whispering in the crowd at the tax place

Today is going to be kind of hectic, so if I don't get back to post again and if I don't get to answer e-mail, it's only because I haven't had the time. This morning I have to go to a place called SUNAT (don't ask me what that means...the T at the end means TAXES, I'm sure), so I can get info on how to pay taxes on what I earn. I can earn about $450 a month before I have to pay taxes. I don't make near that, but I have to file my info every month. And there's a luncheon at Omar's work that I have to go to. Then tonight I have two classes to teach, from 4:15 till 10 pm. WAH! My day will be all taken up by other people.

I have a tub of laundry waiting for me, which I haven't even touched yet, a house to clean, and I know that by the time I get home this evening, Celeste will have destroyed her room. And poor Ms. Violet has almost had it. She's being slowly loved to death. She's losing her stuffing and, although she still squeaks, she's got a huge hole in her that the squeaker could fall out of. I need to find a replacement...Walmart, where are you?

I think I've become spoiled...I want my time to play, too.

edited at 11:12 am -

I'm back from the tax place. I'm already at a disadvantage linguistically, but in a place where many people are talking and getting upset, trying to do business, and trying to make themselves heard over the rest of the people, I REALLY have a difficult time. Although I managed to get done what I needed to do, I had a lot of trouble hearing what was being said to me; I only heard about half of the directions being given to me and basically understood about half of that. Lots of "what did you say?" and "please repeat that", and the dreaded "I don't understand"... What I did come away with was a tax reporting number and the impression that someone will be coming to the house this week sometime to verify that I really do live where I say I do. They'll bring a form that has all my information on it and, if I'm really living here in the apartment that I bought and pay for every month, then they'll stamp it approved and I get to go pick up my book of receipts with my tax number on it. Hopefully the people who come to the house will be able to explain more to me while they're here, in a place where no one is yelling or talking so quietly that one has to almost crawl over the counter to hear them.

Along those lines, I often feel like I need to explain that I forgot to bring my hearing aid along or something, so could they please SPEAK UP. I can't understand why people, who work in a place where many people are all talking and, often yelling, all at once, don't at least have an informational packet ready so if we don't get everything at the moment, we have something to refer back to. For a while, I thought I really was hard of hearing, until I saw several others leaning across the counter to hear, too.

Celeste just brought me a piece of Ms. Violet stuffing. She laid it in my lap in trade for a piece of the sandwich that I'm eating. I guess it might be seen as a fair trade. That stuffing will last me much longer than the sandwich will.