Tag: tax preparer

By Saturday I was so exhausted I was afraid I would forget to show up for my own performance in “Clownical Trials” at Theatrelab. It has been a very long week.

It began to go south a week ago Saturday at 8:00 am when the buzzer rang while we were still asleep. It was the Verizon repairman there to check the phone line that enters our apartment in the bedroom. We hadn’t had phone service for over two weeks and this was the third repairman–the first to arrive before 2 pm.

Early Sunday morning I had to get My Kid up and dressed and to her religious education class as per the Friday e-mail informing us that the regular “first Sunday of each month” class was THIS SUNDAY MARCH 29–big surprise to me and to many others… (because of Palm Sunday festivities on Sunday April Fools Day). We joined My Kid’s friend and her mother to hear the PS 8 choir at an event but it ran long and My Kid had been promised “Monsters vs Aliens” so we left and bought our tickets at the Court Street Theatre an hour early. We went across the street to a deli for sandwiches but by the time we had eaten and The Husband had hooked up with us and we returned to the theatre with our tickets only to discover there were no seats together except in the front row four feet from the screen. My Kid produced tears and we left although her friend was willing to stay so we didn’t get to see it together. We exchanged our tickets for the next show pushing back dinner and homework and started the week tired:

Unaware of the week that was about to unfold I wasted energy walking from My Kid’s school in Brooklyn Heights to the McBurney Y on 14th street in Manhattan where I took two Pilates classes and got some writing done before returning to pick up my child after school. After she played in the playground for a while we caught a train to Grand Central Station meet up with The Husband and go together to our appointment to have our taxes done by someone we’d never met. Our previous tax preparer, the only one we’ve ever used (our lives were simple and we did our own taxes when we lived in Seattle) passed away. The tax man we met does pro bono work for small theaters and he was so nice that I didn’t go through the shame of failure I usually experience when my work as a “performing artist” is examined and graded on the income tax report card. That made me so happy.

Afterwards, there was still the chore of dinner (I just don’t understand why The Husband and My Kid can’t be satisfied with a meal of “Odwalla Super Protein” and a banana–like me.)

As a reward for sitting through the tax meeting My Kid was allowed to choose the restaurant. When she saw the lights of Times Square she thought immediately of the Bubba Gump Shrimp theme restaurant! At least there was no line to get in on a Monday. Happy child with her light up theme beverage glass changing the license plate sign that says, “Run Forrest Run” or “Stop Forrest Stop” to control the attention of the happy jokey servers. I would have preferred to slink into dark booth for a quiet sip of wine and decompress…

Then it was Tuesday. I spent several hours sorting through some old papers at home before running out of time and going to pick up My Kid from school. Two of the mothers on the playground were commiserating over the hair of one of my daughters friends. The experienced mother told the other mother, “That looks like a nit”. The lady in Borough Park was called. An appointment was set for that very day. That evening I got the call from the mother of My Kid’s friend (who had hosted my child for a playdate the previous week). Positive!

Mobilize! I woke up at 3 am and researched lice on the internet until dawn. On Wednesday morning I called the lady. We went after school and paid almost as much as we had paid the tax lawyer for her to comb the vermin out of My Kid’s hair which hangs down to her butt.

On Thursday I changed all the bedding and spent FIVE HOURS at the laundromat washing more than 12 loads of laundry. Coats were sent out to be dry cleaned. All the stuffed animals and couch pillows went into plastic bags for two weeks. Or stuffed animal jail as My Kid calls it. Thursday night there was a 4-hour rehearsal at Theatrelab for Jef’s remount of “Clownical Trials”

Friday morning I was again the Y for Pilates and swimming. I’m trying increase my stamina. I had time for one hour of Jef’s three-hour afternoon workshop between before returning to Brooklyn Heights to catch the Brownie Girl Scout ceremony (at which the experiences lice mother identified nits in the hair of yet another friend of my child!)

Saturday for me was all about spending time with My Kid and The Husband and making sure meals were consumed before I left around 4 to make the 5 o’clock call for the 8:00 pm performance. I can’t say it was our best family day. We were all tired and cranky. None of us had slept well for days. I have my own mixed up life. The Husband has a “real” and therefore stressful job in Manhattan and My Kid is under pressure to “read more” of the books she doesn’t like and should be taken out for a bit of a run–like a dog, ideally twice a day.

After the performance there was a reception with some interesting creative types, but I was done being awake by 11:00 pm. (I took the L to Williamsburg to change to the G because the A and the C weren’t running. I was home just after midnight.) The younger performers went out for more drinks and conversation. Another time I would have joined them. But, this Saturday I was too worn out by the mommy part of my clown life.