MONDAY: I have an appointment at 11:00 a.m. with an office that has offered me a job. I get to the office and it turns out that my "appointment" means that I am starting work. I immediately get to answer phones from angry clients. I meet "L", the other legal assistant and I immediately recognize her. We worked at an office in 1999 (three jobs ago for me) for two weeks. She put in her notice just as I started, though I wasn't hired to replace her, but to replace someone at the office who had already left. That was a large office and two people were hired right after I started to replace L and another girl who had been fired during my first week at that office. L worked for Jon and I ended up working for Jon as well a few months later when the person hired to replace L quit as well. (More about Jon later).
TUESDAY: A very crazy day work-wise. My boss, true to his word, is not in the office very much, but spends much of the day in court and otherwise occupied outside the office. L leaves to go to the courthouse with a client to file some paperwork, so I am left alone on my second day to meet with walk-in clients and to answer the very crazy phone lines. I am supposed to leave at 5:00 (and will not get paid for working past 5:00) but there are clients with appointments at 5:00 and 5:30 and still, no boss and no L. Finally L returns at 6:00 and my boss a few minutes later. I don't get home until after 6:30.
WEDNESDAY: Jude's 4th birthday. The birthday is most important, so whatever happens at work that day doesn't matter. After work, I run home quickly so we can eat a quick dinner, give Jude his present and get ready for the fair. Yes, readers, it is fair time again. A really wonderful way to spend Jude's birthday. This year the heat is not nearly as oppressive (as I am not nearly as pregnant). I am able to ride on rides with Jude while Sully and Daddy look on. We all share a very tasty elephant ear. Well, Sully eats some fruit puffs instead, gnawing them with his four(!) teeth and seems very happy with them.
THURSDAY: Showing what a dedicated employee I am, I work only half a day. In all fairness, though, I did tell my boss that I would need Thursday afternoon off since I had to take Jude and Sullivan to the doctor; Jude has his four-year check-up and Sullivan has his nine-month check-up. Jude is 36 inches and 28 pounds and Sullivan is 30 inches and 20 pounds. Both boys are very healthy. We talk to the doctor about possible emotional/learning situations with Jude and agree that we will test Jude for ADD if needed when he starts school. Tough to say whether it is normal enthusiasm or something more than gets Jude moving every moment of the day that he is awake.
After being assured that the children are fine, I go downtown to the office of my old boss, Jon. Jon has ruined me for bosses forever; I know that. No other boss will ever be Jon. I was spoiled. We worked together at the big ol' law firm where I toiled for 6 years and we got along well. We had a whole team that actually worked well together and we would ever all go to lunch together sometimes. Jon and I even shot a commercial together, though it was one that would never air. The camera crew was there and it was meant to be just a quick shot for a montage of lawyers and legal assistants. However, we could not get through the shot without laughing. I think the advertising people hated us. It was his fault. I was sitting at a desk and he walked over to me, handed me a file and said in a low voice "Here you go, dummy." There was no microphone, so no one heard except me, but we couldn't really be serious after that. The shot never made any of the commericials that air ad nauseum during daytime television. (Seriously -- sit home one day and watch tv and see how many ads for lawyers there are.)
That was just one day, but that was Jon. He is a lawyer, a good lawyer, and he has his own office. We worked well together and he works well with the woman that he hired at his new office. It had been a couple of years since I had seen him, as he left the firm three years ago and I left 2 1/2 years ago -- left because I was escorted out, but let's just say it was my choice to leave.
So, I go to see Jon on an actual business matter (a question about incorporating a business) and our visit extends beyond that to play catch-up on the last couple of years. I realize then that I had missed him. It is weird, that feeling. It didn't happen when I first saw him after all this time. It is when he mentions someone we both know and we start really talking and reconnecting. It was the same feeling I felt when my friend, Brian, visited a couple of weeks ago. It didn't happen when I saw him or even when we started talking, but the first time Brian laughed, I realized that I had really missed him and I silently cursed him, wishing again that he and his wife lived closer so that the four of us could spend more time together talking and, yes, laughing together. We could always crack each other up, so laughter was a strong reminder of our friendship.
When I ask Jon about the lawyer I am working for, the first thing he says is "He just got his license back after being suspended for 6 months." This is not news to me, as Wednesday I had found paperwork in the filing that basically gave me that same information. What an exciting adventure this job is turning out to be.
FRIDAY: Back to the grind of work. A very busy day that culminates in my driving downtown to the courthouse (across the street from Jon's office) to file an emergency petition for a client. Then, I come back to the office to the sight of L and T (T works in the office part-time) waxing one another's mustaches (no ephemism there -- there were really waxing each other's mustaches with an over-the-counter wax). Very interesting. I hang out until 5:00, then ask L if she has received her paycheck yet. She says no, but that we get paid every Friday and sometimes it is really late in the day. "How much later can it be?" I ask. "It is already 5:00". I wait until 5:30 and then must go to the post office so that file-marked papers from the court go into that day's mail, but I tell L that I will be back. I get back to the office before 6:00 and the doors are locked. When I get home, I call the office and L is still there. She seems shocked that the doors are locked and double-checks. Sure enough, our boss is gone and he has locked the doors and we never received our checks. L gives me our boss's cell number and I call and leave him a message, asking him to call me about the paycheck. He doesn't call me back. Late Friday night L calls and tells me that she talked to T. T talked to our boss before she left work on Friday and he says he doesn't have the money to pay us but that he will pay us on Monday. T says that she is okay with that and she thinks L will be okay with that, but that he should talk to me since it is my first week. But he never said a word to me, even though I was at the office until 5:30. Bogus.
SATURDAY: I wake up this morning to discover that I cannot get out of bed. My back is sore, spasming and I can only hobble around. We go to a graduation party and I sit in a chair in the shade, trying not to move. No medications are helping; pain is strong. Twice I had needles inserted into my spine (for my c-sections) so I know a bit of what back pain feels like. This hurts.
SUNDAY: Back pain no better today and I struggle to get out of bed. Jeff is working and I cannot pick up twenty-pound Sully without pain so I call my dad and stepmom and they drive down to help. Jeff gets home and he takes me to an urgent care center. The doctor prescribes a muscle relaxer, which I took before I type this (which accounts for any misspelling, Josh!).
I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow holds. I do hope it holds a paycheck, though . . .
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