Halfway to a Pension

Spoke to a college buddy that I hadn't been in touch with in over a year yesterday. He's been with IBM for 9 years now, which is an eternity for our age group and works in their auditing group. He did an internship with them during college and then spent 2 years traveling throughout Asia on auditing assignments, another couple of years in North Carolina and then has now been in Austin, TX for several years. It's a pretty impressive resume but, for some reason, I don't envy him. He's always been a smart, modest, quiet spoken guy but goodlooking too. Got married several years ago to an Indonesian gal he met while overseas. I'm pretty surprised they're still together because they had all kinds of issues shortly after getting married, mostly stemming from cultural issues and related financial issues.

He's midway through a full-time MBA program which IBM is paying for 100% but requires that he stays 2 years after he completes the degree. He sounded tired from 1.5 years of working full time and going to school practically full time too. I know that I couldn't do it. I was surprised that he was disappointed with work. He felt that he'd been passed over for promotions several times in the last few years. I really can't imagine being with a company for that long, especially if you aren't really happy and feel slighted. I'm sure his benefits must be great after having been there for years though so it gets harder and harder to leave. It's funny how just 5 years ago, I would have traded places in our careers but not for a million bucks now (ok, maybe for a million bucks but you get my point).

Total spent Monday:
$0 brough lunch
$86 but went to South Coast Plaza and bought 2 pairs of slacks on sale
$24 dinner (delivered pizza)

Total spent Tuesday:
$0 brought lunch

Total spent Wednesday:
$0 on lunch (expensed lunch for me and guest)
$37 gas
$3.50 blended coffee drink
$13 2 travel books from liquidation bookstore
$37 dinner for 3 (favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Specialty II in Tustin, saved $7 with Entertainment coupon)

Total spent today:
$11 lunch at Acapulco