Here's a shocker...

A couple weeks ago I was informed by a friend and former co-worker that one of the partners I worked with in Los Angeles had been arrested. (Please read the article - it's the shocking part.) He was my company-assigned "mentor" and his ex-wife was my hairstylist. So, yeah, I knew this guy a little better than most employees know their supervisors. The day I read this article I was in complete shock and could not function for about an hour. After that hour I was able to do some work, but the shock carried on for a few days.

In other news... I'm going to see John Mayer live in concert tomorrow night! I was able to score floor seats without having to sell my soul. They were surprisingly affordable. I'm stoked! (Yeah, he can be an ass sometimes, but can't we all?)

Peace and love.
J

That's Miss CPA to you!

Monday, March 15

Yes, the day has FINALLY come! I am officially a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California! Woo hoo!!! Since the California Board of Accountancy (CBA) deposited my check for the initial license fee, I'd been checking the CBA's licensee page to see if they had posted my name. Because even though I passed all the tests and my application had been approved, I was expressly warned that I may NOT call myself a CPA until I had my certificate number. Well I got that number on Thursday morning. I was so excited I just wanted to squeal at my desk at work. I am so, so, SO relieved to be done with this!!!

In other news, yesterday, March 14, was my birthday. I'm a whopping 28 years old now. Ack! I'm almost 30!! For my birthday I finally got a new car stereo receiver. About 9 months ago the radio part of the receiver I had stopped working; and it was only a year and a half old at that time... for those of you who have been with me for a while, recall that my stereo was stolen out of my car right before Christmas 2007 when I was living in LA. Of course I didn't get the extended warranty at Best Buy, so I decided to just live with the CD player and AUX port that allowed me to play my iPod. But I have SO missed the radio. I have no clue what the popular tunes are right now. My brother said that's totally fine because there is nothing good on anyway. However, I do love a certain morning show, so now I can listen to that during my 12 minute commute! Oh, and the point I was getting at is that when I went to Best Buy to have the guy look at my busted stereo, I watched him remove it from the dash. Cut to me installing the new stereo just moments ago! I just LOVE being self sufficient!


Tuesday, March 16

So in the middle of writing this post at 7:30 yesterday evening I received a text from my friend that said, "Um, are you on your way over?" and I sent a text back, "Oh shit I totally forgot!!" I was supposed to have been at my friend's house for dinner at 7! So hastily I left the apartment and hopped in the car. I was pretty excited to be getting to listen to my new stereo while cruising down the freeway on a beautiful Spring evening. I was at a stop light about a half mile from my apartment listening to a rowdy song by Rihanna (lyrics NSFW) - hey, the beat is awesome, ok?! - and I see out of the corner of my eye that the guy in the car next to me is waving. I roll down my window and turned down my borderline obscenely loud music, and say "Hi..." He says, "Hey. How you doin tonight? Here take down my number before the light turns green." So I humor him and type his number into my phone. I say, "What is your name?" and think to myself it's a total deal-breaker when a guy doesn't ask my name before asking for my number/giving me his number.

However, I think about how I haven't been on a date since I went to a baseball game with that loser in September, and how I have no dates lined up in the foreseeable future. The light turns green, and my new "friend" Lavell says "Call me" before we both drive off. I'm not about to be the one to call him when he hit on me, so at the next stoplight I send him a text saying, "Here's my number". He texts back with, "How u doin"... um, I thought we already covered that back at the stoplight. I say, "Enjoying my new car stereo... obviously. You?" and he replies a bit later, "just got home"... and that was it. While at dinner at my friend's house I saw that I had a missed call from him at 9pm, but no voicemail... so I send a text saying, "I'm at a friend's house for dinner". He says, "Ok." and I haven't heard from him since. And now I totally regret sending him a text message in the first place, but whatever, it doesn't look like he's going to use my number. But thinking back... He hits on me at a stop light (ghetto) while I'm listening to some highly inappropriate lyrics (he probably thinks I'm a whore) and then he has nothing more to say than "how u doin" (degenerate). I would just like to say, as I'm sure you've all noticed here, I'm a HUGE spelling and grammar snob. I detest "text spelling" with the r and the u and the b4 and the lack of punctuation. It just breeds improper spelling and grammar in other aspects of life. Yes, I know, I admit it, I'm a snob. My coworkers today told me that I need to get over it and embrace the texting shortcuts because you have a limited number of characters and have to squeeze it all in whichever way possible. No. I protest. Honest to God, I could never marry a man who can't spell common words. And if a man can spell really well, instant brownie points in my book. Yes, I'm a nerd.

