28 August 2011

We Survived!?

Well, almost a week after surviving the East Coast's largest earthquake...hurricane Irene decided she needed to stop by as well. After preparing all morning yesterday for it, she came and went in the middle of the night. The bathtub was filled with water for flushing the toilet, there were pitchers of water sitting on the counter in case the water ran out, and all of the large appliances were unplugged. Yet here I am typing this on my computer unfazed the day after it all. This whole natural disaster thing ain't no thang!

Week two on the job site went by fast as we start to swing into busy season for the next several of months. I received my first real job paycheck on Friday and jumped around in circles squealing. It was such a great feeling. Now for paying off those school loans. Ugh. Anyway, I also bought my plane ticket to Florida for Thanksgiving where I'll spend a couple days. After that though, it makes me wonder about my Christmas plans. I don't have a lot of time off to spare as I haven't accumulated that many hours at this point. The money for a plane ticket is missing as well so we shall see what happens.

While I wish I had more to say about my life. Sadly enough, nothing else is up! Peace.

23 August 2011

5.8 Earthquake.




Did I wake up this morning and think to myself, "Ashley, today you are going to experience your first earthquake?". No, with a capital N.

It struck at 1:51 this afternoon while I was at a job site in the middle of downtown DC working at a building on the 9th floor. They had been doing minor construction projects around the building all day so I honestly didn't think too much of it when my table started shaking. There was six of us there today all sitting around a big board room table. As we looked up from our computers after the table shaking for a minute, it started to dawn on us that something wasn't right.

Stretching out my legs, I stood up and thats when it really struck us. Grabbing on to the table for support and looking in horror at the other members of my team, we were all thinking the same thing, "DC doesn't get earthquakes!" At that moment came a sound that will haunt me for a very long time. A deep sighing/moaning as if the building had given up holding together and was gently being pulled apart at the seams. All I could think was, "This is it. You've had a good life."

No, the earthquake wasn't shaking me so hard that I couldn't see straight but my mind was racing with the realistic possibilities about how 1) DC is not built for earthquakes 2) my car is parked underneath this building 3) too many people evacuating down these stairs, I won't make it 4) is it an earthquake or had another terrorist attack occurred 10 years to the first one?

One of my co-workers looked at us and said, "Everyone get under the table!" As we crouched down to do just that, the shaking stopped. It was then that reality struck, oh my gosh, we just survived the first earthquake DC has had in years. At that moment, a mad dash happened for the stairs. Grabbing only necessary items, we ran down those nine flights just hoping to make it out of the building before another shimmer struck. These photos attached show some of the sights I saw standing outside for 45 minutes watching hundreds of thousands of people evacuating their buildings.

As we started discussing what had just occurred, someone tried to call the main office. Looking around us, we realized everyone had their cell phones out. To say the least, Verizon and AT&T were both down for at least 30 minutes and I still cannot complete a call for longer than 10 minutes before it being lost.

Ironically enough, Brit in Kansas, my mother in Florida, and Joel in California were the first three to text to ask if I was okay. Giggling, I turned to my co-workers and said, "Well, word is getting out, I've officially had all other parts of the United States ask me if I am okay!".

Riding the elevator up to the 9th floor again had me holding my breath the entire time thinking, please don't let an aftershock happen while I'm in here! Grabbing my laptop and keys, I ran to the parking garage only to arrive too late to miss the rush of traffic. Between pedestrians frantically crossing the street to irate taxi cab drivers, my normal 25 minute commute took me 2.5 hours.

For those of you who don't care because you think this doesn't impact you, I'll ignore your ignorance and fill you in. Park Services have declared the Washington Monument not slightly tilted (thank goodness). There are multiple loose bricks in the structure though, and for that it is closed currently. The National Cathedral has damage to at least one of it four peaks on the roof. Thousands of homes are reporting gas leaks as the architecture of most buildings in this area simply weren't built with earthquakes in mind. Traffic is backed up for 45 miles with most commutes taking 6-7 hours.

