abracanabra | Entries tagged with finances

Survived the trip to Wisconsin. Very pleased to be home. House, cats, and possessions appear to be intact. (I'm always a little surprised to find this. Pleased, but surprised.) There was chatting with the in-laws. I slept Enough*, for the first time in months. There was a wedding. It was nice. There was fried chicken at the reception. It was fried. There was a road trip home. It was sunny. There was a gas station. They sold "Sex Olives." WTF?

Tomorrow is going to be unpleasantly busy. Full work, last physical therapy appointment, mandatory critiques to finish. Calling insurance to find out why the hell they didn't cover all my bills this time.

* Enough = 3 12-hour nights, apparently.

06:51 Dear body, waking me up for no damn reason at 3am for the *second time in a row* isn't funny! #
10:04 I was weaned off coffee, but I find myself going back to the foul stuff just because I need to stay awake. #
13:00 I like it when the weather forecast uses words like 'glorious'! #
14:12 I get to be a wedding taster? Yum. Also, no poison is involved. Hopefully. #
14:15 Dear knee, Stop with the random flashes of pain when I haven't *done* anything! #
14:16 FREE! I'll mail anyone a couple of packets of chrysanthemum beverage if they'd like to try it. #
17:42 Quashed husband with SciAm's definitive analysis of why it's better to turn off fluorescent lights! #
21:16 Relative forwarded anti-"Planned Parenthood: A $1 Billion Evil Empire" email. I sent a "reply all" thanking him for reminding me to donate. #
21:24 I am exhausted, sickly, cranky and unstable feeling. This is what happens when I work too much and can't write or do martial arts. #
22:00 Updating medical & writing expenses spreadsheets for the last 2 months. #

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Me and many friends were inside somebody else's brightly lit, nice apartment. I felt claustrophobic, so I went outside into the apartment building to wander around alone for a while. The lighting was all very low and everything was a dark grayish blue. The hallway dwindled to blackness at either end. I walked towards one end and saw weird patchwork holes of blackness in the walls. I thought about exploring it but suddenly felt frightened and turned to go back up the hall. I passed another apartment missing a door. It was lit grey. There was a bed in the corner and the sheets were bunched up as if somebody were in it, but there was no movement. The TV in the corner sat blank and dark. Two vertical lines of chairs stretched forward parallel to the wall. Everything was coated in dust.

Back inside the apartment, I was taking care of my financial business by taking out handfuls and handfuls of checks from my pockets and signing them so I could cash them. They were for all different amounts, from 75 cents to 2,500 dollars, from different people and businesses.

beths_stanley came over and stood next to me.

"Wow, I didn't really believe what

discoflamingo had said, but it's true, isn't it?" she asked. "I don't think you even have a job, you just accumulate money from strange and disparate sources."

And then I woke up and it was all a dream. My pockets were empty of checks, and I was very sad. Possible dream source material: depositing check for CSA a few days ago.

* Edited several more pages of Vicesteed, hoping that the patchwork I have left behind will hang more cohesively than the crazy quilt it was before. (<- That there, that's a metaphor. See, I'm being all writerly. ) I'm thinking it will probably be best for me to also make the changes in the digital draft as I go along, instead of just building up a huge stack of pages entirely covered in red ink.
* Didn't get much else done, as I mostly worked on taxes, specifically small-business taxes for my 3 (count 'em, 3!) small business ventures: writing, photography, and mystery shopping. Discovered I hate the way that IRS tax publications are circularly referential. I used to like doing taxes, but it's getting a little complicated--I'm starting to feel the need for an honest-to-God accountant.

However, in fantastically wonderful news, my initial estimate shows that we won't owe taxes this year. We're not going to be getting much back, but we're not going to owe a ton either. Because of the part-time/irregular nature of my day job, and the incompetency of their accountant (I've asked three times to have the number of exemptions changed, and three times they have stared at me in confusion), they never take enough taxes out. So in the past we've owed between a few hundred and well over a thousand.

It feels incredibly good to know that I am not going to be working this weekend. I think my 13-hour days are over, at least for a while. I'm feeling pretty much not ill, except when I exercise. Phil is totally a nasty phlegm-producing monster right now, which is sad. The overtime I worked the last few weeks should help our financial situation a lot--might even pay off the car. And I don't NaNoWriMo, but I can at least get back to my regular writing, which I have been missing greatly. Also, it appears that the physical therapy did its stuff (*crosses fingers*); kicks and such don't hurt the leg muscle.

