I think I am going to work weekends and take two days off during the week when the clients start calling and/or emailing!
Yes, it is Monday and no surprise the angst is work. PC...is it a surprise.
I sent him two last projects several months ago BEFORE I decided that I was no longer going to send to or accept work from him anymore - part of all that reducing stress in my life goal.
I have posted that there have been significant changes in the law. Things are all fuzzy and uncertain. That is why I planted roughly 40 shrubs last year - lots of angst to unload! LOL!
PC is in denial with respect to this Supreme Ct Decision. He keeps writing arguements "as if" the law has not changed. I sent him an email instructing him to argue in accordance with the new law. As usual he argued. I sent a very short email back - "Please follow instructions."
Well - today (after putting oit ff looking at them for 2-3 weeks), I reviewed his work. And my BP started to rise. PC DID NOT do as I instructed him. He paid lip service and quoted part of the new law - and then ignored it.
So I sent an email to him asking very to the point questions and sent him the applicable law and instructions how to apply the law. I use to think he was a good attorney - but he isn't. He is fine following a template but simply lack the ability to expand and grow. And he argues about everything using 10 million sentences that go nowhere and never guide a reader towards the point! Kinda like my posts! LOL!
I feel better after posting. My shoulder/neck were tensing up as I was reading his two responses.
In a few months, he will be person-I-have-heard-of-but-no-longer-keep-in-touch-with. And life will a little less stressful.
Now I have to draft an email to a large law firm that carries puffed up bullfrog version of a big stick into fixing phenominally crappy work that they did 4-5 years w/o sending us another bill. They did the shoddy work - I am certainly not going to pay them to fix their own mistakes. Of course this goes against "billing" by the hour even if we are fixing our own screw ups culture. So I need to copy my boss and be ready to take out my big stick. My big stick is like those illegal baseball bats - hollowed out and filled with those illegal thingies. That big stick is feeling very heavy these days. I am tired...
Anyway - that is Monday. The goal - to forget about all of this at 6:30 PM this evening! And then life will be good again.
I just received a call from PC - surprise surprise surprise (Gomer Pile?) - once again arguing against what I am instructing him to do!!! This is not rocket science - sigh...I am going to just have to edit the d@mn thing myself. He is either too stubbborn or perhaps too dense. Either way it is not worth the stress to talk to this man. His incessant arguing has cost him his job at his law firm, humongo client - and he still does not get it. Clearly he does not and will not get that while we may not like what the Sup Ct has said - IT IS THE LAW right now!
Actually as I was sitting here in utter disbelief listening to PC leave his VM wondering how on earth to handle a person that simply refuses to follow instructions... when I received an email that made me cry - cry in a good way...
One of my friends in Houston is organizing a party/reception for me and has sent out an email to every single person that use to work with me in my section and is still with NASA 15 years ago. This is a list of roughly 20 something people. (No CB is not on the list.) And people started responding about how they were eager to see me again. I was so touched - well I started bawling...
Good thing the people that I am bullying with my big stick can't see me right now.
No wonder I have never adapted to law firm life. There are day night differences in the personalities. I am so glad that I decided to go back to one of my homes.
So there are a total of two voice message and two emails from PC. At first it stressed me out. Then I decided to take a break and do a Sudoku puzzle and now I am detached again.
My assistant has fallen off the face of the earth. I knew she was close to burning out. She is the only one at humongo client that can update stuff - and well so stuff is not updated - which means I have maintain records at my end. Oh well...such is life.
Brief went out late last night - so one more thing crossed off my list. Today's goal to finish up a lingering patent and get it out the door. Normally would be done in 2-3 hours - in my current state of tiredness will take 5-6 hours. At least it will get done. I need to stay focused on my list to the exclusion of everything else.
Life is very busy. I am detaching so I can function. I detaching from sheer volume of items on my list and focusing on ONE thing at a time.
I am a little sleepy - was up late last night. I want to turn off the computer by 8 pm at the latest.
It is Monday - and life is as it always is on Mondays.
Actually there are two or three people poses. My favorite is one I call the rack. That one involves three people gets every kink out of your shoulders and lower back.
GF has had a tough time lately. She lost her step mother to cancer two weeks ago - after a prolonged fight. GF is still in shock at how the disease progresses.... She carries the world on her shoulders and is always okay. She has four young kids and my role model for the type of mother I want to be someday. She is going to have some scary tests done and needs to not be okay for a little while.
So I am dragging her to her first yoga class and by virtue of feeling compelled to drag her - I am dragging myself. So this is a good thing.
Changes in latitude - changes in attitude... Anticipation of my Houston trip is already starting to do the trick.
My itinerary so far:
> Tuesday - Fly into Houston. Spend the day at my old workplace. Play on the simulators - maybe even fly! Visit with friends at work. The night at the museum gala.
> Wednesday/Thursday: Relax and munch on chocolate croissonts (sp?) and coffee as I sit back and listen at the seminar. Will probably go out with attorney friends for dinner in the evenings. There is a formal type thingy - not sure if I am attending yet.
> Friday: Going to a party that my friend is throwing for me at an OUTDOOR restaurant/bar. My only requirement - Tex Mex or BBQ.
> Saturday: Hang out with friend and his wife. Told him I didn't care what we did. Fly home late Saturday night.
I just got back from yoga. I have decided that my next P will be a yoga instructor. That most certainly will fulfil that whole soothing balm on the soul requirement! GF and I have commited to go to yoga every Monday evening. She is hooked. She is dragging me out to go for a walk tomorrow night at 9:15 pm - when it is nice and quiet.
I am behind - but not working tonight. I slept 3 hours last night. Will get up early and start fresh. My scary brief has been approved for filing by humongo client. It is my very first brief of this type - so it was a relief to hear there were no changes to my work.
Life is better at the tail end of Monday than it was this morning. Laptop will be sleeping alone tonight. Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope that I will someday achieve that life/work balance.
Very fitting for my current mood: Will play song every time I get stressed till I leave on my mini-vacation!
Changes in latitudes Changes in Attitudes
I took off for a weekend last month Just to try and recall the whole year. All of the faces and all of the places... Wonderin' where they all disappeared.
I didn't ponder the question too long; I was hungry and went out for a bite. Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum, And we wound up drinkin' all night.
It's those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes; Nothing remains quite the same. Through all of our running and all of our cunning, If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.
Reading departure signs in some big airport Reminds me of the places I've been. Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure Makes me want to go back again.
If it suddenly ended tomorrow, I could somehow adjust to the fall. Good times and riches and son of a bitches, I've seen more than I can recall.
These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes; Nothing remains quite the same. Through all of the islands and all of the highlands, If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane.
I think about Paris when I'm high on red wine; I wish I could jump on a plane. So many nights I just dream of the ocean... God, I wish I was sailin' again.
Oh, yesterday's over my shoulder, So I can't look back for too long. There's just too much to see waiting in front of me, And I know that I just can't go wrong.
With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes; Nothing remains quite the same. With all of my running and all of my cunning, If I couldn't laugh, I just would just go insane. If we couldn't laugh, we just would just go insane. If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.
And then life will be good again. 
