Fit Five Friday October Coffee Talk

Y’all, for real, the fact that it’s already October is BEYOND ME. But it’s only good news; my holiday is coming up and then my surgery! Whoo hooo!

It’s Fit Five Friday!

WELOME to Fit Five Friday with with your FIVE amazing hosts – me, Darlene -My First 5K and More, Michele – Running With Attitude, Jenn – Runs with Pugs, and Zenaida – The Running Teacher ! 

It’s also the Ultimate Coffee Date!

Head over here to join the Ultimate Coffee Date with other amazing, supportive and friendly bloggers.

Grab your liquid refreshment of choice and pull up a chair… let’s catch up!

Tax Filing Gloom and Doom

If we were having coffee I would tell you first and foremost that once again I have failed to fill out my US tax forms well before the deadline and now I have the pressure of getting it all sorted within the next 10-ish days. Every year is the same; every year I say I’m going to do it early to avoid the stress and every year I do not do it. Am I annoyed with myself? Yes, I am. You may wonder what the big deal is. Well, I’ll tell you. I live and work in the Netherlands. I am a naturalized citizen of the Netherlands. I am still a US citizen and the only way to step away from that is to renounce. And renouncing costs $2,350. That’s right. You have to pay that amount of money to step away from your US citizenship. I imagine many of you wouldn’t even imagine wanting to do that, however, I do not live there and have no intention of ever moving back. As a US Citizen living abroad, despite living, working and paying taxes in another country, you must report *everything* to the US government. Including how much money you have in all your bank accounts, pensions etc. And in the end, because I don’t make enough money or have tons of money in accounts, I am not double-taxed. I still have to fill out all the forms though. I cannot use automated systems either outside of the US. So I have to hire a service or I have to fill the forms in myself. It’s annoying and very time consuming. My Dutch taxes take about 5 min to fill in online. My US taxes? Definitely costs me a day. And it seems they change the forms all the time so it’s not a matter of copy/pasting information from last year. There is no further benefit for me to fill in any of these forms. Zero. Nothing. I get nothing out of it.

OK rant over.

Let’s talk about something more pleasant, shall we?

I’ve got some travel coming up – yay! As of publishing this blog post I am in Dortmund, Germany for a Unity Day special parkrun event, meeting up with German, Dutch, American and Welsh friends for my “Cow” event – 50 different locations is a half of a “Cowell” (apparently the name of the guy who was the first ever to run 100 different events) and I’m all in! On Saturday I’ll run another event in Bochum with several of the same people!

Then, on Friday the 9th we are off to Malaga. A bittersweet trip without my dad, but WITH my stepmom. I’m looking forward to seeing her AND getting my Vitamin Sea injection. I absolutely cannot wait. Especially since I feel like a ticking time bomb at the moment…

My creative juices are starting to flow

Definitely with some frustration added but I did finish (mostly) my table – I just couldn’t find stencils that really worked for this piece. After searching and finding nothing I decided to just put the pulls on and call it a day. Then my friend Gerrit told me that I could probably find cake stencils that would work. I’ll give that a try. In any case it’s cheaper than buying a cricut… that I don’t know how to use…

I also have been working in my little front garden again, tidying it up and putting in new plants that hopefully are not attractive to cats. And am trying 4 new houseplants again – using a few techniques to keep Rudyy from chewing on them (cayenne pepper and diluted lemon water spray).

Frida Kahlo “Viva la Vida” in Amsterdam

Last weekend Ron and I had a day out in Amsterdam to see the immersive “Viva la Vida” Exhibition at Vincent Hall. It was SO GOOD. But just the whole day was good, you know. Just exactly what we needed together. A great. sunny day out, good coffee and lunch, Frida, more coffee and a bit of a stroll. Normally I don’t like to go to Amsterdam but it was just NICE.

What would you talk to me about over coffee?

Here are the guidelines:

• Your link should center around some kind of fitness (exercise, wellness, mental health, nutrition… the possibilities are endless!)
• Please link back to your hosts! It’s the right thing to do! 
• Share the link-up love by visiting and commenting on your hosts and at least two other Fit Five Friday bloggers!
• Feel free to share about Fit Five Friday on your social media! Tag #FitFiveFriday to get the word out!