tax dollars trying to get to work

this is the time of year that, being self employed, I receive all my 1099 forms from all the people who paid me anything in the past year.

A 1099 isn't a whole lot different from a w-2, except no taxes are taken out (and since the "employee contribution" is not there to mask it, you have to face the fact that 15, not 8, per cent of your money is going to social security). But along with receiving these chincy forms, since I also hire people on occasion, I also have to fill out, send out, and file 1099's.

Here is my complaint. To file form 1099, you have to order the forms-- you MAY NOT print them out like all other tax forms. So weeks later if, the IRS didn't misplace your order (this has happened to me), you get a stack of these forms in the mail. Each form has room on it for 2 people's info-- and for me to fill it out, I have to put my name, address, and ssn twice-- once on the top half, once on the bottom half. When you have to fill out 80 of these, having to repeatedly enter this information by hand is a real pain.

The forms are 6 pages deep-- the top sheet goes to the IRs, the next 3 layers go to the payee, and I keep the bottom 2 (or something like that). Once they are filled out, I have to tear the top sheet off and put it in a stack, then take the next 3 layers, rip those out of the form's binding, and then tear those 2 in half (it's like paper mache class) to send the hard copy to each of the 2 recipients listed on the page. (hopefully I, or the assistant i hired to do this, pressed hard enough with my pen so the info got imprinted on the lower sheets.)

You would think that the process of providing this info, so important to the tax structure, would be more automated than it is, but it ain't. there is no way to print up your own 1099's either-- you MUST order them from the IRS.

It is an absolute no-brainer that all of this can and should be done electronically-- the "technology" (if you can call it that) of the current system is reminiscent of bob cratchett working with a quill pen. I can only assume that the people who fill these forms out for a fee have lobbied hard to keep us from using computers for something so complicted as filling out forms.

i like bloomingdales

well let me first say that I am, in a phrase, fashion challenged. I know very little about clothes, it is very hard for me to see why this goes with that, and why this doesn't . . . and usually when i buy clothes, half of thetime the items i buy don't look right in the light of day and never get worn. It seems it is pure luck when i get something that fits and i like and doesn't wear out.

Buying suits and dress clothes is a whole 'nother level of aggravation, tho, as so much more money is at stake. I have tried buying dres clothes on sale-- I invariably ended up with a lot of stuff that is green, brown, or plaid.

So anyway I decided to bite the bullet and go to bloomingdales and buy a nice italian suit. canali looked good. I called, they said, come on down, we just got a whole bunch of new stuff in stock.

Well of course that means it's not on sale but i didn't care.

Anyway this very nice sales lady listened to my tales of woe and carefully brought in various items for me to try on (it helped that it was on a monday night and no one else was around) longer story short, the only thing they had that fit me at all was . . . you may have guessed it-- an armani suit. I admit, it sure looked nice. I was ready to buy. It was a pricey item, but i didn;tcare. only thing, it wasn't hanging quite right. the tailor came in and said, NO. We can't sell you this suit, the cut isn't right for you.

Now just about any other store would have gone crazy trying to get me into something that sort of kind of fit just to make a sale. so I was VERY impressed that bloomie's put my looking right ahead of their own immedate sales goals.

If this sounds like a remake of miracle on 34th st., maybe it is. I will be going back for the "trunk show" where they say they have a good chance of fitting me with some good stuff. I'll be scruffy til april. I can do that standing on my head.

what we need is less change

well even tho we just got through an election, already the campaign for '08 is in the works.

I have one compalint about this process, and that is the use of the word "change."

I am amazed at how often I hear politicians offer us "change." I appreciate the need for change, but I wonder if politicians know what this word means. After all, we have been repeatedly promised "change" every two years sice I can remember voting, and, other than little old ladies being required to take their shoes off before boarding at the airport, I have seen very little change anywhere.

granted, I suppose there has been some "change," but most of them have not necessarily been good. i think a politicain should least offer "good change."

Clearly, since "change" has been promised so many times and so many people have been elected to provide it and so little change has occurred, I think my definition of the word must mean something else. I guess "we need change" really just means we're going to stay the same but different people will be paid for providing this lack of any other difference. oh well, it IS a change . . .