Happy People

Don't watch a lot of TV. I thought that rather interesting; I'm usually too busy to watch TV because I'm doing other things.

I do know some people who pay far too much attention to what's on TV, to the extent that they plan their schedules around the TV schedule. I tend to plan on watching something and forget all about it. Until two or three days after it aired.

When I graduated from college, I ended up gradually watching talk shows; first I clicked on by, but after awhile would watch until I learned the topic. Eventually I'd watch until the next commercial. When it got to the point that, out of sheer boredom, I watched the entire show, I realized how desperately I needed a job. Fortunately, shortly thereafter, I got a job.

I'd like to say I haven't watched TV since, but that simply isn't true.

Thankful

Now I truly have something to be thankful for, especially with the market downturn and huge layoffs going on. I'm very happy to have a job to go to though it's difficult to be excited after all this time.

I need this to be a good place for me, so I can have some stability in my life.

Job!

They finally called back on Wed. with their response to my counter-offer, which took nearly forever. I've been dying waiting to get this over with so I can hopefully get out of the world of document review.

I start in two weeks. I'm pretty excited about starting and shortly thereafter getting holiday pay. There's a waiting period before I can take vacation time, but sick time and short-term disability are available if necessary. I'm not so worried about the vacation time because there are several holidays coming up and there's a floating holiday that I should be able to use if I need to.

I'm particularly looking forward to healthcare benefits. Real heathcare, dental and vision care. That actually covers something.

Thanksgiving

Economizing

With the economic downturn, people are talking about economizing. Everyone has a different idea of how to do so.

It's good to know that I'm not alone either in economizing or in strange manifestations thereof; I have decided not to pay more than a certain price for unnecessary items, like Lipton White Tea with Raspberry. I like it but don't need it, therefore I can reduce my consumption and only buy it when it's on sale. Water and hot tea get boring so I need options.

While I pay more attention to sales and coupons, it seems counterproductive to me to run around looking for prices at stores; I stick with my same tried and true store for most things, just paying attention to coupons and what's on sale. My shopping cart never has anything too exciting in it, usually the same items, week after week.

Confidentiality Erosion

Confidentiality seems to be eroding with all the different services encouraging people to remain in constant communication. Work/home lines are blurred as people have devices with them and are in steady communication, whether by text, twitter or social networking site, paying no attention as they leave home or work to whether their subject matter also transitions.

I'm not in a situation in which I have a texting device, and in fact, for all my phone envy, I use it as an actual phone only. I hope to keep my phone going for another year or so, failing that, will hope that my backup phone will work for me for a good, long time.

Because I don't text, I don't twitter. I also don't myspace, facebook or yaari, though I'm on Linked In. I have job description and accomplishments in my profile and post generally what I'm doing, but don't think I cross the confidentiality line by any stretch of the imagination.

I'll never be the one to get busted on You Tube; partly because I don't commit crimes, film myself or be filmed acting stupidly; these days, the newest category of which I've heard is medical school applicants whose Facebook photos are to their detriment.

My project periodically hammers home the idea of confidentiality to the utmost degree, which is fine as I've never considered mentioning more than just generally the type of law covered in the case. And patent law covers a lot of ground so no way of knowing the real subject.

Statistics Class

If anyone remembers how excited I was to take a statistics class, worth masses of free CLE credits, the first semester is complete and I have been awarded my credits! I have nearly two months off until the beginning of second semester, so am quite excited about this!

While I'm happy to have the information, I'm also very happy to have only to show up and sit there in order to obtain credits.

Thankful

As we approach Thanksgiving, I'd like you all to know that I'm thankful that people read and comment on my blog; I'm always excited to see comments, even if I don't respond right away. I've been spending less time with my computer recently, I'm sure it feels neglected.

I'm also thankful to have had an income these several months; while I haven't paid off my targeted loan due to a few unexpected expenses along the way, I'm feeling more optimistic about the prospect of doing so. I'm going back on an austerity program for a few months; I have most of my Christmas shopping done and have a medical bill that needs some attention.

