Hrm, and on top of everything else, my ex-husband has lawyered up regarding some revisions we were going to make to our marital separation agreement.
Well, at least my life is interesting.
Brother, can you spare a few thousand dollars?
24 February 2011
22 February 2011
Low income stress
Seriously, I'm like a deer in the headlights. Since when can a lawyer not get enough paying work to pay the most basic of monthly bills?
Having this bare, bare trickle of an income is on my mind constantly. I have a lot of safety-net help from friends and family, so my bills are paid and my groceries are bought and my daughter has new clothes and dentist appointments. But I don't know how actual poor people do it. I wake up stressed; I worry while I apply for lawyering and non-lawyering jobs, run errands, and get my daughter to and from school; I worry while I do the daily housework chores and get ready for bed; and then I try to fall asleep, stressed because another day went by with zero acknowledgments or call-backs for work.
I've been without any real income since 2006. In the past four years, the only new clothes I've bought for myself have been one pair of sneakers, three business casual tops, and two interview-caliber suits. It's pretty damned bourgeois to complain about it, but christ, I'd like to get a new-to-me winter parka sometime, or go all girly on that Zappos website and get some Frye boots, or businesswear pumps that aren't seven years out of style. I grew up solidly middle class. I don't mind buying used -- there are very good environmental reasons, as well as obvious fiscal reasons to do so -- but new things sure are nice.
It's a petty complaint, but it's something that goes toward my self-image anyway. I don't like dressing shabby, even if I'm only running errands or hanging with friends in a casual environment. Though I know the brands, styles, and sizes that fit me correctly, second-hand clothes don't ever fit quite as well as new clothes. Feeling sloppy all the time, every day grinds me down. Maybe it's the last piece of Southern American culture that still sticks with me; I never did feel right wearing athletic shoes for anything but athletics.
And then there's the sinking feeling I get when I find an unrepairable hole in a pair of trousers, or a scratch on the vamp of a shoe that won't rub out with polishing. "Rats," I think; "I thought I'd be able to get another year out of these." On bad days I try to remember how much I paid for the item, how long ago I bought it, how many times I figure I've worn it, and amortize the cost. On better days, I amuse myself by figuring that I bought the shoes with the damaged vamp in 1994, so adjusting the numbers for inflation would probably be significant.
But otherwise it's a daily, constant source of stress. How do moms without any help get through not having any income? Or health insurance for treating ulcers? Antacid tablets are cheap, at least.
Having this bare, bare trickle of an income is on my mind constantly. I have a lot of safety-net help from friends and family, so my bills are paid and my groceries are bought and my daughter has new clothes and dentist appointments. But I don't know how actual poor people do it. I wake up stressed; I worry while I apply for lawyering and non-lawyering jobs, run errands, and get my daughter to and from school; I worry while I do the daily housework chores and get ready for bed; and then I try to fall asleep, stressed because another day went by with zero acknowledgments or call-backs for work.
I've been without any real income since 2006. In the past four years, the only new clothes I've bought for myself have been one pair of sneakers, three business casual tops, and two interview-caliber suits. It's pretty damned bourgeois to complain about it, but christ, I'd like to get a new-to-me winter parka sometime, or go all girly on that Zappos website and get some Frye boots, or businesswear pumps that aren't seven years out of style. I grew up solidly middle class. I don't mind buying used -- there are very good environmental reasons, as well as obvious fiscal reasons to do so -- but new things sure are nice.
It's a petty complaint, but it's something that goes toward my self-image anyway. I don't like dressing shabby, even if I'm only running errands or hanging with friends in a casual environment. Though I know the brands, styles, and sizes that fit me correctly, second-hand clothes don't ever fit quite as well as new clothes. Feeling sloppy all the time, every day grinds me down. Maybe it's the last piece of Southern American culture that still sticks with me; I never did feel right wearing athletic shoes for anything but athletics.
And then there's the sinking feeling I get when I find an unrepairable hole in a pair of trousers, or a scratch on the vamp of a shoe that won't rub out with polishing. "Rats," I think; "I thought I'd be able to get another year out of these." On bad days I try to remember how much I paid for the item, how long ago I bought it, how many times I figure I've worn it, and amortize the cost. On better days, I amuse myself by figuring that I bought the shoes with the damaged vamp in 1994, so adjusting the numbers for inflation would probably be significant.
But otherwise it's a daily, constant source of stress. How do moms without any help get through not having any income? Or health insurance for treating ulcers? Antacid tablets are cheap, at least.
