Love Your Job

I know it's important to love your job .... but I don't expect us all to love it all the time.  The trick is to love it more than you hate it.

Well, I sure love my job more than I hate it!  The only time I do not love it as much is when I'm working the night shift consecutively (when the daytime naps don't happen, when I'm cooking a difficult meal, when there's just a lot going on and I'm somehow working from 10 PM - 1 AM after everyone's asleep to get stuff done).   This isn't often.. in fact I can get away with a few nighttime shifts and still get everything done, but sometimes stuff just happens.  The bad kind of stuff.

I'm not sure of any other job that would allow you to bring along your 5 month old son to the team social activity.

Witness.  I did. And he even got into the challenge, sitting in his Bjorn while I did my portion of the cooking challenge relay.  It really wasn't any different than cooking at home, even easier cuz I didn't have Jordna to deal with too.  HA!

Here we are in our white aprons, ready for the action!  The event was just about 10 minutes down the road in Redondo Beach, in an open kitchen with a large dining table set up in front of it for us to mingle around and eat at afterwards.

Team Swedish Meatballs! 

Team Salmon-ill-a

the blind taste challenge: they tried things like strawberries, blueberries, beets, wild rice, ginger, carrots, honey, and capers - first they could smell it, then they tasted it.  My favorite moment was when Jeff and Michelle were blind tasting beets and Michelle was so fearful for anything "different" that she'd be forced to try.  Jeff screamed out "BEETS!" so loud before hardly even tasting them and then tore off his blindfold and ran towards the trash can and spit them out, then boldly declared, "because I HATE beets!!!!"  I was dying with laughter as Michelle barely tasted it and then had the largest grimace on her face I had seen all night and then also ran to the trashcan to spit it out.  I love beets!  I would have gladly eaten them all! 

Bubba made an appearance after the blind tasting portion of the challenge relay...

Team shenanigans...

The boss shaking hands with the newest intern

Bubba enjoying dinner with us too.  

A great event!  I'd highly recommend Simple Gourmet for a team event.  They also had a cupcake challenge and some other options, but we opted for this challenge relay since we're all a bit competitive by nature.

California Dreaming

There's a familiar serenity that comes with traveling back to LA for me.  Maybe it's the history of flying back "home" when I used to travel a lot for work, maybe it's the warm weather, the green trees (even during Fall) or the rim of smog as we slowly descend that feels so right... or maybe it's just my over dramatic depiction of going home.  Whatever it is, it feels just as much home despite it no longer being my home for two years now.  I'm lucky for the work sponsored quarterly opportunity to go back to the motherland and now that I have live farther from my parents and have a busy life with a family of my own, I'm even more aware of how special it is to go back and take a quick departure from my normal routine.

Since Bubba isn't taking the bottle, I took him with me for my Q3 meeting.  Jordan stayed with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law during the day and had a grand ol' time with Daddy at night.  It was quite special to have that time alone with Bubba especially since not long ago, these trips to LA from Spokane were just Jordan and me.

This was Bubba's second time flying, and he was an absolute angel.  No blowouts on the plane, ate and then slept through the entire thing.

In all my years traveling, I never noticed the redundancy of Los Angeles Los Angeles Los Angeles and it cracked me up so much I had to take a photo.  HAHAHA.  

Apparently, I brought the Utah weather with me because upon arriving.. it rained for a few hours during lunch.  I can't figure out if my taste has evolved with both romantic movies and hoity toity dining... but I haven't appreciated any "chick flicks" as of late and I didn't enjoy Urth Cafe in Pasadena as much as I used to enjoy the other ones on the Westside.  The carrot cake hadn't changed though (besides becoming a lot larger than before!) and it still tasted scrumptious.

$5 for parking?  Good thing my brother and I were with my mom.  Ridiculous. 

This is a traditional Chinese dish - eggs with tomatoes.  We all laughed when we saw it.  HAHAHA.  

Probably the best plate - mine!  Veggie panini.  Yum. 

Omelette of sorts.  With some very well seasoned sausage that my mom said was gross but my brother liked, I didn't try it.  

Got to hang with my cousin who's preggers!  So exciting!!!  We talked baby stuff and I gave her a breastfeeding book that my brother accidentally flipped through and almost lost his appetite.  Almost.  

The super thick three layer carrot cake that made the trip semi-worthwhile.  I think I'll stick to my normal places (Sinbala, Ding Tai Fong, Golden Deli) in the future.  I was trying to branch out and I was also so excited that there was an Urth Cafe so close! 

