snowcrasher

Today  went to lunch with my two bosses (both Directors of Business and Legal Affairs) and our Admin, Alice.  It somehow came up in conversation that all three of them had had braces on their teeth.  They said "All of us except Adam, his teeth are perfect."

So while that flattered me, I said, "Actually, you know how my canines look like fangs? I found out last week that's because my teeth are turned slightly, not because they're sharp.  The angle just makes them look sharp."

The Admin asked, "So are you going to get them fixed?"

I said, "No, I like the vampire look."

They all paused for a few moments.  The Admin said, "Gee, you learn something new about Adam every day."

On the way home my boss talked about how the Admin had lost a couple notches on the hotness scale by getting braces.  In his defense, my other boss (an ultra-religious single mother of three) said "That doesn't say anything about where she started on the hotness scale."

And this is but a brief glimpse of why I love my job.

So it's been very stressful the last few weeks, but I have to take solace in one fact:  I got paid to go to the Buick Invitational to see Tiger Woods play golf.  I was also within mere feet of Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, and a bunch of others.  And I got paid money for it.  Yay.
 

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So now that we're back from honeymoon and evacuation, it's time to take care of all those pesky little chores we've been putting off for the last 6 months.  Like wisdom teeth,  I just got them yanked this afternoon, in the hopes that I'll be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner.  It hurts a lot.   And tomorrow I'm supposed to go to another wedding!  I'm still planning to go, but unfortunately I don't think they'll be serving mush at the reception.

Bad News:  We had to evacuate our condo due to raging wildfires.  Last night, the inferno was shaped like an arrow on course to our place. 

Good  News:  Tonight, at about 7 o'clock, we called the info line about some discrepancies and found that we could come home.  I am writing this from the comfort of my own, cheapass formerly-smelling-of-curry couch with my feet propped on my crappy free Ikea coffee table with a broken leg.

Bad News:  Sony is closed for this entire week.  I don't have any accrued holidays.  I just got back from two and a half weeks of unpaid leave.  I just found out I need a new transmission on my car.  Now it looks like I've lost another week's worth of income.

Good News:  I'm home with my wife.

merlot_d and I went to Santa Barbara for a long weekend.  We played golf, went wine-tasting, visited a little Danish town, listened to an Irish band while drinking beer at the James Joyce pub, and got massages, facials and pedicures.  I never had a facial or pedicure before.  We also got engaged.   I never did that before either. 

I have a fiancee!

As of 12 o'clock noon, the temp here is 106 degrees. Any takers how hot it will be by 3 o'clock?

Yes, the coldest it gets at night is 85 degrees. Which might explain why our electricity bill last month was $128--for a 1-bedroom apartment!!!

Dammit, but then we'd have to move that too.

At long last, after a full year of searching, I found a men's soccer league! I can play again! Now I just have to get back in shape and remember how to kick a ball.

Several signs around Cal State Bakersfield: "Cinco de Mayo Fiesta: April 28."

As I drove to work in Bakersfield, I passed a bum sitting on a corner in a residential downtown neighborhood. He was on a corner that got very little traffic, in a rundown neighborhood very reminiscent of the Midwest, where the houses by all rights should be attractive, but the whole landscape just has the veneer of something let go. The homeless man sat on the sidewalk at the corner, wearing blue jeans and a faded red t-shirt, with a scraggly white beard, sitting Indian-style with legs crossed and hands palm up, just like a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He was perfectly still as I drove by.

It seemed so bizarre and so out of place. In Los Angeles, it would have been normal. But here in Bakersfield, in that slipping neighborhood, it made me laugh in a pleasant way.

...or are LJ updates coming few and far between from the alpha theta alumni crowd? It seems like only a few people post regularly, and I know I'm not one of them.

The reason is because I've been working my ass off at a new job as a first year associate attorney. Yeah, if I had a life now, it would suck. My routine has been wake up at 6:30, eat breakfast, hurry to get dressed up all proper and out the door by 8, travel 10 minutes to work, work, grab some quick takeout for lunch, bring it back to the office and chow down while figuring out what work to do, do more work, leave between 6:30 and 7:30 every night, make dinner, eat dinner, and go to sleep at 10 o'clock.

