I love the stuff my kids write

We were just going through the kids' school folders and found what must have been TT's Thanksgiving essay:

I am thankful for K.V. because she is my best friend in the whole world. And Mrs. B. is the best teacher in the world. And P.M. is also my best friend in the world to. And my twin sister S.S. My favorite sister P.S. is to. And of course [L.C.] and [Mr. L.C.], my mom and dad who I love and my cats and dog. And Mrs. P [1st grade teacher] and Mrs. P2 [K teacher]. And all my other friends to. And my living fish to. And my cousins and parents and uncles and aunts. And Stephaney and Bella [guinea pigs] befor she passed away. Like some of my fish did. Stephaney did not pass away yet.

Does Amazon Still Suck?

My Amazon Sucks post, written about this time last year, is probably my most frequently hit post of all time. It seems a lot of people think Amazon sucks. I have pretty much boycotted Amazon since last year because they pissed me off--but I found a few good deals there this year and decided to give them another shot. In fact, I have placed quite a few orders with Amazon over the last few days.

On Thursday I ordered a GPS to replace the one that was stolen a couple of months ago. This particular model was $99 in many stores' Black Friday ads. I decided to order from Amazon rather than battle the crowds on Friday. This turned out to be a great move--I got free shipping, saved approximately $8 in taxes and my GPS was on my doorstep yesterday!! So, I'm thinking maybe Amazon doesn't really suck so much.

Also on Thursday, I placed two separate orders for Barbie MP3 players for $15 each with free a free accessory. The same MP3 players are in this weeks' Target ad, but they are the 512 meg players and I got 1 gig players--so a good deal, especially with the free accessory. (I had to do separate orders because I couldn't add two free accessories in the same order.) I picked up a CD that DH wants, The Tales of Beedle the Bard for PS, and another toy for my niece, split between the two orders so that they would be over $25 and I could get free shipping. All of those items have already shipped or are scheduled to ship on Monday (except Beedle, which isn't released until Dec. 4.) So, unless my orders don't actually show up next week, I am still pretty happy.

On Friday, I placed an order for 2 Nintendo DS's. Both scheduled to ship on Monday. Again, I'm happy.

But Amazon hasn't lost all of their suckiness. On Friday I placed an order of about $150 for assorted video games, all of which I got pretty good deals on. One has shipped. The rest are not scheduled to ship until AFTER CHRISTMAS!! WTF are they doing still advertising this stuff as available--with absolutely no notice that they will not ship until after Christmas until the final checkout screen. It is infuriating to think that I am ticking 5 items off of my Christmas list, only to find that I will not have them until after Christmas. HEY AMAZON, IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE ITEM IN STOCK, DON'T ADVERTISE IT AS BEING IN STOCK AND WASTE MY TIME!

Anyway, I went ahead and placed the order. None of it was must-have stuff. We'll see if it ships earlier than estimated. If it gets close to Christmas and it hasn't shipped, I'll cancel my order.

Also, on Thursday, I placed an order from Target for the Fly Pentop Computer that was advertised for $29. Target's online store is powered through Amazon. Despite the fact that this particular item was in Target's Black Friday ad, and that I have ordered it a full month before Christmas, my order confirmation states that it will not ship until December 26. WTF? Again, WHY ARE YOU SELLING SHIT AND ADVERTISING IT AS IN STOCK WHEN IT WILL NOT SHIP UNTIL AFTER CHRISTMAS? OBVIOUSLY IT IS NOT ACTUALLY IN STOCK OR IT COULD SHIP SOMETIME IN THE NEXT F'ING MONTH.

So, does Amazon still suck? We'll it is a mixed bag. You may or may not get what you want when you want it. The true test will be whether I get the stuff I ordered before my estimated shipping date. But it is quite frustrating not to know whether I am going to be getting my order or not. Honestly, it reeks of dishonesty. Amazon suckers you in with good prices, gets you to load up your cart with other stuff, and then informs you that you aren't going to get the items that you originally wanted until after the holidays. Until Amazon starts stating up front, on the initial item description page that their products won't ship for a full month, then, yes, Amazon still sucks.

Our Lady of Grace Continues her Reign

So, I recovered from my little incident on Friday, but managed a repeat performance (minus the excruciating injury) this morning.