The project is still going on, but we're not sure how long it's going to last. Hopefully there's another one out there.

Networking While Volunteering

They say that you can still get a job in a bad economy, but it's more difficult; then again, they say you can't get a job around the holidays and that happens too.

I think the important thing is to pretend to still have hope, and talk to strangers. Seriously. I've had better luck getting useful information from complete strangers at CLE's and any other type of meeting possible than I have had with people I know or with well-meaning people at organized networking groups.

I've also been told that a good place to network is volunteering and actually know people who got jobs in their fields (other than law) by volunteering. I would think it could happen in law as well; I've been encouraged to volunteer for something in which I'm completely disinterested as a way of getting to know people and perhaps getting a job. Doing something that would be very unsuitable for me.

If you volunteer for something you believe in, you'll be in the best position; you're already working with a group with which you have common ground and have the opportunity to meet staff and to meet other volunteers who have values in common with you.

I've identified a couple of non-profits, in which I'm interested; however, this may not be a good time to do more than to volunteer. In the long run, it might help me to achieve my goals, but in the short run, I know it's going to help me learn more about organizations in which I'm interested and to increase my circle of acquaintances.

Born Again Transactor

I've become a born-again transactor, faithfully charging an item or two each month; only things I need and I think all such purchases thus far have been online. While debit cards have the Visa and Mastercard logo, my understanding is that they don't carry with them the same consumer protections as do credit cards. Each month I pay my small balance in full.

It's frightening to think that Credit Cards are going to be more difficult to come by; my intro to credit was during boom times, when they came to me, so it was easy and I was special. Not so easy now.

I can't find the article, but I recently saw something indicating that more people are using credit cards to pay their utility bills. I'm not surprised, but they're doing neither themselves nor their credit a favor; I know, I've done it for convenience before, but once you get out of balance and are struggling to get bills paid, the credit card makes it more difficult to get back on track. With all the jobs being cut, it's more important than ever not to accrue unnecessary consumer debt.

Shopping Meltdown

Even Target, my hometown discounter, has succumbed to the retail doldrums. It's entirely my fault; they used to get a large portion of my income, especially when they were owned by the former Daytons Department Stores. Daytons is no longer, and Target, well, Target is no longer the store of my childhood but instead has been redesigned as SuperTarget.

For anyone with a long-term view of the TwinCities area, SuperTarget is nothing but Holiday Village, without the massive sporting goods section. Holiday Village was a discount store with groceries and massive sporting goods (gone now, even from Wikipedia). The sporting goods portion is now Gander Mountain and the Holiday Gas Stations are the only entity remaining with the Holiday name.

Daytons and Target taught me to love using credit. I miss Daytons from an emotional standpoint, especially at this time of year. We used to go downtown the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas, to shop the sales. Now? No.

Lessons our Grandparents Learned from the Great Depression

Our grandparents and great-grandparents learned a lot about thrift during the Great Depression. Recently there have been articles in which they interview people who lived through the Depression. They're the people who wanted their children to have a better life; they bought tract housing in the 50's and tried to make sure their children had all the advantages. And so on, until we're all conditioned to beleive we should have what we want. Now. No matter what.

They themselves lived with great frugality, using what they had, saving money, paying cash. Re-using plastic containers from the deli or whipped topping, instead of buying Tupperware or Rubbermaid containers. My grandma washed out plastic sandwich bags for re-use. And saved tinfoil, which she washed for later use.

For most of us, our lifestyle is a world away from that. We buy new, all the time, on credit, and go out to eat. Unless we order takeout. Now we're in for a national reality check.

Because I've tried to cut back the last couple of years, I'm not sure what else I can do to change my habits. The real issue is whether I'm motivated to make additional changes in spending. I haven't been going out much, and when I do, it's for a low-cost happy hour or the chinese buffet. I don't need anything so don't go to the mall much; I go to the grocery store, occasionally to the big box discounter, to the drugstore and to the thriftstore. I'm trying to deplete my supply of unread books, but haven't been making too much progress lately.

