Is It Too Late?

Is it too late to decide to take a bar exam this summer? I can't decide. I guess it must not be, since I didn't really get serious about it the first time until July.

I was specifically thinking about Maryland, since it looks like I am about to move there. I finished my LLM and can't find a real job, so I asked my current job to transfer me to the DC office. Of course, as soon as my transfer was approved I didn't want to go anymore. But I think I'm just fearing change at the last minute. I've been wanting to get out of Boston for a while now. It's all well and good to live here while you're in school, or to be born here and never leave, but it doesn't have that much going on once you're done with school. I guess the plan is to move in with my parents (aggh! nooo!) temporarily and see if I can't find a job in NY or DC. Or back here I guess. I do have one more interview to go on before I leave. I feel like going through all the hassle and shelling out all the cash to haul all my stuff out of here would be just the thing the universe is waiting for to finally get me an offer up here. Cause clearly the universe gets a real kick out of laughing at me.

LTNS

My boss just found out he failed the bar exam for either the 4th or 5th time. This makes for a crabby boss, which filters down to a crabby me. As you might expect, he didn't announce it, but everyone somehow knows. My non-lawyer coworkers have been making stealthy trips to my cube all week to ask me just how that is possible, but I honestly don't know. He must just be really, really, really bad at standardized tests. Or maybe he has panic attacks when he has to take a test. He seems pretty smart in general, so I have no idea.

In other news, I wish I had done my LLM full time and graduated last year with a job, instead of going part time and graduating this year when there will be no jobs. I don't know what I'm going to do, because there is No Way I'm keeping the job I have for longer than another year. Preferably no longer than through August.

Although I am getting a big fat 25% raise in a month. And if there's any money left over in the budget (not likely) I qualify for a bonus based on my annual review. Woohoo! Don't get too excited for me though. All that will only just bring me up to what I would be making on my first day if I could ever manage to get an actual attorney job with the government.

Go Celtics! Woooo!

Hooray! The Celtics won, and tomorrow is the parade - or "rolling rally" which, in its mobile form, is designed to prevent the masses from soiling any one spot in the city for too long.

God I love drunken 15 year olds on my commuter train in the morning! Doesn’t matter if they are Celtics, Red Sox, or Patriots fans – I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

I also enjoy fighting through sticky throngs shouting “WOOOOOOOOO!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!” to get to work. They are already out there. I could hear them even as I just typed it. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They have also constructed some sort of stage just out my nearest window and put a cover band up on it. They apparently instructed them to begin playing at 5pm today. I am still at work, trying to work. But nevertheless, everyone enjoys “CARRY ON MY WAYYYYYWARD SOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!” in every circumstance, at any time of day. I certainly hope they’re out there all day long tomorrow.

And, since the parade is practically going through our lobby, will we get to at least see 7 ft tall men riding on duck boats? Oh my no, because they scheduled some stupid whole office training for 9:30 tomorrow morning and god forbid they move it forward half an hour, or back to the afternoon. Because if they did anything that in any way benefited the workers here, people might stop quitting in droves. And what would we do if there were adequate staffing here? Nobody knows, because it has never happened, and we don’t want to find out now, thankyouverymuch.

Validation

They just released our grades.

I got an A, an A-, and another A-.

This is unbelievable. I struggled to get out of law school with my 3.0. Now I have a freaking 3.8.

And the A is in the class I thought I failed since the exam was so long I couldn't finish it. The highlight of my answer was undoubtedly the essay question I answered "There were no gift tax consequences, except in those transactions that were subject to the gift tax." There must be some dumb people in my program with me, holding up the other end of the curve. And the thing is, I'm not even sure there IS a curve, since the classes are so small.

This was inspiring to me, so I mustered up the energy to make a phone call I've been avoiding. You may recall that I was interviewed very successfully for my Absolute Dream Job a few months ago. My interviewers recommended me enthusiasticaly to the hiring committee, but my application was subsequently rejected with no explanation. I got a form letter rejection email. I wrote back to ask what the problem was. They gave a purely administrative reason that was not based in fact (think: you're not a citizen of this country, when in fact I am, or similar.) I got the name of the person in charge of the hiring committee and emailed them asking that my application be reconsidered, or at the very least that the administrative error be corrected so my application is not summarily rejected again when I reapply next year. Two weeks passed. I haven't heard back. I've been meaning to call her to follow up, but I SO do not want to. I knew she wouldn't be in the office today because it was a holiday, so, confidence bolstered by my PimpAss Grades, I finally picked up the phone.

