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And all I really want is some patience / A way to calm the angry voice / And all I really want is deliverance --Alanis Morissette, in "All I Really Want" |
Sunday, November 5, 2000 A Taxing Evening Back in April, I filed my federal taxes on time for once, courtesy of a free service from Yahoo! and H&R Block. I did not, however, file my state taxes, there not being a corresponding free online service for that. I figured I'd either figure out how to do them myself, or I'd pass them along to my uncle the accountant. My first attempt at figuring out the forms myself left me in utter despair, and I never quite got around to passing my information along to my uncle. In the meantime, I haven't been able to apply for state financial aid, which has in turn cut into my student loan. The upshot of which is that I currently have no way to pay my rent this month. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to hit somebody up for a short-term loan, but that'll only just get me past the crisis at hand. (And that only barely, 'cause the phone and library bills have simultaneously hit crisis point also. I see lots of macaroni in my immediate future.) So clearly the key was to resolve the state tax situation pronto, thus making me eligible for state aid (for the first time ever, having finally lived on my own long enough to qualify as an independant), and solving pretty much all my problems. With the knowledge that the cavalry was coming through, I could then borrow enough to limp through the month. In theory, anyway. (Oh, my gosh, I still have a wedding in Chicago at the end of the month... Merde.) Anyway. Let's skip to today. Less than an hour ago, to be precise. I went back to the Web and did what I decided I should have done back in April. I spent the twenty bucks for the software that would do my state taxes for me. I punched in my debit card information, spent about a half hour downloading the file, and double-clicked the icon to start the installation. Which is when I found out that the state tax software doesn't work without the federal tax software. This is the point where I began drawing extensively upon my research into dirty words. So I spent another ten bucks on the [long string of expletives deleted] federal tax software, which I'm downloading right now. Or, no, only eight bucks, there being a twenty percent discount on my return purchase. Joy. This, by the way, is an hour-long download. And if this doesn't work, and you happen to hear of somebody setting H&R Block's headquarters on fire tonight... well, you'll know whom to blame.
I oughta be writing about the rest of my day, I suppose -- I met Elaine for pizza and wandered around with her for a few hours, this time on my home turf in Queens, which was nice -- but I'm feeling just a bit overwrought just now. I think I'll be getting back to everything else next time, then.
Several hours later: Okay. Finished the download of the federal tax program, then the additional download of the (free) updates to said program. Found that I could not simply input the results of what I'd actually filed on my 1040EZ, but, rather, I had to do everything from scratch. Ohhhhkaaaay. Fine. Either way, I'd need my W-2 forms, and that was no problem, because the one thing I can depend upon in the chaos that is my room is that my important financial papers -- including my W-2s -- are in the magnetic pocket on the side of my refrigerator. So all I had to do was get them, and I'd be ready to roll. Yes, sir, just that simple. Y'all see where I'm headed with this, right?
So, no, of course they weren't there. So I'm now in the middle of the long overdue cleaning of my room. I undoubtedly have 'em somewhere that was easily accessable at the time, but has since been buried in a few strata of other papers and stuff. And now I've just gotta find 'em before I go to sleep, which is already overdue, 'cause I got very little sleep last night, and I have an ocular plastic surgeon to see in the morning. I do so love complications...
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