David Bowie....what he means to me

What amazes me about David Bowie (other than, obviously, his music) was the ability to change. When David Bowie was popular in late 60s, at one point, he declared, "I'M GAY ! " Part of his motives was he said he would do anything to get out of the town he grew up in. I was from a little town and felt the SAME way. My town was good, but when I was in high school, I became offended that classmates thought they had me figured out. Now, they treat me great, and I don't have a problem with them at all! I guess it surprised them that I moved from a town of 30 people to a city of less than 3 million (it was 3 mill at one time). I wanted to change from being from a small town. I was paranoid that my parents and older brothers were bossing me around so much that they were trying to turn me into some type of "machine" (not literally), of course.
My older brother spanked me more than both my parents combined, ....REALLY ! I guess was lazy at times......But now the same brother is just fantastic with my kids. My son, Ted, and He were playing word association games. The game was you had to describe a person you knew in 1 word (probably impossible to do accurately.....right??). So Ted asks my brother, "What is Vince in 1 word?"
"REBELLIOUS"
Yeah, I was rebellious in the 70s and 80s, but marriage and being a paralegal ripped a lot of rebellion out of me ! I still have some of it. I liked carrying a sign at the Occupy Chicago rallies. That was fun a few years back.
So let's go back to David Bowie.
He had long hair in late 60s and said he was gay. Then, he was Ziggy Stardust.
Then he changed to Thin White DUKE.
Then he realized he was doing too much cocaine and fired DeFries, his manager at the time, who wanted him to spend tens of thousands of $$$ for not very good reasons.
Remember, I'm saying that he "struck a chord with me", not comparing myself in any way shape or form to him. I mean the guy was so incredibly successful ! !
He actually managed Iggy Pop who lived with him in BERLIN when Iggy Pop made, then released LUST FOR LIFE.
The he changed again and did the SCARY MONSTERS and LET'S DANCE albums; both were AWESOME. He wisely hired the Late Stevie Ray Vaughn to play on LET'S DANCE. Then for the last 30some years he stuck

But Bowie was so DAMN Good at reinventing himself. Late in the 80s he was in Tin Machine with the comedian, Soupy Sales' sons.
Your going the 90s ....into the 2000s. He marries Iman in 1992; they are lovers until DEATH DO THEM PART. You don't hear so much about his being gay...it doesn't even matter anymore. They have a daughter in 2000.
He kicks some major ass with a cover of a Pixie song....sensuous and romantic, awesome CACTUS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag4Mu4IqL1Q
He releases a very good album in 2003 REALITY with an awesome "New Killer Star" & "The Loneliest Guy"
He's happier than ever. You hear about how desperate Bowie's personality was in the 70s in the biography Loving the Alien. He's totally different man in the new Millenium !
He changes. He's much more comfortable and happy with himself with age.
I look at my own life when I was a personal injury paralegal just a few short months ago. Now, I get a new lease on life working at a pretty famous, media-covered law firm. I don't do any personal injury, but class action lawsuits. I do fewer Illinois lawsuits, I do more Federal lawsuits and learn to use PACER.
I wish & hope I could just take Bowie's concept of effectively changing decisively the way my career bends & be a little better as a paralegal.
I still wonder about realizing my potential.
But I know I have to change to experience a LITTLE success.

You know you're old when.........

You know your old when you see a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial &................

Col. Sanders is clearly OLDER than you ! UGH!
The new Col. Sanders is played by Norm MacDonald (a comedian in real life, famous for being part of Saturday Night Live in the 90s, maybe (i believe) who is, in fact, 4 months younger than me. & damn, I could just tell from the picture he was younger!

found a job, whew

Wow, what's going on here??  I go nearly a whole year not writing in my blog, and then write 3 posts today.  
It's a unique time.  I'm not working, but I'm not unemployed.  I have things to do, but I feel like writing.  I don't feel guilt as I sometimes do sitting down and writing.  The job I used to have was so entangling, so encompassing, that it followed me home and I had to work at things at home as well as at my job.  I felt guilty writing then, b/c there was so much to do for work even when I was home !!! 
That's over with. 
If I sit down and write, I don't have to feel bad that I'm supposed to be looking for a job.  
So, 8/18/2015 will go down in history as the most blogs in 1 day.  Yay!!!! 

I had an increasingly bad situation where I worked at the law firm I was with.  I had worked with them under 2 years. The situation was progressively worse and then all of the sudden it ended. I found myself in an argument with the managing partner who accused me of making mistakes on purpose.  That wasn't the case.  The powers that be at that law firm just had no idea how much work was given & what the implication was when they just piled lots of work on me.  If you give too much work, mistakes will be made; it's that simple.  So, that was it.

I sent out resumes from various sources. There was encouragement, because I had interviews.  I had an interview way up in the northern city limit of Chicago.  It was not easy to get to.  I transposed the numbers of the address and broke a cardinal rule and was late.

I kept cool; I displayed enthusiasm which is one of the things the experts encourage.  Clearly, it was genuine.  I needed a job, they were offering a paralegal, and I felt I would do well for them.  The interviewer and my future boss had a good exchange.  She was nice, she was candid.  I gave a lot of energy, earnestness, insights into concerns she had that necessitated hiring a paralegal.

The interview ended about an hour later.  The traffic and remoteness from my place are factors.  This is the 1st time that it will take me 2 hours to go from my condo to my workplace.  It will take 2 trains and a bus ride to get there.  I'm taking the challenge very seriously.  I'm going to practice it this Thursday and Friday mornings to see what exactly will make it hard, what could help me make it easier.

There is absolutely no way in hell that I will drive from my home to work.  The exception will be on light traffic days like the day before Christmas, the day after New Years Day, days surrounding the holidays and holidays when the clinic I work at will be open, maybe Columbus Day.  
Otherwise, there is no way I will drive my car to work.  The car is 11 years old; it only has 75,000 miles on it, but I would quickly have it go past 100,000 miles in a few short months.  It just seems like you start running into a lot of expensive problems after the car goes past 100,000 miles.  I want my car to last 5 years.  I don't see that happening if I drive it to work everyday.

I feel happy that I found a job within 1 month of leaving my last job.  Last time I was unemployed, I didn't find a decent job for a year and a half.  I knew if it took that long this time, I would be financially ruined. It was downright scary.  But I kept reading what the experts were saying, send out resumes, send out quality cover letters with the resumes, and talk to people in your network.  
I wondered at times if I was doing enough to find a job.  Thank God, whatever I did in the early part of August worked ! !

The First Love

Do you remember the first time you fell in love, even if you were younger than 16? They apparently call it puppy love, but I don't think it should necessarily be scorned or forbidden. It's just that certain aspects of love should wait.  The priests and ministers state you should wait until your married.  The trend is for the 1st child to be born later and later these days, yet many  (most??)  don't wait for marriage to have _______.

