Taxes and exercise balls
Yesterday I lived through two arduous tasks: doing my taxes and inflating a 55-cm exercise ball. The taxes were worse this year than ever before because it was the first time I had to deal with my investments (mutual fund and tax-free short-intermediate bonds), and I had the fellowship and two different jobs to balance. I am relatively good at finding the correct "extra" forms and worksheets and following directions (my parents still call me "the obedient one"), but it still took me a few hours. Part of that time was spent on estimated taxes for next year. Basically, if you have a fellowship (a good thing), they bring you down a peg by paying you in lump sums with no tax with-held. This means that you have to figure out estimated taxes and send in a good chunk of change with the start of every new fiscal quarter, starting--you guessed it--on tax day for the previous year.
I still haven't figured out whether my fellowship is taxable on a state- and local-level. Most education sites that have this information say that it isn't, but I haven't seen anything coming from New York. I gave up on the New York tax information line after waiting on hold for 90 minutes yesterday.
Later, I decided to inflate the giant exercise ball I finally purchased after years of admiration. If you have seen these, they're made from a heavy vinyl and range in size from 55-cm to 65-cm in diameter. At my height, I am right in the middle of the 55-cm recommendation. I ordered my ball from Walmart.com, which offered a good price and included a pump. The whole thing arrived a few days later in a 18 cm by 18 cm by 18 cm box. The instructions were really easy to follow, and it came with a strip of plastic to put around the ball as a measuring tape (the end had holes, so you simply put the pump valve through the tape holes and into the ball before starting. Then I practiced CPR for about thirty minutes. I tried using my foot at the beginning, but my legs quickly tired, and I learned that CPR-style compressions were quite efficient. I had to stop to rest a few times, but now I have this lovely ball that takes up 1/4 of my bed.
And I'm about to go try it out.
I still haven't figured out whether my fellowship is taxable on a state- and local-level. Most education sites that have this information say that it isn't, but I haven't seen anything coming from New York. I gave up on the New York tax information line after waiting on hold for 90 minutes yesterday.
Later, I decided to inflate the giant exercise ball I finally purchased after years of admiration. If you have seen these, they're made from a heavy vinyl and range in size from 55-cm to 65-cm in diameter. At my height, I am right in the middle of the 55-cm recommendation. I ordered my ball from Walmart.com, which offered a good price and included a pump. The whole thing arrived a few days later in a 18 cm by 18 cm by 18 cm box. The instructions were really easy to follow, and it came with a strip of plastic to put around the ball as a measuring tape (the end had holes, so you simply put the pump valve through the tape holes and into the ball before starting. Then I practiced CPR for about thirty minutes. I tried using my foot at the beginning, but my legs quickly tired, and I learned that CPR-style compressions were quite efficient. I had to stop to rest a few times, but now I have this lovely ball that takes up 1/4 of my bed.
And I'm about to go try it out.
posted by megan at
3:14 PM
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