wherein Liz has A Day

[edenfalling]

Today has been A Day.

Hill Boss texted me yesterday to ask if I could work 9-5 at Not the IRS instead of 9-1, and I said okay even though that meant rescheduling various errands and chores I'd meant to do this afternoon.

The day started out slow until about 10am, at which point it went... slightly weird. First, one of my rental company coworkers came in, and I was the only preparer free, but she refused to have me do my taxes because apparently the rental company owner (let's call him Mr. Bigshot) has, or at least used to have, an instant termination policy for employees who discussed their wages with any other employee. This is blatantly illegal, and I said as much, but she didn't want to risk it so she waited until one of my coworkers was free.

Then I had to finish a tax prep job that someone else had started, but the clients didn't want to wait for that coworker to be in the office and insisted it get finished by whoever was free right then. Which was me. And it turned out that they also had three years of prior returns that needed amending -- both federal and state -- and wanted to sit there and wait while I worked through the process under the assumption that it would take, I dunno, twenty minutes. (Spoiler: this is not a reasonable time estimate.) Fortunately one of my coworkers explained to them that this was not a good use of their time, and got them to leave with a promise to call them when everything was ready for pickup.

Then I thought I'd eat lunch and pick up my prescription renewal... but we got a walk-in and I was the only person free. I finished that client (which involved fighting the Massachusetts health care form; I cordially loathe that form) and again tried to go on lunch break... and we got another walk-in, and I was still the only person free. *headdesk*

I did finally manage to escape and buy a sandwich -- two hours late is better than never!

In the afternoon I finished the dratted amends (and even made sure to provide correctly addressed envelopes for all six, because customer service), dealt with a bunch of filing, fixed a glitch on one return so our system would actually send it to the IRS, answered a lot of phone calls, and played receptionist since we didn't actually have a receptionist today.

I clocked out at 5pm, sped through my grocery shopping... and then the bus was late. *double headdesk* So I got home late, put my groceries away late, and headed into town to my Stewardship committee meeting even later than I'd already notified the other members I would be.

They were nice and had saved me two slices of pizza. *wry*

And now I am home, have unwound, boiled a dozen eggs, and am ready to read the Anthropology chapter I'd planned to read earlier today, but which got understandably shuffled FAR down on my priority list. *dons resolve face, opens PDF*

(46 hours of work this week, counting Sunday-to-Saturday, and it's only going to get worse until tax day. Ah well, the money gets me through the rest of the year!)

Comments

[branchandroot]

That's a Day, all right. Urgh. On the bright side, if you can deal with classes /during tax season/, then the rest of the year should be a snap in comparison?

[edenfalling]

That is my mantra for the next three months. *wry*

[the_rck]

Good luck with the anthropology! I can't recall-- is this a specifically focused class or something more general?

[edenfalling]

Thanks! It's a general intro to cultural anthropology, so nothing terribly specialized.

I am slightly dreading the chapter on gender, though, since the chapter I just finished (on performance) managed to persistently conflate gender identity with gender roles. *sigh* Well, I guess that will make a ready point to raise in next week's discussion?

[the_rck]

The intro class I took, about 17 years ago, considered gender entirely a cultural construct and all about what each culture assigned to each sex. Sex was physical/biological (we did not discuss anything about being trans*). The instructor really hammered in the idea that sex and gender were terms with different meanings. I think it was secondary to her efforts to get us to see race as a cultural construct and to get across that cultural constructs are both very real and potentially changeable.

At any rate, 'sex' was a descriptive category based on physical features while 'gender' was a set of behaviors taught and expected based on observed sex. The idea was that sex was an absolute category that couldn't be changed (which wasn't true in 2000 any more than now).

As I recall sexuality was a third, entirely different, thing.

I took that class before I had spent much time online for anything but work and email. I took a while to figure out the meanings in use in various online communities.

Anyway, a science based on studying people needs to be repeatedly kicked for reset purposes because everyone has biases that make seeing what's there more difficult.

[edenfalling]

Yeah. The depressing thing is that this textbook was written within the last couple years, so you'd think people would know better by now! But both the chapter authors study highly gendered areas of cultural expression (martial arts and competition dancing), so I guess it's not too surprising that they have a slightly more rigid idea of gender roles.

[radiantfracture]

And it turned out that they also had three years of prior returns that needed amending -- both federal and state

Of course they did. And yet somehow it could not wait today...

(I used to do taxes.)

{rf}

[edenfalling]

Yeah. It's not like they will see any of the money from the amends any time soon, and yet, they needed to be finished ASAP. *sigh*

[wistfulmemory]

You are amazing, and I am glad you made it through the day successfully. I wish you all the luck in keeping this hectic schedule up for the next few months.

[edenfalling]

I managed it last year (minus the college) while pretty solidly mired in depression, so I think this year will go fine. I'll probably still be tired and kind of frazzled by April, but eh, that's life. *wry*