so i got this piece of paper a few months ago with all these numbers on it. on top it said W-2 tax and wage statement and i got all stumped and cold and hot and polka-dotted. taxes! me? who do they think i am? american? adult? what? so i sat on it for about 2 months ignoring it and overall hoping it would just go away like any responsible person would do. and then i started to suspect that maybe, just maybe this whole tax thing included me as well, and i began to examine the paper more carefully, still seeing only odd numbers in little slots. i grew convinced that "Federal income tax withheld" meant that they were saying i had already tried to cheat them, and that the number in the box below was how much they were demanding from my already non-existing funds. by the time i brought the paper by one of my teacher's yesterday i could already see the cover of the cd i would have to release in hopes of getting some money together to pay america back (willie nelson singing back-up, of course). i handed the paper over and braced myself for the inevitable bad news. and then. laughter. "girl, i don't know how you did it, but it looks to me like you'll be getting a nice check back in a few months - you make sure you go to the library and fill out the forms, you hear?" guackkk? I GETTING MONEYS BACK I GETTING MONEYS BACK WOOO!!!!! so. all bright and early today i hopped on a few buses and got to the durham county public libraries where a nice older lady volunteer filled out the tax forms for me and confirmed that indeed, i get money back. about $177 from the federal whatever and $60 from the state. yeah, i realise there are people out there shooting me dirty looks right now for gloating, i know, but. i'm entering financial hell season again. i have about $6 right now in cash and a bank card about $100 over the limit taken out of it. i have $150 coming to me may 8th, another $100 from jessica in a few weeks, and that's all. i have monthly bills of around $350. my father might be leaving the country and will be unable to help me out much more than he already is. my grandmother's house (of about a century) was just sold and my mother is forced to move out into an apartment that will be twice as expensive as the one she currently has. on top of that, my lease runs out at the end of july and i have to find money somewhere to make a deposit and rent on a new place for august. i have applied for a work permit but won't know until the end of june if i have it or not - if i don't, i'm pretty much screwed. oh i know. total sob-story. i mean, i'll be allright - things are just tight and no matter how crazy things are, i will be able (through certain friends and family members) to make bills, somehow. i'm just sort of giving some background so you understand how utterly insanely great it is that i get over $200 back from taxes and how much it will help me. hooray for taxes. woo! :) i do have good things coming up, though. fiona apple concert on monday. nine inch nails concert in may. (i wouldn't get to either concert without gene - he's _way_ too nice with spotting me money for things like this and letting me pay back in little bits as i can.) some nice summer rest that i can spend with friends. it's all good. i saw american psycho last night (two tori singles, one r.e.m. single and a patsy cline cd helped pay for dinner and a movie, just how two more tori singles will hopefully give me a few more dollars in cash for bus today :)... it was good. it was really, really good. it's crude, it's nasty, it's perplexing, and it's really, really funny. some things annoyed me (some changes to the story towards the end) but overall, i had a blast. what was even more fun was looking around me in some of the more intense scenes and watch grown-ups literally curled up and bracing themselves for what they expected to follow on the screen. very intense. not for everybody. definitely for me. go see, if you're not easily squicked (though it could certainly have been a lot worse, especially compared with the book.) buh. it's raining. i need to find some buses to take me back to chapel hill. it's saturday. my fingers hurt from bowling late thursday night on aziza's birthday (i scored a 68! considering it was my second time ever bowling i felt i did good, but a 13 pound bowling ball is damned heavy to lug around on three fingers.) did i mention it's raining? anyhow. oh - thanks to the people who have been stopping by my chatroom to say hi to me. it's really weird to see that people i don't even know come by here, but as always, it's very neat - be well, and perhaps i'll see more of you tuesday? annnnyhow. buh-buh-buh-buh-bye!