And... her phone has been disconnected. Hmm. Perhaps she's been fired for gross mismanagement of the recruitment program? One can only hope. So tomorrow I've got to get in touch with someone I know who can tell me what's up. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for me that there was, at the very least, some sort of public shaming ceremony held before she was placed on indefinite administrative leave without pay.

In re: Request for Good News

Hmm... I generally only ever have news that ranges from Not Bad to Mildly Exciting. Not necessarily good. Here are the Mildly Not Bad Things that happened to me this week:

1. Two other new people at New Job are lawyers, so I'm not the only loser who can't get a job. And one actually practiced for several years before realizing that small firms pay nothing and are run by cranky old trolls who just want to suck the business dry while working their one associate to death, whereas at the government you can make more and work less. So that is somewhat affirming of my choice. Not Bad.

2. As of Monday I am eligible for matching contributions to my 401(k) like plan at work, which means I'll be getting about $2500 for free this year. Mildly Exciting.

3. I don't think I failed my second exam, unlike my first exam, which I undoubtedly did fail, due to the fact that it was harder than the bar exam (I swear to god it was) and I didn't even have time to finish it. Bad. But the second one was pretty easy. Not Bad.

4. We're getting a 3.15% cost of living increase, which inches my new paycheck ever closer to the realm of acceptability. Mildly Exciting.

5. I went for my laser eye surgery consultation and my corneas are mercifully of the appropriate thickness, so one month from now I should be freed from the tyranny and oppression of Acuvue. Mildly Exciting.

6. We got out of work early for snow on Thursday. This almost never happens in the frozen tundra of the northeast. Of course by turning us away from work, they were sending us out to face certain death on the icy, unplowed streets full of cranky nutjobs trying to get home one car length faster than you, however many innocent lives they have to take to realize that dream. But still. Not Bad.

7. My last exam is on Monday, and then there's no hateful school for almost a month. Not Bad.

Upset, But Not Suprised

I got a generic form email this afternoon from the Accounting Firm talking about how they met me at OCI and can't hire everyone and blahblahblah we don't want you. Part of me wonders if I got it in error, since I'm not just some schmuck they met for 15 minutes at OCI as stated in the letter, and since they've been so fucking disorganized about this whole process, with multiple people from all over the country calling me repeatedly to ask for information they already had. I also resent their lie that they can't hire everyone. They could absolutely hire everyone they meet, all day, every day, because they have just that much money. That must mean someone there really hated me. Isn't that charming. Of course, I knew I wouldn't get the job, because I felt like the interview went well, which, clearly, is the kiss of death.

I assume this also means I won't be getting a positive response about Government Dream Job, since I thought that went well too. I emailed today to ask if I was ever going to hear anything, since it's been, oh, five weeks since my interview and they have not communicated with me directly in any way at all. The person I emailed today said the woman that had the information was out. I'm 90% sure it's this lady who wrote this nasty email that I saw last year about how they couldn't care less about anyone outside of the top 10% of their class (this, despite the fact that almost everyone who works there went to some crappy substandard school in the middle of nowhere - apparently their recruiting desires and reality don't synch up very well - maybe it's because they go around insulting people from good schools.)

So yeah, this is just great. I feel worse now than if I just hadn't gotten any interviews at all, because I got all optimistic that this LLM thing was going to be the solution to all my job problems, but apparently it's just another fucking expensive worthless degree I'll never use. Hurrah!

Also it was my birthday on Tuesday and I spent it in Vegas but who cares... I shouldn't be going on vacations anyway if I'm just going to be poor and in debt for the rest of my life.

Show Me The... Meh... I Never Saw That Movie

I'm jumping ship for a higher grade position. Yes, I'm leaving my beloved IRS for the Dept of Who The Hell Cares If It's Not About Taxes. A higher grade means more $$ - over 50% more than I was currently making. That's a hell of a raise. I'm mostly bitter and sad that I couldn't keep my job, which I love, and just make more money, but the horrifice communist bureaucracy that is the Office of Personnel Managment didn't want that to happen. Sigh.

I also had my second interview with my Accounting Firm last Friday. I thought that went reasonably well, and they seemed pretty impressed with my credentials, so we'll see. They also seem to have a terrible, disorganized recruiting system, so for all I know they've already made my application disappear into the ether by accident. They said we should hear by mid-December.

