Briefly; But Not Too Briefly in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

(1) Yesterday, while I was at work… my wife and her parents enjoyed Des Moines. Shopping, Botanical Center, Restaurants. It was great for all three of them. I had a very rough day and came home 110% exhausted. The four of us went out to eat and… it was great. I felt rejuvenated, Wife seemed happy and we came home and I had some decent (but not straight through the night) sleep.

Conclusion: When Wife has a day off and doesn’t spend it in the house doing nothing; she is the best version of herself. A version that can succeed and accomplish and live a healthy life. But when she has to work or spends an entire day off at home stewing about how much she hates life… she is the version of herself that makes everything in our lives painful. More reason, I suppose, that proves that there is little I can do for her. Because I can’t “take care of her days off” for her… she has to decide what to do on those days for herself. And I can’t “fix work” for her… and she’s had years and years to try to do that one for herself. So… good news/bad news.

(2) Even though today is my Ames day, I wanted to go by the DM Office this morning to grab a few things. I slept in a full hour this morning, got to the office lazily, and a little after 8:00 I was still the first person in that building (had to unlock and everything). Hell, by the time I had gathered everything, cleaned the conference room area, and packed up… I was still the only person in the office.

(3) Ames Day promises to be… weak. I have a Chinese Client with whom I cannot communicate coming in at 10. A Chinese client with whom I cannot communicate coming in at 1:30. A Brazilian Client with whom I can communicate coming in at 2:30. And then I have to race back to DM to speak with Chinese Boss as she and White Boss go to New Orleans for the rest of the week. So… If I’m really lucky… and really creative… I can probably get a solid 4 hours of billable work in today. Maybe.

I need (I think) four things to really make this job work in the next several months.
(1) An office of my own. Not an office BUILDING of my own… but in DM, I work in the Conference Room. In Ames, I work in Chinese Boss’ office. Even a cubicle or something would be preferable. An area whose Office Supplies, File Structures, etc were developed by me to serve my interests. Instead of… working in “borrowed spaces” all the time.
(2) I need to figure out (somehow) Immigration Law. I mean, Chinese Boss is… unreasonable about it; but she isn’t entirely wrong. Chinese Boss thinks I should pick it up “no problem” whereas to every White Natural Born United States Attorney… Immigration Law is as complicated as Tax Law… worse, possibly, because Immigration Law involves Tax Law. So… while “Why you not good?” is unreasonable… I do need to get better.
(3) I need to (somehow) increase my own client load. Especially as I am successfully closing cases left and right and down to 8 cases in total. Seriously. I used to juggle 90 cases on salary and get bored that there was nothing to do. I now have 8 cases and am required to have billable hours. I need to get my own clients.
(4) Money Call me greedy (and you can because it is true) but… money means a lot. And clearly it means a lot to my wife as our current bank account is incredibly reasonable and yet she is still concerned. And.. hell, the truth is…if you want to fix anything or help anyone in this world… it involves money. So… while the Love of Money is The Root of All Evil… this is an evil fucking world. And everything everything takes money.

Oh… here’s a Post Script: Grumph, Growl, and Gr.
Chinese Boss is flustered as she is leaving soon. She wants to get as many things done as possible. Knowing I was going to be in Ames today, she set up a bunch of meetings with Chinese Clients. Clients I can’t talk to. She also didn’t send me up with any information. So… when I text her “What is up with this case?” Since I can’t bloody get the information from the non-English speaking client.... and she texts me back “X, Y, Z. Like I said earlier.” It takes a lot for me to not respond with some asshole comment. Of course, if she mentions anything tonight… I won’t hold back. But seriously. (1) I can’t speak Chinese. (2) You didn’t have any of the Chinese Speaking assistants (we have 2) available in Ames for me today. (3) You set up 3 meetings and gave me 1 client folder. Do you really think “Like I said earlier” is a strong professional response to asking you about shit that you never spoke with me about? Gr, Grumph, Growl.