A first

Today I woke up at 6, and started working at 7:45. I left at 1 to 1:30 for lunch, and 6:15 - 6:45 for dinner. Working manual labor jobs my whole life I am no stranger to hard work and long days. I am however new to the idea of taking work home with me...here is to a long night.

Humidity

I thought I bid this stuff farewell three years ago but alas it is still ruining my life, especially my hair.

So we took off from Salt Lake, landed in Houston, got a rental car, checked into some sweet hotel, and started working. It was nice actually knowing what I was doing and able to understand what was going on. First though check out my hotel room, it is okay.

So that is where I am blogging from tonight and where I will call home for the next couple of evenings. It is a pretty rough deal being on the road but I think I can manage.

So today we started working and it went fine, it was just a long day after the whole flight and everything but it still is nothing to complain about. I should have seen the signs on the wall though when I learned that every door in the office building is locked 24/7. I mean every door. I tried to goto the bathroom, no dice. Went to the car, no dice. I tried to come back into the lobby of our suite after stepping out for a phone call, no dice. I was like hrmm I guess they take security serious around here. These should have been huge red flags for the area we were in but I left my gun, and my paranoia at home. It was about 7 PM when I realized that I hadn't eaten anything other than peanuts all day, see exhibit delicious.

So we went to this bbq place, the dude says you know we have single servings of potato salad. I just looked at him like what do you mean a pint isn't a single serving. They sell refined oil (aka gas but I knew if I said gas my brothers wouldn't be able to get past that and continue on with my story), and good food. It was quite a one two combo. Then we hit up walmart because airport security said I had 3.1 ozs of toothpaste and not 3. On our way into Wal-mart some essay gave me a funny look. I was like hrmm thats odd. Then we go inside and thats when it hit me. Ohh this is the bad part of Houston...either that or it was just Walmart.

Things are great though Mom ;)

Final Day

So last night I didn't sleep all that well because I was pretty stressed about finishing up all the work we had to do in Price. It isn't that I don't like Price, I really enjoy going down there, I just didn't want to have to spend one more night by myself in a hotel room.

So this morning we got a really early start. Our first stop was in Wellington, about 20 minutes from downtown Price. The biggest pile of coal I have ever seen, we were doing some rate checking and realized that in December they had over 600,000 tons of coal there and the company was paying something different than when it is under. It went really well, when we reported our findings it was pretty tough to see the local accountant take it so hard. It is good to see an accountant take it hard because it means they value their job but not this hard. I felt bad for the rest of the day and it just kinda gnawed at me. But what would an audit be if it didn't leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

So then we moved out to the delightful town of East Carbon. This is about 45 minutes outside of Price, right up next to the book cliffs. Great surroundings. This is the office we worked in.

This one went a little better, as we were working I emailed my Dad and asked him if he knew anyone in East Carbon. He named a bunch of people and one was his Uncle, Uncle Narnie Olson; aka Ollie aka Bozo aka the guy who would rearrange my mom's silverware. (ask her about her Narnie special forks) So we had a good time up there and left without making anyone mad. Then we drove back out to Castle Dale. We were finishing up our first stop and this time everything went fast and was smooth.

Sunnyside power plant in East Carbon

All the accountants we audited this trip were really good friends, so they would email about us the whole trip. I don't know if we made any friends, I am almost certain if I was broke down in Carbon or Emery county I could count on at least 5 people who wouldn't stop. Just kidding they were awesome ladies and it was fun interacting with them. On the way out of the last one we were joking around with one and said it is probably a good thing we are getting out of town tonight. She didn't really say anything, gave a half chuckle, looked at her feet and goes yea you are probably right...

Great first trip though. Next Monday: Houston. Get Ready.

History

Today we worked in Price, work went a whole lot better, no one ended up crying. We did get a good glimpse of life in the country. The second office we went to just happened to have their septic back up all over this morning and they were just getting it all cleaned up and reburied when we got there. If you have never been around exposed septic, you haven't lived.

