I'm a huge procrastinator when it comes to doing my taxes. When the mail comes in marked "Important Tax Document Enclosed" I stick it unopened in a pile and eventually stuff the pile into a manila folder, where it waits until the planets are sufficiently aligned or enough panic sets in for me to pull out the folder and start dealing with it.

So, tonight I made the first baby steps towards getting those %^&*@* taxes done. I installed TurboTax, downloaded the updates, pulled open the folder, and started opening up the dreaded tax forms.

That's when I noticed a few envelopes that didn't belong in there. Best I can guess I must have placed all the mail one day in the tax pile without thinking - or maybe Lee put all the mail in that pile. Yeah, that must have been it. At any rate, there was the PG&E bill that went AWOL (I only realized it was missing when I received an overdue notice - eek).

And there was an envelope with Dita's return address. I opened it up and found a very sweet note explaining how she had a conflicting family event the day of the Top Hat ride and that she wouldn't be able to join the rest of the Amici Veloci gang on the ride. She also sent a donation check for the team.

Dita, I'm so sorry I was such a flake. You must have been wondering what the heck was going on. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings by not acknowleging your note & donation sooner, and if I did, I'm very sorry.

But you know you still belong to Amici Veloci even if you aren't riding the Top Hat

- Jo.