Another Reason to Call Me 'La Loca'

I love doing my taxes.

Regardless of whether I am entitled to a refund or have to fork over some of my hard-earned money, I take great pleasure in the process of filling out my tax return. I like all the calculations, the challenge of having to understand the word-problem-esque nature of some of the line items, the satisfaction of having everything nice and tidy and accounted for at the end of the day.

I realize I am in the minority on this one, for sure.

Doing my taxes falls into the same highly satisfying category as other (generally-hated) tasks such as filling out forms (census, doctor's office, school applications), maintaining a detailed spreadsheet of my business revenues and expenses, and balancing my checkbook (back in the day before internet banking when I actually still bothered to do that).

I also love jigsaw puzzles - the really hard kind, with a monochrome pattern and 1,000 tiny pieces. In my crazy head, all of these things are members of the same family.

Taxing

I am in the process of preparing my taxes. I thought I'd file late - and actually have an extension to do so - but since we want to buy property this year it seems having a 2008 tax return asap is in our favor. So I'm sucking it up and doing my taxes at the last minute. It's not exactly straighforward, since I married a non-resident alien and have foreign earned income and capital gains. Still, I'm plowing through it (mostly thanks to my mom's advice, who is an absolute tax genius). I'm actually filing on my own, on paper, with no TurboTax or similar software to assist me...mostly because my situation is more complicated than the Basic Tax Package will accomodate, and I'm not willing to pay $50 for somethign I can do on my own with a bit of effort.

The good news? I get a big, fat exemption for foreign earned income.

The bad news? Nobody sends me 1099's (or if they do they don't arrive!), so I have to literally go back through my bank statements and invoice records to piece together my 2008 income. So annoying! But strangely satisfying at the same time. I honestly had no idea what my yearly income was at the end of the day - and now I do - which is interesting.

I'm still plugging away at the taxes, but I did have some fun during the day. Today is a holiday in Mozambique - Women's Day - and I had two of the volunteer consultants from work over for lunch. I made homemade pizza, which was delish. On one pizza I put New Mexico green chile, cherry tomatoes and onions, and on the other I put white asparagus, mushrooms, red peppers and onions. It was a very nice treat, and the company was super enjoyable as well.

Now I have allergies - which I fully blame on my taxes, not on the wine with lunch - and am trying to make it through 1040 Schedule D without bailing out to watch the Style Channel. Wish me luck!