~Sunday~ I was up at about 8:30, put on a pot of coffee, and made two sausage-egg-and-cheese sandwiches for breakfast for us.
I liked this PostSecret because it’s a reminder that always being responsible (which I have been most of my life) is not necessarily the best thing:
Shortly after Robert left to head back to Durham, I changed into workout clothes and walked to the K-Mart near my house, which ended up being a one-hour round-trip, so I’m guestimating three miles, since that’s about how long it takes me to do the 3-mile loop around the lake. I decided to combine my exercise with an errand I needed to take care of today anyway, which was to buy tax software.
Once there, I had trouble finding the H&R Block software, and in the electronics section, I asked the (college-aged) kid working there, “Where’s the tax software?”
“Oh, we don’t carry that,” he responded just a little too quickly for my taste.
“You don’t?” I asked incredulously, as I really didn’t believe him. After all, I bought last year’s edition there.
“No,” he said and then turning, his arm almost bumped into the H&R Block kiosk that neither of us had seen right next to us.
He stammered, “Oh, I’m such a moron. Yes, we do have some, it’s right here.”
It would have been fine if he’d’ve just left it alone after that; but no, he had to go and add, “What I meant to say was that we don’t have any that runs on Windows 7.”
“Uh, okay,” I’ll just pretend like I believe that’s what you meant to say. It took just about everything in me not to point to this on the box:
Bless his heart.
I spent most of the afternoon doing taxes, first completing mine and then Robert’s. I’m getting about a grand back for federal, which I hope to use toward a MacBook Pro, and about 60 bucks back on State.
It feels so good to have that out of the way. Now I can clean up all that mountain of paperwork that is still all over my kitchen floor as visually documented in this blog entry.
I attended the Alternative Service Break Celebration tonight, which was a gathering of all the teams (17 of them) that went on the various ASB trips over spring break:
- Alaska (Education)
- Belize (Environmental Issues)
- Costa Rica (Rainforest Conservation)
- Mexico (Habitat for Humanity)
- Dominican Republic (2 groups: Health Education/Clinic & Orphanage Outreach/Teaching English)
- El Salvador (Homelessness/Substandard Housing)
- Gulf Coast/New Orleans (Post-Katrina Habitat for Humanity) ← My Trip!
- Guatemala (Gender Issues)
- Guatemala (Medical)
- Italy (Hunger)
- New Mexico (Education)
- Nicaragua (Water Quality)
- Philadelphia, PA (Interfaith Religion)
- San Francisco, CA (Homelessness and the GLBT Community)
- Washington, DC (Hunger Issues)
- West Virginia (Substandard Housing)
The celebration also included two teams that went back during fall break:
- Washington, DC (Hunger & Homelessness)
- Atlanta, GA (Civil Rights)
All of the teams created a poster board highlighting their trips, which were judged for a winner. Out of all those teams, ours won! Tracy, our team leader, did a great job in pulling it together.
Also, Jackie Jazwa, the Americorps*Vista Community Service Coordinator, and the team leader of my trip last year, put together this great video montage of all the trips:
Tracy gave me a nice thank-you card that said:
| John,
So glad to have you as an advisor this year for ASB-Gulf Coast. Your insight and unique perspective that you provided during reflection and throughout the week added incredible value to the overall experience. Thank you so much for just being you. 🙂 Oh, and your blog work was, as expected, phenomenal. <3, Tracy |
I left there with a warm heart.
I arrived at The Borough at just after 8:30, where I had two cocktails and a bowl of their unbelievably delicious Potato-Corn-Jalapeño Soup.
When I ordered my second drink I said to Liz (the owner/manager), “You know I just did my taxes, and when I looked at my year-end summary of my credit card account, one-third of the charges in the restaurant category were at The Borough.
She got a big smile on her face, as did the bartender standing next to her, and they both said, “Thank you!” And then later, when I cashed out, Liz said, “Your second bourbon and diet is on me.” Sweet! Now that’s what I call getting customer service and loyalty! Thanks, Liz!
While I was there, the Academy of Country Music Awards was on and before going to a commercial, there was a blurb that said, “Coming up next…” with a bunch of artist’s names listed, one of which was Rihanna. I knew I was spelling her name wrong at the time, but this is the Facebook status update I posted after seeing that:
I met Joe at Flex at a little bit after 9:00, where we hung out for a little while for scareyoke, and then made our way over to Legends for the midnight show, which was meh.
I spent a little time there talking with this straight, white girl named Debbie, whom I initially really clicked with, but the more she talked the more she sounded like a mess. Join the club, Eunice.