Thursday, February 25, 2010

What's Happening?

 
It has been a strange time around here.
Nick has been working 10 hour days, 5 days per week for the past 3 weeks, and as you can probably guess, he is totally exhausted.  I love the whole temp job thing; we work you to the bone and then offer you no job security.  Actually, Nick told me that one guy who had been temping there for three years got axed.  Nothing like putting the fear of God into everyone.  And with the job market the way it is in Michigan, they can get away with it.  Granted, the money comes in handy, but you have to wonder at what cost.

I have been moving things out of my office and can't help but compare the experience to the last time I moved out of an office.  This time is under a whole different setting.  I am going to be sad to leave.  (Well, mostly, I am not going to be sad to say "good bye" to the treasurer, but more on that later!)  I had hoped to just move stuff from one office to the other, but that is not going to be able to happen.  I want to leave the office in such a way that the new person can come right in.  And that may be sooner as opposed to later.  (Which is good for them!   They deserve it!)

I started doing my taxes and things were fine until I got to the church pay.  Thanks to my "Lovely" Treasurer, I owe the government almost $1000!  I talked to her about the money she was taking and she said everything was fine.  That woman has cost me (in one way or another) over $2000 over the past year.  Of course, she does not see how her actions have any bearing on my life.  I asked about how much money was being taken out of my check and she assured me it was enough.  Well, it wasn't.  So now, while trying to come up with deposits and first/last month's rent, we get to find almost a $1000 to send to the banking CEO's and war profiteers government.

Otherwise, this Sunday will be my last at my current congregation.  It will be sad, but I am looking forward to the next phase of life.

2 comments:

Lemuel said...

When is your first Sunday at the new place?
On the whole I had the same problem with the treasurers in my congregations. They must send them to "Church Treasurer School" to learn this stuff.
I learned early. In my student parish of 4 small churches, in the largest and by far the best financially the treasurer would "forget" my check week after week. I got to the point that I would offer to follow her home to get my check. In the smallest of the churches (and by far the poorest) my pay was always there on time or even early and their financial books were without flaw. Perhaps in their poverty they knew what a paycheck meant.

Kdefrank said...

Don't you priests do a W-4 or something like at a regular job?
And you can make payments on the $1000. The IRS charges interest but it isn't too much.
One year my friend was on unemployment and they didn't take any tax money out (it's different now)
She owed $3500!!!