Does a son or daughter not love one or both of their parents?  Isn't it possible that there's an immature but sometimes intense love for someone, for 2 kids to love each other?

When I was in middle school and high school, maybe even earlier than that, I was in the same classes as this girl.  We went to the same CCD; we went to the same church sometimes.  It was pretty amazing.....some weeks I would see her every day of the week - 5 days of school, CCD on Saturday & Church on Sunday.  She was not only nice looking, but she had a great personality.  She was very athletic starter in 3 sports, was editor of the Annual Staff, was on the Forensics team with me where we both made history at our high school for being the 1st 2 people in Forensics to  compete at State level all 4 years of high school.

We spent a lot of time together.  We had some good talks.  & at certain points of middle school (even earlier than middle school) and high school, I was in love with her.  I wasn't obnoxious about it, when she had boyfriends, I didn't try to steal her away, but she knew what I thought about her.  She didn't feel the same way.  Oh well.
 It worked out for the best.  I didn't get along with 1 of her older sisters.  As nice as my friend was, that's how taciturn, haughty and mean her sister was. That would have been a problem had we dated or hypothetically gotten serious.  Years later, when I wrote all these reasons down of why I was glad I married my ex (years and years before the divorce, of course!)  one of the 1st reasons I was glad to be with my wife was that I had a great relationship with her sister.  Her sister was ALWAYS nice to me, and we never had any problems.
My old friend from decades past not only had a not-so-great sister, but an obnoxious, smart-alec cousin who people nicknamed "Smiley".   He was one of those jerks that acted the same way after high school as he did during high school.  So, years after we both graduated high school he would STILL  remind me that I loved his cousin.  I swore after that if I ever saw him again, I would punch him in the face repeatedly if he ever brought up the subject again.  I was a bigger than him & had experience in fights in my 20s even though he was older than me.  But that was just it, in high school, he was 3 yrs. older than me and could domineer and talk crap to me.  I wanted the opportunity to really show him how much times changed.  
But with more age, and more wisdom, I stopped thinking that way, and decided fighting him wouldn't prove much.  It's probably not even the best way to tell him as clear as possible "DON'T DO THAT!" which would have been the whole purpose of hitting him.


So many things happened after graduating high school:.........graduating college, figuring out my career, getting married, being the father of 3 kids, reconnecting with old friends from high school on Facebook, going through cancer and still fighting depression.....

Here's a big irony.  In 1990, my best friend, Frank died.  In fact, it was 25 years ago on August 15 !  The irony is that I saw Frank more recently, than the last time I saw my first love which was just under 30 yrs ago.  She didn't join Facebook; we didn't reconnect.
That's fine; that's her perogative.  One thing I was curious about was.....if we hadn't seen each other in 30 years, did she look different.  Did she look a lot different??
So, early this summer, I went to Google Images and looked her up.  Wow, there she was.  I saw pictures of her as recent as 5 years ago. Yes, she changed; just like we all changed. You knew what blew me away?? It wasn't even her; it was her husband.  I couldn't believe how little he changed.  He just added a mustache since I last saw him, and that's it !   He looks young ! 
This old friend & I  were friends; we were never, ever lovers.  The relationship affected the way I approached women thereafter.  I would be nice to women, and I had lots of women over the years who were friends of mine.  It certainly affected college. Her reaction to me being in love with her  & what happened between us affected my approach, b/c I was bound and determined never again to be so overt or to never, ever "chase" a woman.   I just figured chasing would never win the woman over, and would just lead to heartache.  I never wanted to feel bad again (but I did in 2002 & 2003, & I already told that story).   It made the time in college really bereft of girlfriends; sometimes you have to "apply yourself", use some charm.  There was only 1 person I could really say was my girlfriend in college and even that didn't seem to go very far.
It was all for the best.  She married a good guy.  I wasn't ready to be married in my 20s.  I had to get more mature and less callow.  I had to work on my manners.  I developed job skills and became an excellent paralegal.
Best of all, I fell in love with my truelove in 2010.  Being in  a loving relationship has been taken care of ever since........

that's not us back then, by the way.  I only kissed her once, and that was at the end of our high school graduation when graduates come together and say goodbye

LinkedIn really annoys me sometimes

Linked In has become vital to some businesses, to people looking for jobs (like I was until Monday  when I scored one :) !)  So, I've used it to my advantage at times.

But, it's also gotten me in trouble and it can get others in trouble easily here's why.  This happened in the past, and it almost  happened a few minutes ago.  Linked In will make a suggestion about someone who ought to be  your connection.  In the process of saying "Yes, that's a good idea, I want them to be my friend/connection,"  LinkedIn will import all your contacts from places like Yahoo or wherever and ask every single, solitary person on there if they want to join you on Linked In.
So, a few years ago, I had 1 of my "flintier, high-strung" associates get an email by me through LinkedIn.
He got all upset and gave me a nasty e-mail.

Now, we can say, my associate over-reacted; we might even argue that he was being a jerk.  But I also hold LinkedIn responsible, b/c they shouldn't make it so easy to import contacts you have NO INTENTION OF CONTACTING !   They SHOULD make it much more clear that they are going to contact  all the people in your Address Book !  & is it that good of an idea that they do that in the first place?  Shouldn't they make that not so easy to do??
The fact that they don't do that is a poor reflection on such a high-powered, well-known, renowned website and organization.

I went to a party

I don't go to parties too often.   Most of the time, I think it costs too much, and I'm spending money I don't have.The other thing is my friends don't throw parties; they're about my age and people in their 50s don't have weddings and don't party like it's "1999".     But, there was a very nice guy in my club that invited me and his friends, neighbors, a musician, a band (!!) and about 100 people.  So, this afternoon, I went eager for a good time.
I had a very good time.   I was smiling, the food was good, my girlfriend was at my side happy, too.
At the end of the party, the host actually played with a very good band he hired to play at his party. (Host is the 3rd from left from the 4 you see)

