Day Two

And I feel long-dormant portions of my brain waking up and stretching, looking around. Today I sat in a conference with the CFO about financial stuff (me, who chose my major in part because I didn't have to go beyond college algebra and statistics) and my brain was trying to keep up like a horribly out of shape novice in ashtanga yoga. Wait, wait, I almost understood that, I can sort of visualize the rollover from this loan to this line of credit, I'm with you, sort of, I think I need to sit down now. Oh, I'm already sitting down. Never mind. But he's great, he doesn't expect me to do his job, he doesn't expect me to do the lawyering, he expects me to - insert sound of heavenly chorus - help him with reviewing the structure of the deal and making sure what we are doing is good from a business standpoint. Can you believe it? This, I can do. This is so not really paralegal work, but I'm not a normal paralegal and I am very happy with the way things are shaping up here. I can work with land acquisition, development, finance, and use my background in fixing things that went wrong before they go wrong. KEWL!

I have a steep learning curve of the projects and who does what and how they do things, but they have really made me feel like I'm the right person in the right place. And it sure looks like it could be my ticket out of the paralegal ghetto.

Oh, remember that job I interviewed for back in, what, April? The one where the office manager was so hot for me and tried to talk me into taking a pay cut to work there? My friend at that firm said they hired a lawyer to do that job. I was not surprised - this is what happens when you've stayed too long at the paralegal party. You have two choices - accept the ceiling, both in terms of the job growth and the salary, and get comfy and do what you do until you can retire, or get the fuck out. There's nothing wrong with option one if you are married and have another income and like what you do and are happy where you are, but thanks to the ceiling, the salary, at least in the South, ain't too damn good. Eventually you are older than most of the lawyers you work with, you've been doing it longer, you know shit they don't, and you can't get paid for it, because, as with the firm that hired a lawyer instead of me, they figure out that a lawyer can do shit you can't. They may only send that junior associate to cover calendar calls and to sit in on depos where there's no big risk, but they can bill him/her out for more bucks per hour and offset the salary, so when all things are equal, it's more cost effective to take on a young associate vs. an experienced paralegal.

Responding to comments:

Janet - use an agency. Lots of companies don't even bother running ads. This is "do as I say, not as I did advice," because I got this job off an ad that I almost didn't respond to at all. I sent the resume in a "what the fuck, it might not suck" frame of mind, because the ad was intriguing but also muddled, and I couldn't figure out what the hell they wanted to hire. Turns out they didn't know either, but apparently it was me. But in general, the agencies are the way to go, most of the bigger, saner employers have relationships with them and that's who they call when they have a slot to fill.

KR Retreat - not this year, I'm afraid - I won't have the time off to spare yet and my out of pocket on the roof was hefty. And also because Graves Mountain, pretty as it is, amounts to a hard day's schlep for me on each end. I read that this is the last year for that location, and I hope that the new East Coast location will be somewhat more airport friendly. I'd love to do MDS&W again next spring, by then I will have cash and accrued vacation, and this time I'd fly but stretch it for a couple more days to see my cousins.

Yes, Milton! Thanks, I was too lazy even to Google it. I was Milton. Milt, we're gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage B. We have some new people coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could go ahead and pack up your stuff and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK?

Walls. A door. Walls and a Door. And a window. And an executive desk and a separate place for the computer, and more drawer and shelf space than I can imagine filling. I'm gonna get me a plant. I have a window.

I went to the gym last night, didn't make it tonight because roofer guy came by for the check. Haven't knitted a stinkin' stitch, but I will work on something tonight. I am jonesing for yarn.