Our bill came to the table and I realized we hadn’t asked the waitress for separate checks.  “You’re an accountant, figure it out.”  “Ughh, you don’t understand.”  Every time.  It happens every time I go out or happen to be in a situation involving numbers.  If anyone knows that I’m an accountant and we have to figure out who owes whom what, I’m the first person to be voluntold (being volunteered for something).

When you start a file retained earnings is the first thing you check.  Does it match the prior year closing?  If not, then you need to figure out why.  You’ll take the prior year closing balances and compare them to the client’s current year openning balances.  Find the differences and book the entry.  Now you know the bookkeeper isn’t very sophisticated.  Did your partner mention this?  If they didn’t, do you know why?  Does that even matter?  Why are you even thinking about this?  Oh well.  Regardless, this takes about an hour to fix and that’s going to be reflected in the fee.

Audit files come in as clumps of clay.  If you have enough you can make your financial statements say whatever you want.  Need more?  All you have to do is add some – make an adjusting entry.  Need to shave a bit off one side and add it to the other?  Reclassify it.  Done.

Where do you start though?  What do you work on first?  You need a plan.  And an environment for that plan.  Maybe a context, a backdrop.  Whatever it is, you need an environment to act and react to what you’re sculpting.  Luckily, it’s already out there.  All you have to do is reveal it.  However you do it isn’t really important.  I like making small talk with management.  Ask them how the year was to get a broad understanding of what happened.  You can never go wrong by empathizing with someone’s stress and letting them vent.  You’ll learn a lot.  Usually the most important things too.

Learn about relationships.  What are they based on and how healthy are they.  If they’re good learn why they’re good – the same goes for the opposite.  Appreciate how this impacts an office environment and how things get done.  Feel it out as best you can.  You’ll know you’re done when you can look at the draft financial statements and feel them.  You’ll see the bank overdraft and remember the argument management had with the bank for increasing the interest rate to 2 points above prime.  You’ll notice a weird employee receivable and remember the advance so-and-so needed to make a car payment.  And how he probably should have gotten a membership to zip car.

My desk is in earshot of my manager’s office.  “You had thirty grand in wip.  You can’t quote a client something and change it after the fact.  It doesn’t matter, you did a good job so it’s ok.”  That was a file I worked on.  I was a little worried since I did the field work, which makes up the largest portion of the bill.  Did I go over budget?  Well we did a “good job” so I guess I have nothing to worry about?  Plus, the CEO really liked us, he wouldn’t complain about anything.  Now I know that [partner] tracks the wip closely.  But who doesn’t?  He was strong in his tone too.  That seemed specific to him.  He always kinda talks like that, even when he’s being nice.  Like the time he offered me a ride home from work.

Sometimes when I get a file I sit and look at it for a while.  I don’t really do anything.  I look at it until I can picture the entire thing in my mind.  This has taken upwards of an hour.  Where all I’m doing is sitting and thinking.  Usually looking at things over and over.  Seeing how they fit together.  The client has manual books.  The receipts journal, purchases journal and payroll register get sumarized in the GL.  The GL is classified by account number, not by financial statement line item.  That’s why it seemed so confusing at first.

Do you see any numbers?  I see insight, sculpting, story telling, context, relationships, courtiers and grand strategy.  And how they play out against one another.  Numbers are to accounting like words are to a story.  Even though the former sums to the latter they don’t define it.

***

Would anyone be interested in an accounting meet-up?  To talk about career strategies, what other people do at work and drink beers?  It’s always a good idea to see what other people are up to.  Email me: lastyearsfile@gmail.com.

I also started doing crossfit and muay thai kickboxing.  Both are awesome.  I recommend you do them both immediately.

“I think it makes more sense to have a narrative.  When you have templates or checklists, there’s no consistency to the file.  You’ll do the top of file work, then the procedures.  And then there will be this huge disconnect between the two.  One won’t lead into the other.”

A few weeks ago CPAB came to my old firm to do some file inspections.  Luckily, one of mine got pulled.  I found out a week after the fact as I was talking with one of my old coworkers over gmail chat.  I was a little nervous.  I hadn’t used a single PEM checklist.  The deadline was too soon and the checklists were so thorough that I wouldn’t have been able to fill in every one and complete my file on time.  I decided to do something bold.  I wrote down all the documentation requirements for the relevant handbook sections I needed and made up my own audit templates.  The templates were based on a narrative approach – I wanted my audit to be a story.