 There was a guy that I know and spent some time with who attended.  He's actually the cousin of the host. We'll call him Karl. Karl has a "song & dance" about how he was once rich but got screwed out of money and was conned & lost 90% of it.  In actuality, he doesn't work except very sporadically.  He's just turned 50 and STILL lives w/ his parents.  I said he works sporadically, NEVER a steady job.  Here's one example.  He was hired to be a baseball UMPIRE in a league.  You know why he stopped umpiring ?  He was told to stop umpiring b/c he was seducing women right in the middle of the damn game !! No kidding.  I think what happened was it was a co-ed league, and he would either be talking all this stuff to a female catcher or female batter  and then call balls & strikes !  Can you imagine?  Unreal !   He also collects aluminum cans, but obviously if you aren't doing that on a massive scale & he ISN'T, you make pennies per week.....LITERALLY
Oh, and he also gambles.  He's actually lost tons of money gambling at slot machines in a matter of hours. He actually told my kids once that his job was gambling & then he makes money.  Thank God they were smart enough to know that was wrong.
He got up and sang 3 songs while the band was on break.  To his credit, he sounded good. He can carry a tune.....oh bummer,....most singers (especially the ones singing in the shower or to the radio in their cars) don't make much, if any, $$.
Keith had a girlfriend that was with him.  She clearly liked him for his sense of humor.  I've seen many women fall for guys who were funny.  About a decade ago, there was a co-worker who ticks off about 9 faults her date had. So, I'm like, "Annie, why do you go out with him??????"
"HE'S FUNNY !!!!"
"Oh ok.....I guess I'll go back to work.  Hope it all works out for you, Annie"
So, there she was tonight.......Keith's girlfriend Jane.  Very nice looking....she made me think of the lyric "sweet, sweet Jane!".  What's going to happen to Jane? What's going to happen to Karl & Jane???  Karl had an on-again, off-again relationship with another woman.  You know why it ended?  She logically got very tired of seeing Karl lose $100s and $100s  week after week and wondering what he should do, and hitting her up for money when they went out to eat.  She was a nice person.  She worked not far from where I once worked as a legal secretary.
Jane is a nice person, too.  Karl is nice, but so behind, so unbelievably Immature, asks such stupid sophomoric ?s like a 12 year old would making a stupid adolescent attempt to be funny.  He got my girlfriend very pissed off, because he had the nerve to ask her about our sex life and how often we kiss.  But sweet, sweet Jane is right.  Karl is funny.  She already knows he gambles but apparently (and this is early in the relationship) she saw him make money.  He would make money if he pulled the handle at the right time.  So 2 weeks ago, she prompted him when to pull the lever, and he repeatedly won.  Yipee.  Karl triumphantly called her "my GOOD LUCK CHARM !!!!"   We all should be happy for Karl and sweet, sweet Jane (the hard working medical assistant that takes care of Alzheimer patients).  Ummmmm, ooooops  Karl and Jane had to admit that last night, she was with him and he  gambled  and lost money. More of that to come, Honey.

Jane is a good person, she's only a few years younger than me and still very nice looking.  She takes care of the mentally ill, Alzheimers patients, autistic kids & young adults.  & when they get upset with most of the workers at her medical center, they don't get mad at Sweet Jane, b/c SHE takes the time to listen and understand and empathize with them?    She's going to be REQUIRED to show a lot of empathy with Karl.
She walked up to me later during the party to say goodbye.  She said it was nice meeting me, and she hoped to see me soon.

Oh really??? Me??? Your kidding, aren't you (I silently thought) ??  Yeah, I got some issues too.  While I'm throwing rocks, criticizing Karl, I better think about how I could improve.  Here I was at this very happy party and when I walked into our host's really awesome house, I felt the happiness melt away like hot butter.  He had this wonderful huge house based on a thriving craftsman business, and here I am with just a paralegal career.  Yes, I like helping people, but it's slowly swallowing most of my life each and every day.  If I'm not drowning in work, I'm away from work thinking about how odious the place; now that's an exaggeration, but I do spend too much time thinking about that law firm away from work !  So, I walked out of my host's palace, & I brood about how I should send more resumes out and get a better job.
Then I correctly, figuratively kicked myself. What the hell am I supposed to do?? Whip out my damn smartphone and send out the resumes from there? Ask to borrow the host's fuckin desktop computer??   What happened to all the tried and true wisdom about living in the moment.  What the hell am I doing all pensive & feeling bad about a palacelike house among a group of happy people at a happy party????

So, I stopped. It's a party, listen to the band play rock n roll, enjoy the music, don't worry about sweet, sweet Jane, don't scorn Karl,
Stopping being depressed over a troublesome future.
Start being thankful for your good, well-meaning kids, start being blissful for being with an awesome girlfriend.
Take her by the hand and sing along to the lyrics the band is playing, because after all, you like the song and know the words ! 
Well, I did some of that, not all,  I'm not quire light enough and a little too Dark to feel blissful at a fun, happy party.
But when it was over, I walked over to the host and gave a very heartfelt, sincere, "Thank you" for inviting me to such a nice, posh party.  That doesn't happen very often. Ummmmm when was the last time I was at a fun, posh party???.......ummm about 8 years ago.  Oh, yeah, you damn well better thank the host !!

Well, I left the party with my girlfriend.  Patricia thanked me for taking her.  OMG, Dear !! I wouldn't have it any other way !!!! My God, you are 1 of only about 10 people that keep me going and make me happy!!!!  & your thanking me?? 

something to see, something to think about

After another sad day at work where I was supposed to do 50 things and could only do about 35, When I go home, I go home on the train. The train It's a nice, pleasant relaxing time on the train, one of the nicest times of the day, no one hassling me, just me chilling out.   The train ride is never long enough, most especially in the morning.    I sometimes listen to songs and sometimes they fit my mood (sad, bummed out that I have a job that has unrealistically given me 115 cases).

One evening this past week, I wasn't really feeling that morose, but still....definitely not happy at all.  So, I just went to YouTube and played Don McLean's "Starry, Starry Nights". (that actually isn't the right name for the song, but I really don't feel comfortable indicating what the actual name of the song is)  Since it was a song where Don McLean discussed Vincent Van Gogh, the very famous painter, this YouTube video scrolled the lyrics, the sad story, the story of indifference and in the background were the paintings of Van Gogh.  One of his paintings is actually called "Starry Nights", one of his famous paintings and worth millions and millions of dollars.
If you want to see the song/YouTube video, it's at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxHnRfhDmrK    You know what's neat about the song?  Well, it's a tuneful, bittersweet, sensitive song, but I gotta say it's kind of neat the way they scroll out the lyrics.  It's done very artfully.  & you can see the actual name of the song which I don't feel like sharing (sorry).
So, in the latter part of the song, there was a painting that hit me.  Hit me right in the eyes.
Now this blog is not about how sad I feel, and I'm not going to list the things that are really bothering me, b/c well.....that can be tiresome to read.
Why don't we take this at another angle, Ok???  
Here's the painting.  The title is called "Sorrowing Old Man (At Eternity's Gate)"

This painting was done in 1890, a few months before he died.  His health was not good, and he created this painting while he was convalescing.  So, sad that if you added the worth of all of Van Gogh's paintings, you would probably come up with over $10,000,000.  An 8-figure sum!!! & the Late Vincent Van Gogh most definitely did not enjoy any of his riches.  No, just like Mozart, he died poor.

About the painting. It's striking, it really makes true the old cliche that a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Haven't we all felt bad?  Haven't we all felt pretty despondent?  Sometimes, there isn't much to do, but cry.  So, why is he crying?  I bet you it's because of poverty.  How am I going to survive when there's others that are taking my place.  How long do I get to live in this little home.  How long do I get to enjoy the warmth of this hearth (over in the lower left corner) and not be homeless in the cold. Now if you see this on Wikipedia, there's actually people that say there's a sign of hope in the painting, because the painting is entitled "At Eternity's Gate", so he's near heaven.  I just don't see that.  This guy is inconsolable.  He's had it.  Life hurts; it really, really does.
There's just so many things you could attribute his sadness to.  He's at the age where he's near the end of his life, so it could easily be conceivable that one of his friends who is his age died.  What can you do after a funeral and the sad, final burial but cry?
The painting is amazing, because it strikes a common chord.  We all feel bad at times.  We all have times where there's nothing left to do but cry.
It's funny, but I used to be very hardcore about not crying.  I wore it as a badge of honor and toughness that I would go years and years without crying.  Still, don't like crying.  I especially make it a point not to cry around my kids.  But I guess I'm not so hardcore and anti-crying as I used to be.  I guess I changed my mind a little when I found out that tears actually remove toxins from our body that build up courtesy of stress. They are like a natural therapy or massage session, but they cost a lot less! (I got that from a quote from article written by Therese Borchard.).

There's an emotional resonance to the painting for me. Not for the sadness, but for the age of the man.  I'm most definitely not a young person anymore.  I grew a beard willfully during the winter to let others know I'm not young (but the bigger more decisive  reason was so I wouldn't have to shave and it saved me time).  Every single day I work at Chicago, I see 4 or 5 homeless people. There's one I don't have as much sympathy for one of them.     He usually harangues people by Starbucks to give him money, and while I feel terrible for most homeless, he annoys me b/c he just has to be so abrasive about it.  One day he tried to flatter me to get money out of me.  So he called out to  me "young man".  I yelled back while I walked to my dreaded job, "I'M NOT YOUNG!"

how bad do you want it?

Things are the same at work.  I have many tasks to do.  There's over 110 cases of people getting hurt that I have to take care of, and I work as a *Medicare negotiator.  A case has moved to the forefront.  We are going to take it to trial, and I have to get the case ready by putting together a group of documents showing what our case is about, why we are suing for the amount that we are suing.

 We have a client hurt badly in a car accident.  Hurt so bad that he has gone years and has not worked.  His injury is so bad that there's little hope of recovery, and he will go for the rest of his adulthood not working as well as living with very significant pain. There's no treatment, there's only pain medicine to make the pain tolerable.  The case is worth quite a bit of money, and I have to play a significant role in what will hopefully be the case's success.  Putting the documents together in a clear, cogent manner, adding up how much money they have been damaged, and putting together a narrative of what happened in the accident and the injuries suffered/treatment done.  I learned how much the case was worth.  It's A LOT.  (I have to be deliberately vague so that if someone is looking through Google they can't say,  "Oh, Vince working on (name of person)'s case!!" I would like to say how much the case is worth, b/c I was the one who helped determine it, the person to find out FIRST, but I can't do that ).

But my point is this. 
 How far will you go to make sure you are an EFFECTIVE worker?  What will you do when your workload is overwhelming? What are the sacrifices that you would make carrying such a big workload? Would you say, "I work 8 hour a day, my usual shift, and then I'm leaving.  I have a family at home that needs me."
Or, would you say, "I'll work extra.  If I work 8 hours a day, I will NOT get what I MUST DO done. If I work 8 hours, I will blow deadlines, I will put cases into jeopardy!
No!  I will work on cases when I go home for awhile.  I will drive to work on Saturday and put in 4 hours. I must fulfill deadlines.  I must do what I can for our clients so that they get the compensation they deserve for the injuries they suffered as a result of other people's negligence.

That's exactly what happened yesterday, That's what's happened week after week, Saturday after Saturday.  Yesterday, I worked not my usual 4 hrs, but 5 hours on Saturday.  I burned a quarter of a tank of gas to drive to work and drive home after I was done.  No compensation for that. Some Saturdays, I have to pay $13 for parking, no compensation for that.

But, I got to have a piece of mind, and I will work very hard to get it.  Could you imagine failing a deadline just before a trial?  Could you imagine being responsible for ruining a case for someone who suffered for 5 years, spent a fortune on treating his injuries, and he gets nothing because you refused to work extra hours?  So, one case see I'm not as much of a "shmuck" for paying for gas, paying for parking when I really didn't have to, when the boss has never told me to work a Saturday.

 But in my view, there is no choice.  Even though I work extra, I have a lawyer who points out each and every week the assignments that I'm behind in and the bad consequences if I don't start working on it, finishing the task SOON, and how it was wrong that I let it go for awhile without working on it.  &, of course, I had so many other tasks to do. & he is very aware of the fact that I work until 6 pm, not 5 pm, and that I work on Saturday and that I sometimes work at home.

Yesterday, I went for broke. I worked 5, not 4,  hours in Chicago.  I came home took about an hour break and worked on the case until after 1 am.  I cannot, I will not tell my boss the work I was assigned is "not done".  Tomorrow, I want to say, "Here is the draft, check it, make revisions, take it to a copy company, bind it and then hand it into court and the opposing counsel."

Still, it bothers me all these sacrifices.  My co-workers work extra sometimes, but it's the exception to the rule.  When I work from 9-5, that's the exception to the rule!  The mystery I don't understand is how do they do it without blowing deadlines.  Their workload is very comparable to mine.  Why do they take a lunch, and I set aside about 15 minutes for eating.  Why do they go home around 5:15 and I go home at 6 or 6:30?

It bothers me, and I wrote to my boss an e-mail saying, I'm overwhelmed.  I have too much to do.  I said that I don't know the solution, It would seem like we should hire more people, but the chances of my bosses hiring more people are as likely as them jumping out the window and flying home at night.  They state there is no room in the office (that's true except on Fridays) and they have no money (well I've never looked at their ledger).

So one of the bosses sat me down and we talked.  The first thing she asked is "What can we do about this?  We don't you to work so many hours."  But I already said that I really don't have a solution.  If the amount of work is as big as a BARN and there's only 6 full time people and 2 young part-time clerks to work on it, then there's no 2 ways about it, there's too much work and there is very little to do about it.   & the bosses want the work to be as big as a barn, b/c if it's a small, manageable amount of work for each of us to do, then we wouldn't make enough money.  We tried to come up with little solutions that might help a little. One is to repeat and re-emphasize the fact, that I can assign clerks work.  Ok, I will do that, but they only work less than 20 hours a week and the 3 lawyers are allowed to assign them work, too and if they assign work, their task must be done first.

