YAY!

so, i'm getting back to my old self after tax season {i swear this will be the last time i mention it. i swear.}!!

the timing is looking about right...two weeks in an anti-social cave. right on track with the previous 8 seasons.

monday, i went for my first jog since january. i hurt. everywhere. but man, did it ever feel good. i've still been so busy at work because i'm wrapping up engagements to prepare for my departure on may 15th, so i'm still tired {and spending way too much time with my bff named netflix}...but for the most part, i've been noticing the following...

signs i am 92% normal again:

i'm cooking meals without instructions that include "remove plastic and heat until cheese is melted"

you guys, i groomed my eyebrows. BY myself. WITHOUT ruining them.

that 4 foot by 5 foot mountain of laundry there in the background {that i tried to conveniently blur out of the picture} is GONE. 

oh, hi sush & shmeez. {pretty much what i wake up to every morning. when is breakfast?!}

my outfits coordinate again. 

{and my standard of "business professional" does not include running shoes and day five hair.}

shmizmo's whiskers and paws make me happy.

and...drumroll please.

that pretty much speaks for itself.

life is good.

yay?

busy. season. is. over. 

i should be ecstatic. and i am {somewhere in here}. but there is this weird let down period after all the craziness is over that makes me feel completely drained. like i was hooked up to an iv of adrenaline & caffeine for 4 months straight, and someone just yanked it out of my arm and said "go on living." ...spoken like a true drug addict. excellent.

i don't remember what i used to do for fun. i don't remember what it's like to sleep in, or stay up late. or have girls' night. or stay awake for more than one movie. i have no motivation to go to the grocery store or start on the 1,600 pounds of laundry waiting for me in our bedroom. i just want to crawl into a cave of fleece and jammies and kitties and never come out.

i'll tell you what i do know how to do like a boss:

• record & report a multi-state, multi-property {44 separate residences to be exact} section 1031 tax deferred exchange with a section 754 adjustment on an income tax basis of accounting
• prepare extension estimates for an enggaement involving multi-tier, multi-state real estate family partnerships which all flow into several different individuals {with crap numbers and no time...because why would we want to make that any easier?}
• calculate tax gain on separate interests in the sale of a $60 million dollar commercial building 
• calculate non-resident state composite pass-through withholding
• reconcile open & close of put & call stock option sales for schedule d reporting and miraculously tie to the year end investment summary
• coordinate with the defined benefit plan people for calculation of tax deductible plan contributions based on current year self employment income
• report ordinary and capital basis adjustments for publicly traded partnership investments
• report final distribution of assets in a family wealth structure upon dissolution of the irrevocable trust {ughhh i haate estates. i just don't get them, ya know? they are my tax kryptonite.}
• work on sundays {a new one for me this year...but it needed to happen}
• considering easy 1040s to be an actual treat
• having dreams about allocating exchange basis
• having nightmares about forgetting to allocate qualified nonrecourse partnership debt on k-1s
• defend irs & ftb audits that end in no change {victory}.
• ...and that's just the tip of the iceberg of all the fun i had during the last few months.

and i just enjoyed writing that. how depressing. 

this has been the hardest busy season to date i think. some interesting things happened in our department and that shifted a lot more responsibility my way. also, people made a ton of money in 2013, and then they spent that money, and didn't keep track of what they did with it {and forgot to tell us about any of it, of course}. which means as a common trend, there were a lot of fun {messy} surprises; and i got to tell a ton of people they owed a ton of tax that they weren't expecting. awesome!

hopefully, in a few days, my brain will make its annual transition from tax-queen-robot to oatmeal-brained vegetable. in the meantime, i'll be self-medicating during the process by watching hours of mindless reality television. once my brain chemicals equalize, i'll be back to my old simple-minded, shopping-loving, diamond-gazing, lipstick-wearing, vegetable-chopping self. can't wait.