Visiting the tax lady

I'm a pretty do-it-yourself kind of gal. I was raised to be strong and independent and, more importantly, frugal (i.e. Dutch), so I have come to the conclusion that if I can make it/fix it/do it myself, why pay to buy it/hire someone to do it for me?

Especially when part of the title of said thing-that-needs-doing it "EZ."

So now that tax time is rolling around, and because I'm going to Italy in a little more than a month, I thought it was high time I fill out the good ol' 1040EZ and get what's owed to my by that great body we call the federal government.

Except for one little problem, my plan would have gone off without a hitch: after following the directions carefully and completing the form, it stated that I owed the government $76.23!

What?!

Obviously, I have never run into such a conundrum before, so I consulted my father, who suggested I take it to H&R Block. They will do your 1040EZ for you for free. Since this only hurt my independent pride and not my wallet, I decided to follow his advice.

So I called H&R Block, made an appointment and dragged myself down there with all the paperwork at the appropriate time. Just in time, in fact, to wait for 15 minutes for the next available consultant. I ask you, what was the point of making an appointment?

Anyway, a fairly unfriendly lady named Luanne greeted me and took me back to her cubicle. I told her my story -- that I had already done the 1040EZ and was just double-checking with their free services. She said rather curtly that to look over the form I already did would cost 20 bucks, but for her to just do a new one was free.

I was getting the distinct feeling that she felt I was wasting her time.

So she proceeded to fill out an online form, and guess what she came up with?

I owe the government $77.

Then she had the audacity to ask me if I wanted her to do my state taxes, for a small fee of course. All I could think was, "You have just proven that I have no need for you." But all I said was a polite, "No, thanks!"

*sigh* I guess I must really be an adult. Clearly, I need to go back to school or start popping out a few kids just so the government can start shelling out the bucks again! But hey, at least I know that I can do my own taxes ... for now.

"Thank goodness air and salvation are still free." - Aunt Jamesina, 'Anne of the Island,' by L.M. Montgomery

Plans and talents and things

It is a truth universally acknowledged that life never goes quite as we plan it.

Take me for example.

In my wildest childhood dreams (or nightmares, perhaps), I never would have imagined that I would be a single woman living with her dog at the age of 25. My mom was married at the age of 19, gave birth to me when she was 20, and had my sister the next year, so I, being a kid like every other kid in the world, assumed this was how life as and that mine would follow suit.

Of course, as I got older, I realized this did not mesh with my college plans, so I upped my marriage plans to age 22 – 24 at the latest.

Clearly, God had other plans. Or maybe he had the same plans, and I messed them up. In any case, here I am, leading a life of freedom where I am able to plan trips to Guatemala and Italy and who knows where else after that. So I guess I can’t complain.

And while I’ve always loved writing, I’ve started wondering lately if my love of writing should have been playing a bigger part in my plans. At the very least, perhaps I shouldn’t have stopped doing it almost altogether. While my career plans from about second grade through freshman year of college were to teach, that’s another plan that never came to fruition – I decided to write, instead, working toward journalism. Later, I decided it would be much more fun to read for a living, rather than write, so I made my goal to be a book editor. Who knows if that will ever happen or not (still hoping!), but here I am now doing neither – editing newspaper copy and designing pages. A fun job? Sure. What I planned? Not even close!

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about that parable about the man who gives his servants “talents” and then leaves for awhile. The servants do various things with their talents – invest them or bury them in the dirt for safekeeping or use them to gain even more – and when the man comes back, he rewards the servants who used their talents wisely and punishes the man who buried his in the sand. The point being, of course, that we need to be using the gifts God gave us.(In case you are unfamiliar with this parable, you can read it here.)

I’m not sure if I have any gifts, and if I do, what they are. But I can’t help but wonder if writing could be one of mine. Obviously, I’m a bit rusty, but hopefully a bit of practice will shine me up again. So I’ve created this blog, on which I plan to post something every day … or at least every other day. I’ve thought about doing this plenty of times, but let’s face it – I lead a boring life, so I never felt like I would have anything worth writing about. But I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way to remedy that problem is to start leading a life worth writing about!

So here’s to hoping this blog won’t be absolute crap. I’d love to have you come along for the ride. Let’s see if I can stick to the plan, eh?

"But of course we can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts." - Mrs. Whatsit, "A Wrinkle in Time"