I haven't heard anything about Government Dream Job since just after my first interview, when I heard that I was being elevated to the Mystic Council in the Home Office. They supposedly meet once a month, and it hasn't been quite one month yet since the interview, so I suppose they aren't late yet. Plus it's the government so who knows if I'll ever hear anything.

In other news, I'm super bad far behind in my LLM classes and I am not going to be able to catch up because a) I work full-time, b) we have no reading period. There's also unhappy factor c) they are making me start my new job the day before my first final. I said I really, really had a problem with that, and they said too bad. If they weren't going to pay me so much, I would have a serious problem with that. Argggh.

So I estimate, based on my current knowledge of the law I was supposed to be learning and the fact that I will just have to wing it on my exams, that I will get a B, a B-, and a B+ (the B+ being in my How the IRS Works class, but the grade still not being very high because I'm sure there's some a-hole gunning for an A who's memorizing Circular 230 line by line right this very minute.) That averages out to a nice round 3.0 though, so I'm not going to lose sleep about it. And I'm sure as hell not studying over Thanksgiving. Maybe on the flight to Vegas for my bday after T-day though. Mayyyybe. If I run out of back issues of Glamour. I'll at least take the book. In my checked luggage. If it doesn't push me over the weight limit. That's all anyone can really ask, right?

Good News, Good Dream

I heard from my career services lady that she talked to one of the Dream Job interviewers and they are going to recommend me to the committee. Yipee! So now, I assume, I just have to get through a callback interview and not have the foul HR demons from hell dredge up any arcane rules that prevent me from being hired. Awesome!

And then last night I had the best dream that I was getting it on with the other interviewer. For, like, hours and hours. It was great. Then my stupid boyfriend got up to go to work and woke me up and I was like "Glarggh!! Shh!!!" and fell back asleep right away, but the dream had changed and we were at the circus and I couldn't find my seats. Significantly less fun.

I've got my callback interview for my accounting firm set for next Friday. I'm trying not to freak out. I tried to get a suit tailored for the occasion, but the lady I went to was like "Ohhh nooo I can't feex this - your body shaped funny!" So instead, I will be wrapping my funny shaped body in my shapeless suit jacket. I've never had a tailor not butcher the garment I left them with to the point of unwearability anyway, so I'm sure it's for the best.

Two More Interviews - Neat!

That's right. I'm Pop-u-lar. I've only been back in school for two months, and it has yielded 2 interviews, 1 callback, and a call from a recruiter based on a reference from an alumna. I heart my LLM. The third interview was just the result of my relentless pursuit of cushy government jobs that have little or nothing to do with the law. I also heart USAJobs.

So Monday I had an interview with my total government attorney dream job. The guys who interviewed me were young enough to find their way around the web, so I won't say specifically what it was, but it was the people I went shmoozing/boozing with in a previous post. And it turned out to be with two people who were there that night, who I had already met then and several other times, so it was minimally stressful. They seemed pretty positive about it. I don't want to be, because they can't crush a dream I pretend I don't have, right? I have a feeling the evil government HR people are going to screw me on a technicality. Sigh. But at least I had the interview...

Today I had an interview for a job I couldn't care less about, for a different government agency, but that pays 50% more than what I do now. Nothing else I'm interviewing for would start for at least 6 or 7 months, so I guess if they offered it to me I'd ignore that strange guilty feeling that comes from god knows where and take it. So we shall see how that works out.

Actually, this particular agency totally screwed me when I applied for this very job at the end of July. It occurs to me that I never blogged the story of how. Basically, they called me up, interviewed me, then told me that, because of an HR "oversight" they never should have interviewed me at all. And the reason they were digging around and discovered the oversight was because they wanted to hire me after that interview. Nice, non? I keep meaning to write a letter to that woman's supervisor so she can be sure to have it in her personnel file for all eternity. Maybe I'll do that right after I write my Xmas cards (and no, I'm not writing those *now* - I just schedule my letter writing way ahead.)

This wretched government HR error is not to be confused with the time when the Dept of Homeland Suckurity HR people totally screwed me on a job offer back last spring. And I've since become pretty sure that they were completely incorrect in the decision that was made there, and if I had known enough to fight it, I could have been earning almost a living wage this whole entire year. I hate them so much. I did send a letter to that evil whore's supervisor. So you see, I am capable of following through on my idle letter-writing threats.

OCI + B4 = $$$

Omg! Omg! I got an OCI interview! It's unreal. I found out on Friday. I was in absolute, total shock. Me! OCI! Two words, never before seen outside of bitter rants! Well ok, I did have one as a 2L, for the Post Office, where the woman told me she thought I'd be incredibly bored. And I had two, as a 3L, that led to nothing, but that was over TWO YEARS ago.

