Hooray for 3 day weekend Fridays!

I'm in dire need of this long weekend, because thanks to MD and having to take time off for house and car repairs, I have no vacation time banked for this summer. Not that I really care - summer in FL is too hot and miserable to spend much time outdoors (let the tourists do that). But it has been a long week, and I intend to spend the next three days doing as little household duty work as possible and playing with fiber as much as I can.

From the "Maybe I AM paranoid, but I'm also being watched," files: Quick background: Boss and I actually belong to a different, out of town law firm. We share space with a firm in this city. We have a different reporting chain, and I've gathered from the henhouse muttering that I am perceived as having the NICE boss (which is true) and an "easy" job, (yeah, right) and this generates jealousy among the management and staff of THIS office. It has expressed itself in various ways over the past couple of years, mostly petty shit like I get to sit in a secretarial-sized cube instead of the larger "paralegal cube" I should have, and Boss has no windows in his cell-like office, and so forth. We have figured out that we are semi-pariahs in this place and try to keep a low profile, do our jobs and ignore the petty stuff. That's the background.

The other day the announcement came that we would close a few hours early in anticipation of the long weekend. Okay, that's nice. So I'm walking past one of the secretaries, and she tells me in a friendly way that the office would be closing early, and I said yeah, I'd heard, that's nice. Then she says in this kind of snarky, jealous tone, that MY boss would probably let us go at noon. I was taken aback because MY boss rarely, if ever, closes our "real" office earlier than the official closing time, I think he did it ONCE at Christmas or some other holiday I can barely remember. I just know it almost never happens and I didn't anticipate it happening today. I said something to the effect of "Oh, it would be nice but I doubt it, he almost never closes the office early," and she said, "Oh, but he did it that other time!" and it hit me that DAMN! - these people really ARE keeping score! It's not my paranoid imagination that my comings and goings are watched, and my lunches with Boss are duly noted, and on and on. I've had that feeling all along, but this was clear evidence that I'm not imagining that Scores Are Being Kept and little things I'd totally forgotten are being nursed as grudges. Isn't that delightful?

The entire place has a sour attitude, it's so hard to be around it. One of the other paralegals is a very energetic, hardworking girl, she's very organized and obsessive about making lists and checking off boxes on forms, so she's perfectly suited to the Dilbertian corporate practice style, and she generally has a good attitude - until one of the lawyers asks her to do something that doesn't involve one of her forms and checklists, then she hisses her resentment to ME. She works for two very nice guys, one in particular is a very sweet, easygoing, very self-sufficient type who rarely asks anything non-form-and-checklist of her, and he dared ask her to come into his office and help him with some discovery response or something. Oh, God, this was an ISSUE, she had to leave her cube! He said HE was going to take care of it, why did she have to help him? Me, I would jump at the chance to get out of the damn cube and go do exactly what she was bitching about doing. This is the same lawyer who tries to educate her about the cases, the law, and why we do what we do, and you can see her eyes glaze over every time he tries to explain anything to her. She has checklists to check, dammit! I have gently told her, in my wise old paralegal way, that this lawyer is a really good guy and it's so wonderful that he takes the time to explain like that and she can learn alot from him because he is very experienced and smart, and she tosses her hair and says, "I have my own work to do." Oookaaaayyyy....

I've seen this happen in other places, it seems to be a Paralegal Disease. They forget that we are part of a team with the attorneys, we are there to move the cases forward WITH them. They act like they live in their own little orbit of forms and checklists and calendars. A sort of weird resentment grows, that the lawyers' demands get in the way of the paralegals' very important form-filling-out and checklist checking. Maybe it's a corporate paralegal disease - I've known several who were so obsessed with the corporate reporting system, it was like the work existed only to be input in the reports, not the other way around. It's so weird, and not at all the way I want to work. Gotta get out.

Our friend in Coral Gables swears he found me a nice, affordable condo within reasonable commuting distance of his office. If it's true, I'd really have to consider it. In the meantime, I will sit in my cube and keep my head down and try not to draw any more snarkfire, and send out more resumes. Networking has lead to a couple of "move as a team" options on the horizon, it could still happen.

On an entirely different and sad note, I used a different brand of algaecide (supposedly pond and fish friendly) the other day and came home yesterday to four dead goldfish (out of a population of about 15) and I think I see another dead one on the bottom this morning. I'm afraid it's my favorite fish, the huge fantail. I did an emergency partial water change and the remaining fish (except for the one I am worried about) have perked up and I think they'll make it. I'm so sad, I've kept that batch of 19 cent goldfish alive for FIVE years, they have reproduced and formed their own little civilization in my little 300 gallon pond.

Needless to say, between the pond emergency and dog care I didn't make it to the gym. I will go this afternoon, for sure, and go every day this weekend. I'm past the stage where I come home sore and tired and am reaching that zone where a workout feels SO good, I feel better and more clear-headed and energized when I am finished. I think it's time to cast on that Berocco tank this weekend, my arms are definitely getting sleeveless-at-the-office-worthy. Maybe I can just get a little hint of color on them this weekend while the puppydogs romp in the yard.