Light bloggery whinery
Kinda taking a break from blogging. The political news is awful, local news isn't much better, and I've been spending weekends "afk" enjoying some movies, plays, live music, and so on. Last night's snow made it a 4-day weekend for my daughter, so we've run errands the past few days rather than hang out on the computer. So, unlike some other blogger blowhards, I've been taking a break since I don't have much to say.
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Bisy backson. Off to points unknown lately, from north Wilmington to darkest Kensington to, um, Harrisburg.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Bisy backson. Off to points unknown lately, from north Wilmington to darkest Kensington to, um, Harrisburg.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
17 February 2011
Worst "fellowship" opportunity ever: Philadephia courts edition
So the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (trial-level court in Pennsylvania) is offering a "fellowship" program to 2009 and 2010 law grads from Drexel, Penn, and Temple. The deal is that you do law clerking work for 20 hours a week, and in return you get . . . nothing. No pay, and no real assurance of a job anywhere in the court system afterward. The application materials don't even say how long the fellowship is supposed to last.
What if the judges threw a party but no one came? The original deadline for applications was this past Monday the 14th. It's been extended to 20 March, which indicates to me that I'm not the only person calling bullshit on this (1) no pay thing, and the (2) risk that this would be worse than an actual employment gap on a resume. Meaning, in a profession where you need to keep your doc review gigs off your resume or else BigLaw won't hire you, do you think this kind of unpaid fellowship will look much better? To the contrary, I bet it'll raise the same kind of "why couldn't you get a real job?" red flag that temp work raises -- even though that flag is ridiculous, and we all know it, because even very, very high performing students who graduated with me are stuck doing personal-injury grunt work (or doc review) now, since their 2L summer associateships didn't turn into offers.
Thirty-odd Philadelphia judges are looking for 40-odd "fellows." For some reason, they aren't looking for grads from Rutgers-Camden, Villanova, or Widener. I don't know why not. This "fellowship" looks like a 1L summer clerkship to me -- are they saying that these schools' grads aren't up to the work of a mid-performing law student who didn't score a summer post at Philly BigLaw? Or did their career offices call bullshit on the "opportunity," too?
What if the judges threw a party but no one came? The original deadline for applications was this past Monday the 14th. It's been extended to 20 March, which indicates to me that I'm not the only person calling bullshit on this (1) no pay thing, and the (2) risk that this would be worse than an actual employment gap on a resume. Meaning, in a profession where you need to keep your doc review gigs off your resume or else BigLaw won't hire you, do you think this kind of unpaid fellowship will look much better? To the contrary, I bet it'll raise the same kind of "why couldn't you get a real job?" red flag that temp work raises -- even though that flag is ridiculous, and we all know it, because even very, very high performing students who graduated with me are stuck doing personal-injury grunt work (or doc review) now, since their 2L summer associateships didn't turn into offers.
Thirty-odd Philadelphia judges are looking for 40-odd "fellows." For some reason, they aren't looking for grads from Rutgers-Camden, Villanova, or Widener. I don't know why not. This "fellowship" looks like a 1L summer clerkship to me -- are they saying that these schools' grads aren't up to the work of a mid-performing law student who didn't score a summer post at Philly BigLaw? Or did their career offices call bullshit on the "opportunity," too?
15 February 2011
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Phew! I made it through another Valentine's Day without getting engaged. (But heartiest congratulations to the three couples who have gotten engaged in the past year!)
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Phew! I made it through another Valentine's Day without getting engaged. (But heartiest congratulations to the three couples who have gotten engaged in the past year!)
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
08 February 2011
Villanova Law admits lying about admitted students' academic credentials
So the big news in local law schools today is that Villanova Law, formerly led by a dean who was cheating on his wife by patronizing a prostitution ring in Chester County, has admitted lying about its admitted students' academic credentials:
Villanova University said Monday that its law school had inflated grade point averages and other admissions data, which figure into a school's national rankings, for an unspecified number of years before 2010.The lies include false figures for incoming students' GPAs and LSAT scores. The school says that the false data -- which they're calling "inaccurate" and "inflated," as opposed to "fake" -- was released during the leadership of that previous dean:
The university said it had launched an internal investigation into the matter.
The falsified data appear to have occurred under the administration of Mark Sargent, the former dean of the Villanova law school. Sargent stepped down in June 2009 amid disclosures that he had been cooperating with police in a Kennett Square prostitution investigation. Sargent was one of two customers who provided information to police that resulted in a no-contest plea by the man running the ring. Sargent was not charged.The school pinky-swears that data released about the current first-year class is absolutely truthful for reals. After all, the school has "a tradition of respect for human dignity" that "inspires [the school] to provide a professional education that emphasizes honesty, integrity and responsibility."
