edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Still chugging along through tax season. Today I got one return off hold, but acquired a new client whose return promptly went on hold. It's very much a red queen's race.

On the brighter side, I sent a VERY LONG email to a different client who worked 6 jobs in 2022 but only received W2s from 3 of them and has had no luck getting extra copies despite weeks of calling and emails. Hopefully they'll be able to follow the instructions I sent them for how to request transcripts from the IRS, and get copies of their missing forms. If not, well, we'll file an extension and go the Form 4852 route. (I would really prefer not to do that, partially because I don't work for Not the IRS after tax day and handing a client off to another tax preparer is always messy, but mostly because Form 4852 is inherently a pain in the neck and opens you up for audits and recalculations, and three of them attached to a single tax return is just asking for trouble.)

Hmm.

In non-tax-prep news, we're getting busier at the rental company -- mostly because grad school acceptances are starting to come through and our downtown clientele is about 60-70% grad students. So that's good. I am also back at work on floor plans, because I finally dug up a (terrible) key plan for the second floor of [building redacted] and have been fixing it up between other tasks.

Um, what else...

Oh! Nick had his surgery in late February and has been recovering and doing physical therapy and stuff. It's slow going, but I think overall positive? Also, while loopy on painkillers, he decided that fostering a dog recovering from surgery would a great project to focus on during recovery from his own surgery. Painkillers are a hell of a trip.

The dog in question is about 6 pounds of fluff, and had badly broken his front legs by jumping out of a kitchen sink while his former owners were bathing him; the injury was then compounded by a month of inadequate treatment because they couldn't afford the vet bills. So they relinquished the dog on condition that he be given proper treatment for his legs.

I am starting to suspect that Nick and/or our parents may end up adopting the dog. It's not a sure thing by any means, but he's a sweetheart and I think the companionship would do Nick some good.

Hmm.

Oh! Right, so I have claimed some prompts from this year's Narnia After Dark fest, which I will start working on AFTER tax day, because until then my time and spoons are all spoken for already.

And finally, some medical stuff of my own: 1) my increased dose of Ramipril (blood pressure medication) seems to be working well and I have been significantly less tired after the first 10 days at the new dosage; 2) I have successfully scheduled a colonoscopy for the end of June, which is good because I have a family history of colon cancer and it's a cancer that can all too easily grow unnoticed, so I am very interested in preventative care on that front.

And now I think I will begin to wrap up my night and head off to sleep. :)
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Scheduling stuff:

1. My Anthro final mini-essays are submitted and I am officially DONE for the semester. Of course, my summer classes start on the 30th, but I plan to enjoy the heck out of my week and a half of freedom. :D

2. WIP Big Bang snippets are due tomorrow evening. That's not really a problem for me -- I have ~45,000 extant words of "Lemonade" to choose from, after all -- so I just need to pick three that are A) characteristic and B) would maybe make good illustrations.

3. I return Dottie to NJ on Sunday. On the one hand, this is sad: no more dog. On the other hand, this is wonderful: no more dog. I always underestimate how much having her around throws off my schedule.

4. I agreed to work overtime again this coming week, since we still don't have a replacement for Miss Cactus. "The extra money is worth it," I tell myself. I am starting to wonder if I'm telling myself the truth. *wry*

5. I need to get a haircut in early June. (Should I talk to Vicky about potentially dyeing it purple while we overlap at the cabin...? Hmm. Something to consider.)

6. Should I try to schedule an optometrist appointment this summer? I feel like it's been a while since I got my eyes checked...

7. I failed to give blood yesterday morning -- low hemoglobin, to nobody's surprise -- so I'll try again in a couple-three weeks.

8. I need to buy several new work-appropriate short-sleeve shirts to replace the ones I'm going to pull and donate to my church's recycling sale. (If I don't actually wear them, there is no point in having them take up space in my closet, especially when they would be perfectly good shirts for somebody who isn't me.) I must remember to get to the mall soonish.

9. Maybe I can see Infinity War while I'm out there?

10. I should also remember to buy a replacement pair of brown dress/work shoes sometime this summer.

11. I need to unpack and set up my small floor fans.

12. I should check the book requirements for my summer classes, in case I need to buy actual physical stuff from the TC3 bookstore. That would require a dedicated afternoon and also a cash fare for the return trip, because of TCAT's fare zones.

