homecoming

my car's name is reginald huntington III.

just before i moved to new york in 2005, my poor little chevy cavalier pedro got totalled in a parking lot accident. so a quick change of plans mandated that i fly -- instead of drive -- to new york and there buy a new car.

i had told the mom of the family who i was going to live with that i would need to buy a car, and she was so sweet to contact her car dealer and let him know what i needed and how much i could pay for it. so the day after i arrived in new york, she drove me up to meet with the car dealer, who had just found a 1997 toyota corolla that would suit me great. so i bought it. and he's been a good car.

finding a name for my corolla was a bit difficult, though. definitely needed to be a boy name, but he's not a very *manly* car: i mean, he's no dodge ram. after a few discussions with my sister inge, we settled on reginald huntington III. (we added the "III" as a sort of family name because the dad of my new york family was named kirby brown III. thought i owed them at least some tribute for putting up with me for almost 10 months.)

so, reginald huntington III. but we call him reggie. and you know that he's a boy because reggie *loves* driving girls around: he bonded with the girls in new york on several road trips to boston and upstate new york, bonded with my new york mom on a trip down the east coast to virginia, bonded with my sister inge on the drive back from new york to utah, and bonded with my mom and inge (a second bonding for her) on the drive from utah down here to l.a. oh, and he's spent plenty of time with my older sister eden and her family, too, with the drive up to utah for Christmas this year.

and reggie's such a good sport. he's been through a lot lately: what with partying late with friends and cleaning up my messes.

so i sent him to a spa -- err, body shop -- for a week, and i am pleased to announce that he just arrived home today and he is so happy:

there and back again

an accountant's tale.

part of my responsibility here at gt is to represent the firm in our recruiting efforts at fine educational institutions such as byu. and i willingly oblige. last year i made a 10-day trip out of my recruiting assignment. and when a second opportunity arose to wave the grant thornton flag over the hills in provo last month, i tried to pack just as much into that trip.

friday morning, my flight left lax at 715. which meant that i had to be to the flyaway for the 5 o'clock bus ... which meant that i had to wake up by 4. or, 430. because i hit the snooze several times. as usual. especially since i had been up until 230 finishing some stuff for work (this was still in the middle of busy season) and then packing because i prefer to do everything last minute. (i think it sounds better if i say that i "prefer" to do something. don't you agree? makes it sound like i am more in control of my life, huh?)

after sleeping on the bus and then sleeping again on the plane, i was somewhat coherent when i arrived in salt lake. at least enough so that i noted that avis really does try harder.

from there, i drove down to provo and picked up my brother and sister to go out to lunch. we learned that the trunk to my rental car was pretty big:

actually, really pretty big:

yup, that's me *and* my brother *and* all my luggage and computer in there. impressed? i know. i know you are.

we had a quick lunch at wallabys smokehouse in orem (pretty good barbecue) and then dropped matti back off at work. jorgen and i went to his apartment and did his taxes. then i had to be responsible for an hour -- had a conference call for work -- after which i left for fat cat's for the recruiting event ...

... a st. patty's day bowling party! wahoo!

it was pretty fun! i think most of the students that came (and there were so many that came!) were happy to have a laid-back event after some intense midterms. i talked to so many students and quite a few were interested in coming down to socal. which is great news for the firm!

i love recruiting. have i told you that before? i do. it's so much fun. i love just talking to everyone, meeting new people, socializing, etc. it's great.

after the recruiting event, i met my mom and aunt susan kay up in salt lake for dinner. i'd had pizza and cake at the recruiting event, but anyone who knows me at all knows that i can most usually pack down more food whenever presented. (elise ... member that one buffet where we almost killed ourselves by eating so much food because we were trying to stock up before fast sunday?? ha. oh, my stomach still hurts just thinking about it.)

the three of us then spent the night at susan kay's in riverton. (not riverdale, which is near ogden. i can never remember where susan kay lives except that i know that she lives in the river__ city that is *not* near ogden. and i remember that riverdale is near ogden. so she must live in riverton. pronto. yes, it's a round about way to get to that conclusion, but it's the only way i can do it. just thought i would let y'all in on a little bit of the lunacy i have to deal with on a daily basis just by nature of being inside my own head. now be grateful *you* are not inside my head.)

in the morning, we woke up early and packed everything in the car to head up to ogden. we left susan kay's around 830, dropped my rental car off at the airport on the way, and had an easy ride up i-15. once in ogden, the plan was to swoop in and pick up dad and then zip out of town. well ... it was a stretched out swoop and slow zip, if that. everything takes longer when a sorensen is involved. and there were 3 of us at this point. so you can just imagine. i think we were on the road by again around noon. (that's susan kay and i -- we made a mcguyver-esque window shade using only notebook paper and post-it flags to remove the sunglare on my computer screen for the drive.)

