Somehow, I forgot to file my tax returns prior to April 15. Well, I didn't forget. I remembered that they were due, but I couldn't open Adobe documents on my computer because of some classic computer idiocy and I spent my weekend in a somewhat stuporous state of joy over having (ding ding!) ** passed the bar exam** (we can talk about it now) and also it was sunny and beautiful that weekend and I managed to coerce someone with a car into leaving the city to go hiking in prettiness, so I was forced to work on taxes during my lunch hour on April 15, annoying surrounding colleagues with statements about how Michigan has no RIGHT to my money, seeing as how I made it all in New York and/or Southern Sudan, and then when I got home that night I had to remove all Adobe products (failures, all of them) from my computer and re-install them, and then it was 9:30 p.m. before I finished the forms for the feds, MI, and NY (partial year residencies: disastrous). So I opened up the handy little trip planning device on the public transportation website and betook myself, at 10:00 p.m., in the constant sprinkle, back downtown to drop my tax forms in the mailbox outside the central post office, where items mailed before midnight would get an April 15 stamp.
As I was standing at the homeward bus stop at 10:30 p.m., a creepy short little middle-aged man passed me and said hello. I nodded back (at this point, I didn't know that he was creepy; he looked normal). Then he asked me my name in a leering tone and I utilized the world-tested strategy of glancing at him and then away in utter disinterest as if he was the most boring specimen of humanity ever to pass before my eyes. (You would be shocked. This strategy of finding the person utterly boring works even in the parts of the world where "leave me alone" apparently means "please try to stick your hand up my shirt in a public place." It's brilliant.)
Slightly relatedly, I have started to notice that I say the word hello to people exactly like my dad does. People are mad friendly out here, and while hiking on Saturday, we routinely said hi to people passing us up or down. I found myself not saying hi but saying "hello," in exactly my dad's vocal cadence. It was like it was not even my own mouth speaking. Freaky.
Another funny thing: for the first time in a long time, I am perfectly happy to be where I am. I love my apartment, I love my job, I love my friends (old and new), I love the spring blossoms on the trees, I love dressing in a suit and clicky heels, I love how nice people are, I love riding public transportation, I love all the people my age in this city, I love being done with studying, I love the glimpses of summer coming, I love exploring this state. This is a really good place for me.
As I was standing at the homeward bus stop at 10:30 p.m., a creepy short little middle-aged man passed me and said hello. I nodded back (at this point, I didn't know that he was creepy; he looked normal). Then he asked me my name in a leering tone and I utilized the world-tested strategy of glancing at him and then away in utter disinterest as if he was the most boring specimen of humanity ever to pass before my eyes. (You would be shocked. This strategy of finding the person utterly boring works even in the parts of the world where "leave me alone" apparently means "please try to stick your hand up my shirt in a public place." It's brilliant.)
Slightly relatedly, I have started to notice that I say the word hello to people exactly like my dad does. People are mad friendly out here, and while hiking on Saturday, we routinely said hi to people passing us up or down. I found myself not saying hi but saying "hello," in exactly my dad's vocal cadence. It was like it was not even my own mouth speaking. Freaky.
Another funny thing: for the first time in a long time, I am perfectly happy to be where I am. I love my apartment, I love my job, I love my friends (old and new), I love the spring blossoms on the trees, I love dressing in a suit and clicky heels, I love how nice people are, I love riding public transportation, I love all the people my age in this city, I love being done with studying, I love the glimpses of summer coming, I love exploring this state. This is a really good place for me.
1 comment:
Congrats on all levels!
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