Ahem.

Now that I've stopped feeling sorry for myself and drowning in a sea of my own tears, I thought I'd do something a little more productive.

Which is to pimp the shit out of (sorry grandma!) my charity fundraiser, 804forHaiti. Go to our website 804forHaiti.com. Read about us. If you're in the Richmond area buy a ticket for the November 18th event. It's going to be awesome and the money is going to such an incredible cause.

Also I thought I'd just like to put this out there. Starting a nonprofit is some serious business. Which I guess is good that the government is stringent on nonprofit organizations. You wouldn't want just anyone to become a nonprofit. So for this year we're putting a pin in the whole tax exempt status. We're raising money for a real, official, bonafied nonprofit, Meds and Food for Kids, so everyone can use their information for tax reasons and no one gets audited or goes to jail. Win win right?

Basically we were going to try to get tax-exempt status and I really tried. We got an EIN number which takes like 2 seconds. Then we incorporated with the sate. I had to go down to the fancy state clerk's office and everything. I even dressed up in a skirt and cardigan (in August!). My logic was that I shouldn't look like a homeless person, because then they may turn me down. The reality was that I handed them a form and a check made out to 75 dollar and they smiled and said thank you. I could have been wearing pajama pants and a feather boa and they wouldn't have cared less.

Then I began to fill out some terrifying paperwork to reigster with the Department of Consumer Protection. I even made bylaws. BYLAWS! They were all official looking and fancy and had words like "shall" and "director" and "amendment" on them. I impressed myself. But then I got to the IRS form 1023 which is the actual form that you file to apply for tax exempt status. And it made the scary Consumer Protection form seem like a fill in the dots puzzle. This application is insane. I do not recommend attempting it unless you have 5 lawyers sitting beside you. You have to do all this crazy stuff and attach all this crazy stuff and then half way through said form I saw that you also have to pay a small fee of 400 DOLLARS! Which, okay for a real business that's probably pocket change. But to me that was deal breaker. I'm sorry IRS, I am way too poor to jump through your crazy hoops. Plus I could have paid that and they could have denied me. It's not a given you'll get accepted. And that would have sucked.

So we're simplifying. And I'm actually okay with it. It means I don't have to work any more on the scary paperwork or answer any more seemingly innocent but really alarming questions about whether or not I have personal relationships with my board of directors (which considering my board of directors was going to be two of my best friends, I would have had to say yes). Also there are like 10 questions on terrorists alone, as in will your funds go to terrorists. Plus on the EIN form you had to swear you weren't a terrorist group which I find kind of hillarious. Because really if I were a terrorist cell operating in America would I take the time to apply for an Employment Identification Number. I'm sure terrorists are really concerned about getting their paperwork in order for when they file their yearly taxes.

Silly government.

But anyway, check out our website, if possible come to the event! Or if you can't do that and want to donate we accept those to. All money will go to Meds and Food for Kids and you can read about them here and it's such a cool and awesome nonprofit.