Nom de Plume

Once again, it’s that time of year. Find the first entry of every month and post an excerpt. Tag, you’re it — consider yourself memed!

January:
Of COURSE I ignored rain warnings and left a day later than I should have. I-5 was closed between Yreka and somewhere in Oregon, and traffic was diverted through Route 97. Which goes over the mountains and into the woods and deep into a penetrating freeze.

February:
How does one broach the subject of e-mail forwards with very nice, sweet relatives and acquaintances of a certain age for whom e-mail is the best thing since sliced bread?

March:
From 1981 to 1983, we lived in Nigeria. Embassy housing put us in a three-unit complex, each of the identical apartments stacked on top of each other in a compound with a huge magnolia tree and a guard who spent most of his time napping under it. We lived in the middle unit; Nuel lived on the top floor and Laura lived on the bottom. Nuel just visited my mother in North Carolina, and strangely enough, Laura just retired to Bellingham and spent a long weekend with us.

April:
There is, of course, nothing quite so tiresome as someone explaining why she hasn’t been posting more regularly — so I won’t bother, except to say that it’s been a crazy week with no end in sight. But spring is really here!

May:
Pathetic! That’s what this is. I have stacks and stacks to write reviews, great visit with Pammy, lots of e-mails from my insane mother to share, and unfortunately, lots and lots of work to keep me from updating. One day I will return!

June:
It’s pouring, just a solid sheet of rain. The skylight over my desk is leaking once again, even though Steve has attempted to fix it three or four times.

July:
The anti-net neutrality Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) offers his own version of version of how the Internet works. Scary, huh?

August:
Steve is taking a two month sabbatical from work, and is dedicating himself to projects around the house. The problem is that he’s much more excited about destroying than rebuilding.

September:
“Can you think of a reason to come back to Long Beach?� asked Steve. We were hurtling down the 28-mile long peninsula back to the mainland.

“No.�

October:
Saturday night, Steve and I went to La Medusa for dinner — a restaurant in Columbia City that we’ve been meaning to try out for a long time. Every time we’ve gone in there on a whim, they’ve laughed when we say, “A reservation? No, we don’t have one.� So I finally made a reservation. It was worth it. We even splurged on dessert. We left fat and happy. On the way home, we passed our local Safeway and wondered why the street lights were out.

November:
I was probably a little hasty in creating an entire category dedicated to soapmaking. A better category probably would have been “passing fancies.� Or better yet, “passing fancies on which I spend tons of money and then get bored.�

December:
It’s been a loooonng week. S and I have decided to take up cross country skiing. First jaunt tomorrow.

It’s been a loooonng week. S and I have decided to take up cross country skiing. First jaunt tomorrow.

Steve is being quite industrious in the kitchen today.

Awwww, look at that cornbread.

Steve left at 5 this morning as usual, but was back within an hour and a half. The freeway was shut down. Yay for snow days — we went for a quick jaunt around Kubota.

Steve dug this out of the front yard and brought it inside for the winter. And it bloomed!

It smells heavenly.

Steve and I have rented a cabin on the shores of Soap Lake for the long holiday weekend, arriving around noon on Thanksgiving Day. Which, of course, leads to the question of how to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I think we should be okay if we get a super-small bird. The question is, what is the smallest turkey you can get?

A new meteorological term? Someone having a little bit of fun? At least someone is. Let’s not even get into the skylight situation.

For all of us lexicographical curmudgeons. Check it out.

“Pull up the blog,” I said. “See the picture?”

“Oh, God.”

“I really want it.”

“Oh, God.”

“Does that mean you don’t love me enough to spend $400 on something I will use twice?”

Silence.

“Okay, I’m kind of thinking about just buying it for myself.”

“That’s just crazy.”

“You can make booze in it.”

“Buy it!”

A while ago, I answered the questions in this survey. Now the report has been released. It’s pretty interesting. In their own words:

“New Unionism and the Next Social Safety Net� reports on the challenges independent workers face as they try to put together stable lives without access to our employer-based social safety net.

Although independent workers often pay more taxes than standard employees, they receive fewer benefits and protections from the government. The report argues that a new form of unionism is needed to help update the social safety net for a changing workforce, and makes specific policy recommendations that would improve independent workers’ access to equitable taxes, government representation, and traditional social insurance programs.

2006 survey findings include:

Independent workers lack benefits traditional workers have.
In the past year, roughly 39% of respondents experienced a period without health insurance; about half of these did not have health insurance for the entire previous year.

1/2 of respondents have saved less than $10,000 for retirement.

79% of respondents would be willing to pay to get access to an unemployment insurance program.

The independent workforce is an untapped constituency that votes.
3% of respondents feel that elected officials understand what being a freelancer is like, and 10% feel that the media understand.

81% of respondents view freelancers as a group with common interests and goals.

92% are registered voters; 90% have voted in a national election in the last 5 years.

Although the survey primarily focused on New York City (you can’t get much further away from that than Seattle) and didn’t represent me in terms of income, the section on taxes was pretty interesting. I mean, it’s not anything I didn’t know, but it’s nice to see it acknowledged in black and white.

Independent workers face complex and burdensome tax rules. They pay more
taxes than traditional employees because the tax code overlooks them in some
instances, and directly targets them in others. 50% of survey respondents cite the
additional tax burden as a significant disadvantage of freelancing, and 94% feel
that freelancers deserve more equitable tax treatment.

In other words, freelancers are all turning into Republicans. I know I am. Well, I’m not really, but sometimes I feel like it.

Some sections of the tax code directly target independent workers who don’t
have employers. As a result, these freelancers pay higher taxes than standard
employees. The Self-Employment Tax — the social security and Medicare tax
targeted at workers without employers — is 15.3% of net earnings. Workers who
have employers pay just half that amount, and their employers pay the other half.
In addition, a tax in New York City called the Unincorporated Business Tax (UBT)
requires self-employed independent workers who net over $55,000 a year to pay
extra income tax on top of their federal, state, and city income taxes.

Amen. Steve and I make about the same, amount, give or take, but even after deductions, I still pay about 15 percent more in taxes than he does.

Temps, contract workers, part-timers, and others who buy their own health insurance policies can’t take an income tax deduction for the cost of premiums unless their health care expenses exceed 7.5% of their total income. Independent contractors, the self-employed, and others who work without an employer relationship can deduct the cost
of health insurance from their income taxes, but they can’t deduct this cost from their
Self-Employment Tax liability.

I guess I shouldn’t complain because I have health insurance through Steve. It’s much better insurance for much less than an individual policy, but I can’t deduct it because it’s through his employer. Which is fair enough.

And really, I can’t complain on a broader level either. Sure, those full-time employees may have more benefits, but they also sit in rush hour traffic, don’t have the luxury of turning down work because of an upcoming vacation, have to be in the office from 9-5, and have to go to meeting after endless meeting.

So drawbacks notwithstanding, I wouldn’t trade.