Annual UNC-Greensboro Banquet for Accounting Graduates

Last night we went to a nice banquet to honour all the graduates in Accounting from UNCG. I don't graduate till December, but I was still aloud to go. And since they made it free (all I had to do was pass out name tags to people) I couldn't refuse. This has been a tradition for about 5-6 years now. We were lucky enough to have a professor come to UNCG and organize all of this. He decided that he was tired of serving as president of Borders, Books and Music, and went on retired as faculty. He didn't fund it, he just got the Accounting firms to do it. He taught one of my classes back in 2004 and he was great. Unfortunately, 2 days after finals, he passed away at a very young age. But Rick Flanagan set things up so well, that the Accounting Department was able to survive and keep moving forward.

So before I go into how last night went, I will try to re-call last years:

Amanda and I had gotten some friends to babysit. They had a cellphone and gave it to us in case of an emergency. We still do not have cellphones. I won't get a cellphone my superior hands me one. At which point I will turn it off, leave it in my desk drawer and never answer it. Actually, we might get one this summer... maybe. We we were attending since I was graduating with my BS in Accounting.

So we arrived at 6pm for cocktails. Why did we do that? Dinner didn't start till 7. So now we had to endure the awkwardness of talking to strangers. The good news was, these strangers were loaded and had many positions opening in for next winter. So we had going for us, which is nice. So after we got our complimentary drink, we walked around the back of the crowd and ran into an accounting manager from one of the small public firms. I was afraid that the conversation would end in 3-5 minutes with, "Here is my card." This is code for, "Leave me alone, I need to find someone else more interesting to talk to. And that card I just gave you, don't even think about calling me."

So half an hour later we were still talking and I forgot that the doors would soon open and we would all go into the banquet hall to have dinner. My diet Coke was all gone. It was crap. I should have gotten the Shirley temple. But I didn't want to have any fruit in my drink. Because guys shouldn't have fruit or umbrellas in their drinks. Does Bond have fruit in his drink? No, olives are not fruit. I need to come up with a non-alcoholic drink with olives in it.

So as the doors open, we all move into the hall. Jared all of a sudden hands me his card and says, "wait, let me give you this." Ok, so it wasn't that bad. He actually wanted me to have it.

Amanda and I sat with an even smaller firm. The two reps from the firm were the two lead partners and their wives. Dave and his wife kept asking Amanda for advice one how grandparents should go about kidnapping their granddaughter (theoretically) and talking her to Disney World. It was fun, we had a great time. I even forgot that I had to go in and work that night at UPS (Under Paid Supervisors).

The guest speaker was Eddie Sams (president of Dixon Hughes, PLLC). I wasn't listening, but then all of a sudden he mentioned staff exchanges to London and Capetown. I was like, I'll go to England. I later found out that as long as you speak the language, you can go anywhere.

So this year it was very different. I was passing out name tags from 6-6:30. It was fun because I remembered a lot of the people from different functions over the past 12 months. So I didn't have to ask them their names, I just grabbed their tag and gave them their ticket for a free drink. Amanda had the chance to meet up some of the students and faculty form the MS-Accounting program.

It was great, because I didn't care. I mean, I had just interned with one firm, and things are set up for a new internship this summer with Dixon Hughes. My first assignment is in May where I will got a week of training at a golf resort in Pinehurst (this is my chance to learn how to golf). Most big firms send you to a nice place for a week of training.

Arthur Andersen did the same thing a little different way. For two weeks they sent their new hires to an old college near Chicago. The book, Ambition, Greed and the Fall of AA by Barbara Ley Toffler, explains what the place was like. It sounded more like a prison. The book was funny, Tollfer, who wrote it, forgot to write the book in 3rd person. After reading it, I thought, "Well you participated in everything too, so what makes you so high and mighty?" I think the same thing about Sherron Watkins (Enron Whistle-Blower). But hey, if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be in this profession. I should send them flowers.

So back to the banquet. There was no pressure this time. But again, I forgot to get me a Shirley temple. Oh well, I could go next year.

As for the food, the dessert was pretty funny. It was ice cream. Amanda and I looked at each other. Ice Cream? Are you kidding me? Amanda said it best later when she said, "Am I five-years-old?" So that settled it, next stop Cheesecakes By Alex.

This place is great. I had PB cup, Amanda had Turtle. I wanted to order what looked like blueberry, but Amanda informed me that it would impair my driving.

Anyway, we didn't remember to bring the camera. But then again, it would have been too awkward.