The Last One

FOR ALL THOSE ATTENDING THE NYC BLOGGERS DINNER/DRINKS @ SPICE MARKET ON THE 14TH: UPDATE WITH EDITED LIST TO COME OUT IN TOMORROW'S POST. PLEASE CONFIRM, REQUEST TO BE ADDED, ETC... BY NEXT SUNDAY (APRIL 9TH).

It's really finally here. The last quarter close I will ever do for this particular company.. And possibly, for the rest of my career. I wonder if I will miss closing the books when all this is over. Because it is only the quarter, I technically still have two more official closes to go through before I can say goodbye to close forever, but this is the last "oh-so important", "everyone will be scrutinizing" close. I've had some interesting close experiences in the past four years of work. Year Ends are by far the worst, but the month ends can be pretty bad, especially if things are miscoded or if there are a million accruals that need to have sustainable back-up. The worst thing about close is that every month since I left college, I have not been able to take a vacation, or even think about being sick, the first week of ANY month. It's even funnier when you start keeping track of time by how soon the next close is and how many closes are left in the year. By far the best story I have relating to close goes back to my just-out-of-college interviewing days. I was interviewing for a finance position with a large mass beauty company. Speaking with the manager, she tells me "You would be responsible for the Men's line, Hand & Body, Cosmetics and close." I sit there totally puzzled and respond with "I didn't know that company XXX makes clothes!" Just so you know, they don’t. I still got the job.