... 4 hours later ...

we arrive in boise, idaho. i like boise. i love to visit. and on this weekend we were visiting my grandmother and all the aunts and uncles on my mom's side because my aunt kathie and uncle joe were preparing to leave on their mission! (they got called to the florida ft. lauderdale mission and left for the mtc on april 7.) before leaving, they wanted to get all the siblings together for a nice dinner, and i'm so happy they let me come crash the party.

sunday morning we had a lazy time with yummy breakfast made by my grandmother, which included grandpa's skillet potatoes. mmm. grandmother then showed me how to crochet an edge on the baby blanket that i have been knitting for inge. (inge ... i really need you to tell me if the baby blanket needs to have some pink on it. like, really.)

anyway, and then kathie and joe came over with yummy homemade chicken soup for lunch. it was nice to see them and spend some more time with them.

then we loaded the car again and started the drive south. we got to ogden around 630, quickly unloaded some things from the car and then got back in the car ... because my flight back to l.a. left at 915 that night. i got back to my house around 1130, and didn't even pause to unpack or anything -- not sure i even changed clothes -- before getting in bed. i was exhausted. it was a fabulous trip, but it wore me out! and the next morning was more busy season.

thinking back about it right now, i'm really not sure how i did that. but i know that i did.

what do you do?

what do you do when the power goes out?

well, when the freezer is full of ice cream and you aren't sure when the power will come back on, i think y'all would do what we did:

make fruit smoothies using a battery-powered hand drill.

it was ingenious!

we jury-rigged the drill: hooked it up, first, to a blender blade to chop the fruit and then to a beater to mix it all up. then we enjoyed our concoction by candle light while playing super munchkins!

wish you were there

okay, so friday night was game night up at my sister eden's. they do it once a month. on the third friday. i know this. i can recite the schedule on command. but ... eden still has to call me every time and say, "hey, it's game night -- are you coming?"

game night is so much fun. it's usually at eden's house. or sometimes we go to other people's houses (don't worry -- eden knows all those people). and the agenda, you ask? well, mostly we play games. and we eat treats. and we play more games. and eat more treats. ... you get it. i'm telling you: so. much. fun.

so yesterday i was at work kinda late (even though busy season is over, whatever), trying to finish some stuff so that next week will not be so hectic, and eden called at about 6:40 to say, "hey, it's game night -- are you coming?" my response: "heck yes i am!" (or something a little less napoleon-esque, but just as excited.)

so i packed things up, drove home to change, and then headed up.

and so i'm driving, right. and i noticed this tube of lotion that i've had in my car since, oh, probably the 29th of november. it's the lotion i got from the pharmacy. my doctor had prescribed it for some really dry skin that i have on one of my fingers. so since i wasn't doing anything else at the moment besides driving, i decided it would be a good opportunity to apply said lotion. (ha ha: when i just typed that word, i actually typed "lotino". that's a fun word to say. say it: "lotino". ha ha. anyway ... )

well, it's been a while since i used the lotion, so the tube was a little clogged with some dried-out lotion. i thought maybe i could squish the lotion out so i squeezed it a little: nope. so i used the pokey end of the cap to poke it a little: still nope. i massaged most of the lotion up to the top of the tube. still couldn't get it out.

but when i stopped at the next stop light, i decided to just give it all i had -- it *had* to come out, right?

and ... umm ... i got it.

yeah.

i reeeally got it: all over my freakin' car!

yeah. i squeezed the tube with my muscles and the dried-up lotion that was clogging the tube shot straight up! followed by about half the tube of lotion! it was everywhere: on the ceiling, on the sun visor, on the window, on the windshield, on the dashboard, on the steering wheel, on the radio, on the gear shifter, on the arm rest, on the other arm rest .. and on me: on my head, on my hair, on my face, on my arms, on my shirt, on my pants ... and on my finger, which was fortunate since that was precisely where i wanted to put the lotion anyway. hmm. so that's good, right?

oh -- and additionally: it had been a hot day, so the lotion was rather melted and runny. so not only was it all over everything, but it was now dripping off of everything and getting on *more* everything. oh my goodness.

it was the funniest thing ever! i laughed and laughed and laughed. and i looked around to see if anyone else was perchance enjoying this spectacle. nope. no one. not a single person. not anyone. which is why i really wish you were there. really.

then i laughed some more, pulled out my handy wet wipes, and started cleaning up my mess. seriously: it was everywhere.

