Death and taxes

Yesterday I got a cheque for about $250 from the government. Turns out I overpaid on my taxes. It's good news for me because, well, I now have $250 to spend on blow and hookers. The bad news is: how, as an accountant, did I overpay on my taxes?
The other thing in life that has to be dealt with besides taxes, hangnails and the bastard that keeps leaving the coffee pot empty at 2pm in the afternoon, is death. Today at lunch, five of us started talking about death. It was surreal. Everyone at the table had had someone very close to them die. We told some stories, people got a little choked up, but it was like this very strange bonding experience. I was explaining to D that, after my father died, a lot of my friends didn't know how to deal with me. I know they wanted to comfort me and be there for me, but they were uncomfortable with the situation. It felt good to talk about it with people that understood it. I can't explain it but to say that there is a difference between people that have lost a parent or a partner and those that haven't. I know that I wasn't there for one of my friends when her mother was killed a few years ago. I didn't know what to do or how to react. I know how to do those things now, though I wouldn't wish that knowledge on anyone. I remember having a conversation about it several months ago with a coworker who had lost her partner. We were both in tears at the end and we didn't know each other that well but we understood each other completely.
That said: I cancelled the job interview I had lined up for Monday. The grass is always greener, isn't it? But these people are worth showing up a paltry 32 hours a week for.
Went to the Foundation for dinner with Typewriter. I had to laugh. Our past involves going out to parties and spilling in and out of cabs and having furtive make out sessions at the drop of a hat and sleeping in late. Now we're getting together for a vegetarian meal, he's talking about how much he loves his kid, we're having one drink and then we split: he to go swimming; me to run on the treadmill.
To top off an otherwise stellar day, Michael called to tell me about the Hitchens/Blair debate. Obviously I'm a fan of Hitchens and Dawkins and the like, and Blair is a son of a bitch for jumping on the Bush bandwagon and rallying the conservative bible thumpers to go and invade and bomb a country, but Michael said he had one good point. Hitchens' angle is that the world would be better off without religion. "God is not great". And so what, then, would take the place of religion. I said philosophy would. When I think about the eradication of religion I get giddy and I envision all these intellectual conversations happening into the wee hours of the morning as people pick apart those social mores and moralities and laws that were foisted upon us hundreds of years ago. But then Michael (focusing on Blair's argument) said sure, but would we not end up in the same situation anyways? Freudians versus Jungians? Would our philosophical disagreements ultimately create militant, warring factions? It would kind of be like the battle of the atheists on South Park.
Yeah.
South Park.
Finally. "Timer". I still recommend. There are conversations to be had there. Not the least of which is why isn't Desmond Harrington in everything, all the time? I would follow him into the desert anytime.