Month: April 2015

Extension Denied

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It’s April 19th, my taxes are not done, and I cannot find my W2s from PCS.  *&^%!!!  I know, you would think I would have figured this out prior to April 15th, but I didn’t.  The week before I was on spring break and I was not going to touch them that week.  Come on, I was at the beach.  I figured, I’ll have three days after we go back to school, but that week turned out to be the perfect shit storm of IEP meetings, ESY meetings, ESY packets being due, progress reports being due, and a veritable laundry list of obligations that gave me every reason to file for an extension.  Only April 15th came and went in a haze and, while, I had a vague sense of there being something else I needed to be doing, I only remembered what that something was the next morning.  When I went quickly to file the extension, I was informed by TurboTax that extensions can only be filed prior to midnight on April 15th- Holy Cannoli.  I was not in a panic, as what’s the worst that can happen?  They can’t eat me.  For goodness sake, I am a public servant, a single teacher who spends all her money buying stuff for her kids and classroom.  There’s not a lot to be had here, Uncle Sam.

So, this weekend I have been like a dog chasing her tail… looking everywhere that a misplaced W2 might happen to hide- to no avail.  So, I gave up, and ate the tail end of a chocolate bunny.

That is the story of my weekend.  Giant. Chocolate. Fail.

the unexpected hazards of optimism

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I remembered to use my REI coupons and points this morning before they expire– go me.  If you also need to, here’s your reminder; you’re welcome.  I can barely type this because my right hand is seizing up again.  F*@k!  

This morning I sent my sisters a copy of one of the memes my mother posts where there are like a hundred smiley faces and you have to find the one sad face… and if you do, you will have good luck for a year if you share this with people who will then want to slap you.

I sent her a screen shot of Mom’s meme [sorry Mom, no offense, it’s one of your charms, actually] followed by the text: “when old people use Facebook,” only in order to take this screen shot I had to be able to use my hand, which I couldn’t do.  My message read:

photo

So, now here I sit trying to type this blog post with my gimp right hand that is… thumb, knuckles, wrist joint and tendon swelling:  the perfect storm that equals can’t open or close my hand, can’t grip, can’t lift, can’t twist, dress, brush hair, you get the picture:

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This post is really a data time stamp post– a #3 Humira injection 4 days ago and I am still   F*@#ed  post.  Bean said, “what do you think happened?”  I said, “basically, me.”  I forgot to take my Plaquenil [both doses] yesterday.  I tried tapering my MTX from 9 to 7, and I have also been trying to taper down on the prednisone- I had made it down to 1.25 mg a day with 1 800 motrin this week almost daily.

So, there’s that.  The optimist shoots herself in the hand.

A tiny triumph, a look back, and an impending exorcism..

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So, I’m pretty sure that there might not seem anything super impressive about a walk/jog to the end of my street, back, and around the circle.  Really, I’ve done it a thousand times and you might be able to do it 10 times as many as I can, faster, and backwards, but it’s the first time I have jogged in I CANNOT REMEMBER WHEN… maybe a year!  I am so excited because this means the Humira is WORKING!!!  It’s been at least 6 months since I attended a Zumba class and that was only 1 or 2 trying to get back into it.  I did climb a mountain last summer [I don’t know how the hell I did that], but I began quickly deteriorating at the end of last summer and I am just now surfacing again.  So there, that’s the RA news flash of the day.

In other news, spring break was wonderful and relaxing and so not long enough.  We went to Topsail for almost a week and it felt like a couple of days.  I really needed that time.  I did manage to read an entire book; Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.  It’s the sequel to The Shining and it was a fast and good read.  I discovered SK late in life [in terms of reading his work instead of watching it], but I am so glad I did because he is such a consummate writer.  His writing is easy and familiar like a soft shirt, his work so well crafted that it worms into your head and you find yourself thinking of the plot throughout the day and longing to get back into the book to see what will happen next.  I do not like horror as a film genre, but I have always had a taste for the macabre and weird, and his work fits that bill perfectly.  11-22-63 has been my favorite yet; I’m a sucker for time travel.

Unfortunately, our blissful spring break was punctuated by shenanigans by our nemeses– narcissistic/borderline, serial adulteress and the geriatric, wingnut mark who has turned out to be a deadbeat hothead loser.  I feel a short story or a novel coming on and boy are they giving me fodder by the mile.  I almost feel sorry for them.  If I’ve piqued your interest, you’ll just have to wait for publication.  Writing is my plan for exorcising them.