Adulting?

The taxes are done. I just need to double check everything before I file. The good news is that I'm not only getting a refund, but the refund is big enough to pay this year's first quarterly installment and still get some back. The bad news is that this is because I made less money this year and had more business expenses -- not drastically so, but enough to drop me into a different bracket.

Meanwhile, I'm closing in on the current round of rewrites. I won't say that I should finish it today because I only have about 30 pages. That would guarantee that I'd run up against another roadblock, and I already know that part of those 30 pages are the part that most needs to be worked on. But the end is in sight.

I already celebrated a little on both the taxes and the book with a slightly splurgy Target run this morning. I got a household item that was somewhat needed, though I went with the option that was upgrading from what I have. I found a Star Wars nightshirt on the clearance rack, and how could I resist? Now I have something to sleep in for my convention travel this summer. And there was another splurge on something that probably counts as a toy but that I think will be useful if I manage it properly.

There I'm not sure if I'm being an adult or a child about it. It's not a huge expense but is beyond the level of "just throw it in the shopping cart," and I went through a lot of mental gymnastics to justify it, making pro/con lists, deciding it still fit under Christmas money that I haven't really spent, considering that maybe it counted as a book finishing reward or a tax refund purchase. Never mind that I have money to cover it anyway. So on the adult side, I suppose it's mature to consider a purchase like this as an extra outside the regular budget and to think rather than being totally impulsive. On the child side, there's this weird sense that my own money isn't really my own money and I have to get permission to spend it. At any rate, I have a Christmas present/tax refund toy that I'm not going to let myself play with until after I finish the book -- well, this round, anyway.