Done yesterday (20090415)

[mdlbear]

0415 We
  & Needed extra quilt.  May have forgotten my CPAP.  Sore throat. :(
  * up 5:30ish; W=191; drugs, nose; coffee, C.  
  * follow up Baycon concert grovel
  * tgl: type in and email song list
  * bring Colleen her laundry, outreach phone#
  * 11am talk at CRC on evolution of social networks
  * mail Colleen's jury duty excuse
  * Call to Colleen: walked 25, 35, 27 ft.
    ! Happy.  Fantastic progress.
  * 12:39 buy TaxCut -at Fry's on the way home- _online_
  * short walk
  * Taxes: don't owe, so filed for extension.  Some info missing.
    ! uncontrolled fury at TaxCut and its moronic UI
    ! relief when extension mailed
    ! annoyance at myself and my procrastination
  * Visit to Colleen.  Can transfer between bed and walker.
  * lightly-attended Wednesday.  Still needed bandwidth reduction to handle.
  * talk with Jilara about Kat's shipping.  
    = will leave two weeks from today
  & 10:30 everyone's gone.  Weird.  Must have driven them all off.
  * laundry for Colleen
  * Colleen's laundry -> drier
  * bed ~11:15

On the good side, Colleen walked a total of 87 feet in her morning session, and practiced transferring from the bed to the walker and back in the afternoon. So things are looking hopeful.

Other than that, though it was a day made of fail caused entirely by my own procrastination. I usually rely on the people around me, Colleen and Chaos in particular, to prod me about Things That Need Doing, like taxes and filling out my guest questionaire for Baycon (which I did this morning, a day late).

Taxes were particularly harrowing, in part because of TaxCut's user interface fail (which provides two ways of printing an extension, one of which works and one of which makes it look like you've zeroed out your entire return), and in part because a buyout at the end of the year left me with an unexpected $30K capital transaction. Luckily, it worked out to a $3K loss, which helped. I need to keep much better records and closer tabs on my finances, don't I?

I'm not at all happy about the way I snapped at people while I was doing my taxes. I should probably have just shut the door at the outset, after warning people not to disturb me -- when I'm concentrating on something tricky and disagreeable I seem to be totally incapable of civilized behavior. One thing that did help was that Alison found some gluten-free chocolate cake in the freezer as soon as she heard me cursing at the computer, and had it sitting on the counter when I finally emerged.

It was a lightly-attended Wednesday, but even so I wasn't up for handling it.

I am feeling particularly down on myself right now. Procrastination and failure. Typical.

Comments

[dejla.livejournal.com]

I admit I left my taxes for the last moment, but mine are simple at this point, and I use TurboTax, which does most of the work for me, but I don't have any difficult capital taxes or anything.

And procrastinators are us.

Hey, everyone's entitled to a bad day.

[mdlbear]

I usually leave at least a couple of days for catching up on the stuff I missed on the first pass. I've been using TaxCut for years; it's usually been pretty good.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I procrastinated on my taxes this year. Mailed them out yesterday, and realized on the way home that the person at the post office had said I needed 20 extra cents worth of postage, then had only charged me 18.

Went home, downloaded the automatic extension of time to file form, and mailed *that* out. It was easy since I had already done the taxes, so knew all the figures, plus didn't owe anything. This way if the taxes get returned for being shy 2 cents of postage, I'll have an extension already and it won't matter.

Anyway, anybody can have a bad day and you're trying to function without your flowercat, so it makes sense that the ball will hit the floor a few times. You did get the extension in, so you're okay.

[mdlbear]

Not the only thing I've procrastinated on lately; some of it won't be as easy to fix as merely filing an extension. Some of it is flat-out impossible to fix, a decade or two later.

If misery loves company, "me too"

[capplor.livejournal.com]

Taxes, meltdown, still not done. H&R block lady said they don't care if you're slow when they have to give it back. IMPORTANT paperwork lost in the move.

I'm thinking of getting a big 3-ring binder, with dividing sections, maybe envelopes that go in there, and ORGANIZING the stuff as I get it.

Re: If misery loves company, "me too"

[mdlbear]

I use hanging folders; I invariably get behind for a variety of reasons, one of which is the fact that it takes me a couple of months to clear out the previous year's folders.

[jcbemis.livejournal.com]

*virtual hugs*

[mdlbear]

Thanks

[victorthecook.livejournal.com]

Seriously -- do you think nobody understands why you'd be grouchy doing the taxes? And under the circumstances?

The nice thing about taxes is that they're a shared experience. We've all been there to one extent or another. We all know what it's like.

Cut yourself some slack -- try not be harder on yourself than you'd be on a friend in a similar situation.

[mdlbear]

It's not so much the taxes per se as the fact that they're merely the latest in a series of often-disastrous, and mostly money-related, procrastinations.