DH and I were leisurely reading the ads in the Sunday paper when he came across the Roboquad in the Target ad for $35. PS has been going on and on about the Roboquad for over a year now. She asked for it on her 9th birthday--and I explained that there was no way in Hades that I was paying $100 for a toy that she would lose interest in within 15 minutes and which would be gathering dust in the corner of her room for the rest of eternity.

I learned early on that my children have little sustained interest in battery-operated toys. They may be initially drawn in by the lights and sounds, but after a day or two those toys are always left buried in the bottom of their toy bins. Legos, K-nex, little dolls (not baby dolls) and figures are the things that actually get played with. And PS rarely even plays with those--she is more a books/puzzles/crafts kind of girl.

Anyway, despite my unwillingness to drop $100 on the Roboquad, I was willing to spend $35 on the darn thing. Mainly because PS has not shut up about it since she first asked for it. (In fact, just yesterday I told DH I might by the $12 mini-Roboquad just see if it would pacify her.) So, as soon as I saw it in the ad this morning, I threw on clothes and ran out the door, knowing that there would only be a couple available. I ran into Target and managed to grab the last one remaining on the shelf!

On the way home, I stopped by Starbucks and had a lovely chat with our Starbucks guy (you know, the one who knows what you always order) who was surprised to see me without kids in tow.

And as I was sliding back into the Behemoth I managed to drop DH's mocha right in the seat--spilling everywhere. I yelled, "Shit!" and then "Fuck!" as I noticed that my ass was also now covered in mocha--yes, in the brand new, extra-comfy yoga pants that I had just bought yesterday.

Of course, there happened to be an entire tour bus from Mexico unloading right next to me right about the time I was patting down my ass trying to soak up all the coffee. (This Starbucks is in a truck stop--but it is the least busy one in town.) I got a few odd looks, but I shrugged them off. Fortunately, my seats are leather and the console is full of napkins, so I managed to get most of the mess cleaned up.

I finally managed to get back into the Behemoth and start pulling off when I noticed a car that was parked right next to me the whole time. There was a lady sitting in the passenger seat (like 18 inches away from where all this happened), just shaking her head at me. She looked like one of those pentecostal women with the really long hair and no make-up. (Look at me all judgmental, with my long hair pulled into a ratty ponytail, hiding under a baseball cap, and no make-up.) I'm sure that she was praying for my mortal soul after the expletives that I had spewed earlier.

I finally managed to make it home without further incident and with 1 1/2 mochas.

SS's Christmas List

7-year old SS just presented me with the following list, intended to supplement the list that she already sent to Santa:

Laptop (With name on it.)
Toy Guitar
Toy Drums
Diary
Transformers
Star Wars Toys
Star Wars Legos
Frog Posters
Robot servent
My own little hut made out of kertons that are pink around my bed
Webkinz Snowman
Webkinz Squirrl
Webkinz (Red) bird
Webkinz Raindeer
de Blob (Wii game)

I love it--but I'm not so sure that the laptop or robot servant are going to happen.

I'm so smooth

I spent most of Thanksgiving allowing DH and the Kiddos to wait on me, while supervising DH's preparation of our feast from the sofa. He did a pretty good job for a first-timer (except for his refusal to salt and pepper the mashed potatoes, which led to a rather ridiculous fight.) I was feeling pretty well--especially considering that the day before I felt like I'd had the crap beaten out of me.

This morning I was feeling even better. DH and I even got out for a bit and did some shopping, and held up pretty well. Came home, took a nap and woke up with the munchies. Grabbed a muffin and an icy cold glass a milk and settled into the sofa to catch the Mork & Mindy marathon.

And then I dropped the entire glass of icy cold milk right in my lap. I screamed and jumped up. Bob took off, thinking he was in trouble, and DH came running into the room wondering what in the heck I had done. Meanwhile I am frantically trying to rip off my jeans, which are now glued to my body with icy cold milk.

Somewhere, in the midst of instinctively leaping from the couch after I dumped milk all over myself, I managed to injure myself. All of the improvement that I made over the last two days has disappeared, and I am in the most pain I have been in since the moment I woke up from surgery, right before they pumped me full of morphine.

I'm a little concerned that I pulled some of my stitches, but I have no way of knowing because they are internal. My incisions are super-glued on the outside--so nothing to pop there.

After sitting on the couch for a couple of hours following this little incident, I started to feel better. We had promised to take the rugrats to see Bolt this weekend, and I thought I could manage sitting in the theater. Mistake.