Welcome to the real world, me. But I'm really lucky that this office lets me leave so early, cause most first year associates do even more work and less sleep. So I'm really damn lucky.

My hell is over. At long last, I have a job and a place to to live. I was so desperate to start work that I organized a complete move-in in 3 days, and started 6 days after I got the offer. How's that for efficiency?

My apartment is beautiful. Bakersfield is largely an industrial wasteland/decrepit land of white trash, but I managed to find an apartment with a fireplace and overlooking a creek and a fountain--Fire and water. And it has a washer/dryer and dishwasher, and the complex has paddleboats! It's a very pleasant place to come home to every night. And as a special bonus, there are 3 golf courses within a half mile, and a Trader Joe's directly across the street.

As you may know, life sucks for new attorneys. We have no life, and are generally expected to work 70-80 hours a week. Fortunately, this office places a high value on quality of life outside the office. On Friday night at 7 o'clock they actually kicked me out. But no matter what, for the first 3 months, I have to be the first one to arrive and the last to leave.

Even so, I know my job is extremely secure. The secretary/office manager, the girl who makes the office run, is quitting tomorrow. It's a terrible blow to the office. It will be total chaos and so much administrative stuff is going to fall back to us attorneys. (There's 2 of us, btw.) So I'm pretty safe, because the managing attorney is flat out desperate.

This is my first weekend alone here. The last two weekends I had my girlfriend to keep me company, but now I find myself looking for things to do and missing friends from Alpha Theta. Now that I have internet again, at least I can post to LJ again and feel like I'm keeping in touch.

Okay, now to work out for the first time since August. I need to join a country club, find a soccer league, maybe baseball or softball, and get myself something to do on weekends. Yeah.

Good news: I have a job!!

Bad news: It's in Bakersfield, CA.

For the last several months, I thought the moment I got a job would be jubilant. But it's not. It's very, very good, yes, but I realized I won't be excited and thrilled until I find a home too. It looks like I'll have to live in a hotel for a week or 3 until I can get the apartment I want, assuming nothing interferes.

But I do have a job. I'll be an associate attorney at a small law firm with lots of hands-on experience. So it's definitely a good thing.

I have a job interview tomorrow. Through a quick name search I found a trademark case which led me to check the copyright office database, and sure enough--the lawyer I'm interviewing with wrote a book under a pseudonym called "The Complete A**hole's Guide to Handling Chicks."

Do I ask him about it?

Behold:

( A spoiler-free review of Serenity. )

I have seen Serenity, and it kicks ass. For those who don't know, Serenity is the big screen version of the TV show Firefly, from Joss Whedon (who also brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Holy shit this movie was awesome. Easily the best science fiction action flick since Star Wars: A New Hope. And that's saying a lot, compared to the Matrix, Equilibrium, Pitch Black, and even Aliens.

I'll write more later, both about the movie and my trip to LA.

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I've never posted one of these before, but this was just too right on.

And as if one weren't enough, there's a second! Again, uncannily appropriate for my life at the moment.

I am The Hermit The Hermit often suggests a need for time alone - a period of reflection when distractions are limited. In times of action and high energy, he stands for the still center that must be created for balance. He can also indicate that withdrawal or retreat is advised for the moment. In addition, the Hermit can represent seeking of all kinds, especially for deeper understanding or the truth of a situation. "Seek, and ye shall find," we have been told, and so the Hermit stands for guidance as well. We can receive help from wise teachers, and, in turn, help others as we progress. For a full description of your card and other goodies, please visit LearnTarot.com

What tarot card are you? Enter your birthdate. Month: Day: Year:

I passed the California bar exam. 'Nuff said.

Some little pigfuckers shot my passenger window with a paintball gun, yesterday. I circled around and chased them into the woods. I think they were scared shitless by this scruffy looking guy in a leather jacket and sunglasses who came barreling through the woods and bushes after them. I chased them through a couple yards and grabbed one by the collar. I never heard "We're sorry" so much.

I didn't warn them, or threaten them, or tell them never to do anything again. I didn't see the point in telling things they already knew. I just made them go get windex and a rag to clean my car.

Little pigfuckers pleaded with me that it was an accident. Whatever. I just wasn't ready to call "Bullshit" in the face of 3 punkass kids who were already scared shitless. Am I an asshole for taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in this?