And so it begins

Sunday night, while sitting at the Chalet, I started thinking about today and the inevitable horror that awaited me at work. Today is January 22nd, the unofficial beginning of the one thing that strikes fear into my heart (well, if you don't count spiral staircases, elevators, heights and vampires). Yes. Today is the first day of Tax Season. While there is an end in sight, it isn't for months. Months of the same question over and over again.

What's my cost basis?
What's my cost basis?
What's my cost basis?

I don't give a really bad word that starts with F. Maybe that is cold. Maybe it is even a bit crude. But I really don't.

To keep my mind off of the Hell, I am choosing to think Happy Thoughts. As a form of distraction, I began to remember my weekend. Beth picked me up on Friday night and we headed over to her place for the pursuit of scrappiness (oh, like I could resist the pun), otherwise known as scrapbooking. While I worked on the Sheepsheadian Gift Exchange of 2004 (I'm just a tad behind) & Beth worked on Split Rock Lighthouse, we reminisced, watched some South Park episodes and a CSI: episode I had missed.

The plan was for us to exchange gifts with Sarah on Saturday, she has become an honorary member of the Sheepsheadians. I was excited about the gifts I had found Sarah and couldn't wait to show them to Beth (This was easy enough for me to do because I am gift wrapping challenged. The whole concept of gift wrap perplexes me and, while I enjoy unwrapping presents, I do not enjoy wrapping them). Imagine my irritation when I realized that the two really cool picture frames I found for her were cracked. There would be no time to return to Target so I decided I would show them to Sarah and then take them back to Target to exchange them. Grr. Fortunately I liked the frames so much that I bought them for myself so I'll just give Sarah the ones I kept for myself on Thursday.

Saturday, Beth went to work and my plan was to catch up on blog reading. This did not work well. I am not used to typing on a laptop and found my comments filled with errors, especially since the pages would keep scrolling on me. I decided to give up and play a game Beth had introduced me to called Oasis. It seemed like an innocent enough game until I realized it was almost five hours later and Beth would be back in 20 minutes.

Sarah came over about an hour later and we exchanged gifts. She gave me the cutest snow globe with an angel in it and some paper and stickers for scrapbooking. She was pleased with her frames and laughed at me when I took the wrapping paper she gave me and hastily hid her presents from view. Beth gave me two pictures that I have wanted for awhile. One is of a yellow lily from the Como Park Conservatory. The other is the Robert Street Bridge which is right outside of my apartment. Beth took the picture with a longer exposure and so the car lights are a red blur. They are fantastic pictures and she also had them framed for me so I can't wait to hang them.

After watching another South Park episode, this one about World of Warcraft, we decided to play a board game. Sarah was telling us about a friend of hers who had a recent visitor to her home. Apparently the guy was there for a Scrabble tournament and had a few complaints. Her table was the wrong size for Scrabble (??!!?), he didn't like the television show she watched, etc. My viewpoint of this was that he was lucky he wasn't staying with Beth - she'd make him play Monopoly on the floor (the card table was filled with scrapbooking stuff).

Before we started, Beth mentioned that Monopoly was her favorite game as a child. Since I knew that Beth wanted to be a banker when she grew up, I should have realized that this was not the best game to play with her. She kicked our asses. Plus, I'm way too old (or fat (or both)) to be sitting on the floor.

We had decided to watch some movies while playing the game. I had bought Beth Disney's Robin Hood, a movie she had requested (I also bought both her and Sarah some brightly patterned mechanical pencils and post it notes with an inspirational quote from Helen Keller (Horrible but funny comment from Beth "Once Helen Keller learned how to talk, she sure didn't shut up, did she?")). I was a little worried when I saw that Sarah had presented Beth with Disney's The Fox and the Hound.

I protested the watching of The Fox and the Hound because I get very upset when Copper tells Tod they'll always be friends. The last time I saw this movie was with Matt and we were both shouting "Liar!" at the TV. Apparently I had blocked out the traumatic beginning when the mother fox is carrying Tod in her mouth, trying to outrun the hunters. You see the owl watching her hide the baby fox and then she runs off screen and the next thing you hear is a gun shot.

It is here where I let out a wail somewhat like this "Owowwwooooo." Beth and Sarah look at each other and Beth quickly grabbed the remote. "Okay!" she said in that cheerful tone used to soothe insane people "Let's watch Hook instead!"

"Can I have some Kleenex?" I ask pathetically. "I bubbled." I am holding my hand over my nose like a child, tears rolling down my face. Surprisingly enough, they laughed at me. Hook was started and I was caught up in Peter Pan's fight against Captain Hook. I can see why this is one of Beth's favorite movies. I've seen it before but it was a long time ago so it was fun remembering scenes I'd always enjoyed. Dustin Hoffman is a fantastic actor.

Sunday Beth and I went to karaoke (shock!) and had a good time. Beth wrote a fun post about some of the people we saw. I definitely enjoyed seeing Anthony again. He is attractive and even eats popcorn in a sexy manner. Plus, it is nice to see young adults interact with each other in a nice, normal fashion that doesn't involve trying to suck each other's lips off (God, that statement made me feel old).

After karaoke, we sat around and discussed why Disney hates children (the majority of the movies have either one or both parents dead) and other topics. It was a great weekend and kept my mind off of Tax Season.

So far I have received a total of 8 calls regarding cost basis. Not bad. I am expecting the numbers to escalate. I am not sure why I felt the need to track this but hey, I already keep track of the wrong names people call me (strangest one to date is Kimstana), why not this as well?

Hope you all had a good weekend!