My understanding of the business acted as the context of my story and served to introduce its main characters.  My risk approach identified the conflicts.  And my procedures addressed them.  It felt a lot like this (so awesome) choose your own adventure I read when I was 10.  Since it was a narrative the audit file had flow.  It was even a good read.  You could see the tension between the CEO and CFO over certain financing issues.  There was a sense of excitement when new issues came up that weren’t anticipated in the introduction to my file.  The unforeseen resolution of which, only adding further suspense.  And cast in the light of all this was a looming deadline, a double-partner review and an audit committee meeting where I’d be expected to play the, “where is this number from” game.

My file made sense and it was lean.  I came in way under budget and I knew the company inside and out.  However, this is exactly what raises red flags on a CPAB inspection.  And that’s why I was so nervous when I learned it was under review.  This was a real test.  Fortunately, they liked it.  They more than liked it.  I guess when CPAB is constantly telling auditors to  document everything, a file based on a narrative approach manages to exceed their expectations.

Naturally I got pretty pumped and went to the gym after work to bang out a set of max dead lifts (new pr of 335 booyah!).  But it reaffirmed something I often think about.  Checklists don’t work.  Especially when you copy the ones from the prior year.  I honestly don’t care if it saves time.  That’s not the point of an audit.  These are poor business decisions that step on the toes of quality work.  Understanding drives risk assessment and risk assessment drives procedures.  How you can say you’re performing a risk based audit when you’re copying the procedures from the prior year?  That doesn’t make sense.  It also creates the ill opportunity to do the audit procedures first and the planning second.  Where the latter is done in such a way to legitimize the work that’s been done; akin to having perfect hindsight.

I was talking with my old coworker about this – checklists versus narratives – after I got the news that CPAB liked my file.  He was right, when you use checklists – especially the same ones from the prior year -  there will be a huge disconnect in your file.  Your audit opinion will likely be justified since you’ve performed enough work.  But, it highlights a redundancy in the planning section.  It shows that you know the business but didn’t feel like spending the time to design specific audit procedures for that business.  It’s lazy work.

I always put in as many narratives as possible.

I always thought consulting was something I’d like to try.  I just wasn’t sure how close my idea of consulting was to reality.  With that in mind, I met with a manager at Deloitte last week, to learn as much as I could about the nature of the work.

The manager I met with was very smart, possessing twenty five plus years of experience.  Thankfully, he was gracious enough to meet with me for an hour after work.  I went into the meeting a little bit unprepared, since I forgot to bring all the notes I wrote the night before.   We were about 15min in when I realized our talk was sounding a lot like a recruiting pitch – the same type of schtick you hear from most big 4 firms in September.   I began to worry.  I wanted to get something tangible out of our talk, an insider’s perspective on what it’s actually like to work in consulting.  Not a prescripted pep-rally.  Then we slowly slipped from a question-answer period to a more fluid conversation.  This still wasn’t helping so I asked for some real-life examples.  Maybe something would fall out of that.

He barraged me with anecdotes.  Each one was an example of getting things done versus hard work.  The last story involved a team of 20 people working three, eight hour shifts for 2 weeks straight to finish a project.  That is literally 2 weeks of around the clock work.  The significance of the story wasn’t the length or intensity of the job.  It was the drive to finish.  The manager repeatedly emphasized this.  Consulting is results driven, which is a lot different than most jobs.  At his office, hard work isn’t valued unless it produces a finished product.

That’s pretty rough.  Some people are cut out for this type of thing.  The person I spoke to definitely was.  I could see the rising tension in his hands as he reminisced about the war stories he was sharing.  He was getting fired up all over again just thinking about this stuff.

If I switch into consulting – which I have no idea if I ever will – I’ll be starting at the bottom.  I don’t even know if I want that.  Anyway, it’s still a long ways away before I have to make any decision.  Still, the meeting was rewarding.  I managed to close the gap between what I thought consulting was versus what it actually is.

I have a strong desire to do as much as possible in any given amount of time.  Not only to do as much as possible.  I want to do everything.  If someone asks me if I’m available to work on a file, I won’t turn them down.  Even if I’m already over-worked.  It’s a symptom of wanting to know a lot very quickly.  I also get worried that I may be passing up an opportunity.  Maybe this file will teach me something extremely valuable.  I get nervous when I say no.

