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: Knocked Up (and in Law School)

Unemployment

My last day at the office was a half day. The (now former) Boss popped into my (now former) office and asked how things were progressing. At that point, I was down to my very last file and told him I should be finished by lunchtime. He said he'd been reading through my file memos as I produced them and things looked good and I could cut out early. I told him if he had any questions about anything he could call. That was about it. Again, awkward.

I'd already packed up my (now former) office in the two days preceding. Fortunately, it went smoothly. I pulled all my personal files off the laptop and onto a thumb drive, and wiped everything. I created an "out of office" email automated message informing folks I no longer worked at the firm (since it would probably be an eternity before the IT guys disabled the email account). My (now former) paralegal left me a really nice card, and started tearing up when we said good-bye. It was nice to be liked. I'll definitely miss her, she was awesome. Not only is she great at her job, but she was totally cool. If I end up working somewhere I have an assistant, it'll be big shoes to fill. Most of the places I've worked, the newer associates get the crappiest secretaries, mostly because the partners want the good ones, and dump the crappy ones on the associates, and also because most newer associates do a lot of their own typing. So, I'll probably never have as awesome an assistant.

Anyway, so after firing off a "it's been swell" e-mail to everyone at the office, I left at lunchtime and headed to the (now former) apartment in order to pack a few more items into the car, and say good-bye to my (now former) neighbor. Again, sadness. Hopefully I'll actually see her again. She's planning a trip to The City soon.

So, I left and headed home. Husband and I went to dinner on his parents' dime, it was excellent. I wore my (size 12!) strapless sundress I had just recently bought and my favorite pair of Guess 4" stilettos. Hawt! I had a white cosmo cocktail, and we ordered a seafood platter appetizer, however, the oysters were missing from the platter because some douchebags are letting the entire Gulf of Mexico fill up with oil. (We got extra shrimp instead.) We both had prime rib for dinner (they no longer have the Kobe beef, which is sad, because that stuff is like butter, it just melts in your mouth).

This morning, we went to Baby Ballet. Cora was a little clingy at first; there were new kids there and new parents, and we were in a different room. But after a few minutes, she warmed up and did really well. Hopefully she'll get better. Let's be honest, the kid's never gonna be an athlete, but I'd like her to learn at least to be active, and maybe a little bit of grace too.

After Baby Ballet, we came home to pick up Husband and headed out to pick up the rental truck. That whole situation was awful. First, they had called to let me know the only rental truck they had in the area was in a town almost 40 minutes away from my (now former) apartment (first fail). So we had to go out of our way to pick up the truck, in the pouring down rain which was flooding the roadways (second fail) and the truck did not have as much fuel in it as the paper indicated (third fail). We got to the apartment only to find that the truck did not have a ramp with it (fourth fail), so Husband and I got to lift my elliptical machine into the truck, in the rain, instead of rolling it up the ramp as we'd anticipated. (Good thing I've been pumping iron, ugh.) Fortunately, it was not raining back in The City, so we didn't have to unload in the rain. Although it was hot and muggy, so that was great too.

At least Cora was a trooper. She spent two hours in the car out there, we had lunch, then spent another three hours in the car, between the trip from picking up the truck to waiting in the car while we loaded up the furniture. She watched "The Princess and the Frog" twice, and then napped in the car. She did great.

Then we dropped off the truck, showered and headed over to hang out with our friends we hadn't seen in years. It was a good time, and I ate way too much. Cora and I both got eaten alive by mosquitoes, and for the first time, she actually seemed bothered by this and was whining, pulling up her shirt and scratching at her bug bites. My poor kid, she obviously inherited my attractiveness to bugs. I'm like the bug magnet. If I'm around, the mosquitoes swarm to me, and no one else gets bit. They find me everywhere, even in the desert. That is definitely one good thing about being out of Small Town -- the mosquitoes were horrible there. Like, I can't go in our back yard here after 6pm, or I get eaten alive. But I can be on our front veranda, and they don't go up that high. However, in Small Town, they'd be in the damn apartment. We'd take a walk around the perimeter of the park, and they'd get me. It was awful, so I definitely won't miss that. And this is also why I am not an "outdoors person." I like the outdoors and the activity -- it's just the bugs I hate. And no amount of bug spray helps. It's apparently just seasoning to them. Same thing out at the in-laws, only out there, they get ticks. Frankly, there is nothing more disgusting than a tick, blech.

Anyway, I am exhausted. Physically, emotionally, mentally, ugh. But I started reading this book about starting a law practice, which my in-laws bought me last Christmas off of my Amazon wish list, before I had a job lined up after graduation. It had been my plan that if I didn't find a job by the time I was licensed, I would just hang my own shingle. So, I've decided I'm giving myself a month to find a job before launching a solo effort. In the meantime, however, I'm going to go ahead and get a P.O. Box and land line, and get on the GAL and warning order attorney lists for our county and two of the surrounding counties that I'm willing to drive to. That's stuff I can do without fear of getting sued for malpractice. We don't have to carry malpractice insurance in our state unless the law firm is organized as a PLLC. Although, I intend to get it if I launch my own solo practice.

If actually brought in a steady amount of money from court appointments and the like, I'll look for cheap rental space over here on our side of town, and if I can get my Spanish up to par, target my practice to the immigrant community. Husband suggested if I didn't have enough money, I could always just set up a legal booth a la Lucy's psychiatric help stand from The Peanuts in the parking lot of the local shopping center. "La abogada esta aqui." I'll have to charge slightly more than 5 cents though. And I could always compete with the taco stand, maybe sell burritos too. Legal advice and burritos. Yummy!

Full post as published by Knocked Up (and in Law School) on June 12, 2010 (boomark / email).