13. I think I will try weeding the "garden" and planting some squash seeds this coming week. Probably not Monday, but maybe some other evening since I won't have a dog to wrangle anymore.

14. Oh god, I need to start thinking about tax preparer continuing education courses, don't I.

...

Right, that's more than enough to be getting on with at the moment.
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Things I meant to do today: many.

Things I have actually done today: a surprisingly high percentage of that, considering how unexpectedly busy work got!

And now I am off to perambulate a small canine, after which I will continue doing things. :)
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
The bus left Ithaca about 5 minutes late and arrived in Ridgewood about 15-20 minutes late, but eh, whatever. Mom and Dad have headed in to the city for a New York Philharmonic concert, leaving me alone with Dottie. I have fed her, piddled her, and spent an hour with her on my lap while I finished reading Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, which I'd started on the bus.

(Without spoilers, yes, it really is that good. And I need to check the sequel out from the library ASAP!)

Tomorrow morning I will meet Susan for breakfast at Bagel Chateau, after which I will find some way to kill 3 or 4 hours until Mom and I go to an Indian buffet in Morristown for lunch. And then it's back to Ithaca, dog in tow. :)

in threes

Nov. 10th, 2017 06:15 pm
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
So, my day:

In the morning, Dottie barfed in two neat piles on my bedroom carpet.

In the afternoon, my car battery died while I was at the grocery store.

I am a little afraid of what may happen tonight...
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Stuff, in no particular order:

1. This morning I had another follow-up appointment in re: depression. We agreed to stick with the 30mg Celexa dose for now and see if the gastrointestinal issues shake out. If not, I may drop back to 20mg in January and see if that works as a maintenance dose. I also got some other therapist names/numbers to call and see if they either have availability or can give me other people to call.

I have entered the therapists as contacts in my phone, which reduces the psychic barrier I have to calling them. But I think I won't try calling until next week, since I have a different stressful phone call I need to deal with first.

2. Skills training for Not the IRS is now available, and I attended the required live session this afternoon. I will do the online training over the next week. (It's paid training, because this is all company-internal stuff. Yay money!) There will be another live session toward the end of the month, schedule TBD.

3. I need to email somebody at Not the IRS about potentially taking an exam to move up a certification level. I don't think it should be too hard (I do returns at that level anyway; I just don't get auto-suggested for them by our scheduling program), and it would both make me look more professional AND up my not-actually-a-commission rates.

4. Mom and Dad dropped Dottie off Wednesday evening (we also did dinner) and will pick her up again Sunday afternoon (we will do lunch). She is much less mopey than I expected, at least in the sense that she's willing to leave the house and take lengthy walks, though she has been a bit quivery and anxious to keep close to me.

5. I need to make a phone call about some college stuff and I don't want to, blargh. I will try to fortify myself and get that done on Friday, but if not, Monday shouldn't be too catastrophic. (I need to arrange a three-hour orientation/advising session, which I'd prefer to do in November while I still have a car. Otherwise I'd have to catch a bus to and from Dryden and I really don't want to deal with that.)

6. I have been plowing through some backlogged reading material, which is nice both because I have pulled myself together enough to once again do a thing I enjoy, and because I can then dispose of the magazines and books instead of having them sit around in accusing piles.

7. I raked two bags of leaves today, from the front verge of my house and a bit of my driveway. I have not touched the actual front yard, nor the side verge (ugh), nor the back yard (which has become a complete mess since I raked it two weeks ago). I may rake a bit more on Friday... or not, considering it will be both cold and windy and raking in those conditions sounds like a recipe for frustration and misery.

8. I think I will make a batch of Laddie's hotdish next week. That suddenly sounds very appealing to me.

9. I arranged phone dates with Vicky, Susan, and Cat. :)

10. Saturday is my church's annual service auction. I agreed to work as a checkout cashier, which means I'll punch out of the rental office half an hour early, head home to feed and walk Dottie (and feed myself, of course), and then scramble to get to church before the live bidding starts. I will, as always, attempt not to purchase much (if anything), but if there are concert tickets going cheap, I can't speak for my self-control. *wry*

...