Quick tangent... in high school I had a major crush on a guy. My parents were getting divorced at the time and, of course, it was taking a toll on me. He wrote me an email one day saying something like, "I know how you feel. My parents got a devorse too." The crush instantly evaporated.

Anyway... Since my last post my Landy love has celebrated his first birthday. Somewhere around the beginning of January this little boy exploded with personality. He is the funniest thing ever right now!




Peace and love.
J

Catch up

My friend Gina just called to tell me that she was catching up on my blog, and noticed that Google had placed an ad for Bally on my page. Ha! Oh, Google ads. Anyway... I dropped that letter in the mail on Thursday night. Then on Friday morning when I got in to work, I had an email response from the request I submitted through the BTF website. They're canceling my membership. Damn now I feel like an ass because I bitched them out in this letter, and then they do what I ask before the letter even arrives. Oh well.

My HUGE news: I completed and passed the AICPA ethics exam 2 weeks ago, so I am DONE with all exams required for my CPA license!!!!! DONE!!! Last week I mailed in my application with the $250 application fee. After they approve my application, I have to send in another check to cover the annual license fee. Thankfully my employer will reimburse me for that. I also had to have my fingerprints taken via LiveScan, which was $30 PLUS $50 for an FBI and DOL background clearance check. Good Lord! They don't make this affordable! I've heard it can take 5 months until I'll get my license and number. I'll keep you posted!

Here is the necklace that I made for Marilyn, the winner of my anniversary giveaway. (That's scrapbook paper, not something I dropped water on.)


And here is a necklace I made for myself. I bought more of these beads, crazy lace agate, so I can make more because I've gotten tons of compliments on it.

I've secured my etsy shop name and URL! I don't currently have any jewelry assembled or listed for sale. I'll let you know when I do!

My super adorable, chubby-bunny nephew will be 10 months old on Wednesday. He's crawling now and just started clapping last week. He's also able to walk while holding onto toys or furniture. He had an unfortunate accident in which he let go of his Intellitainer while walking, fell, and hit his mouth. He broke one of his front teeth and had to have it extracted. Poor baby now has a missing tooth until his permanent one comes in! Here's the silly little monkey, affectionately known at home as "Hillbilly Landon".


And here's a sweet picture of Landy watching Pirates of the Caribbean with his daddy. Too bad my brother had to go and ruin the moment! Thank goodness for photo editing! (Yes, my dad has a 58" TV.)


Peace & love.
J

Corporate Bullies: An open letter to Bally Total Fitness

Hi, I'm back. I know, it's been a while. I did make the necklace for Marilyn and took a picture to post here, but I'm at work so I'll do another post from home so you all can see it.

Anyway... I'm attempting to cancel my gym membership because my new job has a workout room at the office that I can use for FREE! ... and I probably used my membership 40 times within the last 3.5 years. Worst and most expensive "investment" I've ever made. Probably comes out to $200 per visit. UGH. So, on top of me hating that they made me sign a 3-year contract that you can't get out of unless you DIE, I hate Bally because they are making it totally impossible for me to cancel my membership. Did I mention I hate them?!

And now, my open letter to Bally Total Fitness:

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To: Bally Total Fitness Member Services
P.O. Box 1090 Norwalk, CA 90651-1090

From: J

Date: December 2, 2009

RE: Cancellation of membership (#xxxxxx)

I need to cancel my membership (#xxxxx) to Bally Total Fitness as my new employer has a workout facility in our office that I may use at no charge. I am past my initial 3 year contract, and it is my understanding that I am now month-to-month. Therefore there should be no problem in cancelling my membership.

