Sunday, April 3, 2011

What Happened to Working For the Weekend

Oy it's Sunday. I worked yesterday (a Saturday). I will work today (Sunday). And I feel sorry for myself. JUST KIDDING!!! I have a ton of work and that's a great thing. Getting it out on time is important, to maintain the reputation of a good worker.

Although I will be an IP lawyer, I perform a number of other legal services (HA, that sounds so prostitutional). Getting through some of these is difficult because of their first time nature. I have many first times. It would be nice to have a second and third so I feel like I know something. At a first-year training, I asked a partner about when we start "knowing" something. I get to look forward to 3 years of discombobulation.

One day I hope to have a hobby.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Mother Ship

I am in a fairly small office (approx. 20 attorneys). We have a big office in a different city about 2 hours from here. So periodically I climb into my trusty old American car and head on down the road. And there I find a magical place with soda fountains and other wondrous things. People pay for my lunch as if I was a still in law school, still to be wooed. And I get to look out over the city.

I am so very glad to work in a smaller office. I am sure there are good parts of working in such a large office, but I like my office. I like knowing the people. I like being able to get work from lots of different folks doing lots of different things (okay, ask me if I still like it on days I am bouncing from things I have no clue on). And I like that we are growing but the growth won't keep us from knowing each other.

Don't think I am some Pollyanna that requires working with "family." Nah. I just like seeing people I know. I like knowing who I can go to. I like knowing what people's attitudes are. I suppose I like creating a comfort zone. And I am getting pretty comfortable so let's hope they don't toss me out any time soon.

I thought I would have a huge problem becoming vegetarian. So far, not so much. The few times I have slipped, I pretty much was starving and then only ate a little. I can't get the images of the factory farms out of my head. I don't think I will ever be able to get those images out of my head. I don't mind eating meat. Everything eats something else. But I can't be part of the torture of animals. And no flames please. This is my opinion. And if I haven't said anything about it, I happened to watch a couple of documentaries on food about 2 months ago. I made the decision to stop eating meat. I am still eating eggs (get them from a local farmer) and cheese (I pay attention to the ingredients and origin - happy cows or goats). Vegetables are pretty good.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Goals for 2011

I am going to confine my blogging here, where I don't feel constrained to always talk about weight and related shit.

1. Work is going well. I am spending a lot of time on corporate work, but am working into intellectual property. Anyone have any good tips on networking and building relationships with people? I am doing okay, but feel like I need to have a business plan for myself ("The MothaF*** Awesomeness that Is Me Business Plan). The people are still great. I haven't reached the stage where anyone throws off their mask showing the psychopath below (excuse me, I just finished reading Snakes in Suits)

2. The move has been good (except the husband is still not moved yet). I am in Alabama now. The winter...WAS...FREAKIN'...AWESOME!! Minnesota has tons of great things (well, and then there is MB, ew). But an Alabama winter is so lovely. I got snowed in with 3 inches of snow. Yes, fans, you read that right 3 f'ing inches. Heeehehehehe. So awesome. Okay, okay, the summer is the trade off. Weeks of over 100 degree weather. I love the backyard. The dog can run around out back now. No more getting geared up at 4 in the morning because the dog has the shits. Just open the back door.

3. I have a two new goals for the rest of 2011!!!! A 5K in May and a half marathon in October. Slow and steady. I can walk them if need be, but I am going to be much more active this year. Me bones es creaky and I am tired of it. Walking up stairs, if I am with someone, I will jabber about anything to cover the noise of my knees. Sounds like dice. First walk/run is tomorrow. Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I am starting with 3 days. And 2 more days a week to get strong (well, okay, to be able to use a 5lb weight instead of a 1 lb, and throw in a few lunges and squats). And maybe some yoga for idiots since I am as flexible as a brick.

So do you folks know what a pain in the ass it is to keep up with the changes in the law. Every freakin' day I am hit with a new case I have to take into consideration. I say shenanigans...civil code people, civil code.

Peace out.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sunday, January 2, 2011

That Empty Feeling

There are days I love my job and a few days when I wonder what the hell possessed me. Last week was really slow and then I got monstrously sick (the hurling kind). So this week was a not so lovefest. About three weeks ago it was a fabulous week.

Still slow, having a hard time getting through assignments. But I came across an interesting
word - Sprezzatura. It's an Italian word that means “to hide conscious effort and appear to accomplish difficult actions with casual nonchalance." The way to make an impression at work is to adopt the attitude of sprezzatura.

How do you do this? Making it look easy means over-prepping. Over-prepping in law is keeping up with case law after hours, reading the bulletins on the Federal Register (that, my friend, takes a chunk of time), and noting the types of assignments I am getting to create a master list of what is required for the repeaters (and keeping track of the unusuals too). In sum, to learn everything possible to be able to pull what I did a few weeks ago. In discussing a client and a patent application, I mentioned a program at the PTO the others were unfamiliar with. After some digging, I put together a way for the client to be a part of this program and the client liked it. Not bad for me, the slow one :)

Off to finish a really old assignment. Gack.