Home Sweet Home

I am back from Chicago. Thank goodness! It was a rough 48 hours and I am so glad to be back home on my couch. Safe, happy, comfy and warm. 

Turmoil

What a crazy week!!! I have so many stories to tell I hardly know where to begin! Well, we'll start with last Wednesday. I was feeling kinda icky, and my boss was out sick, so I decided to leave work early. BAD idea!!! 3 lawyers called me with "emergency" projects. Grrr. Then K got to town and I went to have dinner with him. That was okay, but wednesday night I was exhausted. Thursday morning I get to work and I am feeling better and things are not bad. K and I have a not too bad night at home together. Friday night we had a party to go to at the house of one of the partners at my firm. Friday afternoon I find out I will be working over the weekend because I need to get a complaint, motion for preliminary injunction and a bunch of other crap done by tuesday morning. Fantastic.

So Friday night K and I go to the party. Boring, but nice. K and my boss (CB) got along VERY well. But apparently K was upset that everyone introduced him as my "boyfriend". So saturday he decides we should go look at engagement rings. Um, yeah. So THAT was interesting. First we went to Jared where I picked out 2 that I really liked. The settings were $700 and $800 and the diamond they showed us was $3100...a bit expensive for both our tastes. Then we went to a place in the mail and found a ring (diamond and all) for $1400 that I liked, but we decided to keep looking around because we just started. That night K applied for a zales card but got turned down...so that made him sad. Anyway, we will keep looking.

Saturday afternoon we decided that I should start shopping for a new car too. We started at hyundai and I test-drove a Tuscon. I liked it, but again, we decided to keep looking. So on the way home we drove past a chevy dealer, it was closed but they had malibus and impalas on sale. So sunday morning we go back. We spend all day sunday between 2 chevy dealerships looking at malibus. Each dealer telling us the other dealer was lying to us. By sunday night I decided to settle on a black malibu lt with a sunroof. So Monday I start doing the financing crap. I apply for a BOA auto loan, and a GMAC loan. After wasting ALL day trying to get the figures on the GMAC loan I find out it is a total ripoff and I am better off with the BOA loan. The guy at GM tells me that BOA is lying to me about my payments, but he is an ass. Of course, by then, BOA is closed. So I tell them I will have to get back to them on tuesday. And THEN, you won't believe this, they tell me to sign the papers monday night - get the ripoff loan through GMAC - and then come back the next day and pay it off with my BOA loan. Um, no, I don't think so bitch. On my way home, talking to my mom, I decided that I hate these people. This dealership blows and I am not giving them my 20 grand. Ever. So never mind on that car.

Meanwhile, I got no work done over the weekend (shocking) but that's okay because on monday our client is back negotiating a settlement again. So now there is no rush on the complaint. Of course, yesterday, settlement falls through again and the rush is back on. So I had to get everything done before today when I am getting on a plane to go to chicago for my firm-wide new associate orientation. 36 hrs in the windy city in October. Great times.

So, here I am, at the airport, waiting for my flight to board. Hopefully everything will go smoothly. I'll be back home around midnight tomorrow. This weekend I may go back to hyundai, and maybe honda and toyota. I tried my best to buy american, but once again GM shows why it is going out of business. Really what amazed me most is how blatantly they kept saying that other people were lying to me. It's really unattractive. Ya know? Anyway...so those are my updates. Looking at diamonds and new cars in one weekend is really stressful. I think I got a new ulcer. At least K made the weekend sex-free so the stress was somewhat lessened. But still, I could use about a 48 hour nap. So maybe I won't be car shopping this weekend!! ;-)

Daily Dose of Crazy

Okay, so I have a great secretary. But the one next to her is a crazy bitch. And I don't mean mildly crazy, I mean like hide-under-your-desk-when-you-hear-her-coming crazy. The first time I noticed it was the 2nd day of work, I was sitting in my office minding my own business, and I heard profanity. Crazy lady was yelling into the phone, using a plethora of words not often heard in a civilized work environment. Not you all know that I am NOT one to mince words. I routinely add a "fuck" to sentences that could clearly do without it. But usually not at work, and definitely not when screaming into the phone at work. So I hear her say, among other things, "Look Jackass! I don't know what the fuck you want me to do! Make up your mother fuckin' mind and then fucking call me!" Whoa. So, I thought to myself "I hope that lady is okay." After 2 weeks I have learned. She is not okay, she is NEVER okay. In fact, she has one of these arguments on the phone, at high volume, pretty much every damn day. In addition, she also yells at the lawyers she works for on occasion. That is even MORE scary! I am so glad she wasn't assigned to me!

The latest saga involved her planning a vacation with her significant other. During this conversation she told him "well, if you aren't going act like a NORMAL person than I am not going anywhere with you!" At which point, her significant other began studying how to be as abnormal as possible.

I think she is also a bit of a hypochondriac because she spends a lot of time printing out articles from WebMD on various ailments.

Today, I am pretty sure she threw out a bunch of things I printed. Luckily I am smart enough to just pretend I "forgot" to click print and go back in my office and do it again. I really think that if this woman "accidentally" drove away in my lexus I would just buy a new one rather than confront her. Seriously, she is that fuckin' scary.

Do you like it??

I made my blog prettier!!! At least I think it's prettier! What do you think???

The Election is Ruining My Life

So, I am so freakin' stressed about this election. But it's not the impending results that are ruining my life - it's the debates. All day monday, tuesday AND wednesday I was looking forward to a new episode of Bones. But ya know what?? It wasn't on! The freakin' debate was on instead! Ugh. So, I absolutely refused to watch the debate out of protest. Except that there was NOTHING else on!! So, I was forced to watch the damn thing. But, it ended up being beneficial, because I learned from John McCain that Colombia is our best ally in the western hemisphere. I had no idea!! I also got to see John McCain put air quotes around "health of the mother", which was awesome. Oh, and of course I got to learn about "Joe the Plumber", perhaps the most important man in the country. So watching the debate actually vastly improved my knowledge base. Unfortunately, it also gave me wrinkles. Yep, that's right. I woke up the next day and discovered wrinkles under my eyes. So, as you can see, the election is clearly ruining my life.

