That Kind of Week

By Cornelia Read

 

Okay, so this week I have completed both my taxes and financial aid forms for daughter Grace, and then I flew to Houston (via Cleveland, which I can’t help but remember was always referred to by my first stepfather as “The Mistake by the Lake,” even though the airport is perfectly fine.)

Here is what my bedroom looks like right now:

 

 

 (Oh, and “have a nice day” my ass, BTW. It’s mid-April, who are we kidding?)

 

Because A) I think doing taxes is a perfectly good reason to take to one’s bed and B) when you get to that point in the paperwork where the IRS asks you what form of accounting you use, I always wonder why there’s not a box to check that says “lightning rod for entropy in the universe.”

Or just a picture of this with an X next to it:

And here is what I would like to say to the IRS:

 

And here is about how well my brain is functioning:

 

 

 

Did I mention what my bedroom still looks like, since I finished the taxes and everything at the very last minute before leaving for the airport? Here’s another shot:

 

And here is what I feel like, after this week:

 

So, you know, having to post the day after Neil Nyren is making me feel kind of like this:

Even though I’m sure to the IRS I look like this:

 

 

And now I must turn my attention to book number four, which I think I just thought up a title for on the airplane (Crash and Burn, considering it’s about an arsonist and my marriage falling apart and stuff). Though even though I  had a fabulous time in Houston, I am still feeling as though this should be my theme song right now:

 

 

 

But mostly, because it’s all over with, I feel like singing this:

 

 

Or maybe doing this:

 

 

Although, hey, I would like to sing this to the IRS on behalf of all taxpayers:

 

 

‘Ratis, what song would you pick to illustrate this week?

 

(p.s. For Chris and Louise, the Shonen Knife version:)

 

 

31 thoughts on “That Kind of Week”

  3. Susan Shea

    I wrote about music this week too, on my blog. I was in thrall to "The Weary Kind" sung by Ryan Bingham in "Crazy Heart" all last week. Cornelia, I love your pics and videos – your blog is always a show worth catching.

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  9. BCB

    Song? There has to be a song?

    She’s kidding, right? Cornelia, tell me you’re kidding.

    This week doesn’t deserve a song. This week was the week back at work after the week I was on vacation — a wonderful relaxing yet productive week (yes, an entire week!) of intensive writing. At the beach. Now a distant memory.

    Although . . . I seem to remember . . . I managed to complete the rough draft . . . I wonder what I did with it . . .

    Wait. Isn’t there a song about a chain gang?

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  10. kit

    may I use the past few months please?

    it was like this…..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jffsG0VR4Gw&feature=related

    I tried this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToeY7MkCm0c

    they replied this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWhInhE6emE

    I GOT FIRED…but….this is how I felt….
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqYtycOfMKw

    I paid off my old school loans..may become QUEEN of the TACOs(taco joint) to make bills..but I’m going back to school….got acepted this past week…and it’s been like this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raxKQH7TQFQ

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4uPp69TMLI

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  15. Andi

    I spent yesterday trying to help my mom decide about an iPad – and she’s 3000 miles away. But whilst playing around at the Apple store, I thought about uploading some youtube video on it to help ME decide since I cannot watch videos on this (or the last) last laptop so alas, all this is lost on moi, sweetie. And maybe I need one?

    What song? Oy, we gotta talk. Heh. Pick your favorte "voices out the past" tune for this week.

    "Have a nice Day" still triggers this automatic "thank you Garry Trudeau" reaction. Every time i hear or see "have a nice day" i automatically reply "Save the Whales". It’s a very very very old Doonesbury reference but then i’ve been reading the strip since GT was at Yale.

    More recently, i hear Bon Jovi in my head (sorry, cringe, i like Bon Jovi.) "When the world gets in my face, i say ‘Have a nice day’." (There’s a version with Sugarland, which is how I know BJ. My weird music taste kicks in again!)

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  16. Mikaela

    Definitely this kind of week.
    Let’s see:
    The swedish IRS haven’t sent me a tax form which I need to do my taxes. Which means I need to contact them on monday.
    Then there is the volcano eruption ( thank god I am not going anywere!)
    Oh. And the exam, and the assignment due two days before the exam. And the novella I am editing.
    …I think I better stop, or I wont be able to sleep tonight.

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  17. Cornelia Read

    Kit, AWESOME! I love the Chris Rea, haven’t thought of Billy Idol in a while, dig the Judas Priest, am right there with you on the Rocky Balboa quote, and that’s so funny that you put up the Patti Labelle song from Beverly Hills Cop because they play it right at the beginning of my favorite scene in the movie:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9w3_3T3U5g

    Rae, Eat the Rich is my new favorite official song, which makes me happy because I already have an Eat the Rich t-shirt, so now it has an even greater depth of meaning.

    Pari, I filed for an extension too, but I still did all the stuff and it’s a little crazy-making.

    Andi, I love your weird music taste. And YES, you need youtube!

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  18. Cornelia Read

    Mikaela, I have one phrase I know in Swedish which might be useful here, but it’s apparently so awful that it has made strong Norwegian men blanch in bars. I am a little freaked out about the volcano eruption but perhaps it will issue in a new golden age of steamship travel?

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  19. BCB

    Ooooh, men in uniform! Thanks, Cornelia! How did you know?

    I think your brain is functioning just fine. Not sure about mine. I’m getting a nice refund this year. And I still mailed my return at the last minute.

    I know a couple phrases in Norwegian — apparently they’re the type of thing that would cause strong Norwegian men to throw me out of the bar. I shall refrain as well.

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  25. Sharon J.

    Crash and Burn, great title.

    Next week is when the world begins anew. You’ll finish your book and clean your room and do everything you’ve been meaning to do.

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  26. Cornelia Read

    Catherine, I am thinking it’s because you and I played lacross and field hockey together, back in the day. At least anyone who knows me now would find the idea of me in a short purple kilt and cleats and purple-and-white striped kneesocks pretty damn amusing.

    Ari, that is my favorite version of Billie Holiday singing one of my very favorite songs. And I just found out this week that she cowrote it, which I think is incredibly cool. Thank you.

    Sharon, you are so wonderful!

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  27. kit

    Cornelia,
    I forgot about Serg…loved his parts…did you see BH3? with the Annihilator2000?

    It’s been a little strange around here with the role reversal, especially from our oldest. I almost told him tonight I planned to move in with him to save money, but I just couldn’t do it..yet.

    I limited myself to telling him I planned to push tacos at Taco John’s, plant a garden, and raise a pig or two out in the back yard, while going back to school..we live in a college town, smack dab in the middle.

    and yeah…I believe in those words from Rocky

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  29. Cornelia Read

    Daisy, I am a huge fan of the Villa Artemis from among the three choices on your blog. Also, I don’t think your childhood shirt was that bad. And I think you will become very famous on youtube playing that on the harp. I can play "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor" on the harmonica, recorder, and mandolin, but sadly not all the way through without mistakes. And I am so glad you like that title.

    Kit, I never saw BH3 but I have vague memories of BH2. And if they’re hiring at Taco John’s, I may be looking for work myself. Not sure they will let me keep pigs outside my building, though I think they would fit right in by The Banks of The Mighty Squamscott.

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  30. Zoë Sharp

    How about ‘The Trumpton Riots’ by Half Man, Half Biscuit. That about sums it up.

    Oh, and on the irony front ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ by John Denver…

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