How I'm spending my Sunday

I'm writing a paper to be presented by my boss at a big important conference that will be attended by lots of big important people. The working title is "The Most Boring Paper on the Planet." It is due Tuesday. I have known about it for about 3 weeks. He has certainly known about it much longer than that. But with all of the craziness at work over the last few weeks I have had little time to dedicate to it. He wants it to be 20-25 pages (single spaced). I am at 9 pages.

Despite the boringness of the subject matter, there have been two very recent and important state supreme court cases released that are relevant to my paper. That means that there are virtually no published articles analyzing these cases, and I am having to rely on my own analysis. Thank goodness for the blogosphere which has discussed these cases a little bit--at least enough to confirm that I am on the right track. Because I just discovered that the supreme court justice who authored one of the cases that I am spending a significant portion of this paper analyzing will be presenting on recent state supreme cases within an hour after my boss (there is one speaker in between.) So I really want to make sure I get it right.

I should have worked on this yesterday, but instead took the day off. I took the twins to their soccer game, while DH took PS to her acting class. Then I got my hair cut and colored. I never have my hair professionally colored. But the greys are popping up with greater frequency and I just haven't had the time to do it myself. And one of the attorney's I work with told me I was looking haggard--so I added highlights for a little extra zip. My hair looks light and springy and I like it. While I was getting my hair done, DH ran errands with the kids. Since they were still out when my hair was done I went shopping all by myself--something that I don't get the opportunity to do very much. I bought two pair of shoes, a suit and several cute spring tops.

Later I took PS grocery shopping with me since I had not seen much of her and spent the rest of the day hanging with the kiddos since I knew that I would be ignoring them all day today while I try to knock out this paper.

This afternoon one kid has a birthday part at the bowling place. DH is going to take the other two bowling at the same time to get them out of my hair. Hopefully being out of the house for a while will help them forget that I am ignoring them.

This is how brilliant I am

I was supposed to have my picture made for the firm website today. And I had a client meeting (woohoo, yes I am actually getting to meet with clients now). So I put in an effort to wear my favorite suit and pearls.

Halfway to work I realized that I had only put on half my makeup. (I carry lipstick and face powder with me but not eye makeup.) I had taken care to cover the giant zit that popped up on my chin, but I had absolutely no eye makeup on. Apparently in the middle of putting on my makeup I had to go deal with a kid problem and just forgot to finish the job.

Sigh. At least I was able to cancel the picture-taking.

Meanwhile, I filled out my 401K paperwork last night. It feels good to finally be contributing to my retirement. I know I am behind--being 33 and having no significant savings (thank you, law school).

Recharging

Saturday was the first day that I have had off in 3 weeks and it was much needed. I have been billing 60 hours + lately, and all of the travel last week left me exhausted.

Tuesday I left the house at 6 and drove 4 hours to close a deal. Met with the appropriate people, drove another hour to the bank and then 5 hours back home in terrible pounding thunderstorms.

Wednesday I went in to the office at 8:30, stayed til almost 7, then headed to the airport for my 9:00 pm flight. I made it to my hotel by midnight, and was out the door by 8:00 the next morning to make my 9:00 am hearing. Was done with the hearing by 10:00 am, headed back to the airport to get on the stand-by list for the 11:00 flight, and was the last person on the plane. I was back in the office by 2:00 pm. I planned to stay only an hour or two, but some issues came up and I didn't leave until 6.

Went in a 9:00 Friday. I did not have a lot to do and was looking forward to a relaxing day. Then more issues started popping up that made my relaxing day rather hectic. (I was the only attorney in my practice group in the office on Thursday and Friday. My supervising attorney's have been out of town dealing with Really Big Case.) But I got everything settled and managed to leave at 3:00 when the office closed.

Finally got some much needed girlie-time Friday night. We rented Mr. Magorium's Magic Emporium and had family movie night. (It was ok, not great but the kids liked it. I wasn't expecting much, because the reviews were terrible.) TT curled up in my lap for the whole movie.

Saturday we went on a hike and then DH dragged us to church for our obligatory biannual appearance.

Today we hung out around the house, did laundry, a little cleaning and built a model of the digestive system for PS's school project.

