Merry Christmas Eve!

I made it home to Utah safe and sound, though a bit late, on Saturday evening. A late take off from DC combined with weather in Minneapolis made for a late landing. I RAN for my connection and if you've ever been to that airport you know that it's HUGE. I had to take a monorail to the other terminal and (this aggravated me no end) there are NO moving walkways. WHY?!? Hearing my name being slaughtered over the loudspeaker made me pick up my pace- there's nothing like a last call for boarding that will pick up your feet! I made my flight, spent an hour and a half de-icing then finally took off.

I had a nice dinner with my mom and brother and have spent the last two days shopping and hanging out with my family.

Last night I celebrated Christmas with my mom and stepdad. We had a big dinner and almost everyone was there. Ashley and Joel with their two kiddies. The only two missing were Tiff and Chris from Vegas. Turns out I won't be able to see them this year... :( But it was a good time. My mom made her famous (and fabulous) New England Clam Chowder for dinner with a yummy ham. My brother and I helped her make the cheesepotatoes and the greenbean casserole. I helped the most with the pumpkin pie and the apple pie (I mixed and peeled and cut the apples!). Don't get too impressed, my mom's got a nifty gadget that you turn and it cores, peels, and slices the apple while you turn the apple. Haha it's cool.

I got gift cards, money (yes!) and dun dun dun... the winner is: a brand new digital camera! Mom got me a Sony but we switched it for a Nikon. LOVING IT! I'll be posting lots more pics now once I get it all connected to my computer... :)

Tonight my brother and I head to our dad's place for his Christmas celebration.

Tomorrow we're supposed to be going skiing with Mom and Duane, but with the weather... we'll see if that happens. I hope it does!!!

After skiing, we're heading to Duane's parent's place in Henefer. Then home.

I'm hoping to have lunch with a my favorite teacher from high school and dinner with Mal and hopefully 'Nata on Friday. Saturday is all Mom's and Sunday I head back to DC.

Man, time flies when you're having fun!

love,
Carmen

Update

Well, my firm Christmas party went extremely well. We were late and ended up driving instead of cabbing, but that worked to our benefit. I introduced Dave to all the trademark people that were there. Unfortunately, most of the firm are people who work on the Patent side of IP Law. I'm one of +/- 23 people. To give you an idea of how big my firm is there were about 800 people there that night. Meaning half that were employees. We walked down the stairs in the Fairmont Hotel here in DC (very nice place) to the ballroom and Dave was like, "Do you know any of these people?" I looked at the crowd and said, "No." Haha! There were only some of us there from Trademark. I introduced Dave around, we got some drinks, snagged a table and got some food. We sat with my co-worker Sandra and her husband. She's such a sweetie!
Here's some pics:This is a bad one of me. Funny thing: it was a Christmas party, right? The invitation said "Black tie/Cocktail" for the dress code. As you can kind of see, I'm wearing a yellow, halter top, cocktail party dress. I like this dress. Dave was in his three-piece suit wearing a nice red shirt and matching tie to compliment me and the season (I asked that he wear red for this purpose). So we're a festive couple. We walked in and everyone was wearing black. I mean EVERYONE. Then men were mostly in tuxes or black suits. And the women were all in BLACK dresses! Out of all 800 people, I was the only one in yellow! Haha! Well there were a couple of women in red. But the rest of them were either in black, navy blue or dark green! Sorry, but seriously, how boring is that??

Ok so I wasn't very photogenic all night. Meh. This is me and one of my favorite attorneys, Jody. She's a lovely lady. Next to her, not really paying attention, is another one of the attorneys I work for, Mack. He's a good guy, kind of a big teddy-bear.

We stayed pretty late just talking with people and enjoying the free food and free drinks. Afterwards we hit up this greasy, awesome place in Georgetown- The Philadelphia Cheesesteak Factory. Not cheeseCAKE, cheeseSTEAK. It's a sandwich. Sliced steak in a hoagie bun with mayo, lettuce, tomatoes and sometimes hots (but I've determined that's a Baltimore thing since no one in DC know what "hots" are). This place is great. They're open until 2 most nights and 4am on Friday and Saturday. YUMMY!

