aqua fortis

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

But I Like to Over-Commit Myself.

I have this terrible habit, when I'm feeling guilty about not earning the kind of money I would if I had a full-time salaried position, of trying to take on too much. Last night, I was thinking about how crappy it was that for the first time as a married couple, we're actually going to have to pay taxes rather than getting a refund. So this morning, when the Office of Education called to see if I was available today to fill in for a sick secretary, I said yes. Never mind that I'm trying to get this freelance job fact-checking for the College Board; never mind that I've been working hard to stick to a new weekly schedule I wrote up for myself so that I can responsibly manage my time as a freelancer.

I ended up working in the office of an Alternative Education Center, also known as a school for bad kids. Kids who have been expelled from regular district schools or are otherwise repeat troublemakers. I got to see one kid get into a shouting match with two teachers in the three hours I was there. Fun. They might call me at some ungodly hour of the morning to go in again tomorrow. And get this--I'm a temp replacement for a sick temp.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you considered changing your allowances in order to get your taxes back? That's always worked for us...

Sarah Stevenson said...

Yup...that's what we're going to have to do. Mostly Rob, since half my income is on 1099-MISC and not taxed (which is part of the problem). This year I get to start paying estimated quarterly taxes, too. Whee!