2008 November - Taxes, death and the impact of Multiple Sclerosis

Dear, fellow readers,

Let me keep this short *sarcastic* and just inform you that I was one whole week off, off of teaching English. I'm giving myself a break, because I tend to forget that I'm ill.

I suffer  from a serious illness, called Multiple Sclerosis.  And I teach 5 classes in English each week (in an honorary capacity), that's 28 pupils, ages 3 till 10.  I also give tuition to one boy who's 11 or 12 years old. And lately I teach 3 more  (adult) pupils. Two are in their thirties and about to get married, who are in the US often and who want to brush up on their English (FL-TX and Sunshinebiggi on my friendslist btw) and her mom Hana, who's in her early sixties, has family overseas and hasn't ever learned English at school or somewhere else, a bloody beginner. So this is quite a challenge for me to cover such a wide range of English knowledge within those 32 students of mine, but it is so much fun!

Since February '08 I've become a teacher and my cognitive deficits (now if I translated that right?) have improved! Which means, my memory, concentration, logical thinking, being flexible to various tasks (pre-k kids and toddlers are just like a bag of fleas sometimes *lol*… that easy to handle and to kept busy), I can focus easier now, remember things even from my childhood and stuff. And in the end I can manage my fatigue better. Fatigue, for all of you who don't know, is an extreme tiredness all the time. Before you take a nap, while you're sleeping, after you've rested, you just can't restore this lack of sleep and you feel drained all the time! I handle this much better with taking in red ginseng and iron AND through growing in my responsibility as a teacher.

So due to All Saints' and All Souls' Day past weekend children have been off school this week, kinda like fall break or so… My decision was to take the whole week off myself, where I don't have to run around, go places, prepare things…

But… have you ever heard of the Sword of Damocles? That sorta kept hanging over my head *lol* Why? They wanted me to do my tax declaration for 2007 by the end of October. As we all might know or not know it's November already, "Hello?"!

So I called in and they postponed my deadline until the end of November. But even with that in mind I'm running outa time here, ok?

You might wonder now what a retired person has to declare her taxes for, so did I. But as we all have experienced: the money gets taken from the little ones, with the low income and it gets refunded to the rich ones. Am I right, or am I right?

Usually my sister-in-law Edeltraud prepares my tax papers, BUT… she asked me last year already, if I wouldn't rather use the ELSTER form instead of her, because she never got paid by me for her services. I mean, she's family anyway? ELSTER (= magpie!), for my American friends here, means just electronic tax declaration, so you would abbreviate it probably ETD or something…

Well that's a nice thing to do, ocne more: BUT even with being a native German speaker no human being understands the meaning of all the things they want to know from you.

So I gave it my best shot and it took me 4 (!!!) days to get through this whole experience of having to do taxes on my own and all just with the help of an online program called the tax fox. It questions you things and just charges you 15 bucks in the end.

Anyway, I wondered, well basically Peter wondered, how a person who doesn't pay taxes gets refunded through a tax declaration. It's like you can't take anything away from a naked person now, can you?

Picture little Regina putting ALL her income and expenses into a nice little (big) Excel file (which took her two days, because she forgot half of what she spent already…).

On Wednesday I tried to figure out which amount to fit in which line of their forms.

Thursday? I just took the day off!

And then finally yesterday I had figured it all out - so I think, with Peter's help, how they ment which expression for which expense or income...

On day one I had like to pay back 4000 bucks (of what I ask you, I'm always broke somehow)? Breathe! On day two I had that reduced down to like 3000 bucks. Man, was I not relieved L Day three I managed to lower that from 1300 down to 1200 something. But… even if I'd pay that back in instalments it would take me a whole year to do so. Good that I took one whole day off that subject, because yesterday I actually managed to find out where I should place things correctly *lol* and guess what? I won't get a tax refund, but… I don't owe either!  RESULT: € 0,-

And believe me there was a lot of money going over the counter into my pocket in '07! Health insurance paid, retirement insurance (private and government) both paid backdated till '06, I wound up a fond contract, two payments came in advance for '08 *yeah* J I'M A RICH WOMAN! Yeah right, I just wonder where all that money went to? ;-/ 

On Thursday we've received this disturbing message:

Nov 6, 2008 6:11 PM

Sad Day

Today my beloved sister Vicky stopped suffering from her illness. Vicky has gone on to heaven to be with our Lord. She is now resting peacefully. Virginia

Vicky was my dear mother-in-law and grandmother of my daughter. She was one of the few who still held contact with us and who made my little girl feel like family still.

Sabrina cried herself to sleep that very night.

The worst part is that we can't just jump on an airplane and fly to California to show her our last respect (do you guys put it that way in English?).

What a sad day!

She was just fortunate enough to become 66 years of age. She was a warm hearted woman, who did anything for her family, always. She was very friendly to me. I'm glad I got to know her. *sigh*

Sabrina on the other hand has no real memory of her granny...

The males please skip this chapter now, it's girl's stuff…

My fellow MSers know how giving yourself one injection against this disease affects your body and I've been doing this for almost 3 consecutive years now. The impact is incredible, not just does it re-figurate your immune system BUT you have various side effects also. I don't feel like writing how crappy one feels at times, just one thing I'd like to mention.

Peter and I have been trying to conceive for over 6 years, but it just won't work. My gynaecologist says MS is no problem with pregnancy. So we've tried and tried… and are still trying.

Peter and I met in 1982 and since then I gained a whole lot of weight (no wonder with having a sweet tooth…), which is counterproductive to pregnancy. So they say. Let's not talk about his health problems here, but mine seem obvious.

To top this, one of my side effects due to injections is that my period is terribly out of any regularity. I either don't have AF for weeks, just to flow then for three weeks or so in a row! And let me assure you that this doesn't help trying to conceive… When I don't have it for that long I always get my hopes up and sooner or later end up buying a pregnancy test to check. Not that I HAVE to know, but in order of being able to quit those injections soon enough to not harm a possible fetus. *sigh*

Just so you get an idea of which period of time we're talking here: today it's exactly 53 (!) days since my last menstruation. I'm flowing now...

Guys can continue reading now *lol* 

To make it an easy week ahead for me, I've decided to make it a 'book week'. I stored plenty of English childrens' books at the day care facility I'm working at. So each child will have to pick a book and we'll read it out loud together and stuff. I also got new CD's with songs like 'ring around the rosy'. That should occupy us without having to prepare too much on my side. Tuition and adult education is done quickly anyway.

So I'm basically REALLY off for the weekend. A relaxing, Joyce Meyer watching, recordings watching, lazy ass (pardon) weekend!

Hope you've enjoyed my little journey of mind?

It was just a normal week in my life *rofl*

And PLEASE correct my English!

I am a teacher now and I should know what I'm doing, okay?

Appreciate that, thx.

Love you guys,

Regina