where's my stapler?

i've been working for about 6 months. for those of you that don't know, i got a job as an accountant at a private wealth management firm in downtown boston, and i am INCREDIBLY blessed. i have learned a lot of things in this 6 months... the biggest being that i do NOT have the personality of an accountant.



since no one in my office talks (at all...), here are a few things i do to keep myself entertained at work:

• drink/fill up my water bottle about every half hour just so i can stand up and move around


• go to the restroom every other half hour for the same reason.. (plus that's a lot of water)


• play hot lava monster with myself using the rugs in our hallways (the wood floor is the lava)


• watch one of the tax accounts RUN through the office... i swear there's a mario kart turbo boost under one of the rugs, because she always starts running at the same spot. i wish i could catch the turbo boost... or at least get some red shells


• keep a running tally of paper clips gained to paper clips lost. one of my reviewers always reviews my work and gives it back to me WITHOUT paperclips. so sometimes i purposely submit copies to admin so that i can replinish my paper clip stash.


• same as above, but with binder clips... and WAY more intense


• find who brought doughnuts/baked goods and make friends with them for the day


• recycle post-it notes and calculate how many trees i've saved at the end of the day

congrats!

so anytime i want to congratulate someone in writing - i always write "congrats!"

poking around on the recent acu engagements, i noticed i'm not the only one substituting congrats for congratulations - everyone seems to shorten this word

but let's be honest, i genuinely do want to write "congraulations" but everytime i go to write it, i have an inner battle on the correct spelling:

c-o-n-g-r-a.....-d?
c-o-n-g-r-a-t...-s?

in fear of a mispelling this celebratory word, what i end up writing is "congrats!"

i'm just glad the blogger toolbar has spellcheck! congratulations blogspot :)

moo

I am tolerant of most things, but one thing I CANNOT tolerate is lactose.
-kristin

and as a side note - lactate and lactose are two different things. i however tend to confuse these words and it is embarassing

manhood.

i hate the gym. i go because i used to be really in shape, so i like to pretend that i still am. i am reminded that i am no longer in shape everytime i go, haha :)

but the real reason why i hate the gym is the general attitude. example: yesterday i was in the free weight area and there was this super cocky 24ish year old guy in an underarmor tshirt that he probably borrowed from my 7 year old neighbor's football uniform. he was really muscular, i'm pretty sure gelled his hair before his workout... and i'm assuming was a personal trainer because he was "instructing" a man that was not in peak physical condition, and this man's wife who was just a normal petite lady.

so there's the scene. as i walk by, the man is doing a tricep lift with a dumbbell and starting to struggle a little. amidst the struggle the personal trainer literally says "it's called manhood. it sucks."

.jawdrop. WHAT?! is that really something you say to another dude who is trying to get in shape?!

so the only free bench was next to these people. ugh. as i'm doing my workout, i'm hearing the trainer say things such as "it shouldn't be that hard, i usually lift this much so this should be easy for you" followed by him showing up this guy and his wife with all his lifts. good job. and don't worry.. of course he's breathing obnoxiously loud and grunting as if he's giving birth.. haha the irony. He's the kind of guy that would honestly yell "HEY EVERYONE! COME SEE HOW GOOD I LOOK!" ... but then laugh and say "haha JK" (not "just kidding"... actually say "j-k")

so my entire workout (with my 10lb lifts.. woot woot!) i am trying to decide when exactly i need to step in and tell this guy to get over himself. i unfortunately never found the opportune moment, nor collected my thoughts to think of something witty enough worth interrupting their workout.

i left the gym that day thinking to myself... wow. manhood. it sucks.

HOOTIE HOO! hootie who?

let me preface this story by mentioning that i have a cousin in federal prison serving 8-10 years (always a good start to a story :D). i love him more than anything, and i'd say ever person that meets him does as well.

i've visited him numerous times in prison, and let's just say... i'm pretty sure that guy runs the place. he's very well respected and runs a store out of his cell (shawshank anyone??) all this to say... he's such a baller.

well i moved out here and wanted to keep in touch since i couldn't visit him as easily anymore. i wrote him a letter telling him about goofy things that had happened within the week and just random updates.

i went to mail the letter and all i had was little cute pink stationary envelopes. so i put my letter in the pink and green argyle stationary, put it in the pink envelope and mailed it off. i didn't realize that sending pink envelopes, with pink and green argyle stationary is completely normal in my world, and a little less normal in prison. i mentioned this to the family at christmas and they are currently worried about his safety, haha... or at the very least, his pride.

that being said.... this past weekend was valentines day. not only valentines day but soon after (today actually, feb 20th) is national "hootie hoo" day, a national holiday i'm pretty sure celebrated by my family only. you celebrate hootie hoo day by drinking pink lemonade and eating vanilla ice-cream... then at noon, you step outside your door and yell "HOOTIE HOO" to "chase away winter."