Then it was back to my place to sleep until noon!

I worked tons more overtime since then. Total for the last pay period was about 25 hours of overtime.

This past weekend we went snowboarding. Now, I've skied my entire life. I mean, I can't even remember when I first learned how, it's just something I've always done. Every weekend growing up, I was either enjoying the sun in my face and wind in my hair as my family and I zipped down one mountain or another. It's something I've missed so much since moving out here. You never realize how much the mountains mean until they're gone. It's might be kind of weird, but to me, the mountains symbolize home. So many good memories were made involving the mountains. I even have problems with directions because there are no mountains to be my base point (if you face them from SLC, that's East, so you can find whereever you're going from there)!! People tell me the Chesapeake is East, but you can't see the water walking on the streets in the city...

Last year, Dave wanted to learn how to snowboard. I'm up for anything snow related, so we went for it. I was just incredibly curious as to how and where the mountains were.... because you kind of need those...

Well, we took our first and second lessons on a hill in Pennsylvania. Seriously, for those of you familiar with the Rockies, this place was a hill. We drove by and he's like "There it is!" I looked everywhere and was like "Where?! I don't see it!" He pointed to this slightly white hill and said "Right there!" I was like, "Are you serious? That's a hill! That's not a mountain! We're gonna snowboard on that?" But it was a great place to learn. When you can see the grass under the lift... well, that's not really something I'm used to!

This past weekend we tried a different place. Lessons three and four were at Wisp. Check out their website. It was a cute place. I would compare it to Powder Mountain or maybe even Nordic. It's smaller of course, but, I was informed that it's some of the best skiing this side of the Continental Divide (not sure if that's true, but it's what I was told). Not too far away from DC, of course, because I'm sure New Hampshire and Vermont have better "mountains" than here. Anyways, we had a blast. I'm all banged up and sore from my chin to my toes, but I had fun!

Oh, both these places are about a 3 to 3.5 HOUR DRIVE from Dave's house, which is almost an hour from DC. And they're a couple of the closer ones!

5 days and a long flight to home.

love,
Carmen

More OT?!

Haha yep.  I looked at the last two posts and realized that I was about to write another post about the same damn thing. Over time.  'Cept today I pulled a record 13 hours in order to submit a document before midnight.

Dinner and the cab ride home is on the firm.  In addition to the overtime I've pulled the last couple days and the three days before Thanksgiving... I like the checks that come afterwards, but it's the long days that are getting to me. :(

And here I am... blogging. 

But last week and the weekend was good.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it back to UT for Thanksgiving.  The tickets jumped really high. My mom and I were both really bummed that we weren't going to be able to be together.  :(

But it was good that I was able to spend the holiday with Dave and his family in New Jersey.  I got off of work early, but we hit 6 hours of traffic (it's usually no more than 3 hours).  Thursday we got up and munched on food as Dave's aunt was cooking.  Everyone started arriving and one of his cousins brought her two rowdy kids and their ADORABLE yellow lab puppy!!! The kids were horrible, but the PUPPY was sooooo CUTE! We played with him for a while. :)

Friday was chill. Dave and I were going to get up really early and check out the Black Friday sales at Best Buy (I wanted a new TV or camera).  Haha yeah... that didn't happen.  We finally got to Best Buy around noon.  You'd think since they opened at like 3am they'd be totally cleaned out, right? At least in past years.  Not this year.  The "limited number available" tvs were still in stock as were their door busters and lots of other things... they even had WIIs!  We went to TJMax afterwards and I got a nice black skirt and this really cute purple shortie jacket- very Audrey Hepburn-ish. :)

Saturday was so chill.  Nobody did anything.  We all hung around the house watching TV and just being lazy until dinner time.  Family dinner at Outback (I LOVE THAT PLACE!!) and then Dave and I headed into Manhattan to check out Macey's Christmas decorations.  They were really cool! The lights were pretty inside and out and outside they had about 5 huge windows filled with little machines that were creating different aspects of Christmas--toys, ornaments, Santa's List, etc.  In the top corner of each window was a short rhyme linking the mystical, pretty machines in the window with Macey's theme this year: Believe.   It was really great.  Then we walked around Time Square for a while and caught the trains home.  We crawled back into bed at like 2.