not nice

this morning i told a 70-year-old widow that it's all in her head that she gets anxious about going to church events by herself now that her husband is dead.

she was telling me that she doesn't really want to go to tonight's young women's girls' camp fundraiser pasta dinner by herself because "when people go to church events they like to sit with their friends and usually it's two people instead of one."

can't believe i did that.

too used to going to stuff alone, i guess.

he bought a ring!?

many of you may not know, but i am kind of easily addicted to television shows. it's embarrassing to admit, but ... i feel it is something i just cannot keep from you any longer.

in elementary school it was darkwing duck and tale spin. junior high and high school i couldn't get through the day without saved by the bell and star trek: the next generation. college was friends -- it was on at least twice day, *4 times* on thursdays -- and then csi, which has carried through until recently. my newest show craving is house, which is all-too-often bumped for dumb american idol (sorry, idol fans -- but don't mess with me and my shows).

wow. memory lane.

okay.

back to 2008.

so in college, a friend of mine tried to get me to watch the office with him at his apartment like every week, but i was too dang addicted to csi to oblige his repeated requests. i thought my life with grissom, nick, and warrick was complete. my life was good.

then i graduated from college, took a *fabulous* job here in l.a., and continued my thursday night csi ritual. and now that i'm not in school and tied to a chair in the periodicals section of the hbll, i have expanded my horizons a little, and added house on tuesdays. life was still good.

when i found out that tbs is showing office re-runs on tuesday nights, i decided to check it out, too -- it was on right after house, anyway, so i was already comfortable in the blue lazy-boy ...

... and i have to say that i am starting to regret a few things from college. i mean, i didn't even *know* i was missing jim and pam, michael and dwight in my life! really!

and here's where you'll all be shocked, so take a seat, please (since i know that there are those of you that use the internet while standing, walking, jumping, bowling, or otherwise not-sitting, uh-huh):

tonight i watched the new episode of the office *instead* of csi.

yeah. i know: this is big.

and i cannot tell you how happy i am with that choice. *especially* because of the shocking revelation that jim made, which i won't disclose here for those of you that haven't seen the episode yet. (oh, and for those of you that haven't seen the episode yet: don't read the title of this post. yeah.)

so.

much has changed: i'm an office girl now, not a csi girl. (note that, house remains untouched since it doesn't conflict with the office in any way and actually promotes this, my new addiction.)

this is a new chapter in my life. welcome, one and all.

hittin' the books

okay, with the end of busy season, i have so many ideas of fun things to post ... but i have just one more deadline:

my final attempt at passing this durned cpa test.

yes, this is the fourth attempt. (obviously, the third time isn't *always* the charm ... hmm. interesting.)

so, yeah ... give me until the weekend. i am taking the test at 12:30 on friday -- yes, that's just a day and a half away. so the pressure's on.

and *then* i promise to put something entertaining up. promise.

until then ... maybe check out some of the blogs over there on the left. some of my friends are *really* funny.

:P

smashing good time

so to celebrate the end of busy season, and really just to enjoy a friday night after a long work week ... my friend alyssa and i planned to go out to duke's in malibu for some yummy food and good company.

so when i got off work around 7, i called her and said i was on my way. a quick stop at home to put my jeans on ... and then back out the door. i got to alyssa's a little early, and by 745 we were getting into alyssa's car to head off.

as we backed out of the garage, though, we heard a fateful metal-on-metal crunch. uh-oh. we spent the next few minutes looking at this:

but -- i'm sorry reggie -- i really didn't want to spend my friday night doing that. so ... we got back in alyssa's car and tried the whole thing again. success! we made it out of the driveway this time -- with no crunching!

the drive out to malibu was fun. we took topanga canyon out to the beach and then up pch to duke's. after dinner alyssa was telling me about the malibu country mart, so we headed over there to check it out. and then we watched leatherheads, which was cute (but long and kinda slow at times).

overall: a fun evening!

puttin' it all together now ...

when we got back from lunch today ...

1. we noted a white rodent control van parked outside the client's office.

2. we saw a man in a blue exterminator jumpsuit having a conversation in the hallway with debby.

3. we overheard debby, in accounting, say, "there were a couple that came running out from over there. and i think i saw one little one behind that over there, too."

4. we climbed the stairs to the conference room where we have been working for the past 3½ weeks, where we saw the empty bag of trader joe's honey whole wheat pretzel sticks on the conference table.

5. we remembered a conversation from this morning wherein we concluded that the night janitorial staff is to blame for the empty bag of pretzel sticks, which was not empty when we left last night.

6. we noted that one of the corners of the bag had a decent-sized hole with jagged (maybe nibble-like?) edges.

... we may have been wrong about the janitorial staff.