All I can think about recently is taxes, and I'm starting to memorize form numbers and I'm becoming a little bit of that kind of guy; it's all a good thing I think.
School has been going great. It really helps quite a bit that all the classes I am taking have a lot to do with the stuff I'm doing at work. There is a lot of overlap which helps me learn things quickly and completely. I'm always impressed when people are able to discuss something without having to pause to think about what they want to say, and I'm getting to that point with accounting and taxes (:
I bought another new bike! "Charlie, what in the world, do you spend all your money on bikes?" Well no. I do buy a lot of bikes but I live at my parents house, I'm super passionate about cycling, and I suppose it is a lot better than spending all my money on drugs (; For all concerned, I bought a Specialized Epic, full suspension, carbon, hot pink (: Others have asked, "Charlie, isn't buying a pink-bike kind of 'far out there?'" To this I respond, when I show up at races and we are about to start and I'm looking around at who I am racing against, anything that catches my eye immediately throws warning signs in my brain. Two years ago at BTR this cat was on a steel single-speed and I thought to myself, 'wow, if that guy can race with that bike, he must be ultra strong.' I was on his wheel the entire race; he got second, I got third. My point is, having a bike that stands out is going to make others think I'm dangerously fast (which I hope to be anyway). So I have my reasons for the pink (: I've been really going hard at the indoor training, I really think I'll come out strong in early season races, which will translate to a good rest of the season as well.
Further, I can't stop drinking Starbucks. We are beginning to have a problem at the office. Grande Iced Americano, double, two pumps of mocha sauce, heavy cream, please and thank you (:
I bought a new car in the last month or so. It is a '17 Chevy Cruze HATCHBACK and I love her very much. The Focus always seemed to be super cheap. It didn't have a lot of horsepower, it was bright red, I had a big bike rack on the roof; it wasn't super professional, at least in my line of work. This last weekend I put a hitch on the Cruze (with help of course, I don't know much about vehicles) and my great friends at Pedal sold me a Thule hitch rack, which is super cool! It almost seems I'm living my best life and it is fabulous! For those keeping score, I got $5k for the Focus, so I got a super killer deal on the new Cruze!
As we all know, I'll be racing with Team Clark Logic this Spring and I am still so so excited about it! While riding on the trainer, I often day dream about how I'm going to help the team in races. It is going to be fabulous and I can't wait to get started. Speaking of which, I've begun to put together a rough race schedule for the next couple months:
3/16 Waterloo G&G, Grass Lake, MI (Gravel)
3/23 Melting Mann, Vandalia, MI (Gravel)
3/30 Dirty 30 Gravel Grinder, Saranac, MI (Gravel)
3/31 Autobahn Spring Criterium, Joliet, IL
4/6 Lowell Classic, Lowell, MI (Gravel)
4/7 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
4/13 Barry Roubaix, Hastings, MI (Gravel)
4/14 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
4/20 Marian Cycling Classic, Indianapolis, IN
4/27 Yankee Springs TT, Gun Lake, MI (Mountain !!)
4/28 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
5/5 Fort Custer Stampede, Battle Creek, MI (Mountain)
5/11 Hammond Region Riot, Hammond, IN
5/19 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series, Ann Arbor, MI
5/25 Twilight on the Square, Akron, OH
5/26 Newark Center Classic, Englewood, OH
6/1 Deaconess River City Bicycle Classic, Evansville, IN
6/9 Dirty Donut, Martin, MI (Gravel)
6/16 Vuelta a Porta Sheldon, Grand Haven, MI (?)
6/22 Athens Brick Criterium, Athens, OH
6/29 Port City Crit, Muskegon, MI
6/30 Great Lakes Classic Road Race, Marne, MI
7/13 Detroit Cycling Championship, Detroit, MI
7/14 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
7/28 The Divide (Gravel) / Muncie Grand Prix, Muncie, IN
9/8 Uncle John's Dirty Ride, St. John's, MI (Gravel)
11/2 Iceman, Traverse City, MI
*Subject to change
Please note: this is rough, I'm missing quite a few races in here. On my calendar is the Dirty Donut (look it up) and the racing weekend over in Detroit. I mainly do this so I have something to look at for the year and add to or take races away, but interesting stuff, right? (;
Last thing, I made a new checking account named 'Bike Races' and put $429.78 in it. I want to see if my bike racing can support itself. Of course, this is rough too, as I am only tracking registration costs from this account. When in fact, there are many more costs associated with bike racing (maintenance, gas, other things) but this is a start and it would be super cool if I could win some money this season and pay for registration costs. I'll keep everyone posted!
That's all I've got. I have my first exam tomorrow in my Intermediate Accounting II class, I feel kinda prepared, but you all know what they say about exams, right? I'm also going to talk to my advisor at Davenport so we can nail down this graduation date. My thinking: finish this semester, two more semesters and I'll have a Bachelors in Accounting from Davenport, start in on the CPA exams; Charlie Eaton, CPA in around 2 years (:
Cheers! CE
