Taking Care of Business and Pissin’ My Pants

I’m a procrastinator, not as bad as I used to be, thank God. But it’s still a part of my modus operandi in dealing with unpleasant, complicated and difficult tasks, be they personal or professional. Here are two cases in point.

The first was my taxes. I’ve always filed my taxes as early as possibly, usually at the end of January but no later than the second week of February. I always got refunds so I wanted my money as early as possible to do all manner of things depending on how much I got back. I was counting on this year’s refund to pay for my yoga teacher training, which will cost $2400-$3000 for any decent program. Imagine the utter shock and dismay I felt when I went on Turbo Tax online at the end of January to discover I OWE the federal government for the first time ever. Baby Bub dropped out of college last year in March, she was not a student for five months of the year, and she made more than $4000 at her job at Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins. This disqualified her as a dependent. Which disqualified me from filing as Head of Household, designating me to Single status. To add insult to injury, I was teaching her how to file her own taxes this year, so she was sitting with me at the computer when Turbo Tax delivered this life altering news. I did not handle it well. I shut down, went to my room and slammed the door. She asked if she should do her taxes. I told her to go for it but insisted she wait to actually file them until after I talked to a co-worker who is certified to do taxes on the side. Did I mention I didn’t handle it well? The next day I checked with my co-worker who confirmed what Turbo Tax told me. Baby Bub is entitled to her full refund, though. When I got home that night I told her she could file her taxes but I wanted $100.00 of her refund. She agreed. Then I refused to file mine. I erased what I’d entered from their site and ignored the occasional emails from Turbo Tax telling me they had my User ID available to make filing easy. My plan was to save money from each paycheck until I had the amount needed to pay what I owed. By my calculations that put me right around now, roughly a week and some change before the filing deadline. And so tonight, I bit the bullet, redid my taxes and paid the Federal government what I owed as a Single with No Dependents. You know what? It felt good to finally face what I had to and git er done.

My second case in point? As part of my secretary duties for my 12 step Sunday morning meeting, I collect and keeping track of our weekly monetary contributions. Once the contributions hit $200.00 I am supposed to divide it among five entities within our organization and send checks. I reimburse the coffee maker for coffee supplies purchased out of his  pocket as long as he provides receipts and I keep our meeting supplied with tokens and literature as well. I hate bookkeeping. It’s tedious, so I procrastinate. Last week I finally used some of the contributions to buy the meeting replacement tokens. However, I have yet to divide any money among the five entities and send them checks. I confessed this to my best friend Dawny, who handles similar duties for an organization she goes to. I’d stopped by her place after work tonight to deliver cupcakes, our latest addiction (which she TOTALLY started with that damn cupcake run last weekend) and to share my leftover Thai food from lunch with her for dinner. We got to eat, talk and enjoy each other’s company. I was telling her my plans to go home and do my taxes, then some meditation/reflection on things before writing my blog. As I was walking out to my car, I told her tomorrow I’d be spending the morning organizing the money from my Sunday meeting so I could send it off to the five entities. She said she had to do the same for her meeting and asked how much mine was. I told her we’re supposed to send money whenever it reaches $200, but I had over $600 in the bag. Her shocked expression and exclamation were so hilarious to me that I bent over howling with laughter, trying not to piss my pants. She started laughing too, which made me drop to her floor because the urge to pee got stronger. She asked how long I’d been secretary and I told her since September between bouts of laughter and that I was going to piss my pants. She yelled at me to stop laughing because I would make her fall to the ground laughing too. That’s when I pissed my pants a little, actually more than a little. Thank God for panty liners!!! As I walked away I reminded her that I was her Associate Treasurer on the Board of the community organization we serve. More laughter between us, maybe she even peed a little over that one.

As I pouted and procrastinated, I took steps in February to adjust my withholding, signed up for a Flexible Spending Account and increased the percentage of my 401k contributions as an acknowledgment of my new tax filing status and hope to avoid paying next year. As for the secretary bookkeeping duties, I’m getting around to it now aren’t I? Plus once I do it, it will be simpler and easier for me to do it at the proper time from here on out. Or at least, before I pass my commitment on to the next secretary in September. I strive for progress, not perfection. And learn to laugh along the way.