Traffic coming back on Sunday sucked because of the rain and just so many people on the road at one time.  Another 6 hours and we were home.  Sleep so I could work the next day.

Work, sleep, work, sleep, work and that brings me to now.  

Good times this weekend.  GOOD FOOD, too! 

The firm's holiday party is this coming weekend. Should be fun, I'll post afterwards to let you know how it goes!

luv,

Carmen

10.5 and 7pm.

10.5.

The hours I worked today. 

Hopefully NOT the hours I work tomorrow.  But with the way things are going, I should be prepared for it.

7pm.

The time I was getting ready to leave.

Also the time my attorney emailed me a TASK list DUE by TOMORROW MORNING. As in before 9 am.  OH I forgot to mention, my hours at work are from 10 to 630.  Lovely....

I like CSI.  Las Vegas and sometimes New York.

I enjoyed watching the news while getting ready this morning (I was up earlier than usual=went in early for work...).

I didn't enjoy a 30 minute wait for the bus in the cold. :-/

Yummy soup and salad for lunch.

Major Brownie Points for me::  I TOTALLY impressed my managing partner this morning with her project!!!

Sleepy time.

xoxo

OT

OT= Over Time

This is going to be confusing.  There are two big cases I'm working on.  Case no. 1 and case no. 2.

I anticipate working a LOT of over time this next week and possibly into the week after.  I figured this on Friday.  I went in planning to work on case 2 and I had informed the main attorney I'm working for on case 1 that I would be devoting all my time to case 2.  Well, needless to say that didn't happen.  An hour-and-a-half later, I finally started the project for the day.

Thursday I worked on case 2 all day also.  And re-did the work my assigned "helper" had done because this project is the first project I have done for this attorney.  She's the managing partner of my department.  I kind of want to make a GREAT impression, ya know?

So when I didn't finish Friday, I knew I would have to come in today (Saturdays are mine, people) because I have a Monday Morning deadline.  Since I practically volunteered to do what appears to be a massive amount of overtime in case 1, I am not anticipating being home a lot during regular hours this coming week.

Did I mention that I'm going to a wedding on Saturday? My boyfriend's mom's boyfriend's daughter gets married on Saturday.  So overtime is out next weekend. And then the week after is Thanksgiving if I calculate correctly.  Oh and another big-wig partner that I work for comes in tomorrow.  His situation is difficult.  He lives in Georgia but continues to work a full caseload for the firm.  And since I'm the only trademark litigation paralegal, I do all his work-mostly on short notice since I'm not copied on the correspondence he has with opposing counsel.  Oh fun times.

While I usually don't mind overtime, this really isn't the time of year with the firm being out Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday and me being called into a HUGE production last minute in order for one attorney to clear her calendar before the holiday and busting my ass in another project before the lead attorney goes to Japan on business and the holiday. 

Whew.  I repeat this to myself more and more frequently these days:  "I'm just one person, I'm just one person, I. Am. Just. One. Person.

But I was still at the office for about 6 hours today. Yep, that's dedication people.  And thank god I get paid overtime.

Anywho, on to other more less stressful things.

I went shopping with my boyfriend yesterday.  He needed a nice suit for the wedding and my firm holiday party.  

I'm going to take a slight detour right here.  I got the invitation to the firm's holiday party in the mail.  It's a nice invitation and it was addressed to me and "Guest." He was with me the night I got the invitation and I looked at him and said "Guest.  That means you. You're coming with me."  Ha ha ha! He was so surprised! You had to have seen the look on his face.  He was like "What?!" But he's cool with it.  It's gonna be fun.  Anyways, the invitation says cocktail attire/black tie optional, so he knew he needed a suit.

And with the wedding he needed one, possibly two, suits for both events.  And back to yesterday.

We go to one of his favorite stores, which happens to sell designer for cheap and check out the suits.  He got a stellar one.  It looked so nice on him, he didn't even need or want to try on any other ones.  So we got him measured and we'll be picking it up on Thursday.  With a new suit you need a shirt and tie to match.  We got a blue shirt and an almost burgundy shirt with nice ties so it's like he has two suits! Haha makes sense tho and saved him a lot of money.  It was cool and he looked so nice!

Had brunch with the crew this morning.  I was late. :-(  and that bothers me but there's not much I could do except let them know and I did. I spent the rest of the day at work.  After work I stopped at the grocery store for food for dinner and have been watching "Failure to Launch" (cute movie) and CSI: Las Vegas since.  

Tired. 

xoxo

A Time for Change.

And change is finally here. I cannot wait for the Inauguration in January. Obama has his work cut out for him in order to correct the damage Bush has done to this country. But I believe in him. And, for once, my vote counted. Virginia was iffy there for a while last Tuesday, but we came through for him for the first time in what I hear is a long time, Virginia went for a Democratic president. That's the kind of power the young voters had this go around.

I'm excited. So many others are excited and the world is excited with us. I spoke with a photographer in DC the night of the election. He was from Switzerland. So many people were hoping it would turn out this way. And so many of them were not in the United States.

Bring on the Change!

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On another note, I'm dog-sitting once again. I just ended a long jaunt of dog-sitting on Friday and I'm back again. Leaving my comfy little apartment for the amazing townhouse in Dupont. It's fun, but I want to be in my place. I still have unpacking to do and the sad thing is that I've been in my new place for almost two months. While I have little motivation to unpack the boxes I had no motivation to pack in the first place, I'm determined to be completely unpacked before I leave for the holidays. And this visit has been a long time coming.

I haven't been back to good ol' Utah since last Christmas. I wasn't able to go out this summer and my mom wasn't able to come out this year either. Since that's usually what happens, this year has seemed longer. And it'll be so good to see my family.

I'll be in New Jersey for Thanksgiving with my boyfriend's family. Such nice people! It's nice to see them and be able to see them on a semi-regular basis. Thank goodness for having people to be with on Thanksgiving. It's a lonely holiday away from home.

December will be here before we know it! I just hope I'm ready!

CVS Pharmacy and Other Complaints

Man they piss me off. It doesn't matter which one I go to or what size the pharmacy is, I always have problems with getting my prescription in a correct and timely manner. The technician manages to f*** it up every single time.

I'm talking every single prescription, regardless of how clearly the 'scrip is written out by my doctors or what comes up in the system, something always goes wrong.

Last month I was told I didn't have anymore refills on a 'scrip. So I scheduled a doctor's appointment and got a new Rx. I took it to a closer pharmacy-still CVS mind you- and was told that they couldn't fill it because there had already been a fill that month. I was like "What?" Come to find out, when I had called previously and had been told I didn't have any more refills the Rx had been FILLED and, at that point had been waiting for me to pick it up for 2 weeks. You've got to be kidding me.

Not too long ago, my doctor wrote a scrip for my insulin. He filled out the Rx form too well this time. Too well? Yep, it's possible people. He put down 3 bottles/month and then informed them of my daily dose. Well, the daily dose he wrote down is the flat rate I take per day NOT including the extra for food or high blood sugar. That makes the actual daily dose higher. Instead of just issuing me 3 bottles, they actually did the math of my dosing and only gave me what that number came to- 2 bottles. The pharmacist had to "play" with my Rx in order for me to get the third bottle. This was after one pharmacist told me (without speaking to me or reviewing my records) that "2 bottles is more than enough. If you think you need more you can buy it without the insurance coverage." That option comes to close to $100.00 a bottle. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do that when "3 bottles" is written on the Rx!!