I attempted to cancel my membership both through the BTF website and by phone. I received NO response to my request via the website form. I called the number provided on the website, and was provided no option to cancel “just because”. The only options given are moving to an area with no club within 25 miles, medical reasons and “buyer’s remorse”. So after selecting both of those options (during two different phone calls), I waited through all the inapplicable info about mailing in letters to get to the part where I could select to speak to a customer service representative. Then I was informed that the wait to speak to someone was longer than 25 minutes, so I would be put in a queue. I found that to be quite ridiculous, so I hung up and called my local club. They informed me that I can only cancel my membership by calling the corporate office. I called the corporate number again, sat through the inapplicable messages again, and was then told by the automated system that the wait to speak to someone was more than 30 minutes, so the call was dropped. 5 minutes later I called back and received the same treatment – call dropped. So I submitted a second request through the BTF website. Then I attempted one more time a half hour later… same thing.

This is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable “customer service”. Like every other service provider, you should at least allow an option to request a cancellation through your website. A request that you should actually respond to and act on. And dropping the calls of people who call in to corporate is unbelievable – first you require that I call corporate to cancel my membership, and then you make it absolutely impossible to get through to someone at corporate. At least provide the option for callers to leave a message for customer service to return. But I imagine if I did finally get to speak with someone, I’d get stuck with a sales person who will give me a long spiel attempting to convince me to not cancel my membership despite the fact that I don’t want to hear it, and don’t need a membership any longer, AND have every right to cancel since my contract is up. I know how these things work… I have dealt with pushy sales people before. And I don’t want to deal with this now. My membership needs to be cancelled and it needs to be hassle free. And at this point, I will NEVER consider membership with Bally again due to your horrendous “customer service”.


********************************************************

I hope you all never have to deal with this crap, but we all know that's wishful thinking. Oooh, I should totally write a letter to the BBB too. They listen!

Peace & love.
J

And the winner is...

Hello,

Guess what?! I suck. I still have not made that piece of jewelry for the giveaway winner. But, we do have a winner. I'd like to thank all three of you for entering - April, Mikki, and Marilyn. April got none correct, Mikki got 2 correct, and Marilyn wins with a whopping 3 correct!

Congratulations Marilyn! When I stop being lazy, I will make you a piece of jewelry, and I will post a photo of it here before sending it off. It will be this week because I start my new job on Monday!

Here are the 10 false "facts":

3. I have four step-siblings. (Correct: I only have 3)

14. My dream car is a Camaro. (Correct: Mustang)

17. I have attended 6 different colleges. (Correct: 4 - San Jose City College, Concordia University, Cal Poly SLO, and Cuesta College)

45. My hobbies include painting.

48. I'm a PC person. (Correct: Mac all the way!)

56. I have lived in Santa Barbara.

67. I have traveled to all 50 US states. (Correct: only 13)

77. I grew up attending a Presbyterian church. (Correct: Lutheran)

82. I have a pet iguana. (Correct: Just Charlotte the kitty)

97. I have had 3 serious relationships. (Correct: only 1, and that one hardly counts)

In other news, my throat is feeling almost back to normal. I had a lovely 10 days of sleeping, resting, relaxing, and recuperating. Saturday afternoon my dear friend Emily got married, and true to form I had a klutzy accident at the wedding. I missed a step as I was coming out of the trailer of porta-potties and rolled on my ankle. In my defense, the area was extremely poorly lit and the hand rail did not extend to the last 2 steps to the ground. And it was quite a dramatic scene - somehow I ended up on my back in the gravel. Thankfully, the best man was coming out of the mens "room" and helped me up. I think my ankle is sprained because it's swollen and HURTS! So, I'm back to lying on the couch... :-/

Peace and love.

J