First Day

I started my new job today and to celebrate I decided to buy myself a beautiful, new pair of shoes. Yesterday on my way home from spending Father's Day with my parents, I stopped at DSW to see what I could find. For anyone who doesn't know, DSW is an amazing store that any shoe lover can appreciate and must check out. DSW has great deals and an awesome selection of shoes. Yesterday I found these beauties.

I adore Nine West purses, and I love Nine West shoes. I now have three pairs of Nine West heels, and they're the most comfortable brand of heels I've ever worn. They never give me blisters, they're always stylish, and they're made to last. My feet felt as great at the end of the day as they did at the beginning, and any high heel wearer knows that's a very big deal.

Library Drama

Yesterday I went to the library to drop off some books and pick up some new ones. As tired as I was after getting back from Austin and as anxious as I am about starting my new job on Monday, I knew I wanted this to be a quiet weekend full of Law and Order episodes (my current addiction) and reading. Thanks to my DVR and TNT, I had/have plenty of L&O episodes to keep me busy this weekend, but the trip to the library was necessary if I was going to read this weekend. 

I love going to the library. I love being surrounded by books and can wander around in a library and bookstore for hours. Usually the experience is relaxing to me. Yesterday not so much thanks to a rude librarian and her stupid wooden goose. That's right. A wooden goose ruined my library experience yesterday. 

I walked into the library and set my books on the return counter just like normal. The librarian was even standing there when I set them down. As I started to walk away and head over to the books to look around, the woman turns around and tells me I should have set the books on the other side of the computer at the counter. I replied that maybe they need to put up a sign explaining that if that's where they want the books. The woman proceeded to tell me that's what the wooden goose on the counter is for. Not a sign or anything with words, but a wooden goose. 

Apparently I missed something in all of my years of education and living in the real world. Apparently someone forgot to tell me along the way that a wooden goose translates to 'place your books here'. Are you kidding me? Puh-leeze. 

Annoyed by the woman and her wooden goose, I went on to tell her that no normal person would know her wooden goose is a signal to place books next to the goose and walked away. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I didn't appreciate being treated like the crazy one in the situation. She's the fruitcake talking with wooden animal cutouts, not me. 

Anyways, I got my books and feel much better after venting. I'm reading Deborah Harkness' A Discovery of Witches right now and enjoying it very much. 

Maybe I won't see crazy goose lady when I go back to return it. 

Getting back in the swing of things...

Being gone for an entire week was much more draining than I expected and much less of the vacation I had hoped for. Don't get me wrong, I had fun, but it was a long week. If I had just been doing vacation things and things I wanted, that would be one thing, but I was in class every day from 8:30-4:30 and did not sleep well at all. You know something's wrong when you can't fall asleep on a hotel's "heavenly" bed.

The best parts of my week were getting to catch up with my college roommate one night, getting to know the other coordinators from my county better, and all the great dinners I had, which are thankfully being reimbursed by the conference group (yay!). Monday I had amazing Thai food, Tuesday I had dinner at Kerbey Lane with my roomie (gingerbread pancakes), Wednesday I had an insanely good burger with the other ladies at the Daily Grill (and it needed to be good for the $14 they charged for it?!?!), and Thursday I had awesome sushi with one of the girls. Being on a budget, it was nice to get to go out every night and know it'd be taken care of. I definitely enjoyed it while I could.

The hotel was very nice and relaxing (even if I couldn't sleep), and I loved the room and the bathroom.

Nice, right?

It was nice to get home though Friday afternoon. This weekend I'm all about relaxing and gearing up for my first day of work on Monday. I'm super excited about starting my new job and this new phase in my life. I know it's going to be great.

A Week Off

Since I'm not taking my laptop with me, there won't be any blogging from me until I get back next Saturday from Austin. I'm looking forward to the break. It's definitely a working vacation and just what I need before I start my new job. Once I get back and start at work, I know it's going to be crazy so I'm going to enjoy every second of this week away.

I never know what to pack when I'm going somewhere. I always pack too much, but I'd rather be prepared. Originally I planned on just bringing a hanging bag and a laptop bag (minus the laptop) for the paperwork I have to bring to the conference, but that's impossible for 5 days out of town. I'm still bringing way too much with me, but I'll feel better knowing I have too much instead of missing something I really need.

Besides packing today, I caught up on all the Real Housewives of New York episodes on my DVR. I don't even know where to begin about the ladies' Morocco trip. It wore me out just watching.

Tonight my plan's to get a good night's sleep, to finish reading Many Bloody Returns (a book of vampire short stories by the best vampire writers in the business, including Charlaine Harris and Rachel Caine), and to watch a little basketball. Go Mavs! Hope you all have a great week.

My Not So Great Choices

Apparently this is my weekend for confusing things and crappy entertainment choices. Books, movies. Maybe someone was trying to tell me something.

First, I stayed up Friday night and watched Good with Viggo Mortensen. 

Good is about a German literature professor (Viggo) in Nazi Germany. The professor is a "good" man, hence the title of the movie. He writes a novel advocating compassionate euthanasia, and the Nazis use the book as a tool to push their own agenda. The professor gets swept up in the Nazi madness, leading to devastating events. The movie was alright but very confusing. The message the movie was trying to teach, that good people can get caught up in and by bad things, was interesting, but the movie was so abrupt and choppy that it was hard to follow. Unless you're a big Viggo fan, I'd skip this one. 

