Wealth and Taxes

Spring semester: day fifty-seven

My taxes are done; they took a little under two hours to complete earlier this afternoon, and I sealed them in their respective envelopes and stuck them in the mail. Mostly everything was the same as it always is; I got paid a little more last year since I taught during the summer, and because I made a bit more money from my online stores than I usually do, but my refunds balanced out to be about the same -- a little less on both counts, but eh. It's still a good chunk of very useful cash that will roll in around the end of the semester or so, along with any graduation money I get.

With the taxes being done, I have a newfound wealth of time to relax and sleep, finally. Well, sort of. Comparatively speaking, anyways. I have papers to grade between now and next week, and I'll get a lot more of them tomorrow. I have to go out and do some grocery shopping, and I have to figure out what's going on with my thesis and graduation -- meaning, I have to print my archival copies as well as venture over to the bookstore at some point to purchase my cap and gown, etc. However, I can't do any of those latter things until I head one. little. thing.

That would be that I passed my comps. Which I have not heard yet.

Again, I'm not worried, but being forced to wait holds everything else up, things that I need to be doing on a timeframe set by the graduate school, not by me or by the department. In addition, I've not yet heard back on whether my project has been approved either, even though this afternoon I sent an email to my director to get some sort of clarification on that. I'm also not worried about the status of the project's acceptance; I know that's not going to be brought into question, but I want someone to tell me something.

Jay found out this afternoon that he passed his comps just fine, and as you know, he took them at the same time I did, and has the same director I do. I don't know how they let him know, but if they're notifying folks via email, I haven't gotten anything yet about mine, nor have I gotten a reply on the status of my project, either. At this point, this leaves me no real choice -- I must print out the copies of my thesis here at the house, tonight, and take them with me to campus tomorrow. If Jay got notified via a letter in his mailbox at the school, then if I've been notified the same way, I'll have a letter in the morning. Also, I don't live in town and won't be on campus on Friday or Monday, which means if I don't know anything by tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to have to start asking lots of questions that by all rights, I shouldn't have to be asking, because all of this stuff shouldn't be running down to the wire at the very last second (or, really, the last two or three days, even) before the deadlines hit. I'm going to be very angry if I'm forced to waste time and gas to drive back down to campus on Friday or Monday just to drop off an envelope at the library and come back home because nobody could tell me anything beforehand -- especially for the project copies I have to drop off for binding. My three readers have had them since March 7. I know they're done at this point.

Regardless, if Jay found out today, I'm guessing I will find out in the morning, and all of this frustration may be for naught.

The ice storm that hit last night was a crippling one. Everything here in Newton -- tree, vehicle, house, grass, power lines, every structure in general -- is coated in ice. Thick ice. Ice so thick that it's weighing down tree branches and making them snap off to crash to the ground. It's 32 right now, and hasn't gotten above that all day. Plus, it's windy, which is shaking these ice-coated trees and making them break. I am quite glad that I put my car in the garage last night when I came home; the ice isn't on the roads (the roads are just wet or are dry in most places), but it looks like Mr. Freeze went happy with his freeze ray last night while I slept. I knew it was raining ice, hard, when I went to bed, so this was sort of expected. I am amazed I have not lost power or internet throughout this whole ordeal. But, again, I'll remind you that it was almost 70 yesterday morning when I drove to school to teach, and I wore shorts and sandals. Tomorrow I'll have to wear a coat and layers again.

I can't tell you how sick both I and my allergies are of this shitty, flip-flopping weather. Pick a season and stick with it, Kansas. Seriously. I'm tired of being able to enjoy the outdoors one day to freezing my balls off and dealing with ice storms the next -- sometimes within a twelve-hour timespan. Knock it off. It's supposed to gradually warm up again throughout the rest of the week and weekend, and it's supposed to be 75 again by Sunday, but who knows how long that will stick around. I wouldn't necessarily be as irritated about this if I knew anything else about what was going on with school, either.

On that note, I'm going to bed early tonight. I need the rest, and I need to be able to clear my head.