Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

Practice

Friday, Apr. 28, 2006
8:12 p.m.
My taxes are done, inked, all ready to go except that I need to include my husband�s net income, just a trivial matter really, but without which I can�t send mine away. Whereas my taxes are relatively simple (except for the goddamned mutual fund investments information slips which require me to fill out so many obscure boxes and lines which are worth more trouble than the amount I actually earned, which was next to nothing since we�ve lost more money than we�ve gained with these infernal things), his are extremely complicated, and he works his lily-white derri�re off every year trying to maximize his deductions so he doesn�t end up paying gobs of taxes on his composing income, which is another reason why he doesn�t give it to an accountant to do, believing that the accountant wouldn�t find the pennies and dimes he does, and he�s probably right.

Anyway, because I did not buy a RRSP for the past several years, mostly because I am incredibly lazy and the February 28th deadline would go by and I�d say, shocked, Oh dear! I missed it again! I was able to buy one for over $7,000 this past year, which lowered my taxable income by such a great amount that I am getting humongous refunds from both feds and queds and I�m feeling rather proud of myself. Also, this is the last year I will have to claim my brother�s investment income (part of my dearly departed dad�s legacy), which will also make my own smaller in years to come, meaning I will be paying less tax in my quarterly installments. Phew! Enough talk about that shite already!

Apart from that I�ve done practically nothing else. I got my students� reports written up yesterday, their marks ranging from 68% to 95% (you can guess who got the lower one, no doubt). Comments went like this: This student has a beautiful voice which would blossom exponentially if she/he would stick to a regular practice schedule, or something like that. Nothing improves one�s prowess on a musical instrument, be it cello or the voice, like daily practice. Why is it so hard to figure out? Speaking of daily practice, I haven�t been doing any myself, not since the chamber orchestra concert. I suppose I should practise what I preach, n�est-ce pas?

Last night Hubby and I watched The Man with Eugene Levy and Samuel Jackson. It was funny, in a dark sort of way. I�m not overly fond of comedies in which people get shot, sorry. Such a strange pairing of actors. I guess that was part of the humour. Oh well. I guess I�m just not easily amused.

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