Even the Best Laid Plans...

I have high hopes for 2009. I want to do a lot of travelling. I want to go to San Fran, the Florida Keys, Scotland, and every other beautiful place I can think of and I want to take my boyfriend with me.

I think the universe may be conspiring against me however. I have some financial obligations that are starting to take precedence over everything else, ensuring that I'll have to work a little bit more to pay them off. My savings account has dwindled a little, as has my 401k so I need to work on replenishment. I need a new car. I need to pay off some purchases. Also, my boyfriend has had some changes at his job making it harder for us to do the things we wanted to do. I'm bummed out. I have noticed though that these workplace changes generally don't last longer than four months or so, so who knows, in June things might be different (and I might have some bills paid off and some money in the bank).

I'm tranferring to our Newark domestic base in a few weeks. And while I'm pretty excited about it, I'm also kind of nervous, because commuting is a pain and can be stressful. Concurrently, I'll be holding some pretty sweet schedules and lots of days off so that I can move some days around and ultimately work when I want to work.

I'll complete ten years at my company by the end of this September, which will bring me some cool perks. My favorite is that I won't have to pay to non-rev anymore. Commuting to work will be FREE and I can do it at my pass class seniority level. YAY. It's kind of amazing to me that I've been at my company for almost ten whole years. Almost a third of my life.

My boyfriend and I have been mulling a few things these past few weeks. The weather in northern Ohio is starting to get to us. The cold and snow has been neverending - in fact we had about two feet of snow on the ground for about two weeks. I can't remember that happening since I lived in New York. We are thinking about moving...south...someday. We kick around Columbus because it's closer to his kids. We kick around Dallas because it's warmer and my brother and sister law (and soon a new neice or nephew!) are there. Houston enters into the equation occasionally. (We don't consider NJ because while parts of it are pretty and we've both lived there in the past, we are probably priced out of living in a decent area.)

Sometimes, you just have to wait and see what happens though. I like being in control of my life, being the one who makes things happen. I'm not really what I would call a risk-taker but some of my plans haven't been the best moves (through no fault of my own, and I'm making do - you know, lemonade out of lemons and all that - and thanks so much, stupid crappy economy!) I've learned that the key to making myself happy is to not be afraid of making changes and to know what I want so that I can make a plan to achieve it. But sometimes, even the best planning doesn't account for every pitfall. So now I guess it's time to hunker down and wait.

Sleepless in Belfast

As I was waiting for sleep to overtake me last night, I was thinking about various things, but mostly about my tax returns. I was trying to make a list, when really I needed a spreadsheet, to figure out what will happen. I've got two houses. I worked two jobs last year. I have special considerations in regards to per diem with my job. It's all way over my head.

So I laid awake with all of this echoing in my head, trying to work some fancy math, and I realized I was having an OCD moment. Occasionally, a word will pop into my head, like Blagojevich (which I still can't pronounce properly) and I just keep repeating it. I don't say it out loud, but I may mouth the word, roll it around on my tongue, see how it feels as I form the word. In the middle of my sleep-deprived rambling, my head started to echo Blagojevich.

Anyway, I finally came to the realization that I needed to just call a local tax person and see if they could accommodate my requirements. I've only done Turbo Tax up til now. I'm always hesitant to hire professionals to do professional things, like carpet cleaners, or tax professionals, or attorneys, but sometimes you have to do these things.

The last time I consulted an attorney, for instance, it was an old friend's brother, someone I didn't particularly get along with in my teens, but we've grown out of that, right? I was having some issues with my tenants in my rental condo; they wanted to terminate their lease early but they had found me a replacement tenant. I don't know anything about background checks, or breaking leases, or subletting, or anything like that. I'm just doing this because I couldn't sell the damn place in this crapola economy and I didn't want to live there anymore, and I had already built my new townhouse. Anyway, I panicked. I didn't follow through with an appointment with this guy, and even though it was a year ago, I still feel badly about it. Luckily, my tenant paid on time with minimal issues (despite constant complaints from downstairs neighbors that I think even the condo association people realized were crazy).

Things are getting more complicated as I get older. I feel the old familiar urge to procrastinate, to try to not think about things, but I've also found that the sooner you deal with these things, the better off you are, the more able you are to accommodate and plan. So, as soon as recurrent training is over with, my attentions will be turned to my taxes.

I just wish that, when I'm laying sleepless in the middle of the night, I could think about more pleasant topics.