Second, Saturday I finished reading Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader. The book started off well enough, but it turned into a confusing, frustrating, dull read that just irritated me and made me wish I hadn't wasted my time. Bad books drive me nuts. I have little enough time to read as it is so I hate wasting my time on crappy reads. This one just had a twist that was unforgivable and enough to turn me away from Barry's other books.

After finishing The Lace Reader, I decided it was time to watch another movie. I'm a sucker for horror movies, even the really bad ones. I decided to watch Dark House from the Fright Fest collection. 

Dark House is about a woman who witnessed the mass murder of foster children in a house as a child herself. The woman returns to the house as a college student to film a horror movie and face her fears as the house is reopened as a new horror attraction, but she's not alone as the ghost of the women who killed the kids also returns. 

And it's just as stupid as you'd expect. So much for my "great" entertainment choices this weekend. Maybe tomorrow I'll do better.

Last Day

Last night I watched Hall Pass, one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and Jenna Fischer, we're talking laugh out loud funny for the majority of the movie. I haven't seen Hangover 2 yet, but Hall Pass is definitely as funny as The Hangover. And after a long, emotional week, laugh out loud funny was exactly what I needed last night. The movie's basically about a married man who gets a hall pass from his wife, granting him a week off from marriage and a chance to do whatever he wants for the week with no consequences. Things obviously don't go as planned, but they also don't happen like you'd expect either. I thought the movie was going to be stupid, but it was actually really, really good and I'm glad I stopped and watched it. 

So today was my last day of work at my current firm. It was sad, but it went much better than I expected. Other than dealing with a very crude defendant (why wouldn't my last client be over the top rude and crazy???) and a fellow lawyer who doesn't seem to have a filter from his brain to his mouth (and can't seem to shut his mouth to save his life and doesn't mind telling everyone everyone else's business no matter what it is), I'd say the day went pretty smoothly and quickly. 

And so I close the door on one thing and open the next one. And I can't wait to see where it takes me.

Almost There

Tomorrow's my last day of work! Crazy. I've gone back and forth between feeling sad, excited, nervous, anxious, thrilled, and so many more emotions all week. It's just hard to believe I'm really leaving. I'm really going to miss working there.

 

Monday is my official start date with the court, but I'll be spending Monday-Friday in Austin at a Professional Development conference learning about court administration things. I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot of great things, but I'm really looking forward to staying in a nice hotel all week and being away from a computer for an entire week. I've decided not to take my laptop with me (I'll have my iPhone though) so I'll be a little disconnected from the world. A little disconnection sounds VERY good right now.

 

I finished reading Lauren Weisberger's Last Night at Chateau Marmont and was kind of disappointed. I've always loved her books (The Devil Wears Prada, Everyone Worth Knowing, Chasing Harry Winston), but this one was weak. The main character Brooke was a complete pushover and just when you think she's finally going to do the right thing for herself, she goes right back to being a weak, silly girl. Usually Lauren's characters are refreshing and women you can identify with or want to be friends with but not this main character. All I wanted to do was slap her!

 

Next I'm reading Brunonia Barry's The Lace Reader, a book about a woman who is able to read the future by looking at patterns of lace. So far, so good, and very unique. 

Countdown to a new world...

So this is going to be a hard week for me. My last week at my law firm. Last week was hard enough with telling everyone my big news and that I was leaving my current job so I can't even imagine how emotional (and long) this week is going to be for me. I still haven't told everyone actually, just my family, friends, and co-workers. Gossip travels quickly around the courthouse so I'm sure everyone else will know soon enough.

Everyone I've told about my new job has been absolutely shocked. No one saw me making a career change at this point (in fact neither did I until the offer came up), but I know it's a good move and decision for me. This new job will open a lot of doors for me, doors that probably won't ever open with my current position. My boss has been incredibly supportive and agrees that it's a great move for me. That's helped a lot. I was so nervous telling him that I was leaving, but he said he'd support any decision I made. That's the kind of boss I have.

One of the hardest parts has been explaining to some people that yes, I'll still be an attorney, I'll still be maintaining my license, I just can't practice privately while I work for the court. So yes, I'll still be a lawyer. I'll just be a lawyer working for a judge, and I'm very excited about that.

Changes

Things always have a way of working out. They also have a way of hitting you when you least expect them. When things are tough and feel like they've been tough for a very long time, it can be hard to believe and trust that in the end everything will work out like it should, but it's true. Eventually things always work out for the best. 

It's not easy being a baby lawyer. Law school does not prepare you to BE a lawyer. They just prep you on how to think like a lawyer, and trust me, these are two very different things. You can't survive in the legal field without both. Learning to think like a lawyer is huge, but without the practical aspects and understanding of how to actually practice law, it can be very frustrating and draining while you learn the ropes. Baby lawyers also aren't rolling in the dough so before you say 'yeah, I'm really going to feel sorry for a lawyer', just remember how you felt when you first started your career, whatever your career might be. We all start out at the bottom. 

Luckily for me, after taking graduating from law school and taking the bar exam I started out with an amazing boss who has been a wonderful teacher and mentor. He immediately took me under his wing and has taught me so much. I couldn't have started out with a nicer, more helpful boss. I've been blessed, and I know it. 

But it's time for me to move on. I gave my two week notice to my boss today after accepting a new position with a district court. I'm going from criminal defense attorney to court personnel. It's going to be a big change, but I'm looking forward to the new challenges ahead of me. I'm a little sad to be leaving my office and all the great people that I work with, but I know what I'm doing is going to be the best for me in the long run and will open many doors. I've learned a lot of important lessons in the last nine months, and I'll be taking those lessons and memories with me. I'm sad but excited and can't wait to see what my future holds.