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Busy season is over and I for one am glad I can now have my free time again.  On the other hand, maybe its too much free time.  When working during busy season, I found that I could focus on my work and stay occupied.  Rarely on the weekends would I just waste the time away becuase of how precious few hours existed.  Now that there is much less work to be done (and looking at those time reports, it seems like I am not doing a single thing), a lot of times when I go back to my apartment, there seems to be an abundance of idle time I just can not seem to pass away.  I need to start picking up my exercise regime.  I checked my weight out in the weight room in my apartment complex.  It seems I magically lost some weight (from 145 to 140).  But part of that can probably be attributed to a loss of muscle and a gain in fat to compensate for it.

Over the weekend, QP X was held in Dave and Mats apartment in Santa Barbara.  I could not put my nose on it, but it seemed different somehow.  Sure there were the kids from college around to make the party random and loud, but the general attitude and behavior of the core group that always attended the party seemed such more subdued, much more...mellow.  Going by IV earlier in the day, I for the first time saw this place as a bereved, bedraggled block, devoid of any real charm or character worth mentioning.  I had always known that this area was morally corrupt and offered little in the way of culture or class, but passing by here, I was more shocked by the general environment; the broken glass that permeated the streets and acreage, the gaudy or (usually) dilapidated building structures and the seemingly uncaring attitudes held my most residents that they were living in an expensive dump.  I mentioned to those that were with me that I probably could find any random block in Los Angeles to be both cleaner and safer.  Yes, in only nine short months I have found that liviing away from the college environment was one of the most rewarding (and sanest) things to happen to me.  On the car ride back up, as I was watching the green mountain side roll by me, I thought that working during our Busy season with its 70 hour work weeks and complex tax procedures, in a new and foreign place beat out staying another year at that place any time.

It's finally over!  My first tax season (abeit a short one at that) has been completed and man am I beat.  For the last couple of days there were a lot of late stays and running around to get things done on time.  Right now I am just chilling here.  There's a calm here that hasn't been seen in quite some time.  I will not forget the mad dashes to FedEx, the numerous coffee runs to Starbucks, and the late Night Owl shifts all to print out thousands of pages of tax forms.

I am not sure if this branch of accounting is for me, but who knows.  Now its time to get ready for some audits.

Last weekend I spent time at Santa Barbara, my alma matar, for Meet the Firms.  It is an event that the accoutning association has that brings together junior and senior accounting majors with many of California's biggest and smallest firms for future jobs.  It was really nice to be on the other side and not really give a rat's ass about what I had to say or act because I was under no stress or pressure to impress anyone (I mean, I had to act nice because I represent my firm, but I hope you get what I am saying).

During my last months at SB, I realized something.  That I was truely lucky to go to a school that was by the beach and surrounded by goregeous landscapes.  What irked me I think during most of my time was really just all the people.  That is right, all the stupid, fake, flakey, uncultured, homogenous, vulgar, slothful, two-faced idiots at that school were the whole reason I came away incredibly bitter and pessimisstic (or I guess in my case, even more so).  People just did not have any appreciation for where they were going and how lucky they were to be in their position.  Given its geographical location in between the Southern and Northern parts of California, it was a hub of interaction between two different lifestyles in this giant state we live in.  Add into it the fact that in this day in age, anything from books to movies to music is at our fingertips; everyone's horizons can be broadened infinetly than what they possessed when they first arrived.  Instead, the same problems I had in high school were the same in college.  Just amplied by a mulitplier of a thousand.  People are so narrow-minded that you try to expand their horizons on anything, they look at you like you are from some foreign planet.  People can never be trusted because they always say one thing and do the complete opposite and do not understand why any gets upset when they get caught doing so.  All people there seemed to care about is their reputation and how they are percieved by those outside.  They will flat out lie in front of you and not bat an eye over it.  It really disgusts me with the people who go there right now.  Maybe when all the morons I once knew move on, it will not be so bad since I do not know the new people. But man, going back to SB made me realize how superficial that place really is.

I don't think there has been a day this week where there was not an accident on the 280 during the morning commute.

Had dinner at Lin's on Tuesday.  We just caught up with each other, seeing as how we average seeing each other roughly once a year.  Hopefully with him living near my work, we should definetely be able to hang out more often.  Our conversation ranged from everything from possible Med schools for him to apartment comparisons to WoW.  All this while eating some delicious Japanese style curry over rice that he cooked.  I hope he is free the weekend I decide to do kareoke night again.

Work so far is alright.  I have done a couple of easy tax returns and done a few assemblies.  But for the most part, I do nothing but pointless busy work like moving box from pt. A to pt. B and copying files.  At least I have not gotten roped into doing Starbucks runs yet.  I know we are new and all and everybody is busy in preparation for the 10/15 tax extension deadline, but if they didn't have anything for us to do, they should at least have made a contingency plan or something like extra training or some kind of easy remedial work that could have been put aside for us to do after our month of training.

Anyways, time for lunch and a fun filled afternoon that will involve ultimate frisbee and packing for my trip to SB!!!

Last day of training, so last day I will see most of my fellow new hires until a firm required event comes up (which probably will be the Bowl-a-thon in Novemeber).  There's been a lot of fun had by hanging out with this crew of people.  It makes up for all the long boring hours we have had to endure sitting in these chairs, listening (or pretending to) to people about concepts most of us will never use depending on which department we choose.

Anyways, this past weekend was pretty cool.  Padres won!!!  Chargers killed the Patriots!!!  Hung out with Helen on Sat because her frat (yea a frat) was having a BBQ and most of my friends know that free is the best tasting kind for me.  Was supposed to go to SF, but it seemed like the people who I was going to meet up had already gone and come back.  On Sun, I was watching my Chargers kill the crap outta the Patriots then went shopping with Kai to the Valley Fair Mall.  Fun was had on both days.

Looking forward toward this weekend as I will be headed to Santa Barbara for a recruiting event.  All expenses paid for two nights in a beautiful beach town is a sweet deal indeed.  Too bad I couldn't get Padres' tickets for Saturday's evening playoff game.  Amy and I tried desperately to get tickets on early Saturday, but no dice as both phone lines and internet were jammed packed.  Every site I go to says the Padres will lose in four games.  Well fuck em then!

Go Padres!