This can get you into trouble.  Things will start to build up.  Files will begin to overlap and you won’t be able to separate them in your head.  An issue in one file, will become an issue in another, mixed with an actual issue in the file, to form an even more complicated issue, which has now become a blend of fact and fiction.

And then people will ask you for updates.  How are the files going?  You won’t be able to answer them.  At least not accurately.  You’ll be able to say how far along the files are.  The vaguer your responses the better.  Just give a sense of confidence and an, “I know what I’m doing” smile.  It’s the best you can do.

Someone sent me an email this past week.  They wanted to know if they were crazy for thinking about leaving their current firm.  The firm was never busy and the pay was good.  It’s hard throwing that away.  But this person wasn’t learning anymore. They felt stuck.  Actually leaving isn’t hard.  What’s hard is dealing with the idea of it being “difficult.”  The perception of the situation and it’s crippling effects on moving forward.

Sometimes things get tricky.  You’ll be put in situations – or in my case you’ll put yourself there – that will seem tough.  Is over-working yourself because you’re afraid of not learning a good idea?  I’m not really sure.  Do I make myself nuts sometimes at the prospect of constant learning?  Probably.  Is it hard throwing away an easy job because you’re mentally unsatisfied?  I bet it is.

But that’s what I want.  I like when it’s all over and I look back on what I did.  Now I understand how a reverse takeover through a capital pool company can take a private company public.  I know what it’s like to work for 4 out of the 8 partners at my firm.  I’m only stressed because I’m being pushed.  And it forces me to be resourceful.

I don’t know if this strategy is scalable in the long-run.  And mixing issues is certainly something I try to avoid.  There are many ways to “move forward.”  This is my way until I find something better – never saying no.  Never saying no or leaving your firm because it’s not challenging enough; these are hard positions to be in.  It’s just nice knowing that difficulty isn’t the issue.  It is difficult.  Resourcefulness is the problem.

I recently moved, in an attempt to be closer to work.  I am closer, however I’m still a 40min commute via public transit.  It’s a small sacrifice for living in the annex.  I think I made the right choice.

There are some great things going on over at myCAsite.  If you’re a university student, recent grad or even a seasoned chartered accountant you need to go there.

I haven’t posted what I’ve been reading in a while.  Here’s what we got…

The Economy of Cities – Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs is brilliant.  The area I currently live in was influenced by Jacobs’ other book “The Life and Death of Great American Cities.”  “The Economy of Cities” is just as good and logically clearheaded; which is often lacking in most economics books.  Go read it.  It’s nice to have a copy of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” nearby because she smack talks it a bit.  Take that invisible hand!

Great Expectations – Charles Dickens

Great book, but the main character is a bitch.  Life is hard bud?  Go get kicked in the ribs by a muai thai master (that happened last weekend) and follow that up with a crossfit workout (burst all the blood vessels around my eyes after doing 83 hand-stand pushups).  That’s what I thought.  PIP AINT GOT NOTHING ON ME!.

Treasure Island -Robert Louis Stevenson

Easy read, somewhat entertaining.  This would be great for kids under 10.

I Not Dead – Bigfoot

Lots of lols.

Permission Marketing – Seth Godin

Sometimes I feel like Seth Godin is the only person who “gets it.”

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami

Alright, this is a good book, it’s just not for me.  The story had too much surrealism.  I’m not too into that.

In Defense of Food – Michael Pollan

The subtitle sums up the book – eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown

Ok, I really liked this book.  I know everyone is hating on it, but it is entertaining.  Dan Brown’s books are amazing like Mcdonald cheeseburgers.  You’re not really getting anything out of them, but god damn they’re good.

I called the CRA last week to check a corporate tax account.  As I was putting together a quick ntr I noticed a strange entry.  The bookkeeper had credited the prior year’s taxes payable and debited retained earnings.  It seemed weird.  And I wanted to confirm that the corporations taxes had actually been paid.

Honestly, what’s up with the CRA sometimes.  This is a routine call.  It shouldn’t last longer than a few minutes.  And I hate getting hung up on the security questions.

CRA worker: What’s the business’s address?

Me: [I give her our firm's address]

CRA worker: Sir, I need the business address not your firm’s address.

Me: I understand.  They both have the same address.

CRA worker:  That.  Is.  Impossible.

