the weekend

I had a fairly busy weekend and most of it was enjoyable.  Saturday was the day I had designated for doing my income tax returns.  For some reason, the IRS did not send me the booklet and forms this year.  It's not
because I filed electronically last year, because I didn't.  Anyway, my first thing to do was find the instruction booklet and forms.  Lucky for me, the local library had them.  The next step, of course, was gathering all the data needed.  This involves my checkbook, mortgage statement about loan interest and property taxes, various bits of paper from the bank, and proofs of contributions to charities.  The actual computation and filling out the forms took a couple of hours. Somehow it seemed easier this year, so of course, I'm wondering what I have forgotten!  I did the first draft of both the federal and the state forms and the results seemed about what I expected.  I will be redoing the process tomorrow because often when I do them a second time I find a mistake.  Then I'll send them off.  A few years ago, I found a major mistake that I had made on several years of taxes.  I had actually overpaid!  Luckily, I was able to file amended forms, but what a bother that was!  I've tried to be very careful since then.

Saturday evening I met friends for dinner and attending a community theater play - "Reefer Madness" .  This is a musical based on a rather corny movie from some time ago.  I've never seen the movie, which I believe became something of a cult show, but I've heard that it was very poorly acted.  Anyway, this musical version was crazy - all about what happens when people smoke pot.  It was funny, loud, and somewhat suggestive (the dancing mostly).  A couple of the female dancers did things with their boobs that I didn't know were possible!  My boobs have never been big enough to twirl!  I would have enjoyed the show more if we had been closer to the stage.  We were late arriving and ended up toward the back with the row in front of us on the same riser as we were.  I spent the evening trying to see between a tall guy and his girlfriend who sat in front of me.  It was ok, as long as they didn't get chummy.  Whenever he leaned toward her, my view was completely blocked.  I thought that the 'orchestra' was too loud and overpowered the singers much of the time.  I've found this to be true even in much more professional theaters.  Anyway, it was an interesting way to spend an evening and an outing with friends is always fun.

Yesterday evening, I attended a book club meeting.  This is a group from my former church. I don't attend regularly, but try to get there once in a while, depending upon what they are reading.  This book was one I happened to see at my church library and figured it would be a quick read.  It was by Philip Yancey and I think the title is 'The Bible Jesus Knew'.   I'm not too keen on Yancey - he's a good writer, but I don't agree with his philosophy of religion.  However, he made some interesting points in the book.  It's been a very long time since I studied the Old Testament (since college) and I had forgotten a good deal about it.  At the meeting, I saw some 'old' friends and managed not to offend too many of them with my views on Christianity.  This group is much more traditional than I am when it comes to religion.  Anyway, it was good to see them and catch up on what they've been doing.

So that was my weekend.  I didn't mention going to church, singing in the choir, and helping with the coffee hour, since those are things I do almost every Sunday.  I also phone my daughter on Sunday evenings.  Last night's call was a short one, as I had to get to the book club meeting by 6 PM. 

Here we are - Monday morning.  Another week starting.  We never did get the snow they were predicting, although some places not far from me got flurries.  I'm just as glad it missed us.  I'm ready for spring - the warm sunny kind!