Anyways, as we were driving down main street in Price I saw something that brought back many memories for me and the rest of my immediate family. Anyone who has driven with my Dad has always gotten a lesson on how to be a better driver. Well I want to share a story that will get passed down from generation to generation just like our state quarter collections. It involves my whole family, the suburban, and this friendly little pole.

As you can see there are two poles, without much around them. (I think they started stacking tires around them because of this story.)This story will focus on the smaller one closest to the camera. I am pretty young so I will tell the story as best as I can (which means I will fill in the blanks with how I imagined it went.) We went to the tire shop to get some tires, and my dad sent my mom into get a quote. She came back out and told him how much, to which he responded I can go find some rubber trees, make my own rubber, and tires for less. I can hear it now," Get in the car Riddle we aren't getting ripped off by these crooks." He slowly puts the car in reverse, we all turn around and see this pole but of course we don't say anything, because we know he can see it. Boy were we wrong. There was a dent in the our solid steel bumper that made the grand canyon look small. Never again did we let him live it down. Everytime we bring it up my Dad talks about how that pole wasn't there when he started backing up.

I know this story probably has some embellishments but it is something our family laughs about constantly. I love my family and regardless of how this story sounds love my Dad. He is a great driver and a great man, but when you only make one mistake people always remember it.

The Perfect Storm

If you have never heard of Castle Dale Utah don't worry, you are among the 99% of human beings that will live on this earth. My job takes me to some great places and this is one of them, it is out in the middle of no where but it is still very beautiful. To preface this trip I should say I actually spent a large amount of my summer vacations in this area. Castle Dale is about 20 minutes south of Price, UT. My parents are both from this area and my Dad's coal mine is about 5 minutes from Castle Dale. So when I heard we were coming down here I kept my mouth shut about my past experiences in Price. Everyone had to make their wise cracks about how crummy Price is. I didn't want to rain on their parade or make them feel uncomfortable for making fun of my childhood vacation home, it wasn't until the day before we left that I mentioned I knew the area really well.

So in my job there are three auditing interns, two that travel ( I am one of those ) and one that stays at the base and condenses all the information. The one that stays in Salt Lake did my job two summers ago so he is training us. Well we scheduled this trip to goto Price and then our trainer realized he had jury duty. So he finds out last night he needed to be in Salt Lake for jury duty. Being the over zealous worker I am, I thought we don't need a trainer we have all the information and I took an audit class. . .that should have been a red flag because audit classes don't really mean much in the real world. So off me and the other intern went. Needless to say today was a disaster, everything came together to make life horrible for one long afternoon. We got to the office, spent 4 hours doing about 1 hour of work because we didn't know what the paperwork actually looked like in the field. Not to the mention the sweet lady who bought us lunch, gave us plenty to drink, and provided everything we could imagine needing; ended up crying because we got there and had no idea what we were doing and just made her day hell. Her operations are pretty tough to audit in and of themselves let alone when one newbie decides he is ready to hit the audit road after one class and three days of training.

When I took my auditing class, it was probably my toughest class last year because auditing isn't something that you can learn in a book. It is crucial to a company, it is like playing baseball without keeping stats (as nerdy as that analogy is.) Yet you will never know how important it is until you get out and do it. This internship is providing me with a lot of growing opportunities, today it was learning empathy for the wonderful people whose day-to-day operations I will tear apart for the rest of the summer.

Today was a rough day. I felt bad for the amazing lady whose day I made even worse with all my questions. But I got through it, checked into a hotel that is about 500 yards from my cousin's house, who if he knew I was staying in a hotel is so nice would probably come down and make me come stay with him, had a nice dinner at Groggs (a local pub I had never even heard of...) and showed my co-workers all that is to be shown in Price. I actually enjoy being here.

The drive to the office

The Power Plant out our work room window

The pile of coal

Some dense population

The canyon covered by clouds is Huntington canyon. My dad use to be a coal miner up that canyon.

It is funny, over 25 years ago my Dad got laid off from the mines. At the time I am sure he and my mom thought it was a pretty rough time. They ended up moving up to Salt Lake and eventually moving into the house that I grew up in. If it hadn't been for that lay off I doubt they would have such awesome kids as they have today. I am grateful my parents worked as hard as they did so I can have the opportunity to be where I am today. I know they would have been great parents but I don't know if we would have had the opportunities my brothers, sister, and I have enjoyed being in Salt Lake. Funny how so much good came from such a hard event.