Recently I had a coupon from Walgreen's e-mail for $5 off a purchase of $20 or more. There always seems to be something I need there, so that was a good deal; I've been paying more attention to their sales and am surprised at the random merchandise sold there.

Reducing grocery bills

One way people have reduced their grocery bill for the last several decades is to eat SPAM. My mom would occasionally cook SPAM and eggs when I was a kid. I haven't had it in years, but apparently it's boomtimes for the manufacturer thereof.

I've never been a big meat eater so eating less meat isn't much of a consideration; I sometimes go without so business as usual. People seem to be focusing more on classics like Hotdish (for those of you who aren't from the Midwest, you may know this under the more pretentious name of Casserole). The beauty of Hotdish is that the basic recipe can be adapted to use what you have.

While Tatortot Hotdish and Green Bean Hotdish are both classics, the main ingredients are: starch, meat and cream of something soup. Preferably Campbell's cream of something; chicken, celery, mushroom, whatever. Most of the time you use ground beef which is first browned and drained, then added to the rice, noodles or potato product and topped with cream of whatever soup.

One summer when I was in college, my roommate and I made hotdish every week and kept eating it until it was gone. We used some pretty wild ingredients too; water chestnuts aren't part of the traditional hotdish options but we liked them as an ingredient.

Hotdish is good winter food as it's filling but is also economical as the ingredients aren't terribly costly in comparison to other things.

Thrift

Thrift is back in the vocabulary, not only related to thrift stores. According to an article in my local paper, thrift actually means spending wisely. This is something we could all benefit from learning.

I'm still trying to make better choices, and have successfully brought lunch all but two days on my project; not bad for nearly four months! I've also decided that there are certain things I don't need, unless they're on sale; I love fresh pineapple but only on sale. There's plenty of other fruit out there.

I pay closer attention to the sales at my grocery store and have been paying attention to sales other places and coupons. While I'll never be one of the people whose groceries cost $10 a week due to coupon clipping, I'm satisfied that I'm taking advantage of sales, stocking up on non-perishables when they're on sale, buying meat on sale to freeze, so long as I have room in the freezer.

I once had a roommate who filled the freezer with Cinnabons so it was challenging to buy sensible things to freeze. I'm not in that situation any longer but currently my freezer is full, between sale meat and cooking large batches of food to freeze for lunch.

While I'm not able to save that much I'm above the 1.3% that people are generally at right now.

In this economy I feel fortunate to be working on a project that continues to get extended.

E-mail

Someone whose web-based e-mail is blocked in the workplace told me she forwards her home e-mail to her work e-mail.

I have problems with that on many levels; first, her department is sometimes involved in lawsuits in which her e-mail may be reviewed. Based on my document review experience; I know that anything may be captured and reviewed, depending on keywords. Second, she works for the government and in our state, anything that isn't restricted is presumed public. Meaning her e-mail, if for some reason it would contain a search term, may be public information.

Other than that? Generally, your work e-mail isn't completely private and may be accessed by the IT people for work-related reasons.

Bottom line? See if there's another way to get your information online. If that isn't possible, it may be time to review your cellphone options, obtain a data package and maybe get a new phone. But probably not since I'm the only one left who doesn't use their phone for anything but talking.

Offer!

I got the call yesterday, late afternoon with an offer. Because I have a friend in another state department, I expected it to be a low offer. I also know what I should expect to raise it to; and the person making the call made it clear that I was expected to make a counter-offer, by telling me he was sure I'd want to think about it over the weekend and give him a call back.

I was on the point of leaving for the day when he called, so that wasn't all bad. And he didn't make me sweat it out over the weekend.

