Archive for August 7th, 2007

August 7th, 2007  Posted at   Law School

It’s exam week. I’m starting to get a bit stressed. First off, after spending the entire weekend with my butt in a chair that just isn’t ergonomic, my back hurts. Second, after spending the whole weekend, yesterday and today typing (what with practice exams and then the actual work they pay me to do!), my carpal tunnel is back with a vengeance. I had it really bad several years ago (could barely drive my car), but it’s been a lot better in recent years. Of course now that my fingers are cold/tingling/numb and my arm is throbbing, the only of my many $30 braces I can find are for my left hand (not really the problem). ARGH! Of course I went to the drugstore on the way home and didn’t buy one because I was certain I had one at home. Problem is that I really haven’t unpacked any of my office boxes since we moved … two years ago … and I just don’t know where on earth the right-hand ones would be.

To add to the stress, Pumpkinhead is refusing to sleep. It’s like he has a Stressed Mommy radar. He’s been in my room probably 10 times in the last half hour to ask for something. I’m ready to throttle him. I was up at 4:15 this morning and he was up right after me at 5. He wouldn’t settle back down so Bad Mommy sat him in front of Diego and went back to her outlines. Yeah right. :roll: No way was he letting me get away with that.

Then I go to work and Partner 1 is on my back because Partner 2 keeps needing me for little time-sensitive projects throughout the day and Partner 1 thinks he deserves my undivided attention at all times (he really is a big baby sometimes – actually stomps his feet at me…). I mentioned after the fourth straight hour of entering messy handwritten edits that my arm was starting to throb and he gave me a speech about when he was in law school 100 years ago, they had to use typewriters and if they made one mistake they had to start all over again. I think I saw him pull out his violin as I turned to leave.

On top of everything else, my mother has decided she needs a “surprise” birthday party the weekend after this one and that I have to coordinate it. :neutral: Yes, because what I need right now is one more thing to do. She watches Pumpkinhead while I’m in school so what can I say?

It’s Tuesday. My outline isn’t finished. Time is short. Stress. :(

August 7th, 2007  Posted at   Uncategorized

The New York Times reported yesterday on a new publication by the National Conference of State Legislatures detailing the 1,404 immigration measures considered by states in 2007. Of those measures, 170 were enacted, including a Tennessee law making it a crime (versus a civil offense) to hire an undocumented immigrant.

While the political tide ran generally against illegal immigrants, some states adopted measures to help them by protecting them from exploitation and by extending education and health care to their children. Fifteen states adopted laws intended to punish immigrant smugglers, especially if their victims were foreigners coerced into prostitution or other sexual commerce.

August 7th, 2007  Posted at   Mommy stuff, Women in Law

Over at Pundit Mom, guest blogger Lawyer Mama has a fantastic post on discrimination against lawyer mothers with a jaw-dropping example of her own. Obviously I can’t give any examples of this from where I currently work because, of course, there are none to give (love you, paycheck writers potentially reading my blog :grin: ). However, I can surely give a example of the effects of working in a “boy’s club” from one of my former jobs.

I don’t know her motivation, nor do I really think this was encouraged by her colleagues, but I worked at a firm where a female partner got pregnant (yes, partner, which is why this is so weird). She absolutely REFUSED to admit to anyone in the firm or outside the firm that she was pregnant, despite her growing belly. She told her secretary not to mention it to anyone, especially during her maternity leave. That “leave” was four days. She was on her blackberry with both clients and partners throughout labor, just mentioning it as an aside to the managing partner, and was back to work right away. The firm was actually really family-friendly so the partners comments weren’t “go girl!” but “what the hell is wrong with her?!?” I still don’t know. I didn’t work directly for her, but it was so odd and I often wonder if she’d worked so hard to make it to where she was that she only knew one set of rules to play by. :???: