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Paralegals are unappreciative sometimes. And Oldest Son is disappointed.

2005-06-26
7:57 p.m.

Edited to Add: Everyone say hi to my cousin Becky. She's the only family member I've given the url to. You see them, Becky? They're all waving wildly.

Guess I'll rise to the bait of cinzel's "raising the bar" comment and post something new.

Last week felt like it was two weeks long for me. I worked three days on a huge, difficult project, and was sleep-deprived for two of those days. And still the client's paralegal was unhappy...tough toots. They didn't give me the job soon enough for the scope of work involved, and I let them know pronto, hey, this is huge. No way in hell will you have it by the date you want it! I put it a little nicer, but conveyed that message. I e-mailed them files just as soon as I finished them throughout that three days. They responded by e-mailing me yet one more file of work to do on the last day.

I finished the whole shebang at 3:15 A.M. on Friday morning. And had to work in a town 2 1/2 hours away at noon that day. If it wouldn't be for Hubby's delivery service, I wouldn't have gotten it to them at all. And they got a nice fat bill to go along with it. When I got home I had an e-mail from the paralegal that she received it 20 minutes before she had to leave to go to the courthouse. Did I mention this was huge??? I e-mailed her right back and told her I had worked well into the night, as she could see, and that if Hubby hadn't delivered it (a full hour before she got to work, which she told me she would be at work early that a.m. but who's keeping score here), I don't know when they would have gotten it. Can't wait to give this client back to their regular reporter, who was out of town last week.

Friday I went to the job at noon on, oh, maybe two hours of sleep total. By Friday night I was done. Wiped out. I was showered and in bed watching Toy Story with Youngest Son by 8:00. And it's a good thing I know how that movie ends, because I certainly didn't stay awake through the whole thing. In fact, Youngest Son kept waking me up to tell me to stop snoring.

Saturday I got up at 5:30 feeling much better, and Youngest Son and I were at Wal-Mart buying groceries and a birthday gift by 6:45 or so. Then we went to a birthday party for him, and by noon I was out of steam again.

I laid down to nap with Youngest Son, and he got up long before I did. I slept another three hours then. But oh, that was the most delicious sleep. :) It rained all day here yesterday, and being snuggled up in bed with my four-year-old for a well-deserved nap while the rain comes down...that is heaven!

By Saturday evening I was feeling pretty good, and we went out for Chinese food and to Sam's to buy a new shredder. * I put a key in my old shredder. I don't recommend that. My over nine-year-old shredder that has worked like a charm with nary a complaint ever bit the dust on a key. Hubby worked on it, but over the last week we've come to realize it was gone.

Yesterday morning I told Hubby his chore for the day was figure out which one to buy, and he did a great job picking one out for me. Works like a charm, up to 16 pages at a time, takes up less room, and has a removable basket. The old one did, too, but I've noticed a bunch don't, and that's one feature I wanted.

Last night Hubby and I stayed up watching a movie called Coach Carter. I thought it was really good, but nothing I would have picked.

Today I've been working on cleaning up this pigsty of a house and tending to work that was neglected all last week while I worked for the non-appreciative paralegal. I talked to my boss late last week, and she says the book is loaded for the summer, so that's good news. Typically summers get kind of slow.

Hubby and I had a tough talk with Oldest Son tonight about his birthday party. He has a birthday of July 7. Unfortunately, a lot of people go on vacation the July 4th week, and consequently the attendance at his birthday party is sometimes pretty slim. In our old state it wasn't so bad, as he had cousins and friends with parents we knew well. We usually knew whether or not they'd be in town already, before we set his party.

Here in the new state, we have no relatives, and I only feel comfortable enough to ask two of his good friends' moms whether they'll be in town. And one of those I already know won't be here. He's got two kids from summer camp he wants to ask as well that we already know will be on vacation. So out of the ten kids he wants to invite, I already know for sure three won't be attending. Who knows about the others, since I don't know their parents well enough to know whether they're vacationing that week or not.

He has his heart set on a birthday party at the water park, which we're fine with doing, but we do hate paying over $200 for a party that maybe only two kids will be attending.

Tonight we talked with him and told him we thought we needed to wait and have his party Aug. 13, the weekend after school starts. That way he could invite two kids from school that he doesn't know how to contact, plus all his Boy Scout friends and camp friends will be back in town.

He took the suggestion pretty dismally. I told him I could understand why he was upset, but he was going to be even more upset if we have a party and no one comes. I know he's going to have a lot more disappointments in life, but man he took this one hard.

We keep telling him we'll let him have friends spend the night and take them bowling and have cake and presents on his real birthday, just that his party will be a month later. I don't think we've convinced him it's a good idea to wait, but I think that's what we're going to do. Today I talked to Hubby's sister Penny, and she said she once had a birthday party for her son that no one attended (around Easter), and she strongly suggested waiting, as he was heartbroken. Hopefully a good night's sleep will make Oldest Son (and us) feel better.

Over and out...I think I've knocked that bar right off its poles with the length of this one.

* I didn't know I was putting a key in my shredder. I didn't open a piece of junk mail we got, and it contained a key to go to a car lot and try and we just might win this car. Damn junk mail. I'll be at least feeling all junk mail before shredding from now on.


2 comments so far Becky - 2005-06-27 15:14:43
Mel, you're just too funny for words! I'm laughing myself right into tears! Love ya!
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chocolate chaos - 2005-06-27 05:45:43
hi becky *waves*
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