Being a kid with a baloon is a wonderful thing.
• • •
Tonight, as I listen to a terrific stream of ambient and electronic on a local French indy station, I can't help but think about all the things that are right, right now.
I have no job yet (thought, admitedly, I haven't been looking all that hard), my leave ends soon, and I don't know where the money's going to come from. I'm not worried though. We don't need alot to live on, and Julia has a bit coming in from her training allowance. I have a bit of freelance lined up
and it feels like we're poised on the edge of something big.
Whenever my hair gets too long, I have the urge to go at it with the buzzer. The longer it goes uncut, the stronger the urge gets until, like tonight, I start hacking. It's always a bit of as gamble, but I felt more confident since our bathroom mirrors here can serve as a three-way, something we never had before. I was finally able to see the back and sides properly. It turned out pretty well; I'm happy with it.
Amy had started working at a family-run Italian restaurant. She may not stay with it since "family-run" is typically a euphemism for poorly organized, emotionally charged, and unprofessional. It nice that she's able to have the luxury of just quitting if she feels like it. We've been getting along a bit better over the past few days which relieves a lot of strain. She and I are like oil and water. Or maybe nitro and a match. When we're not getting along, we just hate each other. I'm not sure why our relationship is so volatile; maybe we're too much alike, I don't know.
I got new tires on my car so I don't slide around nearly as much anymore. It's fun again to drive. My block heater is being installed this week.
A couple of weeks ago I received a letter (addressed here of all places!) asking me to file a tax return for 1999. I never did because there was some info I didn't have and it seemed like a huge hassle. It was one of those things that I knew I should do, but didn't since no one was screaming. Now they're screaming. I was pretty sure I would get a refund, but I was worried about Julia's ( I didn't do hers either) since she had been paid on contract and had paid no tax on those earnings. I was worried about a serious hit, possibly in the thousands.
As I went through the process (possible only because of Brian Costello's fantastic website), It looked like the reverse was true. Julia might be getting about $700 back, but I ended up owing over $1700!
Well that wouldn't do, so I went through the process of trying every scenario I could think of, trying to claim every credit available, use every strategy I could devise to get that total down. I finally came upon a scenario where Julia gets her $700 refund and I get about $800 back. It involves refiling for 1998, which they might not allow, and writing off some stuff through the now-defunct business mediaShock. Still if it works, I'll be PDH (pretty damn happy). Do you think they'll allow me to have hired my 2½-year-old son and have paid him 10K for creative input? He really did buy all the groceries that year, honest.
Caleb, presently purple-haired, called today and asked whether we want a sauna. It's funny since I had already considered putting one in. A friend of his is pulling a full, working sauna out of his basement (they're putting in an in-law suite) and will give it to us for free, as long as we come and get it.
I said sure, I'm coming. I love saunas, the heady cedar, the feeling of breathing heaviness, the sleepiness. We had one back at the condo but we never seemed to use it, mostly because it was segregated, guys and girls. Who wants to sit in a sweaty room with some naked guy you don't know?
I've known for a long time that whether a person is happy has a lot to do with their outlook. That's been reaffirmed to me recently as I've gone through the blackness and the return to light. Surely this will not be easy all the time; that's a given. But a keen eye for the positive can smooth an otherwise rough road. In the end, it's you that has to save you.
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