This morning was bliss. I slept in as late as I could (my body has apparently redefined this to mean 9 AM, which is grrr) and lounged around in bed with the cats while in that drowsy just-waking-up stage. I did my physical therapy, push-ups and sit-ups, and dynamic stretching while watching Simply Ming on public television (yes, I have a horrible weakness for cooking shows), and then I shifted upstairs into the attic to work on my kicks and basics. My lungs complained vigorously, and there were were many "stop and clear out mucus in airway" moments, but I think I'll be back up to regular classes by Tuesday, which is yay! Follow that up with a nice hot shower and hair-washing. Then a BLT on a toasted French baguette. And for the rest of the day I get to noodle around, catching up with teh internets, following up on things that need following up on, processing my various inboxes and to-dos, updating my master task list, maybe even writing letters to distant friends, cleaning up the house a bit, doing laundry and dishes and battling the ferocious army of dust bunnies that has been making rumblings of war, processing rejections and submissions and new writing markets and perhaps getting a thousand or so new words written on that short story I pretty much abandoned way back when I had a life. Oh, and cleaning up the photos from the last couple of weddings so I can post those pictures online the next time I've got wi-fi access.

If my life was anime, I'd be floating two inches above the ground as I moved, my (ankle-length, natch) hair waving gently in the non-existent breeze, and rainbow bubbles would swirl and hum happily to themselves in my wake.

Phil says that me finding a dumpster full of computer games and gaming stuff is like an illiterate man finding a dumpster full of all the great classics of literature--what to take? He's not at all wrong in that comparison....

Also, I had less than half an hour to get stuff, and the other vultures descended as soon as they spotted me. (Yes, I'm lead vulture. Seriously, if one day we live in a post-apocalyptic future where we scavenge for everything, you really want me on your team.)

Here's the list of stuff, as well as some other things I had lying around. I'm following

discoflamingo's admirable example in masking all comments and accepting blind bids. If somebody really wants something, I may let them know that they're being outbid. I'm also going to be checking EBay, so if I find I can sell something for a lot more there, I probably will (did I mention recently buying plane tickets to Guatemala and a car on my credit card? yeah, it's like that).

"No money" is a valid bid, and will get you the item if nobody else bids and I can't sell it anywhere else.

( The Full List )

This week, the car's engine blew up. I wasn't there, but this is what the Mad Scientist tells me. Vast amounts of smoke, barely made it home (he was on his way to work), and the mechanic said that to make the car work again, it would require a new engine. Engines are...pricey. The car is not. So for now, we're taking stock of finances in view of a new car, hunting around for a cheap one, and biking. A lot.

The day the car's engine blew up, I arrived home at my usual hour and noted with some confusion that the car was in the garage, which would have made it an extremely early time for the Mad Scientist to be home. So I went inside, and upstairs, and discovered a traumatized Mad Scientist in vast need of cuddles and somebody to suggest the next course of action.

The next course of action was fixing our old and unusable bikes. Which involved biking to Uptown on non-functional bikes while clouds formed overhead and loomed threateningly in our general direction.

While we were waiting for our bikes to be fixed, or so we thought, we went to La Bodega. Mmm, half-price bottles of wine and food made mostly out of olive oil. I mean, I love olive oil, ask anyone, but even I was thinking they went a bit overboard. It was highly tasty though, and we got to enjoy dining in a setting that was clearly far classier than we were.

Upon returning to the bike shop, we discovered that in fact our bikes had not been getting fixed. So we sat. And waited. And waited.

A couple of hours later, tires replaced and brakes functional once more, we biked over to the CC to celebrate

chadvalentine and

opheliac_9's anniversary. Much liquor was had, and the new icon was taken. Then we biked over to their apartment and more liquor was had, along with some very tasty barbecued chicken. Then we wobbled our unsafe way home.

The next morning the Mad Scientist had to bike in to work. He could bike and bus it, but it actually ends up taking longer. It's about an hour bike ride. He claims to have still been in the shaky "was just drunk" phase.

This week, the poor man is made entirely out of ache.

So am I, between practicing my material for the belt test this Saturday, line drills during regular class, and--oh--biking. And carrying very heavy bags of groceries home.

I think the moral of the story is something like, "Life is pain, but alcohol helps. And don't forget to keep your bikes functional, 'cause you never know when you'll need them."

