(no subject)

Yesterday I talked to a career counselor from school - a former lawyer from MD who could talk about MD bar exam to my joy. She told me the average starting salary for a lawyer out of GMU Law is 35-55k. I just turned down a job that paid $88,369 to start at 40 hs/wk. Why am I in law school again? The big firms pay double that, but you also work double hours to get that. The more I study, the more I find the government might be a better fit for me - meaning there is no need for law at all. The average starting government salary for lawyers is 48k (more than the average for GMU? That can't be right). The average for big firms is about 110k, hitting an average of 200k after a few years. I might be stuck where I am, but I'm not unhappy about that. I think I should stop comparing myself and my salary, be happy with what I have. Good advice, but everything I do is a comparison to someone else. Why else would I go to school, invest, box, lift - all the things that involve rank?

I'm a little let down, remembering my friend who was making about 150k based on her value from OFCCP (DoL) in a big firm where no one with her school and gpa would ever be picked up. Her life sucked, sucked royally, for that 150k at first - but then she had it down to 50-60 hours a week. I've talked to some people over there, and the OFCCP has been neutered by the current administration. My vote is to eliminate them entirely. That doesn't help me market my experience.

Kel was talking about drinking in her LJ, and I started to comment that last night I came home and had a drink for no reason but to feel that feeling. Seemed rude to comment so I stopped. Seemed rude not to so I wrote this.

Today I just wanted to smack myself over things that are bothering me - really stupid, trifflin (don't call my tretto ass trifflin'), pointless things. I realize I'm thinking about them and laugh it off, but then they return. So I'm wondering with all that is going on in my life why I let this crap kill any brain time. I wonder if the isolation and all work no play is the problem, but I'm not sure it is. "After all, work is going great and I really nailed it in Admin law!" I think the only positive things I have to reflect on are work related or memories that are years old. I need a life. I'm not sure that if I had a life the little things wouldn't haunt me. It's hard not to focus on the negative.

I talk about myself a lot as though these things were important but they're not. I'm not.

EDIT - I think I got spam from Midnight: "Wanda Willy SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT: Plumpy ladies who love pies dcvicar" Thu 03/24 8k

(no subject)

A guy was just bragging in class that he won the pool. Turns out he was the closest in his group to predicting to when Schiavo died. You can tell how annoying someone is right away by whether or not they are using the name "Terri" as though this was someone they ever knew.

Living will: do you know most states do not necessarily follow it? Doctors, the state law, and your family members can all override your living will. You too could be a potato battle even if you do write the damn thing. The right to life is forced on you whether you like it or not. I am not sure, but I think MD might be the only state that actually gives the living will full legal force.

The clerical staff all have fancy signatures and flowery backgrounds in their emails. All the educated high-ranking officials have plain backgrounds and simple signatures. There is an inverse relationship between style and substance on the internet.