Tax Time

I would strongly discourage any of you from getting cancer. Additionally, I would discourage you in even stronger terms from getting cancer around April 15, especially when you are moving across the country within a week.

Last night and today I dug in and tried to get my taxes done. It took hours and that was just for a part-year income tax form for the Commonwealth of Virginia. I had my Federal and Oregon return prepared for me but they didn't have the capacity to do anything from Virginia in the office that I took it to without sending it off to another office and charging me even more. The guy promised me I could handle it but I learned that I did not miss a calling in life to be an accountant, that is quite certain! The good news is that Virginia owes me some money--not much but enough to make it worth it.

Anyway, it's a huge relief to have it done and in the mail. Even if I did end up in the red for the year overall, it was a great feeling--kind of like that last-day-of-school feeling where you know as soon as you walk out the door that you are at the one point in time farthest away from having to do it again. Very rewarding.

Now I get to turn my attention to questions about health insurance. I'm thankful that I have insurance, but when it rains, it pours! I've got a choice between four plans at my new job and I've got to decide which one best fits my needs. There are three HMO's and one PPO and from what I can tell the HMO's are all pretty similar. The problem is that not one of them (PPO plan included) is less than 65 pages long. I actually spoke to a health insurance expert about my dilemma and she basically said that I have a pretty good understanding of how health insurance works (amazing what a medical situation will teach you in a short amount of time) and that I need to go through each of them line by line to figure out which one works the best for me.

The party never ends!