interviews/people

It’s my birthday, too, yeah. So, in honor of the day, in the tradition of bloggers everywhere, I present ten things you may not know about me…

1, I share a birthday with actress Jill Whelan. She and I have much in common: she starred in one of my favorite movies, Airplane!, and the wildly popular show, Love Boat, before moving to Philadelphia while I played the role of Snoopy in my junior high production of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown before moving to Philadelphia. She, however, was never a tax attorney – ha!

2, At various times in my life, I wanted to be an actress, a teacher, a baseball player (which reminds me: Charlie Manuel, if you haven’t found a replacement for Lidge, I’m still available through October) and a lawyer. My dad is fond of relating the story of my telling people that I wanted to be a lawyer so that I could be rich and just write poetry. I clearly overestimated how much they pay lawyers – which is why I now just write tax haiku.

3, When people ask me what I do for a living now, I tell them I’m a tax attorney who also writes about tax (this may frighten them a little). If you think that’s confusing to grown-ups, think of my poor children: they often tell people that I drive a taxi.

4, My husband and I are both lawyers and yes, we met in law school. I didn’t care for him very much during our first year because I thought he was too sarcastic. If you read the blog very often and know my writing style, that should boggle your mind.

5, In law school, I swore I would never take a tax course, bar review or no bar review, because I thought it would be boring. There’s a lesson to be learned here – and it’s not to not listen to me.

6, The worst grade I ever got in law school was in tax – the first tax course I ever took. I was devastated and went to my professor in tears. I was already signed up for my IRS clerkship by the time I got my grade and wanted to quit. My professor convinced me to not quit. I completely attribute my being a tax geek today to my terrific law school tax profs.

7, I did a stint as a tax prof myself for a bit at Community College of Philadelphia. I taught Wills and Trusts. The great thing about growing up in a Southern family is that I didn’t really have to embellish any of my family for the hypos – although I did occasionally. For example, my dad does, in fact, have an entire room in our house dedicated to all things Coca-Cola – though as far as I know, none of the bottles contain flesh-eating bacteria. Again, as far as I know…

8, I have really fond memories of my childhood except for a few “incidents” involving my brothers and some strategically placed walkie-talkies (no, Rob and T, I haven’t forgotten). Some of my best memories revolve around my maternal grandmother who made a pretty mean vegetable soup. She died of cancer and I now run the Komen 5k in her memory (Team Joye). I’m running again in May – if you’re feeling charitable, you can make a donation. Make it by the end of the year and you can claim it as a tax deduction!

9, I now have three kids of my own – fortunately, my daughter’s invisible friend, Mary, has moved on (I did not claim her as a tax deduction, despite my father’s belief that I could). I have no idea what my kids will be when they grow up though I would not be surprised to see my middle child off Broadway (and I mean, off, off Broadway). My husband and I have always said that they can be anything they want except a stripper or a lawyer – and we’re willing to bend on stripper.

10, My other “baby” is taxgirl. I’ve been blogging for a number of years now (even before I bought taxgirl.com). Way back… As in back in the day when my mom didn’t even know what a blog was and my dad was just about my only reader. It’s been the most fun a tax geek can have (and still hold a job). I really do appreciate all of my readers for giving me inspiration and encouragement every.single.day. And thanks, of course, to Richard Hatch, for constantly giving me something to write about.

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