It was for a Big Four accounting firm. I had it on Wednesday. It was 45 minutes, but it ended up not seeming particularly long. The guy didn't seem that interested in finding anything out about me, so I was freaking out afterwards.

But what did I find in my email this morning? It was an invitation for a second interview! Omg!!! I have never had a second interview! Not ever! Eeeeeeee!

I'm SO EXCITED! They pay money there! Cash money! Money I could pay my student loans with! I don't care if they want to hang me upside down in the basement of the building and bleed me dry - I would agree to anything for approximately double what I'm making now. Oh god think of the shoes I could buy - THINK OF THE SHOES!!!

Anyone know anything about second interviews? Or accounting firms? Or have shoe recommendations? Help me out people!

I Swear To God

If I go to work and they tell me I look "awful" one more time... I'm going to... do... well nothing I suppose. But it will continue to make me feel bad. It's not my fault I have extraordinarily thin skin that shows the world exactly how much sleep I'm (not) getting. Apparently, I look particularly awful on Wednesdays (my classes being held on Monday and Tuesday evenings.) They seem to think it's because I go out partying every night. I think they must think I'm ten years younger than I actually am.

Anyone know a good, thick, long-wearing concealer? Maybe one that shoots out refractive laser beams to thwart nosy, tactless colleagues?

Schmoozing For The Anti-Social

A guy from the place I most want to work came to talk to us at orientation on Tuesday for ten minutes. He left a stack of cards on a table. I took one. On Thursday, I emailed him. He wrote back immediately and said I could either come by the office sometime and he would introduce me around, or that a bunch of people from the office were going out for drinks and I could join them on Friday. I being both a current and former law student, opted for the drinks.

I got the location and went to find them last night after work (or, frankly, at 4pm, since we all work for the Feds). Unfortunately I had only seen this guy once, for ten minutes, in a stream of other people I had never seen before. And he had been wearing a suit. No one in the bar was wearing a suit.

I circled the bar. I ordered a drink. I strained my ears, listening for one-liners involving the tax code followed by hysterical laughter. Nothing. Then I spotted a government ID dangling from a girl's purse. This was not dispositive, as there were many other government employees likely to be in the area. Then, I got my break: two girls came in, spoke to the people at the table, and went to bring over some extra chairs:

"Excuse me," I said, stepping in front of one, "but do you work for the IRS?" She, nervous perhaps of inciting a bar fight, admitted that she did.

"Is one of you Joe?"

"Um, yes. Do you know Joe?"

"Well, no, but he said he would be here."

"Have you met Joe before?"

"Well, no, not really."

Her, alarmed: "Are you stalking Joe??"

But overall I think it went pretty well. I figured since none of them are in any position to affect hiring in any way, I might as well just be myself and try to get them to like me. I got the girl who thought I was a stalker to stay two hours longer than she intended to with my favorite work-related bizzaro medical story.

And Joe, which is obviously not his real name, said I could still stop by the office to meet the higher ups.

When It Rains...

I start my new job on Monday. This morning, Thursday, I got a phone call from the Dept of Labor wanting to interview me for a job I applied for months ago. On Monday. It pays more than 50% more than what I am/will be making. It has potential to pay an absolutely obscene amount of money within five years. It's conveniently located in the very same Federal building I'll be working in. And so I will be leaving my new job early on Monday for an appointment of the very vaguest description.

This afternoon, I received another phone call. Another IRS job I applied for wanted to interview me on Thursday. It's for the same level of position I'm currently/will be in. I politely declined and sent a polite follow up email when they asked me to withdraw my application in writing. Those people work just across the hall. That could have been awkward, and it also would have been pretty pointless since it's a completely lateral move with no upward potential.

Now I was very excited about the first (second? if my new job is the first) job, but since I turned down the second/third/last one, I'm afraid for my interview karma. I don't know why I'm such a superstitious freak. I suspect I can blame my Russian grandmother for a good chunk of that. But anyway, logically I know it would be a waste of everyone's time for me to go to the interview knowing there's almost know way I'd take the job and that someone else will get to go instead and they'll be thrilled. But then the stupider, stronger portion of my brain says that turning down one offer will suddenly cause all other offers to spontaneously combust.

Somebody argue some reason into me. Boyfriend doesn't understand how my crazy girl brain can even leap to these conclusions, so he's being less than useless and is tired of hearing me whine about it.

