DAY TWENTY-THREE

Friday.

I spent $3.00 this morning at the cafeteria because I didn't have any cash or change for coffee and I forgot to bring tea bags to work and I needed something HOT and CAFFEINATED. So I bought a giant coffee and blueberry yogurt. I met my "mentor" for lunch (the Oregon Bar has a program where it pairs new lawyers with mentors) and had a tasty grilled portobello mushroom sandwich. My mentor is a really interesting person. He's done everything, been everywhere and offered some great insight into life and law. We also discussed the pitfalls of a legal education, namely the lack of employment opportunities and ridiculous amount of debt students today graduate with. He made a good point: law school should not be that expensive. A law school does not need labs, or chemicals, or expensive equipment. A law school also doesn't need sports programs or auditoriums or art supplies. A law school needs some rooms, chairs, books, and a few professors. Actually books aren't all that necessary -- Westlaw or Lexis will suffice. Instead, law schools are getting bigger and bigger and charging more and more and churning out more broke attorneys into an already over-saturated profession.

I'm done complaining. I would not change going to law school. I'm happy to have the degree, the education, and the experience. It's just the debt that's the problem...but that was partly my fault. While I had to take out a lot of student loans to cover books and tuition I also spent a great deal of student loan money on personal items, parties, trips, my DVD collection, clothes, stuff I thought I had to have. I wouldn't trade the memories and experiences (ie parties and trips) for anything...and my DVD collection is pretty sweet...but everything else - total waste. Students today live a life of luxury because we have all this money thrown at us and we think we'll have great, well-paying jobs when we get done with school and it'll all be fine. Life lessons.

ANYWAY, after work Wink and I walked to the library to turn in some cd's and pick up a DVD I had on hold. I walked to the grocery store to pick up some salad dressing and spent the entire trip thinking about all the cookies, chocolate, doughnuts, etc I wanted. When I arrived I remembered BERRIES! I love berries. I purchased my third carton of strawberries for the week, a carton of blackberries, and a bag of cherries. Cookie dough would have been cheaper, but my health thanks me. Spent $20.94.

Total spent: $23.00

Musical side note: While it's been out for awhile, I just can't get enough of the "Into the Wild" soundtrack by Eddie Vedder. Listen to it.