With all of this being said, was today a little crazy? Yes, with a capital Y. Would I trade it in knowing that I'm safe? Heck no! I've now experienced all the natural disasters except a hurricane. So bring it on Irene! Looking to break my record this weekend?

17 August 2011

Foodies.

This week has been all about exploring the food in DC. It would happen that my first week at the job site fall during DC’s restaurant week. Yay! Therefore I had Mexican last night at Uncle Julios which was delicious! Many of the Mexican restaurants around here are not like ones from Kansas. They include a splash of Spanish/Cuban in with their Mexican food here. Tex-Mex is a thing of the past I’m afraid. Thus, if you live in Kansas, be prepared to eat a lot of Mexican food when I come home. Tonight, Farah is taking me to her favorite restaurant in DC, The Capital Grille. It is supposedly the best steakhouse in all of DC…we’ll see about that. But for a three course dinner, they have specialized menus for $35.11 when a regular dinner runs over $50.

Speaking of food, today Erin and I explored the food truck madness. Most of you reading this do not live in a large enough area to understand this world of Food Trucks but I shall attempt to explain. There is a website called Food Truck Fiesta that displays a google map of where all the food trucks are. These are literally beside the street vendors. Today’s trucks included: crab, cheese, empanadas, pie, cheesecake, kabobs, sauca, and etc. After walking around and drooling at all the menus, we went with a grilled cheese from the cheese truck and two different empanadas due to those trucks not being in our area very often. When all was said and done, we waited in line for around 30 minutes. Thus, food truck food is in high demand amongst DC’s working population. As a side note, it was amazinggggggggggg. And now I feel like a genuine DCer as I have conquered the food trucks.

As for my actual job, while I cannot go into any specific details, I enjoy the place and people that I am working with! I had dinner with my mentors last night and they are going to try and hook me up with some of the other new hires so hopefully I will meet them all soon. Mallory informed me last night that she got a townhouse Arlington which is awesome news because that means I’ll have a friend from school living right by me!

As today is hump day, my thoughts have started going towards what I am going to do this weekend already. On Saturday is the Crab and Beer Festival at the National Harbor which draws in ridiculous amounts of people and then on Sunday, I am going to a concert with Devon for her birthday. It’s a new experience to live in a place with so many things to do every day! I also realized that I have off September 5th due to it being Labor Day! Yay for three day weekends!! Pretty sure I’ll probably stay in Arlington though due to traffic being a pain in my butt!

Mucho Gracias to you all for your support these past few weeks!!

Love, Ash

14 August 2011

The First Week

Day 1:

Work. It’s a concept that has taken on a whole new meaning for me this week. Monday morning
I reported to my job for the first day of the rest of my life. After now having
made it through three days there, I’m fully enjoying myself. I am slightly
concerned on the making friends part of business but hopefully that will come
with time. Everyone always told me I would have no trouble making friends yet
in this environment, people are coming and going to different job sites. Thus,
meeting and working with the same people every day isn’t going to occur. That’s
okay though, it’s a new challenge in my life. Today I gave a couple other new
hires that started in June one of my Becker books to study. I guess I hoped it
would have sparked more conversation yet instead…nothing. So I ate lunch by
myself in the lunch room at a four person table. Depressing. Very.

I’m having dinner with my two mentors from the company next week so hopefully they can
shed some light on what I need to do to have a great career here!

In more positive news, the CPA exam is finished for the first round. Yes, I definitely
failed a couple sections but that’s okay. I know what I’m facing now and where
I need to study for the next round. Before you wonder/ask, I find out the
scores around the third week of September. I think the decision has been made
by me to withhold what sections I passed and failed until I have completed the
entire exam. It’s not that I don’t want to tell people but between the four
sections, I need a 75 on each one for a total of 300. They told us in grad
school that a 300 makes a CPA, a 400 makes a CPA, and so on. The final scores
of your exam do not matter, just whether you passed or failed.

