In Medias Res . . . Again

Total Black: $585.61
Total Red: $228,964.81

I’ve reached the middle of the road.  Six months into this journey.  And along the way I became an art seller, a contract attorney, and an usher off-Broadway.  I’ve participated in a medical experiment, worked at bit as a solo practitioner, and sold many of my belongings and reduced quite a few expenses.  But it’s not been enough.

Buy Me a Beer?

Total Black: $310.07
Total Red: $228,363.23

So . . . you wanna buy me a beer?  How about it?  You choose: domestic or import, tap or bottle.  I’ll be sure to toast your good health as I drink it down. Go ahead.  Click on the glass.  You know you want to.

Out of the Box

Total Black: $901.25 ($500 of which is still for an un-cashed check)
Total Red: $228.069.39

We don’t fall deeply into debt solely on our own.  We have gentle encouragement all along the way—from our peers and their pressure, from the Joneses and their upkeep, from the television and its ads. At this time last year, I couldn’t have been more in the box than if Charlotte Perkins Gillman herself plastered me to the walls. I was earning $160,000 a year working for one of the largest law firms, and one of the most prestigious law firms, in the world.  I was laid-off after only two years with the firm and with more debt than when I started and it just keeps growing.  In retrospect, I, like many others in my shoes, just assumed there’d be a few more good years at the firm before the curtain fell on that stage of our careers.  But what good is retrospect when dealing with times like these?  Not many have seen such times, and frankly a lot of us still aren’t acting like things are that bad—when Starbucks goes under, you’ll know we hit the iceberg!  But I suppose that’s a conversation for another day.

Today—all the creative ways I’ve come up with so far to start thinking outside the box and diversify and increase income streams.

In Medias Res

While the beginning is a very good place to start, here it doesn’t seem to fit somehow.  My back-story is long and can be told another day.  And besides…no one’s seen this yet.  So really I’m just writing for myself right now.  But yes . . . this is my first ever blog entry.  So, expediting the formalities, here’s the main adjectives that one might employ in describing me: Male / 33 years-old / White / Gay / Adopted / Gemini / Lawyer / raised Byzantine Catholic / Penn State alum / Howard alum . . . and, of course, Laid-Off.  But I suppose the blog title already aptly notes that.

At the outset, I must confess that I just saw Julie & Julia yesterday.  I was probably the only person in the theatre who got stressed out by that movie.  And it stuck with me, so I started examining the origins of that gnawing feeling.  That prompted this.

In a sense, I am Julie: my apartment overflows with piles of partially-read books stacked for later, stacks of newspapers waiting for one of these days, days gone by with bills lying opened but unpaid, opened boxes not yet put away.  Let’s just say I have a bit of trouble finishing what I start.  But cluttered is not dirty.  I am a bit of a clean freak, that much I know, especially upon returning to my apartment after two weeks with a renter staying there.  I’ve heard a stereotype of  New Yorkers that they come across stylish, fashionable, and a cut-above-the-rest, but yet their apartments are nasty, dirty, and gross.  But I digress (and more on the renter later).  At any rate, since I’m great at starting things, I figured I’d start this blog.  And here’s what it’ll take to finish it.