Something new today - I've decided to start a Puzzle of the Day. It's at the bottom of the entry. With luck, there will be a new puzzle every day, and I'll post the solution the next day. No, I won't tell you what the answer is in advance.
We got a postcard in the mail yesterday: "Dear Taxpayer: Please call the Commissioner of Revenue's Office within five days of receipt of this notice in regards to your Virginia State Income Tax Return." But someone had scrawled "Good News!" at the bottom of the card, so I thought perhaps I had made an arithmetic error (which I've been known to do, though I thought I had checked our return twice) and the correction was in our favor.
Not even close. The nice lady I talked to explained that she had re-worked our return with the status Married Filing Separately, and that instead of having to pay the state a couple of hundred dollars, we were actually due to get a little back! Wow!
Before you ask, I had fully intended to do the math for both joint and separate filings, to see which turned out better. But the first line of the VA Tax form asks you to fill in the adjusted income from our federal forms - and because we were taking advantage of Matt's student loans, we'd had to file our federal return jointly. Since there was only one number to fill in, I had no idea how to fill out the state form for separate filings. (The form allows you to file separately on the same piece of paper. It's weird.) So I just filed jointly, and assumed that filing separately would only have saved us a couple of bucks anyway.
Next year, I'll have to remember.
Last night while I was waiting for the Weight Watcher's meeting to start, I started making a list of things that I could talk about in this journal. It covered a wide range of topics, from the deep and thoughtful to the simple and silly. Politics, guys I've dated, religion, favorite books and movies, friendship, gaming... They all seemed like such good topics. Worth talking about.
But how does one start talking about something, without an event to spark the topic? Would it make sense to any of you if I suddenly went off into an explanation of how I got into gaming? Or if I wrote an essay on my religious beliefs? No, I didn't think so. Other journals that I read don't seem to have any problems with this. They talk about childhood experiences, and the things that are important to them, and it never seems forced to me. But I sat down to write and opened my Zaurus to pick something off the list, and I couldn't think of how to start a single topic.
Oh, well. I won't toss the list away. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to make it read like it was just something that had been on my mind.
I broke my promise and whined about aerobics this morning. I was already in a somewhat irritable mood because this rash I've had lately was especially itchy, and I thought we were skipping class because the teacher wasn't going to be there. So when Matt said, "Oh yeah, we don't have our bags for class," and went to put his together, I slipped and whined a little bit about it. So sue me. I don't think we've had this sub before, so I guess I have to give her a chance. But if she's rude to me, I'm getting out of the water immediately. I just can't stand people being rude to me. But I guess I can clench my teeth and get through this class, because we won't be going on Friday (we're going out of town) or Monday (we're having dinner with friends). But I don't have to like it.
Enough growling.
Something weird: It seems these days like half my friends and acquaintances either just had a baby, are pregnant (or their wives are, smartass), or they're trying to have a baby. Oh, I know it's not really that many - it just seems like it. And some of them aren't actively trying right now - but they talk excitedly about the possibility of children for the future. I'm a little weirded out by the whole thing, because Matt and I have decided that we're definitely not having any children for the next couple of years, and we're pretty sure we don't want any at all. I'll get into our reasons another time, but that's what we decided.
But all these pregnant people and children around me have me wondering if we really mean it when we say we don't want any. Sometimes we run into a particularly obnoxious specimen, or the kid's classes at the pool are extraordinarily loud, and I feel vindicated. But almost as often, I encounter a sweet child and wish I could take them home with me. And I haven't managed to turn off my animal instincts completely, so the look and smell and feel of a quiet, happy baby is very pleasant. And every once in a while, I really want to hold a baby in my arms and sing in my terrible singing voice... But that little bit certainly isn't enough to base the decision to become a parent on, is it? Especially when the desire can be so easily quelled. Any child under the age of about 6 is looked at with suspicion when we're in public. You never know when they're going to start making that shrieking noise that makes my brain feel like it's shriveling up and trying to escape out my ears. And I read in other journals online about all the problems those parents have with their kids, and I wonder how I could ever do that to myself while admiring those parents for their obvious deep love and devotion.
I brought it up because last night we saw our friends Chuck and Anita in person (as opposed to via e-mail) for the first time in months, and Anita is hugely pregnant. We've known she was pregnant for a good while - she's due at the beginning of June - but the last time we saw them, she wasn't showing much yet. And as I thought about it, I found myself really looking forward to seeing and playing with their baby.
Oh, I don't know. It's all too confusing. I'm going to get back to work; you go look at the Puzzle of the Day.
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