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.