It definitely makes the day better when you discover that you won't be totally screwed* by paying taxes this year. Still paying, but it's not so bad. And I still have to figure out the complicated acrobatics necessary due to a) writing, and b) mystery shopping income/deductions. Ick. Should be even more fun if/when I eventually start pursuing photography as a business, not just a hobby.

* Totally screwed = discovering you owe around $2,000 because taxes aren't deducted properly from your paycheck. Happened a year or two ago. This isn't the sort of household that just has $2,000 lying around.

I caved and bought an iRobot Roomba from Woot.com. I've been wanting one since forever, and since I finally paid off credit card debt from Christmas.... It was on sale! It's not my fault! I couldn't help myself!

Now I have robots and minions and weapons and fame! Inching closer to world domination, day by day....

- Ventured out into the cold to go to work (Job #2). Sometimes I think that I only get enough downtime to decompress a little and figure out what I should be doing during downtime--and then I have to be off and running again.
+ Boss and Underboss are off on an exciting trip this week, so I didn't have to interact with anyone. There are days when I wish I could project a force field in front of me that would persuade everyone to unconsciously keep a distance of at least fifty feet from me. Or out of my eyesight, so I wander through a world where everything still runs, the coffee's hot, and things get made, but it's as if everyone vanished right before I stepped into the room. Today was one of those days.
+ Though I couldn't make it to Job #2's Christmas party because of schedule conflicts, they left one of the grab bags on my desk. The theme was fun and games. It held marbles, Play-Doh, a bouncy ball, old-fashioned bubble-gum, bubbles, Dove chocolate, a swizzle straw, a piece of sidewalk chalk, and a green coloring pencil, all wrapped up in gift paper printed with big smiley faces.
- I had to mail vasty amounts of packages made from people's CD and DVD-sized SASEs. They all had to be taken to the post office and weighed and measured and stamped. Not all of them had the right postage. I had to let other people scoot in and take care of their postal business in between packages. I was there for over an hour. I learned a lot about the postal worker, including about the time that hundreds of tree frog pollywogs hatched in his defunct backyard pool. A cool story and a cool guy, but still--not worth over an hour sitting in the post office.
--- Drama.
+ Leaving early without permission.
+ The Blonde by Duane Swierczynski. I should get in the habit of writing at least one-paragraph reviews of the media I consume.
+ Fluffy's Master Plan for World Domination, a very funny song that reminds me of the Mac Trads (acapella college music group) and also of Foundling.
+/- Getting tax forms and discovering that I made over half as much money at Job #2 than I did at Job #1, despite working at Job #2 for only 1/3 the year and less than half-time.
- Realizing that am not entirely healthy after all, and in fact would have some serious trouble breathing through a vigorous workout.
+/- Practice martial arts at home for an hour instead of going to Tae Soo Do.
- Have predicted trouble breathing, along with nasty mucusy gagging and hacking. Remain encouraged by realization that am in fact feeling much better. Resolve to go to Tae Soo Do on Thursday.
- Discover that yes, despite waiting until evening and warming up attic workout space, I lose feeling in my toes and most of my feet within half an hour. Had to take socks off as soon as did anything beyond basic calisthenics. Lack of feeling in toes is big problem when doing spin kicks. Must consider those weird tabi-whatsit martial arts/Asian shoes with very soft soles. May see if sneakers provide enough grip without having too much grip first.
+ Foundling and Nameless entirely entranced by bouncy ball from Job #2. Very funny. I took photos.
+ Discovered Foundling has deep-seated unease about bubbles sneaking up on him and vanishing.
-- Expressing emotions and dealing with interpersonal crap and all that annoying shit. Ugh. Emotions are so annoyingly messy. And as bad as pumpkin vines for invading things that aren't their territory.

Woot.com's special deal for today is a fancy Roomba for $145 including shipping and a one-year warranty. That's less than half what they're going for on Amazon. And yet, because of various impending costs, I have been dissuaded from buying one.

*wailing and lamentation*

On the other hand, I am now subscribed to the RSS feed for

wootdotcom, so there will be many opportunities to spend money on future neat things.

Good thing I'm being re-upped from 20 hrs/month at Job #2 to 40 hrs/month. Though how I'll juggle everything I do not know. Last time around, I think I dropped my sanity and forgot to pick it up again for a while.