That situation made me so mad! That lady had the balls to tell me that 2 bottles is more than enough. I'm sorry, but you're not my doctor nor do you handle my medical care, bitch, HOW DARE YOU?!? Ugh.

Then I have issues transferring prescriptions. What gets me about that is that they advertise that it's so easy to transfer prescriptions to ANY of their locations, nation-wide. Yeah. Right.

So, I'm looking at taking my prescriptions to Giant. Specifically the Giant near my home. It all depends on the hours of the pharmacy.

*~*~*~*~
Now that I've finished complaining about CVS, moving on to... my job.

Hahaha I love my job. I enjoy the people I work with (most of the time) and the freedom I have with my position.

But seriously, the last minute huge rush jobs have GOT to STOP. They really, really do. I mean, I am now looking foward to coming in early the next two days and possibly working thru the firm Halloween party in order to have this project done in time. It's kind of weird circumstance and I can't say it's the usual suspect's fault because it's over her head. This came down from the partner on a large litigation case I'm handling. And all because I had to ask if he needed anything in preparation for a meeting on Friday. Got myself to thank for that. But I'm leaving early-ish tomorrow and Friday for the BF's birthday and Halloween celebrations and a concert we have tickets to.

It all depends on how quickly things go tomorrow. If I can get the project to the copy center to be copied and bound in time, then I should be ok (and possibly owe the copy guy lunch once again).... We'll see.

There go the other projects I was hoping to get to this week...

DC's Annual Drag Queen High Heel Race

Yep, you "heard" me right. DC has an annual Drag Queen High Heel race.

The event is held in the evening on the Tuesday before Halloween usually between 7 and 9pm. It's an unofficial event but well known throughout DC. The actual race is held at 9pm and the Queens race each other for a prize two blocks down 17th street in their outfits and high heels. The streets are blocked off by police and TONS of people come out to watch the spectacle.

It was hilarious! We saw school girls, Victoria's Secret Angels, pregnant polygamists, S&M outfits, beauty queens with drinks instead of states (i.e. Miss Red-headed Slut instead of Miss California, etc.) and tons others. There were even Mary Kay and Avon "girls."

I didn't get to see the actual race because I'm short and this group at the bar we were at had "dibbed" a chair but no one was standing in it. I, being a forward speak-my-mind type person, said something to them. First I was nice and asked if the chair was being used. But once they said yes even tho no one was in it, I was like "how do you say you're using a chair when no one's in it?" "Because my friend's been here since 4pm." "That doesn't mean anything to me. You can't say you're gonna use a chair, especially when there are so many people that want to see the race and will stand in the chair now." So the stupid girl actually unwrapped herself from her boyfriend and stood in the chair. We left. Jerks.

I thoroughly enjoyed a much stronger drink at the bar next door and cheered for the race even tho I could only see wigs running by... hahaha. We stayed and walked around and took pictures with drag queens afterwards. There were so many people there it was crazy. And to top it off, it was FREEZING! It reminded me of Mardi Gras in a very far-off disconnected way...

We ended the night with dinner at CPK. Funny story: there was a table full of girls near us. I think they were from GW just because of their age and the location in Dupont Circle isn't far from campus. One girl says something to her friend about CPK. A different girl was like "Who calls it CPK? I think you're just doing that to be cool." HA! I'd never heard it called CPK until I moved to DC and that's what everyone calls it now, so I'm pretty sure she'll be calling it CPK before she knows it!

Walked my attorney's dog (because I'm dog sitting once again, this time into next month) and then passed out.

Me? Cooking? Yep, that's right...

I took the bus home after work today, walked to my new home and have been enjoying my cable tv and internet while doing laundry without having to leave my place. This is fabulous! Something I searched for long and hard.  It's good.

