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Archive for December, 2009

That Time of Year

29 Dec

Around this time last year I was in incredible pain. Apparently this has been a common thing for the past three years or so in December/January. I am again in pain and ready to inject my elbow with monkey saliva to get relief. Everything hurts/burns. My glands are super-swollen in my neck, armpits, groin. Mind you, I worked 65 hours the week before Christmas and 40 hours the week of Christmas before the two holiday days!!! So stress could be the issue…

I am maxed out on my Zonisamide and Cymbalta right now and nothing is working. Trying Biofreeze and capsaicin cream on my skin to counteract the burn. Nothing is helping. So I’m going to see internal medicine tomorrow to rule out an actual *illness* although I am sure this is just more of the same. Huge work commitment next week and I need to be on my game. Staying home tomorrow to rest, recover and see the doc in the hopes that I can get it together before Monday. Sigh…

2 Comments

Posted in Health

Sunday Stealing: Final Week of 2009 Meme

28 Dec

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Strap-on sex Haha, you asked!

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Didn’t make any last year

3. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve? No clue, but future SIL and Mr. V are making plans, I believe

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, my Aunt Pauline

5. What countries did you visit? None

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? A raise/promotion

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? October 31, the date Mr. V proposed

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Lots of work-related achievements this year. Managed to stay on my meds and vitamins.

9. What was your biggest failure? Failed to walk and exercise like I had hoped to do.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? This year has actually been pretty good. Had pain early in the year and am suffering now but have otherwise done well.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Kindle and iPhone are tied

12. Where did most of your money go? Bills and student loans. Heh…

13. What song will always remind you of 2009? Um… no clue

14. What do you wish you’d done more of? Time at Pumpkinhead’s new school

15. What do you wish you’d done less of? Work

16. What was your favourite TV program? Really enjoyed Criminal Minds this season

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? No

18. What was the best book you read? Don’t have any standouts. Just finished Scarpetta Factor and it was really good.

19. What was your greatest musical discovery? Our Wedding Song, Angel Eyes by Jeff Healey (new to me)

20. What was your favorite film of this year? Curious Case of Benjamin Button or The Proposal

21. What did you do on your birthday? My birthday is today, actually. Ask me tonight… Last year I planned my own 30th birthday party and spent it with family, friends and ex-boyfriend.

22. What kept you sane? My son, my job and Mr. V

23. Who did you miss? I miss my grandparents

24. Who was the best new person you met? Mr. V, of course. Also have a great new colleague who is a good friend

25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009 Try something different – you may be surprised at the results

Thank you for playing this week on Sunday Stealing! Please leave a comment or link when you have posted. Feel free to stop back and visit other player’s posts. Have a great week. See you next Sunday!

3 Comments

Posted in Blogging

Weekly MILP Roundup #130

28 Dec

The Weekly MILP (Moms In the Legal Profession) Roundup** is hosted on a rotating basis at the PT-LawMom, Attorney Work Product and A Little Fish in Law School blogs and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Next week Proto Attorney will have it.

Proto Attorney - “I have a feeling I’m about to have a front row seat for a train wreck.”

Lag Liv - “Sometimes he makes me want to hug him so tight and them freeze time for at least 3 years so I can properly soak him up.”

Butterflyfish – “The good news is my plumbing is in working order.”

Cee – “I mean, aside from living the next three months with my breath held until a nice little income stream starts pouring in, the whole being in debt and living off my credit cards is starting to get to my subconscious as well.”

Dakota – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Magic Cookie – “When I gave it to him, he took a big bite out of the head.”

Googie Baba - “I feel like women are always being manipulated either by religion or love to sacrifice things of value.”

Surviving Law School as a Single Mom - “You see, the moment I became pregnant, my life as I knew it ceased. It was no longer about me; it was about this amazing life that I was growing inside of me. I was able to start gaining strength to leave your abuse because I would never have my child bear witness or be influenced by your hateful ways. As I result, I started preparing. Deep down, I always knew it would come to this. And guess what? You will not win.”
If you would like to have your blog added to the MILP blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

**Hat tip to the “original” Roundup Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and Thanks, But No Thanks

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Posted in Law School, MILS, Mommy stuff, Women in Law

Suckage

22 Dec

Today sucked on so many levels.

