Taxes and stuff

My taxes are done. So far one federal and one state have approved of my returns. I now wait on Maryland. Of course, this figures; Maryland has given me shit with one thing or another ever since I moved. Troubles getting a license, trouble using my current PA license. If they come back saying something is wrong with their wonderfully simple tax return form I might take it as a hint. But where else do I have to go?

I decided on a few things to spend my tax return money on. Paying off a huge chunk of my smallest student loan will help. I'm also going to look into buying a new instrument to play. What that is is a surprise.

Any cash I have left over is going to, believe it or not, some new threads. I have a tendency to keep clothing forever, beating the hell out of it until it is embarrassing to wear, and even then I often let it go for too long. I have stuff I wore in high school still, and I think my coat is circa 8th grade.

My wardrobe is ridiculous. I hardly have any pairs of shorts because it has been many years since I have been able to wear shorts more than two days a week. But when I need them I often have nothing. I have shirts with a small tear in them that I keep because hey, its fairly new. It sits right next to a tearless, stainless shirt that has colors beyond faded.

Its just time for a reboot. The old stuff doesn't really look childish, but I've gotten more than my money's worth from all of it. I need to ditch the pants that I wore when I thought I was a 32x32 and now the cuffs are frayed.

I'm not going to go over the deep end. The fact is that most of my coworkers wear jeans a checkered shirt every day, so I feel like I can keep some of the old junk around for daily wear. But summer is coming, and that means going out more. Dressing sharp isn't a guarantee of anything, but hey, it can't hurt.

As an addendum, its interesting to see our priorities as consumers. Even with a job I try to keep my purchases of new games to a minimum, but if there is something I really like, I have no qualms laying down $50 or $60 for it. Yet paying that much for one article of clothing seems like blasphemy, even though you could pay much much more for something swanky. Most women on the other hand will scoff at that much for something they really like, but they can't understand my gaming habit. To me, buying a game that won't break and delivers consistent entertainment is worth the price, while my clothing is going to deteriorate no matter what I do. But the ladies out there teach a valuable lesson; no matter how many people will tell you "I don't care how I look and you shouldn't judge me based on that", appearances always matter to some extent, and wearing something crisp and up to date can be damn nice.