March 25th

YEAH, YEAH, I'M THE TAXMAN

I owe the federal government $417 more in taxes. It's because they are taxing my unemployment benefits. This kind of sucks. They oh, so generously give you a little bit of money that isn't anywhere near enough to live on, and then want a big chunk of it back at the end of the year. The good thing is that the state of CA doesn't tax it, so I'm getting more back from the state than I owe to the feds, so Arnold will send me money to pay Sam.

I'm already finding myself tempted to buy things with the "extra". I need to get it in my head that since I have NO income, NOTHING is extra. Frugality will be the mode of existence until I either win the lottery or find a job. Sadly, it's beginning to look like winning the lottery has better odds of happening. My resumes are still apparently being sucked into the same big black hole where all the resumes of the unemployed mortgage workers are going.

I did buy a plant today. The grocery store had marked down all the Easter plants, so I got a nice, healthy purple Calla Lily for $1.88. Now, I just have to plant it in the ground before I kill it.