Me: Are we actually gonna have to do this?

CRA worker: Sir you have to give me the businesses address.

Me: No no, you don’t understand.  It’s an investment corp.  Some guy probably bought a GIC, incorporated a business and then put it in the business.  The business doesn’t “do” anything.  It collects interest.  We probably gave you our address because it’s easier for us to deal with any problems that come up.  It’s quicker than sending the stuff to the guys house and having him call us up with an issue.

CRA worker: Sir, I don’t think you understand our procedure we…

Me: Give me my tax balance!!!

CRA worker: Sir, we need to fill out the proper…

Me: People like you are the cause of our global financial crisis [click].

Turns out the entry was to set up a prior year amount.  And the corp paid the taxes through their bank.

Even though they’re helpful, templates make me uneasy.  There’s a fragmentation of knowledge among professionals, a trend that’s the direct result of complexity, which is the direct result of professionals.  As the economy gets more tangled up, we adpat to make financial statements more relavent.  So how do we cope at the professional level?  We create checklists.  We create templates.  We create lists with checkboxes that ensure we’ve covered our bases.  Is that good?  Is it just a crutch?

This may surprise some of the students entering the profession, but it is possible to complete all the fieldwork on an audit, without knowing what you’re doing.  Well you have to know what you’re doing – you need to understand what the audit procedures require you to do.  But it is possible to perform them without a thorough understanding of the audit or its context.

Templates create a knowledge bottleneck.  They put a buffer between yourself and GAAP.  Where the knowledge becomes trapped at the template level.  Some GAAP may trickle down, but it’ll happen passively.  The most frustrating part of it all, is that it’s necessary given the current way accountants think.  They think in terms of meeting criteria, instead of focusing on comprehension.  Did I disclose all the related party transactions vs. why are their related party transactions in the context of this audit and what issues do they raise?

Is it really possible to conduct a risk based audit, through the use of templates, which already have a built in risk based approach?  Was it really creative writing when your teacher asked you to write an essay – granted the essay had a introduction, conclusion, three body paragraphs and a thesis that was included in the last line of the introduction and reiterated in the conclusion?  I doubt it.

I was contacted by Joanne Cleaver earlier this week.  She’s a wonderful woman who’s doing great work here.  Her current project aims to find exactly where women are in the accounting pipeline, what keeps them in the profession, and how employers can quickly adopt best practices proven to retain and advance women in accounting.

She’s very bright and was kind enough to write the first guest post for the 1 Year Project.  I wanted to get her take on business journalism.  Here it is…

***

Business reporting is all about people.  People choosing how to spend money, time, effort, imagination and resources, and what will likely happen next. That’s it.

I’ve covered a lot of people and a lot of businesses as I’ve written hundreds of freelance stories for the likes of the Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (where I was a deputy business editor for a few years), and magazines like Inc., Pink, Entrepreneur, Working Mother and others.

Journalists — like accountants, I’m guessing — are supposed to be dispassionate, reporting just the facts. But the facts often have a human impact, intended or not, and it’s silly to pretend otherwise. In the early 1980’s, I did a lifestyle feature for Crain’s Chicago Business about a businessman who supported a nonprofit home for severely disabled kids. My editors thought it was on the very soft side of the publication’s mission. I thought it showed a well-rounded person in action, bringing his financial skills to help those who quite literally couldn’t speak for themselves. I did the story, got paid, it ran, and I went on the next story. Several years later, new neighbours moved in down our block. Turned out, they’d read my story and became houseparents at that charity. After doing that for several years, and having a baby of their own, they were now going back to a more traditional suburban family life. My story was pivotal to their decision to parent eight disabled kids. The kids’ lives were changed, my neighbours grew through their experience, and I never would have known, had they not bought that particular Cape Cod.

This goes to show: your work reverberates in ways you can’t know. Your holistic intuition is valuable. Colleagues who have been around for a while can underestimate the emotional investment of their readers (or clients). And sometimes you can be a force for good in the process of doing a good job.

And every once in a while you get a career-changing assignment. For me, that was in 1998 when I was asked by the then-editor of then-being-published Working Woman magazine to come up with a methodology for a list she envisioned: The Top 25 Companies for Executive Women. I came up with a way of indexing the proportion of women in a company’s management pipeline, which proved to be an unshakeable ruler for determining which companies were actually “the best.”

