new month, new joys, new stress :)

well, it's february. the taxes are done, and i faxed mine to my student loan holder to apply for the income based repayment plan this afternoon. that's a huge monkey off my back! :) i love obama!

the taxes were a huge pain in the butt. we filed married filing separately, which meant we weren't able to claim things like student loan interest and the earned income credit. really weird things. and chris's refund is MUCH smaller than last year. but what we'll be saving in student loan payments more than makes up for it, so we're good. and i don't owe as much as i thought i would. only 1 of my 3 jobs withholds any taxes, so i thought i was gonna be totally screwed. but i claimed every deduction i could as a self-employed individual and suprised myself. i'm even getting a refund from PA! :) now i hafta figure out what i need to do to be legit with my jewelry. in for a penny, in for a pound :)

but today was also the first day that i'm in a new retail location with my jewelry -- Crafted Treasures in Monroeville. i'm very excited about it. i've been working feverishly for the past couple of weeks making more inventory and displays and figuring out what i wanted to do. i'm not completely ready, but there's an open house on saturday, feb. 6, so i wanted to have stuff there so i can take advantage of the crowd. i got a primo spot, right up front between the front doors, so it's the first thing you see when you come in and the last thing you see when you leave. i'm very nervous, but very excited as well. we'll see how it goes! :) and i realized as i was setting up that i made some pieces saturday night during miss america that i didn't take pictures of! crap! :) but how exciting to have a black miss america? as soon as it started, i said to myself "we've got a black president. how about a black miss america?" and there she is! :)

and in addition to having pink eye (again!), i went and got my thyroid ultrasounded and i have not 1, but 2 nodules that are ginormous. okay, maybe ginormous is a (slight) exaggeration, but they're big enough that they want to stick a needle in my throat to test them. although "ultrasound guided fine-needle aspiration" does sound better than "jab me in the throat with a huge needle". :) but between the student loan people, pilates, the dentist and my pcp today, i didn't have time to call and make the appointment. it's on the top of my list for tomorrow. if i have to have my throat amputated and get one of those voiceboxes like the guy on south park, i'd rather do it and get it over with :)