So, we are stuck.  I am really stuck.  That's just the way it is.  Oh well..............

-------------------------------
*Where I live, suppose you were 65 or older (which means you're in Medicare) &  you were to get hurt in an accident and it was the fault of somebody's negligence, there's several things that happen.  Medicare pays for the medical bills.  However, as soon as they find out our client were injured was the result of a car accident, slip & fall, or some kind of negligence, Medicare feels that they should GET BACK the money they paid for the medical bills.  The injury was the fault of someone else, so that's the person that should pay, not Medicare.  My job is that Medicare gets their money, but they don't get money based on mistake, like if our client has a stomach problem that has nothing to do with the accident. Sometimes, they will ask, by mistake, for money spent to treat their stomach problem or their intestinal problem. That's when I have to write a letter attached with medical records showing where they are wrong.  It takes a lot of time.  

2014 the good and the bad

There was good and bad to 2014, just like years in the past.   To me only certain years stick out for being very good (1989, 1993) or very bad (2002, 2003), but most of the time I look up to God and appreciate the good, and bemoan or roll through the punches of the bad times.

The good:  being recognized for doing a good job as a paralegal and getting 3 raises during the year.  That's not much to brag about and here is why.  At the start of the year, 1/1/2014, I was paid only a little more than what I was making on unemployment insurance (which I was pretty much forced to be on from 2/14/2012 to 9/15/2013).  Obviously, it was better to be off unemployment making a little more money than to stay on unemployment b/c you become less and less marketable the longer you are on unemployment.
I was not only recognized as being a good paralegal at the downtown/LOOP firm that I am at but also by 2 other lawyers.  I made a few thousand more doing side jobs.  I made several hundred selling on eBay.  My popular items that sold very well were the hammocks and the dog heaters.

BAD
Yet, even after three raises at the firm, money made on eBay and 2 other lawyers, I still didn't make ends meet ! UGH !   I mean I don't have big costs, I keep my condo at a harsh 59 degrees F (15 degrees Celsius).  I shop at Aldi to save grocery money.  It certainly didn't help getting into a car accident and spending well over $1,000 (with help from my insurance company I got another $5,000 and paid to repair car) .  I also suffered some neck and back pain.  Thank God my girlfriend, Pat, was ok !!

By the way, this isn't actually my car. I was too lazy to put my car on this post, and too embarassed, TOO !  I can assure that my poor, silver  2004 Pontiac Grand Am looked about this bad.
The worst thing about 2014 was that my workload quadrupled this year.  I now have 110 cases and am the Medicare negotiator.  It's too much.  It's still too much after they hired 2 people part time this year.  We still have to dig out of the mess created when they are understaffed.  I come home so many times sad b/c  Father Time has beaten the shit out of me.  There's always the nagging feeling, "Have I done enough??"

But we come into the new year with hope. Maybe things will change, maybe we will solve some large problem.  Like last year, 2013, I solved my unemployment problem.  There was financial problems that improved slightly in 2014, but there were more health concerns as now I'm diagnosed with glaucoma.  So, here's a picture I took of my 2 happy sons after 2015 came to us.  My daughter was not with all of us but she had fun too.  

I'm coming back

OK, here it is.
a little announcement.
I'm coming back.  My New Year's Resolution has already been made.
POST HERE MORE !!!!!!! 
So it's going to happen, just you wait and see ! 

look...

look for.....
my new creation at








http://www.tumblr.com/blog/leftwingwiil 

a strange night

I think I made a mistake last week, last Wednesday night.  I think I got a little too desperate for money. 
A mixture of pity and greed made my decision making a little suspect. 

I was trying to drive into the street where my condo is.  The car ahead stopped and then went ahead.  A 20something woman came up.  She was desperate.  She needed a ride 10 miles north.  I was going to get $25 if I gave her a ride.  Then she motioned to me that her boyfriend would be coming too. 

I drove into the Church that is adjacent to our condo's property to talk to him and "think" about the situation.   I said that I would go to my condo 1st before I take them to Chicago.  I took my leather jacket off and put a much cheaper jacket on. I put away my wallet and carried just my driver's license, ATM card and AAA card.  I knew there was a risk taking a stranger 10 miles.  I wasn't naive.

I'm too old to be that. 

I operated on 2 considerations.  I consider the odds.  The odds were LOW that I was going to deal w/ strangers with guns.  She said that she would give me money, over $20 and I needed the money bigtime BAD.  It's been that way since the fuckin summer !

So, I began the car ride w/ 2 perfect strangers by telling them that I didn't have enough gas in my car to get them to Chicago.  They were required to put about $10 of gas into the car. We pulled into the gas station, & I think I saw the 20something woman, Meegan go up to people getting gas to ask for money !!!! (ugh!).  Then, I saw her go into the station and go up to the cashier.  She paid the cashier $6, not $10. That was enough.  She told me when she came back she only had $6. 

The talking that was going on w/ John/Jr. (he goes by 2 names) and Megan was making me uneasy.  This young couple, only a few years out of high school, were uneducated and only living "on their wits".   They talked about begging money from one person to pay off the person they begged money from last week!!! The girl gave me $6 in gas money. Then they had to speak w/ "Nick".  Something wasn't right and John/Jr.  was told by NICK that he would help them not at all!  John/Jr. walked away, and I decided, since something was going wrong, to talk to Nick alone. 

I walked up to Nick, and John/JR. wanted to know what I would ask him but I waved him off and made sure he kept his distance from my conversation with Nick.  

"Nick?"  I asked, "are things going to be safe???"

"Oh YEAH! Of course, it will."
I walked into the car w/ my 2 strangers already in the car (yes, I was carrying the keys, and didn't leave them in the car, I'm NOT STOOOOO-PID!)
  They said they needed my help to talk to the guy giving them money.  Well, if I wanted my $20, I had to agree.  I pulled it off.  The money was split.  So, the last thing I had to do is take them to McDonalds in a not-so great part of Chicago. 

I dropped them off and no sooner did I drop them off, but there were flashing blue/red lights of the police on my tail !

Then something very bizaar happened.  I was so relieved to get my $20; I was so intent on just getting them to the fuckin Golden Arches of McDonalds and then...........I get stopped by the cops???????????
The cops did the new thing of taking a ton of time of having me sit there before they even talked to me. & when they did, they acted very strange.  I only had one cop encounter even comparable to this one (a female cop stopped me for speeding and acted like she wanted to get laid.  At 5'5" and 200 lbs. she apparently wasn't getting a lot of action.  But I sweet talked my way out of doing that without any ticket or illicit sex going on.  I was happily married so I wasn't going to lose my morals to please a cop). 