That methodology kept me running the Top 25 list for six cycles, which segued into a specialty of designing and running lists. Now, I’m partnering with the ASWA and the AWSCPA to bring our proven methodology to bear on the accounting profession. Our jointly sponsored Accounting MOVE Project just opened at the two association sites and ours (www.wilson-taylorassoc.com).  And because I really appreciate their help, I have to mention that BDO Seidman and Moss Adams are putting their money where their mouths are and helping us get this big project off the ground.

We’ll get some nice tidy statistics out of this project, but what my team of business journalists and I are really looking forward to are those stories – what happens next. Behind every statistic is drama. Who is included in that statistic and why? Who is left out? Those are stories we are after.  I suspect we will learn that many CPA firm partners still like accounting, but for very different reasons than they had expected when they started out.

I chose journalism because I intended to freelance and have kids and of course there is much precedent for that. Now, I run an editorial services and research firm. I’ve found that I like delivering business results: winning new clients, growing revenues, turning an observation into a marketing advantage. I still write, and I still like to write. Only the context and the scale have changed.

***

Thanks again Joanne!

If any of you guys are interested in what Joanne is doing let her know – jycleaver@wilson-taylorassoc.com.  She is currently recruiting accounting firms and corporate accounting employers into the project.  And let her know your thoughts on why women stick with and bail out of accounting.

A lot of people will beginning work this week.  It’s a really tough transition.  There’s that awkward, I don’t know your name even though we’ve shaken hands at least 5 times phase, that seems to last longer than it should.  You have to ask stupid questions like where the bathroom is or if it’s cool to wear a button down shirt with jeans on Friday.  Here are some thoughts on that process – those first few days at a firm – as well as few strategies to ease the transition.

Learn the dynamic

There will be a certain way people do things at your office.  I don’t just mean the obvious things like workflow, filling out time sheets or whether your company hands you a check instead of direct deposit.  I’m talking about the personal dynamic.  Who eats lunch with whom.  When most people leave the office.  Whether it’s ok to come in at 8 and leave at 4, even though your coworkers may think you’re ducking out early.  Get accustomed to the various routines in your office.  And then get to know the people who make them up.

Be seen, mingle but don’t be annoying.  People just have to know you’re “there” at first.

You’re a celebrity your first day.  Everyone will want to meet you.  But, you’re still working in an office.  Don’t construe this as an open invitation to chit chat with everyone whenever you feel inclined.  Definitely talk to people.  It’s just important to recognize boundaries and act graciously when others look stressed or hurried.

Hang out in public areas.  If you have a choice between eating lunch at your desk or in the lunch room, choose the lunch room.  Be around people as much as possible.  It makes it easier to meet everyone.  I’ve heard stories of new hires turning down lunch invitations because they brought a sandwich.  These people are shooting themselves in the foot.  They’re missing out on a great opportunity to bond and get to know their coworkers.  It’s important to cultivate relationships with these people.  You”ll be spending upwards of 60 hours a week with them during busy season.

Speak less than necessary

This is huge for anyone straight out of university.  I know you want to look smart – I definitely did – but honestly, don’t say anything at company wide meetings during your first month, unless someone asks you a direct question.  You will not bring anything useful to the conversation.  Trust me.  Instead, write all your questions down on some papter and try to answer them after the meeting.  By yourself.  This is a good confidence building exercise.

Take tons of notes.  I’d recommend buying a moleskin (I own one and use it often).

Write things down.  Compulsively.  People will be giving you a lot of feedback and explanations in a very off the cuff manner during your first month.  Everything will seem simple because the people who are talking have been doing this stuff for years.  Don’t confuse their familiarity with simplicity.  Write things down.  It’s ok to ask people to talk slowly so you don’t miss anytihng.  In a profession dedicated to meticulousness, where the most detail oriented staff excel, obsessive note taking shows your eagerness to learn and you’re dedication to detail.  And you can always go back to consult or update what you’ve written.  It’s impressive when someone understands how to do something after only being told once.

***

Anyone else have any tips?  Krupo? Adrienne?  Or does anyone have a good “what not to do” story.  It can be something you saw another junior doing (i.e. getting too drunk at a staff function).  Maybe you did something stupid.  I know I’ve done some “unwise” things in my day – ahem using recruiting events with opens bars as predrinks.

Hey everyone, so I’m finally back.  It’s nice to take a break from real life, but I definitely missed being productive.  Things are going to get a little more intense around here.

