New job; re-signed lease; Chicago; weddings; new phone; school

New job:

Almost since I joined my company back in the heady days of 2012, I've wanted to change jobs but hopefully remain with the same organization. After some negotiations, I achieved this goal and moved from my former role (power market simulation modeling) to a new one (coordinating the company's long-term corporate financial projections) as of June 1. 

Although it's in a different area of the company, I'm familiar with many of the people I'm now working with, which helped ease the transition. The deal is that I will do this job for approximately one year, before shuffling around on another developmental rotation. I don't expect much of the new job; in fact, I believe it will be stressful and, in many ways, unrewarding. However, I will gain excellent exposure to the whole company, which theoretically makes me eminently employable (assuming I don't make a hash of the planning process).

CPA:

The key bargaining chip I was able to use to convince my superiors to move me was my entry into the Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) program. As you may be aware, there were previously three different accounting designations in Canada: the CA (Chartered Accountant); the CMA (Certified Management Accountant); and the CGA (Certified General Accountant). The three governing bodies eventually realized what everyone else had concluded long ago: that having three different accounting designations made no sense whatsoever. After the usual posturing, rhetoric, and cockfighting that we've all come to expect from organizations of this ilk, they finally agreed to amalgamate under the CPA banner. Since I require two additional years of accounting experience before I qualify for the designation, this was the perfect excuse to change roles.

The new program looks much like the old CA program: to wit, six online, facilitator-led modules of approximately eight weeks each (plus a 3-4 hour exam) followed by a three-day final exam after the sixth module. I recently completed the second of these modules and am now working on the third. There's still quite a lot of kinks in the program as I'm part of the first group through, but I trust they'll slowly start to iron these out.

Chicago:

In connection to my new job, I went to Chicago for some training on the new financial system I'm using. I had evenings free but was usually pretty tired after training all day. However, I still managed to fit in the following activities:

-Going to the observation deck of the Willis (Sears) Tower. I have always loved large, man-made structures of any type - the huge overpasses, the gargantuan power dams, the bridges that stretch to the horizon, the factories that cover a dozen city blocks, the pipe organs that have lorded over our cathedrals for centuries. These are the expressions of our defiance of nature; they stand as testaments to the vision, ingenuity, and imagination of the human race. 

So naturally I had to go up to the top of the Willis Tower. They have a glass floor that extends over the side of the building in certain places so you can look down 103 floors to the street below. 

-Went on an architectural river tour. Since most of Chicago burned down in 1871, the city was completely rebuilt with all-modern materials. This is not to say the buildings there are monotonous - far from it - and this was a nice opportunity to see some really cool ones. I had a really good river guide and since I went in the evening, it was not too hot. I learned about how city engineers managed to completely reverse the flow of the river when they figured out that the polluted water flowing into Lake Michigan was poisoning the population, which strikes me as incredible.

-Had a Chicago deep-dish pizza. This was excellent. I also found I didn't mind eating and traveling on my own. For one thing, as long as you're interested in sitting at the bar, you can usually bypass long lines of people waiting for tables. I just chilled out and read a book or the paper when I went out - rather a nice way to relax at the end of the day.

-Went to Millenium Park. Yes, I did see the infamous "bean" - Chicago is big on public art. They have a very cool amphitheatre there as well and were playing Field of Dreams when I went there. Americans sure love their baseball.

Every day for lunch, the training team went out for lunch, as suggested by the lone Chicagoean in the group. We went and had some Al's Italian Beef, Potbelly's (like a better version of Subway), Joey Yee's Chinese takeout, Chipotle's, and last but not least, Manny's. Now a word about Manny's. Imagine the stereotypical Jewish deli that comes right out of a comic book or a Mordecai Richler novel - old moustachioed men in white uniforms and chef's hats, a metal counter that you push your red plastic tray along, and more pastrami than you can shake a meat-fork at: that was Manny's. Apparently Obama eats there when he's in town. Anyway, I ate the largest roast-beef sandwich I've ever seen and topped it off with a latke.

Lease:

In other news, I signed a year lease extension at my place on Bellamy Hill. I'm still assessing whether I'd like to continue to rent or whether I should consider buying something. I'll revisit that decision next year.

Weddings:

I've got my fourth wedding of the year to go to in Rocky in a couple of weeks, so that should be good. I went to a bachelor party out at the Brazeau dam last weekend, the day after getting back from Chicago.

Phone:

I finally graduated to a smart-phone - a Motorola Moto X - after my trusty Samsung gave up the ghost a few weeks ago. I quite like the new one so far.

After the rebuild, Chicago kept to the grid system.
If only they had numbered their streets as well.

Marina City, a condo building in Chicago.

I'm actually not sure what building this is but
its vaguely castillic look entranced me.

The Wrigley building (of chewing-gum fame).

Looking down from 103 floors up.