It's A Small World After All

Being a lawyer isn't as bad as this legal assistant warns, but there are times it's not fun. Sometimes due to things out of your control, sometimes of your own volition. One of the parners here is currently irritated at me. Granted, he has every right to be. There is an arbitration brief that he wanted last Monday (the 20th) and I didn't give to him until today (the 23rd). There are lots of reasons for this: I've been not in a working mood this month after my August month of hell and feel that I deserve not to work; I have been interrupted by interviews every day; I have been interrupted by telephone calls on another case where I'm in the midst of discovery; I had a reply brief that had to be filed with the court recently; the brief isn't really due to the arbitrator until this coming Monday so it's less important than things that are really due; I've started over from scratch three times because I didn't like the format and direction of the brief; I'm not sure of the best way to attack this particular brief and separate the issues so I've just had a severe case of writers block. And I just don't feel like working now (have I already mentioned this?) During al this, the partner hadn't called or stopped by to see what was going on. Though to be fair, neither had I, and when I'm taking an extension, it's my responsibity and I know that. So anyway, I hand it to him this AM and he tells me to get an extension, b/c he needed it Monday not today, and he doesn't have time to deal with it. Ugh. It was NOT a pleasant conversation. At least when I fuck up with Yoda






I feel ok about myself as a human being (even if not a skilled lawyer). Right now I feel like a cockroach. :(





So I've got a positive email story to share. A old friend of mine randomly emailed me the other day. He Googled my name and, after ruling me out as a fashion designer, found my firm website. (Despite Curtis's arguments to the contrary, Google IS the only search engine worth using.) It was a most pleasant surprise. Actually, not a surprise, a total shock. One doesn't expect someone out of ones life for 5 years to suddenly ressurrect themselves. But coming on the heals of the crazy man emails, that was nice. (Not to be sexist, but I feel ok calling it a man because I put some of the language from the email into the Gender Genie and the Female Score was 0 and the Male Score was 193, so the Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is male.)

Oh, just like everyone else in the free world, I have a neverending supply of Gmail invites if anyone is interested in Googles email service. Just let me know.

If you ever have a chance to get a Home Interiors Baked Apple Pie candle, I recommend it. It's great. Almost as good as the Buttercream from Yankee Candles. They appear to be the most popular at work.

So in light of McCain's post-convention return to his liberal tendencies, a friend and I have been talking about whether he will abandon the Republican party and if not, then why not. (The same topic that many have been discussing since 2001 and Jeffords.) I think that McCain is a solider, and soldiers don't desert anyone - whether a person or the Republican party. Even if they desert him. (And the Republican Party has definitely deserted McCain.) He strenously disagreed with my, saying, "if you know the ship is sinking, your fellow soldiers have gone off the deep end, and are beyond saving, as a soldier or regular citizen it should be your duty and honor to try to stop them. an example that comes to mind is of Hugh Thompson, a soldier, the helicopter pilot that helped to stop the My Lai massacre. he was able to save people by recognizing that his fellow soldiers were doing something terribly wrong and stopping them. by McCains statements he knows thing are completely wrong in Iraq. his supporting Bush is certainly not going to help." I don't know. I see his point and I don't. When McCain ran for the Republican presidental nomination in 2000 against Dubya, his support was mostly moderates, independents, and even Democrats. Republicans did not like how "liberal" McCain was. McCain's politics are extremely different from the Republican platform, and he generally votes on policy, not based on partisan. I think there are a few different ways to look at it. First, as I said, McCain is a soldier. You don't desert your party. Rather, you dance with the girl who brought you to the dance. McCain was elected Senator b/c of the Republicans. However, if you want to be a cynic, the simple fact is that McCain has more clout as a Republican than he would as a Democrat. He's the wild card, and unlike Jeffords, a wild card with national name recognition. Both parties recognize that, and give him power that just a regular guy voting with the party. As a Democrat voting the same way he generally votes, he doesn't get that individual attention. And this is a man who is thinking 2008...

Jennifer posted about the Rowboat Veterans for Truth. It made me spit water on my computer and the Care Bear on top of my computer. (Grumpy Bear, for anyone who cares. What were you expecting?) Actually, for anyone who's curious as to Stephanie's toy collection, I have a Yoda doll, a Darth Vader voice changer, an R2D2 Simon, a box with Yoda and Darth Vader's profiles, two Yoda figurines, a Yoda, Darth Vader and Eeyore pez dispenser, an Eeyore bath toy, a Scooby Doo sucker twister, a Scooby Doo bendy toy, a Scooby Doo pop top, two Mystery Machines, six colors of Play Doh (red, orange, yellow, blue, white, and black), four stress balls of various material, one Yo Yo shaped like a basketball from Lexis, one stress fish (also from Lexis), two plastic bugs that jump if you press on their backs, one smaller sized basketball, two high bounce balls that glow when they hit the ground, three small high bounce balls, one plastic thing that you turn inside out and put on your finger and it jumps inthe air, two twisty things with the firm name on them, one frisbee, one of those games with the water where you try to get the hoops on the rod, one etch a sketch, a lego woman, one of those blue punching men, a travel size connect four, two sets of playing cards, a kazoo, a wooden "ladder" and a magic eight ball in my office (along with a few other toys that I have no idea what they are). And then I wonder why people don't take me seriously??

I want a fun name like "They." Although this guy literally *did* change his name to "They" and that might be a bit too weird for me. I've always wanted a nickname. I haven't ever really had a nickname. I've given other people nicknames (including people who protest their nickname, silly people!) but no one has ever given me a nickname. Well, "The Bitch" in college, but I'm not sure about that anyway. I guess I'm not the nickname type.

And this HAS to be hard coming up with 52 reasons to re-elect George Bush. (That is to say that he was elected rather than appointed a first time...) Though I have to say, the playing cards go a bit...well: "He restores hope in our economy." Are they talking about the same Dubya and the same economy with the unemployment rate (other than all those making their living by EBay, I mean)? "He has restored moral dignity to the White House." Huh? He LIED to the American people about WMD and Iraq. He continues to pretend that there is a connection between 9/11 and Iraq when everything points to the contrary. Yeah, maybe he didn't screw over his wife, but he DID screw over the entire country. Wow. And they've got 52 of these gems...