can we all just agree that doing taxes is the suck?

i've been trying for a couple hours now, and i have to have it done by monday. first i couldn't find a form that i needed, so i spent a lot of time trying to figure out some other way to get that information, then i found the form, but then i realized i couldn't use the 1040ez, so i printed the 1040a, and then as soon as that was done printing, i realized i couldn't use that either, so i printed the 1040, and at that point my printer ran out of ink. i have 25% of a 1040, but i don't think that will be enough. so then i decided that i should stop being such a grumpy retro tax-filer-on-paper and check out the free e-file option, but i can't find one that is actually secure (or at least one that doesn't have an unsettling red slash through the padlock icon.)

and i still don't have all my 1099s, and i just talked to someone who was saying that i might want to consider itemizing work-related deductions for my 1099s since that's cooler than paying 30%, which definitely sounds like something i should consider, but dang dude argh. i really understand why people pay tax preparers. also, thanks, the federal government, for making this so complicated.

update: still cranky! i found an online tax service that didn't sketch me out too much and that had a secure connection, and used that until...it turned out that i really do need those 1099s to be able to finish it.

so then i ended up going to radio shack where i had to fend off the most aggressive saleperson i've seen in person recently...seriously, i don't want to buy the color cartridge too. yes, i know which one it needs. no, i don't want it. no. really. i don't. yes, i am running out of color ink too. no, i'm not buying the color cartridge today. (or anything else from here, ever.)

i printed the 1040 and then spent a few hours trying to figure out how to fill it out. i think i did it wrong. i hope i did it wrong, because if i did it right, i paid a lot of money and still owe a lot more.

but the point of doing it now was so that i could submit my fafsa in time. and fafsas can be corrected, so i put in my estimate and found another reason to hope that i'd miscalculated my taxes when i learned that i'm not eligible for the pell grant, which i had been hoping for.

but now i'm done with that part of things, anyway, and i'll get to the re-done taxes soon. hopefully with mamacita on my side.