I just paid off my last student loan in full. I meeped a number of times while entering the funds transfer. Loan all gone now, but my savings account is much diminished. Meep! Having a part-time seasonal job with the Bush Foundation has been really good for me. Sounds like I'll keep about twenty hours a month over there, and maybe catch some more time when larger projects come in. Either way, A Good Thing. I'll still be employed half-time through the end of the year, but then--that will be cut right back down.

Thanks to

chadvalentine and

opheliac_9 for having us over for Thanksgiving dinner. Very tasty. I took a very traditional green bean casserole to Thanksgiving as my offering. All that changed was me doubling the recipe, adding in about a cup and a half of shredded cheddar cheese with the French's Fried Onions, and using uncooked frozen green beans--boiled them for about five minutes before adding to casserole.

opheliac_9, I do need the recipe for that cranberry sauce. Thank you both for the kind hospitality! It was nice to chat with folks. I also got to play with their Wii. With wrist weights, I could see seriously building up a sweat playing that thing. Most entertaining. Of course, I had also been dragged out to the bars way too much the last few days, to the point that the thought of being trapped in a bar without an escape route (the Mad Scientist refused to guarantee me a ride home in a couple of hours) made me quail. So I apparently missed seeing a ton of cool people. Drat.

The Mad Scientist lived up to his nickname (the "mad" part of it, anyway) by staying awake all night so that he could attend the Black Friday sales early, early in the morning. As a result, I now have a nice LCD 17" monitor--a bit smaller than my old, monstrous monitor, but I am adjusting to it--I like that it takes so much less energy and so much less space. I moved my office plant (yes, it's even an office plant "type" of plant) from the very top of my desk (where it got direct light maybe 1/2 hour of the day, but also indirect light) down to sit behind the monitor (where it's basking in the sunlight now). I think it's in shock. The Mad Scientist also purchased us a 27" LCD HD TV (say that ten times fast!). He'd hoped to get the mad-crazy-insane deal of a 32" for the same price, but ended up getting just a very good deal because they were sold out of the insane-deal ones. It is fantastic! Now we're suddenly seeing channels we've never gotten before and the reception on the HD channels is freaking amazing. We'll have to have people over soon for movie watching and popcorn. The Mad Scientist is currently lying on the couch "watching football with his eyes closed" on his amazing new TV.

I got Spec the Halls launched. A couple of submissions and subscriptions to the weekly newsletter have trickled in. I'm still metaphorically biting my nails a bit, but not too badly. Those of you who might want to follow along should send an email to specthehalls@gmail.com with "Subscription" in the subject line, if you haven't already.

And right now, I'm feeling very thankful that we didn't get in the threatened coding project on Friday, so I have a nice long weekend of relaxing ahead of me. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Guess all those personality tests weren't lying after all....

So, yes! Big exciting news! I have been/will be given a promotion, a raise, the ability to work from home a certain amount of the time, a company cellphone/pager, a company-subsidized high-speed internet connection, and a percentage of the profits for the area that I will be supervising.

Huh.

I am excited. I am also highly suspicious (as is my nature) and suspect that I'll have to be both talented and lucky to keep from a) losing these lovelies, or b) ending up working way, way too much.

Good thing I'm both talented and lucky! *knock on wood*

To celebrate, I will be going to Red Dragon for dinner and drinks tonight. Join me! Showing up a bit before 6:00 pm and stay until somewhere between 7:30 and 9:00ish.

Oddly enough, absolutely nobody commented on the bruise on my chin. Perhaps because it was a red-colored bruise? Maybe they all thought I had a particularly bad outbreak of acne or something? Maybe they were all thinking don't-wanna-know really hard? Most peculiar.

I was running late for work(1), as is my habit, so I didn't even cover it up with concealer or anything. This resulted in me meeting with my boss and my boss' boss with a weird red blotch on my chin. Joy.

However! In good news, it seems that they are working on some ways to let me work from home, in a limited sort of way, which would make me very happy. In confusing news, they also offered me something else which could be either good or bad, may be extremely time-consuming, could be profitable, is definitely interesting, and about which I shall say no more until things are actually Properly Sorted Out. As is my nature, I am taking it all with a grain of salt large enough to knock a man unconscious.

Also, since I am horribly busy, anybody want to make $40 by taking my old commuter bike and replacing the inner tubes and tires for me, thus making it functional once more? Buehler?

