Nutshell Me

Here is a snapshot of my current life (taken from my very first post and updated):

Went to Michigan State University where I learned to party and something about political science, great school, really though.

When I was small (not young, because I still consider myself that since I turn 21 every year) I wanted to be a lawyer so I could wear suits to work everyday. Since clearly political science does not get you a job, I applied to law school.

My plan was that if no law school wanted me, I would go to cosmetology school and become a stylist for major runway shows. I still remember my mom's calm reaction when I told her my back up plan, thanks for never calling me out, Mom! She's always taken my brilliant ideas in stride.

Luckily a private law school sent me a letter saying they would gladly accept $30,000 + a year from me!

Law school ended up agreeing with my intelligence and I graduated with honors. I could have done even better if it wasn't for that refrigerated can of Ragu sauce I ate the night before a final exam my first year. Did you know that if you open a can of Ragu and put the rest back in the fridge until you want Ragu again, the date on the jar means nothing?

Spent the summer studying for the bar exam - loved studying aka sitting by the pool and doing practice questions and relaxing every night to "de-stress". Passed the bar, yeah.

Had a job lined up doing commercial real estate consulting aka making phone calls to carefully selected individuals who may be interested in me saving them money off their bottom line by taking advantage of the down market... aka if you had CFO or CEO next to your name you got a phone call from me and I literally laughed when you cussed me out or hung up on me... (except for the one day when I hid in the bathroom crying to my mom on the phone about how I wouldn't want me to call me either).

After a few months of applying to anything with "legal" in the title, I got my first big girl job. I was honestly so lucky to have this job. I worked for a small firm in a rich neighborhood and practiced (aka made very educated guesses with some mentor direction)... here we go... probate (dead people/adults or minors who need a guardian), real estate, business law, civil litigation, criminal defense, collections, estate planning, divorce, landlord-tenant, post-judgment issues and whatever other type of law my boss told me I needed to do.

About a year ago I bought house that only needed cosmetic renovations, yay, with lake access and then had to get a boat (Justin). I married my husband Justin in Mexico this year and it was the best week of my life so far. We have my little MinPin, Hailey (aka Tiny and Mini-Pini) and Justin's sweet but seriously scared of people, dog, Scooter (aka Poo Man). Doesn't everyone have dumb nick names for their dogs? 

My sister married James and they have their first daughter Claire who was born October 19, 2014. She is a cutie pa-tootie. Erin, James and Claire currently live in West Point, NY as James is stationed there for now. Erin is a psychiatric nurse practitioner and obviously has the best stories. My parents live out in "the country" and own their own company. My Dad drives around his property on a tractor and my Mom on a lawnmower. They waive to each other when they drive past. You get the picture...

I currently work two jobs - my second big girl job and a side job. Don't ask me how this happened but I am General Counsel and head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs for a private telephone company headquartered in Michigan (and also doing business in 12 other states). I do everything legal the CEO and CFO can think of, plus some. It's a fantastic job. I also am a legal writer for a company who publishes "do it yourself" legal information on a site called www.nolo.com. I love to research and write and I've been told I'm pretty good at explaining the law to the common person. Currently I have about 17 articles published and am working on about 6 more each month, go me!


Update: I left my General Counsel position and am now a very happy government employee. I can't say much more but I work for the best county in Michigan!

That's all for now - please enjoy my blog posts - I think I'm pretty funny (got that trait from my Dad) so hopefully you will too. Ta-ta!