I am not sure what this evolution of the site is going to be. I’ve been feeling the need to send my voice into the abyss that is the internet though, so check back later and maybe you’ll find something interesting – or maybe not – it will be a surprise.
- February 2024
I mentally missed the end of the month, not at work, there I was very aware of the end of February because it is the deadline for tax slip filing, but here I missed it. I had been on a good run of posting at least monthly. So let’s pretend it is still February when I’m posting this, so today is February 31st. 😉
That being said, I don’t particularly have anything to say today. February passed extremely quickly when compared to January which seemed to drag on.
I’m still settling into the new job, we’re three months in now and I find myself wishing I’d received a fresh start at this office instead of having to deal with the baggage that has carried over from my previous job.
Lately, my brain has been vacillating between ‘I should run away from this weird lifestyle I’ve been brainwashed into thinking is a goal’ and continuing in it because ‘well I don’t see the entire world suddenly changing and I’ve worked hard for what I have accomplished’. However, there is something lovely in the idea of living in a little cottage in the middle of nowhere with a puppy, spending my days sitting on the porch sipping tea and looking out over the small acreage around the cottage. Though that might just be an ‘I won the lottery’ life plan.
- January 2024
The more orbits of the Sun I do, the more I realize that my brain doesn’t align with the “new year” starting on January 1st. Yes, I live in a Western society that ascribes to this calendar new year, but even if I take time off over the holiday season I still start January exhausted and it seems to last far too long.
I still know people who see the start of the school year as their mental new year, despite having been out of that system for decades. Some feelings just get etched on your brain, especially if you went through numerous years of schooling and followed up your early studies with say college or university for multiple years.
I barely did any extended studies though, so I don’t think my brain hung on to that timeline.
After almost two decades in accounting though my brain has started to tie in February with the start of the “new year”. It is when tax season officially kicks off, we often work longer hours and the workflow increases. There is an obvious shift.
Moving out of January’s exhaustion into the busy season of February through April my brain just switches into survival mode. It is just about making it to May and that promised time off to sort of collapse in a heap for a week – or at least it has been over the last 15 years or so.
This year is a new firm and a new firm’s tax season – I don’t know what it will look like. January has been pretty much non-stop work – not too much, but more than I am used to. Of course, having to learn a new firm’s methods is taxing (sorry, no pun intended) my old brain. Having to track every minute of my day to log against clients is harder than I remembered, but I’m getting back into the habit. Working five days a week again is exhausting, I miss my four-day weeks. I’m still not used to that fifth day or the longer hours, but I’m trying to adjust and still hoping things will be less stressful working in an office with more support.
Tomorrow is my mental “new year”, I won’t make resolutions or specific plans, because it will be all about tax season for a while. Irritatingly there are also a couple of issues that began in 2023 that I had hoped would be resolved by now, but instead are still casting a shadow. I have my fingers crossed they will be tied up soon, and to my satisfaction, so as not to extend that chaos into too much of 2024, though I don’t know when that will happen. A clean break from the mess last year would have been nice but we don’t always get to have things play out how we think, hope or plan they will. For now, it is just one foot in front of the other until May rolls around I guess.
Here’s to a relatively calm and happy February (New Year)! Get your taxes organized. 😉
- Year’s End Is Nigh
I don’t know about you but I’m ready for a new year. I’m hoping my Christmas stocking will be filled with tasty treats and a million dollars.
It won’t be, because I haven’t had a Christmas stocking in years so instead I’ll hope for a new year that has less stress, more happiness and lots of cuddles with this cutie. See you in 2024!