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So...my first week as an independent contractor paralegal! It's been quite the adventure, but I'm enjoying it all the same. It has enough of a pace that I don't get bored, but it's not overly stressful either. The first day they took a while to set up my computer and workstation, so I read through a book about mortgage lending. I really don't know much about it, even though I heard lots of people complaining that the recent recession was because of stupidity in the subprime mortgage lending market. I understand some of it, but it's still pretty fuzzy to me. Once I got my workstation set up, I did some training with Timothy, the in-house paralegal who is essentially by senpai until further notice. The lawyer we all work for, Fred, has also tasked me to help him on some non-mortgage legal compliance issues as well as a lawsuit, which is always exciting, because I apparently still have the heart of a litigator. (We have an awesome defense, if we can get this case sorted out.)
On Tuesday Adelina, the Brazilian lawyer who is Timothy's superior and the originator of the mortgage review system, came in to train me. She's super nice and feisty, although she doesn't seem to get along with Timothy. (Timothy is the picture of the dictionary definition of D&D nerd if I ever saw one, although I have no clue if he even plays D&D.) As it turns out, Adelina is my ward! I've never seen her because she has a calling in the nursery, but I spotted her today when her daughter made an epic break for the stand where her dad was giving a talk. As Adelina came hurrying back, I realized I recognized her. It was a pretty cool moment. I like Adelina, and she's super nice to me. She works from home most days, but we chat over Google messenger, because our compliance work is done out of Gmail, and she'll call me if I have any serious questions.
I'm coming up with a slow but sure routine - I wake up in the morning and work out. (I've taken up skipping rope as a cardio workout at Cody's suggestion. My calves hate him for it.) I shower and make lunches for the both of us and, if necessary, do prep work for dinner in the evening. Then I head to work. We've taken to doing nice things for each other, like de-ice each other's car windows before we go. On my lunch break I call my mom while I eat, and then I write. I figure if I write just a little bit every day eventually I will finish what I write. If I have to run errands on my lunch break I eat at my desk while I study more about mortgage law, and then I use my hour off to do my stuff.
I like my new job. It's comfortable and casual - everyone is super nice - without being unprofessional. I can do things I could never do at DAD's law firm, like use intra-office IM and put smiley faces with my messages, call my coworkers by their first names, and even be friends with them. I probably dress the most formally, in slacks and a nice top - everyone else wears jeans or khakis and regular t-shirts. I totally wore jeans on Friday because I could, but I don't think I can bring myself to wear my black-and-blue kicks to work just yet. I come in at eight, I leave at five, and no one feels the need to micromanage me. I'm seriously digging it.
Thursday night at kenpo we played with the candle. I'm still pretty lame at putting it out and should probably practice more, but I'm getting the hang of it. I learned the last two defense techniques I need for my next rank (one of them is called "Crushing Death"), and once I learn my form I can test for my belt. I want to train and make sure I'm pretty fluent at all my techniques before I go up for my next rank, but I'm pretty excited and pleased at the progress I'm making. Cody's mom made us fish, and I saw on her Netflix queue that I have successfully addicted her to Bones.
I win.
One small victory for me this week was finally getting my iPad updated to iOS 5. My sister gave me an iTunes giftcard for my birthday, so I used it to buy apps I've always wanted but have been too cheap to spring for. One of them was Pages, because I have a penchant for making pretty stories as gifts for friends, and pages has a way of helping make the prettiest stories ever (which distracts my readers from how terrible the stories really are). Every time I tried to update it in the past, so in desperation I ran to Google. Apple's support pages were useless, and I almost considered jailbreaking my iPad before I found the answer, a simple change in one line of code on my Mac. And voilà - iOS 5 and Pages downloaded.
On Friday night I stayed up till 3 a.m. playing FFXIII as a celebration to finishing my first week of work. Truth was we were supposed to go to a church party, a chili cook-off and mini-golf event. I was sniffly Thursday night and sneezy all day Friday, so sniffly I brought my own tissue box to work with me. I was miserable enough Thursday night I had Cody give me a blessing, and I felt pretty good, for the most part, on Friday, but come Friday night I was miserable, so we stayed home and ate the chili I'd cooked. At least eating it cleared my sinuses, even though I couldn't really taste it to appreciate it properly. I'd hidden Cody's video games so he wouldn't be tempted by them during the week, but he'd gotten home before me and sussed out my Nintendo DS, so while I was playing FF he was playing Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. We were two nerds, but it wasn't so bad.
