Only Buy the Best

I recently discovered that despite my marketing studies in college and a number of books I have read about advertising on the side, I remain a helpless victim to misleading advertising. For the past six months I have been paying a premium for the Tyson brand of frozen chicken breasts, usually two or three dollars more than the generic brand. Why? Because Tyson chicken is hormone-free. A bag of chicken lasts me long enough to seem worth the extra money to avoid all of those terrible hormones that may or may not lead to cancer. I felt good about this purchasing decision, and once I started buying Tyson I never went back to the generic brand.

Yesterday I made a chicken caesar salad for lunch, and while I was removing a few tenderloins from the bag I realized that there was a tiny asterisk next to the large “No Hormones Administered” text. Following the star to the bottom of the page, I identified a previously obscured sentence reading: “Federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in chicken.” Are you kidding me? A few minutes of research confirmed that Tyson is by no means unique in offering hormone-free chicken–all commercial growers are held to these standards. All this time I have been paying a completely unnecessary premium to ensure the chicken I consume is free of hormones, when any generic bag of chicken would provide me with the same thing. It’s amazing how willing people are to purchase peace of mind, even if it’s a false peace of mind. I think I’ll use the money I save on my future chicken purchases to buy organic milk. But first I’ll make sure that milk isn’t organic by law.

After two and a half weeks, here is an update on my goals:

• CPA Study — I’m just about finished with the taxation section of REG (worth nearly two-thirds of the total point value) and ready to study ethics and business law.
• Spanish — I’m now able to make awkward and unnecessary observations about my environment: “The boy has a black cat. The man is not wearing shoes.”
• Volunteering — 9/75 hours complete.
• House shopping — I contacted my realtor a few days ago and requested an updated email listing of potential purchases. I plan on making a visit to Des Moines sometime in June to start shopping again.
• Vacation — I booked a few nights at a bed & breakfast in St. Louis!
• Cooking — I have made no less than five new recipes since my last post: lemon garlic shrimp, penne with chicken and pesto, oatmeal peanut butter cookies, chicken broccoli divan, and cajun chicken caesar salad.
• Reading — I finished The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, an excellent nineteenth century novelist and poet. I am currently up to chapter three in Mark.

Week One

I have made quite a bit of progress on my goals this past week, especially considering the traumatic idleness caused by having my wisdom teeth removed. Today is day twelve of coping with huge holes in my mouth, and I’m still in pain and reluctant to eat solid foods (especially meat, which I am irrationally afraid will become lodged in my empty sockets and cause an infection leading to my inevitable death). Despite these hindrances, I have made excellent progress in cooking, reading, organizing, volunteering, and studying for the CPA exam.

• Cooking — I have prepared three new recipes: lemon raspberry muffins, egg drop soup, and deviled eggs. I admit the last two were pretty simple, but recipes are recipes.
• Reading — I am at least 25% through three different books and twelve chapters into Matthew.
• Organizing — I attacked our bedroom over the weekend, mercilessly ridding myself of all my unneeded possessions. Between myself and Kevin, we have two boxes of clothes to be taken into a consignment shop and six garbage bags ready for Goodwill! I also spent a morning last week sorting through hair products, makeup, cleaning supplies, and other items in our bathroom vanity, after which I was able to throw away a whole bag of unused and unusable objects. The greatest joy comes from neither giving nor receiving, but throwing things away.
• Volunteering — I have put in 5.5 of the 75 hours I hope to accomplish this summer. Two of the hours come from preparing for and teaching the Kaio Kids lesson for my church, and the remaining time was spent performing bookkeeping for Aspire.
• Studying for the CPA exam — For those of you who don’t know, passing the CPA exam is an important accomplishment in an accountant’s career. The examination comprises four sections totaling 14.5 hours and covering everything I learned in college plus quite a bit more. My plan is to study for each section individually, taking them about a month apart. The first section I am studying for is Regulation (REG), which covers taxation and business law. REG is the second shortest section at only three hours and I am already strong in tax, so I thought it would be a good start. Between today and yesterday I have spent eight hours studying–a good chunk of time, but I still have so far to go before I will be ready for this section!

Summer Goals

Today I find myself in the unusual and desirable position of being placed at the beginning of a six month gap between graduation from college and the start of my new job in November. In an attempt to make the most of this down time (and to keep myself from going crazy!) I have made a list of things I would like to accomplish this summer/fall. I originally set my goals much too high and after estimating that they would take me about 60 hours per week to finish by November, I decided to pare down the list a bit. The last thing I need is to continue the burn-out I have experienced this past semester!

So, with no further ado, here are my summer goals:

1. Study for and pass all four sections of the CPA exam
2. Get a part-time job
3. Complete Spanish 1 and start on Spanish 2
4. Volunteer 75 hours
5. Buy a house
6. Take a vacation
7. Go camping
8. Create a list of contact numbers in case my purse ever gets stolen
9. Create a list of contacts to be notified of a change of address when we move
10. Sort through and organize receipts, bills, lecture notes, etc.
11. Make one new recipe each week
12. Make five crock-pot meals
13. Have five people over for dinner
14. Read twenty books (at least ten non-fiction)
15. Read the New Testament
16. Be less wasteful

In the future I will take more time to explain why I have chosen the goals I have as I track my progress. I have had a hard time sticking with my blog in the past, so hopefully tracking these goals will lend me the focus I have been lacking and keep me writing more consistently.