Life is Life. Regulation Style.

Today I took my third portion of the CPA exam, regulation. If you are reading this and are also preparing for your CPA exam, this is the part that you start to feel sorry for my brain. But I thought today, I would prepare my blog post in the form of the questions that I have been practicing on for the last week to get ready for this section.

Q: Which of the following taxpayers may use the cash method of accounting?

A. A tax shelter

B. A qualified personal service corporation

C. A C corporation with annual gross receipts of $50,000,000

D. A manufacturer

Correct answer? You guessed it, B. As for the others, let me explain why they aren't correct.

A. While you could care less what a tax shelter is, let me describe what one is in Ashley's mind. It is a place with gumdrops and lollipops at all times of the hour where I can run around in circles and pretend that the real world doesn't exist. Ya, I'm figuring you're not surprised that's not the answer.

C. Gross receipts of $50,000,000. This answer takes form of two ways when I think about it. First of all, the Board of Accountancy is going to make that much money off of me before I actually pass this exam. You say, "Why Ashley, 50,000,000 is a lot of money" and to which my response is, "why (insert name), you haven't ever attempted this exam, have you?" The other path my answer goes with this one is that hopefully all this studying pays off and I can make enough money to pay off my school loans which are getting close in the dollar amount to $50 million.

D. A manufacturer? I give up. I'm tired of coming up with witty answers that aren't even that witty. So feel free to leave an answer your reason why this isn't the correct answer.

As for why answer B is right...let's see. Oh yes, the key in this answer is the wording. Just as they tell us that if we see the word "firm" in a question, then the answer will probably be about "quality control" or vice versa, this same reasoning can be applied here. The word "qualified" is key here as that's what I'll be when all of this is done. As for whether it has all been worth it...well that answer will hopefully come with time.

I realized the other day that I only have one more week of studying for my last section and then I start work on Monday!? eeeeeeeek. Now besides of staring at my closet and trying to find the perfect outfit for my first day of work, I also figured out that my material to complain about is winding down. I cannot complain about my work as 1) hopefully I won't have anything to complain about and 2) any smart person knows not to complain via Internet. Thus, perhaps it's time to take up a hobby so my writing material comes back? I mean, I think of people such as my friend Cassi who has her own blog about raising a child at our age and it's quite enjoyable. She's very positive about life as I am realistic, that's why we get along. Or Brittany who has attempted to start a blog yet she tends that she actually needs to post something in order for people to read it. :) Anyway, I'm sure something will come up. My life is anything but boring!

P.S. If you would like to check out their blogs:

Cassi - http://laughterandlattes.wordpress.com/

Brit - http://britchristine.blogspot.com/

Are you expecting?

My evening ritual for the night as I wind down my studying found me sitting at my desk logging onto Facebook. As I scrolled down the news feed, I couldn't help but wonder if the other people reading their feeds were thinking the same thing that I was, 2011 has been the year for children. What is the philosophy that has overtaken the world at a whirlwind speed? If one is not married or has not had five children by my ripe old age of 23, we are behind?

I suppose people hit this point in their lives when they are simply ready to have children or perhaps they become pregnant by accident (I love the Italy accident very much). While this post isn't to say having children at a young age is a bad thing, I wonder if these people understand everything they are getting into. Divorce rates are at an all-time high currently and the number of children with mental issues grows as well due to mothers not realizing they are pregnant before it is too late to stop treating their body badly.

All of this makes me wonder, who is really having the time of their lives? Is it the people going the educational route or the young 20ish mother? This makes me think back to when I used to play the game Life with my cousins. I can still remember when Josh and I discovered that game, we would beg our parents to let us go play it at family gatherings or bother the relatives to play with us!

The mission of that game was to succeed at life with whatever was thrown into your path. That exact goal is hopefully what people in my generation think about. I'm not condemning those that become pregnant or get married at a younger age. My real questions stray towards the thoughts of whether they are prepared for everything that will comes their way? If they have prepared, Godspeed ahead my friends. Find that minister and walk down that aisle. I will be by your side every step of the way. Yet if you see a little girl in a cute outfit and think how much fun it would be to have one of those permanently to dress up for the sake of dressing them up, chances are I'll be sitting on the sidelines snickering.

