We are finally settled into our apartment in Washington D.C. — the hoard of boxes is gone and all of the furniture is put together. Blessed be.
We are finally settled into our apartment in Washington D.C. — the hoard of boxes is gone and all of the furniture is put together. Blessed be.
There was a scene on a recent episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race where one of the contestants (Kameron Michaels) does extremely well in the challenge, but still prepares for the elimination lip sync just in case she is in the bottom 2 that week.
The other contestants scold Kameron for not enjoying her success, but Kameron says that she’s not the type to prematurely celebrate achievements.
While the people around me celebrated finishing tests and reaching milestones, I preoccupied myself with contingency plans.
Even when I did accomplish goals, I still ran through worst-case scenarios and planned for what would come next. Passed the bar – What if I failed the MPRE? Got a job offer – What if it’s rescinded? Finished finals – What if I failed Partnership Taxation?
It’s shortly after 3 a.m. and I’m walking across D.C. in a black suit carrying two narrow duffle bags.
I am prepared to 1) get mugged, or 2) explain to a police officer that I’m not a hitman, but rather a tax lawyer headed to the Supreme Court.
The duffle bags contain branded folded chairs from my law firm. I am on my way to a hotel to meet an associate lawyer who flew in from one of our other offices.
I make it to the hotel without getting mugged or stopped by a cop.
The associate is outside of the hotel with a woman from a competing law firm in New York. Introductions are made and we then have the most ridiculous time getting a cab – the three taxis in front of the hotel are not interested in driving us only 2 miles to court. They would rather wait for a more lucrative fare to a far flung airport.
It’s about 4 a.m. and there are already dozens of people camped out in line.
Professional line-standers in front of the Supreme Court.
The lines in front of the Supreme Court before the Wayfair v. South Dakota oral arguments.
The case that attracted this odd mix of tax lawyers, tourists, and professional line-standers is South Dakota v. Wayfair. This is the first major state and local tax (SALT) case to reach the Supreme Court in about 25 years and my SALT professors have been buzzing about the case ever since my first week at Georgetown’s tax LL.M. program.
In August, I never imagined that I would actually be present at such an important Supreme Court oral argument. (The timing at the end of the semester is terrible.) And yet here I am, in the middle of the night among new coworkers.
My job search in Washington D.C. was marked by mornings at a coffee shop in Chinatown.
I am barely in town a week when I first visit Compass Coffee on F Street. It’s August, muggy, and I am already sweating in the suit that I bought the day before.
Orientation hasn’t even started for the Georgetown LL.M. program, but I am already interviewing for externships. The law firm is in Chinatown, so I decide to metro to the area early and camp-out at a coffee shop. That way, I’ll be on-time and avoid the crush of rush-hour metro traffic.
Every year, Georgetown and NYU’s LL.M. programs jointly host the “Tax Interview Program” (TIP) — a massive speed-interviewing event where law and accounting firms interview pre-selected candidates.
The bulk of my TIP interview invitations were from Dallas and Houston, so I had a strong feeling that I would be returning to the Texas heat in May.
But then the week before TIP, I unexpectedly received not one, but two (!!) offers in Washington D.C. — and I took one.
I occasionally do reporting for The Dallas Morning News‘ entertainment website, GuideLive.
One of the time-honored gay traditions here in Dallas (and across the U.S.) is brunch, so I decided to a post about the best bottomless mimosa spots in Dallas.
However, in doing my research for the article, I discovered that bottomless mimosas are illegal in Texas.
Not only that, but another publication — The San Antonio Current — did a similar bottomless mimosa article which the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission used as an enforcement hit-list.
Summertime is nigh.
Rising temperatures and tornado outbreaks mean that springtime is almost over in Dallas.
My days are zipping by quickly with extremely early work mornings and a demanding bar prep schedule, but I’m still making time to walk the dogs and hit up the usual gayborhood spots with friends.
Cassie Nova hosting a drag show at S4 nightclub in Dallas.
Gunter and Ingrid on a dog walk in the Perry Heights section of the gayborhood.
Comparing our shoes at an Oak Lawn happy hour.
Gunter, the chiweenie on our balcony one morning.
I’m sitting for the July bar exam here in Dallas, which means that I’m undergoing the bar prep experience that many of my old classmates did years ago.
Back at Thomson Reuters, my positions were J.D.-preferred, so getting licensed was never a priority.
I have a new Texas tax article over at The Dallas Morning News — it’s about a New York tax appeal case involving Match Group CEO Gregory Blatt.
Blatt moved to Dallas from NYC back in 2009 after becoming the CEO of Dallas-based dating site Match.com. Prior to that, he ran the legal department of Match’s parent company, IAC.
My workdays start at 4 a.m. now.