And now I am going to take Dottie out for her bedtime mini-constitutional, after which she gets her bedtime snack and we'll both hit the sack. I got up at 6:30am and it has been a long day.
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
1. Tomorrow is annual employee evaluation day at the rental company. I escaped this circus last year since I'd only just been hired and there was no point in evaluating me after less than two weeks of work, but now I have to go downtown and have a fifteen-minute meeting/interview with our local manager, whom I have met all of... uh... twice, maybe? Possibly three times. Anyway, he is making us all fill out evaluation sheets about the other people we work with, and I am really bad at this kind of feedback, okay? Tell me how to do my actual job, and I will do it. But do not ask me to pretend I am in management and do management evaluations for you! *twitches, bites nails*

2. Tonight while we were out for the evening walk, Dottie surprised and attempted to chase not one but TWO skunks. Both times I was able to yank her away before the skunk in question sprayed more than a tiny warning trickle of stink, but seriously, what the hell dog, skunks are the LAST animal you want to tangle with. (...Unless the other animal is a porcupine. In which case, go with the skunk. But generally speaking, back the hell off and leave the skunk alone.)
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
1. I totally forgot today was the eclipse -- I plead lack of sleep and also distraction (volunteering at the final day of my church's annual rummage sale) -- but fortunately I got my two sale rooms closed down by 2pm and was able first to see several pinhole projections other church members were using out on the sidewalk, and later to get a direct look through some glasses that Upstairs Neighbor E lent me while I was out walking Dottie.

It was pretty cool to see the moon take a bite out of the sun. :) It was also vaguely disquieting, because the sky went... not dark, you couldn't remotely call it dark... but noticeably gray. The color desaturated. Also, when Dottie decided that her midafternoon walk should end with a five minute relaxing lie-down in a sunny patch of grass, the direct sunlight was not nearly as warm as it should have been for that time of day and the ambient temperature. So, nothing dramatic, probably nothing I would have noticed if I hadn't been aware of the eclipse and therefore actively paying attention, but still. Pretty cool. :)

2. I called the doctors' office about getting a psychiatric evaluation/anti-depressant prescription, but was unable to make an appointment yet because I'm in a weird limbo where they're not sure if I count as a new or a returning patient, since my last appointment was apparently three years ago. The clerk who answered the phone took some information about my insurance and has sent an inquiry to their billing department. A representative should call me later this week, after which I will be able to schedule an appointment.

3. Three of my squash plants seem pretty definitively dead. The fourth (which was worst hit by the powdery mildew but seems to have escaped the wilting sickness that subsequently struck the other three) might be in the early stages of slow recovery. So I think I'll uproot the dead ones on Wednesday or Thursday and plant new seeds.

4. My church's rummage sale went pretty well, all things considered. I worked 12-4pm on Sunday, and 10-2pm today. The sale runs Saturday-Monday. Saturday is full-price, Sunday is half-price, and Monday is free with a donation box placed prominently at the exit. (We used to have Monday be 10-cent day, but that was immensely aggravating to everyone involved, so we swapped over to "free, but have you seen this donation box???" It turns out we not only save time this way, we actually bring in more money!) Monday is also the day we do preliminary breakdown, starting around noon -- first we start taking down a bunch of the shelving, and then we box everything up and cart it downstairs to the parlor so as to make things less inconvenient for the people hauling the unsold items away Tuesday morning.

(I think the unsold books go to the Friends of the Library book sale, but I wouldn't swear to it. The remaining fabric scraps probably go to one of the local sewing co-ops. I am also unsure what happens to the unsold linens and toys, though I think again there may be arrangements with various local charities. The rest... well, most of it goes to the dump. *sigh* But hey, it was going there anyway, and the sale does save an astonishing amount of stuff from being scrapped.)

5. Cornell classes started today, which meant that last week (and specifically Saturday) were the crush days for students moving back to Ithaca. And also students panicking and realizing they've forgotten to rent parking spaces. *wry* So the rental office was VERY BUSY -- in fact, Mom Boss and Aunt Boss came in to work from ~11am-4pm so we had four people in the office (usually Miss Cactus and I cover Saturdays alone), and that extra staffing was NECESSARY.

