Sometimes I forget to tell myself that. I’ve never been an accountant. Nor have I ever planned to be one. (Not that there’s anything wrong with accounting. I can see the appeal of putting things in order.) But this lack of accountancy in my life is usually not at the forefront of my mind.
Day after day I can go about my non-accounting-related business without once thinking, “hey, I’m not an accountant.”
But just a few days ago, I became truly aware of this. “I’m not in accounting!” I loudly proclaimed. And I realized how true a statement that was. And I have Blogger to thank for this epiphany.
You see, Blogger has made some changes to their comment forms. Now, instead of being able to type in my name and the URL for this blog when I leave a comment, I must choose between logging in with my Blogger ID, using a “nickname” (Should I have a nickname? What about Snake?), or being anonymous. So I’ve been using my Blogger ID more often lately. And on a whim, I decided to check out my minimalist Blogger profile. After all, someone might follow the link from a comment I leave here or there. (Well, not here. But there.) And imagine my surprise when I saw that my profile said I was in the field of accounting.
I quickly went to edit my profile, and select “not specified” for my field, since, shockingly, “linguistics” was not listed on the drop-down menu. When viewing the profile next, I was relieved to see that I was no longer masquerading as a grad student of accounting. But then I thought to myself, “maybe I should say a bit more about myself.” So I added a bit of stuff. And saved my profile. And lo and behold, I was once more in accounting. I went back in, changed the field. Saved the profile. All was well. But, oh crap, there was a typo in my link. Fixed it. Saved. Dammit, there was the frickin’ “accounting” thing again.
“I am not an accountant!” I cried. I felt I needed to affirm this. It’s been good to have this reminder.
I have a lot of trouble defining my identity. When asked for a description, I tend to give a list: student, wife, mother, friend, blah, blah, blah. It varies how many items I put on that list. But I have never once in my life listed “accountant” as an identity.
Of course, I have never listed “not an accountant,” either. And this opens up a whole realm of possible identities. I am also not a butcher, baker, candlestick maker, chiropractor, dancer, mime, mugger, jogger, juggler, or provost. The possibilities are staggering. But for now, at least, I can just remind myself that indeed, I am not an accountant.
collecting tokens 
I don’t know what’s going on with blogger at the moment but it’s certainly driving me batty.
I’m with you on the ‘I am not a…..’ far more difficult to extract the positive as always.
Cheers
You look like a girl to me!
Am I going to hell because all I can hear is “I am not an animal!” from The Elephant Man?
Hey, Notanaccountant, I’m a juggler and a…
maid, cook, chauffeur, escort, bus-boy, shopper, teacher, sanitation worker, day-planner, etc.
Hey, what do you know? After checking my own Blogger profile, it turns out I’m also (not) an accountant!
Blasted Blogger!
I also was (not) an accountant there for awhile – can’t remember how I got rid of that bit of misinformation but it’s gone now.
Ha! I had that problem too. I wanted to put that I’m a Mom and an Army Wife…I ended up selecting “military” as the category because otherwise it said I was an accountant too!
god, and i always thought of you as an accountant, a gal who twiddles over numbers each day, pen behind her ear.
missed you, sister.
right now, it says you’re a grad student.
but maybe it knew something about you, that accounting thing.
Are you SURE you’re not a candlestick maker?! hehe.
This could be the new mantra for all of us non-accountants
I am NOT an accountant! (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
math teachers in high school told me I should go into accounting.
not if i don’t want to commit suicide at a young age was my response.
That is the strangest thing! I’ve not checked my account, who knows what it says.
Not an accountant.
But so much more.
Julie
Using My Words
Yeah — um — they had me living in Afganistan.
I am also an Accountant, living in Afganistan. Not. I am irritated with Blogger that I can’t comment as myself on blogspot blogs anymore.
ugh, likewise completely annoyed at blogger’s new fun glitch. it took me about umpteen tries to convince them i was likewise not an accountant, too.
btw, update for all us wordpressers sad about the new blogger login issues: where it says “login with blogger”, there is a pulldown menu on which you can select wordpress. which will link back to your site, using an openid format (AOL, livejournal, and typekey are also options), and it looks/acts just like the old style of adding in your info did.