Day 993: I've Been Working

But not on the railroad.

It's been a crazy week. The one girl turned in her two weeks' notice, which so far has gone good. She Bcc'd all of us girl lawyers, so we knew long before the bosses sent out the official notice, which was kinda cool. And then Jbot, one of the dude lawyers in the office - his wife had a baby (9 lbs, mother and baby are fine), and Cmac is moving, so she took Friday off to facilitate the move. At least she'll be closer to work, so that will be nice. She lives in Iowa, which is cheaper than Nebraska, so even though she has quite the commute, she is probably living better than some of the rest of us.

I actually went to FHE this week and bonded with one of the new girls over our mutual love of Merlin, so we seriously need to get together and have a Merlin night, which will be awesome. I haven't done my visiting teaching yet this month and feel like a horrible human being for it.

I went to training Tuesday night for the first time in a long time and bonded with John, Mr. Larry's son, who is a cool kid and looks faintly like James Franco, although I'm sure he throws a much better punch than James Franco. Just sayin'. I fed the missionaries on Thursday, which was an experience. These elders were on time, which is new for me. I bonded with Kile a bit more, which was nice (although he still likes to swat at my head, which is not funny), but I'm not sure of the new pair. Not sure at all.

On Friday...well. This week has been super crazy. Since Awri is leaving, I got three of her cases, which are great factually but have been disastrous procedurally. And then I got another one of her cases which is going to be tried in DC. It was tried once before, there as an appeal, so we have to try it again in a different court, so hopefully prepping for trial will be all right. And then I got two new cases, one from a lawyer friend of Dad's who is dying, and one that's just brand new (process patent infringement, which I know nothing about but will probably dig because I hear it's fairly similar, philosophically, to copyright law, which I actually got in law school). Our First Amendment free speech in high schools case is picking up, which is good.

But let me back up. I went to see the premiere of HP7 part 2 at midnight on Tuesday night. I went with Amber and Mir and Tomie and a couple of their friends. And it was awesome. I felt boring and like a grown-up, weirded out by all the uber nerds (two kids even reenacted the Dumbledore-Snape duel from HP6) while I was talking to Cody on the phone. But the film was amazing, and after the end closed, I felt that same awesome feeling I got when I finished the seventh book, a feeling of warmth and closure and a bit of wistfulness, like saying goodbye to an old, well-loved friend. I never get that feeling the second time I read a book through or see the film, but I totally live for that moment. That's how I know a book was good - I end with that feeling. Oddly enough, I only get that feeling from reading real books, not eBooks. Go figure.

So...I was super sleep deprived all day Friday. When we have our 7 am lawyer meeting of doom. And since we were a small group (and big brother wasn't there, thank heavens), Dad decided to have fun. By having me and Kwil argue motions for summary judgment. Same case, same side, different issues, mostly the same facts. We had five minutes to prep, so I dug up a case to get the elements of the affirmative defense against which I was defending, and we argued. Dad was judge and opposing counsel, and he threw me for a loop sometimes, but it was a good learning experience. I need to relearn to talk slowly. Kim argued amazingly well, which I liked. Her style was natural and totally her, and I dug it. Dad says we'll do it again sometime. I'm kind of scared.

I ended up staying at the office till 7 pm, so I couldn't go to either the temple or ninja training. But the cool part was...we helped dad draft a petition for writ of certiorari to SCOTUS on a First Amendment Free Speech case. It was fun and informal. We made jokes about sheep and wolves ("Sir, don't you mean a wolf in sheep's clothing?" -me. "Who wears wolf's clothing?" Awri. Kwil, without missing a beat, "I do.") and LOLcat references ("Dear Republican party of Nebraska: Republican Form of Government. You're doing it wrong.) and other fine things, and it was an amazing experience.

I'd planned on going home and passing out, because I agreed to cover Jbot's Saturday shift in light of new baby boy awesomeness, but then Liz sent a text message and asked to come over, and we watched a couple of episodes of Merlin and puzzled over her boy problems (which, once insignificant compared to mine, are now much, much worse).

Saturday, I hauled myself out of bed and went to work. Tried to deal with the discovery disaster that is my Iowa case - and which has been stressing me out all week - and had a phone conference with clients (I learned all about Georgia bankruptcy laws for them), drafted more discovery, researched patent infringement laws some more, and fussed over my case list a lot. Once I'd put in my five hours I bolted - I knew dad was staying late to prep for his trial next week.

And I came home and slept.

Then I woke up and went to D&D, which was good times. Afterwards I had a bizarre but good conversation with little Kyle by text message about hair color (and whether mine was natural), and hair gel that turns different colors, and also why Kyle needs to believe he's a good guy.

And then Cody and I talked for over two hours. We used to do that all the time when we were first dating, and then it sort of tapered off to a point where we didn't even call each other every night, and some nights one or both of us is so exhausted we only get in ten minutes for the comfort of hearing each other's voices, but this week we have had some fantastic conversations, and I fall in love with him a little more. This whole marriage thing is downright terrifying (and seeing a slew of articles in the Huffpost about why marriage is outdated and we don't need it anymore has not been helping), but I at least know I will be happy with him, and even though every day won't be bliss, I've found someone I can communicate with, who understands me as best as he can and strives to understand me more, and who always seeks to improve himself. When two people go into a marriage, they cannot expect to change each other, and that's kind of a scary thought, except I know he does his best to change himself for the better, so I don't want to try to change him, and I don't have to. In return, I must do my best to change myself for the better, and we can grow together.

Still, I get to see him in less than a week, and I am so excited. It's going to be awesome.

Hey world, I'm in love with Cody.