Fuck The Man

I think I may be financially even right now. After months of running up my credit card, wiping out my savings, scrimping and worrying and working my butt off and obsessing about whether I could afford to buy a glass of beer or a dinner out, I think I've finally broken even just in time for paying rent in April.

That is, until you consider taxes. I'm supposed to get back about $430 from the federal government and the state of Massachusetts, which is cool, but because I'm self-employed I think I have to pay taxes quarterly. And the quarter is up. My dad wants me to talk to my aunt about it, because she was a corporate accountant for a long time and knows her stuff, but I'm having a hard time getting everything pulled together and trying to find the time to go see her. She lives about an hour away, and I haven't seen her in maybe two years, so it's not going to be a short visit. But she hasn't said that there's any urgency, so I'm gonna take my time. Fuck the government and them taxing me. I should be able to keep all my money. It's not like I'm getting very much.

Spring has been good. I'm trying to get my bike out more, since there's more daylight (yay!), but work can be distracting, and I'm trying to ride Topper regularly and work out, too. I know Dan wishes I went out more. I wish I did too. But his first love is cycling, and my first love is Topper.

Just the other day I realized we're just a few weeks shy of Easter, and April is next week. When the hell did that happen? Has it already been that long since I left Boston? I got my diploma in the mail Friday, which was exciting, but then it also made me think about how student loans will be kicking in soon (as well as payments on the bike). Even with breaking even-ish, I can work myself into a stressball thinking about how quickly time has gone.

Dan is going to Cleveland at the end of May for a reporting internship after graduation. He's going to be there for at least 3 months, I think, and I know he's hoping for a full-time job out of it. He went up for a few days over spring break, and evidently everyone who's a reporter there now was an intern at some point. It's a larger paper, and they have a lot of moving around with people in and out and changing beats, to keep the paper from getting stagnant.

What excites me about Cleveland is they actually seem to pay attention to science and health stories--they had a story about moon dust on the front page. (Evidently it's like glass dust and got through the ventilation systems of astronauts' suits, causing moon hay fever.) And there's rumour that they're planning on expanding their coverage. So if Dan gets a full-time job, I'd consider moving up there if I can also find something. Plus, it's a huge city for health stuff (ie, The Cleveland Clinic and its heart patients), so hopefully I could find something.

Just when I got out of the cold, I'm considering going back and living on the edge of a great lake. I must be nuts. Topper's gonna need another heavy blanket, I think.