{"id":2340,"date":"2018-02-20T01:59:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T01:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2018-02-20T01:59:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T01:59:40","slug":"death-taxes-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/20\/death-taxes-art\/","title":{"rendered":"death, taxes, art"},"content":{"rendered":"

The husband of one of Jim\u2019s friends passed away recently and he asked me to go with him to the calling hours. \u00a0I had only met his friend once and only in passing, but I went along to provide a little support.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we got to the funeral home there was a short line to speak to the widow – she was seated in a chair off to the side. \u00a0In a few minutes we got to talk to her and I was struck by how terrible our funeral practices can be. \u00a0Here was this poor woman, forced by convention, to be \u201con\u201d for a crowd of family, friends, and in my case – strangers. \u00a0She was visibly tired and struggling to remember names – and even the kindest of words couldn\u2019t balance out her loss.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wanted to clear the room, help her to a more comfortable chair, and just give her a little peace and quiet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, I tried to be kind and told her I was sorry for her loss. \u00a0We didn\u2019t linger long and Jim promised to keep in touch.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope that the days and weeks ahead will give her the time to slowly come to terms with her loss. \u00a0There were a lot of people saying really nice things, but I wish she hadn\u2019t had to go through that.<\/span><\/p>\n

———————<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s tax time and that meant an email from H&R Block to make an appointment for me to get my taxes done. \u00a0They picked the day and time and it was fine with me. \u00a0I got 3 more emails indicating my appointment for 2\/18 at 1:00. \u00a0Then I got 5 text messages – including one that asked me to reply to confirm the day and time. \u00a0Which I did. \u00a0And then another to confirm my confirmation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The day of, about an hour before my appointment, I got a call from the Tax Expert. \u00a0She said she had me down for an appointment the next day (2\/19) and would I mind changing that to the following Thursday? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I replied with some confusion and told her that I thought my appointment was for that day at 1:00. \u00a0She apologized, told me that would be good, and said she\u2019d see me soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

A little puzzled, I gathered up my documents and headed out. <\/span><\/p>\n

When I got there, she explained that they had a new appointment system that nobody knew how to use and they\u2019d been calling and confusing people since the start of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

I recalled that they had the same problems last year – but kept that to myself, After all, I was relying on their Tax Software – not their appointment software.<\/span><\/p>\n

The actual tax prep went easily and quickly. \u00a0I could do this myself, but I get so worked up about it that it\u2019s better if I just pay someone to deal with it on my behalf.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we were done I paid my bill and headed out. \u00a0I got a couple text messages later in the day to say that my Federal and then State tax returns had been accepted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I got another text message telling me that my appointment was for 2\/17 at 12:30. \u00a0I thought that was the day before – but it was really the appointment reminder for\u2026 next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, that\u2019s going to help. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sigh.<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope I don\u2019t get audited.<\/span><\/p>\n

——————–<\/span><\/p>\n

Jim has to do some projects for class that involve actual art therapy. \u00a0He\u2019s got a friend of a friend that he\u2019s using as his official subject for the class project, but he asked me if I would do this as well – unofficially.<\/span><\/p>\n

He gave me three pieces of paper and some colored chalk – not my preferred medium – and sat back with a pad of note paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first assignment was to draw anything I wanted – so, I drew some pine trees from a forest near where I lived when I was a kid. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mainly because I know how to draw pine trees. <\/span><\/p>\n

For this one, he asked me a lot of questions about that place, where I would be if I was in the picture, and my memories of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Next I was supposed to draw a tree. \u00a0I made it too big to really fit on the paper by accident and so I drew a close-up tree with a few small branches and new growth. \u00a0Apparently, that means something. \u00a0The tree made me a little sad because it reminded me of the trees at work – and those little starts would be clipped off to make the tree more aesthetically pleasing.\u00a0 Seemed unfair.<\/span><\/p>\n

The last picture was about how I was feeling. \u00a0And since I was feeling overwhelmed at work, well, my brain just dumped out onto the page. \u00a0I drew a little blue cube in the corner of the page that was me with a dark cloud over it and a sunny sky far away. \u00a0The cube ended up having a fragile scaffolding under it and just making the picture made me start to tear up.<\/span><\/p>\n

We talked about the colors I used, what the cube meant, and all the little elements of the simple picture.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was, well, a little raw at the end of it. \u00a0And I wanted to cut out the little blue cube and take it with me – but settled for taking a picture. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how much this helped me – I usually sort myself out from situations if given some time – but it did make me see things in a starker light. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ll do the next one for sure – but I\u2019m glad I\u2019ve got a couple weeks. \u00a0Took a lot out of me.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only kinda bogus thing was that he couldn\u2019t really tell me much about what it meant since it would impact how I approached the other sessions. \u00a0And I can\u2019t help with proof-reading his papers since I\u2019ll learn way too much about the class and how the sessions go.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was interesting and I\u2019d recommend anyone with a lot going on in their head to talk to someone with some training. \u00a0Even though this wasn\u2019t official I still think I learned something about myself.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not too worried. \u00a0If he saw something really wrong or off in my drawings that pointed to a serious problem, he would have stopped what we were doing and had me speak to a licensed professional.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hoping we can skip the chalk next time – I thought it was too messy. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wait, does that mean something too?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The husband of one of Jim\u2019s friends passed away recently and he asked me to go with him to the calling hours. \u00a0I had only met his friend once and only in passing, but I went along to provide a little support. When we got to the funeral home there was a short line to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}