Day 1107: Walking Contradictions
Feb. 23rd, 2014 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nagi_schwarzThis week I have mostly been freaking out and preparing for the new job. I am also terrified of new job.
Things I've been doing to prepare: I dug out my old briefcase from the last time I was in practice and filled it with the necessities - pens, a case of tic-tacs, tissue, notepaper, a cardholder for the business cards I'm going to start collecting like they're Pokémon cards.
I cleaned my office. Really cleaned it. Threw things away. Sorted things over a year old. Made it so my desk is visible again.
I cleaned the house. Super scrubbed it. All day Saturday. Lots of scrubbing and cleaning.
I read a whole bunch of statutes in a single sitting (generally not recommended or even really done in the practice of law) so I'd know what I was up against.
I sorted pens. My mother brings me hundreds of pens from my father's nerd conventions (and when I say 'nerd', I mean building printed circuit boards, engaging in thin-layer-chromatography, and having a soldering contest, not ComiCon) and I sorted them, blue pens for use in practice (because original pleadings have blue signatures and blue notary stamps) and black pens for random use (possibly kids doodling on paper while I try to sort out their cases). I now have three fancy biscuit/sweet tins full of pens. One tin looks like a red English mail pillar. One is purple and advertises Cadbury's Dairy Milk (it once held all my gaming dice). The third used to hold Scottish shortbread and looks like a highland soldier, complete with kilt, bagpipes, and beaver hat.
I finished that monster matrix for work. Even did a bit on Saturday to make sure it was all done.
Things I have done because I am terrified of the new job:
I binged on fanfiction this week. Seriously. Binged. Found a new rec community and made it fifty entries back (that's just the recs, not the actual fics involved). I am pretty sure I am accidentally going to use the word 'gank' tomorrow. Also, I can write part of the rituale romanum from memory now. Thanks, Sam and Dean.
I crocheted a lot. Seriously. I crocheted so hard I am pretty sure I am developing carpal tunnel syndrome, because it hurt when I was stirring panko the other night.
I drank a coke one night with dinner (yes, I know, just one, I'm a caffeine lightweight) and was up till almost 4 a.m., unable to sleep. (Also, I read one of those really horribly angsty SPN pre-series fics about what a horrible father John Winchester might have been, and I started crying, and I wanted to reach into the screen and kill John, and I thought, wow, if I lose it like this over fictional abuse, how the hell am I going to deal with real abuse?)
Things I did unrelated to the new job:
1 - I went to the symphony with friends. It was wonderful. It was a family event based on the music of Harry Potter, so bunches and bunches of kids showed up in costume, which was adorable. I like John Williams as a composer, but they also threw in some Prokofiev (who I learned to love in childhood but don't listen to nearly enough of) and some Mussorgsky (we all agreed it was pretty brash, tempting fate about Baba Yaga), so it was really fun. We dressed up, we had food together, we drove together, and overall it was a lovely night.
2 - We learned zills at dance on Wednesday night, and I also made a new friend. She's brand new to dance and is an undergrad at BYU, but she was bright and enthusiastic, and it was good times. We learned actual rhythms at dance, which is important. I can learn a specific zill pattern for a song, but I cannot ask a drummer for a beat (I only knew the name of one before that night) and I couldn't pick up on a zill pattern for a beat and I couldn't identify a beat by sound. We learned all of five rhythms, and there are many more than that (I am still baffled by the 9/8), and this week we will be learning some choreography to go with the zills, so I am excited. I'm a drummer at heart, so zills make me happy.
3 - I went to dinner and a movie on Friday night. Dan, my friend from law school and also my coworker as of tomorrow, said he and my girl Angela - also from law school - were planning on going out for dinner and a movie, so we went. We had burgers at a place called Johnny Rockets and we talked, and then we went to see the new Jack Ryan movie. I have fond memories of Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, so I was interested in seeing how Chris Pine took on a role that was pretty iconic in my childhood. I was totally surprised to see Keira Knightley (she had a good American accent) and Kenneth Branagh in the film, but it was good times, and fun was had by all.
Also, I have made friends with a lady in my ward who is a huge Tolkien fan but is new to the ways of fandom and nerding it up, so I told her I'd score the Hobbit movies and we would watch them sometimes.
Every day this week my mom sent me encouraging text messages counting down to my new job. It was super sweet of her. Also, my niece started dance lessons, so I'll be going to dance recitals soon. I'm pretty excited.