So, 2 African American cops came up to me with smiles on their face. 
Police: "What you doing out here?"
I replied :  "I dropped a young couple off at this McDonalds, b/c they needed a ride".
"Really?  From where?"
"Oak Forest"
"DAMN.  That's a long way.  You went through a red light."
"Really"  I didn't even see the damn light!  Were they kidding?  I know I was nervous where I drove, but could I have been so pre-occupied that I was so blind not to see a light?  No, I don't think so.  What the hell were they doing pulling me over???

The comedy continued.

"Are you doing drugs tonight?"

"No, sir" I replied.

"Do you have any dead bodies in the car?"

"No, would you like to check?

"Naaaaaaaah,...(he paused).... that's ok"
"Would you like to see my proof of insurance?"
"No, but you DO have insurance?"
"Yes, sir, am I going to be here awhile?  Should I turn the engine off?"
"Naaah, that's all man.  Be careful, ok?"
"Yes, sir you all have a good evening"
"Gee thanks"  & they drove off.
I talked to Ted afterwards since he has opted not to live w/ his Mom but rather stay at the condo w/ me.  I said, I messed up.  I didn't use good judgment even though I came away w/ $26. I was too desperate for a few bucks.  I said that sometimes parents don't set good examples, and this was one of those times.  He agreed that he wouldn't do something like that in a similar situation. 

What made it worse is that John/Jr. and Meegan said they lived next to me in an apt.  What if they are desperate again?  What if they see my car parked in front of my condo?
I'm keeping my damn car locked from now on. Sigh

Facts that show what's wrong w/ supporting the Rich & the Southern status quo on ENERGY

The current population of the United States is about 312 million persons. This came from http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

The United States used 18,690,000 barrels of oil per day in 2009. This number came from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption.
I am going to estimate oil consumption in America in 2011 to be 20,000,000 barrels of oil per day. This is admittedly a "rough number". I am trying to make conceptual points in the material below. Exactness is not required in order to do so.

The price of oil today is $85.30. This number came from http://www.oil-price.net/.

The cost of oil consumption per day in America is $1,706,000,000 (about one point seven billion dollars).

The cost of oil consumption per week in America is $11,942,000,000 (almost twelve billion dollars).

The cost of oil consumption per 30 day month in America is $51,180,000,000 (about fifty one billion dollars).

The cost of oil consumption per 365 day year in America is $622,690,000,000 (about six hundred and twenty three billion dollars).

The oil consumption cost per person per year in America using a rounded 312 million population count is $1995.

Coal costs about $100 per ton. This number came from  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/20/patriotcoal-idUSL3E7LK1LY20111020

Coal consumption in the United States is 1,060,000,000 tons used per year. This number came from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_coa_con-energy-coal-consumption.

The 1,060,000,000 tons of coal used per year in the United States times $100 per ton equals $106,000,000,000 (One hundred and six billion dollars).

The annual cost per capita for coal in America equals about $340 per person.

Natural gas consumption in the United States in 2010 was 24,087,938 million cubic feet. This number came from :
http://205.254.135.7/dnav/ng/NG_CONS_SUM_DCU_NUS_A.htm

The cost of natural gas in the United States is $4.27 per thousand cubic feet. This number came from http://205.254.135.24/dnav/ng/ng_pri_sum_dcu_nus_m.htm.

If a thousand cubic feet of natural gas costs $4.27, then a million cubic feet of natural gas costs $4270, which is one thousand times as much as $4.27.

The total natural gas consumption in the United States of roughly 24,000,000 million cubic feet times $4270 per million cubic feet equals about 102 billion dollars.

The annual cost per capita for natural gas in the United States equals about $327 per person.

The total cost for oil, coal, and natural gas use in the United States equals about $2660 per person.

The total Health Care Cost in the U.S. in 2009 was about $2,500,000,000,000 (two point five trillion dollars). This number came from
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/04/nation/la-na-healthcare4-2010feb04

The total Health Care Cost now in America is now running at the rate of $2,700,000,000,000 (two point seven trillion dollars). This number came from a magazine article I read not too long ago.

Total health care spending in America is expected to nearly double to $4.6 trillion dollars in 2020, from $2.6 trillion dollars in 2010.

Health care spending per capita in America is forecast to increase to $13,708 in 2020 from $8,327 in 2010.
The numbers in the above two paragraphs came from http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/28/news/economy/healthcare_spending_forecast/index.htm.

In a magazine article I read not too long ago, they had an even higher number of $8650 per person being spent on health care today in the U.S.

Even using the conservative number in the material above, our current health care cost of $8,327 per person in 2010 is more than three times the total cost of oil, coal, and natural gas use of $2660 per person in the United States.

Our total Health Care Cost in America is about 17.5 percent of GDP.

This total Health Care Cost is headed northward to 20% of GDP within only a matter of few short years.

Then it is headed further northward to 25% of GDP.

This situation continues to get even worse.

What follows is an interesting quote from our own Congressional Budget Office:

CBO projects that without significant changes in policy, total spending for health care will be 31 percent of GDP by 2035 and will increase to 46 percent by 2080.

The above came from http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/102xx/doc10297/chapter2.5.1.shtml.
In case you don't know what GDP means what follows is a definition of GDP from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product.

Gross domestic product (GDP) refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period.

Now let's contrast the above to 1960.

In 1960 there were 189,323,175 million people living in the United States.

The GDP in 1960 was about 520 billion dollars (1960 non-inflation adjusted dollars). This number came from
http://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=what+is+gdp

Our National Health Care Cost was about 5% of GDP in 1960.

our total Health Care Cost nationwide in 1960 was about 26 billion dollars in "1960 money".

Money was worth a lot more in 1960 than it is today.

Okay, so let us adjust for inflation.

$1.00 in 1960 had the same buying power as $7.46 in 2011. This number came from http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm.

Twenty six billion dollars of 1960 money is equivalent to about 193 billion dollars today.

In 1960, one hundred and ninety three billion dollars of "inflation adjusted money" covered the entire health care costs of one hundred and eighty nine million Americans.

What this boils down to is that in 1960 Americans were only spending about one thousand dollars of "today's 2011 dollar" per year on health care on a per person basis.

We are now spending over eight times as much on health care on a per person basis as we did in 1960.

By next year it will be almost nine times more.
And we will be spending fourteen times as much on health care in America as we were in 1960 by the year 2020.