This posts is made up of two parts.  The first is the 1 Year Project, which I’m really excited about.  And I hope you guys give me a lot of feedback as I go.  The second is a brief story about my trip.

The 1 Year Project

Here’s my present situation.  To receive my designation I need to complete another year of professional experience.  But I have no idea what I’ll want to do after that year.  I could love the new firm I’m at or I might realize accounting just isn’t for me.  I don’t know if I want to be a CA forever.  With this in mind I’m giving myself 1 year to find out what’s out there.  This project is the search for a “cool” job.  Something that will mesh with my skills and actually get me excited about heading to work in the morning.

I’ll be contacting anyone who’s doing something I’m passionate about.

I’ll be putting up a new tab on the site listing all the related posts for the project.  Likewise, I’ll be tagging items in my delicious account under the title 1YP as I research different opportunities.  I’m hoping to document the journey.  Show you guys what works and what doesn’t – there will probably be a lot of the latter.  And hopefully, in 1 years time I will have learned enough and made enough contacts to have at least a handful of cool options to choose from.  I can’t wait to start – I actually already have, but I’ll save that for the next post.

Thoughts on Travel

All and all it was good.  There were some highs and lows, which I think added to the overall adventure of the trip – things always can’t be amazing.  It gave me an appreciation for the ability to do things by myself.  Sometimes it’s tough not being able to rely on anyone.  And having to force yourself to have fun.  Which is a really strange problem, one that I ran into a few times.

Traveling by yourself is amazing.  There’s no question about it.  It is scary at first.  I was worried about a lot of things.  Am I going to meet people?  Will I be bored the whole time?  What happens if something goes wrong?  Unfortunately, well depending on how you look at it, all of these things happened.

Some days I met people and other days I didn’t.  There were a few days I got really bored.  And things definitely went wrong – I’ll get into that later.  As much as they stress me out, I thrive in sink or swim situations.  For me they always boil down into a weird game of “how resourceful can I be today?”  I ultimately end up wining – because when you’re pushed against a wall the only direction you can really move in is forward – and that bolsters my confidence for similar situations in the future.  Here’s what I mean.

I was in Jerusalem on Friday heading to the bus station.  I needed to catch the bus to Eilat, where I’d cross the border into Egypt and proceed to Cairo.  I forgot that everything shuts down on Friday night because of Shabbat; literally everything – buses, airports, restaurants, stores, etc.  Basically I was fucked.  Hard.  I missed the last bus to the Egyptian border by 15min and I wouldn’t be able to get another one until Sunday.  My flight left on Sunday and it’s 10 hours from Jerusalem to Cairo by car.  I tried to get creative.  After having a little freak out, I called a few tour bus companies in the hopes that one might be open.  None were open.  My only option was to take a cab.  The cab ride cost me $400.  That was after I haggled with the driver.

Five hours later I finally got to the border.  I went through the customs people, put my bags on the conveyor belt, walked over to the border police and handed the guard my passport.  “You’re VISA has expired.”  “What are you talking about?  The VISA is good for a month and I’ve only been gone 28 days.”  “Well you cancelled your VISA the last time you left.”

I was pissed at this point.  I had just spend $400 getting to the border and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with another problem.  I got sent to a small room with three border police – all carrying m16’s, mind you that’s very normal for the area – and started arguing with everyone.  I finally snapped after one guard asked me, “if English was my mother tongue” because apparently I didn’t’ understand what was going on.  That led to a lot of f’bombs.  And that led to some very angry border policemen.  After a very unpleasant exchange, they told me I could get a new VISA immediately through a travel agency.  I couldn’t’ use the consulate because it was closed due to Ramadan and wouldn’t be open until Sunday.

The whole thing sounded sketchy, but that’s Egypt in a nutshell.  The “travel agency option” turned out to be the “bribe the border police option.”  So another $200 later I made my way into Egypt and headed back to Cairo.

The whole process was a mess.  I got through it though.  And even though I pretty much, actually no, I entirely got screwed I didn’t feel too awful.  It’s like the first time I got punched in the face while taking boxing.  Yeah, it sucked but it didn’t kill me.  I felt similarly about my experience.  In the end it’ll probably serve as a litmus test for other situations and give me a little more perspective on how crappy things can get.  And when they get that crappy, it’s still not so bad.