Tag Archives: taxes

Meet my six-month-old To Do list

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A little over a month ago, I posted a list of things I’d been trying to get done for five months. While I got a lot of it done, I didn’t do it all — and it’s grown.

I’m going to try to get everything in purple done today, and everything with a * done this week.

UPDATE 02/08: I’m trying to get everything in blue done today (Tuesday).

UPDATE 02/09: Today is redrum.

UPDATE 02/10: Apparently trying to divide this list into days isn’t working for me, so from now on I’m just going to tackle this list like I did the last one: a little at a time.

  • Open IRA and transfer 401(k) to it*. My new job has 401(k), also, so I really want to get this moved as soon as possible.
  • Reorganize work area*. I organized most of my work area last month, but now that I’m not working from home anymore, I want to organize it so that it can be utilized solely for writing. The way I have it organized now, everything for work is within reach, and everything for writing… not really.
  • Pay back Mike. Poor Mike. He’s been keeping my nicotine levels stable and helping me out with anything else that he can. I feel horrible that I owe him so much money from Christmas and that he’s still helping me out. At the same time, it’s a nice feeling; like he says all the time, I’d do it for him. It’s so nice to be in a relationship like that.
  • Pay Mom for January, February, and probably March car insurance. More guilt ensues.
  • Put aside money for 2010 taxes. It’s a good thing I have until April, huh?
  • Edit first draft of Sade On the Wall and add chapters for second draft*. First, an outline!
  • Pawn sword*. I have a replica of a samurai suicide sword that an old boyfriend once bought me. At the time, I wanted to collect tons of sharp, pointy objects. It’s sat tucked between a couple of pieces of furniture for the last, oh, five or so years, because I’ve had nowhere to put it. Now that I’m older, I don’t even want to collect swords, nor do I want one in the house for when future Mini Liz and Mini Mike are roaming around. (Eek!) Plus? Hi, I’m broke! I’ve already tried one pawn shop but they don’t take weapons. I’m going to (try to remember to) try another one sometime this week.
  • Upgrade processor. I want a faster laptop, and I want to play Sims 3 without it crashing, dammit!
  • Edit “In the Darkness, It Waits” for Confluenza reading*.
  • Take car to Town Fair Tire to get tires checked out for leaks*.
  • Discuss final payment*.
  • Redesign personal sites. I’d like to redesign EKB Designs, Letters of Love, and my blog, so that when I’m ready to renew my hosting, I can launch some sexy-ass sites¹.
  • File tax return*.
  • Exchange Dad’s Christmas gift*. I am so late on this. Good thing the receipt lasts until March 31st.
  • Transplant dragon tree*. My poor little plant is way too big for the pot it’s in right now.

It never ends, I guess.

What’s on your To Do list?

¹All of my websites are still live at the moment, and my plan is definitely canceled. I’m starting to wonder if one of you were sneaky and renewed it for me. I’m thinking it’s a glitch on my host’s part, though, and while I’d love to be using my sites, I’m afraid that if I start using them again, they will get wiped and I’ll lose some data. Once I get back on my feet, I’m paying for three years in advance. It’s cheaper, and that way, I won’t have to worry about it again for quite some time.

*I want to try to get all of these things done this week!

Meet my five-month-old To Do list

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Someone needs to hold me accountable, dammit. So no, these are not resolutions — just a giant To Do list that has been building for the last few months. If I don’t start getting these things done, do something terrible to me. Like… Something. I dunno. I’m sure you’ll think of something good.