For those of you reading this thinking to yourselves, wow, she's cynical tonight, don't think that. I have plenty of friends in wonderful relationships, and some even have children (that I love to death). But for every one of those relationships, there is another friend I have who throws themselves into random relationships attempting to find that one true love. And it is with that, that I wish those people would realize their worth. For until you have discovered who you are as an individual, how will you discover what piece you will bring in a partnership?

Disclaimer: I watched a lot of my guilty pleasure on TV last night (Toddlers and Tiaras). If you know that show, this post should make sense. :)

The Lion is in the house!

In case you are wondering. Apple dropped it's new operating system for computers today! *Insert Ashley jumping around like a little kid with a scoop of ice cream*. Now, I understand that many of you could care less about the new operating system, thus I decided to add a few fun embarrassing photos of myself for kicks and giggles.

In other news, I have the second part of the CPA exam tomorrow. I can not wait to walk out of that office being half way done! Tomorrow's portion consists of the Auditing and Assurance Services....oh goody. Ironically, I hated this subject going into my grad program and my future job is now in that exact field. Thus, one might assume that I know oh so much about this...FALSE. It isn't going to be any easier than any of the other portions.

I went and got coffee this morning at Starbucks in Pentagon Row while working on some simulation problems for the exam tomorrow. So, I suppose I have done some homework today amongst the four hours I've wasted playing with Lion (new operating system name). That makes me feel a little better. My goal for today was to attempt a practice exam, not too sure how much of that exam is going to get accomplished :)

Well...its back to studying for me! Peace and crabs.

Only happens to me...

There comes a time in everyone's life that they wonder why they were set upon this Earth and what makes them special. A while ago, I discovered that my thing is odd/strange things only happen to me. What people think are the impossible, actually become the truth in Ashley's life. For instance, if you are reading this and say, "Whatever, she just wishes she was cool," I ask of you, have you ever discovered a snake in your car? One that you drove around with until discovering it's death by way of smell 4 weeks later? Still don't believe me, have you ever got hit and run over by a car at the same time? Nope, I didn't think so. It's become a rather astonishing trait of mine to the effect that my friends just expect things to happen when they are hanging out with me.

So with that, I share a story that occurred this morning. While I was not trapped in a box and traveling around a jungle, it is still a puzzle to be solved. The facts are:

June 27th, Comcast comes to apartment and hooks up two cable adapters.

June 29th, Ashley buys new TV and upgrades to HD cable

July 1st, Ashley and mother return ONE adapter to Comcast office in person and go home with an actual cable box. The other adapter remains hooked up to Ashley's TV in her bedroom. While at the Comcast office, the lady scans the serial number off the back of the old adapter and gives a return receipt to Ashley.

July 1st, later that day, cable is not working so Ashley calls in to get them to resend the signal. Large living room TV begins to work, bedroom TV does not.

July 15th, Ashley decides that she wants her cable to work on the TV again in her bedroom and calls Comcast. After going through 20 minutes with the automated system and confusing the poor automated lady, Ashley gets transferred to a real person. The person tells her that the serial number of the box Ashley is trying to get to work isn't on the account. Insert, first sign of trouble. The lady sends the signal to the new cable box's serial number and just like magic, I have cable in my bedroom again. But, what's that Comcast lady? Oh yes, now my account says I have 1 cable box and two adapters.

Now at this point in the story, this is the time to ask yourself, how could this have happened? Ashley has the return receipt stating that she returned one of the boxes. Well, the poor Comcast lady transferred me to the billing department where I proceeded to talk to a very nice gentleman about this problem. After running around the apartment searching frantically for the return receipt, I find it under a magnet on the fridge. Classic Ashley ditz story. Anyway, the returned box serial number on the receipt is the same serial number on the box in my bedroom. Therefore, I started to think, I bet the Comcast office took the wrong adapter off of my account when I went in. The nice gentleman informed me that he's never seen anything like this in all his years of working at Comcast. He said they use an ACTUAL SCANNER SO HOW DID THEY SCAN THE WRONG ADAPTER AT YOUR HOUSE?! It is at this point that we both just start laughing hysterically because really, not only is this impossible to happen, but no, it did happen.

