Stressed

I have been having a rough time of late.  Nothing terrible, just stress I don't need.  The Awards  Banquet is coming up in 3 weeks and everything is falling apart.  I hired a bar vendor in October because the food vendor does not offer bar service.  I had some changes of which the bar vendor needed to be aware and I could not get a response from them.  I sent emails and left voicemails until I said, you're fired.  Then they called.  The problem was that I had to pay them up front to book the date.    Luckily, they went through a third party vendor who has been helping with the process. 

Today, everything seems to have worked out.  I am getting a partial refund and I have one less thing to worry about.   Now, all we have to do is get the venue set up, pay the singer, make sure the guest speaker shows up (no word from her in a month,)  make sure the actual awards have everyone's named spelled correctly, make sure Gerald didn't oversell the tickets (he couldn't figure out how to turn off the "QR" code so people kept ordering tickets, make the information packets, get the seating figured out, hang the decorations and hope to God we  break even.  

Next disaster....I bought a laptop so I could do the interviews for the papers directly onto the laptop instead of taking notebooks and loose paper.  To set it up, you have to enter the IP address from our main computer router.  I did.  It rejected every time.  So, now I have a giant red paper weight.

I am also struggling with my legs and feet.  I think I am developing neuropathy as my feet tingle, swell and turn purple.  A few nights ago when Dixie needed to go out at 2:30 a.m., I walked into the partially closed bedroom door and I think I broke my toe.  

Last night, Gerald was sending the April edition to be printed and noticed that he was having trouble downloading the edition to the printer's site--something he does every month.  In particular, where my main story was on page 1 was just a large black block when downloaded.  So, at 11:40 p.m., Gerald started texting the layout guy and me.  This went on until about 1:00 a.m.  until the issue was fixed. 

Life shouldn't be this hard.

But, on a happier note.  Birdie turned 2 and is loving life.  I wish I could post a picture of her, she is just so cute.  Instead, I settled for a picture of a beautiful sunset and one of David, Tony and I at dinner celebrating Tony's 76th birthday. 

Tomorrow, Tony and I are attending a Veteran's event, celebrating the end of the Viet Nam War so I am only working 2 days this week.  

I will be glad when the Banquet is over....I said the same thing last year, but then, I was a year younger.

More later....

Who Knew ?? I'm A Small Business!!

We had our taxes done today and while we were sitting in front of the tax prepare person, he said to me, "Oh, I see you are a small business owner."  Well, that took me by surprise and I wondered where he got that idea.

Turns out that the W2 I got from Leland Magazine didn't have withholding tax taken out.  Duh, at some level I knew that, I just wasn't thinking long term.  So, I started thinking about the tax ramifications this could have and wondered how I was going to get "tax screwed" this time.  

Well, lucky for us, it turned out well.  We talked about "business expenses" like mileage when I go to places to write their stories and take pictures, phone expenses, computer, printer paper, ink, postage--all of that.  The mission was to go over what I was paid for writing with my expenses so I could declare a business loss.  No problem.  I can't do that every year, but you can be sure I'm going to keep better track.  He was also able to deduct tax preparation, which was great.  So, we got a refund from both federal and state.  I'm happy.

In other news, the Awards Banquet is 26 days away.  I'm starting to freak out....not sure I'm ready.  But hopefully everything will fall into place. 

Our brother-in-law, Joe, was just released from the hospital for surgery related to cancer.  I hope all goes well with him.

Yesterday, Jenna and Jon have been married for 19 years.  Wow, talk about time flying.  

Birdie's second birthday is next month.  She's talking and running and just as big as ever. 

The weather has been downright cold--all right, not Cleveland cold, but North Carolina cold.  We have had frost warnings for the past two nights.  It's funny to see our flowering bushes with ice on them. 

Dixie is well.  We took her for a Dog Park Etiquette class last week.  Actually, I was writing about the class and there was some push back about photographing people without their express written consent, so I took Tony and Dixie and did some staged shots with the instructor.  It was fun.   Dixie was very well behaved and we learned a lot about "dog stress."  Yes, they have it.  Good dog stress and bad dog stress.  We learned that if two dogs are fighting, you never get near their heads, you go behind one of the dogs and lift them up by their back legs.  They will immediately stop fighting and turn their heads to see what is going on.  Now, you have to be quick and "sling" them away from the other dog (which seems as dangerous of getting near their heads,) but hey, what do I know!!  Luckily, Dixie has very short legs. 

Work is going well.  One of my favorite people fell last week and is in the hospital.  Her son made her use a walker and she fell down trying to use it.  Needless to say, he is in the dog house!

Not much else going on.  Tony's last heart check up was good.  We are still on our meds and interestingly enough, my sister, Fritz, and I have very similar symptoms with our shortness of breath and irregular hear beats.  Her doctors can't find a reason why either, so we just do what we can to keep everything under control. 

More later.