This weekend...

...I'm going camping! Yes. You read right. I'm going camping for the weekend.  I figure I might as well get as much nature is as possible before I head to the concrete jungle of NYC...Wish me luck!

Free time? What's that?

During school I rarely had "free time."  There was always homework to be done, tests to be studied for, work work to do, etc. etc.  I would always think -wow, when i have free time i'm going to do this and this and this. and it's going to be so wonderful.

Fast forward to right now when all I have is fre

e time.  I currently am job free (which sounds so much better than unemployed), school free (although that CPA business is still looming over my head), basically, I am responsibility free.  And I am at a loss of what to do with myself!

One hobby I have picked up again is cooking.  I love love love to cook but during school I cooked maybe once a month. Maybe.  It has been fun getting back in the kitchen and testing out some new recipes.  My favorite so far has been this recipe for penne with sun-dried tomatoes and arugula from Gourmet magazine.  I made it with diced tomatoes instead of sun-dried (because I don't really like sundried ones) and with bacon instead of pancetta (not quite sure what the difference is actually...) and it was delicious!!  I also made mock risotto from this recipe I found on foodnetwork.  It turned out great!

So here's my question for you...what would you do if you were responsibility free? What hobbies would you pick up again?

(this is the photo of the penne recipe...yum!)

I stumbled upon a great website today. How fun would it be to do this for your job...

I finally did it...

My Becker CPA study materials have been sitting in a box. Waiting for me. For about a month. They actually came before school ended but I told myself I was too busy with school, finals, work, bookbinding, etc etc to even think about it until after vacation. So there they waited until I got home from Puerto Rico. I finally moved them from my house in SLC to my house here in Provo. And they sat on the stairs. Unopened. Still waiting. 

Yesterday I told myself that today was the day. Today I would open my study materials and begin the fun that is studying for the CPA.  I did it! I opened the box and inside were 4 huge study manuals, a box of flashcards weighing about 10 pounds, and a disk to install the program.  I pop the disk into my computer. Turns out it only works for a computer with windows. I have a mac. without windows. 

And that's where the productivity stopped. Luckily there's another laptop and home I can use.  Perhaps I'll give productivity another shot tomorrow but for now, gossip girl is calling my name.

Today I...

• Gardened. Yes. I gardened! Our stake did a service project up at temple square this morning.  I spent the morning pulling out flowers to make way for the new summer flowers!
• Picked up my bike from home. Pretty sure it hasn't been used in about 6 years but I'm looking forward to riding it this summer!
• Soaked up a good hour's worth of Vitamin D. Love it.
• Saw the movie Confessions of a Shopaholic. If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it! Such a cute movie!!
• Randomly ran into a couple friends I haven't seen for ages! It was so good to see them!

I LOVE SUMMER!

September 8th

I finally got a start date for work!! My life as a real person begins September 8th.

NYC-here I come!!!