Get Your Grump on Thursdays - Was (What's chapping my @ss today?)

[maunahaole]

I've had to put on a tie this week. Twice.

Small kine problems compared to lupus. Get well little girl.

[myers]

Has a week gone by already? My daughter still in hospital, so my wife and I have been living there too. Confident in the best care in Boston, Lupus is a puzzling bitch.

Please send positives thought to her. Can’t hurt. Thank you!

positive thoughts coming your way.

[72gmc]

Best hopes for a good outcome soon, corso. Pushups already done. Decidedly so.

[joosttx]

Corsa, Sorry to read this. God bless her and prayers to her and the rest of your family.

[Saab2000]

It's Thursday somewhere.....

Don't let your kids grow up to become airline pilots or flight attendants. The glamour wears off by day five of a trip that was scheduled to be four days long. I'm getting tired of hotel and airport food and making excuses for my company's operational ineptitude and we all ran out of clean clothes yesterday morning. We are the face of the operation to the angry mob with pitchforks and have to try to explain 5+ hour delays. The 'glamour' of the job ends when you see crying children and frustrated parents and business people who have missed meetings and I'm supposed to explain to them why there's not a cloud in the sky in the eastern third of the US but their flight is a "weather-related" delay.

The bright side is that my 'No New Bikes' for 2015 rule is now broken and today's fiasco and extra pay are paying for it. That lasted all of 6 weeks.

I'll be in the terminal in CAE holding court, telling lies, kissing babies and signing autographs for $5 each if anyone wants to say hello.

Going seriously stir crazy.....

Carry on.

[Matthew Strongin]

I hope you're doing pushups for this early grump, Jim. Just so you're not alone, here's mine.

Today marks 5 full weeks from when I first started feeling sick. I'm still congested and coughing and it seems to be getting worse this week, not better. Bronchitis is the worst. How long can this possibly go on.

[joosttx]

I hope you're doing pushups for this early grump, Jim. Just so you're not alone, here's mine.

Today marks 5 full weeks from when I first started feeling sick. I'm still congested and coughing and it seems to be getting worse this week, not better. Bronchitis is the worst. How long can this possibly go on.

I with you, bro. Might want to get a steroid shot.

[doomridesout]

It's looking like the higher tier of law schools doesn't want me, which leaves me wondering about going at all-- I don't want to be some unemployed sap with a law degree from a middling school in three and a half years, even if I didn't pay for it.

Is it too pathetic to start a career advice thread? I appreciate the collective wisdom of successful older guys here but it seems a little rudderless.

[Saab2000]

I hope you're doing pushups for this early grump, Jim. Just so you're not alone, here's mine.

Today marks 5 full weeks from when I first started feeling sick. I'm still congested and coughing and it seems to be getting worse this week, not better. Bronchitis is the worst. How long can this possibly go on.

If it goes on until Ballers maybe I can beat you in the field sprint back to the Acorn Inn. But that threat only applies if my trip has ended by Memorial Day weekend, which at this point seems questionable.

[davids]

It's Thursday somewhere.....

Don't let your kids grow up to become airline pilots or flight attendants. The glamour wears off by day five of a trip that was scheduled to be four days long. I'm getting tired of hotel and airport food and making excuses for my company's operational ineptitude and we all ran out of clean clothes yesterday morning. We are the face of the operation to the angry mob with pitchforks and have to try to explain 5+ hour delays. The 'glamour' of the job ends when you see crying children and frustrated parents and business people who have missed meetings and I'm supposed to explain to them why there's not a cloud in the sky in the eastern third of the US but their flight is a "weather-related" delay.

I'll be in the terminal in CAE holding court, telling lies, kissing babies and signing autographs for $5 each if anyone wants to say hello.

Going seriously stir crazy.....

Carry on.

Hmm. I spent the last two days at BNA, HSV, DCA, and BOS. And despite being trapped in what felt like a bad television news report, almost every last person I dealt with - ticket agents, TSA folks, gate agents, flight crews and, yes, passengers - were pretty cheery, helpful, sympathetic and patient.

I hope to never go through that kind of travel clusterfuck again, but the people I dealt with weren't the problem.

[ron l edmiston]

[QUOTE=doomridesout;670243]It's looking like the higher tier of law schools doesn't want me, which leaves me wondering about going at all-- I don't want to be some unemployed sap with a law degree from a middling school in three and a half years, even if I didn't pay for it.

Is it too pathetic to start a career advice thread? I appreciate the collective wisdom of successful older guys here but it seems a little rudderless.
*********************************

--- decades back when I hired legal counsel outside our inside corporate legal staff..,
my interest relative to "win loss record.." --- not the sheepskin school seal..
no grump & smile.., just do it..

ronnie

[Saab2000]

Hmm. I spent the last two days at BNA, HSV, DCA, and BOS. And despite being trapped in what felt like a bad television news report, almost every last person I dealt with - ticket agents, TSA folks, gate agents, flight crews and, yes, passengers - were pretty cheery, helpful, sympathetic and patient.

I hope to never go through that kind of travel clusterfuck again, but the people I dealt with weren't the problem.

That is good to hear. Most of the folks do try their best I think. BOS has been getting hit the hardest lately, no doubt about that. We had a BUF-BOS turn cancelled the other day and I was sort of pleased because the winds were forecast to be gusting to near 50 knots after the big snowstorm there. Third big one of the year?

These things happen...

Sounds like you've been traveling more than I have been and I do actually feel for frequent travelers. My job is the travel. For most of our customers the work starts when the frustrating travel experience ends. My cousin travels a lot for his job and he's home less than anyone I know.

I'm happy to hear that your experiences have been good. Our industry can have its frustrating days and the past few have been challenging.

[joosttx]

It's looking like the higher tier of law schools doesn't want me, which leaves me wondering about going at all-- I don't want to be some unemployed sap with a law degree from a middling school in three and a half years, even if I didn't pay for it.

Is it too pathetic to start a career advice thread? I appreciate the collective wisdom of successful older guys here but it seems a little rudderless.

Its not what school you go to its what you do after school that counts. My wife went to Temple instead of Penn because it was cheaper which I appreciated. She graduated with Suma or Magma or Cum or something and is a rock star in her field. So F' the Ivy League.
Good Lawyers are the sick bastards that love the law at least from my experiences... god bless them. You wont be a good lawyer if you dont have a really warped view of life -- that being you think its fun. :)
In fact, in Philly it was preferred to be a Temple Law grad than a Penn grad because of the connections.

[dashDustin]

not really Thursday, and it's not really chapping my ass:

wife wants to be a surrogate. I don't know how I feel about it.

[Jonathan]

It's looking like the higher tier of law schools doesn't want me, which leaves me wondering about going at all-- I don't want to be some unemployed sap with a law degree from a middling school in three and a half years, even if I didn't pay for it.

Is it too pathetic to start a career advice thread? I appreciate the collective wisdom of successful older guys here but it seems a little rudderless.

Do you really want to practice law or have a law degree from an Ivy? Everyone I know who just wanted a law degree is/was unhappy practicing law.

[spopepro]

...because of the connections.

This is the advice you need, regardless of JD, MFA, or whatever. When your internship, or adviser's firm, or pro bono work in the community law clinic turns into a job, no one cares what name is on the paper. Well, except creepy global consulting firms, but you're too old and not rich enough (I'm making a couple of big assumptions here...) for that game anyway. It wasn't law, but I went to the most prestigious school that accepted me for my math PhD... and never finished. Should have gone somewhere that was as interested in me as I was in them.

My Grump: My supervisor knows I have too much on my plate. She is willing to hire whatever contract/clerical help needed to try and keep me from burning out. But when the things I'm doing would require more time to train someone else on how to do it than just doing it myself... I'm back to just being on overload and no idea how to do a damn thing about it.

[doomridesout]

Do you really want to practice law or have a law degree from an Ivy? Everyone I know who just wanted a law degree is/was unhappy practicing law.

I'm in the midst of something of a late-twenties crisis trying to figure questions like that out. There are a lot of draws to practicing law for me in terms of matching my skill set to a career that would appreciate it. Right now I work at a bike shop, which does not use the parts of my brain I want to use for my job.

It might not make me happy, but a law degree would serve as resume shorthand for a linguistic/detail oriented skill set that would move me into a different tier of career options. Right now I'm breaking down cardboard boxes and fixing roached out hybrids for someone else's business. I've thought about opening a bike shop, but the industry is glutted and anybody who can do math can see it's a tooth and nail fight just to survive. Years of free high end frames do not an IRA make.

After several years of screwing around working in retail after college, even trying to get a sense of what you look like to prospective professional employers is sobering and difficult.

[Matthew Strongin]

I with you, bro. Might want to get a steroid shot.

I'm going to the doctor tomorrow morning. I'll try anything at this point.

If it goes on until Ballers maybe I can beat you in the field sprint back to the Acorn Inn. But that threat only applies if my trip has ended by Memorial Day weekend, which at this point seems questionable.

You could do what Nate Zukas did last year...look bonked, gain my sympathy so I hand over my last clif bar, and then crush me up the last hill to the Inn. Good thing he's a super nice guy. I won't fall for again this year, though. Actually, I probably would if he needed that bar.

[mainemike]

I'm in the midst of something of a late-twenties crisis trying to figure questions like that out. There are a lot of draws to practicing law for me in terms of matching my skill set to a career that would appreciate it. Right now I work at a bike shop, which does not use the parts of my brain I want to use for my job.

It might not make me happy, but a law degree would serve as resume shorthand for a linguistic/detail oriented skill set that would move me into a different tier of career options. Right now I'm breaking down cardboard boxes and fixing roached out hybrids for someone else's business. I've thought about opening a bike shop, but the industry is glutted and anybody who can do math can see it's a tooth and nail fight just to survive. Years of free high end frames do not an IRA make.

After several years of screwing around working in retail after college, even trying to get a sense of what you look like to prospective professional employers is sobering and difficult.

I think a Law Degree is an excellent idea, I wish I had listened to my Mother and gotten one. In today's world, you need one just to inform/protect yourself against any number of entities, ie: CC Companies, Banks, Ins Companies, etc...This doesn't mean you have to be a litigious jerk, it means having the research skills, language/tools of Law, and knowing how to apply them. I don't believe the caliber, or perceived caliber of the school from which you attain is that important, certainly not more than work ethic, ethics, applying yourself, creativity, using it for good not only to make money, but help people, and organizations that help people. Any business at any level can benefit from knowing the law and how to apply it, so there's no need to limit yourself to Law Firms. I say go for it, get it done, and opportunities/ideas/etc...will present themselves en route. Yer young, do it now, don't worry about money -if you know how to work hard, you will always be able to make money.

[dogrange]

It's looking like the higher tier of law schools doesn't want me, which leaves me wondering about going at all-- I don't want to be some unemployed sap with a law degree from a middling school in three and a half years, even if I didn't pay for it.

Is it too pathetic to start a career advice thread? I appreciate the collective wisdom of successful older guys here but it seems a little rudderless.

If you can go to law school without getting into debt, then it's a pretty low risk path and will open some of those career doors you need opened. When I went to law school in my late 20s, I had to go into big debt to do it, so I wasn't willing to go unless I got into a school that had a super-high chance of getting me into a well-paying job afterward.