Reference Check

They checked my references a few days ago. I heard from one reference, then contacted the others. Because it's an e-mail questionnaire, I have no idea whether they're checking both remaining candidates or just me. Hopefully just me!

My interest in anything else has gone completely downhill!

Sharing Information

Sharing information with others about free CLE's is one of the ways in which I learn about other free or cheap ones. Generally, I e-mail all the attorneys I know with information on CLE's as soon as I learn about them so people can plan ahead to attend.

Someone else told me about a CLE put on by the public defender's office that costs $25 so will pay for the handouts provided to attendees. I wasn't able to attend but it's good to know about these things. Even if I can't go, I send them to everyone else. You never know who's out there and in need of more credits. Especially in a crap economy.

More people seem to have been absorbed by new projects, but just a few weeks ago, a new batch of attorneys was sworn in. So there are more people out there in need of CLE's and projects. And no matter what they tell you about projects, there's no way of knowing if the case will settle.

One of my colleagues talked about a longer project, on which several young guys would go out to lunch every day and not worry about money. Then shortly before the end, they realized the money wasn't going to last forever and ended up bringing their lunches every day. It's a hard lesson to learn.

Holiday Spending

Holiday spending can sometimes wreak havoc on budgets. Early on I learned to go shopping the day after Christmas and buy paper, bows and ornaments for the next year. My grandma used to start Christmas shopping on December 26th. Holiday goods at 50% off.

My current tactic is to limit the number of people with whom I exchange gifts; there have been years I have felt obligated to give a gift to someone, and have resented it. Especially when mired under by debt. I worked in a small office a few years ago, and we planned to go out for a nice lunch and not worry about gift exchanges. Until one of the three said she had found the perfect gift for the other two of us. At that point, I felt I had to buy gifts for them so went out and bought something that they'd appreciate but was also inexpensive. That's right, vanilla lotion from Bath & Body Works. Someone had a bottle of it and the other two of us liked it, it was on sale, so perfect! Also a unisex scent.

Since then, I haven't been in a situation in which I've felt obligated to buy someone a gift and have pared down my gift list so it's minimal. I don't wait until November to buy gifts, but buy when I find them. That way, I find things people like and have most of my shopping taken care of by the time peak gift-buying season rolls around. At that point, all I need to do is set aside a few hours for wrapping.

Getting gifts out of the way early leaves more time and money for holiday activities, so there's less of a chance that I'll forego an activity because I haven't completed my holiday shopping. Or worse, be tempted to use a credit card for shopping.

Wrapping Paper

Wrapping paper and trim can get expensive too. I used to buy basic wrapping paper, say blue with gold stars and gold trim. That's good for nearly anything but Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day. Everyone knew which presents were from me because of the paper. I bought a bunch after Christmas one year, at 50% off, and was set for several years. I haven't done that in ages because my mom has the never-ending stash of wrapping paper and has solicited my assistance in depleting her supply. She has quite a bit of it, from a couple of trips to the department store after Christmas, my grandma's stash and a few trips to the Current warehouse store in Colorado. She isn't allowed to go back there for obvious reasons.

If her stash is without suitable paper for an occasion, I go to the Dollar store. The one near my house has a great selection of gift bags and wrapping paper, though I tend to buy gift bags when necessary, to avoid adding to my mom's stash. Just today I went to a birthday party for a two year old, and wrapped her gift in Hello Kitty paper from my mom's collection. The roll isn't gone, but has been depleted.

Dollar store products vary; I never remember which chain it belongs to, but I know the quality of the goods sold varies by type. Wrapping paper,tissue paper, trim, gift bags and greeting cards are fine but I wouldn't advise buying things like off-brand tape, or pens which appear there at the end of their shelf life.

Holiday Decorations

Holiday decorations are great! If you're in a place where you need or can afford them. Some things aren't too expensive or are on sale before the Holidays. I think you can buy outdoor decorations everywhere but at your local dry cleaner. That'll be next year. One tactic is to buy one item a year before the holiday and to buy more afterwards when they're half price. Of course, if you go to Walgreens or K-Mart, that can be the day of the holiday.

