☆paging doctor gorgeous☆

Oh my GOD.

I spent hours trying to get my taxes done today, and I don't know why it got so complicated, because it's just a simple W-2. I should have been able to just type in the numbers from all the boxes and be done, right? WRONG.

I ended up owing on Federal, which doesn't make any sense??? Again, it's just a simple W-2. I worked for the same business January through December, no deductions, no weird shit. Just very simple and straight forward. It was also telling me I owed almost a thousand dollars to the state, also? Which, like...??? No??? Why???

I took the time to painstakingly enter all my information in three separate services, trying to find a) some numbers I actually agreed with, and b) which service would try to screw me over the least in terms of fees. I started out with the Free Edition on all three, and of course wouldn't you know it, by the end all of them claimed the only way they could file my returns for me is if I paid extra.

ANYWAY. This stupid health insurance form kept throwing up errors. "There is a zero here! There can't be a zero here! Refer to your healthcare marketplace tax form 1095-A!" I referred to the form. Zeroes. "But you have to enter the amount of the monthly premium for every month! Why for you have zeroes in January?"

Consult form. Because I was not covered by insurance during the month of January. Hey, I already clicked the little box that said I was only covered for some of the year. I even clicked all the little ticky boxes of the months that I was covered for. You already know I wasn't covered in January.

"But it can't be zero!!! Please fix or we cannot submit return!!!"

I called my healthcare marketplace. As you can imagine, I was on hold for a long time. They said they didn't know why my taxes couldn't be filed but confirmed I was in fact not covered for January and that the zero amounts in that column were correct. I called the provider of my healthcare for last year to see if maybe I was still covered over there in January. Yes, yes I was! But then my tax software provided absolutely no option for noting that in 2024, I was covered by two separate healthcare companies.

I have never wanted to cry and scream while doing my taxes before, not even when I was self-employed.

Fortunately, because TurboTax said they needed one (1) extra form to file my return, and I was no longer eligible for Free Edition and had to pay, the upgrade did include the ability to call a tax specialist and get help. The woman I was connected with was very nice and patient and helpful, shared screens with me, and was able to help me finally submit my returns (which have now already been accepted, thank FUCK).

I spent over four hours trying to get my taxes done today. My brain is fried, my blood pressure is probably still up, and I feel like I wasted a lot of my afternoon where I could have been getting other things done. I'm also pissed that I owe. It's not a lot, but what the fuck? People with simple W-2s are supposed to get a tax return! No one can explain to me why I get nothing.

But they are DONE.

And, on the upside, my Valentine package from Blair showed up this evening, containing a beautiful, high quality water bottle (I've been wanting a nice one), and some red velvet cookie sandwiches, along with a beautiful card that made me cry, and accompanying lipstick kiss print and spritz of her perfume. Mmmm, I love her so much and am loved by her in return. <3

So!

Yesterday, as I was finally starting to get my shit together and preparing to work on fills for fandomgiftbasket, I noticed something very unfortunate.

My laptop casing was beginning to split apart. My laptop battery was starting to swell.

For those of you who don't know, a swelling laptop battery can be VERY bad news. Like, starting fires, leaking toxic fumes, even exploding. So, because I cannot get along without a computer of some sort (I'm literally working on my IT course right now and pay by the month) I had to very quickly drop a bunch of money I don't really have to spare right now on a new laptop, which I will be picking up later today when I wake up.

It's not even new, really, because I definitely can't afford that. But it's a refurb, and it's only like a year old, which is leaps and bounds newer than the one I've been rocking. My current laptop is a 2014 and a refurb also, but it's so old and worn out that even though it was once a gaming laptop, it could barely survive using netflix and discord at the same time. So I mean. It'll be nice to have a new (to me) computer, but nooooo money.

I will be picking up shifts at work to compensate.

I also have to take current laptop to a repair place and pay them to open it and remove the swelling battery just so that it isn't, like, a dangerous hazard. I may or may not bother getting a new battery for it eventually, as this laptop is very old, but either way I do not want it to start any fires, leak toxic gas, or explode.