Surety

I thought about the title "Death and Taxes," but I have no deaths to report...;-) I just finished my taxes. Normally I'd not procrastinate this much, but this was my first year figuring them out on my own. Previously an uncle of my mom's who also does my parent's returns graciously did mine as well. This year I had to wait until I could catch my brother-in-law at home at a time conducive to coherent thought (i.e. not at 01:00 or right before leaving for work). Of course once he opened up Turbo Tax I realized that I could do it all on my own (besides asking him a couple questions for clarification). The amount I'll be getting back is substantial and will do well to supplement my current income.

I'm looking seriously into getting another job at the museum center (part time in the gift shops) to supplement my bigg's income--even though it would likely involve giving up days off. As it stands I can just afford to pay my bills, tithe, and for necessities like gas--nothing left over for savings or spending money (why I'm enjoying the quarter money--though tithing from that too and I've thought that if I'm going to give extra, which I can't afford from my normal income now, it would come from there--say to a missionary at church). I'll be able to sock this refund away in my savings account at ING Direcdt where it will earn a healthy 4% interest until I need it. Hopefully I'll find a better job soon, or at least I won't lose this one (I really don't think I'll lose it, so I'm not sure why I typed that--perhaps I'm just to strangely lazy to hit the Backspace key and I'd rather just type this longwinded parenthetical explanation!) so that I can leave the savings money alone for a while.

~Matt