Never Give Up, Never Surrender
The first half of today was a frustrating, thankfully the second was not.
Back in April of last year I received an actual, physical letter from the IRS requiring me to call their office to make an appointment to appear in person to prove my identity, because they had identified suspicious activity. That was it; that was all they said. So I had to go down to their office downtown to prove I was me, and found out that someone had tried to file as me, knowing not only my social security number (bad, but understandable), but my exact wage down to the penny (impossible; *I* don't know that until I see my W-2.) The IRS only caught it because the faux-me had claimed a *lot* more deductions than I ever have, and was trying to get a much larger tax refund than what I was legitimately entitled to. So I got that straightened out, and the agent who helped me said she would process my legitimate return, but that it would take a while (again, understandable), and that because of the potential identify theft, they could not deposit my return digitally (something the thief had also tried), but would mail me a check, which would take even longer. Call it 180 days, give or take--and with the post office, you always err on the side of give.
So, here it is officially 2018 and I never received my tax return. It wasn't huge, but this was the first year since Marvel and I separated that I didn't owe the government, and with one credit card maxed out and with sometimes needing to move money between bank accounts just to pay my bills, I sure could use it. I had tried to check the status of my return online, and couldn't, because they ask you if you filed by mail or electronically, and technically it was neither? and there isn't any way to mark "other." So I finally called today.
I was on the phone for just over two and a half hours--I know, because I called from work, and my office phone has a call timer on it. In my defense I truly didn't believe it would take anywhere near that long. Because there's absolutely no record of my valid tax return. Oh, they found the fraudulent one, no problem. And, thankfully, they found the record that that had been cleared up, and I was the real Slim Shady, so no problems there either. But, by the time I spoke to my third agent (after being passed back and forth between two departments), they best they could come up with was that the initial woman I spoke to had just never gotten around to processing my tax return. No, no way to speak with her and ask her about it. And no way to look up all the information they needed, either--apparently with the new tax laws going into effect more than half of their system is down for updating. So all I can do is re-file last year's tax return. And enclose a note, please asking them to believe this is me, and not put me through all of this rigmarole again.
I have used up all of my "bureaucratic spoons" for the day; I'll have to tackle this again tomorrow.
Dieting was so-so today; I didn't have a diet dinner, but that's because I had the homemade chicken soup and some sort of dumplings the fish guy gave me. (I should probably explain who he is--but not today.) I figure, one, how many calories can chicken soup have (don't answer that), and two, I'm saving money, so it's kind of a wash.
However, I more than made up for it by starting my exercise regime again tonight. I measured 20.51, 3 lbs. away from my goal BMI. January of last year I was 22.55, and in January of 2016 I was 22.92. I'm still not in the shape I was in in 2012, but I'm in the best shape I've been since 2013 and on. (Or so says WiiFit.) I couldn't do one of my (non-WiiFit) flexibility exercises on the right side of my body, which is odd--I've never had a problem before. But we'll see if a few days of stretching won't cure it. Of course, that's the *real* challenge. Not Day One of exercising, but Day Two--when your body is at its most sore. I did get a little nauseous towards the end, but part of that might have been due to the fact that I ate a little more than I usually do while dieting, and part of it is that, due to the order in which I do the exercises, I re-started with the hardest exercises for me to do (the Single Arm Stand, and all the strength training exercises in that row.) The most important thing (to me) is that I felt strong; I haven't worked out in 60 days (again, so says WiiFit), and that was only once, after I felt I had been out of the hospital long enough and wanted to test my endurance. I won't say I didn't feel out of shape, but I felt like my muscles were strong enough to do everything, and I didn't get tired. (Oh, except for my left wrist. It's been hurting for a few days now, but tonight at one point during the Arm and Leg Lift it felt like it wasn't going to support my weight, and hurt so much I yelped. But maybe exercise will help that, too.)
I even got a nice long shower in. I'm up markedly later than my usual Early Ass O'Clock bedtime, but considering I stayed up past midnight three nights in a row over the holiday weekend, I'm not as tired as I might be otherwise. Still, I don't know how other people do it--have dinner, clean the house, exercise, shower, and still have time for hobbies and their favorite T.V. shows. Granted they go to bed later than I do, but still.
I didn't do either of the chore lists again today, but I did wash a holiday's weekend worth of dishes, including my water pitcher, and switched out the bag of laundry. So not a total loss.
(And hey, look--another icon I could potentially redo, now that I have a brand new Eternal Sailor Mars uniform.)