Actually, the sitting was ok. I stuffed TT's coat behind my back and managed to get comfy. But walking into and out of the theater was absolute torture. As in, a white hot knife twisting where my gallbladder used to be.

So DH says I am now grounded to the sofa for the rest of the weekend. Yea me.

Yes, I am a complete and total dork.

So, I survived

The gallbladder surgery went much better than I anticipated. I had a tough time with the anesthesia after my ablation a couple of months ago, and I expected to feel like crap most of the day. But they pumped me full of zofran and phenergan (and morphine), and I only had a few minutes of nausea.

There was quite a bit of pain immediately afterward. The surgery was done laproscopically and apparently they inject CO2 to inflate your abdomen so they can see what they are doing. But all the gas doesn't come back out, and what remains is painful. When I first awakened, it felt like there were bricks on my chest and I couldn't take a deep breath--much like it felt when I had broken ribs. Eventually the pain shifted and the drugs kicked in. Now there is some pain in my side and shoulders, but otherwise I am feeling pretty good. Just very, very tired.

I am looking forward to having the next five days off, with a good excuse to just lie around the house doing nothing.

Spending my last hours bonding with my gallbladder

Today has been predictably crazy. It was my only day at work this week. The next 6 days will be the most consecutive days I have had off of work since I started there a year ago. (And I haven't told them yet that I have booked a 7 night trip to Disney World this summer!)

So this morning I had to go to the hospital for bloodwork. At least that's what they told me when I spent half an hour on the phone with them last week doing all the pre-admit crap for my gallbladder surgery tomorrow. They also told me I would be in and out quickly--especially if I went in early. So I left my house at 7:15 this morning to be at the hospital by 7:30. Where I waited for half a freakin' hour before I saw anybody. Then I had to go over a ton of the preadmit crap that I had already spent an half an hour going over last week. I was peeved about making the effort to get there early just to be stuck waiting and was not particularly nice to the preadmit girl (ok, I was a total bitch.) But I had a report that I had worked on over the weekend and really wanted to have waiting on Big Boss's desk when he arrived--and they were making me late to work and enduring that wasn't gonna happen.

Of course, now I'm afraid that my bitchy karma is going to come back to haunt me and they are going to forget to give me pain meds or something tomorrow.

I ran my ass off the rest of the day, trying to make a couple of deadlines and get all of my loose ends wrapped up before I was out the rest of the week. I swear to god, if my secretary asks one more time, "does this have to go out today?" I am going to scream. Yes, it f'ing has to go out today or I wouldn't have told you that. I'm sorry that you have a lot to do. I have a lot to do, too and I don't have time to do both of our jobs.

I was afraid that I would be working late tonight--a problem because DH had plans and PS had gymnastics at 7:00. I called my nanny to see if she could take PS if I didn't make it on time. She said, "well, I don't know. I don't know if I can find it--I'm just not sure about that." WTF? Part of the reason that I pay for a nanny so that I have someone who can take the kids to all of their activities. I even pay her a gas allowance for this. She gets the gas allowance every week--even though she hasn't had to take the kids anywhere in almost a month.

Somehow, I managed to get all my crap together and out of the office by 5:30--in just enough time to run home, grab the girls, drop PS off at gymnastics and run get some dinner while bribing the twins with ice cream cones. Back to the gymnastics place, watch the end of PS's practice, then stop to grab her a burger, and home by 8:30--just in time for bed. Yelled repeatedly for the girls to brush their teeth, lay out clothes for tomorrow and hop in bed (no time for baths tonight--but at least it's getting cooler and they didn't have much time to run around and get stinky outdoors today.)

9:00--haven't heard a peep from DH. I am somewhat irritated with him for making his plans for tonight when I warned him that it was going to be a crazy day for me. I definitely do not mind him going out--today was just a really bad day and he was unreasonably resistant to changing his plans. I'm feeling not very high on his priority list lately.

Helluva Day*

Or, a day in the life of a law mom...

Up at 4:15 this morning to leave the house a 5:15 to meet Big Boss at 6:00 to drive to the 9:30 prove-up hearing on the settlement agreement that has been a major pain in my ass for the last month in a town out in the sticks** 3 hours away.

Yeah, I was a tiny bit nervous about spending 6 hours in a car with Big Boss--but it really wasn't bad. He is very good at carrying a conversation, and imparted plenty of wisdom and lawyer gossip along the way. And on the way back he had conference calls most of the time. (At one point he had his phone in one hand, while checking his Blackberry with the other and driving with his knee.)