After a trip to the Keurig, the Chrome tabs start flying open — I am off checking analytics, various news sites, and a myriad of Slack channels to produce the morning newsletter for The Dallas Morning News.
By 7:00 a.m., the news roundup is online and in inboxes. Next comes a round of audience emails and social media exchanges before I head into the office.
I try to leave the office by 1 p.m., but afternoon meetings make this impossible on most days. And least once a week, a late meeting or evening technical issues blow my workday past the 14-hour mark.
Here’s what I’m talking about today:
1. German terror attacks: A terror attack killed 12 people in Berlin yesterday. I was able to find a German newspaper’s livestream coverage of the event, which is why The Dallas Morning News had the most up-to-date English-language coverage yesterday and today. (German is my first language.)
My most recent article for The Dallas Morning News is about how Texas lawmakers plan on handling tax issues in the upcoming legislative session.
Lowering taxes is a common GOP policy goal, but the actual proposals differ dramatically.
Texas is one of the few places in the country without a state income tax. (This was a pleasant surprise when I moved from Minnesota.)
My latest post for The Dallas Morning News is about where Texas gets its revenue from in the absence of an income tax:
The past month whizzed by.
We had gay pride parades in Dallas and Fort Worth, long pool days, and trips to Six Flags Over Texas. I will cover everything in posts this month because I’ve promised myself to stop having a Truman Capote dilemma and finally start blogging again.
I got up around 4 a.m. today, wrote the morning news roundup, and then posted the newspaper’s Hillary Clinton ‘recommendation’ to Twitter and Facebook (where it would go viral.)
By 5:30 a.m., I was running for my life down Cedar Springs Road.
I came across a stray pitbull while taking the dogs to the walk-up Starbucks at the edge of Oak Lawn. We were several blocks from my apartment building when I noticed the 70-pound pitbull staring at us from behind an apartment building fence.
Ingrid, my labradoodle, barked at the pitbull and it darted toward a fence opening.
Cut to me sprinting at full-speed down Cedar Springs road with a labradoodle and a Chihuahua. It felt like a scene from Stranger Things (or at least a Dallas version of Scary Movie.)
Like the rest of this summer, there were far more storms than usual. The sight of a rain wall coming through downtown Dallas was a common occurrence and I got stuck outside in the rain all the time.
My weekdays are long now. I wake up around 4:30 a.m. to write morning recaps for the paper. (These will eventually become newsletters.) A long-ish dog walk happens, and then I’m in the office until halfway through the evening.
Moving to The Dallas Morning News was a dramatic change for me.
Back in Minnesota, I worked on a 7,000-person suburban corporate campus. The Thomson Reuters campus was so huge that I had law school classmates who worked there for years before I ran into them. It was also common not to recognize anyone in the hallways if you didn’t work in that part of the building.
Since moving to Dallas, I worked from home and didn’t see coworkers in-person unless I was visiting a client’s office.
Now, I go to a downtown office every day. It’s nice being back in a real office because working from home started feeling like being under house arrest. I also had clients in every time zone, so there wasn’t a clear end to the work day.
My neighbors tried to make plans when we met at the dog park.
Jack: “You’re not celebrating?!”
Jill: “You have to do something for your 30th!”
Me: “I am not a big holiday person, and a big party feels gauche in light of the Dallas shootings.”
Jack: “I get that, but you should do something.”
Me: “Like what? Pool time? Bars and drag shows? Brunch? That’s every weekend.”
Jill: “Yeah, living in Oak Lawn is kind of a permanent vacation.”
We did get out of the house this weekend, spent some serious time at the pool, and even had a few long walks downtown.
New and old buildings at the edge of downtown Dallas (near the farmers’ market.)
A mannequin with a fabulous hat at Flower Reign in Oak Lawn, Dallas.
Although the decision to move to Dallas well-informed, I am still continually surprised by this place.
Exploring downtown Dallas in summer
The crowd at the March Gay Bingo / Resource Center Event at Station 4 in Dallas.
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is one of my favorite books. I re-read it constantly.
This Italian political treatise is about 500 years old, but contains a lot of insights into human behavior that translate well into modern life, particularly politics and marketing.
I recently thought of my favorite passage from The Prince during an awful client meltdown.
This situation will be familiar to many of my digital marketing friends:
When dealing with a client who refuses to accept digital marketing changes, I think about Machiavelli’s warning to leaders who face resistance to change:
Michael started at the Thomson Reuters Carrollton office last week and already managed to score us free tickets to a Dallas Stars hockey game.
We also saw a Dallas Stars hockey game last fall because Michael won free tickets from his gig at 7-Eleven Corporate. The 7-Eleven seats were nice, but Thomson Reuters has a suite!