Back in April of last year I received an actual, physical letter from the IRS requiring me to call their office to make an appointment to appear in person to prove my identity, because they had identified suspicious activity. That was it; that was all they said. So I had to go down to their office downtown to prove I was me, and found out that someone had tried to file as me, knowing not only my social security number (bad, but understandable), but my exact wage down to the penny (impossible; *I* don't know that until I see my W-2.) The IRS only caught it because the faux-me had claimed a *lot* more deductions than I ever have, and was trying to get a much larger tax refund than what I was legitimately entitled to. So I got that straightened out, and the agent who helped me said she would process my legitimate return, but that it would take a while (again, understandable), and that because of the potential identify theft, they could not deposit my return digitally (something the thief had also tried), but would mail me a check, which would take even longer. Call it 180 days, give or take--and with the post office, you always err on the side of give.
So, here it is officially 2018 and I never received my tax return. It wasn't huge, but this was the first year since Marvel and I separated that I didn't owe the government, and with one credit card maxed out and with sometimes needing to move money between bank accounts just to pay my bills, I sure could use it. I had tried to check the status of my return online, and couldn't, because they ask you if you filed by mail or electronically, and technically it was neither? and there isn't any way to mark "other." So I finally called today.
I was on the phone for just over two and a half hours--I know, because I called from work, and my office phone has a call timer on it. In my defense I truly didn't believe it would take anywhere near that long. Because there's absolutely no record of my valid tax return. Oh, they found the fraudulent one, no problem. And, thankfully, they found the record that that had been cleared up, and I was the real Slim Shady, so no problems there either. But, by the time I spoke to my third agent (after being passed back and forth between two departments), they best they could come up with was that the initial woman I spoke to had just never gotten around to processing my tax return. No, no way to speak with her and ask her about it. And no way to look up all the information they needed, either--apparently with the new tax laws going into effect more than half of their system is down for updating. So all I can do is re-file last year's tax return. And enclose a note, please asking them to believe this is me, and not put me through all of this rigmarole again.
I have used up all of my "bureaucratic spoons" for the day; I'll have to tackle this again tomorrow.
Dieting was so-so today; I didn't have a diet dinner, but that's because I had the homemade chicken soup and some sort of dumplings the fish guy gave me. (I should probably explain who he is--but not today.) I figure, one, how many calories can chicken soup have (don't answer that), and two, I'm saving money, so it's kind of a wash.
However, I more than made up for it by starting my exercise regime again tonight. I measured 20.51, 3 lbs. away from my goal BMI. January of last year I was 22.55, and in January of 2016 I was 22.92. I'm still not in the shape I was in in 2012, but I'm in the best shape I've been since 2013 and on. (Or so says WiiFit.) I couldn't do one of my (non-WiiFit) flexibility exercises on the right side of my body, which is odd--I've never had a problem before. But we'll see if a few days of stretching won't cure it. Of course, that's the *real* challenge. Not Day One of exercising, but Day Two--when your body is at its most sore. I did get a little nauseous towards the end, but part of that might have been due to the fact that I ate a little more than I usually do while dieting, and part of it is that, due to the order in which I do the exercises, I re-started with the hardest exercises for me to do (the Single Arm Stand, and all the strength training exercises in that row.) The most important thing (to me) is that I felt strong; I haven't worked out in 60 days (again, so says WiiFit), and that was only once, after I felt I had been out of the hospital long enough and wanted to test my endurance. I won't say I didn't feel out of shape, but I felt like my muscles were strong enough to do everything, and I didn't get tired. (Oh, except for my left wrist. It's been hurting for a few days now, but tonight at one point during the Arm and Leg Lift it felt like it wasn't going to support my weight, and hurt so much I yelped. But maybe exercise will help that, too.)
I even got a nice long shower in. I'm up markedly later than my usual Early Ass O'Clock bedtime, but considering I stayed up past midnight three nights in a row over the holiday weekend, I'm not as tired as I might be otherwise. Still, I don't know how other people do it--have dinner, clean the house, exercise, shower, and still have time for hobbies and their favorite T.V. shows. Granted they go to bed later than I do, but still.
I didn't do either of the chore lists again today, but I did wash a holiday's weekend worth of dishes, including my water pitcher, and switched out the bag of laundry. So not a total loss.
(And hey, look--another icon I could potentially redo, now that I have a brand new Eternal Sailor Mars uniform.)