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| I'm on the right. The rest of the world is on the left. |
Growing up, I was famous for my encouragement of the "mental health day." I still fully support them. I worked my butt off and, as a result, had some days where I just couldn't mentally function anymore. I would stay home from life on those days, and I feel I was a much more productive human being for it. Sadly, Korea doesn't seem to believe in those days, so I've had to figure out how to make due without. I didn't allow myself too many of them in college - the only ones I did take were on the occasional Saturday (instead of going to synagogue), and maybe, because of that, I'll be able to figure it out here.
However, and thank G-d for it, tomorrow I have a built-in mental health day. Tomorrow is the school's "foundation day," which means that, because the school was built on that day however many years ago, we don't have to attend. Lovely. After today, I need it.
This morning, I woke up to the email on the left, and just about had a conniption. Filing my taxes has been a long and painful process, especially since I've had 3 different paying jobs this year, all needing to be filing in entirely different ways. The sad part is that I needed to pay state taxes on a grand total of ZERO of them, and yet, my state tax return was still rejected. Why? Because I tried to file in Maryland as a part-time resident (since I've spent maybe 2 whole weeks there this tax year). Unofortunately, in order to do that, you have to file state taxes for the other state you're claiming as a part-time residency at the same time, leaving me with two choices: Tennessee or Korea. Korea, clearly, was not an option, and Tennessee got smart and only requires you to pay state taxes in extreme circumstances. As a result, I had no second state to file in, and got rejected. Yes, I had to sort that out this morning. I ended up filing as a full-time Maryland resident. Here's hoping that that was the correct choice.
I got to school, where I thought everything was going to be better, but Sam, my wonderful deskmate, told me that I needed to change the lesson plan for the class I would be teaching at 2:45 today from chapter 6 to chapter 7. Oh yeah, I had 3 non-contiguous hours in which to make the plan, find a working lesson CD, and make photocopies. In spite of the daunting nature of the beast, I managed it. I was ready.
Then, I get a message from my lovely Alex, telling me that her boss had approved my request to visit her over Chuseok, all I needed to do was send her a copy of my traveler's insurance so they could send it to the even higher-ups to approve my request. Traveler's insurance? Oh yeah... I remember that now... that thing that I used the one time I lived in Germany through the church of the Nazarene. That thing I've never used before or since. That thing that I have NO idea how to get or pay for. Right. That thing. I have both Korean and American insurance and am entirely willing to sign a waiver. Does that count for anything?
But wait, there's more. It's now 2:15, and do you know what both Brenda (my deskmate on the other side) and Sam both just told me? The class that it was so important to change my plans for isn't actually until next week. In fact, I'm done teaching for the day. Brenda at least softened the blow with some chocolate milk (which I don't really like at all, but it was a sweet thought) and Sam clearly felt awful (he'd also given me half a chocolate bar earlier). I know it's not their faults. This is how Korea works. It doesn't diminish my stress any, though.
So, assuming I'm still going out with my friends Cam and Lisa tonight (remember them?), I'm going to beg them to give me some time to run by the travel agency on campus right after school and see if I can work something out. Not that I'm going to BUY traveler's insurance before I'm approved to go visit Alex.
Yeah. It's been that kind of day.
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