For a person in the United States today to only be spending only about $2660 on their entire use of oil, coal, and natural gas, and be spending about $8330 on health care *over three times as much* is nuts!

And for a person in America to be spending over eight times more on health care than they did in 1960 is nuts too!

For all this "great health care" that we get in the United States, health care that costs over eight times what it did in 1960, one in six children is now considered learning impaired (learning disabled is another term).


Something is really wrong with America when our children as a whole rank so low in educational achievement vs. children in so many other countries.


Who do you blame? And how can we fix all this?

written by Allen Darman

Website: http://nutrientscure.wordpress.com/

A Related Blog:

Two Persons That the OWS People's Movement Should Become Aware Of and Why (10/19/2011)

http://nutrientscure.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/two-persons-that-the-ows-peoples-movement-should-become-aware-of-10172011/

We participated, it's time to fight back

I put in my opening line, that I don't want plutocrats dominating our national capital. & they haven't quite yet, b/c of President Obama.  Plutocrat/plutocracy = rule by the rich.  Our Constitution wasn't about rule by the rich when it was made.  We didn't overcome the Great Depression and World War II by rule by the rich.

Historians agree that the GREAT DEPRESSION STARTED BECAUSE THE WEALTH DISTRIBUTION WAS DISTORTED WHERE TOO FEW PEOPLE HAD TOO MUCH MONEY. It wasn't caused by Welfare cheats or too much government.  THE GREAT DEPRESSION WAS CAUSED BY TOO LITTLE GOVERNMENT.

& NOW THE SAME THING HAS HAPPENED AGAIN. 1% of the richest percentile in OUR NATION own 50% of American wealth. 

It is for that reason that I joined Occupy Chicago.  Last night, I took my son, Ted and his friend Nate to the rally.  It's time to fight back against the lobbyists fighting for the rich.  It's time to fight against guys like Congressmen Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan, bastards that care nothing about the poor and the lower middle class. They are assholes that are paid by the rich when they ran for office and work for the rich.  It's that simple.  They bought the rich's line about how to make this nation better and it was done from 2001 - 2008 when Bush was in office and he had a Republican Congress. 

Keeping the rich's  taxes too low  DOESN'T LEAD TO PROSPERITY, IDIOTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE INCOME TAX RAISE OF 1993 DID CONTRIBUTE TO PROSPERITY and you don't have to believe me, believe an economic leader like Alan Greenspan, A REPUBLICAN, and the Federal Reserve chairman of the US during the 90s WHO said that the Clinton tax raise cut the deficit & that led to the nation's longest prosperity EVER .  (1992 - 2001)

HOW can Paul "Shame of Janesville" Ryan fight so hard for rich people not to even pay taxes.  How can he & other just continue to cut money for road construction and infrastructure improvements. Their real aim is to help those who financed their  campaigns and fuck everyone else.  They don't want to help the nation they want to continue to help the rich which is how it was done from 2001-2009.  Bush adm. put us in a huge hole, and they want us to believe it's all Obama's fault.

So, I participate in the Occupy Wall Street-Occupy Chicago movement.  I bought bottled water for the people that are at the Federal Reserve building at Chicago 24/7 for over 3 weeks.  I gave them more permanent markers to make signs.   I like some of the ones below, as you can see. 

the 1st 4 pictures are obviously self-explanatory.  This last picture is of the drummers.  When you go to the protest site, the 1st thing you can do is hear it, not see it.  There are the protest drums and this is Ground Zero of the drummers and the chants.  The best thing I heard all night wasn't the speeches.  It was as we were driving away. It was Ted's 13th birthday, yesterday.  As we were driving away.  He thanked me for taking me to the protest.  His friend Nate, loved it too !

this is a good icebreaker

The next time you’re at a party, try this fun ice-breaker: ask people what their first concert was. It’s always a delightful conversation topic, and typically the more cringeworthy and one-hit-wonder acts are more fun to discuss than the “cool” bands (if your first show was U2, that’s cool, but Vanilla Ice is almost more special.) I put the question out on Facebook: what was your first concert? Feel free to add your own in the comments. 

Me: CARS   saw them in 1982 in Madison, Wisconsin.  I love the fact that they were cool enough to be at Lolapalooza this year.  Too bad their co-lead singer and bassist, Benjamin Orr weren't still alive.  

Justin: Public Enemy & Anthrax at Aragon!

Joel: Starship and The Outfield, somewhere in Virginia (but not Wolf Trap...). It was 1986 and I was on a teen tour, so maybe that can be my excuse (heh).

Kate Z.: Janet Jackson

Nora: Peter Gabriel at Rosemont Horizon.

Jane: 1988: INXS

Marly: Menudo. I wish I were kidding. They were playing in el Poliedro, in Caracas.

Cheryl: John Denver. ACC Arena. 1974 or 5. Also not my idea -- but when your mom drags you to a concert, you kind of have to go

Rebekah: Liz Phair at the Vic. Fall 1995.

Daniel R.The Monkees at the Rosemont Horizon. Their reunion tour. 1986. I went with my church's teen club. I quit the club after that night.

Andy: Fishbone at Mississippi Nights. It was the nutmeg nineties.

Jonathan: Meatloaf: Rockland Community College, summer of 1978.

Elizabeth J.: Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine at Poplar Creek. I think I was nine. AWW YEAH.

Leonard: The first concert I ever went to was a Beach Boys outdoor show. My best friend's dad took us and someone threw a can of beer at my head. This would have been sometime in the late '70s. 

& someone else:...........The first concert I ever went to of my own choosing was, embarrassingly, Quarterflash. Arizona State Fair, 1982.

& do you recall either the 1st concert or your favorite concert??  you are more than welcome to discuss both.  I  love when you share...........

Isn't this a problem?

Look at Doonesbury cartoon today.

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/archive/2011/08/21 

You know if one of the major causes of the Great Depression was the MALDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES, then isn’t the fact that 400 families have more than about 150 million people in the United States a problem????!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 & don’t you dare try telling me that rich people work harder b/c that’s bullshit.  Try telling that to the woman working 2 jobs in New York City busting ass to feed her kids.....our a couple BOTH WORKING  in a shitty little apartment in LA or Chicago trying to make ends meet.  

Who works hard?  BOTH RICH & POOR

WHO DOESN’T TAKE A VACATION FOR 4 OR 5 YEARS, BECAUSE THEY CAN’T AFFORD IT??  not the rich……..

recent thoughts

This summer has brought changes - large changes, in fact. 

With the death of my father-in-law, my ex has decided to move out of the 2-bedroom condo we shared, and into her late father's house.  That's pretty understandable considering that she and the kids are able to live in a more spacious house, and each has their own bedroom.  During the school year, however, the kids will spend a lot more time in Oak Forest and at the condo, because that is the school district they prefer and been at for 12 years.