After holding for a couple of minutes, he comes back on line and gave me the serial number of the adapter that should have gone off of the account originally. He told me that after talking to his proceeding manager and that manager going to her manager, the conclusion is that Comcast office are idiots. "Adding insult to injury, they have to scan the serial number ma'am. I'm still scratching my head wondering what happened here."

Conclusion, well, I still have to go into the actual office again but this time it should be fun. The question still stands though, how did the adapter in my bedroom get scanned at the Comcast office?

And people wonder why I am so strange.

Daniel and Rachel's Wedding 7/10/11

Daniel and Rachel were so cute together, they wrote their own vows and that is his brother who married them. Pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the whole ceremony.

Josh and Liz went with me and we took pictures after the wedding by the beach. They turned out great!

I attended a wedding in Virginia Beach

this weekend and took a few photos. I thought I would share a few with you :)

The blog post you've all been waiting for...

How is my apartment? Roommate? Life? Things that really do not matter in the wide scope of things? I am here to answer all of those question in a blog post that is hopefully not as long as I'm thinking it is going to be!

First of all, starting off about the new apartment and roommate...she is great! Her name is Farah, can't remember if I've covered that yet or not. Anyway, being from the midwest, we have a lot in common and have lived together for a couple weeks now without any major disagreements. Thus, conclusion is that it will be great! As for 10 weeks down the road, who knows but for now, all is groovy.

I was in Florida last week and sadly enough came back just as pale as I was when I arrived. It was cloudy all week with rainstorms and my studying for the CPA exam cut into my tanning time. :( Thanks nature. Speaking of the exam, I have the first section on Thursday and am about to pee my pants from nervousness. I took one practice exam today and am doing the second one tomorrow. My brain hurts but I don't think it has realized that this is just the beginning! I still will have three more tests to go!

Tanya wins the prize for being the best cousin as she took one look at my frames and sent me current photos of Jonathan and Hannah. As for those of you who have promised me new photos, for there has been several, just know that you aren't not winning currently. :)

I had the lovely discovery piece of mail from the Arlington County vehicle personal property division informing me that on top of paying over $85 to retitle my car and get new tags, I now need to send in a $33 check to get a sticker for my car for housing it in Arlington County. If that wasn't enough, I also am going to have to pay personal property taxes. I can't even wait to see how much they are going to nail me for those. Ugh. So basically, after decorating my apartment, paying personal property taxes, and doing all the things to become an official VA resident, I can no longer to ever move again. My wallet is zipped shut for years thanks to the very Government that I signed up to audit. *insert my evil laugh...their time is a-coming*

How's my social life you ask? Well...this is the point in the blog post that normal people my age would go on and on about how their meeting tons of people and having the time of their lives. As for me...I'll just cough uncomfortably and say, "Oh yes, yes, everything is just peachy. I have this wonderful life with lots of friends and we do fun things constantly. I definitely do not sit in my room at my computer for 8 hours a day studying. Not at all!" If you get my meaning....

Last Saturday was my five year high school reunion. Now the people that read this know just how much I loveeeeed my years at Haven and have fond fond memories. (Sarcastic? Perhaps a tad bit) I just do not understand the point of a five year. Now ten years, I will be happy to go to that one. But I'm just getting settled into my adult life, I do not have anything to tell them. Ya, I live in DC, am sitting for the CPA exam, and had three job offers right out of college. Oh ya, I also have three degrees. Okay okay, perhaps I do have a few things to be proud of and while I am proud of them, I also need a little more time in my life to get settled. Thus, I did not go and wish I regretted that decision more. I heard that there were around 14 people who showed up, therefore I obviously wasn't the only one who thought that way.

