a semester

Holy semester, Batman!

:: Master's classes
:: Recruiting trips
:: Interviewing
:: Power suits
:: Swag
:: Excel spreadsheets
:: Over-my-head finance formulas
:: Sporadic conversation with family
:: Cutting back on Diet Pepsi
:: Nutella cupcakes
:: Wonderful Thanksgiving break
:: Women in the School of Accountancy co-chairing
:: Endless group cases
:: Tax code familiarization
:: Introductory accounting TAing

So, yeah. Great semester. Super busy.

This moment this afternoon about sums it up.

happy 24th to charlotte!

Today is Charlotte's 24th birthday! To celebrate, here are 24 things that you may or may not know about her:

1. Charlotte is extremely disciplined. When it's time to wake up, she is out of bed, something that I find very admirable. She is punctual and always well-planned.

2. Charlotte used to have a voice that sounded like a chipmunk. She also has always been a fast talker. This combination made her sound like a cassette tape on rewind.

3. Charlotte won the spelling bee in fifth grade with the word Freudian. (It's fun to picture Charlotte spelling this in her chipmunk voice wearing her big glasses and one of the many cute dresses Mom made for us in elementary school.)

4. Charlotte loves loves loves reading. She read all of The Lord of the Rings in fifth grade and could read an entire Nancy Drew in one afternoon. She never goes anywhere without a book and reads at breakneck speed.

5. Charlotte is named after our maternal grandmother Charlotte Jane Hunter Petersen, and she emulates her in beauty, intelligence, baking prowess, and faith so admirably.

6. Charlotte is becoming less of a picky eater. When she tried home canned peaches one time, all she could say was "it didn't make me gag." In her adulthood, she has expanded her culinary horizons to Thai food! That's a very big step, and we're all so proud.

7. Charlotte knows everything about Harry Potter and Gilmore Girls. We often text each other trivia from both series, and she has only missed a question once. She owns all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls, a magic wand, and she has read and listened to all seven HP books countless times.

8. Charlotte is a die hard grammarian. When we're waiting in airports, I ask her to teach me a new grammar rule. I'll never forget the subjunctive lesson of Christmas '09. She uses her skills to selflessly help others. She edits papers for me and our brother John, and she transcribed eight hours of interviews with our Grandma Charlotte and put them into a book.

9. Charlotte is a mostly self-taught seamstress. In the last six months, she has already moved up to making dresses and other garments. She's well on her way to being the next Denise Wood.

10. Charlotte gave up her private violin lessons when the family was having financial difficulties. She kept up with school orchestras and still plays beautifully. In high school, we were in a string quartet together with two of our friends. We were the Harmonious Ponies and our signature pieces were "The Harmonious Blacksmith" and the "Pony Polka."

11. Charlotte has received almost all straight A's throughout her entire education.

12. Charlotte has a terrific shoe collection. She loves high heels and wears them with style.

13. Charlotte hit a pedestrian with her car in high school and endures endless teasing about it. Like right now. The girl was fine, or else we wouldn't laugh about it now.

 

14. Up until a recent unfortunate experience with old leftovers, Charlotte loved Kraft Mac n' Cheese. She made it for me a lot when we were in Provo together. She also would make me real food, like Parmesan chicken and banana chocolate chip bars.

15. Charlotte cares about the homeless population of Portland. She has shared bananas from her lunch, coffee from her work, and other gestures of compassion with many people in sad circumstances.

16. Charlotte inherited a love of dry cereal from our Dad. She can eat Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies multiple times a day and never tire. Her treat cereal of choice of Fruit Loops.

17. Charlotte has been to both Disney Land and Disney World. She is the only Wood sibling to visit any Disney establishment other than the Disney store at the mall.

18. Whenever we have family dinner at our grandparents' house, Charlotte does the dishes and cleans the kitchen.

19. Charlotte just cut her hair after years of having long hair. I can only remember one other time in her life when she's cut her hair short. I'm very proud of her for taking the leap, and it looks great!

20. Charlotte is a great cook and baker and it adventurous with trying new recipes and techniques. She won over her husband Josh with her meatloaf.

21. Charlotte has worn glasses since early childhood and would love to have Lasik surgery.

22. Charlotte is really good at dancing really poorly. Josh will leave the room is she starts, but she doesn't mind because I'll always stay with her and come up with more and more ridiculous moves.