People like the Griswolds, who are very enthusiastic about their decorations will wait until after the holiday, but not when decorations are 50% off. They wait until after New Year's Day, when decorations are 90% off. And buy everything. I once worked for someone who decorated to excess every Christmas. He bought new lights at 90% off. Since then, more types of ornamentation have developed and I would expect that he also buys those when they're 90% off. Apparently stores don't pay so much for their merchandise because at one time someone who had managed a retail store told me that she only bought clothes when they were 90% off.

While I like a good deal, I wouldn't advocate waiting until things are 90% off because the only things remaining are the things nobody else wanted. I'd prefer to buy things I actually like that fit me. If I found something I liked and that fit, sure I'd buy it at 90% off. I just wouldn't start at that price point.

Art Gallery Openings - Cheap Night Out

Openings at art galleries can be a fun, cheap night out. I'm on a couple of mailing lists so find out about gallery events locally. I don't know what the art scene is like in other cities, but it's pretty casual here. Events are publicized and don't require formal invitations.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to an opening for a group show. They had a dj, some food and wine. We drank the wine, looked around, considered lifting a set of the Ikea wineglasses they were using and went to another party that had better food and alcohol. It was actually a party in the artists studio and he was auctioning off a painting to start a scholship fund somewhere.

It seems that there's always an art gallery, art crawl or art-a-whirl going on. Some of the galleries have great parties; next week Rogue Buddha's having a Christmas Halloween party. I mean, why not get it all taken care of at once? Some of the galleries have great parties, others aren't so great.

Falling off the Non-Shopping Wagon

I fell off the wagon a few days ago; I wanted to buy a birthday gift and happened upon Caswell-Massey products and bought a Freesia gift set. I don't know the person terribly well and prefer not to give generic gifts but had no other ideas. I have no idea whether or not she liked it, but she has it and may now do with it whatever she wants.

At the same time, I bought myself the Sandalwood gift set. I had no business buying it, especially as I had just bought soap at Dunlaoghaire's booth at the farmer's market. I love their Winter Mint soap but also bought a bar of Rosemary Mint; I'm currently using my Aura Rosemary Mint shampoo and conditioner, which were $3 apiece at Big Lots. I love Aveda's Rosemary Mint conditioner and decided that for the price it was worth trying Aura. I had no previous experience with their products but quite like them.

Student Loan Fugitives

While I find my student loans to be an albatross around my neck, and am not pleased that it appears they'll be with me approximately forever, I haven't reached the point of no return.

The most surprising thing to me is that people actually leave the country, thinking that they're going to make more money overseas and will be able to pay off their loans! Mine are dwindling, but not as fast as I'd like them to. My next payment is due Tuesday but fortunately it's a small one. It's much easier to pay the small amount of money than to pay the gigantic one; they take that one automatically so I have no margin for error, or the ability to mail the check on the due date when it arrives the day before payday. In the end, that's a small price to pay for a reduction in interest.

Lately I hear more people complaining that you can't get rid of student loan debt by filing bankruptcy; in this economy that might be helpful; however, we're paying for the actions of previous generations of students, who became doctors and lawyers, got jobs and just didn't feel the need to bother paying on their loans so filed for bankruptcy. The law was changed in the early 80's, I believe; I've heard stories about people fleeing to other states and getting away with non-payment of loans because the government hadn't caught up to them.

That doesn't make so much sense to me because presumably they have your social security number from the loan and from your workplace, as well as the ability to match them up and garnish your wages.

Several years ago, I met someone at a party who screened all calls to miss the creditor calls. They do tend to call once you stop paying your bills. This group of bills included student loans and I don't think the government gives up on that until you die. I was unimpressed with the thought that someone would take out loans with no intention of paying them back. I can't imagine!