Saturday was...ugh. I woke up feeling awful and attempted to do chores, but simple things, like changing the sheets on the bed before I did the laundry, left me breathless. Once I got the first load of darks into the washing machine I curled up on the couch and fell asleep. Six hours later, I woke up, feeling much better. On Friday Cody had indulged me and we'd watched Vision of Escaflowne together. On Saturday once I was feeling better we had food, he did homework - with Castlevania breaks - and I watched some Lie to Me. The best part of Saturday night, though, was attending a writing party with my college friends via Skype. Ericka hooked me up with her laptop, and we would write together. It was a Hemingway party, so naturally they had copious amounts of booze. I had Irn Bru, which is a British orange-colored soda, and it was my contribution. Since my friends were nerds, there was dice rolling. They'd arranged six types of booze on the counter, and would roll a d6. They'd each take a shot of the corresponding type of booze, write prompts, put them in Curry's red pimp hat, and then draw the prompts out. (The prompts had to be based on the type of booze.) And then we'd write for ten minutes. Marty's stuff was by far the funniest, and I enjoyed it immensely. I didn't write anything great, but it was awesome to see my friends again. I'd planned on being there in person, but I started my new job this week, so I couldn't. Still, I got to see them and spend time with them, so that's what matters.
Had a couple of funny moments this week. One was at work when a loan popped up for processing, and the last name on it was my husband's (also mine, but I still haven't quite wrapped my head around that yet), and Timothy sent an email telling me he didn't know I was buying property in Texas. To which I responded I was unaware and would be having a serious conversation with my husband which might involve swords, and it went down hill from there.
Also, my poor mother, who deals with the houses my parents rent out while Dad is away, called with an emergency. Apparently it had been raining down south in the desert, and the ceiling in one of the rental units had caved in, and the tenant was understandably upset. Mum needed to reach Dad, but he wasn't on Skype, and she couldn't get him, so I got onto Skype, put in some credits, and tried to call his mobile, but he didn't answer. I called his secretary in Hong Kong, and she called the company in China where he was having a meeting. I told Dad's secretary that the ceiling had fallen in in one of our rental units and he needed to call Mum right away.
What happened was apparently an unintentional game of Chinese Whisper (pun not intended, but seriously). Gloria apparently mis-heard my message or perhaps I didn't communicate it well (maybe I overestimated her English skills?), and she was very shocked that I was calling from America, so by the time Dad got the message, he was under the impression our entire house had fallen down - roof and walls and all. Now my dad's entire office in China thinks his house collapsed while he was gone. Heh.
Mum says Dad's boss has asked Dad to move back to Hong Kong for two years starting in May, and Dad wants Mum to move with him. She'd be able to come home for six weeks once a year, and one summer Shaz and Wayne would go visit them, and the next summer Cody and I would go visit them. I'd love to go back to Hong Kong and China again and take Cody with me to see the places where I grew up. Who knows what'll happen, though - I don't think Mum wants to leave her home for that long.
We'll see.
I'm impressed at how much the bosses want to hold on to Dad.
Go figure.
Well...it's Sunday. This weekend has been consumed by my illness, but I still have time to make the best of it.
On Tuesday Adelina, the Brazilian lawyer who is Timothy's superior and the originator of the mortgage review system, came in to train me. She's super nice and feisty, although she doesn't seem to get along with Timothy. (Timothy is the picture of the dictionary definition of D&D nerd if I ever saw one, although I have no clue if he even plays D&D.) As it turns out, Adelina is my ward! I've never seen her because she has a calling in the nursery, but I spotted her today when her daughter made an epic break for the stand where her dad was giving a talk. As Adelina came hurrying back, I realized I recognized her. It was a pretty cool moment. I like Adelina, and she's super nice to me. She works from home most days, but we chat over Google messenger, because our compliance work is done out of Gmail, and she'll call me if I have any serious questions.
I'm coming up with a slow but sure routine - I wake up in the morning and work out. (I've taken up skipping rope as a cardio workout at Cody's suggestion. My calves hate him for it.) I shower and make lunches for the both of us and, if necessary, do prep work for dinner in the evening. Then I head to work. We've taken to doing nice things for each other, like de-ice each other's car windows before we go. On my lunch break I call my mom while I eat, and then I write. I figure if I write just a little bit every day eventually I will finish what I write. If I have to run errands on my lunch break I eat at my desk while I study more about mortgage law, and then I use my hour off to do my stuff.
I like my new job. It's comfortable and casual - everyone is super nice - without being unprofessional. I can do things I could never do at DAD's law firm, like use intra-office IM and put smiley faces with my messages, call my coworkers by their first names, and even be friends with them. I probably dress the most formally, in slacks and a nice top - everyone else wears jeans or khakis and regular t-shirts. I totally wore jeans on Friday because I could, but I don't think I can bring myself to wear my black-and-blue kicks to work just yet. I come in at eight, I leave at five, and no one feels the need to micromanage me. I'm seriously digging it.
