Floss religiously

The Best $50 I ever made

I turned 25 in March. On that wonderful day, I got to celebrate joining the rest of the world with reasonable car insurance rates. Unfortunately, 25 is also the age that Mom and Dad's health insurance gave me the boot. It was nice while it lasted. I signed up for my own, and I got a message that my premium was going up 10% because I'm getting older. (Correction: I procrastinated until Amber got so frustrated with me that she signed me up for some health insurance. I just signed the paperwork)

I've started attending lunch lectures on topics such as the two kinds of disability insurance
and financial solutions for starting your practice.

It hit me just the other day. I've never earned a real paycheck. Sure I've had a few summer flings with employment here and there, but I've never worked a real job.

I had an opportunity to bring in the big bucks Friday and today. One of the regional dental licensure testing agencies came to town to offer their "services" to the senior class. To say that those students were a little tense would be an understatement. Failure means that they loose an exorbitant test fee, and more importantly, they have take the test in another state before graduating.

The whole set-up was pretty controlled. Obscure paperwork flows from room to room. Examiners are not permitted to see the dental student who performs the work. I and my fellow minions escorted patients from the operatories to the examiner's secluded floor where they poked, prodded, and scrutinized each student's work.

In the meantime, I prodded and scrutinized how each examiner did his diligent duty. At some point, somebody asked why I'd do the such a monotonous job on my three day weekend. "It's simple" I told her. "I'm getting paid to gather intelligence." The testing agency offered me $50 per day to assist the examiners in the scoring area and watch exactly how they did their job.

The money won't go far, but at least I got to know the "enemy."