Started off day with a call from Chapin saying he was going to return Pumpkinhead two days early, without the bag I sent or his Nintendo, at 3 p.m. when I had a critical conference call scheduled. Nice…

Got into work and dealt with some seriously arrogant “we’re so important we have no time for you” attitude from colleagues in DC. Grrr.

Raced to a mid-day doctor’s appointment with Mr. V only to be told that an issue that is impacting us cannot be fixed easily or soon and that basically I have to wait. Have I mentioned that patience is NOT my virtue?!?!?

Walked in the door to my boss calling from his vacation to bitch me out. Spent 30 minutes on the phone with him and then had to hop on two subsequent calls, which took pretty much all afternoon. It was 7:30 p.m. before I was finished with my work (from the couch) and headed to a Chinese buffet with Mr. V and Pumpkinhead.

Then we come home and get a knock on the door. “Oh, I have a delivery for [Mr. V] but he has to sign for it.” Me, thinking it was a Christmas thing, was all happy telling him to come to the door. Um, no…. Process server delivering notice from court that he has to respond to a petition from a debt collector for a past due debt. Merry Christmas!

Good things
1) Pumpkinhead is so freaking cute, happy to be home and excited to make cookies for Santa
2) Sent my resume to a friend who has good connections in my field. Maybe she can actually hook me up?
3) I got like four books free on my early birthday present (Kindle)
4) Unlike last year when I had to convince a coworker to send out my 30th birthday party invitations and my boyfriend was like, duh, my sweet fiance has already planned dinner out with friends for my “special day.” My kind of man!

3 Comments

Posted in Engagement, Mommy stuff, Women in Law

Noise Sensitivity

21 Dec

Noise drives me nuts. Fingernails tapping on a desk. The sound of people chewing. A dog slurping its water. The sniffle of someone with a cold. It is so irritating it is almost physically painful to me. Tonight Mr. V got really pissed at me because a Cindy Crawford commercial’s insane rhythm was making my skin crawl and I couldn’t take it anymore. I seriously cannot be the only one out there with this weird condition. And a condition it is. I seriously could not sit through a meal with my parents as a teenager because the sound of my mother chewing would make me want to gouge my eyeballs out. Anyone? Anyone?!?!

8 Comments

Posted in Family Stuff, Health

Weekly MILP Roundup #129

21 Dec

This week’s MILP Roundup is up at Butterflyfish’s place. The Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis at the PT-LawMom, Attorney Work Product and Butterflyfish blogs and is usually posted no later than Monday morning. Back here this weekend.

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Posted in Law School, MILS, Mommy stuff, Women in Law

Weekly MILP Roundup #128

13 Dec

This week’s MILP Roundup is up at Proto Attorney’s place. The Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis at the PT-LawMom, Attorney Work Product and Butterflyfish blogs and is usually posted no later than Monday. Butterflyfish has it next week.

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Posted in Law School, MILS, Mommy stuff, Women in Law

Work, work, work

12 Dec

To answer Shels, no, no promotion or bonus. Not sure if/when/if ever that will happen. However, I did put my resume on Monster this week just to see what is out there. I love the work I do and really enjoy my job. But I am extraordinarily over-extended and rather than getting help, I’m just getting more work.

