Shattered Sun

I love getting things in the mail. I think we’re getting to the point where we forget the thrill of seeing someone’s address on an envelope and just knowing something wonderful is inside. That something wonderful doesn’t have to be anything major. Sometimes it’s just a letter or a card. A $2 card is one of the cutest things in the world. You know what’s even cuter though? Receiving wonderful photos of my baby nephew. That’s what my brother sent me in the mail! Snail mail! I tell you, there are just some things that are worth waiting for.

I can finally do my taxes. You’d think that putting in a change of address, contacting the company, and recontacting them multiple times regarding an address change would do the trick. It didn’t. It finally took going to a higher level to get the dumb W2 that we were missing. So here I am waiting to file taxes and I can finally do it! I’m fairly certain that I don’t owe anything but every year I get paid more which means I pay more taxes, which sucks. I actually owed the lovely state of Arizona taxes last year! Granted it was only about $100, but still, that sucks!! It’s one of those necessary evils in life, I guess.

To truly plan a vacation and consider all the costs and get good deals is like pounding your head against a brick wall. Well, for me it is, anyhow. It’s not where to go once I get there, it’s how to get there that kills me. With a family of four, I can’t decide whether to fly or drive. Both have pros and cons, but mostly, I don’t own a car right now. I probably will by the time July comes around (which is when I want to do a vacation), but the cost of traveling is just insane.

As for where I’m going, I was going to do San Diego, but my older brother wants me to head up to Idaho to meet my little nephew and sister-in-law. Considering I’ve never seen both, I’m thinking this is a good idea. His daughter lives in Dallas, though, and I’m feeling pressure from family to go there before hand to visit. I might also do that, but that’s where the expenses come in. Flying from here to Dallas, then Dallas to Idaho, then Idaho to home is about $2k. Driving is obviously less expensive, but it’s still no picnic. And then there’s the time aspect. It’s 16 hours from here to Dallas, 25 hours from Dallas to Idaho, and then 16 hours from Idaho to Dallas. That’s at least 4 days traveling. That’s a lot of driving time for a 10/11 day vacation.

Any one have some suggestions or ideas from past experience or what have you? I’m open to anything at this point. It’s merely a matter of more research, so any comments y’all might have will help!

A coworker of mine has a little sister who’s a Girl Scout. And everyone knows that there are no other cookies better than Girl Scout Cookies. So I got to buy two lovely boxes of Thin Mints and two wonderful boxes of Samoas. Sadly, you can’t buy them online, but you can probably buy them in the form of Breyer’s Ice Cream. I don’t know if they’re still doing it, but that’s only because I haven’t looked this year. They have been in our stores here the past few years. I’d buy them but the cookies alone are already breaking my diet.

While reading the paper online, I noticed that the bill for 4-year degrees at the community college level has been kicked to the curb. I’m wishing it hadn’t been. The bill isn’t particularly useful to me, as I am not persuing any of the degrees that it effected. But once the ball was rolling, other degrees would have been offered also. Currently, it is possible to get a four year degree in teaching from one of the community colleges in the area. But I don’t think I want to be a teacher either. Really, it’s the high costs of tuition at Arizona State University that is just killing me. Every year they’ve raised the rates. It’s to the point where it’s impossible to go to school without taking out loans to pay for it all. I hate that. You have to go into more debt to succeed. Anyway, the article is quoted below.

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