I vented in the last post but have been enjoying the last few days.  I dog-sit for one of the attorneys I work for and spent this past weekend at his amazing home right in the middle of the city. His "puppy" (who is actually an old dog that acts like a puppy) is sooo cute! And so well mannered.  Walking him gets me out and about.  I learned this weekend that there is a farmers market on some Sunday mornings near his home and my boyfriend and I checked it out.  Now, my bf loves crab meat- crab cakes, crab soup, crab dip, all kinds of crab and all other kinds of seafood- and there was a little stand that was giving out samples of hot, fresh crab cakes.  I'm not a big fan of crab, except king crab.  But man, these crab cakes were GOOD. We ended up getting a couple before picking up his mom's bikes so that we can start bike riding around the city.  We had a delicious lunch of chicken & rice n' beans at her place YUMMMMM then came back to my place for a dinner of fried crab cakes.  Yep, I fried 'em. I'm proud of this fact.  

Haha speaking of seafood and me cooking, I have discovered the way to have him putty in my hands.... MUAHAHAHA!! Last week after grocery shopping and stocking my shelf and fridge with food, my bf brought over his steamer and I, that's right little me that never cooks, steamed the shrimp to perfection (if I may say so myself).  Two pounds of large shrimp were steamed and devoured in possibly record time.  And my stir fry last night was a hit too... I just might have something here... lol.

It's been fun. Haha.  We'll see how long I can keep it up.

We have decided to try doing more active things together, not just watch movies.  So... he's gonna teach me how to play tennis and now, because I live in a part of the city that is bike friendly and bike-interesting, we've decided to bring the bikes here and start exploring the area via bikes. We even went and got the helmets to be safe in this endeavor! 

Halloween is around the corner. I'll be dog sitting once again for a more extended period of time and plan to take advantage of any happenings going on in that part of the city that evening. I mean, I'm in the city now, but where I'll be while dog sitting is a more active, happening place to be for the activities.

Aggravated

I came to my blog to vent and found myself realizing that while I'm a "blog stalker" (this in addition to facebook stalking and myspace stalking- I only leave comments on facebook just to warn you and then only rarely), I have not updated my own blog in quite sometime.

Since the last post:

1. I have found a new job and have been enjoying it. The duties are much thte same, but the people are much nicer and I do not have a minimum billing requirement to meet.

2. I have found a new place to live and LOVE it. It's just an ongoing process to get unpacked and organized in a timely manner as I just moved. But it's in the city, in a great neighborhood, and I feel as if I can and will be there for a while.

3. My relationship is developing nicely. We enjoy each other's company very much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now to vent...

I am the only litigation paralegal in the trademark department at my new firm. This has been nice as I have been able to make it how I want it. I set my own hours and have only heard good things about how I've been handling things. And believe me, it was a MESS when I started. I do not do the same things the other paralegals in the trademark department do. Our duties are quite different and while I hope to crosstrain at some point in the future, they do not want to have any part in what I do nor does my supervisor. I am left to my own devices and when I need help I call on the Patent paralegals. This kind of puts me in a weird position. Some people believe I answer to the Patent paralegal supervisor when in fact I don't, I don't really fit into the trademark paralegal group because they do completely different things, and at the same time, I don't fit into the Patent paralegal group because they are not interested in the law I deal with. But I enjoy it.

However, because it's an odd position, I do not have a formal job description. This has caused me some issues because I came into the position feeling as if I am responsible for certain projects and not others and have had that belief dashed several times. I'm fighting back.

Frankly, if an attorney gives me a project I will do it. If a SECRETARY gives me a project I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE for it. Obviously the project was given to the secretary by the attorney simply because the project is not something I can BILL for. Yes, that's right, my work goes on the bills to the clients people, let's not forget that small factor shall we??

It just so happens that my main attorney has a HORRIBLE secretary. My attorney is cool. Unfortunately, she's out on maternity leave at the time being and I'm answering to a different attorney for the same cases. You would think that I would be dealing with a different secretary, right? Wrong. I am dealing with the same, incompetent secretary now more than previously and I don't know how much longer I can take it.

