Good Googilly Moogilly:

I haven't said anything yet about what I do for a living and where I do it. I'ma start with the *what* part tonight:

For a 'living', I am a bookkeeper. There are many layers of expertise in the bookkeeping field:

Some people think they can be a 'bookkeeper' because they've written a check in their lifetime.

Some people think they're a bookkeeper because they take the deposit to the bank.

Not so much.

The bulk of my work experience has been at accounting firms. I started out in 19*cough*87 as a wet-behind-the-ears, fresh-outta-high-school secretary for a small firm in Hollywood, CA. No college for me. No one told me how to GO to college and my life experiences were so limited back then I didn't know how (or that I could know how) to do it on my own.

My time at that first real job was invaluable. I learned 'tax season'. I learned how to enter 'write up' to create financial statements. I learned the term GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principals). I learned the difference between Compilation and Review. I learned about estimates and refunds and itemized deductions (kinda, but it was a start). I filed my FINGERS off, photocopied my ASS off, and made enough coffee for clients to float a small yacht. It was at that office that I saw a real person with a real tattoo of numbers on their arm. Eye-fucking-opening.

That job was great in so many ways. Eventually, it was also time to move on though. There was no 'moving up' - I was waay too green to become the firm's in-house bookkeeper (so green I didn't even know what that job was) but bored with the work I was doing.

Went to another accounting firm. One of my clients was Gallagher. No lie. I never met him myself, but my boss told me Gallagher had (at the time - dunno now) a huge couch in his front yard. Think The Incredible Shrinking Woman scenery. I had a client that was the cinematographer for an Olivia Newton John movie (and NO! Not Xanadu! I'm not that frigg'n old! It was a holiday-themed movie.) I had another client that was just the son of a relatively rich family in the San Fernando Valley. He *dabbled* in business. :eyeroll: I would get all these people's bills in the mail and pay them out of their respective checking accounts. Must be nice.

Eventually I moved to the private sector and did bookkeeping for all kinds of businesses.

One was a company that made miniature remote-controlled cars, motorcycles, planes & helicopters for the movie industry. The office was at the Van Nuys airport and that's where I learned the whole Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot alphabet. It still comes in handy for crossword puzzles, lol!

One was a company in the guts of Los Angeles that made some kind of generator-like thing that I STILL don't even know exactly. I was so so very green still! I paid the bills, and made the deposits, but I really didn't understand the bigger 'accounting' picture. I'm sure I wasn't hired because I was all of about 23 and young and blonde and did I mention green as hell? That's where I was working when the Rodney King riots happened. Fucking scary as fuck - lemme tell you. I left work that day . . . lah dee dah . . . not having a clue what was starting in downtown L.A. at the same time. My lily-white clueless ass even stopped for gas in Chinatown on the way home.

*errrr* I need to backtrack for a sec.

Long before all the riot stuff, I was at my mom's house one day, doing some bookkeeping work and watching this teensy tiny black & white TV during the afternoon when there was breaking news coverage showing some gawd-awful beatdown by cops. It was just sickening. I remember being disgusted. It's one of those "where were you when you heard . . . " memories. Maybe it's an L.A. thing, I dunno, but I'll never forget seeing that footage for the first time.

*back to the topic*

I got home that night, still completely oblivious to what was going on on L.A. I didn't know a verdict was coming down that day. I watched all the news coverage in horror. Looting. Vigilante shop owners. Reginald Denny being yanked from his semi and beaten in the street. It was complete mayhem and so very scary.

Needless to say, I called in sick the next day. And the days after. The owner of the company was very understanding to all of his employees.

As if the riots weren't enough, L.A. then had a good-sized earthquake soon after that (not
Northridge big, but trust me - too big for this chick).

I got the hell outta L.A. right after, and went back home to the Coast.

Got a job with another generator company doing bookkeeping. We provided the generators for alot of movie shoots (among other things), and were on location in North Carolina for The Crow. Yep. The movie that Brandon Lee died while filming. Another "never forget" moment.

Good googilly moogilly - I'm thinking maybe I had a big streak of bad bookkeeping mojo there for awhile! Sorry to my previous employers!

All told, I've worked for those companies mentioned, had my own bookkeeping business for a short time, worked for the largest CPA firm in Nevada (the Big *One* as I like to call them), another CPA firm in California*, a veterinarian office*, "the glassiest place in town" and even Target and Montgomery Wards! Is Montgomery Wards even still in business any more? Probably not, given my bad bookkeeping mojo, lol.

20 years of bookkeeping - summarized in one bloggity-blog.

Luckily I had a fall-back plan, since my big dream of being the next Jessica Savitch didn't work out so well (and obviously didn't work out so well for Jessica Savitch either).

*(eventually I'll tell more detail about those two places. Maybe after I finally explain how The Mike came to be The Husband)