Possum Infestation

Not long after moving into our house, Jeff and I saw a possum in our backyard.  We were really excited as neither of us had ever seen one before.  Much to our chagrin, however, the possum crawled right under our shed  followed by another possum which had appeared from nowhere and we realized we have a family of possums sharing our lot with us!

Last month we had another sighting, although this time the possum was kind enough to pose for some pictures.

Archana and pictures

In America people like pictures but many people don't like having pictures taken of themselves - or at least not while they're at work.  However, in India they love pictures and take pictures all the time (or so I'm told by Archana).  This has been interesting in our office because most people don't want to have their stressful busy season experiences captured on camera, but Archana doesn't go anywhere in the office without her camera.  It's been rather hilarious to watch people's expressions when she pulls out a camera.  Also, in India, whenever people show up to work wearing the same color, she takes a picture.  As you can imagine, this happens a lot!  So I've had my picture taken several times for showing up matching.  One time we were on a video conference call with the Indian office and I was wearing the same color as 2 of the girls in India...that made for an interesting picture!

Additionally, Archana was married less than a year ago and so she loves doing silly things with pictures of her and her husband.  For example, she will photoshop her and her husband's faces into a picture of an American couple on their wedding day to see what they'd look like in an American wedding dress and tuxedo!  It's so funny!

Archana at her engagement party last April

Me in front of video conference screen with Surthy and Florance in matching colors.

Archana's husband, Raventh, photoshopped as Santa Claus!

Archana

Busy season is officially over!!!  So I actually have time to blog again!  I don't feel too bad about not blogging for the past 3 months seeing as all I've done is work and who wants to read about tax provisions or depreciation on a blog?  I'll answer that...no one.

The one noteworthy experience from busy season is the arrival of Archana in the Seattle office.  Deloitte has offices in India, as does every other business, for the sole reason of cheap labor.  Every so often we have one of the employees from India do a rotation in the US to help them learn and develop professionally.  This year the Seattle office was pleased to welcome Archana - and I've been assigned as her "buddy" while she is here.

At first I was a little hesitant about the whole thing.  I wondered if all of my spare time would be consumed with taking her grocery shopping or sight seeing.  I worried about this because this is what happened to the "buddies" of the other India rotators in the past.  However, Archana has been incredibly competent and independent.  In fact, we've become quite good friends!  She is very kind and thoughtful.  She's funny and works hard.  And she's eager to learn.  She's not so eager to eat American food so she is starving to death, but we're working on that.

A few funny things...the left hand is considered unclean in India so whenever I eat with my left hand or reach for something with my left hand Archana scolds me or slaps my hand.  I have to remind her frequently that not only am I left-handed, but she's in America where we use both hands all the time.  In India, they don't have traffic rules so when you want to cross the street, you just start walking and hope the cars don't hit you.  I've had to remind Archana on a few occasions to wait for the crosswalk signal to show a white man before attempting to cross the street.  She has almost been killed a couple of times by thinking the cars will just stop when they see her!

Overall, it's been a great experience for me to learn about their culture and lifestyle.  I feel really ashamed that I was so clueless before; I really had made no effort to learn about the workers we have over there.  Archana will be here through July 4th and I'm excited for the things we can both teach each other.

January...bleh

I realized today that I haven't blogged in almost a month!  Yikes!  How fast time flies - if only I were having fun.  Unfortunately for me, and many of my fellow CPAs, January is not typically the highlight of my year.  It's not that January is the busiest time of year, rather it's the general mood that arrives in the office knowing that busy season is just around the corner.   

"Busy season" or "tax season" has a very finite end, April 15th; however, the beginning of busy season is really dependent on your clients.  Some clients get their information to you really quickly meaning your busy season starts sooner, others are really late, meaning a shorter but more deadly busy season.  

I suppose I should be grateful that my busy season is generally pretty steady - a consistent 55-70 hour work week.  But sometimes I wish I could just work 100 hours a week for 2 or 3 weeks then be done with it.  Why drag it out?!  

Back to the point...there's no official beginning of tax season; rather, people just start staying gradually later, but you're never sure if they're staying later so that people think they're busy or if they're staying late because they really have work to do.  The funny thing about busy season is that even if all of your work is done, you don't want to be the one leaving first because then people think you're not busy enough and give you more work!  So starting in January, all tax accountants start trying to appear busy until they really are busy just so that no one who is actually busy in January ask them to help thus accelerating their own busy season...make sense?  Don't worry, I think it's ridiculous too!

So, that's my really lame excuse for the lack of posts lately.  Only, I'm the one who really is busy instead of the one who's pretending to be busy...so if you're just pretending to be busy, watch out!  I might just make you help me with my workload!

Each life that touches ours for good

My family recently said goodbye to the fourth member of the Harris family (my mother's family).  We lost our Grandpa in 2002 and two baby cousins had passed on before that.  At the end of 2010 we lost a much loved cousin, Neal.

Neal was about my age.  He was so handsome, had a great big smile and a great big heart.  He was just about as kind a person as you'll ever meet.  But Neal's life took a very dark turn and he chose to end his life on December 28th.

The news of Neal's death was very hard to receive.  Our family is very close and there are many who are mourning this great loss.  It's in times of tragedy and suffering that you find out what you truly believe.  Immediately after hearing about his death, I knew Neal was in heaven with my Grandpa.  There was no question of that fact and it brought me great comfort.  I know that Neal is no longer struggling against the dark demons he faced on earth.  I know that God loves him and knows the goodness of his heart and He welcomed him back to Heaven with the loving embrace any Father would show.

Neal - you are so loved and so greatly missed!  Give Grandpa a big hug for me!

If you'd like to know more about Heaven and life after death, check out the following website:

http://www.mormon.org/

An Uneventful New Year's Eve

I've never really been into the New Year Holiday.  The times that I did go out on the town, I really didn't enjoy myself and I ended up wishing I'd just stayed home.  This year for New Year's Eve, Jeff and I cuddled up in our PJs, sat on the couch and watched The Green Mile.  Once the movie ended we watched the count down (which gets worse every year!) and then slept in front of our Christmas tree.  Deciding to stay in this year was made even easier due to the horrible cold that I had.  But even if I'd been feeling well we probably would have stayed home.  I've decided that staying in really is the way to do New Year's Eve since I'm not usually my nicest self after 10pm and I barely make it to 12am each year.  Maybe one year I'll go out on a limb and throw a New Year's party - we could celebrate the New Year on East Coast time so I could go to bed earlier - but until then it's movies and PJs for me!

Gingerbread Houses

Our favorite Christmas event in Seattle is the Gingerbread competition/display at the Sheraton hotel.  Several architectural firms in the city volunteer to create magnificent gingerbread houses which are displayed in the hotel lobby.  People come to see the displays and to donate money to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.  The theme for this year's contest was "Home for the Holidays".  Last year's theme was "Hollywood".  Here are a few pics of this year's and last's favorites:

Tree House

Mr & Mrs Clause with Rudolph

Futuristic Hometown

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