Taxes = done

I filed our first joint taxes on Sunday evening. Seppo and I both ran through our taxes separately and then jointly to see how things looked. It came out almost exactly the same, but we opted to file together since we only have to pay one set of fees to TurboTax.

We are getting a return, which pretty much means we were withholding too much during the year, but frankly, I prefer this situation to underwithholding and having to pay.

Carnival

On Saturday, Seppo and I headed over the local carnival. I love carnivals, nonsensically and nostalgically. I love the noise, the lights, the rides, the terrible games, the ripoff prices, the atrocious food, the dingy atmosphere, the whole package.

Pretty much anytime I see a carnival going on, I want to go. This is how the evening broke down for us:

9:00 PM: Pay $3 per person admission fee to get in, scope out the lay of the land.
9:10 PM Buy a ride ticket bundle
9:11 PM Get on the Ferris Wheel
One second later: Grip each others hands in sincere fear and tell each other what a terrible, ironic death it would be if we died one day before our one year anniversary. Tell each other we love each other because we are both sure we will not live to say it again.
9:15 PM Get off the Ferris Wheel, glad to be alive.
Ten seconds later: Get on the Himalaya.
Ten seconds later: Start to scream and laugh that this was the worst idea ever. Involuntarily head bang to the speed metal that they’ve chosen to accompany this ride every time we hit the two fake bumps in the track. I was pretty convinced that I’d get whiplash and snap my neck off.
9:20 PM: Get off the Himalaya, ears ringing, eyes bugging, laughing hysterically.
9:35 PM: Buy more tickets after scoping around to see how many more tickets we need in addition to what we already have so that we can ride one more ride together.
9:40 PM: Get on the Gravitron.
9:45 PM: Get off the Gravitron, convinced that it is the BEST. RIDE. EVAR. and wanting to puke.
Ten seconds later: Lean against tree, stumble over to a bench and sit, trying not to hurl.
9:47 PM: Buy cotton candy while Seppo still sits, trying not to hurl.
9:50 PM: Walk around a little. Realize that we are just not going to be functional for a while.
9:55 PM: Drive back from carnival.

The rest of the night was spent trying to recover from the Gravitron, i.e. trying not to puke.

All in all, a great night. 😀

Duh/A-ha!

I just had one of those moments “a-ha” moments. Yes, you know, when you walk through a comic book and turn from a real life person into a line drawing, but when you look backward, you can see the real world you just came from.

Not really.

In reality, I was IMing with my friend today when the following conversation snippet ensued:

me: man, i wish i were wealthy sometimes
friend: ya? what would you do with it?
me: not work!!! 😀 read, write, sew, cook, watch tv, travel

Guess what, me? I already do all those things. I would want to quit work so I’d have more time to devote to the other things, but not because I dislike work or working. I enjoy a lot of what I do. There are things here and there as there would be for any job, but for the most part, I really enjoy my work, my coworkers, and my working environment.

Anyway, I digress. The point is that the things I’d really like to do, I’m already doing. What the?!

This reminds me of a blog entry I had made last summer and h’s response to it. It’s not even that I need more time to the degree that I need to quite my job or replace it with another job in which I’m being paid for what I enjoy, which is what I worried about in my response to her. I’m already there. I need to get better at time (and downtime) management, but that’s really it.

The mind boggles.