Busy Week

I’ve survived my first big deadline at work.  This was actually the third big deadline to pass since I started work, but the first one that I had any returns to prepare. 

I had most of my work done between Monday and Tuesday.  I kept getting new returns at the last minute, but that was ok.  They weren’t too complicated and it was nice to have something to do and be useful.  One return on Tuesday only had front pages of source documents and completely skipped some documents we knew we needed.  I requested what we needed and we were told we would have it by Fed.Ex on Thursday morning.  Of course, it was almost lunch before we got it.  The pages I needed were now front and back, but some items were missing.  Luckily, they were items that I could find based upon last year and published government information.

Also, on Thursday, we had lunch brought in.  Apparently, there are several Jim-n-Nicks in Tennessee.  It made my day to have some barbecue chicken, macaroni and cheese, cheese biscuits and of course, chocolate pie!  It’s funny how a little bit of Alabama really made my day.  Of course, after everything I ate, I was just about sick and needed to walk about ten miles to work off all the calories.  It was worth it though! :)

Friday, we had college recruits in the office to interview for internships and full-time positions.  I was assigned, along with two other people, to take two recruits to lunch.  I needed to drive and, of course, I had planned to buy gas on the way home from work.  Instead,  I got to leave work during the day to go get gas and it didn’t require me to take time off! :)  We went to lunch—unfortunately we had a miscommunication and two groups made reservations at the same place and we didn’t get to go where I really wanted to.  Oh, well…

After lunch, a client brought his information in around 2 and it had to be out the door before we left and in time to be postmarked with 10/15.  The return was quite simple, but the phone call after the return was prepared wasn’t quite as simple.  Luckily, I was more of an observer while the manager did most of the taking with the client.  We ended up conferencing in the firm manager (the partner in charge of all the other partners)—he is the signer for this return.  I hadn’t participated in client phone calls except to request information before, so this was a learning experience for me.  I’m grateful for the experience, but I hope not all conversations are that complicated.

After work, I raced home to take Emma out and then went back out to meet some of the girls from the Tax department at Cheekwood.  We went to see the Chihuly exhibit.  It was really pretty—even though we went off-roading nearly the entire time.  We weren’t too concerned with ropes and signs that pointed us in the “correct” direction! :)  I think it would have been nice to get to the exhibit before sunset so you could see the sculptures both in the light and lit up after dark.

All in all, it was a busy week, but good.  I survived a deadline and I feel a little more prepared for what’s to come in the spring.

I’ve got cleaning to do this weekend and I have promised to pay more attention to Emma this weekend since she’s been alone much more than usual this week between horrible traffic this week and my Friday night plans.  I’ll really miss her, but this week confirmed that she needs to vacation in Florence during busy season.  She’s a snow bird, so she’s going south!