Monday 17 in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

Good morning all! I hope everyone had good weekends and, for those that worship, excellent Easters. My weekend was… rather full, sadly. Omaha on Saturday and Easter all Sunday so… really not relaxing or restful.

Though last night I did have a hell of a dream. Very sexual. Would love to share but again, things of that nature seem best shared while not at work. Hopefully, we’re getting closer to all that. As Wife has today off and I had to be in the office far earlier than normal… I went to bed early last night while she stayed up. When I woke this morning, the kitchen looked good and I do believe we really only have one room and a few boxes left to take care of. Or at least, that is my hope.

I was instructed to come in to work aggressively early today as we have arraignments in Iowa City; a 2 hour drive away. It made sense to be early. Arrive at 7 then take off so that we’re not late. But much like what happens in general around here? I seem to be waiting for something. In this instance, I am waiting on my bosses to arrive but… as a general rule… that is one of the reasons why I left Tiny Town. In Prosecution, especially in that town, my days would largely be me showing up and sitting in an office with literally nothing to do. Got very boring and certainly wasn’t making me a better attorney nor was it very stimulating. Of course, for the work, it was great pay… but I don’t want to turn 40 and realize that I still have no idea what I’m doing in my profession. So that is why it was clearly the best time to change to something more varied. But at the same time… I do worry about money and knowing how to do things and such. And in any job there will be sitting around and not doing anything… and after a busy period, sitting around and not doing anything can be SUPER important. But… I’m ready to be more. To do more. Maybe not ready in that I know anything. But ready in that… I graduated from law school in 2014… in 2017, it is about time that I actually did this lawyer thing.

Which brings me to… where I am right now.
White Boss has a Custody Meeting at 2:00. Chinese Boss wants me to do a research assignment. Chinese Assistant wants me to help with a translation. I want to call the prosecutor on my defense case.
It is presently 1:30 p.m.
White Boss isn’t here. Not sure if he’ll want me for the Custody Meeting. Not sure where that custody meeting is going to be.
Chinese Boss isn’t here. She said she would need to send me an e-mail about the research request before I got started on it.
Chinese Assistant needs to talk to Chinese Boss before sending me the translations to work on.
I make a 5 minute phone call; that in my world counts as $20 of time, just to discover that yes… if the client wants to plead, the minimums are on offer. Which makes me think… why hasn’t this kid plead already?
So… yeah.
That is where I am with my day. Which, I hate to admit, makes me feel… grump. In two weeks, I’ve earned 21.8 billable hours. So… putting in 10 days of at least 6 hours a day (usually more)… I’ve earned 2.18 hours a day. In my old job? That would be about $35 worth of work… 2.18 hours. But in my old job, I wasn’t on billable hours; I was on Government. So… I would have actually been paid $500 for my work. Now, again, this is all from the old system… my old job’s financials… but just as an example… what would have been $500 is now (at best) $35. I acknowledge that it may not be like this forever. In fact, it would be rare if it were like this forever. And I acknowledge that being back in DM is good for me and Wife and my family. This is, in many ways, eternally better than Tiny Town. But in Tiny Town, I had more free time. In Tiny Town, I had more money. In Tiny Town, if I had nothing to do, I didn’t have to care. Everything has a price. The price of actually getting a job after law school was Tiny Town. The price of leaving Tiny Town is this. I just hope the price I’m paying isn’t a steep one. Not out of greed or pride; but because it is time that I start doing this whole lawyer thing. It is time I help clients. It is time I earn for this firm.

Or… I suppose… if I were to be far more honest and far more self-reflective… it is time that I do something, anything, of value with my life.