A is For...

Aspirations
Some people have known exactly what they wanted to do in life since the time they were five. I am not one of those people. At the age of 5, I had my heart set on spending my adult years on the open seas searching for buried treasure. I'm not sure why I was so obsessed with being a pirate, but as a law-abiding citizen with an appreciation for cleanliness, this dream clearly didn't last long. At 10 I dreamt of being a camp counselor. This dream was also short-lived as I soon realized I wasn't a huge fan of bug bites and ill-behaved children. By 15 I had decided on a criminal psychologist. While this was a much more reasonable career choice than the previous two, by the time I got to college I wasn't so sure it was what I truly wanted to do. So instead I went to business school where I had two years before I had to declare a major. I was immediately drawn towards marketing, as it allowed me to use both the creative and logical sides of my brain, but, I was also really good at accounting. Luckily for me, I had the option of a 5 year program that allowed me to do both. I came out in 4 years [over-achiever, I know] with a BBA in Accounting and an MS in Marketing. And now, here I am, working in public accounting as an external auditor.

I'm in the midst of my second busy season with the firm and as I submitted my 67 hour time sheet this week, I realized this is by no means what I want to do for the rest of my life. But what do I want to do? That is the million-dollar question. I'd like to eventually put my marketing degree to good-use, but I don't know how. Perhaps I can again find the best of both worlds and work at a marketing firm doing accounting? Who knows. My aspirations on the job front are ever changing, but I am certain on other aspects of my life. I may not know what career I want, but I do know what I want to be. I want to be a wife and a mother, a role model and a friend. I want to be a listener and a confidant, a person who can life people's spirits and offer sound advice. And most importantly, I want to be happy. They may be simple aspirations, but I'm sure they will make my life much more meaningful than being a pirate.

The Alphabet Project

One of my AIIaFDtFTWs for the new year was to blog more. I think aside from sheer laziness, one of the biggest reasons I don't blog very often is I have terrible writer's block. More times than not, when I sit down to write a post I find myself completely devoid of inspiration. And since I pretty much stick to the motto "if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all," you can see why my posts are so few and far between. But it's time for change!

To help get my creative juices flowing and push me to write more, I have come up with a little project that I like to call the

The plan is write a post every day few days about a topic starting with the letter A and working my way through the alphabet. Some posts will be silly, some will be serious, but my hope is that they will all show a little about who I am as a person and what makes me tick. I have no idea where this little project might take me, but I'm excited to find out. Bring on the inspiration!

Note: I'm working 55-65 hours for the next few weeks, so my posts will probably be very delayed. Please bear with me!

Stylish Blogger Award

My dear friend Alex honored me with this nifty little award.

While I don't believe I truly deserve at this point [my blog needs a major overhaul...but that will come in time], I am very honored!

As a recipient of this award, I am to now list seven things you might not know about me. So here goes:

1. I grew up in San Antonio where most signs are in both English and Spanish. As a toddler, I didn't quite grasp the concept of multiple languages and so I refered to exits as "Exit Salidas". On a related note, for a good portion of my life I thought my grandpa was Mexican. He isn't.

2. My absolute favorite ice cream is Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla covered in chocolate syrup with chocolate chips sprinkled on top. Ever since I was a kid, I've mushed up this combo in my great grandmother's old ice cream dish into a liquidity mess of deliciousness. And oddly enough, my mother did the same thing to her ice cream as a child. The apple doesn't fall far from the weird tree.

3. I do not like long fingernails at all. I have a weird fear of them popping off my fingers, and thus keep my nails very short.

4. I firmly believe that moose are the greatest animals in the world. I am so certain of this fact that I once spent a day at work preparing what I like to call my Unified Moose Thesis in attempts to convey this truth to my co-workers. Photographic exhibits were involved.

5. I have a ridiculous obsession with PowerPoint. As an accountant, I don't get to use the program anywhere near as much as I'd like, so in my free time I like to make PowerPoint presentations for ridiculous topics. My current project is a comprehensive pictoral dictionary of sorts of words I made up. And yes, I realize this is incredibly strange.

6. I want nothing more in life than to own a bakery. The key word here is own. Make no mistake, I am not a baker. In fact, I'm pretty incapable of baking anything besides a cake from a box. I just want to own a bakery so that I can be surrounded by fresh made treats all the time. Someone else will have to do the actual baking.

7. My favorite thing about myself physically is the freckle on my left second toe. I have no idea why, but I find it adorable.

Now I'm supposed to pass this award on to 15 of my favorite bloggers, but I'm not going to do that. Why? Well, mostly because I don't follow 15 blogs. Apparently I should start making blog friends...