I think spring has finally arrived, just in time for it to turn into summer. We've had some pretty nasty storms yesterday, and there are supposed to be more this afternoon and tonight, as well as hitting the 90 degree range sometime this week.

After 1 week of freedom after graduation, I started a CPA review course here in Bloomington, on the ISU campus. It meets 4 hours every day. I thought by signing up for the live course (the company also offers a self-study online course you can do from home) that the professors would actually be doing the lectures. Boy, was I wrong. Instead, they put in a lecture CD and we watch a 4 hour long video. Then they give you a copy of the video at the end of class. no, I am not kidding. I was a little annoyed at the beginning and was thinking of switching to the self study course, but as Mike pointed out, I need the structure. That, and as we go along, the professors will clarify or update us on some things that have changed in the last couple of months that the company didn't have time to change before they created the review materials. So I've been pretty busy and am already behind since this is a pretty short, crash course for the CPA exam. It's 5.5 weeks long and I'm already into week 3, thank goodness. I paid for the exam this week and can now contact the locations where I want to take it and schedule my exam dates (of course, there isn't a facility in Bloomington). I have 6 months to take all 4 sections for the first time. My plan as of right now is to take 3 over July and August and take the last one in October. (The exam isn't available in September)

In job news, I sent out 2 applications about 2 weeks ago. One at a local hospital in their accounting department and the other for a local accounting firm. I haven't heard anything from them yet, so I'm going to follow up and make sure my name stays or comes to the top of the pile. I also replied to State Farm about the position I interviewed for and said that I wasn't interested in that particular position. They hadn't made a decision about who to hire yet, but wanted to know if I was still interested. I had thought about it and Mike and I had talked about it, and I just came to the solid conclusion that it wasn't the job for me. It was basically going to be a liaison position between the IT department and the finance/accounting department. The item that pushed me over to not wanting the position was the fact that part of my duties were going to entail providing support to the accounting department when they had problems with the software, so I would be expected to be an expert on how the software worked. So hopefully something will work out soon, but in the meantime, I'll be studying for the CPA.

Tonight, Mike and I are going to an Illini Meet and Greet and is here in Bloomington. The coaches (football and basketball) tour around Illinois in the spring/summer and now that we are season ticket holders, we find out about all of that kind of thing. Bloomington is lucky since not all of the coaches make it to all the locations, but Bloomington has the FB head coach, and both the men's and women's basketball coaches attending. Mike is super excited, and I'm sure he will want to get their autographs and pictures (that is part of it) I guess I'd better make sure the camara has fresh batteries in it.... I'll be sure to post them if we get any.