May 31, 2008
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Just got home from a Habitat for Humanity work day. I’ve never been involved in a house at such an early stage of the construction before. We showed up to a concrete pad and a bunch of lumber and spent the morning putting up the walls and framing out the house (the walls were all pre-constructed but had to be placed and nailed together). My arm is going to fall off before the end of the day, I’m sure of it. I was pretty pleased, though, at how long I was able to keep hammering! We got all of the walls up and almost all of them capped before breaking for lunch at 12:30. At 1:00, a whole bunch of reinforcements showed up, even though we had finished most of the work. All that was needed was plumbing the structure, and the guys who knew what they were doing said there was only about another hour of work. So, I went ahead and took off, along with the rest of the early crew. I may try to go back and work on this one again so that I can see the progression. The earliest I’ve ever come in was at the sheet-rocking inside / painting outside phase, so this was pretty interesting.
This evening I’m going to attend a going away party for a member of my law school class. She was the woman I studied with and hung out with the most at school. She was the first in our class to make partner, and a year after that, she decided to take a government job with regular hours. Now, she’s heading back to Lubbock to become a professor at Texas Tech. Yay for her! A bunch of our class will be at the party, and I’m looking forward to catching up with some folks. In the meantime, I’m for a shower and an ice pack (for my shoulder)!
Comments (7)
Sounds awesome! I’d like to build a house, but I think I’d need a aspirin and a heating pack after : )
I thought getting to partner was the hard part and then hours became a little better? Is that not it?
@The_Hawkins - That’s a common misperception, or maybe that’s just the way things *used* to be. These days, making partner only means you make more money. The billable hours requirement is just as high, and you have the added responsibilities of administration and bringing in more business. Partners who fail at any of those get removed from the partnership. So, if money is the most important thing to you, partnership is fabulous. If having a life is your top priority, it’s not much of a difference from being an associate, at least not for many years.
@Maaggie - Ah, I see. I want to have my cake and eat it too… I don’t see any point in making a mint if you don’t have time to spend it.
@The_Hawkins – Exactly! That’s why I was happy to take a rather massive pay cut to go in-house and get out of the law firm billable hours rat race. And, why my friend was happy to do the same (taking an even bigger pay cut). What good is the money if you don’t have time to enjoy your life?
“Just got home from a Habitat for Humanity work day” – I so want to do this…maybe in the next couple of years.
@Maaggie - That last question is such a good one and a big thing I try to think about as I make my choices in life.
Kewlness… I’ve always wanted to participate in Habitat for Humanity projects…