Last night before I went to bed, this whole work thing became almost surreal. I mean, the
concept that this isn’t another internship, its my job, hasn’t settled in my
mind yet. I won’t be stopping in the middle of August to go back to school.
Vacations are nowhere on the horizon for a long, long time. Now, I’m not saying
that’s a bad thing, its just a mind adjustment after being in school for 5
years. After a couple of weeks, it will all be real. I’m sure it will also
become real when I do get to take a vacation for the first time and have my
company laptop along with me to complete work. I must insert here that I almost
just typed “homework” rather than “work”. I had to stop myself and think about
what the proper word really was to use in that sentence!
J

Learning how to type on a PC rather than a keyboard has its own learning curve as well. And
as far as that goes, learning to use a PC again fulltime and switching back to
my iMac when I return home is quite interesting. I’m quite flexible when it
comes to the two however, so the transition for the most part has been easy.

All in all, I will survive. While the song is now stuck in my head thanks to writing that,
I had no pun intended. I’m a strong personality that loves new situations. I
just have to keep telling myself that it’s only been three days. Patience will
need to become a virtue of mine.

Day 4:

My goal was the upload this to my blog last night but that didn’t happen, thus I’ll just
add on to it. Today I met a couple of the girls that I’ll be working with on my
audit project. Whenever I meet people in this setting, I wonder how I’m coming off
to them. I mean, I have to be one of the most outgoing people I know yet I feel
myself holding back in newer situations. If I am making myself hold back this
much, I then begin to contemplate how people who are not friendly do new
situations. And then the conclusion rings in, no wonder accountants are known
as people who huddle in their cubicles.

For every day that I’ve been here, I’m the only constant person in these surrounding four
cubicles. A company such as the one that I’m in has random people at the home
office every day. We have a cube reservation system in place, it’s quite
efficient. But everything that is personal gets packed up at the end of every
day and thrown in my laptop carrier bag. Then when I get here the next morning,
my stuff gets thrown around all over again. This cycle makes me feel like a
modern day nomad. New experiences can’t complain too much.

Farah invited me to a happy hour in Chinatown with her company and I was planning on
going until I received an invite from my audit team to go out with them. Two
happy hour invitations on the same night?! This is more socializing then I’ve
had in months! Be still, thy heart of mine. Could it be? Could I actually be
making friends? I suppose this is the part where I realize that all the settings
have been sprung; it is now within my own actions that I further my socializing
experience along. Wish me luck tonight!

Day 5:

This log is turning into a journal almost and yet I have not actually blogged any of it.
For those of you that took the time to actually read this entire post, mad
props to you! I just made lunch plans with the other lady that I started with
to celebrate our first week being over. And last night I had crazy fun with my
new teammates. Therefore, today’s a little more uplifting in the social
department
J

Yesterday for lunch I invited myself to a table that this lady was sitting at. She didn’t
seem to want to be disturbed but oh well for her, I desperately wanted to make
a new friend. After talking to her for the whole hour, I’m really glad I chose
her. She has been working at the company for 10 years and therefore had a lot
of insight to shed on this organization. It was also amazing to talk to someone
who still loved the company after working there for that long.

You know, mostly everyone I talk to does not have their Masters here in this company.
After talking to one of my co workers last night, she asked how old I was when
I made an old joke. I told her 23 and her mouth fell open. First of all she
told me that I don’t look that old, thank you thank you. And then she said that
she is also 23. The point of this? She has been working at the company for over
a year and interned here yet is the same age as myself. Sure I have more
education, but when proceeding to receive that education, I had an opportunity
cost of starting work earlier. Its one of those things that I wonder about, was
it really worth it all? In the future,
yes it will definitely be beneficial as I have that extra degree and
have already sat for my CPA, things that most of these people don’t have. Yet,
I gave up a lot by doing that. I wasn’t able to start with my recruiting class
in June and I’m one to two years older than all of them. The people that I
should be friends with have all been promoted to one or two positions up in the
company already at this point. Anyway, it’s been an interesting battle for my
mind to play out.