Second Interview and request for references

I got a call this morning for an interview tomorrow morning. I had no idea there was going to be a second interview and figured they'd take longer than they thought. It seems like that's always how it is.
I was surprised at how quickly they want to see me. Less than 25 hours after calling.

Hopefully I'm the lone candidate standing and they just want to double-check.

Even Santa Doesn't have Job Security

According to recent information in The Washington Post, even Santa doesn't have job security and can be fired at the whim of mall management. Once it was publicized, there was a hue and cry and all the parents who wanted their children to see this Santa must've threatened to boycott the mall or something.

I don't know whether this is the real Santa or not; we went to the local Casino for Thanksgiving a few years ago, and the real Santa was there. I know for a fact it was the real Santa because I recognized him.

Short CLE's and Vote

A lot of my CLE's have been short; rather than a day or half day, they've been an hour or two. Lately 1.75 credits. Because I live in a small city, it's feasible for me to run to something at the beginning or end of a workday, or take a long lunch and attend a CLE. It's fast, easy, and they add up quickly.

My statistics workshop will get me more than half my credits, in 1.75 credit sessions approximately every other week. I also attended a panel presentation about voting and social justice at the downtown law school for the same amount of credits. Just under two hours isn't too long to sit and listen to something. The speakers were excellent. I wasn't sure what it would be like because I usually get angry when I attend social justice programs. There are so many types of continuing injustice in the world.

A couple of panelists expressed regret that John Edwards had to drop out of the presidential race for reasons of morality. He was the only candidate who discussed poverty.

I'm voting. I haven't decided one way or the other but am very happy that election season is nearly over and we'll have 20 minutes or so before anyone runs for office. Remember, no vote, no bitch! You may not be happy with the results of the election, but you only have the right to complain about it if you voted.

QC

This project has been different from others in many ways, not the least of which is QC. Rather than the typical project, in which a separate team does qc of 100% of everyone's work, on this project, they run search terms in the materials labeled as responsive, and narrow it down that way. Only then does someone look through the materials to make changes if necessary.

Another part of QC is running searches to look for documents reviewed before decisions were made that countermanded what we were initially told, so they can be re-tagged or bucketed in a manner appropriate to current decisions.

The people on QC are from the first and second group of reviewers, with a few exceptions, who have worked for this firm on previous projects and were requested back.

Information Shift

One maddening aspect about reviews is that the person in charge provides variable information as definitions become more refined and broad document requests become narrowed.

I was part of the first group of people on this project, three more groups have been added and there are rumors of yet another group of people to be added. We've had some attrition on the project, which is to be expected.

Since the beginning, we have gone through a lot of information between training, further information provided by the litigation team, and random questions that have been individually answered. Consistent information doesn't seem to have been provided, but, as is typical, we try to fill each other in once questions arise. We also provide the litigation team information on what they have previously told us. Sometimes it changes after that, sometimes not.

People seem to be more confused right now, mostly due to the volume of new or refined directives. We're actually more fuzzy in some areas than when we started, and the litigation team is busier than ever so not in a position to clarify things for us as quickly as we'd like.

That's why there's a QC process, right?

Shifting Priorities

The economic meltdown has forced people to re-think their priorities and worry about more than just the newest consumer goods. Sadly, people don't believe this can be sustained.

While I still have phone envy, I haven't broken down and bought a new one. My current phone no longer works on vibrate mode, so I'm putting it on a short ring at the lowest setting in order to hear it during the workday. At first I thought I listened to music too loud and wasn't hearing it buzz. Not so. I still want a new phone but need to collect all info from the old one and take it in as it's still under protection plan. This means I need to find both the old phone and its charger so I'm able to use the other phone I still have.

I know this is a small problem in the grand scheme of things; I'm doing well, with no debt save my ginormous student loans. The good thing about my loans is that every month they get a little smaller. I'm not making as much progress on eliminating the smallest of my private loans as I'd like, but the good thing is that it's shrinking.