"Lonely As I Am, Together We Cry"

I haven’t updated my blog in a while because [sigh...] once again, my husband and I have moved.

I wrote a few versions of this post, none of which seemed quite right because they sugarcoated things. To be brutally honest, right now I am just really sad.

To recap: we moved to the San Francisco Bay Area over five years ago and in that time, we managed to create an amazing life. We paid off all of our debt, we bought a house, we had good friends, and we could go to the beach whenever we wanted to.

Then, a few weeks ago, everything changed. My husband got a "great job opportunity" (read: the kiss of death for the unsuspecting spouse) that could pay off financially in a few years. At this point,

Letting Go

A few weeks ago, I was catching up with “Howard” (the colleague I interviewed in episodes 3 and 4 of my podcast) After chatting about what’s new in both of our lives, the conversation inevitably turned to the subject that has bonded the two of us ever since we met at the bus stop on that first day of 1L year: the practice of law.  

We both have strong feelings about it. 

Back in law school, Howard was the smart one

99 Homes and the Law School Bubble: We Got Emotional About JDs

My husband and I recently watched a movie called 99 Homes, starring Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire) and Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spiderman). It’s a thriller about the foreclosure crisis that happened just a few short years ago, and when I say thriller…

I mean thriller.

I went in thinking it would be more of a drama – the streaming service we used billed it as a thriller and I thought, “No way, what could be so thrilling about adjustable rate mortgages?” But there is a dread that hangs over every scene and a tension that pulls the viewer along, all the way to an ending that didn’t quite feel right (watch it and you’ll see what I mean).

In it, Michael Shannon plays Rick Carver, a real estate broker who represents banks that have

"So You Think You Can Tell"

What label describes you?

One thing that I still struggle with since leaving the law is the concept of identity. The main reason I went to law school to begin with was I didn’t know myself very well, which meant I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I’d always loved writing, but I didn’t think I could ever make money at that, so instead I listened to all the people I heard chattering in my political science and philosophy courses, and the professors who taught them. “Go to law school,” they all said. Or at least that’s what I heard.

During my last year of undergrad, everyone seemed to be taking the LSAT, so

Updates Coming Soon!

I know it's been a long time since I updated my blog, so I wanted to thank my readers - both of you - for reaching out and asking me to continue documenting my post-law journey. I'm in the process of writing some new posts and also bringing back the podcast! I'm just waiting for Amazon to send me a replacement mic since my old one bit the biscuits. I really want to provide quality content so if you have any suggestions or questions you'd like me to answer on the podcast or in a post, please let me know in the comments or via email at recovering.lawyer1@gmail.com.

In the meantime, feel free to revisit some of my favorite old posts:

Something Amazing Just Happened

The Invisible Woman

Talk to you soon...

I'm Still Here

The big picture

Wow, it’s truly depressing seeing my blog comments overrun by spam. Especially such bad spam. How is it possible that sex toys are out and psychics are in? I’ll never understand people.

Anyway, I don’t intend to abandon it. It’s just that my life has taken some interesting turns since we paid off our debt (including my massivelaw school loan). For one thing, we finally saved up enough for a down payment on a house (which means we’re officially on baby steps 4,5, and 6 of the Dave Ramsey plan) and bought one this past summer. Then I started taking some writing courses at night and trying to figure out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life now that my law career/nightmare is over. I’m still working in a somewhat unchallenging position, but I got a big raise last year so for now it’s working for me. 

One of the most satisfying things that happened in this last year is

One Crushing Tale and My Letter to a 0L

File this one under “there but for the grace of God go I.”  Here’s a profile of Andrew Carmichael, a “whiz kid” who racked up law school debt totaling $215,000.  Yep, that’s not a typo.  Two hundred fifteen large.  Just to put that in perspective – most people in this country could own a house outright for two hundred fifteen thousand dollars.  Meaning, Andrew took on law school debt that could have financed a home.  Meaning, he’s now looking at a student loan payment the size of a mortgage (to the tune of $2,756 per month).  Thank goodness mortgages are totally easy to pay off and have never gotten anyone into trouble.  

Spoiler alert: Andrew did get a great job after taking on all that law school debt, so it wasn’t a total waste.  He is now employed…as a computer programmer.  Yep, that’s also not a typo.  He is now a computer programmer.  I'm no expert, but last time I checked, a lot of computer programmers were scraping by without JD's.

"I'm Ten Times Richer Than My Big Brother Bob"

Ever since I quit my law job three years ago, I have noticed a disturbing trend.  People seem to have more respect for unemployed JD’s who are looking for attorney gigs than for gainfully employed JD’s who work in non-legal positions.  I’m not sure why.  Growing up, I got the impression that becoming a “productive member of society” included bringing home a paycheck and paying taxes.   

These days, though, people are preoccupied with labels and appearances.  A few weeks ago, I was at a birthday dinner for an older lawyer.  He got a little tipsy and asked me, “Do you ever wonder what a brilliant attorney you might be today if you just stuck with it?”  I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the more appropriate question was how much happier I’d be today had I quit sooner, or never went to law school to begin with.  The point is, this man didn’t care what I was doing with my life; he was only concerned with what I wasn’t doing – practicing law.  He couldn’t get over the fact that I gave up the "prestigious" title of Attorney.  In his mind, the title should be worth it, no matter how much I hated practicing law with every fiber of my being.  (His line of thinking betrays a deeper insecurity of many attorneys: Why don’t you want to be like me?)

Podcast Episode 4: "Money, Get Away"

I know the feeling, man...

Apologies for my absence!  I'm still alive and kickin', and I offer you the final installment of my interview with Howard.  Enjoy.  Also, I talk about what I've been up to the past few weeks (saving money, finding holes in my shoes, etc.), and another encounter I had with a 0L [sigh...].

The $1,400 Credit Score

Photo courtesy of stockfreeimages.com

Ever since my husband and I became debt-free back in March, I have been trying harder than ever to cut back on expenses so we can try to finish saving for our emergency fund.  So I decided to run a little audit on our bank statements, and I came face to face with one cold, hard fact: I am a complete f***ing idiot.

Why, you ask?  Maybe it's because I wasted $90K on a law degree that I no longer use?  No.  Maybe it's because I quit my secure law job at the height of the recession so I could take a decidedly less prestigious job, and eventually deliver pizzas in order to pay off my law school debt?  No.  It all started when my younger sister came to live with me and my husband.

She's one of those sisters.  The kind who's never had a real job, who dropped out of high school because