i accomplished something tonight, which is more than i can say for most nights/weeks/months...

for the first time in my life, all by myself, i completed my tax returns. well, not really 'all by myself,' but with the help of turbotax and my dad's previous turbotax files for me and phone calls to him every three minutes. and it took about twohours, but those three hours had various interruptions (a conversation with younger brother, watching the bulls for extended amounts of time, finding various forms that i didn't know i had or needed...)

of course, the filling out of these forms caught me off guard at times... is it worth reporting the $10.58 earned from jury duty? (yes, it was...and, yes, i did keep track of that.) should i report my wnur donation from 2004? (yes.) should i report my previously unreported wnur donation from 2003? (yes.) should i report the 'auto registration deduction,' which is reportable in iowa, where my registration fee is $166? (yes.) if i spend the time reporting this information, will it have any effect on my actual refund? (of course not. but, i guess this is preparing me for the alleged far-off time when i'll be making 'actual money,' and will have 'actual deductions,' or something.)

so, when it was all said and done, i had about 10 pages of printed materials, and then i printed out about 17 more pages that turbotax deemed i should have 'for my records,' and now i'm left trying to figure out what the heck they might be for. so, being that it was post-10:30, and being that i had just said 'hey dad, i understand you're going to sleep, i promise i won't call again until tomorrow,' i guess i'll just have to wait until wednesday evening to give him a call and figure out what exactly i need to send.

we had to take some consumer ed class in high school, and i probably was supposed to learn this, and i probably got an a in the class, but, alas, i'm basically helpless.

in other news, sweet ben gordon is my favorite player on the bulls, overtaking chandler and hinrich. i love the fact that he's no more than 6'3", but is still a pure, pure scorer. and i love the fact that he's at his best in the fourth quarter. and i love the fact that, after he nearly turns the ball over, and with the bulls up by four with about 50 seconds left, he's got the gall to use a screen and hit a 10-foot teardrop to seal the deal.

why are the bulls so fun to watch? because, at 15.7 points per game, kirk hinrich ranks 50th in the nba and first on the bulls. and curry's next at 15.5. and gordon follows at 13.8. and deng's next at 12.5 (and he might already be the best of the bunch. love his aggressiveness and athletic oafiness). and chandler and nocioni and harrington and davis are all between six and eight. and any one of these guys (save harrington) is capable of an explosion any night. and you just don't know who's gonna do it, but you know the points are going to come from someone, and probably someone different from the previous game, every night.

and i'm excited. and probably delusional.