It was a nice, not overly- hectic weekend. Hopefully it is enough let me jump back in full-speed tomorrow. And to remind the kids of what their mom looks like--since they haven't seen much of me lately.

Who knew snow globes were a security threat?

I haven't flown in a while, so, since I have a business trip tomorrow and would prefer not to check my luggage, I went to the TSA site to make sure I would my makeup in my carry-on bag. The list of prohibited items is pretty entertaining. Please leave your blow torches and hand grenades at home. However, feel free to bring your screwdrivers, wrenches and pliers, provided they aren't more than 7 inches long. But this prohibited item just struck me as hilarious...

Snow globes and like decorations regardless of size or amount of liquid inside,
even with documentation.

BTW, does anyone really think it is reasonable to expect a woman to put all of the things needed to make her beautiful into a single one-quart bag? I am not a high-maintenance girl, but I am going to have a hard time fitting the necessities in there.

Holy cow

The whole office has been crazy busy with the big new case. Good news for me in that I am getting plenty of hours and the opportunity to work on a really big case--even though my work is basically all in the background. But it also means that my supervising attorneys are so busy wrangling Really Big Case that some of the smaller stuff is being punted to me.

Tomorrow I have to go out of town to close a deal. I have pretty much orchestrated this deal and am very comfortable with closing it, but it was never suggested that I would do so.

I'm also being sent out of town again Wednesday night for a Thursday morning hearing. I haven't made a court appearance since law school.

And I am sitting in on a client meeting (I have had no client contact since being with this firm) on Friday. It is a relatively minor case, and I think that they are preparing to have me run with it.

So I am definitely glad to be getting more responsibility and venturing out from my usual research and drafting tasks. And I am happy to "cut my teeth" on the smaller cases, while still being involved in complex cases. It is a good blend.

But, damn, I am tired.

Its midnight, do you know where LC is?

Blogging in the bathtub. Don't worry, there's no water in it. But my house is bursting with company and I didn't want to keep DH up, and so here I am. I'm just not tired. Don't ask me why. I worked all day at the office and will probably need to put in some time from home tomorrow. Hmmm, maybe I should be doing some reading for work, that would probably put me to sleep.

Today was my official start date--so no more hourly pay for working all day on a Saturday. I have a boatload of paperwork to fill out. All of the regular work stuff, plus forms to list me in M-H and a few other lawyer listings. And the firm website. So I have to figure out my practice areas. Ummm, I've been licensed for 4 months--I haven't really established any practice areas. I've done a little bit of everything. Mostly products liability, but at this point I feel like a bit of a fraud claiming anything as a practice area.

Still putting in lots of hours, with no end in the very near future. I know it will settle eventually--but it could be a few weeks. Meanwhile I am taking advantage of a little bit of quiet time, hiding out in my bathtub.

Life is mostly good

Thanks for all the congrats! Everyone at the firm has been very nice and happy that I am finally sticking around.

But I have been so busy. We got a big case that is getting a lot of attention. The good news is that I am having no problems getting my billables right now. The not-so -good news is that I am exhausted. (The time change did not help.)

And since I worked all weekend, I didn't get any household stuff done--like grocery shopping. And my in-laws are coming this weekend, which we have known about for a couple of weeks. But then SIL just called to say that they decided to come visit, too. So I will have 7 houseguests for the weekend, 3 of whom are small children.

I really do like my inlaws, but I am so tired, and there will be no rest with a houseful of people. And I have to prepare for them. Thank god I finally got a housekeeper and that they are coming Friday. Tonight I went out and bought extra sheets and towels, because ours are starting to get kinda ratty. At some point I need to find my way to the grocery store. And planning a menu--arrgh.

And then next weekend we are planning to leave town (if I can get away from work). I'm beginning to think that might be a mistake, because with all the craziness I am going to need a break.

Oh and get this--at my firm all vacation/sick/personal time is discretionary for attorneys. As in, there is no set amount of time that one is allowed to take off. I'm thinking this is not a good thing.

I should probably put another hour or in tonight but I am truly pooped and would probably be useless. So I think I'll call it a night and try to find that extra hour that I lost earlier in the week.