here's where i tie my stories: my office is very very strict and the people i work with know absolutely nothing about my life... all they know is that i wear a suit and glasses everyday while sitting at my computer playing accountant. gauranteed anyone that is reading this right now knows me much better than that. so one of the receptionists comes up to me in front of a couple of my supervisors (imagine a very professional setting) and says "hey sarah, this came in the mail for you... it looks like a personal card" gasps ensued and everyone gathered to see who had sent the card...

don't worry - my aunt (love her, BUT) sent me HOOTIE HOO DAY CARD TO MY OFFICE.

i had to then explain to a group of north easterners what hootie hoo day is. it's one of those things that sounds so normal when you talk about it with your family, and then trying to explain it to a group of boston accounts... well it's a little less normal.

sorry matt for sending you the pink and green argyle card.

i love my family.

dee jay

there are numerous reasons why i love my brother, but the past 2 days i have added to the list:

my brother always calls me "shar" (derived from the character cher from clueless). tonight we were talking online and apparently his finger slipped and he called me shat.

while speaking at an elementary school chapel, he instituted "high-five fridays" as a way of showing god's love. i always knew we were related.

also - please reference a recent blog post of the christmas present he and my cousin were SO excited to give me: http://chapmionshipvinyl.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post.html

this is why we are best friends <3

the following events are all true...

1. i left the back off the juicer (the part that catches all the pulp) and pulp sprayed all across the side of my refrigerator. i had to clean up grapefruit/orange throw-up

2. the past two fridays i have been asleep before 10pm - last weekend i didn't get out of bed till 5pm saturday evening.

3. mallory and i consistently order a large pizza from roggies... and eat the whole thing. every time we say that we're not going to

4. i have recently been asked out by the following men:

-40 year old hawaiian man named paul

-awkward writer who i have yet to see without a bandanna on his head (but gives me free pizza at my favorite lunch spot)

-guy on the subway who asked me if i wanted to come over and smoke weed

-extremely creepy accountant (nothing against accountants) with bad breath and a huge mole bursting out of his nostril

among others that are less "interesting" and i have yet to accept any of these offers...

5. la bamba came on my shuffle while i was on the treadmill and i listened to it the whole way through. it took everything i had in me not to sing outloud and bust a move.

6. today is neil diamonds birthday. i still haven't seen him in concert - i definitely need to fulfill that life goal.

<3 life is good!

iPray

Man oh man... a lot of stuff has been going on lately with close friends that has been on my mind and I am praying for... I thought I might go ahead and write out a few things in case you readers need something to pray for :)

d.j. - resigned from his church and is looking for a job
jordan w. and family - mom's surgery
christina j. - graduating, where to live, job hunt... all that stuff (bleh)
chris d. - interviewed for a baller job and lots of exciting life changes going on (yay!)
dani k. - relationships
terry p. and family - wife's surgery for breast cancer
jen r. - school and friends
aaron d. - job situation

those are the big things on my heart at the moment :D while i've got you praying... haha, my big interview is tomorrow and i'm getting pretty nervous :\ how awesome is it that we can cast our burdens and be free to live aside from our fears. i love the god that we serve!

so life is good :D i played hostess at the restaurant i work at for two shifts now and that was fun... tonight i'm training to be a server, aaaaaaaaand that'll be funny.

hope all is well!! remember to send me updates on your lives as well <3

i recently pahked my cah in haavad

so i'm settled!! let me just start by saying that GOD IS SOOOO GOOD! i have a place to live for two months in quincy which is south of boston (not to be confused with south boston, ie: good will hunting, departed... yikes!) so i am completely safe and have made some good friends! i am living here with two roommates that i found using craigslist, and we hit it off so well that the three of us are going to move to the city on dec 1st!

this has REALLY helped because it gives me time to focus solely on job interviews rather than both interviews and apartments... that proved to be entirely too overwhelming :\ speaking of jobs... still jobless. BUT! i've had a lot of good interviews - i was turned down by one and i turned down another so i guess the score's even at this point. the job that i am REALLY excited about, i interview for next thurs. and would be a PERFECT career starter. hopefully something will come of that!

meanwhile, one of my roommates works at a restaraunt here called uno's, so i decided to pick up some night and weekend shifts to make some money and still be able to interview for career jobs during the day :)

so the short version: things are GREAT! I LOVE THIS PLACE!!

more stories to come, but that's the update! hope all is well :)

::insert Augustana lyrics here::

i'm leaving my house at 4am to catch my 6am flight and i'll land in boston at 1:30

AHHH!!!