My "New Crowd"

So I went to lunch on tuesday with all the female attorneys in my office. We went to a sushi place, and I am not a sushi person but luckily they had "regular" asian food, so I was good. AND I actually did try a piece of a Florida Roll which was good. Anyway, let's get to the important part: the people. There were 8 of us:

Me, clearly the awesomest of all.

Laura, Christina and Angela, decently cool, funny and nice ladies.

Cheryl, who is nerdy & awkward but VERY nice. Like fall over yourself nice.

Then, there were "the blondes", who don't need individual names (particularly since 2 out of 3 of them are named stephanie). So, these girls are incredible snobs. I mean, I was just shocked. I rode with them to the lunch (not knowing that they were snobs) and the whole car ride was about their extravagant lives and how they were too good for things like Walmart or Home Depot. It was just absurd. One of them made a comment about how Walmart makes her sick because of all the white trash and I wanted to say "are you sick right now? because I'm in the car." But, because this is a new job and a new crowd, I just shut up. 

So, anyway, the verdict is that this crowd is not nearly as fun as my old crowd. But, there are a few nice girls that I can see myself going to lunch or dinner with. I'm just going to have to make a REAL effort to meet people outside of my office. I must devise a plan for this. Maybe I should try to meet people at Walmart.

You Don't Know Me

This has been a rough month for friends of mine. One found out she has MS, another one's father was killed in an accident and another one...well, had a terrible thing happen in his family. Intellectually, I know it's not about me. But just to be safe, if you happen to be communicating with any gods or other-worldly sources and they ask you if you are friends with me, you may want to say "no." At least for this month. Okay? Thanks.

Note To Self:

Your iPod is not psychic. When you buy an album on iTunes, the new music does not magically travel through the air and land in your iPod. You must plug the iPod IN and update it. Dumbass.

Go Me!!!

Move over "insensitive and cruel"! Here comes "clever and impressive"!!!! Yep, that is what my boss called me today! Clever and impressive! Woot!! I think my sigh of relief may have caused a tsunami somewhere! Not only did I get mad props for my analysis of the discovery issues in my 1st case, I also dazzled him with my writing! Yay me!!! Seriously, I am flying right now. 

Oh! And I am also awesome in a different arena. I got my Blackberry to sync up with my work email! The IT guy couldn't do it, but I did!! So-long 2nd Blackberry! I am, finally, a woman with only 1 cell phone. Yet another tremendous sigh of relief. 

The First Week

Well, I survived! It was actually a pretty good few days, with one major exception: my IT guy. Okay, so here's the story: on my first day they tell me that I need a blackberry. I already have one. They say the office can give me one, but it's an older model and I can only have 450 minutes per month for "personal use", plus I won't have internet or navigation or any of the other perks that I get with my sprint plan. So I said, no, I will just keep my own BB and pay for my own plan and use it for work and personal. She says that is fine, she will send the IT guy over to set up my BB with their system. So, he comes over, plugs my device into the computer, does some stuff and says "all set." Great. I go to lunch. At around 3 I try to call K. My BB won't let me make calls. It says "emergency calls only." I can, however, send texts. So I text K and ask him to call me. He does and it goes right to voicemail. So I can't receive calls either. Great. 

So, I call the IT guy. After several emails back & forth he decides that the only way to fix it is to completely reprogram my BB, which he can't do until the next morning. So I will have no cell phone that night. Yeah, I'm pissed. He says "well, if you enter your password incorrectly 10 times, the BB will wipe itself out and you can make phone calls, but you will lose any emails or pix you have saved. I say, fine, I don't care as long as I can call people! So, I do as instructed. Not only does it not fix the phone call problem, now I can't send texts either! GRRRRRR! So, I call my mom from my work phone and tell her I have no cell and I will call her when I get home, and I head home. Admittedly, seriously pissed off.

So, the next day the IT guy comes to my office and makes several attempts to get my phone to work. Apparently he can get it to receive emails from my work address but he can't get it to send emails. He won't let me try anything, and decides it is sprint's fault. He says there is no way to get around whatever sprint did to the phone, and so I can't use my BB for work. To be honest, I don't believe him, so I am gonna go to the sprint store today. In the meantime I have 2 BBs. The work one is AWFUL. It is really old and I have no idea how to use it. The other day I got an email on it and when I tried to read it, it called the person who sent it. Then it said "press esc to end call", only there is no "esc" button!!! Grr. So I am just really annoyed with all of that.

In addition to that, we have a REALLY old version of internet explorer. So I ask IT guy if I can upgrade and he says "No, because of our intranet. But I can give you mozilla." Whatevs. Fine, I'll take Mozilla. So he downloads that and says to me "you need to remember that we are the biggest firm in the world, so upgrades take time." WHAT???? Shouldn't it take LESS time since we are the biggest firm in the world? How hard is it to keep up with new browsers? The explorer is so old, it doesn't even have tabs! Ugh. I really can't stand this guy. 

But other than him, everyone is very nice and it was a good week. I have 2 cases that I am working on. Neither of them are too exciting, but I'm glad to have cases that feel manageable. My office is nice, and there are lots of perks to the job. So, I think it will be okay. The indefiniteness of my stay here still makes me nervous. But who knows, maybe in two years it will feel like home to me. 

Wow.

I found out today that a friend of mine has MS. I can't even begin to tell you how sad I am for her. I just can't imagine.