I'd been wondering why I hadn't received a 1098 form for the course I am taking. So today I called the university's financial department and was directed to another company that handles their 1098's. When I called them (after being on hold for 28 minutes) I found out that I won't be getting a 1098. Even though the award money counts as income, I can't claim that I paid tuition! Simply put, that bites!!

The other really frustrating thing is that Turbo Tax is telling me that I have to claim the Award money as self-employment income*. If that is true, that seriously reduces my refund.

*When I claim it as "other" it then asks me if I expect to get money from this same source again in upcoming tax years. Which I do ... I could conceivably use this money spread out over 5 - 7 tax years (if it lasted that long.) But I just don't see how it can be counted as SE income. It is an award given up to two years in a row, and paid out as it is used for qualified expenses (or student loans if you have them.) I'm not exactly being paid for *work* -- I'm being awarded for being willing to work for low pay in an underprivileged area. (Like the priest said today during mass - we could probably earn 2 or 3x as much anywhere else.)

It seems to me like this award benefits those with student loans the most. They can at least take a deduction for the interest paid on the loans. (or maybe not... who knows.)

If both of the above hold true, then I have serious doubts about my using the remainder of the "award" money anytime soon!

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I talked with my principal about my evaluation from last week. It was very positive. Of course I had one of my best groups, so that didn't hurt any. We were a bit rushed so I didn't get a chance to ask her if she had anything she'd like to add to the single evaluation.

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I'm still working on gathering my documentation for my NM license. I called the school district I worked for in TX today to get a copy of my service record. (I was going to copy mine from my personnel folder here, but they didn't have it!! Oops.) When the lady first called back she told me she hadn't found anything for me ... um... but that she was going to keep looking. She called me back while I was out at the buses so I missed her call. Will have to try her again tomorrow.

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I cashed in for 5 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks, and now have 800+ towards March's cards.

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I'm leaving one week from today to go to Baltimore! I'm getting a little bit more excited - although I do wonder if they're in the path of this major blizzard that's predicted for this weekend. Will have to bring my warm clothes for sure. (speaking of which, am doing massive amounts of laundry right now due to not having done any for awhile and being down to the last of my clean work-worthy tops.)

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Today I got the approval for my one-day book seminar on March 7. So I went ahead and registered for it and booked the hotel. I have a 2 1/2 hour cohort (class) session the night of March 6 ... I was told I could use their business center computer. I'm looking forward to a made to order omelet (part of the hotel price is a HOT breakfast.) I think I'm more excited about this short 1 1/2 day trip than the Baltimore one.

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I finished Jericho a couple days ago. I really liked it - especially when I found out why the fans had inundated the studio that produced it with peanuts when it was canceled. I'd heard about it, but hadn't know why they chose that.

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We may be getting some snow this weekend, perhaps even a snow day on Monday. I would prefer not to have a snow day, but if it happens, I won't complain too much. Just I have so few Mondays and Fridays with those classes as it is ... Oh well.