She's actually posting - OMG!

It's amazing to me how one aspect of your life can take over the rest. Instead of being Beth who just happens to be a CPA I have been a CPA first and foremost and Beth second lately. Work has sort of taken over my life as I've been working my ass off (about 57 hours last week) and everything else has just fallen by the wayside.

Now how, you ask, can I be working so many hours at this time of year? Simple - not every company has a December 31 year-end. My summer client on which I am now the senior staff person assigned, one of the larger unions in town, has Department of Labor returns due September 28 and they can't be extended. The last two years I've worked on this client we had about seven returns due and it wasn't a big deal. This year, however, we added about 20 of this union's local unions due to a change in their policy where the main union wants all of the Locals to be audited by the same firm for consistency purposes and because some of them have had some fraud issues. Since my firm does the main union and we specialize in union clients, we were the firm selected. Good for business, not so good for my social life.

I apologize to my friends if I've been complaining too much about work or if I haven't been to see you while you were in town (especially Paul--sorry). I do enjoy my job, I just don't enjoy working these type of hours outside of tax season. Work just seems to be encompassing my entire life and it's hard to let go of that when it's all you think about most of the day. I still haven't unpacked the boxes in my room as it's the last thing I want to do right now. My time away from work I just want to relax and not do anything.

The good news is that this will all be over in a few weeks. Most of the local unions are done and I'm now working on the main union, but it requires a lot of time and effort as it is so large. As soon as September 28 is over I plan on taking some time off, and my trip to Arizona to see my brother is the second weekend in October. I talked to one of the partners at work about getting paid for my overtime as opposed to getting extra time off. I argued that I already had my time off I earned during tax season and couldn't possibly use up all of this extra comp time before the end of the year. He agreed to let me get paid out for my overtime worked instead, so I will be getting some extra money for my efforts (which is always nice).

Brad and I decided today that we will be having our housewarming party on Saturday, October 2 for those of you who can make it. We haven't decided on a time but I'm assuming 7-ish or so. My craziness at work will be over then and I'm planning on taking a day or two off before the party to finish unpacking and clean a bit. We will have plenty of food so bring your appetite, and it might be wise if you also brought a chair for the back yard!