I expected to be the invisible sidekick once we arrived at the courthouse, but Big Boss surprised me by telling everyone that I had been doing all the work to pull this thing together and make it run smoothly.

This was my first time in federal court, and I was thrown off a little bit--forgetting that you use a podium in federal court. (Not that I was the one speaking--I'm not admitted in federal court. But Big Boss told me that I need to work on getting admitted into two of our local federal district courts!) Every prove-up I have ever attended has been at the bench. And even for lengthier hearings in state court, counsel remains seated at counsel tables. There is definitely more formality in federal court.

And I think I saved the day at the end of the hearing by pointing out that an important document hadn't been given to the judge.

I made it back to the office by 2:00 where I ran my tail off making sure I make a couple of deadlines and finalizing the details of another prove-up tomorrow. I left at 5:15, and headed to meet DH and the girls.

Although all 3 girls are in the same school, PS and the twins had events at different schools tonight. So DH left early to take PS to her event and I met him and grabbed the twins to take them to their event. Of course I arrived 5 minutes before it started and the cafetorium was packed and standing room only. And, of course, since I had a hearing this morning I am in a suit and 3 1/2 inch heels.

Finally made it home at 8:00, and threw the twins in the bath. Somehow, both of the cats also managed to make it into the bath. DH and PS arrived home a few minutes later, and I watched the video of her first orchestra concert, which was not nearly as terrible as I anticipated.

And, while everything else in my crazy day is going on I am dealing with a very close relative who has gotten into some deep shit. And the types of law that my relatives usually need help with are generally outside the scope of my expertise. But I am doing what I can to help out on the legal front and to be as supportive as possible.

Now I am going to collapse into bed and try to get a decent night's sleep before another marathon day tomorrow.


*I just noticed this is my 500th post. Am I supposed to do something special to celebrate 500th post day?

**Don't let the "sticks" part fool ya. This court is well known as a hotbed of high-end litigation of a particular genre--and the other courtroom was packed with more than a few well known lawyers.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause

Last week the twins wrote letters to Santa while they were home with the nanny and promptly put them in the mailbox. (Yeah, I thought they were jumping the gun a little bit--thank you Wal-mart toybook.) Anyway, DH and I never saw the letters. We meant to pull them from the mailbox after the girls went to bed, but forgot. The next day, however, the letters were gone.

Today both girls received letters from Santa addressed to them. I have no idea where they come from. I guess the postman must must have a hookup with the big guy.

SS is so excited she has read her letter about five times and keeps dancing around the room with it. I just hope she doesn't think Santa is really going to bring the $225 Hannah Montana electric scooter that was on her list--'cause it ain't gonna happen.

Thanksgiving

We're trying to figure out what to do for Thanksgiving. We live about 400 miles away from our families--but usually some of them come here and I cook. I love to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday--it is all about yummy food and relaxing. No worrying about buying gifts for people who already have too much crap anyway. (I love giving when I know it is something the recipient will really love--but I hate the pressure of coming up with some token gift just because it is a holiday.) And I don't get dragged to church.

But this year I have scheduled my gallbladder surgery two days before Thanksgiving (yes, so I won't miss work). Therefore, we won't be traveling and we haven't invited anyone here because I doubt that I will be up to preparing a big meal.

My preference would be to simply eat out--but it looks like most regular restaurants will be closed. Only fancy restaurants and hotels are offering Thanksgiving brunches or dinners. And my little suburb has no such places.

Another option is to order in dinner. But it would be rather expensive just for us (and a ton of food)--and I know that it wouldn't taste nearly as good as what I could prepare.

So, I'm thinking DH is going to be stuck cooking under my direction. We will keep it simple--perhaps preparing only a breast instead of a whole turkey, and cutting back on the sides. And no yummy homemade rolls. (I had to marry into the family to get MIL's roll recipe and they are the best!)

PS has suggested that we just have Turkey Pot Pie. She says, "you've got the turkey, you've got the pie, what else do you need?" Maybe she's right.

Work

I am beginning to feel overwhelmed. I have been super-busy the last month or so. In fact, I was the top biller in my firm last month (we get statements each month of the most & least hours billed and the average--do all firms do this?) And I'm on track for a repeat performance. The thing is--I have no desire to be the top biller. One of the attractions of a smaller firm is more reasonable working hours. And up until recently I feel like my hours have been pretty reasonable and that I was doing pretty well maintaining the work/life balance. Not so much over the last two weeks--I have been working late and going in early--seriously cutting into my time with the girlies.

