Teeth and Tax Returns.

I'm the type of person who feels bad for things VERY easily--even if it's not my fault, there was nothing I could have done about it, I had no control, etc. I hate when people get their feelings hurt or terrible things happen to them. I feel really, really bad. To the point where it's not really rational in my opinion.

Now this goes way beyond the typical, "oops, I did this on accident, I'm sorry" type thing. For example, most of you know that I work(ed) in public accounting. And I'm sure you know that many people don't manage their money well.

Well, I was doing the tax return for this particular wealthy family. By wealthy, I mean one of their W-2's alone showed over $2 million in salary. A lot of you might not realize that people with outside income are usually required to make estimated tax payments to the IRS, similar to having money withheld from your paycheck. If you don't do it, you'll end up owing penalties and interest. Every year we would advise this family to make the payments, every year they just wouldn't do it.

Every year this family would have to take out a new loan around April 15th to make their tax payment. And every year they would be surprised. Keep in mind they bring in over $2 million dollars in salary with just the husband. Every year.

This was kind of a running joke in my office, as last year they had to pay over $350,000 at tax time. I'm sure it would hurt anyone to have to make that payment to the IRS. My take was that they deserved it, as they should have been making the payments all year long. They KNEW they would owe a crap load of money. It's hard to feel bad for people like that.

Unless you are me. Unfortunately, I had to call the lady and tell her. I was not counting on this. It was funny until I found out I had to be the bearer of the bad news. So I call this lady and she totally freaks out on me. Like it was my fault!!! I tried to come up with a bright side to the situation, but couldn't really think of anything. I thought about pointing out that if they owed that much, it meant that they made a LOT of money, which is good in my opinion. But I didn't think that would help at that point.

I kind of joke about this, but I felt so bad making this phone call and right after that I was just about in tears. I had to leave my desk and take a walk around the block. And I felt sick to my stomach for the rest of the day. And it wouldn't have irritated me so much if I had a reason to feel bad. But really, I didn't. It was the people's own fault.

Ok--that example went on a little longer than I expected, but you get the point. I don't know if it's a girl thing, or a mom thing, or what, but it seems like here in the last year I've gotten a whole lot more emotional.

It used to be that I could watch the news and nothing would really phase me. Now, everytime I see a sad or tragic story, I automatically imagine what I would feel like if that was me in that situation. And I feel really, really bad. I can't even watch the news anymore it seems like. It's like everything is a lot more real and closer to home.

So where am I going with this...Chloe.

As you've seen in a recent post, she hasn't been feeling well. Well, this weekend I go to get some paper out of her mouth and what do I feel??? Teeth. She doesn't really let me get inside her mouth much, and I think it's gross anyway, so I don't push, but I know for sure I felt teeth. You can't see them yet, but the very top of them have erupted out of the gums. And I could be wrong, but it seems to me like two are coming at the same time, both on the bottom.

Well, she is so miserable. She doesn't sleep and cries a lot of the time, which most of you know really isn't her personality. She wakes up a lot more than normal at night, and she's crying. Not just a normal cry, but the kind of cry where you KNOW that she's in a lot of pain. A LOT. And she just wants me to hold her and not put her down. It's so pathetic. And of course I'm crying with her because I feel so bad that there's nothing that I can do for her. And I think of the fact that she is too young to really understand what's going on. All she knows is that her days are normally fun and happy, then out of nowhere she is in terrible, terrible pain that won't stop. I can't tell you much I hate seeing it. My heart hurts for her and I just want to take away all her pain. I always apologize to her, like it's my fault or something.

I try to put things in perspective by telling myself that all babies go through this type of thing, that its a part of life that all babies live through. And I know that's true, but unfortunately it doesn't make me feel any better. Not at all.

It's funny because the way I'm writing about this, you would think she has some super serious pain filled disorder that will plague her for the rest of her life, when in fact she's just teething. And the worst part is that I think about how this is just the beginning. I'm know there will be tons of times when she gets hurt and there will be nothing I can do about it. I almost feel like I feel worse about things than Chloe does! So I need to toughen up.

On the bright side:

CHLOE IS GETTING TEETH FINALLY!!!!