Freedom

So I got out of class on the 21st of April. It was an epic day. I was very excited to be done and looked forward to the R&R I would be getting before I started my summer internship. Boy was I in for a surprise.

Wednesday night I went and bought a motorcycle, it was a great buy and I have been really pleased with it. I bought an '83 Yamaha Virago 750. So Wednesday night in the cold I rode it home from Orem. It was a fun drive.

Here it is in all it's glory.

I have since repainted the tank, changed out a couple parts, and become very familiar with this bike. I have spent about 20 hours so far of work on it, it makes it nice because when I bought the bike the guy I got it from took really good care of it and now it feels like this is my bike. I am excited considering I learned how to ride a bike less than a week before I bought this one.

This is the painting process, my roommate works at a bodyshop so we got a good deal on painting the tank. And by good I mean free. Well I mean I traded him for it. I took him fishing, so it was a win-win because I got a new paint job and got to go fishing. I wish all deals worked out so well.

The before shot

After we stripped the paint off, there was quite a bit of rust.

Totally clean

First coat: Etching primer, makes the paint stick to the metal

primer base

Primer Sealant; if I still lived in my parents neighborhood I would stop here and drive it this color for the duration of my bike's life.

The base coats

All clear coated

So on Thursday I spent the majority of my day getting the thing put in my name, insured, getting my motorcycle learner's permit, and fishing among other things.

Which brings me to my next time consumer. My brother Brian and I both start new jobs this next week. So we both have been fishing most mornings the past two weeks. It is about the only time I really enjoy fishing during the year because we just seem to kill them when the ice is coming off. We went Thursday with my Dad and we all caught a couple, no keepers but fun nonetheless. I went probably 5 other times with just Brian, and once with my roommates.

Our latest haul

Two monsters I caught

So Friday was Mal's graduation, good job. So proud she graduated with all them boys. Some future space scientist spoke. He made a joke, and everyone started laughing except Greg, Matt, Becky and I. Greg turned to me and asked me what he missed, and honestly I had no idea, I said I don't know I don't speak nerd. Funny how Brian was the only one to get the joke in our family...

So between Mal's pre-graduation, fishing, and this motorcycle of mine it has been a busy two weeks. To cap it all off, my brother blessed his daughter today. I am really looking forward to starting my job and relaxing.

Culmination

So Monday was my last day of "The Junior Core." It is the first year of the accounting program at BYU and is known to be pretty rigorous. I heard a couple kids even got divorced it was so demanding. I myself have never had more dates, since telling girls I am an accounting major...k maybe I have. Anyways, this week we had an oral exam that tested our knowledge of both semesters. So I rounded up all my books and started to study for it.
If you can't read the exciting titles I will share them with you, we got Taxation for Individuals and Business Entities; Cost Accounting; Intermediate Accounting; Auditing, Attest, and Assurance Services; Accounting Information Systems; and my favorite Crucial Conversations. The last one is my favorite because I could write an encyclopedia version of the book from my childhood with titles like Crucial Conversations surrounding "Gotchya's"; Crucial Conversations involving board and video games; Crucial Conversations held with police officers; and Crucial Conversations - Ratting your brother out for selling you stolen goods. I think these titles would be a good addition to anyone's collection.

So I took my Oral exam, it consisted of questions regarding subjects I for some reason understood. I even got asked if I happened to know my little brother's newest girlfriend's dad (not in that exact sequence). One question that hit me hard was, where do you see yourself in ten years? Which is a hard one for college students, especially me. I wanted to say, "Are you serious? I don't know where I see myself in two weeks. Let alone ten years." So I gave a pretty generic answer about being super rich, in a company with a smoking hot wife, and two boys that are a mix between Garrett and Walker & Texas Ranger.

Anyways, I got three more tests, 5 more days of studying, and 10 days of fishing at Scofield before I start my first "real" job. Wish me luck.