For the part of this blog that I am supposed to inform you what I am watching via Netflix, there isn't much to inform about. What this weekend does represent though is an ending to my childhood. The final installment in the Harry Potter series is released on the big screen at midnight on Thursday. I have bittersweet feelings about this as it is a part of my childhood that defined my mind/brain. J.K. Rowlings (the author) led me to a imaginary world that people such as C.S. Lewis wished to led his readers to but did not succeed on the level that she did. I grew up with many people telling me how evil the books are/were yet I pushed through to finish the series, for as one who has read the books knows, once you pick up that first one and send the first year at Hogwarts, there is no going back. It is still my regret that my house growing up did not have a chimney where I could have received my invitation to Hogwarts. I suppose the ranting of this leads to the conclusion that even if you think that wizardry is evil, don't knock it until you have read them yourselves. Once you have done that, I know you'll be thanking me. And if you are too old, encourage your children. So many of people my age enjoy reading now as J.K. Rowling made the concept of "reading" cool again. And our educational mindsets thank her.

Well, it is time for me to sign off. I have been thinking a lot about the movie The Princess Bride lately so I shall end this with one of my favorite quotes (appropriate as I just went to a wedding in Virginia Beach this past weekend):

Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...

Fireworks Galore

Happy fourth of July everyone!! While I have many people in my life that are not related to the armed forces at all, I have plenty that do represent what this day stands for. Therefore, Aunt Doug and Julie, my cousin Keith, my great friend Adam and others, this day is for you. Thank you for all the work you have done for this country. :) I hope your day was fantastic!

I arrived in Florida safely with my mother after a crazy week of unpacking. So now the relaxing begins? Not really, while I wish that was the truth, the studying for the first portion of the CPA begins tomorrow. So while I will be cramming useless information inside my head, I'll enjoy a little bit of the FL sun as well!

I decided that the stories from last week are too crazy to go into much detail. If you wish to hear more about them, just ask me in person when we meet up again. All you need to know is that I hate the company uhaul and am now a pro at hanging wall hangings.

The latest in my Netflix que has been a few TV shows from Britain and Australia. After watching them though, it quickly became apparent that my humor is not the same over there. Or perhaps there is a reason that Hollywood is the greatest media center of the world? Although it did just strike me that Bollywood is a close second, thus, perhaps I should look into India-based movies/TV shows...genius thought Ashley.

Moving In

I thought I would post just a few photos taken from my Facebook album for those of you reading this that do not have Facebook or are not friends with me. My friend Curtis, from high school, has an internship in PA this summer and came to visit me for a weekend while my mother was here. Liz, an old college roommate and great friend, also made a short drive to help me move into my new place. We went exploring around DC and had a great time! Seeing familiar faces is always a good time! The apartment is just about finished. Just things to add here and there when I run into a good deal at TJ Maxx is all that is left. Thus, here are a few pictures! Also, I had to throw in the picture of the frame I have with all the little cousins. I got rid of my cork board and am now much fancier with my frame :) Therefore, if you want to be in the frame, you have to send me photos!

~RIP Marner~

One year ago, a great friend was lost to us due to a motorcycle accident. I have so many memories of him in college, he made most of the fun times "fun". I just found a few photos to let the memories flow. His death wasn't his fault yet when someone is lost at that young of age, it makes the people also that age wonder how they can use their extra time on Earth to the full advantage. Thus, I encourage you all to life every day to it's fullest and appreciate everyone who surrounds you in your life. They won't always be there.

Under Construction

If there was a way to add an animated sign to this next blog saying "Under Construction", I would. I have so many things to write about and if you read this blog enough, plenty to complain about as well. I will say that the next time I sit down to write a blog, you won't want to miss it. Just know that there are juicy details coming about the Uhaul scandal, the big move, the A/C breaking down AGAIN in the Matrix, and my bedroom only having one air vent in the whole room.

So to recap, I am flying down to Sarasota, FL, tomorrow with my mother for a week of rest and sun. Of course I may be pressured to study for the first part of my CPA exam as well, but where is the fun in that. One thing I will mention though, is that I will have time to update you all on the last week of my life which has had so many adventures in it, I get excited just thinking about what I'm going to write.

Until it's not 12:50 AM and I still haven't packed, crap, I bid you adios!