Sheesh!!! It has been way too long since I last posted anything. Life has been crazy. I have been wearing a new, different, and uncomfortable hat at work recently - that's right, I have been auditing. I have traveled to wonderful places like good old Boise, ID, I have been locked in a building with screaming children all day, and have been holed up in an attic - oh, the life of an auditor. There is nothing like bugging people all day long for information they don't want to give you, just so you can drag out reviewing their work and filling out a few forms for days. I would much rather do my own work, than review other people's mistakes - hence why I specialized in tax, not audit. My degree even specifies I am tax person, not an audit person. I pointed this out to the audit partner, but to no avail. Apparently, anyone can audit. Boo!!!

Along with this unpleasant change (which has made me wish it was tax season again - crazy) another unpleasant change has occurred at work. My beloved officemate and B.F.F. has left the company for bigger and better things. He has ventured out to start his own company doing accounting/tax work. What a change this has been. My office is so empty, quiet, and surprisingly much cleaner (sorry Mike). In honor of my dear departed B.F.F. I have created the top ten things I miss about Mike:

1. The phone calls dealing with buying, selling, or demolishing real estate investments. P.S. Ross is calling :)
2. The random bursts of singing (usually the wrong words) accompanied by random druming (he tells me he once took drum lessons, but he quit not long into them)
3. How he would always ask me how to spell things and the random files that appear on my bookshelves. He claimed they were just there for storage, but I think deep down, he always hoped I would take it one day by accident and prepare it. Well Mickey, you finally got your wish - I prepared the 990 you left on my shelves.
4. How he could not walk by my ten key without unraveling and tangling the paper roll. No matter how many dirty looks I gave him, he still did it.
5. Our conversations/heated debates about our favorite tv shows - who's the Callie hater now?
6. How he would always make me eat the treats in the office even after telling him no five times. He could always somehow talk me into it. Or, how he would continually offer me beef jerky even though he knows I don't even like the smell of the stuff.
7. How he would always spill something on himself, or get highlighter on his sleeve. Thank goodness for the Tide To Go stick Greg finally mastered for us during a tax staff meeting.
8. How he would always give me dating advice or try and set me up with his brother-in-laws.
9. Our infamous 10:00am drink and sometimes snap runs. Especially the one where he awkwardly told the cashier that we recognized her from an audit. The poor girl was never the same and surprisingly, didn't work there much longer after the incident.
10. How he would always make sure I was taken care of - whether it be making sure my desk was fully stocked with supplies when I first started, or giving me directions to a client, letting me go home early at a parts inventory, packing up the laptop and making sure I could access my email for traveling, or giving me heart-felt fatherly advice.

Mike, I truly miss you and your craziness. We had some good times together and I wish you the best in your new adventures!!! We are still best friends FOREVER!!!!