Thursday night at kenpo we played with the candle. I'm still pretty lame at putting it out and should probably practice more, but I'm getting the hang of it. I learned the last two defense techniques I need for my next rank (one of them is called "Crushing Death"), and once I learn my form I can test for my belt. I want to train and make sure I'm pretty fluent at all my techniques before I go up for my next rank, but I'm pretty excited and pleased at the progress I'm making. Cody's mom made us fish, and I saw on her Netflix queue that I have successfully addicted her to Bones.
I win.
One small victory for me this week was finally getting my iPad updated to iOS 5. My sister gave me an iTunes giftcard for my birthday, so I used it to buy apps I've always wanted but have been too cheap to spring for. One of them was Pages, because I have a penchant for making pretty stories as gifts for friends, and pages has a way of helping make the prettiest stories ever (which distracts my readers from how terrible the stories really are). Every time I tried to update it in the past, so in desperation I ran to Google. Apple's support pages were useless, and I almost considered jailbreaking my iPad before I found the answer, a simple change in one line of code on my Mac. And voilà - iOS 5 and Pages downloaded.
On Friday night I stayed up till 3 a.m. playing FFXIII as a celebration to finishing my first week of work. Truth was we were supposed to go to a church party, a chili cook-off and mini-golf event. I was sniffly Thursday night and sneezy all day Friday, so sniffly I brought my own tissue box to work with me. I was miserable enough Thursday night I had Cody give me a blessing, and I felt pretty good, for the most part, on Friday, but come Friday night I was miserable, so we stayed home and ate the chili I'd cooked. At least eating it cleared my sinuses, even though I couldn't really taste it to appreciate it properly. I'd hidden Cody's video games so he wouldn't be tempted by them during the week, but he'd gotten home before me and sussed out my Nintendo DS, so while I was playing FF he was playing Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. We were two nerds, but it wasn't so bad.
Saturday was...ugh. I woke up feeling awful and attempted to do chores, but simple things, like changing the sheets on the bed before I did the laundry, left me breathless. Once I got the first load of darks into the washing machine I curled up on the couch and fell asleep. Six hours later, I woke up, feeling much better. On Friday Cody had indulged me and we'd watched Vision of Escaflowne together. On Saturday once I was feeling better we had food, he did homework - with Castlevania breaks - and I watched some Lie to Me. The best part of Saturday night, though, was attending a writing party with my college friends via Skype. Ericka hooked me up with her laptop, and we would write together. It was a Hemingway party, so naturally they had copious amounts of booze. I had Irn Bru, which is a British orange-colored soda, and it was my contribution. Since my friends were nerds, there was dice rolling. They'd arranged six types of booze on the counter, and would roll a d6. They'd each take a shot of the corresponding type of booze, write prompts, put them in Curry's red pimp hat, and then draw the prompts out. (The prompts had to be based on the type of booze.) And then we'd write for ten minutes. Marty's stuff was by far the funniest, and I enjoyed it immensely. I didn't write anything great, but it was awesome to see my friends again. I'd planned on being there in person, but I started my new job this week, so I couldn't. Still, I got to see them and spend time with them, so that's what matters.
Had a couple of funny moments this week. One was at work when a loan popped up for processing, and the last name on it was my husband's (also mine, but I still haven't quite wrapped my head around that yet), and Timothy sent an email telling me he didn't know I was buying property in Texas. To which I responded I was unaware and would be having a serious conversation with my husband which might involve swords, and it went down hill from there.
Also, my poor mother, who deals with the houses my parents rent out while Dad is away, called with an emergency. Apparently it had been raining down south in the desert, and the ceiling in one of the rental units had caved in, and the tenant was understandably upset. Mum needed to reach Dad, but he wasn't on Skype, and she couldn't get him, so I got onto Skype, put in some credits, and tried to call his mobile, but he didn't answer. I called his secretary in Hong Kong, and she called the company in China where he was having a meeting. I told Dad's secretary that the ceiling had fallen in in one of our rental units and he needed to call Mum right away.
What happened was apparently an unintentional game of Chinese Whisper (pun not intended, but seriously). Gloria apparently mis-heard my message or perhaps I didn't communicate it well (maybe I overestimated her English skills?), and she was very shocked that I was calling from America, so by the time Dad got the message, he was under the impression our entire house had fallen down - roof and walls and all. Now my dad's entire office in China thinks his house collapsed while he was gone. Heh.
Mum says Dad's boss has asked Dad to move back to Hong Kong for two years starting in May, and Dad wants Mum to move with him. She'd be able to come home for six weeks once a year, and one summer Shaz and Wayne would go visit them, and the next summer Cody and I would go visit them. I'd love to go back to Hong Kong and China again and take Cody with me to see the places where I grew up. Who knows what'll happen, though - I don't think Mum wants to leave her home for that long.
We'll see.
I'm impressed at how much the bosses want to hold on to Dad.
Go figure.
Well...it's Sunday. This weekend has been consumed by my illness, but I still have time to make the best of it.
