All I got was this lousy education

DH was in a bad mood last night. This is extraordinarily unusual for him and can usually be tied back to a specific source. Money. Or rather the amount of money that seems to be gushing out of our checking account at an alarming rate.

This past weekend I opened a letter from the State of Virginia Tax Department asking me to file taxes for 2009. I showed it to DH and laughed because we haven't lived in Virginia for more than two years. North Carolina and the Federal Government get enough of my hard earned money, thank-you-very-much.

We ain't laughing no more. Yes, that sentence did require a double negative to convey my annoyance. Turns out that when we filed taxes for 2006 we neglected to file a state income tax for me. Why? Because I did my internship for BigFinance in North Carolina and properly filed my NC state taxes. Both of us totally spaced on the fact that because I lived in Virginia for that year even though I made zero dollars in the state and paid out tens of thousands of dollars in tuition I still owned them money. The best part? Despite rock bottom interest rates we have been charged 42% in interest. Thank you, Virginia! I'm especially thrilled because even though my husband worked in the state during my tenure at UVA I somehow didn't qualify for in state tuition. But you better believe they will also charge me for income I didn't even earn in their state!

I'm hoping we can work some magic with the numbers and get the total down a bit. Isn't it lovely that this occurred right around the holidays? So, has anyone else had run ins with state or federal tax returns? Do I have any hope of getting some of that interest dismissed or is this a suck it up kind of situation?

Update: DH just told me that we now owe zero to the lovely State of Virginia. Woot! Apparently they credit us for what we paid to North Carolina which ended up being more than twice what we would have paid to Virginia.

Best in Show

When DH and I moved to Charlottesville in the Spring of 2005, I knew we were going to get a dog. We had been living together for almost a year and I was about to embark on a very strenuous first year program at Darden. DH was able to move down to C-ville with me and work from home (which he has done ever since). To keep him company while I was away from home (7 AM - 11 PM most days!) I convinced him that a dog was the way to go.


We knew we wanted a puppy just because we could mold it from the very beginning (he he he). Before we started our search at the C-ville animal shelter, we stopped by a pet store (not one that had dogs for sale) and saw a bunch of dogs outside of it from another town's animal shelter. DH went in to the store to get a crate and I spent time with the puppies. There were two in particular I loved. One was all golden in color and very rambuncious even in the 90 degree weather. The other was a mix of colors but mostly black and was peacefully sleeping in his crate. I picked up the quiet one (named "Bongo") and snuggled with him while DH completed the purchase. After he came out I said, "I want this one!"


As you can see, I got my way :-)



DH was convinced we would find one in the C-ville animal shelter so he made me leave the cute puppy behind and drive off. Well, when we got to the animal shelter they only had one set of puppies who were all spoken for and needed another month before they could be brought home anyway.

I told DH it was fate and we had to get the puppy we saw in front of the pet store. We left a message with the shelter and found out that they were open on Sundays so if he wasn't taken yet we could go the next day and adopt him. I was so worried all night that someone else had adopted him from the pet store! We drove about 40 minutes to the shelter and asked to see Bongo again (the first thing to go would be that name). DH and I walked back to a cage where the dog (soon to be our dog) was with two of his litter mates. There was the male golden puppy and a female on in a similar color. DH immediately wanted to adopt all three but common sense prevailed and we brought our puppy home.

We debated endlessly about what to call him. DH lobbied for Jack Bauer but I really wanted Charlie (after Charlottesville). A little slyly, I said, "Why don't we start with Charlie and see how it goes? We can change it later if we want..." And so, Charlie entered our lives on a hot summer day in June.

If any of you have met our dog, you must admit that he is the best-est dog in the whole wide world. And probably the most spoiled. How, you may ask? Well, let me share.

• He is very smart. As DH and I like to say, Charlie understands a ton of words but he doesn't listen so good. I taught him how to bring DH his work gloves (for when they wrestle together) in two days when he wanted to play.