  • Get 401(k) transfer form from old job. I need this so I can open an IRA and transfer the $1,000+ that’s in my 401(k). Because, you know, that’s for those later years when I can sit on my ass on the beach every day and write in the evenings.
  • Organize work area, big desk, and corner. This probably won’t help speed up the process of moving the rooms around in our little house, but it’ll make my Virgo self feel a hell of a lot better.
  • Return P.O. Box keys. I couldn’t afford to renew the Letters of Love P.O. Box, so I had to let them close it. I haven’t made it downtown to return the keys yet. They can’t penalize me for that… right? Right?!
  • Pay library late fees. I just remembered this. Eek. I love the library, and I love being able to use it. Obviously.
  • Pay car registration renewal fees. Before I can do that, I have to take it for emissions testing. I need to do this like… this week.
  • Get a new bra. I need to write a new GIRLS ONLY post about bra issues. Just know that the Victoria’s Secret store doesn’t carry my size, and I can’t wait long enough to order one online.
  • Pay back Mike. I owe him $225. (He lent me money when I was dirt broke so that I could buy Christmas presents for everyone.)
  • Pay Mom for car insurance for December. Please, please, please let my clients pay their invoices this week! (I wonder if they were all waiting for the new year, for tax purposes? Argh.)
  • Put aside money for taxes. Because, you know, I totally haven’t put anything aside. At all. Sigh. (Please, please, please let my clients pay their invoices soon!)
  • Go through clothes, shoes, and other things. I have several shirts that are too tight — that were tight even before I gained weight, so at least there’s that — and since I just got several new sweaters, my bin of clothes is overflowing. (No dresser, remember?) I have a couple pairs of pants that I’m hoping to fit into again someday, so those are staying, dammit. I also have some shoes I don’t wear anymore. All of these things will either be donated, or sold to Goodwill or something. (I always donate them, but right now I’m pretty desperate for extra cash, so I might just sell them. We’ll see.) In general, I’d like to minimize the amount of things I own, since our living area is small. I just gave Vinny, my cousin, a Grand Theft Auto game I don’t play anymore. I should go through and see what other PS2 games I don’t use, since his PS2 is the only system he has. (Not to say that I don’t use my PS1 and PS2 games, but I’m sure there are some I don’t.) I went through my books a few weeks ago and have yet to take out the bags and boxes full of the ones I want to donate or give away. Sometimes, I’m just as bad as my dad when it comes to procrastination.
  • Renew Barnes and Noble membership. You know, after all the bills and debts are paid. I cannot wait to go buy some books!
  • Read Sade On the Wall manuscript. I haven’t touched it in a while. I’m ready to start editing, and the first step is to read it through and make a list of Things to Fix as I read. If you haven’t read it, you can read it here.
  • Make appointment with local rheumatologist. Now that the holidays are over, I’m hoping I can get in touch with that local rheumatologist Mom found. (I think I forgot to tell you that my doctor’s office refused to do the referral themselves, told me I had to set up an appointment and then have them send over the referral, and that I couldn’t get in touch with the rheumatologist. Ah, the medical merry-go-round.)

You’d think I’d start on some of these things now, right? But no. I have college dropouts to take care of (Sims 2). I also have a Bare Minerals how-to DVD to watch. I bought the Get Started kit with some of my Christmas money and cannot wait to use it. Sandy put it on me about two years ago when we went to her friend’s wedding, and I loved it; it made my shiny spots go away. (Side note: Two years ago I didn’t know if I wanted to ever get married, yet lately Mike and I have been talking nonstop about getting married within the next few years. Life is funny.)

And you know what? I like my online persona just fine right now. I think I was just feeling indecisive about other things — my career, which I will definitely write about soon — and it carried over. I’m here to stay, for now anyway.

What’s on your To Do list?

All work and no play gets me a BlackBerry and no life

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My life is going at the speed of a frog in a blender. It’s almost too much!

I started working two jobs a couple of weeks ago. I am not used to working all day, every day. It’s exhausting! It’s totally worth it at the end of the week, though. I’m actually catching up on things I’ve been trying to save for. Maybe I’ll even be driving the Sunfire soon, rather than my death trap Mazda. I even got the BlackBerry I’ve been dying to have (thank you to Sarcastica for being so patient and helping me get on BB Messenger)!

A couple of days ago, I also partnered my web design freelancing business with my aunt’s web design and print media business, OSC. We will be collaborating on social media websites. So basically, if one of us has a client that needs a website and social media, we will work on it together. I will be working on the social media end of it, be it setting up accounts on social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc) or building a site in WordPress. We will be offering training and hopefully will be doing seminars. We have an expo in about a month that we need to prepare for, and we’ve been doing a lot of networking. Needless to say, I’ve been working pretty much non-stop and I could use a nice, long nap.

Somehow, through all of this craziness, I’ve managed to stay smoke-free. I don’t know how the hell I’m doing it.

Of course I have another sinus infection. I have to call my physician in the morning and get some drugs! I thought that by quitting smoking, I wouldn’t get as many sinus infections each year. I guess I thought wrong. I don’t want to go back to smoking, though. I don’t even care that I quit, and I’m glad for all of the extra cash (especially now that Connecticut is hiking up the taxes on tobacco).

The only real problem with all of this working is that I’m starting to feel like I don’t ever do anything fun. I realized the other day that I’ve been much been working non-stop for the last year or so, and that sucks. It’s starting to drain me. I spent most of the day yesterday trying to stop the 

background-color: #ffcc33;

and 

echo file_get_contents

from leaking out of my ears.

My only consolation is that today is Wednesday, Friday is pay day, sometime this weekend I am going to get my hair cut, and Julien-K finally released their debut album. Oh, and did I mention that Mike found me the ultra-rare translucent Dr. Manhattan figure? Cool beans.