December 22, 2005

• Does anyone know of a book that deals with all the little secrets of the financial world?  I thinks it’s odd that after all these years, my bank divulges that I can have overdraft protection at 6% instead of 20% or whatever horrible amount they were charging me.  It wasn’t until I paid my reserve balance off and I had them on the phone that they mentioned it.  And I have had at least two previous conversations with them, regarding my reserve line.

  
  

  And why didn’t I know about this thing where there’s a dollar amount that I can afford in realized gain?  When I look at my taxes from last year they’re so straightforward but I remember in 2002  when I was an independent contractor (that’s what my boss said to call it so he didn’t have to mess with W2s) and I got to write all this stuff off.  I need to get that going on again. 

  
  

  I met with my stock broker tonight.  We went out for drinks and appetizers.  I knew it was going to be fun.  We talk on the phone, a lot, and he is always teaching me stuff but I have only been with him once, outside the office, and that was at my divorce.  I went to his office fifteen years ago, when I first started investing, and then after the divorce I went in to try and figure out what everything was and what I could sell in order to buy a house.  But I was on chemo so I don’t remember much about it. 

  
  

  Most everyone else had gone home but there Brian stood in his yellow sweater with his earphone on, talking to a woman it sounded like.  He laughed that intimate way he does with me, and I felt silly.  That’s just how he is with everybody.  Here I thought we had a special bond. 

  
  

  He carefully took off his sweater the way I would if it were cashmere, – that was a surprise – put his suit jacket on and we left for the restaurant next door.  He said he’d never been, another surprise.  When we got upstairs to the bar, a friend of his hailed him and I stood back, inspecting the place.

  
  

  It was dark with lots of low, warm light; expensive looking and very masculine.  It felt like a party, everyone was having fun.  His friend was sitting on a bar stool with maybe 20 other people, on either side of a very long table.  It looked like a Christmas party.  We took the empty seats at the end, and I was immediately glad because it was more comfortable to be part of a group.  Not that we talked to them.

  
  

  We talked about a lot of things, easily.  Over the phone we talk about stock but tonight we didn’t.  And I was relieved to find we had common interests so the time flew by.  I didn’t want to leave but I had my herbal class to get to.

  
  

  I can hardly wait to tell you about how the woman sang to the fairies and gnomes.

  
  

  There’s one other thing I want to say.  On the way back to the elevator where we would part, he mentioned again that he’d never been there before.  I had said how much I like it.  He did, too, and it made him feel good to know people there.  I said I thought that had been a table full of people from his work.  He said, no, that guy had been a fraternity brother from his hometown.  He hadn’t seen him in three years.  Granted he wasn’t with some hot young chick, although that wouldn’t have looked too good, but I knew Brian felt like a man about town.  We both had a good time.

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