Just a few random observations from the past week…

- It always promises to be an interesting class when the prof admits she’s hung over.

- The city once known as Porkopolis is now encouraging residents to eat, well, less pork (and other meat).

- If you park on the sidewalk, Newport Police will ticket you.

- Bunnies love cherry-flavored pediatric medicine.

- RuPaul out of drag (and wearing glasses) looks a lot like Cincinnati Mayor Mark Malllory.

Turbo Tax is a godsend, but even with my online automator, tax filing has suddenly become a real pain this year.

I usually get back at least $1,300 in school credits, but since Brandon and I are married now, we either have to file married filing jointly or married filing separately. If we do separate tax forms, I cannot claim school credits at all. If we file jointly, we cannot claim school credits if our adjusted gross incomes exceed $80k. This number does not adjust for regional rates of inflation, either. So, someone in California who makes $200k annually is on the same par as that of someone of a proportionate income-level living in the Midwest – where housing rates and cost of living is much lower – who makes $80k a year.

And this is despite the fact that Brandon and I married in June – we were married for just half the year, but we have to file as married for the entire year.

I’ve stopped trying to make sense of it all. All I know is that I now miss out on education credits that I have earned and deserve. Way to promote higher learning there, federal government.

You have a huge review to do and since you’ve procrastinated and generally wasted time, you only have two evenings in which to do it.

You look over the list of books you have to read and review. It’s no longer a matter of what subject interests you most. You look each book up on Amazon to see the page length.

Ding, ding, ding. The 136-page book is the winner.

Coincidentally, it’s one of the two books on gender studies listed, which is my subject du jour.