Wow. Tomorrow.
New job.
Here goes.
Things I've been doing to prepare: I dug out my old briefcase from the last time I was in practice and filled it with the necessities - pens, a case of tic-tacs, tissue, notepaper, a cardholder for the business cards I'm going to start collecting like they're Pokémon cards.
I cleaned my office. Really cleaned it. Threw things away. Sorted things over a year old. Made it so my desk is visible again.
I cleaned the house. Super scrubbed it. All day Saturday. Lots of scrubbing and cleaning.
I read a whole bunch of statutes in a single sitting (generally not recommended or even really done in the practice of law) so I'd know what I was up against.
I sorted pens. My mother brings me hundreds of pens from my father's nerd conventions (and when I say 'nerd', I mean building printed circuit boards, engaging in thin-layer-chromatography, and having a soldering contest, not ComiCon) and I sorted them, blue pens for use in practice (because original pleadings have blue signatures and blue notary stamps) and black pens for random use (possibly kids doodling on paper while I try to sort out their cases). I now have three fancy biscuit/sweet tins full of pens. One tin looks like a red English mail pillar. One is purple and advertises Cadbury's Dairy Milk (it once held all my gaming dice). The third used to hold Scottish shortbread and looks like a highland soldier, complete with kilt, bagpipes, and beaver hat.
I finished that monster matrix for work. Even did a bit on Saturday to make sure it was all done.
Things I have done because I am terrified of the new job:
I binged on fanfiction this week. Seriously. Binged. Found a new rec community and made it fifty entries back (that's just the recs, not the actual fics involved). I am pretty sure I am accidentally going to use the word 'gank' tomorrow. Also, I can write part of the rituale romanum from memory now. Thanks, Sam and Dean.
I crocheted a lot. Seriously. I crocheted so hard I am pretty sure I am developing carpal tunnel syndrome, because it hurt when I was stirring panko the other night.
I drank a coke one night with dinner (yes, I know, just one, I'm a caffeine lightweight) and was up till almost 4 a.m., unable to sleep. (Also, I read one of those really horribly angsty SPN pre-series fics about what a horrible father John Winchester might have been, and I started crying, and I wanted to reach into the screen and kill John, and I thought, wow, if I lose it like this over fictional abuse, how the hell am I going to deal with real abuse?)
Things I did unrelated to the new job:
1 - I went to the symphony with friends. It was wonderful. It was a family event based on the music of Harry Potter, so bunches and bunches of kids showed up in costume, which was adorable. I like John Williams as a composer, but they also threw in some Prokofiev (who I learned to love in childhood but don't listen to nearly enough of) and some Mussorgsky (we all agreed it was pretty brash, tempting fate about Baba Yaga), so it was really fun. We dressed up, we had food together, we drove together, and overall it was a lovely night.
2 - We learned zills at dance on Wednesday night, and I also made a new friend. She's brand new to dance and is an undergrad at BYU, but she was bright and enthusiastic, and it was good times. We learned actual rhythms at dance, which is important. I can learn a specific zill pattern for a song, but I cannot ask a drummer for a beat (I only knew the name of one before that night) and I couldn't pick up on a zill pattern for a beat and I couldn't identify a beat by sound. We learned all of five rhythms, and there are many more than that (I am still baffled by the 9/8), and this week we will be learning some choreography to go with the zills, so I am excited. I'm a drummer at heart, so zills make me happy.
3 - I went to dinner and a movie on Friday night. Dan, my friend from law school and also my coworker as of tomorrow, said he and my girl Angela - also from law school - were planning on going out for dinner and a movie, so we went. We had burgers at a place called Johnny Rockets and we talked, and then we went to see the new Jack Ryan movie. I have fond memories of Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, so I was interested in seeing how Chris Pine took on a role that was pretty iconic in my childhood. I was totally surprised to see Keira Knightley (she had a good American accent) and Kenneth Branagh in the film, but it was good times, and fun was had by all.
Also, I have made friends with a lady in my ward who is a huge Tolkien fan but is new to the ways of fandom and nerding it up, so I told her I'd score the Hobbit movies and we would watch them sometimes.
Every day this week my mom sent me encouraging text messages counting down to my new job. It was super sweet of her. Also, my niece started dance lessons, so I'll be going to dance recitals soon. I'm pretty excited.
Wow. Tomorrow.
New job.
Here goes.