This month alone I am coordinating rollout of a new policy in 18 languages to 50,000 people in 96 countries… by mail. I am also working on development of two training modules related to those policies, each of which have to be completed and sent out to employees in January using a new training system that the company’s employees are unfamiliar with (oh, and the IT department is being outsourced the very WEEK my boss is planning to roll out our first course…). I am responsible for our worldwide employee hotline (receiving reports through online system and sending them out to the proper investigators in each location and following up to close out the cases). I am working on follow-ups to a company-wide questionnaire. I field, respond to and translate questions from our Latin American locations because I am the only Spanish speaker. On top of all that I am designing websites and file repositories for my department and each of its three composite groups and working with IT on rollout of a new software package. Then this week I get an e-mail from Big Boss asking me to work another 15 hours per week through the end of the year on yet another major project.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Big Boss. I love my job. I want to succeed, impress, do well. And I am thrilled that he recognizes that I can do more than my title. But, DAMN, I have way too much on my plate right now. Sigh… And the items above are just the big things – don’t include the daily assistance to the five attorneys in my group on various initiatives because, after all, I am a “paralegal”. Um… yeah, sounds like it, huh? I need the title and pay that go with the work I do. Believe me, I have told him. Hanging in, hanging on, hanging out.

1 Comment

Posted in Women in Law

Blissed Out and Cranky

07 Dec

I’m in love, adored, adoring, surrounded by awesomeness, etc. And my kid is rocking school (100% on his math benchmark test and off the charts in reading). Woo-hoo!! Had our engagement party this weekend and even though some were conspicuously absent (Ana – boo!!!), we had a great turnout of wonderful friends and family to share our bliss.

Then there is work… I should be happy. Big Boss is giving me some awesome department-wide tasks to work on. Getting recognition from others in the department. However, direct Boss is still being a total asshole and that has just gotten worse. Restricted to 40 hours so keep doing Big Boss’s stuff on my own time (how else will I ever get the promotion I want? Can’t exactly whine that direct Boss won’t give me enough time to do it all.) And last week, a week before her probation period was up, direct Boss fired my friend and bridesmaid. Argh!!! Now he wants to pile the majority of her work on me because he “knows I can handle it.” Um… is he just trying to set me up for failure? His dismissal of my friend was arbitrary, groundless and, honestly, I think just to get back at me. Piece of Shit. I feel like I’m in a chess game. Next move? Who knows…

I keep feeling close to something going my way but I can’t be sure. When direct Boss pulls things like this, it freaks everyone out. Meanwhile, with the economy the way it is, beggers can’t be choosy. So what can I do?

Mr. V’s work continues to lag. He owns his own business and teaches. It’s been a horrible year for his company and now we’re headin into Christmas when his school paychecks will be gone until classes start again in February. Ahh, the life of an adjunct.

I know, we should be thankful for our many blessings and the fact that we have jobs. Still, I am really starting to burn out. I feel like I’ve been working my ass off for 2 years with no payoff. When will it come? I keep second-guessing the decision to trust direct Boss and leave law school to take the “promotion” he offered. Will that ever come? I think so, but I can’t be sure and it just has me cranky and on edge. Blogging? Do you really, really want to hear about my work angst??? Didn’t think so…

8 Comments

Posted in Engagement, Mommy stuff, Women in Law

Weekly MILP Roundup #127

07 Dec

Sorry I’m so very late with this. I know. I suck. Apparently more than I know because a friend recently started blogging again after a hiatus and I am not one of the invited readers. Waah.

JD Wannabe has disappeared. WTH?!?

Butterflyfish is very wise

Cee again wins the cutest Christmas card contest (that girl is so creative!!!) and should be congratulated on her last law school class ever!

PD Surrogate is hanging with some scantily-clad recent grads (at least she wasn’t wearing flip-flops…)

Googie Baba is indulging in some cookie therapy

Lag Liv is returning to her old stomping ground for a much-needed break

Heh – I thought I was the only one with high school friends unexpectedly and uncharacteristically imprisoned. Nope, Certifiable, too.

SammieB’s Mom is feeling overwhelmed… and blessed.
Shelley’s little Peach is growing up

Proto Attorney bemoans the little annoyances inherent in small firm life

If you would like to have your blog added to the MILP blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.

**Hat tip to the “original” Roundup Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and Thanks, But No Thanks

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Posted in Law School, Mommy stuff, Women in Law