Undue Stress

As some of you may already know I have spent the past year and a half studying, sitting for, passing, failing, and re-taking the 4 painstakingly awful CPA exams that are required by my job. They have pretty much taken over every aspect of my life of which I am definitely not proud to admit :( Fortunately all of my hardwork has paid off and I have currently passed 3 out of the 4 nasty beasts.

I wish I could say - as of July 1st at 11 AM when I walked out of the testing center after taking the long and dreadful final section - that the CPA exam has no longer been a part of my daily life. I really, really do wish I could say that, but that my friends, would be a lie.

Whether or not I passed has been a burning question in my mind day in and day out and day in and day out and day in and day out....why?...you say. Well the biggest reason is because I have something a little more than pride riding on that score being 75 or higher and that something is a pretty spectacular bonus provided by EY.

You all know that feeling of expecting some important news online or in the mail...Everyday you have to talk yourself into walking to the mailbox and once you get there all of these thoughts come gushing into your mind and you sort of want to run away when that rush of adrenaline and intense panic comes across you and your heart feels like its going to beat of your chest. You know it...you know it well.

One of the many downfalls of the whole CPA exam experience is that they don't tell you when your score is coming. It can take prettymuch anywhere between 3 & 12 weeks give or take a few days. The VA Board of Accountancy, on a much larger scale, is following the cruel practice of the cable guy/delivery service/plumber when he gives you a timeframe for service anytime between the hours of 7 AM & 7 PM. And just like with the evil service guy you are given no warning of arrival, that score can be online at any time. So the moment I felt I had given the VA BOA a reasonable amount of time to calculate my score I found myself on their website multiple times a day in hopes to give my anxiety ridden being some relief. Since I have become unnaturally obsessed with knowing that score I had to limit myself to checking only on Fridays. Plus having that anxious feeling multiple times a day every single day is just not healthy.

I began to think that maybe something was wrong with the VA BOA website so yesterday I decided to pick up the phone and call them. Oh...no...here it comes....awful, anxious, want-to-crawl-out-of-my-skin feeling and the lady on the other line was so calm and collected when she told me she hadn't received my score. I told her that my friend took the exact same exam on the exact same date (July 1st) and she had already received her score. We are still waiting for another wave of scores, by the way we still haven't received our August scores, she said in a slow well thought out tone. At this point I wanted to climb through the phone and strangle her but before I did that I would say come on lady I've been waiting painfully since July 1st let's get a move on.

Here I am on day 75 starting to think that maybe something happened with my test and beginning to lose that positive attitude that believes that I passed. So, please everyone cross your fingers with me in hopes that tomorrow I will finally receive my score...oh ya, please also hope that I passed. Read more...

TC: Mr. Heckles

If you have watched enough Friends you know who Mr. Heckles is. The neighbor who lives above Monica's apartment who continually comes down to complain about loud noise levels in the apartment. Since our downstairs neighbor has moved in I feel like I'm now Mr. Heckles.

Every weekend from about 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM our annoying bottom neighbor feels it necessary to blast his tunes while he does whatever he does down there. I'm talking BLAST. If I put a glass of water on the ground its like on Jurassic Park when the T-Rex it tromping through the jungle. The man has got some bass!

Like Mr. Heckles, I have gone down stairs and kindly asked if he'd turn his music down. To which he responds, "Its not even that loud." So I have to deal with these jam sessions in a more creative fashion. Most of the time putting in some headphones does the trick but, when they don't, more extreme measures must be taken. Examples include "exercising" or just running up and down all 38 stairs in the house, "plyometrics" throwing the term light on your feet out the window of course, cranking up our own tunes, recreating the million man march every time I go into the kitchen, vacuuming. You know, anything to show the dude, "Hey, turn your F'ing music down."

Well today, today was different. The downstairs rave started a little late and I had just eaten lunch so I couldn't even think about exercise. But there was something missing from the music today, a decent drummer. So I helped him out by playing the floor drums to the beat of his tunes. I guess he got the hint because after only one song, the music stopped.

"Oh well" I thought, "I would rather study than play the silly floor drums anyway. Read more...

Our Nerf Life in Redskins Country

Interesting things have been happening that are pretty out of the ordinary. Living here has been an adventure to say the least. Being in VA has allowed Tanner to become more involved with the website...(not like he wasn't already, huh Ryan?)

It's been good though. Between studying and trying to normalize ourselves we have found ourselves at many a business luncheon. We've met with many random people from movie producers, to newswriters, to sportscasters, to Comcast marketing people, etc. People are really interested in what Chris and Tanner are trying to accomplish. They are enjoying this while it lasts because in all actuality who knows how long that may be.

An entertaining event that occurred that caused me to laugh until my abs killed included the creation of a homemade "Fantasy Files" commercial. Chris and a masked friend whose name we will not mention dressed up as rival Cowboy players Romo and Whitten.

These two were hilarious during the production of this spoof. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. It felt good and it was great to see the footage that came out of the frivolous night.

Here is Chris's REAL NFL.com Fantasy File commercial for those of you who may not know what I am talking about.


I have never been around so many diehard sports fans. Anything Redskins related is on the 5 o'clock news or in the Washington Post....The most recent story "Unofficial Redskins Mascot's Tomahawk Stolen." This title may seem silly but it was not taken lightly. While reading the Post at Starbuck's Christy noticed the headline told Chris and instantly had Tanner post a reward (a signed jersey) on Chris's blog for the safe recovery of the Tomahawk.

The results follow in an excerpt from Tanner:

"OH man, oh man, oh man, oh man, OH MAN!" Is what I heard on the other line when I called to tell the Chief that we retrieved his stolen tomahawk. I can't even begin to explain the excitement that brought me. Being able to send out this "APB" and have the missing item returned in less than 6 hours...WOW!

Chief Zee is at every Skins game and is a faithful fan...he's been carrying that tomahawk for the past 30 years and said he felt naked without it. It was heartwarming to see how grateful he was to the Cooley's for getting it back.

Read more...