OK, so I have been slacking. Seriously - over a year. But it's been a busy one!
Highs and lows from last year:
Tax season didn't end up as well as I would have liked - 267 returns. I hated going to the home improvement place in the evening, I lost - at least temporarily - several clients because they were evening people, and I no longer had three of my evenings available, etc. Still, I ended up with a decent bonus.
The only traveling I did all year was a sort of emergency trip to FL in March. Jenny and I had been planning to go down in late February, just for a visit. Instead, Mom ended up having to have surgery to install a plate and several screws in her non-healing arm. So Lynda flew down immediately (a week before we were to go). Then a few days later, David flew down, and Lynda flew back. Then a few days later, Jenny flew down, and David came back. Finally, it was my turn. After me, they were on their own for a few weeks before their planned return. She started therapy, but ended up hurting herself. Turned out, she had screws loose (we had always suspected that.....:P). She had to have additional surgery, but the only available date was the day before their flight home. She insisted that she would be fine to fly the next day. Surgery went well (11 screws this time, instead of 6), and she went home around dinner time. Their flight home was at 8:30 a.m.
At 1:30, my phone rang. It was Dad, saying that Mom was "on the bathroom floor" and they couldn't get her up. What does that mean? Is she... dead on the bathroom floor? Is she conscious? Did she fall? He was so calm that it made me really worry. I told him to call 911, while I called Jenny. The original plan was for them to fly home to Bloomington. Lynda, Jenny, and David would be waiting in the very same gate to get on the very same plane to go back to Bradenton, pack up the car and the dogs, and drive back. So what do we do? Do they go ahead and go? Do they cancel their flights for now and see what happens? Obviously, no matter what, Mom and Dad weren't flying today.
She then called Lynda to tell her, and while they were still talking, Lynda got a text saying that M&D's flight had been delayed till 12:30 - which also delayed everyone else's flight back. OK, a little breathing room to see how things played out. While they were still talking, I called back to Mom's cell, thinking that his was probably busy because he would be talking with 911. Imagine my surprise, when MOM answered, sounding just fine! Apparently, she had headed for the bathroom, but got "woozily" and sat down on the floor. They couldn't get her up her left arm had just had surgery, and her right thigh also had, since they had to take bone marrow from there. So she didn't have a "good side" by which they could raise her. Paramedics were dispatched, she was hydrated at the hospital, then sent home again, whereupon they packed their little carryon bags and headed to Clearwater airport! The whole way, we were texting for updates and giving instructions....they are at the airport....they are through security.... be sure to buy some bottled water for the plane....they are at their gate....on the plane....whew!
When they arrived here, Lynda and Jenny met them at the gate (since they had gone through security for their own flight) with wheelchairs, and they whisked them down to me. I was waiting just outside the airport door, with my car doors open so that we could unload them as quickly as possible so that L & J could catch their flight. Once they got to Bradenton, they packed up, and closed the condo, then decided to head on back instead of spending the night. They arrived back in Bloomington by 2:00 the next afternoon.
Mary Kincaid passed away in late April, the last of that generation. Thanksgiving seemed weird without her.
In May, Weird Al came to BCPA for two shows, both of which were sold out. It was probably the most fun show I have ever worked,
Best news of the whole year - on June 8, Skeeterette was fired!!! It was probably a combination of things, but they basically said that absenteeism was the problem. Well, plus being stupid.
At the end of June, same-sex marriage became the law of the land! It, of course, immediately changed the picture for tax prep everywhere. Now, a MFJ return is just an MFJ return - no messing with the "fake" federal joint return to the the numbers for the real state joint return (IL already recognized same-sex marriage the year before).
Relay for Life had to be held indoors at NCHS because of severe storms. Not quite the same experience, but they seemed to have fun.
Had to take out my arborvitae, which had not survived the winter. In its place, a Japanese maple.
My big project for the summer was to work toward getting my Enrolled Agent designation. Every day when I got home from the home improvement place, I would spend a good portion of the day doing study questions and reading, a lot of times on the deck. It was a nice, peaceful place to work. On July 28, I headed to Peoria to take Part I, individual taxation. I finished the test in about 2 of the 3.5 allotted hours, but by the time I was done, I was so shaky about it that I was pretty well convinced that I hadn't passed. But - I PASSED! I was so relieved and in such disbelief that I was actually shaking, and felt like crying. I stopped at the Spotted Cow for celebratory ice cream, since it was handily, on my way home.
On August 18, I took and passed Part III. It was a smaller section, just straight up memorization, and I had no worries. It only took me a little over an hour.
Then I had to tuck into Part II, business taxation. No background, no familiarity, so many calculations.....I was really spooked by it. It didn't really help the process to adopt a dog at the end of the month, but we did. Savannah, a rescue from Wish Bone Canine Rescue, came into our lives. It became really difficult to able to have those quiet mornings on the deck. I set the test for Oct 1, and a couple of weeks ahead of that, I borrowed an office key from Bill and took myself to the office every day, where it was cookl and quiet and I didn't have to let dogs in and out and no one was coming and going. Oct 1 arrived. I drove to Peoria, but was still not feeling very confident about my chances. I know it's defeatist, but I was actually thinking about when I could reschedule for another go at it, since I was assuming I would fail. I even parked facing away from the building, so that if things went badly, they wouldn't see me cry. Seriously. It took me 2.5 hours, but when I came out, I was carrying a letter that started with the word "congratulations". I had done it!!! I went to my car, got in and closed the door, then I just ROARED. I could not believe it! As soon as I got home from Peoria, I immediately submitted my application for enrollment
On October 26, I had my left knee replaced. This time, my surgery was at the outpatient surgery center where I have had numerous same-day surgeries, and I stayed overnight at the Comfort and Care Suites, in the same building. It was like a fancy hotel room, and it was nice for Mom and Dad, since it was just steps from the parking lot, not up in an elevator, down a long hallway, etc. etc. More racking up of therapy copays, but I was done in 7 weeks. I think in time it will be the better of the two knees. I was off work from the home improvement place until Feb 17.
The Enrolled Agent documents weren't being mailed out, for some unknown reason, and no one could tell me when they might be. So I started the tax season as my old certification level. I couldn't order my new business cards, I wasn't being paid properly. I wasn't the only one having this problem, of course. IRS wasn't sending the documents, but they were willing to tell me my EA number and expiration date, and verify my status if the tax prep place called. The tax prep place wouldn't call because it "wasn't their policy" to do so. IRS said they could look me up on the directory, but I didn't appear on the directory for at least a month after my enrollment began (in December), and the tax prep place wouldn't accept that, either. The real, actual certificate and the all-powerful enrollment card arrived on Feb 1. Everything is updated now, though, and as long as I remember to renew as scheduled, I will never have to go through that again. Speaking of renewing.....I have to renew THIS October, since my social security number ends with a 4. But even if they are slow in getting it done, my enrollment doesn't really expire until Mar 2017, and I already have the title and can order business cards.
So that was pretty much my year.
This season, right now I am sitting at about 270 finished returns, so I should end up pretty well, but it's always hard to tell in advance. This is the slow part of the season, where you "burn some of your bonus" by having to be there but having no business. I'm trying to keep my hours down unless I have appointments, but it feels weird not to be there sometimes.
I spent the last weekend in February (26-29) in NYC with Cathy and Megan. It was my first visit, but it won't be my last! More about that later. It's late.
