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Happy Birthday Mucha!

Today is Ana Toleva’s birthday.

I wish we were together to celebrate the big #)!
Much love, Mucha!

Ample

am.ple

–adjective, -pler, -plest.

1. fully sufficient or more than adequate for the purpose or needs; plentiful; enough:
an ample supply of water; ample time to finish.

2. of sufficient or abundant measure; liberal; copious: an ample reward.

3. of adequate or more than adequate extent, size, or amount; large; spacious; roomy:
ample storage space.

am.ple.ness, noun

—Synonyms 1. plentiful. 2. generous, free, abounding, lavish, plenteous, overflowing.

Happy Birthday Didi and Alexa!

Today is Diana Radulova-Gilbert’s Birthday. Her daughter Alexa Gilbert was born on February, 6 2006. Happy first Birthday Alexa. Warmest wishes for health, happiness and wellbeing.

Spin Class

I usually never read notes on building’s doors but this one on the gym’s door caught my eye. Last week, as I was entering, I saw a sign saying something, in capital letters, along the lines:

NEW SPIN CLASS WITH DAN MAHONEY

THURSDAYS AT NOON

FEATURING BUNNY

STARTING 02-08-2007

I told Bunny (the instructor), to tell Dan that even with his own spin class he will still be fat, joking of course. She had emailed him that. Stephanie laughed her ass off.

Today I called the radio to tell Dan that I’m taking my lunch break so that I can attend his class and kick his ass. Stephanie laughed her ass off again. He was indeed surprised to see me; he thought I was just kidding. Despite the smaller group, it was a fierce class and I kicked Dan’s ass as promised.

From the Accounting Office

Today was my second day at my new PT job at the accounting firm. It’s wicked exciting:

I sit on a desk; a real desk at a real office. I of course have a PC, a telephone and the best part - an accountant’s calculator, or more precisely an adding machine (the kind with the tape).

My first day was hideous, actually. I was put on a computer, in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and was supposed to reconcile one fiscal year worth of, day by day, credit sales of a local restaurant to their records. After 8 hours of that I was crossed eyed, exhausted and my back and neck were killing me. I felt like in a bad movie - Epitome of the Dorkiest Accounting Clerks II. All I could thing of was “thank god I’m not going to be a bookkeeper”.

Today, having a lot better idea about the big picture of my project, I felt a lot better. I was actually able to prove that whatever was charged by customers of the restaurant was sent to the Credit Card Company and it was paid, without discrepancies, to the restaurant. I also started inputting the information for a business valuation on a different business. And just for the record, it is much appreciated to be able to get on the Internet whenever you need it.

The Status Quo

I’ve been back from Bulgaria for the same amount of time that I was gone. It seems much longer. As I was saying the more you pack in a day the longer it seems. It feels like I was home ages ago. I was depressed for a week or two but America doesn’t wait for you – no time for pity. I came back on the 16th and was back to work the following day.

Work is a tedious chore of reality and although painful it’s somehow doable. What’s really hard - it’s to fight the status quo – to read, learn and progress, to change and move forward. In my case, demolishing the status quo means finding and completing a practicum (internship), and then finding an accounting job and moving to NYC. It all sounds very simple. Finding a firm to do my practicum wasn’t easy at all. In order to get my diploma in May, I need 150 ours of practical experience in an accounting firm. It took me endless hours of research, three interviews, and a lot of emailing to finally land a part time job with a CPA office in Hyannis. It was very discouraging. I picked about 30 CPA firms in the Hyannis area and I emailed as many as I could, with a detailed explanation of what I was looking for and my resume attached. The ones I couldn’t find an email for I called. Everybody I called rudely turned me down. Interestingly, working for the bank we have to do some cold calling and I’ve notice that people answering the phones at small businesses on Cape Cod are very rude. I always thought that it was because of the nature of us calling, sadly that’s not the case – people are just rude and nasty. The people from DePaola, Begg and Associates, namely, John A Begg Jr. didn’t even bother to respond to my emails. The same was the case with Mark Gianno from Gianno & Freda Financial Center. It speaks very badly about CPA offices on Cape Cod when there is an outreach for help from academia and the firms are utterly unconcerned. Thanks to Gerard P Williams, CPA for understanding and helping me. Well, it is mutually beneficial relationship – I’ll be working my tail off.

