Auditor’s Eats – 2.2010 – Welcome Back, Audit Ass

As I predicted in my kickoff to Auditor’s Eats, the next edition was right around the corner. A little over a month after the first posting, here I am again, posting about what I eat at work.

We’re attempting to fulfill our binder quota for the year.

This client wasn’t as bad as the last one - we worked long hours, but nothing beyond the norm (although, to be fair, the norm during busy season is equivalent to a 14 hour work day). There was one main difference between this client and the last one though: At this client, we ordered twice the number of meals.

When you’re ordering take-out for lunch and dinner, there’s only so many places you can order from before you’ve done it all. This current team of coworkers was (thankfully) an adventurous group so we didn’t hit our take-out plateau until the very end. We added a couple new places to our delivery list (Q-cina in North Hollywood, for example, was considered our top newcomer of the FY09 audit) and expanded our horizon in terms of cuisine. However, at the end of the day, we ended up eating the same old stuff (e.g. sandwiches, burgers, salads, etc.), which is the #1 cause of Audit Ass.

When I first started in this profession, I was warned of an epidemic called “Audit Ass”. How do you get said Audit Ass? It goes something like this:

Your job consists of sitting in front of the computer for 14+ hours a day, reading numbers in small font on an overly-bright computer monitor and then plugging those numbers into pages and pages of memos. When you’re busy, you don’t want to eat healthy. You’re mentally and physically tired, pushing yourself to the extreme…All you really want is a burger and a side of fries. Maybe even two.

Greasy, fried food + no daily movement = Audit Ass.

As you can tell by the pictures below, I haven’t been making the best food choices this month. Thus, I welcome back my Audit Ass! (…I hope you don’t stay for very long.)

 

Club 33 – 1.27.10 – The Happiest Meal On Earth

Hidden in a small alley, past the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean and the Blue Bayou, is a secret little door. It’s easy to miss if you don’t know what you’re looking for; its only visible signage is a small placard on the right with the numbers “33″. Find the hidden panel to buzz yourself in and the door will soon swing open from the inside and lead you to…

…Club 33.

(What wonders await behind this door?)

Club 33 is a private club, hidden in the heart of New Orleans Square in Disneyland. Although finding the club is hard, getting into the club is an even more difficult feat – With a wait-list estimated at 14 years and annual membership fees starting at $10K/year, most may never have an opportunity to enter Club 33 unless invited as a guest of a pre-existing member.

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This is one of the reasons why I love working for Corporate America.

I’ve had the privilege of dining at Club 33 not once, but twice – my first time being two years ago, when we were treated to a three course dinner for an audit well done and the second time more recently, when I enjoyed a lunch buffet on a lazy Wednesday. Club 33 days are always days of celebration for us. Since a meal in the club also includes a complimentary park-hopper pass for the day, Club 33 means no work and all play, with my coworkers and I running all over Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure Park like we were 10 again.

Not only does a trip to Club 33 mean nostalgic bliss (…strolling down Main Street…screaming on Space Mountain…spinning in a teacup…), it also means good food. Forget your typical theme park meals of burgers and fries; Club 33 is fine dining, Walt Disney style.

Lunch began with a trip to the cold buffet line, where we loaded up on sliced meats, grilled veggies and cheese and fruit platters. We dug shrimp cocktail, crab claws and lobster tails out of the ice and sipped on lentil and bacon soup. Some of us even ordered a fruity drink or two. (You know, the ones with pineapples and strawberries and god knows what else fanning the rim of the glass? Yeah, those kind of fruity drinks.)

And that was just the beginning.

After the buffet came our entrees. As explained to us by our server, some of the items on the menu have been favorites since the club opened in 1967. We were recommended the pan seared chateaubriand and the Colorado lamb chops; too lazy to choose, my manager and I ordered one each and shared a bite with the other. The lamb was just a touch overcooked, but I loved the apple coffee polenta underneath. The chateaubriand, on the other hand, was juicy and tender through and through.

We started the meal with a buffet, we ended the meal with a the buffet…a dessert buffet that is. With over a dozen sugary goods, my eyes grew bigger than my stomach and I loaded my little dessert plate full of sweets. The meyer lemon cream puff was my favorite, beating out the strawberry panna cotta, chocolate mousse, blackberry mousse and coconut macaroons.

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So if you’re ever wandering through Disneyland and stumble upon that little sign and that unassuming blue door, you know now what hides behind it. Maybe, one day, you’ll also get the opportunity to peek inside too. I mean, you know they say…

“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you.”

 

Club 33
33 Royal Street (in Disneyland)
Anaheim, CA 92802

Auditor’s Eats – 1.2010 – I DON’T DO TAX.

20 consecutive working days, 200 billable hours and many, many more unbillable hours later, I am officially DONE with the first sign-off of the 2010 busy season!

FREEEEDOOOOOMMM!!

For those unfamiliar with the wonderful world of public accounting, here’s a little background:

1. Busy season is the bane of an auditor’s existence. We work like hell for the months between January and March (mine typically runs into April, lucky me) and, when I say we work like hell, I mean work equals life. Come in at 9AM, leave at midnight – thus is our busy season life.
2. Please do not mention tax season around me, I don’t do tax. We are busy because public companies release their financial statements as of 12/31 (i.e. year-end) and we’re the ones making sure those numbers are correct. The day these financials are released is known as “sign-off” (i.e. the day the firm signs off saying everything’s okay).
3. Lastly, and most importantly, because we work 15 hours a day, the firm has to feed us. I mean, we’re working an extra 7 hours a day but we don’t get paid overtime? They better feed us. (Oh, thus is the salaried life.)

…Which brings us to Auditor’s Eats.

I thought it would be funny to take pictures of what I eat at work and see what crosses my desk during the course of a busy season. In better times, we would be ordering in for every meal – lunch, snacks, and dinner – but it’s a recession now and we only get dinners nowadays. Not that I’m complaining – dinner is the most anticipated moment of the day. It’s the time when we can put down our green pens and just relax for a good half-hour before diving headfirst back into our piles of paper.

So here goes the first ever Auditor’s Eats. There will be many more coming soon – trust me, busy season ain’t over yet.