A3G's New Year's Resolution

"She's baaaack..." Yes, Article III Groupie has returned to blogging -- and to her day job -- after a most pleasant extended hiatus. She wishes her readers a very happy new year!

A3G hopes to issue some juicy new posts in the next few days, and she will soon turn her attention to her (dauntingly large) e-mail backlog. If you have e-mailed A3G in the past few weeks and have not received a response, she apologizes for her delay in getting back to you.

In the meantime, A3G has an announcement to make. As you could probably tell, she was suffering from blogger burnout right before she left for vacation. Instead of providing her with pleasure, writing "Underneath Their Robes" had become a source of stress. She felt great pressure to issue enligtening and entertaining posts with regularity and frequency. As a result, blogging began to feel less like a form of leisure and more like a second job (and an unpaid one at that).

And now, the announcement. Article III Groupie has returned from vacation in a refreshed and relaxed state, and she's ready to blog again. But this year she will be spending dramatically less time on her blog (and blog-related e-mail).  The frequency of her posting will drop, perhaps to one post every one or two weeks, and she will not check her UTR e-mail account every day.

There are several reasons for A3G's planned decrease in blogospheric output. First, A3G remains concerned about the problem of blogger burnout. She hopes that by posting and e-mailing less frequently, she can reduce her blog-related stress level, so blogging will feel like a fun and relaxing hobby, not a chore or an obligation. Second, as she moves up the law firm ranks, getting closer and closer to partnership, she needs to devote more time and attention to her legal career. Her performance reviews last year were strong, but she has some worthy competition in her associate class. Third, she has other priorities in her life besides making partner and blogging -- such as exercising, shopping, and finding a hunky boyfriend in time for Valentine's Day.

A3G realizes that some of you will be disappointed to hear this news. But disappointing news, dear readers, is simply a part of life. See, e.g., the Pitt-Aniston break-up. A3G hopes that you will understand her decision, and she asks for your continued support of "Underneath Their Robes," even if she can't devote as much time to it as she once did.

Also resolved to lose five pounds (even though her friends tell her she doesn't need to),

Article III Groupie

Comments

[Evan]

Better to keep posting on a reduced basis than to give up the blog entirely. Believe me, you would be missed!

[gurdonark]

I think that the most serious challenge of being a less-than-fully-experienced lawyer is the challenge of finding time for law and for life.

I think it's a healthy thing to start a weblog like this as a way of finding that rumoured "life other than lawyering" and it's an even more healthy thing to then run this weblog so that the life so "discovered" extends beyond the cyberverse and the law firm. In an earlier age, you could just write poetry in slim volumes, but I suppose everyone is just too plugged in these days.

It's been fun to read your weblog over the past couple of months, watching you continue to develop this A3G persona and continuing to find your "voice" (albeit a comedic voice based on this curious platform) as you write.

I always think of those fevered souls in law school, who got to law school with 4.0s from cool little liberal arts schools and imagined that if they just worked enough hours at studying, then somehow top ranking was a certainty. For those folks, law school was the death of "work hard" and the birth of "work hard but smart". For others, the entry level associate year was that death--we all know a few (usually former) associates still smouldering from that form of self-assisted burnout.

Your decision to prioritize and reduce your weblog maintenance/posting time seems to me to be a similar decision. All around you in any given law firm are people who will tell you to work harder. No doubt some folks can see with a bit of vision that you've managed to parlay yourself some minor celebrity here. With hard work, who knows? Maybe you'll be invited to play Texas Hold 'Em on cable or fill a square in a game show. All that, if you work hard. But sometimes, it's good to work smarter. I think your decision to prioritize and manage your time is wise.

Good fortune in 2005 with priorities and finding your way to have your cake, eat it, too, and even to document it in a really cool exhibition.

[Loyal Cinci Correspondent]

Well this and the news that Michael Chertoff is leaving the federal bench for a temp job has left me utterly disconsolate. As the Psalmist himself cried,
"Oh Lord, wherefore art thou absent from us so long? Why is thy wrath so hot against the sheep of thy pasture?"

[Dylan]

I'll bet if I'd said "end" rather than "stop" that might have worked. Alas, undone by poor word choice yet again. At least this time I won't be slapped for it.

[Dylan]

Blogging and finding a hunky boyfriend need not be mutually exclusive activities.

PLEASE, MAKE THE LONELINESS STOP!!

[One of the Elect]

I think you are just ashamed that you called SOC "SDO."

And quiet is the new loud.

[NewYearNewYou]

Good for you! I think less is the new more.