We will continue to be busy through... hmm... early October, probably? Here is why: A) people working out the glitches in their new apartments and returning their damage deposit inspection forms; B) the final parking rental rush; C) quarterly rent payments are due; D) people hurrying to pay for internet service after the free trial period ends; D) price listings for the 2018-19 year go up and we start apartment tours; E) current tenants get a couple weeks to renew or switch apartments before open renting starts; and F) open renting starts halfway through September.

But at least we're mostly done with key returns and sign-outs, we have the nice new folders for next year's leases set up, damage deposits and summer photographs are all done, and most of the giant packages in which people ship furnishings to themselves have arrived and been picked up. So that's something!
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Iiiiiiii.... kind of totally forgot to make "stuff done" posts for the past week and a half? Hmm. I am still keeping up my to-do lists (though obviously not getting everything on them done every day), but I think perhaps if I keep stalling out on posting them, that part of the project is now doing more harm than good, so.

To summarize, over the past week and a half, I did some intake/sorting/setup for my church's annual garage sale (which runs this weekend, Saturday-Monday). I also acquired a set of four white wine glasses (which are actually pink -- "white" in this case refers to the shape/style rather than the actual glass color) for my parents and put an IOU into the box since I made off with them before the actual sale. The glasses, btw, are now safely in NJ at my parents' house.

I acquired a temporary dog. :D

I bought a replacement pair of slippers and a new pair of black not-quite-dress shoes for work. (I have had the damndest time finding black shoes that both look good and have enough support that they don't murder my feet if I walk a mile. Apparently nobody in the shoe manufacturing industry thinks women are going to regularly walk a mile in office work shoes? This is very short-sighted, in my opinion.)

I think my squash are dying. I am not sure if it's just the powdery mildew, or that plus some other thing, but they are all in extremely bad shape. I may just cut my losses, uproot them all, and start over with eight new seeds. I mean, I still have a solid two months of reasonable weather. It's worth a shot.

...I'll decide on Monday, I guess.

All nineteen of the peppers are fine, incidentally! Whatever attacked the squash has completely passed them over.

I posted my WIP Big Bang fic, but because of reasons, it is still not as edited as I wanted it to be, so I think I'll hold off on actually doing a link/advertising post here until I get it fixed up a little more. *sigh*

I am starting to think it really might be a good idea to look into getting back on antidepressants, because this general malaise, while not what I think of as "real" depression, has lasted for far too long and has been seriously affecting my quality of life for going on two years now. I find it hard to work up enthusiasm/energy for things I KNOW I like, and I have been letting far too many brickspace life tasks slide because I just can't pull myself together to deal with them.

Of course, figuring out how to get an antidepressant prescription is exactly the kind of brickspace task that currently feels impossible, because depression is evil like that. *deeper sigh*

Mnrgh.

On the brighter side, I have a pretty solid idea for my remix, and some halfway-solid ideas for my NFE fic, so hopefully I will be able to get enough sleep to sort of bootstrap myself into functionality for the next couple weeks and get them written by their respective deadlines. *crosses fingers and lights a candle for good measure*
edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Greetings from New Jersey!

I drove down from Ithaca this afternoon in order to kidnap my parents' dog, mwahahahaha!!!

Or, in less dramatic terms, to pick up Dottie so she won't have to spend the next two-plus weeks in a kennel while Mom and Dad are off gallivanting around Norway. (Dad is giving a paper at the 11th International Conference on the History of Chemistry in Trondheim -- his conference papers are often their nominal excuse for trips to interesting places -- but they will spend most of their time on general tourism stuff.)

We went out to dinner at Charlie Brown's, I have washed a bunch of laundry, and tomorrow I will head back north through A) rain, B) far too much roadwork, and C) god only knows how many families flooding into Ithaca to drop their kids off at Cornell for the start of classes on Monday the 21st.

And then I will have a temporary dog. Yay dog! :D

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Elizabeth Culmer

June 2025

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