Party at LC's place

It's official--I have a job. (9.75 months after graduation) They made the offer today and I will switch from contract to associate on the 15th. It is such a huge relief to finally have some degree of security. (Now I just have to worry about keeping up with my billables.)

They are paying me the salaried equivalent of what I have been earning hourly. DH though I should have negotiated for more, but honestly, what they are paying me is very competitive outside of Biglaw, so I didn't really have much to negotiate with. Besides, I didn't really expect a bump since I now get the benefit of, well, benefits.

But the best part is that the office managertold me that Big Boss spoke very highly of me and was very complimentary--and compliments are hard to come by from him.

So I know that I have had some misgivings about this firm, but I do think this is a good thing. I really like the cases that I am working on, and I have been given more varied and important tasks over the last month. I definitely could have been stuck with something much worse.

Now I need to go edit al of my posts that could get me fired. I wasn't especially careful when I was contract, because I didn't feel that I had anything to lose. My apologies if that screws up anyone's reader.

The world revolves around families of 4

Which is irritating when you are a family of five. Most restaurants can easily accommodate 4, but with 5 they feel like they have to seat you at a giant table for which you have to wait an extra 15 minutes. (I have learned to tell the hosts that, because my children are small, we can fit into a standard size booth. That's not going to last much longer, though.) When we visit amusement parks, most rides will accept only 2 or 4--leaving one of us to go it alone. And then there are hotels.

In certain cities it is nearly impossible to book a hotel room for five. We are considering a road trip in a couple of weeks to a city we have visited once before. And we had the same problem last time. On that trip the twins were not quite 3, so I just fibbed and booked for 4. It's pretty easy to sneak an extra kid into a hotel when 2 of them look exactly alike.

But besides the fact that I don't really like having to hide one of my kids, a standard hotel room just isn't big enough. I can't sleep in the same room as my kids. They toss, they turn, they snore--loudly. And they don't go to sleep when we are all in the same room.

The answer, of course, is to get a suite. Suites are great, the are bigger, they divide the space (sometimes) so I don't have to listen to my snoring kids. So why are suites so friggin' hard to come by? Is it because I waited until the last minute to book? Is it because everybody wants a bigger room and to not listen to their kids' snoring? And if that is the case, why aren't hotels catching on and building more suite hotels. Isn't the average American family supposed to have 2.3 kids. Just where do they think we are going to put that extra 1/3 kid?

Rite of Passage

I worked 12 hours straight yesterday (yes, that would be Saturday). And I'm going back today. It sort of seems overdue. What kind of lawyer doesn't have to lose an entire weekend every once in a while. But I did have a bad mommy moment. When I explained to TT that I had to work yesterday, I watched her face scrunch up with worry as she said, "But it's Saturday. We don't have school...and you are supposed to stay home with us."

In the end, I think they had a good day with Daddy. He actually had to meet with a client yesterday, so he set them up in Starbucks with our MP3 players and coloring books and they thought it was cool to go to a meeting.

And I think I definitely earned some brownie points. I was in before anybody else and The Boss was shocked to see me still there when he popped back in at 9:30 last night. But he mentioned that they recognized that my 30 days was up and that "obviously [I] had done a good job" and so the office manager would be talking to me next week. So I guess I finally have a real job (but I don't know the details).

P.S. If you haven't already, don't forget to reset your clocks.

Did I jinx myself?

I hired a housekeeper--yea! My inlaws are coming in two weeks and the serious cleaning has been seriously overlooked, so their impending visit pushed me to find somebody. I've needed someone for a while--it's just so much trouble to go find and hire someone. And the whole I-still-don't-have-a-real-job thing.

I interviewed two different services and would have been fine with either of them. The deciding factor was that one could get in tomorrow for the big cleaning, and again right before my inlaws come. I was also afraid that the one I didn't choose wasn't charging me enough. I think she would either end up resentful that she wasn't getting paid enough or not do what I wanted.

It will be soooo nice to come home to a freshly cleaned house tomorrow.

Now let's just hope that I don't get fired since I finally committed to a housekeeper.