Earning My Keep

I got the call at 5:15 this morning that my services at work would not be needed today. Like I told Matt--I love being able to sleep in and hang out with him in the morning, but it would be nice if I could figure out a way to get paid for it, too!

To try to offset the financial loss, I'm doing my best to make my way through our taxes today so that we don't have to pay to get it done. (Pay more than what H&R Block Online charges, anyway--but it still pales in comparison to an accountant.) Given the fact that in 2007 we got married, we've each been full-time students at some point during the year, we earned income in three states plus DC, and we've held a total of 6 different jobs, it's a real treat. I'm not even going to think about the fact that our W-2's also list an assortment of last names!

So far, our federal taxes are finished but not filed, because apparently there's a holdup right now with how the government is going to process education credits. So they're sitting with H&R Block until whatever the sticking point is gets fixed. Wisconsin's paper form is done, but not sent because I have to wait until our federal taxes can be filed. Iowa and Virginia are likewise done but not filed. DC is next, but we have to do paper and they're mailing it to me. That one will likely be the most complicated.

Besides that, I'm also working on continuing to process our name change. Because one of the major motivating factors for changing was so that we would have one name on everything, following through with that means sitting on the phone with every bank and credit card we have, making copies of our marriage license and court order, etc. It's a pain in the butt, but the only way we would have avoided it would have been to keep entirely separate names--and that causes headaches of its own, especially once kids come into the picture. So at least now, we're doing it at our leisure and we're doing it early enough in the game that it will hopefully fade into the background before too long.

Speaking of complicated, now that my birthday draws nigh, it's time to start thinking about titling and registering the car in Virginia... which we can't do until we have Virginia licenses, which we're planning to get when our new Social Security cards come. We also have to pay to get the car emissions-tested first.

I'm also working on finishing my application to Shenandoah. They require documentation of the number of clinical hours I've worked as a nurse...so I need to figure out what those hours are, then get somebody to verify them. That this has occurred at three different hospitals may pose a challenge. I also need to send out recommender "forms" to everybody who's writing me a letter of recommendation. And then I need to sit down and start the mind-numbing process of filling in my Activities, my Employment, and my Honors and Awards for the past how-many years.

On top of that, I'm itching to get going on some volunteer work, especially since my actual job is a little spotty these days. Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is high on my list right now--it would sort of take Big Brothers Big Sisters one step further in that I would be getting to know kids in the Virginia court system, and then actually making recommendations as to whether I think it would be in their best interest to remain in foster care, go back to their families, or be released for adoption. I'm sure it's very intense, but I feel like it would be a good match for the impulses that drove me to law school (remember that?). I'm also still waiting for another training to come up for RAINN, because I missed the last one to come to Iowa. And of course, there are mountains of paperwork that need to be completed for each.

On (for me) a more interesting note, yesterday I made a pot of cream of broccoli soup, pumpkin dinner rolls, and a big batch of peppermint brownies.