My Tax Returns Have Been Accepted
Does this mean the Feds can reject them? I'm to expect my refund in the next few weeks. Hello money!
In other news, I got on a scale the other day. I haven't been on one in about six months. It seems I've dropped 15 pounds. You know weight is damn annoying. I started to watch my food intake (I was overeating horribly) and exercising because my clothes were getting too tight and I didn't want to buy new ones. Now my damn clothes are too loose. Where is the middle ground? I just can't win.
Man Pillow
I don't who it was that posted a picture of the "man pillow" -the one that's like a torso - but I had to laugh because a friend who is currently locked in a hospital room for the next five weeks has her man pillow with her. Apparently, he's quite comfortable and goes well with her "I Love Sex" hat. She posted a picture today of the "man" getting the transplant right along with her.
Headline
For only the second time in recorded U.S. history, a California woman gave birth to live octuplets. The odds of being struck by lightning are better.
Not gonna lie. I think I'd rather be struck by lightning.
So...
The job market continues to sink as reported to me by my best friend, who incidentally is also unemployed. Last week, she told me she'd been dragged to a career fair. There were four companies at the fair. Ouch.
We used to talk maybe once every couple of months. Now she calls at least once a week if for no reason than to report that she's had no luck. I guess some good things come out of joblessness - although at least I do work, just not as much.
Early this week, I heard back from a company I had applied to over four months ago. Continuing the application will require no less than 8-10 hours of work and oh, it needs to be in their hands next Monday. I question is it worth it? I think yes, but I feel like I'm back in college during finals week. There are tests and papers to write. It's like that line in the Goonies, I feel like I'm babysitting, except I'm not getting paid.
Two Grand?
Screw the stimulus package, give me my refund. I actually received my W-2 last week. And surprisingly all my other investment/banking people have sent me statements for all the other crap I need. So I started doing my taxes only to discover I need to fill out Schedule C, but you can't fill out Schedule C without filling out Schedule SE and you can't fill out Schedule SE without first completing Form 8809 and 8870 or something. I'm sure to fill those two forms there will be more forms to fill out. I'm giving up and paying to have my taxes done. It should not be this difficult to report $2000 worth of income.
Especially since, according to my rough calculations, that's exactly what the government owes me.
In other news, I have my sheets out on the line today. Yay for fresh air and sunshine.
Catharsis
I'm very careful about what I write on this blog. I waited several months before telling the story in the last post. Partly because I'm just now getting to where it's not just an irrational, expletive laden rant on evil assholes and partly because I'd had a long discussion with a friend earlier in the day and I wanted to get my thoughts straight. I wrote it for me and it was cathartic. It wasn't meant to say anything about anyone but me. If anything, it was a cautionary tale to myself that things can be bad and they can be hellish, and sometimes I just need to stop and assess where I am and what I should do about it. Get the bitterness out and move the fuck on.
Why didn't I quit instead of letting things get to where they got? What the hell was I doing to myself for all those months? Because while I could blame the job, ultimately it fell on me to do something about it. Why wasn't I looking for new jobs last April (when companies were actually hiring)? Why was I just miserably trooping into my office day after day?
Once I realized how destructive the situation was, I finally started looking into ways around the very real barriers to finding adequate paying work in a very rural location. But you know that was several months later than it should have been.
No matter how bad it seems, there are always options. I should have done something and I'm pissed as hell at myself for not acting before things started affecting my health, my self-confidence and my personal life.
Liquor Just Makes It Better
My parents are really big lately on coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. And then they add Bailey's. Having spent quite a bit of time with them in the past couple months, I ended up adopting this coffee habit (although more so to keep warm than anything). Of course, I like to add lots and lots of Bailey's to a little coffee.
I also like to try to use up milk before it goes bad. I don't drink milk, but I need it for cooking. When the best by date is coming, I try to make something. Last week I made chocolate pudding, then I added Bailey's. It's definitely better with the liquor. And I can now call it drunken chocolate pudding.
Where's My W-2?
As a self-employed person, I'm required to file and pay "estimated" taxes which is total bullshit and is yet another way the government rapes the citizens of this country. Apparently, it's perfectly okay to have nothing taken out of your paycheck and then make a year end payment if you're an "employee", but screw you if you want to be your own boss. And it's not a tax for what you've earned in the quarter that you're filing for, but rather a forced payment of a quarter of what you might make for the entire year. And the government is a bastard to seasonal employees about this. But that's a post for another day...
Fortunately, I learned that the January filing and payment are not required if you file your 2008 taxes by the 2nd of February. So I need my damn W-2 to avoid having to figure out the ridiculousness that is Estimated Taxes for another three months. How tough can it be to print and mail me this document? I think companies wait just to piss people off and believe me, I'm already plenty pissed at this company. I don't need another reason.
Idiots and Cold Weather
It was really cold this weekend. Cold enough that I went downstairs and freaked out about the temperature and what could happen to the pipes. I kept a fire going in my woodstove all weekend. Nice way to keep everything warm and save on the heating bill.
Anyway, I was watching a story on the news about the cold and they interviewed a family whose pipes had burst and flooded their newly finished basement. Oh too bad. Then the lady said that when they woke up they'd had no water in their kitchen and were worried the pipes were frozen and hoped they didn't burst. They went off to Mormon church (4 hours long) and came home to lots of water.
Now I ask you, if it was -20, you had no water in your kitchen, you suspected frozen pipes and you were leaving the house for hours, wouldn't you turn off the water to the house? Sure the pipe will burst, but at least you wouldn't flood your house. I feel little sympathy for these idiots.