-I started a log so that when he removes files from my office that I am responsible for I know that he has taken them and can inform the attorney that it is not in my possession and I cannot guarantee that it is up to date.

-I am also determined to get him trained that he is to return the files to the drawer he got them from and NOT my desk. I have enough work on it already, thanks much. (I have had words with him several times regarding this issue- do not pretend you don't know how I file because the drawers have an index on the outside taped to the drawer and easy to read plus in case you can't read, the files themselves are in numerical order).

I have also spoken directly with my supervisor about issues I've had with him. Supposedly, she will be speaking with him when he gets back from being out of town.

And this brings us to my main complaint. And I realize this has to do with the fact that I'm too nice to this imbecile, but I've come to realize that he's not stupid, he's just lazy. I can handle stupid. I do NOT tolerate lazy. Especially when it comes down to things I am responsible for and can come back to bite me.

This particular secretary cornered me in the hallway yesterday and gave me a project on his way out the door.
ISSUE NO. 1: Secretaries do not give me projects. I am not their backup.

The project is easy, no problem, fine dude, just leave me alone. Did you give me all the necessary information to complete your project in a fast and easy manner? According to him: yes.
ISSUE NO. 2: I had to search for the necessary information to do what had been asked of me.

(Oh you can bet your ass I complained. I went straight to my supervisor as soon as I realized how long this was going to take me.)

Is the project a task that fits my job description? Given I don't have a definite job description- tit is MY discretion to decide if it does or not.
ISSUE NO. 3: The answer to the question above is NO. NO, no, definitely no. I only do what he gave me when asked by an attorney. AGAIN, I do not do projects given to me by a secretary.

On top of it all, these documents have been sitting on his desk, waiting to be put in a file (the creation of said file is the project he gave me) for OVER A MONTH. So, this leads me to the conclusion that something is coming due in the files and therefore he must have something to give the attorney when asked for them. Basically, I got the project because he was too lazy to get to it and was cleaning off his desk before he went on his stupid trip!!!!

NOT ALLOWED.

I am a litigation paralegal. I maintain the files and handle other duties as assigned by an ATTORNEY, not the secretary. I am supposed to give work to the secretary NOT the other way around. ARE WE CLEAR? I will not be doing this again. I repeat, I will NOT BE DOING THIS AGAIN.

Man, this guy aggravates me sooooo much it's crazy! He basically refuses to put the files back in the drawer when it takes longer for him to explain to me why he's putting it on my desk (adding to the several precariously perched piles) than to put it back in the drawer it came from!

