Introducing Charlotte

This is Charlotte. She is my new roommate. She moved in with me at the end of June. She is 6 years old. I adopted her from a family that had to give her up because they just had a baby. Apparently Charlotte likes to sit on babies.



One of her favorite things to do is look in the mirror. What a diva.


She also likes to play with her little lobster toy...


Probably her most favorite thing to do is look out the window...

Yes, she is chubby. We're working on that. But as my friend said, "Fat cats are the best kind of cats!"

Exam "news"

Yesterday at 8:30 in the morning I took the Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) section of the CPA exam. It sucked majorly. I had so much anxiety about the exam that I made myself sick Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I take medication for generalized anxiety disorder, but that was just not cutting it for this level of stress. The anxiety also caused me to suffer from insomnia for the past two weeks. I have NEVER in my adult life not been able to go to sleep. If anything, I sleep too much. The past two weeks were agonizing. I had no idea how painful and frustrating insomnia is.

I've already taken and failed this portion of the exam twice. There are 4 exams, of which I have passed 2 so far. I'm taking the next one August 16. The exams are only "good" for 18 months, so the first one I passed expires on November 24. I totally plan on passing the one next month because it's the shortest exam/has the least material to memorize. So, if I didn't pass FAR yesterday, I have one more chance to take it and pass it in October before I lose my first exam.

Here's the thing with FAR - It's the longest test - 4 hours. The review book is about 2 inches thick. There are about 32 topics that I have to know. The review course to cover all of this is 40 hours long (not consecutively). Needless to say, that is a shit-load of stuff I need to know. My brain just does NOT have the capacity for that volume of information. As I was taking the test, I recognized all the material, but there were too many times where I read the question and thought to myself, "I know this. I've studied this. BUT, I studied this a week or two ago, and I just can't remember what the correct answer is." That SUCKS!

Yesterday after the exam I was completely exhausted. I took a short nap, but I really wanted to go out and eat some good food. I'd been cooped up in my apartment, getting nauseous from eating anything but cereal all week. Went out for tasty Mexican with Danielle and then we met up with another friend to see Wanted. (Totally awesome movie if you can tolerate graphic violence.) I was awake and energetic all night last night. Today, however, I came home from church around noon and slept until 6. I only woke up because I figured I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, but I'm still feeling lethargic and tired. Feels so amazing to be able to fall asleep.

Peace and love.
J

My secret life on the Internet

(I’m a complete moron because I’m putting off studying for the CPA exam, which I’m taking in LESS THAN 36 HOURS!, to update my blog. If I fail this exam, I blame the Internet.)

I feel like I’ve climbed the next rung in the popularity ladder. Since being commenter number 4 on dooce.com’s post yesterday, my readership had more than doubled! Yes, I went from 2 known readers, to FIVE! (Hi new readers, Jen, Sassy and Julie!) That is, if I still have my 2 previous readers. (Hi Salome and The Pope!) I wouldn’t blame them if they stopped coming by my blog since I don’t post very frequently. (I suck.)

Anyway… on to the details of my secret life… I have probably only told three or four of my real life friends that I write a blog, and I bet money they all forgot because none of them ever make comments on or about my blog. It feels like this blog is my little secret, and I have all these secret Internet friends that no one else knows about.

I think blogs are AWESOME! because they allow us to make acquaintance with people all over the world. It’s super cool how many people have blogs, and how we all support and related to each other. And that leads me to wonder, if everyone I’ve “met” here in the blogosphere are so awesome and kind, who the hell are these people out on the roads who honk, swear, and make obscene hand gestures? Ya know what I’m saying? Maybe not, because I live in LA, and some of you probably don’t. But geez, it seems like getting into a car just transforms anyone into an angry asshole. Enough with that tangent… I love connecting with people all over the country and the world via the blogosphere, but a lot of my friends and co-workers thinks it’s weird that I write a blog and that I love to read so many other people’s blogs. They’re like, if you don’t actually know that person, why would you want to read their blog?

Funny story – I turned my friend/co-worker June on to Dooce.com because I had saved a picture of Chuck (the dog) balancing Dr. Seuss books on his head as my desktop background on my work computer. She approached me the other day and said, “I’ve been reading your friend Heather’s blog everyday for a few months now. She’s funny!” I laughed and said, “Heather? I don’t know anyone named Heather.” She replied, “Dooce.com!” And I laughed, “Oh, she’s not my actual friend, I just found her blog on the Internet on day.”

I wish I could quit my job and just read blogs all day. There are seriously so many witty, creative, well-written, artistic people in this world. It is awesome, and I LOVE the Internet for bringing this to light and facilitating the sharing of our talents. So inspiring.

Now if only my friends and family would get with the program, and stop calling me a computer nerd! :-/

peace & love.
J

In retrospect, that wasn’t a very exciting, well-written, or cohesive post, but give me a break, I’m brain dead from studying for this exam!

Reality?

I am SO over all the stupid, new reality shows that are coming out. Television producers must be smoking some major crack these days. Celebrity Circus, Wipe Out, I Survived a Japanese Game Show. You have GOT to be kidding me. I will not watch any of these shows. I seriously cannot believe that new reality shows continue to be rolled out. I thought that it would be a phase, but apparently the American people are not yet tired of all the lame, unintellectual bullshit. Just one more thing to dumb the people down and keep them in front of the television. I wish it would all just go away.

J

Depressed

Last night I found the blog of Matt Logelin (www.mattlogelin.com) who lives in LA. His gorgeous wife, Liz, passed away in March, just 27 hours after giving birth to their little girl, Madeline, who was 7 weeks pre-mature and weighed 3 lbs 14 oz. He writes each night about what he and his daughter did that day. It's so sweet and beautiful, but at the same time horribly, horribly sad and painful. His posts made me cry multiple times last night and today. I couldn't access the site at work, so I read it after work. I've read all his entries up to today. And after I finished reading, I almost felt sick like throwing up. I was so sad and I feel like I know his wife now and I'm so so so terribly sad for him. There's that saying - "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." I don't know if that's true. I've never loved (romantically, that is), and I feel like I'd rather keep it that way than fall in love and lose him. It's so oppressively devastating!

So I was at home, sad, but I had told my cousin Marcy I'd come over to her place tonight as she was having a "going away" BBQ of sorts. On Sunday she's leaving for Africa for the summer. I really did not feel like going. I took a nap for probably an hour and then headed over an hour after it started... fashionably late. Being there didn't cheer me up at all. I didn't know anyone else. Then a bunch of girls went into Marcy's room to do a Buddhist chant while a lady, who appeared to be a leader, rolled up the scroll they were chanting to (?). I was very uncomfortable because I'm Christian, I didn't know what they were saying, and I was sad that Marcy seemed to have fallen away from God and chosen to pursue Buddhism. It became overwhelming as they got louder and faster, and then once the scroll was rolled up, put into a box, and then placed in a cabinet the chanting slowed down before ceasing.

Marcy's Mom was there and she told me that Marcy recommended she try attending Buddhist meetings and get into chanting because she'd been having some relationship difficulties. She told me that she did try it, and everything is so much better for her now. I just kept nodding and listening. She said, "I thought at first this would be yet another of Marcy's crazy adventures... Like when she went to Ghana and became a born again Christian. Thankfully she got over that and is into this now. This is much healthier." I was so taken aback by that statement. Had she no idea of my faith and that it was such an integral part of my being, and has been for 26 years?! Her words brought me to my breaking point, and I started to cry. I told Marcy that I had to leave.

I hope that tomorrow is a better day.

Peace and love.
J