UG....

I have dubbed the other paralegal girl Uptight Girl (UG) (although she HATES the term 'paralegal' and insists that she be called a 'law clerk', so it is particularly fun for me to now refer to her as a paralegal because I'm just passive aggressive that way).

Uptight Girl tells others in the office what their job is and what they should be doing at least ten or twenty times a day.

This morning, we were supposed to have a status meeting. This entails going through each case and making sure everyone knows what they are to do for their assigned cases. Basically there are two attorneys and two paralegals (ha!) and a collection of cases. The attorneys are assigned cases separately or together based on how they've decided to share costs and fees, and the paralegals (Ha, ha!) are assigned cases in turn so we each have an equal number of cases that we are handling at any given time.

So, I am inheriting some 19 cases. Uptight Girl has 18. She told me the other day that she would take the next case that came in in order to maintain parity. Okay, no problem.

After bitching for 10-15 minutes bitterly at how her time was being wasted and how ridiculous this all was, the attorney (the other one is on vacation) finished the phone call he was on and came to the meeting. Let me just say, I was distinctly uncomfortable siting there in the conference room, listening to such negativity for that length of time. It didn't even occur to me to be mad that I had to wait. I was getting paid to wait. What did it matter to me? It was a hell of a lot better than NOT getting paid to sit on my ass at home. (I'm just saying.)

Anyway, that episode made me kind of uncomfortable, but then, it got worse this afternoon. The attorney comes back from an appearance and came into my new office where I was talking about the calendar with the lady who's leaving. He starts telling her about a trial date that is coming up and saying he wants certain people subpoenaed with docs for trial. No problem. Calendaring is my job. Also, if the attorney tells me to do something, I do it, no matter what anyone else says.

But Uptight Girl did NOT like it. After he leaves my new office, she pokes her head in and says, "Well, since Mr. Attorney talked to you about that and that was my case, that's YOUR case now, since you apparently know all about it. You need to do everything on that case from now on."

Okay. Whatever. Ya FREAK! First of all, you AREN'T MY FUCKING BOSS, YOU ARE A PARALEGAL, (ha, ha, ha!) whether you think calling yourself a law clerk makes some kind of difference or not. Secondly, what's the BFD? The attorney just doesn't care who does stuff. He just wants the job done. Petty stuff just doesn't matter to him.

So, it kind of annoyed me, and it kind of just amused me at the same time. It annoyed me because her negative energy is taxing, and I just find myself feeling uncomfortable and stressed out when I'm around that kind of attitude. It amused me because I wasn't sure what she hoped to gain by dumping stuff on me. If she thinks I'm going to care, she's wrong, because I just like to be busy, and I want to learn what needs to be done, do a good job, and eventually be competent to run my own practice. She's not hurting me by being petulant about it.

I told my friend N about it, and she made some vague reference to dogs peeing around their territory. Yup, sounds about right to me, although I don't know much about dogs- we finally got one in October, and I never had one growing up, so the territory protection is completely foreign to me, especially when the dog is a paralegal (ha, ha, ha, ha!).

Reception...

The reception girl was out yesterday, so I got the pleasure of answering the phone and (wo)maning the front desk....

Phone call #1:

Me: Law Offices.
Caller: Hi, I need a lawyer because I bought hay for my horse and it was poisoned. My horse died and I'd like to sue.
Me: Um, let me see if Mr. Attorney can talk to you for a minute.

Exactly ninety seconds later....

Me: Law Offices.
Caller: Hi, I need a lawyer because I have a perverted retarded guy standing outside my house yelling obscenities (I won't list said obscenities because they are particularly vile) and "f***ing Lezzzzz-bian!" at my house all day. I want to sue.... somebody. Is there anyone I can sue for that?

Wow, this is already waaaaay more interesting than defense work.....

Really?

If you don't yet realize why I am aghast, look hard at what this tank top (spotted outside a Walmart, no less) was fashioned from.

I sooooo hope she remembered to cut out her baby daddy's skid marks.

Ew.

Weekend...

Went wine tasting with a couple of friends yesterday...

J is a fabulous place... they have the tasting set up at stations, so you progress through the winery for each part of the tasting flight. They also do a wine and food tasting with pairings, but we opted not to do that, since I had packed a picnic for us to have at a later stop. Their cuvee 20 is so delicious. Yum, yum. Oh, and they are also doing a single vineyard zinfandel that is really jammy with blueberry and dark berry... so yummy.

We also went and had a nice picnic at Robert Young. Sat by the fountain out on the patio and ate snackies... relaxing and good company. What a great Saturday.

From there, we visited Seghesio in downtown Healdsburg. It's about a block from the main square. The lady there was miffed when we were not interested in pinot grigio... I don't understand that. People come in tasting, and it's pretty common for us to go tasting and decide ahead of time we are looking to try new pinot noirs or zinfandels or some specific varietal, so I don't see why it would be an affront to the tasting room staff if I don't want to try everything they're pouring that day. She was appeased when we praised the zins, though, and bought their top end item, called Omaggio, which is a red blend. Lots of tannins and nicely full bodied. I'm thinking burgers would be a great accompaniment.

L had us over to her new apartment for dinner and poker. She got bored a few weeks ago and decided to talk her apartment complex into a bigger place, so we helped her move last weekend. the new place is much better. Plenty of room, nice and quiet, and we got a nice dinner prepared for us, to boot.

She got mad when I cleaned out her chips a couple of times, though. What's ironic is that i ended the evening about $3 up- not exactly a big windfall. But the husband made nearly $20- which means he took her money- yet she was bitter about how I was taking all her money. I'm tellin' ya, you just can't win. I DIDN'T win and I was in trouble as though I did. Hoping she'll get over it quick.

Things like this happen all the time with my husband. He is often mean to people, openly and to their face, and they still like him. It's like they gloss over it and don't notice- "Oh, he's a great guy!" I make a conscious effort to be kind and generous to people, and people get pissed at me. WTF?!

Unbelievable to me.

Tonight we're having some friends over to dinner. Think I'll make risotto... yum!

Love...

Love the new job, love the new peeps there, love the new work, even though right now I'm drowning in the endless discovery of the case that is on emergency status right now.

Do not love the food all over the place. There was bagels and croissants in the morning, pizza at noon, and cake for someone's birthday this afternoon. I had to roll my ginormous ass out of there at 5:00, I'm tellin' ya.