the Mediterranean. We arrived on Tuesday, June 10th, travelled to our hotel about 30 minutes outside the city in Sabadell, and decided to just hang out there the rest of that night to rest some. We found an apartment style hotel there, so that was really nice. It had two bedrooms, a kitchenette, and even a washer in the bathroom. No dryer, but hey, I won't complain about hang drying if it means avoiding the laundromat!

Wednesday we spent some time walking down La Rambla, the street leading down to the beach that has lots of vendors and shopping on it. There are also people dressed up in crazy costumes that will cover their face so you can only get a picture of them if you give them money. Kind of annoying, but still fun. We also went on a bus tour of the city, including Passaeig de Garcia (the rich upscale shopping street), Park Guell (designed by Gaudi, including one of his homes), and La Sagrada Familia (the cathedral Gaudi started in 1882, which is not expected to be completed until 2026 or something ridiculous like that). It was a very interesting tour!

Costume lady on La Rambla

Park Guell

La Sagrada Familia

Thursday we went to the beach. Oh man! The water was much more pretty than what I'm used to here on the Gulf of Mexico. Clear and blue. The sand was even white! But when you walked on it, it was very hard and grainy, so I'm not sure the whiteness was worth it. (Sidenote - if you ever go to the beach in Barcelona, be warned to not everyone thinks they should wear clothing at the beach, especially old woman). We spent about half an hour on some beach chairs before someone came up to us saying that we had to pay 10 euros to use the chairs. That wasn't happening, and I was already starting to look like a lobster, so we moved into some shade, got some smoothies, and just enjoyed looking at the beach for a while. We also went to La Museu de Xocolata - The Chocolate Museum! Lots and lots of Chocolate!

Carly, me and Kristin at the beach

Chocolate Ferdinand and Isabella

Chocolate Ben Hur

Chocolate Ratatouille

The next day we went to the Barcelona Zoo. I don't think I'd ever been to a major zoo before, so I really enjoyed it. I think I took like 200 pictures! We also walked through a park and saw the Arc de Triumf.

Big animal

Little animal (I LOVED the little monkeys!)

Water animals

Spanish Arc de Triumf

Saturday we went on a cruise up and down the coast. There were some HUGE cruise boats in the harbor. They were ridiculous. The water was really choppy the farther out we got, so we kept getting splashed with water every time the boat dipped back down into the water, but it was still a fun little cruise. That night we went to a Flamenco show to get a taste of some true Spanish culture.

My first ocean 'cruise'

Harbor with huge cruise ship - this one was small compared to some of the others

Flamenco! Blurry, but I tried

Cast of the Flamenco show - the guy with his shirt open was very cute!

Sunday we stayed at the apartment most of the day to rest, do laundry, and get ready to leave Barcelona. We went back into the city one last time to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe - we were desperately in need of some normal food! That night we ordered pizza in our room and played cards. It was a much needed relaxing day. We really enjoyed Barcelona, but were also ready to head off for the next part of our journey!

Carly with her thumb up George Strait's...well, you get the picture. It was totally not intentional, but very funny.

Kristin and me at Hard Rock

Carly and me enjoying real food

We wanted to get rid of some Euro change - I'm sure our waiter loved the tip

Playing cards with pizza, very relaxing night to round off another leg of our journey