Signs that you think too highly of yourself

1. You travel often but haven’t filed a travel claim in over two years. This means that you are out hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars (but are apparently not effected by it,) plus this screws up the travel budget. One day you decide that it’s time to send in your claims and bring your 2 years worth of claims in to the Administrative Coordinator, forcing her spend a full day entering your data into the system and double checking tax rules.

2. Two administrative coordinators spend a great deal of time and energy in February arranging for a group trip to Washington for a conference in May. Your confirmed travel itinerary arrives in April and you make a big stink about how you are not sitting next to your colleague on the plane. Of course you never specified that you wanted to sit next to this colleague when you made your booking in February, but you are still quick to point out that the admin. Coordin. did something wrong. You do this by sending a rude email (whining about this problem) to the other admin. Coordinator, who doesn’t directly work with you and who did not make your travel arrangements in the first place! (That would be me.) Meanwhile, you don’t take into consideration the fact that the admin. Coordin. to whom you are whining booked all of her people in economy, while you insisted on sitting in business! (But hey, what’s an extra few thousand dollars when it’s not your money?)

Right, so I’m just really glad that I’m not the admin coordinator who works directly with the guy in scenario #2. Apparently he’s gone through 4 assistants in 6 years. I’m busy enough with my 30 doctors; this guy is so not my problem. (Although I did change his seat assignment for him just so the other girl wouldn’t have to deal with him again.)

Anyway, 1½ hours left until I start my vacation! Look out Beijing!

In other fantastic news…the contract hasn’t been signed yet, but it seems that P will very likely be starting a new, awesome, qualified job when we get back from our vacation! No more evening shifts, no more weekend overtime, and helloooooo raise! I can’t wait to celebrate with him when he gets home from work tonight (at 00:30.)

Rights, so I’ll be back on April 8th, blog to you then!

Have a nice what now?

It’s 4:30pm on Thursday. Not an especially exciting day.

My office is closest to the elevators. Colleagues have been walking past my office and wishing me a nice weekend (presumably on their way home) for the past hour and a half. Weekend? Am I missing something here? Tomorrow’s not a holiday, what’s with all the weekend talk?

On that note, I think it’s time to head home. Have a nice Thursday evening!

“Student Loan Interest Reduction Worksheet 4-1.”

Well, the taxes are done. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to use the “Student Loan Interest Reduction Worksheet 4-1.” Except in the end it didn’t matter because I owe 0 taxes (and you can’t claim a deduction if you owe $0!) Anyway, here’s what doesn’t make sense to me:

You should fill out this worksheet if you are filing form 2555.
(OK so far.)

Enter the amount that you get from this worksheet onto line 33 of form 1040.
(Yeah, I’m with you; let’s take a look at the worksheet.)

Worksheet 4-1 line 4. “Enter any amount you entered on the dotted line next to Form 1040, line 36.”
(OK, let’s see what I entered on Form 1040 line 36.)

Form 1040 Line 36 reads, “Add lines 23 through 31a and 32 through 35.”

(Wait a minute! I need to enter line 33 in order to enter line 36. But I can’t enter line 33 until I’ve completed the worksheet, and I can’t complete the worksheet until I’ve filled in line 36! It doesn’t make sense!!!)

Solution: Don’t enter the student loan interest reduction because it won’t change anything anyway!

In other news, I’m currently wearing contacts! I can see! It was so weird watching TV without my glasses last night! Also, I’m not used to seeing my self so clearly in the mirror! Usually my reflection is either a little blurry, or I have glasses covering my face! That’s all for now! Yay that my taxes are done!

Two Things In Life Are Certain…

Could this BE more complicated? Forget the wedding. The most complicated thing in my life right now is filing my US income taxes! I have foreign earned income (on which I have paid taxes to a foreign government) and after reading “publication 54” am fairly certain that I am tax exempt. Unfortunately however, I still have to file. It’s such a puzzle! I finally figured out that I needed to read publication 54. Then, half way through the publication I read, “Now refer to publication (970) if the above circumstances apply to you (which of course they did)…I feel like I’m going back and forth between publications like a “Choose Your Own Adventure!” I haven’t even started on form 1040 yet…The only good news is that I get an automatic two-month extension because I live abroad.

Not much else is going on right now. Work is incredibly boring this week; I have far too little to do. I’m not sure why, this is pretty unusual. Yesterday I ordered some stuff for the wedding. EBay is becoming my new favorite place to shop! I ordered a whole bunch of cute “wedding” disposable cameras for only $2.40 each! Trust me, that’s cheap! Especially since I used my Swedish credit card and the dollar is not doing well right now. (Very good for me as long as I have foreign income and shop in the US! Very bad for Americans who want to shop in Europe! Sorry guys!)

After work today I will finally go to the optician to get fitted for contact lenses. I’m VERY excited about this! For those of you who don’t see me daily (OK that’s all of you) I’ve become a constant glasses-wearer. If someone had to describe me they’d say, the petite girl with the dark hair and the silver glasses. It will be SO nice to dump those! Plus I will be able to wear sunglasses while driving again! :)

Yesterday I learned that my future last name means “brave” in Dutch. (It’s also an old word meaning “swift” in Swedish.) I like the Dutch, because when you put it together with my current last name (future middle name) I become “The Brave Embroiderer!”

Bumps and Bruises

Three blogs in one week! Either I’m on a roll or work is slow this week. OK, I won’t lie; work is very slow this week! We have a four-day weekend coming up since Good Friday and Easter Monday are Public Holidays in Sweden. Actually, it seems like almost everyone decided to take today off as well, this place is nearly a ghost town!