Part of the problem is that everyone in my office is extremely busy--and we are working on hiring more attorneys. But there was a huge response due on a very big case last month--I wasn't involved at all and I still outbilled the two guys working on it.

The other part of the problem is that Big Boss, who typically does a lot of traveling, has been in the office a lot lately and he has been piling the work on. And I keep taking it, because Big Boss allows me to work on bigger projects and gives me more responsibility than Partner.

I'm not sure Big Boss is aware of how much he as given me--he has no idea what I am doing for Partner (fortunately, Partner realizes that Big Boss is throwing a lot my way and has not been piling it on as well). And I have more stuff taking me out of the office--which means that I have less time to get stuff done in the office. It killed me to spend 4 hours in the car on both Wednesday and Thursday this week. Even though I can bill for my travel time, I can't get anything else done--so it felt like wasted time.

Next week I have two out-of-town prove-ups. Big Boss informed me that these are the only two that I will be accompanied on--and then I will be on my own. I think this is his way of telling me I will be traveling more. He also informed me that I will be getting a blackberry. Yeah, I know I am probably the only lawyer on the planet without one--but I was ok with that because I'm not so sure that I want to be available to my firm 24/7. (Actually, I have a Blackjack for my personal phone, but I wasn't about to put my work email on it.)

DH says I need to set some boundaries. And even Partner has warned that Big Boss will take over my life if I let him. But I still feel like I am proving myself--and I am just now getting do the things I have been wanting to--so I'm not quite ready to pull the reins yet.

Socializing

This week I met my first MILP. I've never met anyone that I knew through the internet before. Probably because I am inherently non-trusting--but a fellow MILP seemed pretty safe. (No, I'm not telling you who it is, because her blog says where she was, and that would reveal the location of my super-secret bat cave. But if you read both blogs it doesn't take a genius to figure it out.)

I'm usually very quiet and shy when I first meet new people, but I'm afraid I might have talked her ear off. I guess 'cause its not really like meeting a "new" person. I already know what is going on in her life--so it was more like just catching up with an old friend.

And there were no freaky surprises--like horns, or finding out that she was not, in fact, a MILP but an 43-year old overweight balding man posing like a MILP just to pick up hot young lawyers.
She was exactly like you would expect from reading her blog.

We had dinner and drinks and chatted forever. I had a great time visiting with another law mom. Now I think we need to have MILP convention, where we abandon our children our studies and our jobs and party like rock-stars for a weekend.

I May Have Been Given Just Enough Rope to Hang Myself

So remember that list I posted earlier in the week about what I wanted to do in the next year? Well, I may be ticking things off more quickly than I anticipated.

On Wednesday, Partner told me that I was taking a corporate rep depo. On Thursday, Partner told me that he wanted to "shift responsibility" for three cases to me. This was after I informed him that we hadn't done something that we needed to do very soon. He seemed irritated, but I don't know if it was at himself or at me. But I couldn't have taken care of this particular task because I never saw the document that it related to--it went straight from Partner's desk to the file. Secretary is not allowed to give me documents without Partner's instruction.

I guess I am going to have to pin down Partner this week and tell him that while I am happy to take on more responsibility, he must allow Secretary to give me everything that comes in on these cases. I'm not going to be the scapegoat if a deadline is missed. Fortunately, I caught the other issue before it was too late.

So Friday, I spent most of the day doing the corp. rep. depo, and next week I am going to prep employees for the depositions that I will be doing later in the week. The following week I am accompanying Big Boss to two prove-ups for the Settlement Agreements I have spent the last month drafting and coordinating (BTW, Big Law A-hole has been less of a PITA lately. Maybe he reads my blog--ha!) And I am working on scheduling 3 more depos.

My inbox is overflowing and I can barely find the top of my desk, and all of these out-of the-office appointments are slowing me down further. My work load has picked up substantially in the last 2 months. But I guess it can't be a bad thing for my hours to shoot up right before bonuses are decided.

More than just a little barfy

This is a very good account about living through a pregnancy with hyperemesis gravadarum. I suffered through HG for three pregnancies (my oldest, my twins, and a miscarriage in between). I discussed it briefly here and here-- but those posts are pretty long and it is a lot to filter through.

