| So Chapin comes out of the shower last night and gives me a sheepish look. “Um, honey, I have something to tell you.” So I’m thinking, “Uh oh, what did he do?” He walks closer and says, “There was this guy outside cutting the neighbors lawn and, well, it’s getting hot and Sunday is my only day off work…” 
I think he thought I was going to be mad that he offered the guy $20/week to cut the lawn for him. He’s so funny – he actually said “I talked him into $20″ and I had to tell him that every guy out there charges $20. 
He was like, “Yeah, but I went over it with him and made sure he knows to get every corner!” I gave Chapin a kiss and said, “Babe, you’re talking to the happy woman who has a team of housecleaners tackling my bathrooms every two weeks! You want to use part of your paycheck to cover your chores, you’ve got it.” (Says she who now has to add “Put $20 under the mat” to my already packed Thursday reminder list which includes “Remember weekly slip ‘n’ slide day supplies for Pumpkinhead.”)
Archive for June 20th, 2007
Apparently my classmates are getting the hang of it because suddenly a lot more laptops have shown up and people are taking MySpace and Facebook breaks periodically. One girl was ordering pizza and e-mailing her boyfriend to see what toppings he wanted.
I got my first law school memo back and it had several comments and some deleted sentences! Ack. The teacher said that I did a good job, but that I’m writing too much like a writer and not enough like a lawyer (i.e., transitional sentences where I should just be leading in with the next point because partners don’t have time to read irrelevant words). Sigh… Back to the drawing board.
The reality, as I know from years of working for an appellate brief writer, a telecommunications law expert and now a bunch of corporate guys, is that each lawyer has a different style with sometimes completely opposing grammatical choices. It’s very difficult to keep it all straight, especially when you’re working for conflicting styles at the same time (I have two and my coworker also has two with opposite rules). So my task now, while keeping my attorney’s styles clear in my head, is to follow my teacher’s preferred format and cut, cut, cut. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you should know that cutting doesn’t quite flow with my personal style. That said, having been up against the U.S. Supreme Court’s brief word count more than a few times for work, I know how to do it and I’m up for the challenge. 
