quester, that sounds like a really difficult one. The Girl is in a similar situation, and has currently given up on finding full-time work in the near future, so I can empathise. What might you study at school? I hope whatever decision you make works out for you!

Bank~ and IRS~ma, meara. That's a sucky situation.

Sigh. I do not want to be awake right now. But I am!

Woke up so I could call BofA first thing, before driving to the escrow people (supposed to be there at 7AM). First tried calling from my home phone, but even though my account is a Maryland account, it told me the phones don't get answered til 8AM. So then I called from my (Virginia-area-code) cellphone, and got an answer. Fuckers. And indeed, they're all "Oh, yeah, they must've put a hold on the money at the bank while you were there, and then forgotten to take it off, and then they cashed the check...". So they say they've fixed it. But STILL! Am still worried and pissed.

AND I just called the IRS, and first they're like "Well, you need an adjusted unemployment 1099" and I'm like "Uh, right here on the unemployment thing, it reads "blah blah we won't give you one on your taxes you have to use receipts" WHICH I DID". And they're like "Oh. Well, then, send us the receipts". And I'm all "Um, I already did the FIRST TIME, but SURE, WHATEVER YOU WANT, CRAZY TAXPEOPLE!" (Only not yelly, because it wasn't even 6AM here, and I don't have the energy for that, and my neighbors don't need that)

What a tremendous bother, meara. Ergh. While I have had nothing but good experiences with the IRS recently, years ago I had one of those incredibly confusing, crazy-making exchanges with them that took about 18 months and many, many grey hairs to resolve.

In the end...and I hope it does not come to this for you, but I highly recommend the action if it does...I went to my State Representative's office with the documentation of my attempts to resolve the situation.

Every Rep's office has an IRS liaison.

After 18 months of maddening travail, the entire matter was resolved in a day. Within three days, I had a personal apology from the Regional Director of the IRS.

Done and dusted.

You are totally in the right and your elected officials are there to support you...though it may seldom seem so. The liaison has the benefit of circumventing powerless functionaries and can save loads of time.

Ugh, meara. What a pain. Best of luck getting it all sorted out.

So. We're slightly loopy people. We've spent the morning arranging to take our cars over to France on the ferry on Friday, so that we can pick up stranded Londoners (the ash cloud from Iceland is grounding all flights ANYWHERE) and bring them home. As The Girl said while on hold to the ferry company, "I really wasn't designed ever to have a proper job." Rescue mission!

waiting on a call back from the vet, re: Taz. Poor guy- he occasionally seems to have balance issues and his back legs give out beneath him and lately he's been obsessively grooming his lower half and biting at his rear paws, like he's trying to pull off the outer layer of the nail.

Poor Taz- I am thinking it might be all this upcoming move stuff that is stressing him out.

Also, vet- don't freak me out and say that he NEEDS to come in and then take more than an hour to get back to me to schedule! Ugh. I'm gonna call back.

So, I am seriously considering the flame corset, because I enjoy the idea of an official Steph uniform, but I wonder where else I would wear it. I'm getting old kids, I don't have a lot of opportunities to wear a black leather corset with flames.

Vortex, you could wear it under a jacket, with black pants or a skirt, to a bar or other social gathering place that the kids like to visit these days.

We've spent the morning arranging to take our cars over to France on the ferry on Friday, so that we can pick up stranded Londoners (the ash cloud from Iceland is grounding all flights ANYWHERE) and bring them home. As The Girl said while on hold to the ferry company, "I really wasn't designed ever to have a proper job." Rescue mission!

That's awesome. I heard the British Navy is doing essentially the same thing and that there's a plan to fly Britons (does that include everyone?) to Madrid and then home by Navy from there.

I feel for everyone stuck but I've been enjoying reading about the crazy ways people are getting home. (A british friend lives in Germany but was home visiting. He bought a car and drove him since it was cheaper and faster than anything else.)