Today was my first day at Gerry’s office and I got a lot done. I have my foot in the door for my practicum, thus I’m I foot ahead towards moving the status quo to NYC.

On a completely different note, I’ve posted the first pictures in album 2007. I went to Jen’s house for the first time. After that we went to see Stephanie who was doing a gig at a bar in Dennis. We had a blast.

Early Start

Once you step over the threshold of fatness (30 yrs of age) the 4th of July Madness needs to start in February, otherwise you will never be thin for the bathing suit season. I’m currently 190lbs. My muffin-tops are overflowing. I was talking to a couple of friends and we were laughing that you are really in trouble when at the end of the work day your pants, so tight on you, leave painful marks of your undies’ elastic and creased shirt.

Am I doing something about it? Yes. I lift waits 3 times a week (one of them with a trainer) I go to spin class 1-2 times a week (an hour each time) and I do cardio too. I eat oatmeal in the morning; take vitamins, glutamine, protein shakes, flakseed oil, lots of salads and fresh fruit, I eat raw nuts with yogurt for lunch too. I’ve cut down on my dinner portions.

Happy Birthday Irenski!

Today is Irena Milova’s Birthday. Irena, I wish you good health and the rest you know how to achieve yourself.

P.S.: I had my camera both times we saw each other but for whatever reason I didn’t take any pictures, so I had to use this one.

Bulgarian Laughter Fest

I’ve found out that writing a month after the events is difficult and unexciting. But in the same time how could I not write anything about my trip to Bulgaria? I got very luck with the flight, despite the prior Alitalia entry, if I had flown BA I would have been stuck in London for a day or two and that would have ruined my holiday!

Twenty fife days. One would thing it must have felt like a lifetime. No, it went by unfairly fast. You know how when you go on vacation and you have a mega busy and eventful schedule, one day may feel as long as three. When you cram in a lot of activities in one day you start to question whether a certain activity was done yesterday or this morning. Well I didn’t have this feeling this time. I had secretly sworn to myself to REST. After three years of running around 7 days a week, the last thing I wanted to do on my long vacation was to “do things,” or to follow a strict disciplined plan. Even my work outs were lethargic; I’d go with Zakki 2-3 times a week at the luxurious Majorca fitness club and lift at a 60% effort.

If I have to describe a day of my life, it would be something like this:
11am or noon – waking up. My mom would make breakfast everyday; she cooked all my favorite stuff from childhood. We’d have breakfast, drink coffee and talk. I’d then watch TV and generally bum-around. If it was a fitness day (Monday, Wednesday, or Friday), I’d make plans to leave on time and to take the shuttle to the gym around 4 or 5pm but I’d succeed, each time, to be late and would take a taxi. We’d be slow-moving at the gym; I usually never spend more than an hour at the gym but with Zakki we were never there for less than two hours. After the gym we would usually congregate the gang and would do dinner and a movie.

Unfortunately my brother and Kettie had to work but we were able to get together for the evening events. I was looking forward to going to some fancy clubs in Sofia but for good or bad we primarily visited one and the same bar called Exit. Didi had told me that people smoke a lot in BG and that it was almost unbearable to sit in a bar, about which I thought “Oh, DD! When did you become American and when did you forget!” Well, let me tell ya, I had to go out of the bar to breath at leas 5 times a night – IT WAS INSANE. Consequently, I named the bar “the Gas Chamber.”

If I didn’t to the gym I usually met with Mary for coffee, or a light bite. I didn’t see as many people as I meant to; I only met with Irena and Any. But even those meetings felt unnaturally short and pressed. I’m indeed very upset that I didn’t put in more effort to spend more time with them.

This was the gray depiction of my visit. The fun one could be seen and to an extent experienced through the pictures in the photo gallery. It took 8 separate categories to fit the pictures. A day before I left I told my coworkers that I can’t wait to get to Bulgaria and that it’s going to be Laughter Fest. Laughter Fest it was. We laughed so much everywhere we went and all the time. Here the title pictures of the album:

Happy Birthday Mary!

Today is Marieta Geneva’s Birthday.