In short (or maybe not), HG is morning sickness to the 10th degree. With my oldest and the pregnancy, I spent about 6 weeks carrying around an IV pole at home to receive fluids. I vomited constantly (I kept a 32 oz. plastic cup by my bed and would fill it completely every couple of hours.) I didn't even try to eat, it was all bile. And I had the cup, because when you vomit that much and go that long without food, you simply don't have the energy to walk the 10 feet to the bathroom to barf in the toilet.

It was 1000 times worse with the twins. I was in the hospital for most of my first 20 weeks. My docs brought in a psychiatrist because they thought it was psychosomatic (even though I had been through this twice before, and this was very much a planned pregnancy). Then they told me to consider termination, because I was in the very real danger of starving to death. The put a feeding tube down my nose, which I barfed back up. Then they put a line into a major artery, right at my collarbone, to deliver more substantial nutrients than the IV in my arm was capable of. Finally, an awesome gastroenterologist discovered an experimental treatment involving massive doses of steroids. It took a couple of tries, and there were no studies indicating what the impact of the drugs might be on my unborn children, but it finally worked.

Unfortunately, although the HG finally cleared up my twins developed TTTS. My research after the twins were born leads me to believe that it was caused, or at least contributed to, by the HG. TTTS is a condition that only happens to identical twins, where shared blood vessels in the placenta shunt the majority of the nutrients to one twin. There is only a 30% survival rate for both twins, and 30% of twins who survive suffer brain damage.

Of course, my girls survived in perfect condition, but it was an extremely long and difficult pregnancy and underscores the potential consequences of HG.

One Year

Today marks the one year anniversary of being a licensed attorney. So I guess tomorrow, I am officially a second-year. A lot has changed in the last year. This time last year, I was wondering if I would ever find a job and if I had just spent a hundred grand on the biggest mistake of my life. Or if I would be stuck doing a job that I hated because it was the only one that I could find.

But I did find a job--and one that I like. It wasn't my first choice. I really, really wanted to be a prosecutor and applied with every DA's office within a hundred-mile radius. But it just didn't happen. I felt a tiny pang of jealousy toward a group of baby-prosecutors at a CLE last week. They have what I wanted. And now my career-path is set. They don't exactly take laterals in the DA's office.

But mostly, I am ok with the way things worked out. My desire to work in the DA's office was to gain trial experience quickly. I'm not sure that I would have wanted to be a career prosecutor. And I definitely would not have wanted to switch to criminal defense.

I like what I do now. I like the kind of law I am practicing and the quality of cases that I get to work on. (Mostly products defense.) And while I do not have the trial experience that I would have preferred to have one year in, I have had increasing responsibility this year.

One year ago I did:

• mostly research projects
• some motion drafting
• lots of depo summaries
  
• lots of document review
• no secretary or paralegal--and not much need for either
• and I was completely invisible to anybody outside the firm
  

Now I do:

• lots of reports to clients (not my favorite)
• less research
• some motion drafting
• lots of discovery drafting and responses
• drafting settlement agreements
  
• fewer depo summaries--general summaries are given to a paralegal, I do summaries when we are looking for something specific
• less document review--again, much of this is now given to my paralegal
• I have a secretary and a paralegal and have significantly increased my use of them over the last few months. Partners give me big projects and it is my job to direct the staff to ensure they are done properly and on time
• Communicating with other counsel to negotiate minor points & scheduling
• Attending minor hearings solo
• Meeting with clients occasionally
• Taking depositions on minor cases--and no experts yet
• Interviewing and communicating with experts

What I want to do over the next year:

• Argue in court
• Take more depos--more important depos
• See my name on a pleading/motion
• More interaction with clients
• More authority to manage my cases
• My own cases (there are a few that are mostly mine, but I still run everything by Partner. This is also a double-edged sword. Any cases that I get will be minor cases--and I love working on the huge cases--even if it's just in the background. So I don't want to be buried in small cases to the exclusion of the big cases. Right now I have both. )

And what I want to avoid:

• Being pigeonholed--one attorney in my firm does only one type of case. Two others work only on one very big case. That would suck! I have a broad variety cases, and I like it that way.

So, overall, the first year has gone well. I haven't moved forward as quickly as I would prefer, but I am moving forward, and it is probably a reasonable pace. Most importantly, I like my job and have no regrets about going to law school. I knew going in that it was the perfect career for me--and I still believe that.