I promise you, he's not stupid, he's just lazy. I'm done with tolerating his laziness. It just adds to my workload. My workload is big enough thank you. Must I remind you that I am the ONLY trademark litigation paralegal IN MY FIRM?? I pull 9 hour days on a regular basis. This guy can effing do his job instead of laying it off on me!

~~~~~
K. I'm done venting. I think.

On another totally separate topic, I'm due for another laser eye treatment. No, it's not to correct my vision. It's to delay the full onset of diabetic retinopathy. It's scary. But it's helping, so I'll do what's necessary. Yes, it's painful, but only in that my eye is kept open while all I see is a series of rapidly flashing lights for a 1/2 hour or more (mind you my eye has been numbed for this). Thus, I leave with a raging headache and some residual pain when focusing on objects out of my normal range of site. But I've been assured that will go away. As did the fact that my vision would take a while to come back after blinking in the morning and at night. Something that will not be coming back is my night vision. Now, I never had good night vision in the first place. I don't own a car and rarely drive, so this is not a big deal for me at this time in my life. Not sure about later.

I've gotten back in touch with quite a few people from my high school days and have noticed that a majority of them are married and have one or two kids if not one on the way currently. I shouldn't be surprised at this but I am. Two of my cousins got married this summer. My brother and I are the oldest ones left in my family that are not married and I feel the push to do so every family holiday. Since I am only home for Christmas now, this push is felt more and more because it seems to be a big deal when I'm with that part of my family for the brief time I'm home. The push for marriage only comes from my step-family. You have to understand where they are coming from and the culture I came from in order to understand why so many of my relatives married under the age of 22 and why the push for me to be married gets harder and harder as I get older. But that's for another time.

I recenly purchased my plane ticket to go home for the up-coming Christmas holidays. I am out $500. This has gone up severely from last year and the year before. But, I'll be back on the other side of the Rocky Mountains from about the 21 to the 28. I hope to do things with friends that I miss and my family. I am also excited for all the good food!! Can't wait for some of my mom's cooking! Christmas is the time my mom makes her famous peanut-butter kiss cookies, caramel corn, Stein candy, and banana bread. For those of you that have experienced the amazing-ness that is my mom's holiday cooking... you understand why I miss it!

I'm In Over My Head

Besides being the main line in a song I am enjoying right at this moment, it's also quite descriptive of how I feel about my life at this point.

There are always relationship issues to deal with. Haha. I laugh because it's like I attract complicated relationships even tho I'm pretty cool with pretty much anything and don't really consider myself a jealous person. I'm more of an "equal opportunity" and "all's fair" kind of person, meaning if my significant other decides that we have an open relationship and can be with another person, well, then so can I, and vice versa. However, I have discovered that I'm quite dense regarding romantic notions. It's not that I'm not romantic, just that I'm clueless about some things.

Besides that I'm dealing with generally enjoying where I am in life. And since I don't at the moment I'm taking steps to do so. This means looking for a new job and possibly a new place to live. Obtaining said job must come before I look for and find a new place to live. I would like this new place to be a place I can stay for a while. I am sick of moving every year.

And I'm tired. Always. I wake up tired and go to sleep exhausted. I have no idea why. It possibly has to do with my diabetes. This is getting into better control than it has been recently. But I feel like I never have enough energy for anything. Someone mentioned a lack of sleep and that's an obvious contributing factor. There is also the fact that I'm addicted to high amounts of caffeine daily, including energy drinks. They're sugar free, but hey...

I find myself not bored, but more uninterested in my knitting and crocheting projects. I've even found myself starting and putting down books. If I count them, I'm technically in the middle of 4 books at this point. I don't think I've ever done that before. It's too many to balance.

I'm bored and uninterested at work. Hence, the search for a new, more exciting job. But I have discovered that in searching for a new job, I will most likely have to push law school back another two years. Now, this seems like a long time. But I have discussed it with several friends and my family, mainly my mom. I understand people will be disappointed because I have already pushed it back two years, this is a necessary evil. With a better paying job I will be able to take an LSAT prep course and hopefully, gain some beneficial experience in another field of law. Know this: I WILL go to law school and get my J.D. I've worked my entire life for this. I have goals. This will be a slight detour, but I will end up where I want to be. Kind of like taking the scenic route, ya know?

I need to focus.

I find my mind wandering. While I'm at work, while I'm with my friends, while I'm on dates. It's bad. I can't seem to keep myself on one subject or topic or even with the people I'm with.

I want to write. I want to write so badly. I just need the time and inclination. I'm terrified of what might come out of me. Should I take a creative writing class? Options. Not enough time or money to consider them at the moment.

Focus.

Incredible

It's incredible what can happen in such a short amount of time.

So much has changed since my last post. And yet, if you really examine all that's happened, it's not really all that much. It's the little things I've tried to change. Ryan and I aren't together anymore. I'm attempting to move on with my life in terms of personal goals that have been out of my reach for the last little while, and I'm trying to just enjoy life.

Isn't it just a little bit funny that we talk about how happy we are and how much we enjoy life, but when it comes down to it, are we really enjoying our lives? Are we getting the most out of our daily existence that we can? Answer me this: If you died tomorrow, would you be happy (that's right, not satisfied but happy) leaving your life as is?

Truthfully? My answer is no.

But I'm working on changing that.