There was an observation that I speak/write about money often.  That may very well be true, yet when your conditions change in a very noticeable way, then why not write about it?? 

If you were a model, wouldn't it seem natural to talk about photo shoots?

If you were a football player, wouldn't it seem natural to talk about the games?

If you are a parent, wouldn't you talk about your kids??

If you were a farmer wouldn't you talk about your crops or livestock?

If you were happily married and in love with your husband, wouldn't it seem right to talk about your husband?

So, it is logical for me to write about what's on my mind.  I read a book about anxiety/worrying.  One of the definitions of worrying is:

repeatedly thinking about the same problem/area of concern & worry over and over without coming up with a solution.

Now, no one is perfect. We all worry.  The book made clear what should happen if I am concerned about money. 

Before the book, and definitely after the book I read, I have been making constructive plans to solve the money dilemma I have.  The kids and Maribeth were surprised I got rid of my cable TV subscription, but it certainly didn't surprise me as I'm saving $50 a month.  So, look for ways to save money.  My utility informed me that I'm using less energy than I was last year.  It helps having your air conditioner set 10 degrees higher than it was last summer as well as turning down the freezer. 

Next, is paying off certain accounts.   Now, the air conditioner doesn't turn on unless the temperature is in the 80s (that's fahrenheit and upper 20s if you live where they measure in celsius/centigrade).

I have paid off 2 credit cards during 2011.  In the next 2 months, I am going to be able to pay off 2 more credit cards.  With my medical problem that I have mentioned previously, I have paid off 2 medical accounts.

Third, is to prioritize my accounts.  The mortgage gets paid first, the insurance is a high priority.  Certain accounts necessitate calling customer service and telling, not asking,  that they won't be paid because there's simply not enough money to go around.  It's advice that was given by my dear close friend, Patricia, and it's worked. 

Speaking of friends, getting help is sometimes necessary.  When you are helped, pay  back the little loan soon as I have.  Or, pay back the help with other non-monetary benefits like giving the helper rides when needed and other types of help as well.

Don't get down about setbacks.  I thought that Google AdSense would help just a little bit (not much, I never thought that!)   as they paid for me showing their ads on this very blog.  However, over a week ago, they decided to not to pay after all, so there's no use crying to a monolithic many-billion-dollar corporate piggish entity.  No, forget them.  Let them think what they want, because piggish corporations and piggish corporate heads think only of profit and have a tendency to hurt not only people but nations.  That's why there was a need for the law in 2010 to order health insurance companies to actually use more money towards providing health benefits rather than the lavish compensation to the pigs who run them.  

One thing that Republicans fail to acknowledge is that the most efficient provider of healthcare among the elderly was MEDICARE, not the private insurance companies. Why?  Because Medicare is not profit driven & there's no rich CEO/pig  that is demanding that the board of directors give him more money. 

Don't take my word for it, because it's documented:

"[T]he Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has found that administrative costs under the public Medicare plan are less than 2 percent of expenditures, compared with approximately 11 percent of spending by private plans"

Too much politics?  I wouldn't discuss it if it wasn't true !

 The next thing is keep trying.  That's a rather general platitude for many things.  Being a good Christian (we all sin, but we need to keep trying to live a good life), being a good parent (try hard to  say "no" when you have to, even when you said "no" many times before, even when it's hard and even if they have a compelling reason for you to say "yes", but it hurts the long term goal !) 

Having medical billers write to you and tell you that you didn't pay them when you did is stressful.  But I would be more stressed if I didn't have the records to show the payment.  So, being organized with decent record keeping is another key to the money problem dilemma.

 

One of the best options is to find a better job, and that is difficult.  That takes many resumes and trying.  Another option is to find a 2nd source of income.  I have accomplished that, but am seeking better methods and better pay in that regard.

I don't even know for certain that I'll succeed, but I'll try, I'll use what I've written about and then some.  Theft may be on my list of options, if things ever get worse, but let's hope not !  JK !

EXPRESS MONOPOLY

The winged feet are to show that I invented and wanted to share with you a speedy version of Monopoly.  You know how Monopoly can go on 6 hours. Now, some people don't have 6 hours or 5 or however long it takes for you to spare time playing the fun game.  So, I invented a game that shaves time off of Monopoly.  The best aspect of my invention is that Monopoly gets a lot more interesting when there are actually players with MONOPOLIES!  Before that it's not all that eventful.  So here is what you do.  Players (whether you have 3-5 players) get properties at the beginning of the game as follows:  

3 players Monopoly Portfolios




Portfolio 1
Purple monopoly (eg. has Baltic & Mediterranean)
Orange monopoly (eg. has New York and others that are orange)
Park Place
Get Out of Jail Free card
$2,800


Portfolio 2
Baby Blue monopoly (e.g. has Oriental)
Violet monopoly (eg. has States )
Boardwalk
N. Carolina Avenue
$2500


Portfolio 3
Red monopoly
Yellow Monopoly
Pacific and Penn. Aves.
$2200


4 players Monopoly portfolios (EVERYONE GETS $2,500)

Portfolio 1
Purple monopoly
Boardwalk
Marvin Gardens
2 RR2s (1st & 2nd side)


Portfolio 2
Violet Monopoly
Park Place
Ventor & Atlantic Avenues
2 Railroads (3rd & 4th sides)


Portfolio 3
Baby blue Monopoly
N. Carolina Ave
NY & St. James Aves.

Portfolio 4
Red monopoly
Pacific & Penn Ave
Tennesse Ave.


5 players portfolio

Portfolio 1
Purple monopoly
Boardwalk
Marvin Gardens
$2,400
Portfolio 2
Violet monopoly
4 Railroads
$2800



Portfolio 3
Baby blue monopoly
Park Place
Atlantic & Ventor Aves.
$2,200


Portfolio 4
Red monopoly
Utilities
N. Carolina
$2,400

Portfolio 5
Orange monopoly

Pacific & Penn Aves.

$2500


Rules
1. The Sky is the Limit” as far as how many hotels you put on a . You get to put as many hotels as you want.

2. Corollary to Rule 2 You cannot buy 2 hotels (on 1 piece of property) until every player has passed GO once. You cannot buy 3 hotels (on 1 piece of property) until ever player has gone GO twice. Once that has occurred, Rule 2, above, applies

3 “You snooze you lose!” If someone lands on property you own, if you don’t ask for rent he doesn’t have to pay.

Monopoly trivia:  Over 30 years ago, those who lived in the former Soviet Union (what is now Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhistan, and other areas), were forbidden to play Monopoly as it was against the values of that Communist society.  People in North Korea and Cuba STILL are not allowed to play it !