On our way home, we made a quick trip to BevMo to load up on drinks for my work party the next day (as an operations/finance person, this was part of my job).  We had a good time and left with a case of wine, some six packs of IPAs, a fabulous assortment of cool cane sugar sodas (including sweet corn and key lime!), and some prosciutto and smoked gouda for ourselves.  It was a fun trip to BevMo with my mom and brother and especially fun for my mom who had never been.    

In the afternoon, my dad hung out with Bubba and I took hold of the opportunity and went to get a much needed facial.

I go to a place in Temple City called Babyface, the girl Tiffany is wonderful! 

And that was day one of my three day trip home.  We had dinner without my brother that night because he had plans to dine at a fancy restaurant in LA with his girlfriend.  So I got my Sinbala fix with my parents that night.  

Then... without a house to clean, dishes to do, or kids to put asleep (Bubba goes down pretty much after eating, no stories yet or rebellion like Jordan), I talked to Andy and Jordan and then was in bed by 10 PM.  That's unheard of.  It's not that I need the sleep, but normally.. I can't fall asleep because my mind is racing about things to do and so I get up and do it.  Or watch some On Demand television - but I didn't know how to work my parents TV and I didn't feel like it.  So instead I got a great night of sleep!  

Busy Season

Because I am glad busy season is over for me....
Because I have empathy for those still in busy season...
Because busy season was such a big part of my life...
Because busy season equals weight gain, saddened lifestyle, and overload of stress..
Because busy season still gives me the shivers when I hear it being said...
Because busy season will always be a part of me...

Yes I made this.  Tee hee!

God Will Make Up The Difference

rec·on·cile

1. to cause (a person) to accept or be resigned to something not desired: He was reconciled to his fate.

2. to win over to friendliness; cause to become amicable: to reconcile hostile persons.

3. to compose or settle (a quarrel, dispute, etc.).

4. to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent: to reconcile differing statements; to reconcile accounts.

I stared at the looming difference for what seemed like infinite, never ending hours.  In reality, it was only an hour at most, but the weight of the unexplainable difference hindered me from moving forward, prevented me from enjoying the night, and haunted me like a bad dream you can't shake off but desperately try to.  In accounting, we say, if it's immaterial, no further review deemed necessary.  How I wished it was immaterial.  How I wished I could pass for further review.  How I longed and hoped and wished.  It'd be nice to have a staff member do all the dirty work and me just sit back and review, as I munched on a fortune cookie (we used to jack a ton from the free pile at the nearby Pei Wei during busy season).  But there was no staff member.  Only me.  Just myself.  All on my own to figure it out.  And all I remember was sitting there, dumbfounded by my own stupidity and inadequacy, trying to figure out what other adjustments I needed to include, and realizing.. this just does NOT make sense... what on earth am I missing?!

In the background, Andy and his mom (who's visiting us for the week, Jordan is so stoked and we are all having a great time with Andy's schedule hehe) watched an action movie.  I felt so distressed.  Distraught.  Disillusioned.  Disheartened.  Disabled.  Dissed.  Simply ill to my stomach.

Stupid reconciliation!

For the last week, I have been tasked with helping to prepare the documents for the accountants who do our business owners' taxes.  It wasn't until last night when the entire workbook was coming together and I was faced with trying to reconcile a difference of $60k, which by a large public accounting firm's materiality probably is meaningless or de minimis, but in our case, was definitely worth investigating.

I didn't think to ask anyone for help.  I thought I could do it on my own.  I do have a CPA (despite being inactive), and a reconciliation is accounting 101.  As I took a break to study with Andy, he very discreetly reminded me that a prayer seeking some guidance from Heavenly Father might be a good idea.  I'm not sure why I didn't think to do that, especially considering I had a HUGE work mess up in the morning that I quickly, sincerely, and humbly prayed about - mostly that it'd work out but that if it didn't, I wouldn't get fired, and if I did, that we'd have enough money to be okay anyway, and if not, that we'd be okay as is (you get the drift).  I guess I knew with an error, it was a mistake I couldn't fix and needed assistance from above, whereas with this reconciling conundrum, I somehow figured I had the knowledge and ability to figure it out.

I quickly repented and humbly asked for help to solve it or forget about it until tomorrow.  After conversing with God, I opened the computer and took another look.  For some reason, I felt like I needed to understand the adjustments and then after doing that, I agreed out the W-2 wages for each employee once more.  And a-ha!  I corrected some numbers, added some missing ones, revisited the reconciling items I knew should be excluded or included, and then .....

my difference was down to $300.

That might be a lot to you and me on a personal level, but for accounting purposes for the business... it meant I could go to sleep, after giving thanks to God first, of course!

God always makes up that difference that we are unable to.  I think I just sometimes forget, especially when I'm doing something I should know how to do.  Something I know how to do.  Something that seems silly to ask for help with.