It's getting there! Actually used a comb this morning! It's not the length I like it yet, but it is the length some guys wear theirs. Now if somebody were to offer me the part of Daddy Warbucks, I would just walk away.
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Every time I try to get out, they drag me back in. That mangled quote from The Godfather is how I feel about tax season right now. I'm putting in many more hours than I really care to. I feel more tired than retired.
Somehow, in all my vast planning, I did not anticipate going through the intensity of a tax season again. It really isn't as bad as prior years, it just deflated my rising expectations.
I guess moving away from accounting is going to be more difficult than I thought. My ability to make money at something else seems limited. As tax season ends, I'm going to give it a try again. Maybe eventually I can stumble into something a bit more creative. Until that proves out, however, I am going to have to learn to accept that accounting is going to be part of the mix, at least until Benjamin is out of college, and the house is paid for. In other words. I need to stop holding my breath.
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We weren't completely taken by surprise. We knew college was going to be expensive. Looking at the figures from the colleges we toured last weekend, it still was astonishing to see. Combinations of tuition, housing, books and fees, and meal plans, look to be in the neighborhood of $20,000. Some a little bit more, some a little bit less.
It's not like we didn't prepare. Benjamin should qualify for Hope (some 85% of tuition), and maybe even the Zell Miller level (100% of tuition). We have a college 529 that might pay for two years of housing and meal plans and other costs. Benjamin has some Social Security money, and he will probably get work/study or some kind of part time job. Alison is searching out other scholarship possibilities. All of this and we will probably still fall short, meaning, like it or not, we may have to get a student loan at some point. That sickens me, even though it has become very common and in my opinion, far too acceptable by people who should shrink in horror at it.
The financial aid sessions we had on our college tours were frightening in their Rube Goldberg-like approach to paying for college. It's a ridiculous thing for people to have to go through, and I am stunned at the number of families who attempt to traverse it.
This isn't normal, people. We need to stand up and fight against it. Public universities should be free to those who qualify. Nothing else makes sense.
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When tax season is done, I'm going to make a decision about Crowley Stories, one way or another. My major thoughts are 1) send it to a professional editor to be further polished, 2) go to a self-publisher like BookBub and let them do that work for me, or 3) just CreateSpace the thing and get it on out there. What I've ruled out is going to agents and publishers.
Anybody have any suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.
Wanderingly yours.
T. M. Strait
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