Almost Christmas!

Couldn't sleep again--conversations that I had yesterday with my immediate supervising attorney were running through my head as I was in that "barely awake" stage and falling back asleep, only because of these thoughts, I never made it to the "back to sleep" part.

After Monday, I will have finished a three week jaunt where I have been in court EVERY single day, and will have logged close to 2000 miles on our little Saturn. I got the "I'm not trying to pressure you" speech from my supervisor, which was of course meant to do exactly that, pressure (whether she meant it that way or not)--I've got to sue more, be in court more, and be more of a hard-nosed negotiator when collecting and negotiating--this came from a "meeting" with the client. So I spent the last few days docketing cases like crazy, and I'll be in court quite a bit in January and February. Ever had that boss that you worked for that just assumed that you would catch on without them having to say anything? I get the feeling that I should have asked, "How am I doing" a few months ago to avoid the sudden "we need to talk." If anything, it just confirms that I probably won't stay here forever--I could leave as soon as only one year of being there, but I don't know. If the bonus I just received is any indication (which I am appreciative of, don't get me wrong), it may be an early exit.

Anyway, all that certainly doesn't spoil my mood of realizing that it's almost Christmas. I spent about 2 hours last night wrapping my wife's gifts, and it confirmed for me why I never would have been good at wrapping presents for a living! YIKES! Yes, I'm totally a guy, I use too much paper, can't cut a straight line to save my life, and I certainly don't have any artistic sense (I'm a lawyer and shapes/symmetry escapes me). Case in point? My wife bought a nice little gift bags/gift wrap package from QVC and it had some different patterns/colors of gift wrap. I took one sheet out to wrap something, and not once but TWICE did I not cut out the right amount for the gift I was trying to wrap! I decided just to move onto a different wrapping paper after that.

I was listening to the Dan Patrick show on ESPN radio yesterday, and the guest host Doug Gottlieb was talking about spending limits for Christmas, and how couples always set them but then always break them--and I had to laugh because that always does seem to happen with my wife and I. You know, you find this gift that you think the other person HAS to have, but realize that it busts the spending limit, and then get it anyway, because it's Christmas!

My wife and I are headed to the hills of WV for Christmas, and I hope it snows up there--this business of it being the middle of December and the high temperature being in the mid-60s is nothing short of ridiculous. I feel like we brought Beach weather with us when we moved to the valleys/mountains.

Merry Christmas!

Sunday Morning Smorgasboard

Well, it's pretty quite at my house--I just finished letting our two dogs out, and I'm having some breakfast. With this blog I seem to be writing once every month (though sometimes I get crazy and write twice--oh my!), but I suppose it's only because I don't know if I have anything to say (or that anyone will actually read it). Any theological discussions seemed to have been thoroughly covered at other blogs that I read. Since my comments (ones I make at those blogs) seem to be largely ignored, I don't feel the need to flesh anything out here.

We had my parents down for Thanksgiving, and since they were here, we went ahead and celebrated Christmas (mostly because my wife wanted to see what my 57 year old father's reaction would be to her getting him a lava lamp--which, in short, was pure elation).

My wife has been recovering since Friday morning from corrective surgery she had and is doing much better; having my mother-in-law here for that as well has been a great help. You see, the timing of the surgery and the second dog coming into our lives was not at a great time, since I had my busiest week at work yet--being in court EVERY day this week. The second dog is not really fitting in to our home dynamic, but I think I have a strong possibility of a new home where she will fit in perfectly (she's a stray/rescue, we didn't want her to be put down just because they didn't have room, but she'll be happier somewhere else).

After Monday I start my marathon jaunt of being in court every weekday from Dec. 5th to Dec. 18th. Then I get a break until after the New Year--thankfully the courts essentially decided to shut down about the middle of that week.

I went to my supervising attorney's Christmas party last night, and got to meet a lot of her friends, some of whom were other practicing attorneys in the area. I was told by several of the guests that she must like my work since I was actually invited to the party (apparently the previous associate was not).

Christmas is just around the corner and will be here before we know it. Thankfully I've done all the in-store shopping that I need to do--the rest will be done online and shipped to the house.

And if anyone ever wants to get a glimpse into a law student's first year experience, I recommend the book "ONE L" by Scott Turow. Sure there were some things that were not true of my experience, but I identified with a large part of it (the anxiety of trying to learn the law, stay on top of things, figure out professors, studying, exams, etc.).

Until next month.

Friendships

As a quick aside, I have been frustrated lately with folks I've tried to stay in contact with. I know that lives get busy and we have other pressing matters, but it seems to me that it is quite hard to gain or make a friendship, and so easy to maintain it.

I have been unable to regain contact over the last two years with several friends from high school and several friends from college--it is their choice, for sure--they have no obligation to email back or call, etc. With some in the city we used to live in (at the Beach), life has understandably gotten very busy, and I can understand that. In fact, even when I was younger, a strong acquaintance (we were not quite friends, but hung out at school quite a bit) moved to an adjacent city, only 10 miles a way, and I can't say that I ever called him or got together with him once he moved, and we lost touch--so I am by far innocent of such actions.

Perhaps too this frustration is heightened by the fact that since I am on the road a lot, I have the opportunity to use my cell to try to contact people (this is the reason that one law school buddy and I, who lives on the West Coast, keep in such good contact), and thus I have "time" to do this. However, it is more likely that since I have no real friends here in our new city that I am trying to keep in touch with old friends.

So other than a few law school buddies and my college roommate, I am at the point of giving up on trying to contact the others, especially when it seems that I need contact with them more than they do with me (maybe they are trying to tell me something?).

Who knows--I do know that in looking around, many folks in this world treat friendship too lightly.