And Then There Was One

Total Black: -$199.84
Total Red: $269,947.64

I received a comment today on a post from a few months back, No Holiday For Lawyers.  The commenter acknowledged that she was a late to that table; that post has been up since President’s Day.  But she acknowledged that she was making her way through the prior posts.  Intriguing that it was that post that prompted her to comment as another person, mentioned below, also reached out to me just as she reached that same post.  Curious.  I don’t see a problem with “late” comments.  Though some of the posts form an interlocking story. Sockpuppets and Doppelgängers, for example, can’t be fully understood without reading Breakfast with Narcissus.  Other posts stand on their own.  As such, why shouldn’t someone comment months or even years later.  But it’s fitting that, with only one day left until this blog comes to its pre-arranged termination, new readers are making their way through three-hundred, sixty-two prior posts. 

Trifecta

Total Black: $6.71
Total Red: $245,724.55

When it rains, it pours, eh?  And when it’s shines . . . it’s hot?  Not sure what a corollary to that old adage would be, but today goes down in the books.  The blog broke a few records. 

Full Steam

Total Black: $4,520,10
Total Red: $240,969.50

Ahead!  And tally ho.  Shiver me timbers too.  And all that other jazz.  It’s time to get situated and settled in at my new home.  Time to get “Born again Cruzan” as the bumper stickers here say. 

Financial Loneliness

Total Black: $536.54
Total Red: $230,773.68

One common response from a number of commenters, readers, and other regular viewers—more so of late than previously—has been to formulate a budget or a come up with a plan of spending.  I’m not, on principle, adverse to the advice.  I understand the need to plan and budget accordingly.  And I can own that I have let myself go a bit these past two weeks, especially as opportunities to socialize surfaced through the theatre gig.  But there’s always a way to tighten our financial belts.  But as I got to thinking about planning and budgets, and started writing this post, something entirely different surfaced.  Something unexpected but vital to getting my spending under control.

Serenity, Courage, and Wisdom

Total Black: $75.67
Total Red: $230,649.18

I started writing a bit of today’s entry from the temp job, typing it in a word document shrunk to about two inches by two inches, neatly disguised as a box on CNN’s website.  Not that it would have mattered since the document reviewing software had frozen up on us and we were left with nothing to do.  But I didn’t want my true identity discovered.  Overall, I’m actually enjoying this experience.  Perhaps it’s odd, but so far the contract attorney work seems fun.  Well . . . I take that back.  The people seem fun.  Correction: some of the people are fun.  And that makes the work tolerable.  We’ve got an interesting mix of people and the law firm is really welcoming and laid-back.  That said though, a senior associate insisted that we’re not here to just “chill and bill.”  And that’s a valid point.  As attorneys we all have ethical obligations to uphold.

Fiftieth Post

Total Black: $111.42
Total Red: $230,649.18

Not sure how total red jumped $2,305.97 in one day.  That’s a bit odd and disturbing if accurate.  Not even Bank of America could come up with that many fees.  I hope that’s some error in Bank of America’s My Portfolio software.

As I was walking home from the temp job this evening, I started thinking that perhaps I could use upcoming milestone posts as marker points where I take the temperature of my progress with this project.  I figured that every fifty or so posts would work.  Then I sat down to write today’s entry I noticed that it’s already my fiftieth.  So it is.  Regular readers of the blog know that on the tenth of each month I give my financial report; Day of Assessment and Second Day of Assessment chronicled that progress already.  So I figure that instead I’ll use these quinquagenary markers to gauge my personal feelings about the blog.

Doing That Hustle

Total Black: $40.32
Total Red: $228,013.71

So today was my first day as a true contract attorney.  And now I know why the temp attorney world is seen the way it is.  We had an orientation yesterday at the firm and not more than ten seconds after the associate left the room were the temp attorneys chatting, talking, laughing, and doing everything but looking through the material we were asked to review.  I felt like I was back in fifth grade when the teacher would step out of the room.  I was practically expecting one of the associates to reach a hand in and flick the lights on and off to tell us to be quiet.  Even in grade school I was the one who wanted to sit quietly and do my work.  Of course, not everyone goofed off.  But many did.  Today we started reviewing the documents.  Let’s hope I don’t scar my tongue from biting it throughout the next two months or so. 

Debt Most Physical

Total Black: $115.56
Total Red: $228,013.71

CNN’s Jennie Brag ran a story today called “Digging Out From $80,000 in Debt” about a woman, Dawn Warfield, in Saratoga Springs, New York who has been crippled by her debt from seventeen credit cards.  And I thought four credit cards and $27,000 in debt is a lot.  Warfield observed that “when you have a lot of debt, it’s not just financial, but it’s emotional, you know, even physical . . . .  You think about it all the time.”  It’s true.  In prior posts like Positive Energy, Feelings and Finances, and An Emotional Enema I touched on the emotional and social strains caused by my debt, but for some reason I’ve been reluctant to address the physical aspects of it.  I danced around it in Getting Out of the Quicksand but didn’t really dive right in.  I guess it’s time.