I had planned on sticking out the day, but I’m starting to rethink things. The rethinking mainly started about 30 minutes ago when I hit my head on a shelf in my office. I was bending down and then stood up fast, not thinking about the evil shelf looming above me. The corner slammed into my forehead, it was so hard I think I was really close to blacking out! I took some Tylenol, but it still hurts and I can feel the bump already starting to grow…

So the pain, combined with the fact that I really don’t have much to do, also combined with the fact that once I leave I can start my long-weekend, has made me reconsider my decision to stay until 5. A free afternoon is starting to sound really good! I have been coming in at 7:30am for the past two weeks, that’s gotta count for something!

Yesterday was a good day. First I won two tickets to Universeum in a company drawing. (Universeum is a hands-on science museum here in Gburg that I’ve heard is really cool.) Then I went home, talked to P, and found out that the yearly car service that we need to do will cost much less than we had anticipated. And finally, I got my Swedish tax declaration in the mail and found out that I’m getting a big fat refund! Enough to cover our hotel room at the SAS Radisson in Beijing, woo-hoo!

BTW, I should take a moment to praise the Swedish Tax Declaration system. You basically get your declaration in the mail, all filled out and finished, and all you have to do is sign it and send it back! Then your refund magically shows up in your bank account (or if worse comes to worse, you have to pay!) Anyway, why can’t it be that simple in the US? I spent 40 minutes on the phone with IRS last week trying to figure out how to declare my foreign income to the US. The person with whom I was speaking was obviously reading from a script.
Whatever, those are my thoughts for the day. One more hour and I’m out’a here, I think that the Tylenol is starting to kick in

In the buff

Yesterday I went to a spinning class after work at the company’s gym. Obviously one needs to change into clothes (and shower) before and after the class, which is fine. I like to get in, change clothes, and move on. I also tend to cover myself with a towel when walking to and from the showers. I’m certainly not prude, but I am American. Swedes, on the other hand, seem to be much more comfortable with the naked factor. They walk around the locker room nude, and have long conversations sans undergarments. I mean it’s one thing to talk to your friend while changing clothes, but isn’t it a little bizarr to just stand there, full frontal, without making a move for your clothes, and carry on as if you were in the office? –This being said, my boss (a woman) was in the same spinning class as me yesterday. That’s all fine and dandy, but somehow the idea of seeing my boss without her clothes on (or her seeing me!) makes me a little uncomfortable…

While were on the subject of Swedes, I have another observation. They are obsessed with candy! I mean really! We’re talking the loose candy that you buy by the pound and scoop into a paper sack. It’s Easter weekend and all I hear about it how much candy everyone is going to eat! Although the candy obsession seems to loom on us throughout the year, holidays are the worse. I can’t have a conversation (usually with a woman) without hearing about how big their candy craving is. I know that we eat badly in America, but I’ve never (knowingly) been around adults who are so candy obsessed! Just an observation. In case you’re wondering, the Swedish word for candy is “godis” which is pronounced: “goodies.” It’s definitely the word of the week…

In other news, I picked up my Chinese visa from the Chinese Consulate today! We leave for Beijing in 3 weeks! I looked through my passport and realized that I’ve almost completely filled the pages. This strangely gives me a feeling of accomplishment, like I’ve nearly finished a book. I could order extra pages, but I decided that I’ll just wait until August when we’re back from our honeymoon. I’ll need to get a new passport in my married name anyway.

Happy Easter to all!

Champagne Glasses and Chocolate Cake

It’s Monday again. It’s always Monday. Then again, it’s always Friday too. Time really seem to go faster the older you get. I generally wake up on Monday morning thinking, ”crap it’s Monday, 5 work days until I can sleep past 6am again. Where did the weekend go?” And then, just like that, 5 days have gone by and I’m thinking, ”Geez, Friday already? Where did the work week go?!”

I can’t say that I did anything of major significance this weekend. P had to work overtime on Saturday, so he was long gone by the time I rolled out of bed at 8am. I could have slept longer, but some mornings there is only one thing better than sleeping late: Getting up relatively early, making a pot of coffee, curling up on the couch and knowing that you still have the whole day ahead of you to get stuff done. I managed to watch 3 episodes of ”Sex in the City,” do Pilates, vacuum the entire apartment, clean the kitchen and bathroom, and take a shower, all before 11:30am! Then I headed into the city to run some errands and take in the beautiful weather.

Although P had to work, I decided to go to Josephssons and start our registry. I’ve only registered for stemware so far, since I want P to come with me to finish the list. I just wanted to get started since the store was offering two Orrefors Champagne glasses as a gift for registering there. It was a limited time offer, so I wanted to sign up before we missed getting the free glasses! Anyway, in case anyone is wondering (and I’m only putting this out there because people are starting to ask!,) We are registering for the same place settings both at Macy’s in the US and Josephssons in Sweden. (Denby) As for stemware, we are only registering for it in Sweden, but it can be bought in the US as well. We are registering for Orrefors ”Intermezzo.” (Champagne, Red wine, White wine and maybe a few others, although I think that those first 3 are the most important.) Anyway, although you can’t purchase stuff online from Josephssons, you can see the updated list online at http://www.josephssons.se/ . Or go to the following link and enter our wedding date to get our list (called ”önskelista” in Swedish.) http://www.josephssons.se/Public.aspx
The woman at the store said that you can always call the store, buy something from our list over the phone, and either have it sent to us or they can set it aside for us to pick up after the wedding.

But for me, the wedding is not about getting presents! I just want to have a wonderful day with by new husband, and to celebrate it with my nearest and dearest. So I hope the above doesn’t sound greedy or tacky; that is certainly not my intention.

I almost forgot to mention the highlight of my weekend! P baked a chocolate cake for my birthday (since he wasn’t around on my actual birthday.) Wasn’t that the sweetest thing?