Free birth control for women improves women's health
From the NYT, Science:
Second, no one is trying to "mandate" birth control for anyone, as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is implying here. In fact, the "mandate" is for health insurance companies to cover birth control in a woman's basic plan, without charging extra fees in the form of co-pays or increased rates or deductibles for women who just happen to be in their childbearing years. This is because birth control is an integral part of women's preventive health care. The speaker for the bishops here is misleading her audience by deliberately twisting both the content of the health insurance law and the position of the ACOG.
Women are not fully in control of their health, lives, and destinies unless they can control their reproduction. When women do not have a full say in when and how often they bring a pregnancy to term, they cannot fully realize their potential. The ACOG recognizes this. The Catholic church -- and anyone else who would deny that family planning is preventive health care -- does not.
[C]ontraceptives fit any reasonable definition of preventive health care because they avert[] unintended pregnancies and allow[] women to control the timing, number and spacing of births. This, in turn, improves maternal and child health by reducing infant mortality, complications of pregnancy and even birth defects[.]Church:
Pregnancy is not a disease to be prevented, nor is fertility a pathological condition[. ...] So birth control is not preventive care, and it should not be mandated.One, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists did not call pregnancy a disease. What pregnancy does is to increase health risks. Pregnancy, as compared to non-pregnancy, is a condition with an increased risk of illness, permanent disability, and death. Preventing pregnancy (or, of course, terminating a pregnancy) prevents (or ends) those risks.
Second, no one is trying to "mandate" birth control for anyone, as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is implying here. In fact, the "mandate" is for health insurance companies to cover birth control in a woman's basic plan, without charging extra fees in the form of co-pays or increased rates or deductibles for women who just happen to be in their childbearing years. This is because birth control is an integral part of women's preventive health care. The speaker for the bishops here is misleading her audience by deliberately twisting both the content of the health insurance law and the position of the ACOG.
Women are not fully in control of their health, lives, and destinies unless they can control their reproduction. When women do not have a full say in when and how often they bring a pregnancy to term, they cannot fully realize their potential. The ACOG recognizes this. The Catholic church -- and anyone else who would deny that family planning is preventive health care -- does not.
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: The Superbowl is done, so do you know what time it is? That's right -- just two and a half short weeks until the Phils' spring training opener!
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: The Superbowl is done, so do you know what time it is? That's right -- just two and a half short weeks until the Phils' spring training opener!
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
01 February 2011
SCOTUS denies Orly Taitz really for real this time
News from 1 First Street: The Supreme Court has denied, per curiam and without any comment, Orly Taitz "Esq."'s petition for writ of certiorari (PDF, see page 6). You'll recall that in October, 2009, Judge Clay Land of the Middle District of Georgia assessed a $20,000 Rule 11 sanction against Taitz for egregiously dilatory and abusive conduct in litigation. Taitz has petitioned the Supreme Court repeatedly for relief, and now she's finally exhausted all of her appeals.
But just in case you were thinking, "Oh, yay! There's that, then. We're done," Taitz has vowed to the press that she "will go to an international court [and] will be filing a proper complaint with the Committee of the Judiciary with the U.S. House" [sic]. I didn't have any luck tying Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, to any birther statements of his own. Will Taitz find him persuadable? What about the other Republicans on the committee?
But just in case you were thinking, "Oh, yay! There's that, then. We're done," Taitz has vowed to the press that she "will go to an international court [and] will be filing a proper complaint with the Committee of the Judiciary with the U.S. House" [sic]. I didn't have any luck tying Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), the chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, to any birther statements of his own. Will Taitz find him persuadable? What about the other Republicans on the committee?
Driberally tonight
Drinking Liberally is a weekly social gathering where progressives talk politics and get to know one another. In Center City Philadelphia, we meet on Tuesday nights at José Pistola's upstairs bar, where there are drink specials from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And the more we tip the bartender, the more frequently he hands out free dishes of chips and dips. I hope to see you there!
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Watching the Super Bowl this Sunday could kill you. So why not go shooting instead? Shooting Liberally Philadelphia will be visiting the range at the Philadelphia Archery & Gun Club on Sunday 6 February at noon. See the event listing on Facebook for more information or to sign up.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
José Pistola's is at 263 South 15th Street (15th and Spruce) in Center City, near the Kimmel Center and the Academy of Music. There's a parking garage across the street, but as filthy liberal hippies naturally we suggest public transit; both SEPTA and PATCO will get you there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
This week's topic: Watching the Super Bowl this Sunday could kill you. So why not go shooting instead? Shooting Liberally Philadelphia will be visiting the range at the Philadelphia Archery & Gun Club on Sunday 6 February at noon. See the event listing on Facebook for more information or to sign up.
"Come for the beer, stay for the check"
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