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Tax Prep Dun. Now the worrying…
I spent the day yesterday preparing to file my taxes. I hate this time of year so much. I don’t use any spreadsheets to track my income and out-going expenses so that means I have to sit down with my calculator and the tower of Pisa pile of receipts and add each one up by hand. This is a whole lot of fun for someone who claims to have Dyscalculia. Several times I had to take a break and tell myself over and over, You’re college educated. You can do this. and then practice breathing exercises for five minutes in the bathroom.
Every year I vow to start using ibank or quicken or some other program but every time I try to set up accounts I get so overwhelmed with all the tabs and buttons and possibilities I just end up giving up. I swear I’m going to do it this year though because there has to be a better way.
The only thing I have going for me is that I do like to be organized. I save everything and file it all away neatly like a squirrel. So that helps. I hope all my neatly typed reports get me points with the tax man because I think otherwise I’m going to be one big fat headache for him. Filing separately from Toby is causing a whole bunch of problems, naturally. I closed all of our joint accounts so now I can no longer access my handy dandy online tracking systems (which were really great when I needed to see what checks I deposited etc… I love that check image feature.)
Then there’s the whole what-can-I-write-off dilemma. Can I write off all the parties I organize? Does blogging it count as business? Party planning posts do generate a lot of traffic on this site but I’m thinking the IRS is not going to go for it. I’m thinking a bounce house is right up there with hiring strippers when it comes to red flags.
Of course all this busy work generated some sketches. I figure I’m ready if anyone ever needs to hire me to create some stock art of tax season.
In other 50mm news, how cool is that old hole-puncher my Aunt gave me? Her office mate moved out and left a bunch of stuff. Most of it was awful 80’s crap but this hole-puncher seemed like a keeper for me. It worked great for all my notebook organizing yesterday. The holes are extra big which is kind of neat.
I also finished the 2nd Stieg Larsson book. I know I’m late to that book-reading party. I’m really enjoying them though. Right after I finish each book I watch the movie on Netflicks and that’s super fun. Of course I have to watch these in secret from Bug when she is asleep though because they are NOT appropriate for children. Oh my goodness, some of the scenes are not even appropriate for me. But I do love the characters so I keep on watching, not even noticing that I’m reading subtitles. I have to say I’m a little disappointed in the 2nd movie though (I’m half way through it). They left out so many details! I guess that’s why you read the books first!
Bug got to have her own movie night last night. She really wanted to eat popcorn in bed and turn all the lights out “just like a movie theatre” but I refused. I do not like popcorn bits in my sheets! So I set her up with a beverage bar (she’s caught my cold now too and I wanted her to be hydrated) and popcorn and put my laptop far enough away that it wouldn’t be ruined if she spilled. I know Toby is probably looking at that last picture and hyperventilating over the possibility that some beverages might ruin the laptop that he paid so much money for but I am here to say that it was perfectly safe and now it’s back on my desk far far away from any evil liquids of death.
And that was my day! Now I just sit tight and wait until my tax appointment on Friday to see how much I owe the IRS. Or maybe I’ll get money back. I’m not getting my hopes up.
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up close and blurry
I’m kinda feeling under the weather today. Don’t feel too bad for me. I’ve been healthy as an ox all winter and just now caught something. It’s about time I caught one of the many viruses Bug brings home from preschool. I also attended a Bikram Yoga class on Saturday for the first time in my life and I am sore!! Oh my goodness, hot sweaty yoga is not for wimps! Have you ever tried it?
It’s regular yoga with simple poses except they crank up the heater to 110°F or something. I’m so proud of myself for making it through all the way to the end and not fainting. At first I thought it was a cinch. I thought, I can totally do yoga even though I haven’t worked out in an entire year. Ha!
Then I woke up the next day and I couldn’t bend my legs. So yeah, I’m not feeling so hot. I am also worried about all the other people in the class who were sitting in a hot damp petri dish with all of my germs. It was pretty gross. I wonder how they clean those rooms after everyone has dripped five pounds of sweat each onto the sticky carpet. It was low pile carpet, thankfully, but it still looked pretty gross. I’m just going to stop thinking about it and tell myself that the benefits of a deep workout offset the grossness of hot damp germy floors.
I’m sorry I had to drag your mind over to that ugly place. Here, feast your eyes on some blurry coasters from Paris! Aren’t they pretty? Everything is prettier with a 50mm lens blurring out the background. Today I wish I could wear 50mm glasses and then crawl into bed and read a book very close up. Maybe I will if I can convince Bug to nap with me (not likely).
I just thought I’d check in and do a quick blog. Maybe I’ll start a habit of it. Probably not. I’m always promising things and then not following through. But I’ve been working really hard on a post about painting and my insecurities about it and I’m not making very much progress. I’m starting to think that posts that take more than a week to write aren’t meant to be shared. Blogging is not supposed to be work. I don’t have time to be that deep. I should take the time but I have a five year old bopping around interrupting me constantly.
Bug’s bopping is so awesome though. She drives me crazy regularly but the minute she’s not around, I miss her with the heat of a thousands suns. I wouldn’t want her any other way.
Look at her messy desk. I used to brag to anyone that would listen that my child was naturally neat. She does like to match things up and put out of order products back in order in the grocery store but her OCD stops there. Her room is a mess daily. I think I’m going to have to take back all that bragging. I’ve probably spoiled her by tidying up after her. I can’t help myself sometimes. I just hate clutter! She will clean up with a lot nagging of course (maybe even less nagging than most kids) but she often drags her feet and tells me that cleaning up is so BOOOOORRRING. To which I roll my eyes. A lot of things in life are boring, kid.
I guess compared to her imaginary world where she changes characters hourly, cleaning is very boring. Does your kid do this? She’s a cat on the left and a knight or a Barbie Musketeer or something on the right.
Then she’s a hula girl…it never ends. I’m thankful for her imagination but I’ve had to make a rule that she has to keep whatever outfit she’s wearing on until she puts the last one away. This has helped with the constant piles of clothes on the floor but now I’m finding perfectly clean clothes stashed in the laundry and behind hanging clothes in the closet. Kids!
Sometimes I get in on the action too. But not very often.
Definitely not today.
Today I’m going to hide behind my 50mm lens and pretend the world is blurry around the edges.
