all good things ...

not only was yesterday april fools day, but additionally and perhaps more importantly, yesterday marks the official end of busy season. yea! i made it through another one!

and for the record, this busy season was definitely the most stressful i have had. yet. ... maybe i shouldn't say that.

some of this year's busy season highlights:

• january: make-up client in glendale. this client was not ready for us when we came as scheduled in december, so we had to push the work forward by about 3 weeks, which of course meant that we were butting right up against the start date for other clients. of course, make-up client didn't care about that and expected us to push the schedule in order to accomodate their needs. at the same time, make-up client to this date has not clearly defined the scope of our work. i am sure i will be back out there sometime this summer. yea.

• february: toy manufacturer in costa mesa. this was my first out-of-town client in my public accounting career, which was fun. of course, the fact that i was staying at a hotel down the street from my client meant that there was an expectation of working early to late. but not a bad set-up otherwise. unless you want to count the fact that both of the staff i was given for this engagement had just been hired in september and this was their first busy-season client. oh, and we had a brand new manager on the job, too. so yeah. and what added to the "appeal" of this job was that it was actually work performed on an international subsidiary of a client of our hong kong office, which meant that we were answering to hong kong. kinda made communication difficult with the 15-hour time difference. but we did it.

• march: make-up client in glendale for a week with still no answer to many of the open issues. but because of funding issues on their end, we pulled out of the field to await a resolution.

  mexican food distributor in cypress for a week. cypress is not near my house, but not far enough to warrant a hotel stay, so take the minimum 11-hour days and tack on 2 hours of traffic in the morning and 2 more at night. the engagement team on this one, though, was fun and made the difference.

  the mexican food week was also the week that i threw out my back somehow. i don't know what happened but i woke up with a bit of a sore back on friday of the week before, which i tried to manage with what was available in the medicine cabinet at the office. the next couple days i tried to just cowboy-up and deal with the pain by walking slowly, sitting straight, and throwing back an ibuprofen or two throughout the day. however, tuesday i was in agony. laying down hurt. standing up hurt. driving hurt (yes, i mean actual pain from moving my right foot from the gas pedal to the brake, which happens frequently when driving through l.a., as you can imagine). walking hurt. sitting hurt. pulling myself up from my chair using my arms hurt but was the only way to do it. i got home that night and managed to sleep somehow, though not well. wednesday morning i called my physical therapist friend and begged for some advice. he offered to see me at his office, but that would mean an early early thursday morning. i was okay with that. so thursday he stretched me and pulled me and beat me up pretty bad. but, oh my goodness, it was fabulous. he gave me some exercises to do (which i have been doing) and i was much better.

  for added kicks, i decided that that thursday would be a good day to get sick. so i did that. and i have been arguing with my cold and personally financing the manufacturers of advil cold & sinus since then. i finally got some antibiotics last saturday. i am starting to feel better now.

  slime manufacturer in grover beach. my second out-of-town job. i'm getting the hang of this by now and i've pretty much got my packing strategy and weekly laundry routine figured out. this job is pretty good. though the client is brand new to me, i am working with some people i know and can trust, which is great. one perk is that we get to wear jeans every single day. i *love* it. plus we are a stone's throw from the beach. and one of these days i am going to go to the beach. especially now that busy season is officially over and we can work less than 55 hours a week without repercussion. yea!

wow. march has been eventful. thank goodness it's over. thank goodness busy season is over!