I've gone through the last couple of days absolutely convinced that today was Friday. Emotionally, that is. I *know* better, but it feels like Friday, damn it! Working on Sunday, not to mention switching off between jobs and not going to Tae Soo Do because of injury, has completely bollixed up my internal calendar of days...and it ain't that reliable to begin with.

Tomorrow will be a bit cuckoo for cocoa-puffs.

Back to the Owl for work on a rush project. As of right now, it looks like I'll be working there for the rest of this week, as well as the weekend (at least Sunday, maybe Saturday as well if I can bring myself to it--and since we're kind of strapped for cash right now, the Mad Scientist is pushing me to bring myself to it). However, I have a story going up tomorrow, and I'd really like to have at least a skeleton of the writing side of my website done around then...that's a project I can only really work on when I have access to wi-fi, which is a large part of why it hasn't been done yet.

So I'm thinking working until 3:30, bussing to the library, using their wi-fi to put up the basics of the writing side of my website (with nice chapter excerpts from the novels, bio, and mention of this here blog) until 4:45, and then skittering off to catch bus for home, shower, eat, and head to Tae Soo Do class (assuming I feel the same or better than I do now).

Two resources I'd like: 1) good, free guestbook code, 2) something that will take the raw data of who looked at my site when etc. and convert it into an easily readable report tracking where viewers came from, what order they viewed pages, how long they stayed, etc. Hmm. Bonus points for somebody pointing me towards code for a little text box that visitors can type their email into so I can add 'em to a mailing list. Yeah. That'd be good, for starters.

Dreamed last night that I got a phone call from work, and there was work, and I was going to make enough money to cover all the bills.

Woke up. Entirely false.

Called in to work, no work, reminded that I was willing to work nightshift tonight if anything came in. Bleh.

On the plus side, I found my resume, so I'm updating it and I'll call a couple of temp agencies today. I haven't had to be businesslike in my wardrobe in...three years. I have the feeling that jeans with holes in the knees won't cut it in interviews, though. Blech.

I've decided not to go to the Hwa Rang Do tournament in Wisconsin, despite

chesh's very generous offer to cover my transportation costs. The reasons are financial. I hope. I think I'm being responsible and making the right choice. I'm posting this to help clarify my own thoughts.

( Reasons/Rationale/Rationalizations/Excuses/Whining...take your pick. )

After making the decision, I felt a little bit of regret and wistfulness, but no "wrong-decision, must-try-not-to-think-about-results/alternatives," so I'm pretty sure that I made the right choice for the right reasons. I had trouble sleeping last night because I was fretting over this; I'll sleep well tonight, I hope.

I might have to tolerate some instructorly disapproval, though....

Me: Ah, so you're waking up! You should get up; the house is warm now. (leans over for kiss)
Muse: Agh! You lied to me! You're cold, and therefore, the house is cold. Because you're cold-blooded, like a lizard. You're always the exact temperature of the surroundings. (shivers) Go find yourself a rock to sun yourself on, woman! I'm staying in bed forever.

Me: Hey, Jon, what do you think of "Blood Mother, Ice Mother" as a short story title?

malcubed: Sounds like a great insult!

Me:I can't use prismatic.
Muse: What are you trying to describe?
Me: A carapace of ice forming around her heart.
Muse: What?
Me: (sigh) Ice crystals.
Muse: They sparkle? Like a sparkly-sparkly? They're shiny. Like a shiny demon.

Last but not least, WTF quotes from the tax forms:
* "Certain whaling captains may be able to claim a charitable deduction for whale hunting expenses. See Gifts to Charity on page A-6 for more details."
* "Examples of Medical and Dental Payments You Cannot Deduct [...] Illegal operations or drugs."
* "Contributions You Cannot Deduct [...] Value of blood given to a blood bank."

Cost for removing a malfunctioning appendix: $19,000.

So happy that I finally have health insurance.

They better pay up.

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I Like Home.

Twittered Today

Dream Fragments

Writing Log: I Hate Taxes

A Relaxing Weekend: Just the Ticket

Sale! Sale! Sale!

Car Go Boom

Phew.

I Am A Bad Monkey

Summing Up A Day

Woe is me, for I may not have the Roomba....

Buh-bye, Student Loan!

Thanksgiving

Me? Somebody's Boss?

Step 3. Profit.

Crazymaking Schedule and Procrastinating Websites

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No Tournament For Me

Entertaining in word or print.

Thank God for Health Insurance

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