23. Charlotte is married to an awesome man. The last year of getting ready for her wedding and welcoming Josh into our family has been so great for our family.

24. Charlotte is and always has been my Number One, the best friend I will ever have. I can't remember a time in my life when I haven't looked up to her. She epitomizes supportive and loving sisterhood. I love her and am so excited that today is her day!

end of an era

I enjoyed refreshing pebble ice from the machine in the kitchen at work all summer. Today was my last day at work, and these are my last crunchy pieces of delicious ice. 

I'm ruined. No other ice will ever be good enough. I wonder how my roommates would feel about my filling our tiny freezer with bags of pebble ice from Sonic?

cleaning up the streets

My neighborhood is pretty clean, but this summer, this offensive sight moved in. Mom and I kept waiting for the dumpster company or renters to do something about it, but nothing happened for months. We were tired of being flipped off every time we drove home. 

It just so happened that we had two cans of black spray paint in our garage. 

hiatus over

I'm back! Summer is winding down, and along with fitting all of my overdue dental work, eye exams, and gift knitting/embroidering into one last week, it's time for some back-logged blogging.

Four Things About the Fourth of July Weekend


1. "Four"ks used in abundance to eat delicious food.

Lunch at My Pie ( No forks involved. Sorry for the deception.)

BBQ on Grandpa's patio

Breakfast cookout in the 4th

2. Four hundred (give or take) rounds of Bang! card game.

Josh was our go-to rules and strategy guide.

Charlotte entertained us by wearing the game tin like a serial killer mask and saying "Bang" in a creepy deep voice. I'm giggling as I write this and remember this. 

3. Four hours in endless Fourth of July weekend and semi accident traffic.

Endless traffic in front.

We felt so trapped. 

Endless traffic behind.

Note our average speed and the time. We left the picnic site at 1:15.

4. Four Wood siblings' and a Wilson's worth of stupid faces! (Punctuation undoubtedly incorrect. Sorry, Charlotte.)

how can you not love this man?

the pit in my stomach and hole in my bank account

The thrill of having a new car is quickly wearing off, being replaced by dread for repairs and hazardous road conditions and possible death. Because that's what a car is. It's a chunk of metal that never ceases to drain your bank account and risk your life.

My little Turbo started running rough today and probably needs a tune-up. Maybe brakes. But that's part of car ownership. It's part of being a person in the world. I'm adapting. But it's hard. Especially when my car makes funny sounds.

[Note: I'm really trying to fight this worry and dread. I'm letting it out now, though. In 10 minutes, I'll go back to being positive.]

And now onto the pretty pictures of my shiny car. Because at least it looks good! And I am still happy about it when I took them, so maybe this will help my morale.

Ta da! My '97 Saab 900 Turbo. 121,000 miles. Could be worse. At least this time around I'm older than my car.

I like the Saab snake guy with with crown. Not all the wheels have these.

Turbo is a hatchback, so he fits a lot of stuff. I haven't tested the capacity yet, but my August move back to Provo will give him a good shot to prove himself.

SP taken out of my sunroof. The sunroof might be my favorite feature.

Looking down from my sunroof. The ignition is down in between the two seats. The heated, slightly torn, leather seats.

Finalizing the sale was a bit of a fiasco. The first time I went with all my cash to pick up the car, the "ill" seller signed the title on the wrong line. Two days later, he resolved the title issue and we made the sale. In his semi-lucid state, he forgot to give me the key to the gas cap, so I got to the gas station with an empty tank and couldn't get it open. I stood at the pump for 10 minutes reading the owners manual and testing my ignition key and calling the seller. I went home on an empty tank and arranged to meet the seller at the gas station the next day.

That is the last time I saw him and hope to keep it that way. He told us at least 20 times that "man, I am sick as a dog." But he never sneezed or coughed. The first time we met, he was drinking a clear liquid from a glass that smelled a little too strong to be water. He was a character.

The good news is that I am mobile again. I am going to stick with the free bus pass that work gives me to avoid gas costs, but I can run errands freely in the evenings and I can drive myself out to school. In Provo, I'll will no longer be a nuisance on all my friends and acquaintances who own cars. I can be the one to give rides! I can drive to Michelle's house whenever I want to!

Car ownership is (overall) good. Adulthood is good. Now all I have to do is repeat this mantra to myself for the rest of my life and I'll be okay. As long as I always have Diet Pepsi in the fridge, that is.