Accomplishing Escapism

I solved the apartment crisis.  Rachel and I had a very rational conversation about the realities involved, although wisely I did not mention how much was due to miscommunication rather than my failure to fully understand my situation.  ANYWAY.  She and Natasha are going to proceed looking for a two bedroom place that fits their needs, and I am going to hold down my own fort until I'm in a better place to move out and see who needs a roommate at that time.  Once we realized that we were both afraid the other was going to be mortally offended by the situation, but neither of us actually was, it was all fine.  I think it's the best thing for everyone involved plus I don't want to live with Natasha.

In other news, I went to the cross-town Sox vs. Cubs game at the Sox field today, and it was a good game.  It was fun to watch, both teams had hilarious failboat moments and both teams had excellent plays.  But I was reminded of the one thing that continuously sticks in my craw whenever I go to sporting events:

The fans are mean.

I don't mean this as a general statement, but I absolutely hate it when the game becomes not just about supporting your team of choice but bringing down the other.  I think it is ludicrous that people get SO worked up and SO mean spirited about something that is, at the end of the day, a GAME.  Baseball will not save the world.  Baseball will not accomplish life-changing things.  But it is entertaining to watch and rooting for your team provides a nice avenue of feeling like you're part of something.  I think it's awful when fans abuse that in other fans, feeling entitled about who they support simply because it is Team A as opposed to Team B.  It really DOES NOT MATTER who ANYONE roots for.  And it makes me sad when people practically get into fistfights over something so cosmically unimportant.

This applies absolutely to the extremist fans of sportsteams I support myself.  I am going to go get a custom jersey made, that will be black with red white and blue lettering, and declare myself to be a Whibbies fan, a fan of Chicago baseball.  I will attend games for both teams and cheer equally hard, and when the cross-town games happen I will rest easy in the knowledge that whoever wins will make me happy, as long as I enjoy watching the game.  Because in the end, that's really the important thing.

Yesterday I thought it might be interesting to look up what it takes to get a paralegal certificate, since that's just the official name for the work I do for my dad anyway.  I was thinking getting the certificate might be a good idea, since I could probably make more money and get work at other lawfirms.  And what did I find out that the average paralegal can make in a year?

Up to $60K.  A year.  My mom said that the paralegals working at CitiCorp when she was there were making <B>$80K</B>.

So yeah.  New plan, guys.  Not just a frivolous one, either - I LIKE working in my dad's firm.  It's interesting work, there's always something to do, and I'm smack in the middle of the city.  I do not want to go to law school or become a lawyer, but yeah, I do find law interesting and I know I can handle the work of a paralegal.  Plus, there are several accredited online programs OR schools in the Chicago area I could attend; with my BA, it wouldn't take more than a year or two to finish the accredation. 

Although, I was very irritated with the Kaplan people yesterday - barely twenty minutes after I requested info from their site, they were CALLING me at work to talk to me.  When I politely explained that I was at work, and would there be a better time for me to call them back? the woman on the phone said it would only take a minute and proceeded to talk at me for twenty more minutes.  I confess to being rather rude, since I was, you know, at WORK, but she seriously just kept going.  I didn't want to hang up on her, since I am interested in their program, but really?  Even after I said I couldn't talk, because I was at work, which is a completely reasonable place for me to be at 3:30 in the afternoon, you had to keeeeeeeeep going?

And then later in the day I got ANOTHER call.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except I indicated on the sites that I was not looking for immediate enrollment - that this was a very in-the-future sort of deal, so no, I am not going to know exactly what I am doing NOW THIS INSTANT.  And repeating your questions about eight times won't get a better answer from me.  So I'm screening my calls for the next couple of days - I don't like being trapped on the phone with nothing useful to say, especially when I didn't ask for the call.