• He likes to lie in weird positions. Charlie has his Playboy pose and his chicken pose (see below).






• Charlie sleeps on the bed with us every night. Yes, it's true. We have become pet parents. We refer to each other as "Mommy" and "Daddy" when we talk to the dog. We judge other people by how much they love their dog and our dog. We prefer to hang out with people who have dogs so Charlie can play.




• The best thing in the whole world is coming home from a long day at work and having a very excited dog greet you. It will probably be years before I get that from the baby! Charlie also watches out the window when I leave in the morning and whines. So cute!
  
• He loves people, especially kids.


• He doesn't understand that with DH home every day he is luckier than any other dog in existence. Except for maybe Callie but that's because her mommy is home all day too.


• Charlie watches out the window to make sure that the neighborhood is safe and barks to alert us when a person is getting too close to the house. Of course, it is the same people walking their dogs every day but he's not that smart.

I realize that once we welcome the baby into our lives Charlie will be "demoted" to dog. But I still believe he will occupy a special place in our lives. After all, he was our first baby. And it only took three weeks to potty train him!!

A few more cute pictures to start your day...

A Return Trip to Darden

For the second time in a year I was asked to go back to Darden for a BigFinance recruiting trip. The last time was in the dead of winter with just one other person. We interviewed first year candidates for the internship position. This time there were at least 12 other BigFinance associates and we were not interviewing but giving a company presentation followed by two hours of networking.

I flew into the tiny Charlottesville airport in the midst of rain and gusting winds. I was already not looking forward to the plane ride back! Tiny propeller planes are not designed for a smooth ride. I had rented a car since (for a change) I actually knew my way around. It was a little surreal to drive back mostly because in the 18 months since I had been gone, nothing had changed. After I parked I had a few minutes before lunch so I decided to hit the Darden book store cum merchandise mart. That's when I picked up a couple of presents for Xmas (never too early to start!) and my first onsie. Yes, I broke down and bought a bright orange Darden onesie. It's too bad that the smallest they had was six months so unfortunately I won't be able to use it for a while.

I headed over for lunch and ran into a couple of Darden classmates who were also in town for recruiting: Kelly, Obumi and Katie. Then all of us walked over to the cafe for lunch. I was disappointed that the Career Center did not invite any students to sit with us. It is still early in the recruiting process (most SY interviews happen in October and FYs don't start until January) but considering how bad the economy is and the job market has to be, I was surprised students weren't lined up to meet with us.

After lunch we went into the company briefing. I ran into the intern for my program we had this past summer (hi James!) and we chatted for a bit. Great guy and I hope he comes back to work full time for us. The company presentation was more of a roundtable with a couple of executives and I think it went well. Selfishly I wanted the focus to be on my technology program but there were half a dozen other programs represented as well.

Then the schmoozing began. Apparently almost 70 people registered for the event. I would say that 40 showed up. Shame on you, Darden students! And almost every single one of them were FYs. What's up with that? I find it hard to believe that all the SYs are set in terms of jobs. On the Technology side I was inundated with foreign students (yes, mostly Indian) looking for visas. Um, we don't do that. It frustrates me that so many MBA candidates think you need to be coming from technology to do a technology job. I'm managing projects! It's just like any other MBA job. If I, a former Creative Writing major who can barely run my DVR can do it, so can everyone else! Technology gets no respect.

After it was over I drove a couple other people back to the airport including a senior executive I had been wanting to meet. So I got to schmooze too :-) Our plane was delayed about an hour due to the weather. It would have been fine except I got totally sick just before we landed. Good think I had my plastic bag from the bookstore because the plane didn't carry barf bags. I blame the baby since I rarely get plane sick.

Overall it was nice to spend a day out of the office with other BigFinance associates and to see Darden again. I'm curious to see how this year's FY and SY classes do in the job search process. I can't imagine it will be as easy as when I was looking for a job. Thank goodness I'm out of the program and gainfully employed! Even if it does mean I'm paying off loans...