Everlasting Anxiety

I had an awful dream last night that they were going to reject my LLM application because they found out I petitioned the Academic Standards Committee to take some of my exams late while I was in law school. So I was in such a bad mood all morning. They had better hurry up and accept me.

Less than a week till I start the new job. Eek! I need to find a new hair place asap and get my roots done so I'm not like That New Girl With The Awful Dye Job, as though there will be more than one new girl. Actually I suck with names, so I'll be the one doling out stupid names, like Lady I Don't Know But I Think She Wore A Pink Shirt On The First Day And I Wish People Weren't Allowed To Change Their Clothes Or Move Around Too Much Until You've Got To Know Their Names Or They Should At Least All Wear Name Tags and they'll still be standing there looking at me like "I wonder if the new girl is maybe autistic or something because I said hi to her ten minutes ago and she's just staring at me like she's thinking really hard for no reason, but DAMN she's got fine hair."

I'm looking forward to reclaiming my Life Outside Of Work (or, you know...watching more CSI) since I won't be able to work overtime at the new job. I've been doing the ten hours a day six days a week thing for the last six months. And, mind you, STILL making less than I could have made straight out of college! Stellar! I can't wait to reclaim my weekends though.

It's Like Getting Punched In The Face, But Good

To my horror, on Tuesday my boss came to tell me I had a phone call. Phone calls, in my unit, mean you screwed something up bad and someone is calling to scream at you about it, possibly because their house, car, boat, and/or child was just repossessed. So I flipped out and begged her to take a message and refused to take hold of the handset when she thrust it at me. All the while, as it turned out, the person was not actually on hold. Thanks, Phone Clerk, for being so competent!!!

It turned out to be someone calling from another department. They wanted to interview me on Thursday. Today was Thursday. Today was 150 degrees. I got to take paid administrative time to go to my interview because it's technically part of my job (or so my manager says - and am I really going to question that?) They gave me four whole hours. Sweet!

Now I've been applying to internal postings since my 90-day moratorium was up, which generally means faxing 10 pages of forms to such romantic faraway destinations as Ogden, UT and then never hearing anything back ever. Or, sometimes, you get a little form back in the mail that says you are eligible. Eligible is one step away from qualified, and qualified means you go on the Big List that they may eventually decide to interview off of if they choose to and their funding isn't cut first. But, shockingly, these people are crazy fast and today I got offered a new job.

Surprise!

I am in ubershock. My mother says to just take it. My reasons for hesitating are super lame: (1) I have friends at my job now, (2) taking public transportation enrages me, (3) I'm going to miss out on probably a month and a half of overtime (and consequently not get laid off in September, so you would think the two things would cancel out in my brain, but no.) Also I'm always afraid of hurting my bosses' feelings when I quit, which is totally stupid and irrational and yet inevitably causes me overwhelming guilt.

So I guess I'm going to go ahead and take it. It's in a much, much more prestigious area than the one I'm in now. And I'll get to do tax law stuff, although it's still not a Real Lawyer job. Oh, and did I mention they're going to send me for a week of training in a fabulous sunny southern destination that I have never been to? Oh yeah. That too. F* being a lawyer dude, I want to be a government drone! Woohoo!

Because You All So Care

I got my LLM application in two weeks ago. One of my letter writers wrote down that my deadline was July instead of June though, so it's still not complete. So I should get an answer within two weeks of god only knows when.

In the meantime, I'm trying to decipher the financial aid rules for part-time students. I can't figure out if you can get your whole Stafford loan up to the max limit if you're taking half the courses, or if you only get half for half. It would be so much nicer if I could have all of it, so I'm going to just assume that's how it works until someone comes along and crushes my dreams.

They're telling us at work now that we'll probably be there until at least the end of September. Now I don't want to get laid off, because I can't afford it, but it would be nice if they could pick a freaking date and let us know in advance. And "probably September" doesn't count, because they could come in tomorrow and fire us all effective immediately, or we could be stuck there until November with all our things packed in a box not knowing if we'll be back the next day.

If we are still there once school starts (assuming I get accepted, because why wouldn't I, right? I'm extraordinarily lucky, as you know) it's going to be a big hassle because I want to take one class that would require me to leave half an hour early once a week. Now those of you with human, or even just "human" bosses are thinking "well gee, that sounds reasonable, who would ever deny you that, especially if you have annual leave stored up or agree to come in half an hour early that day?" Unfortunately, I work for an evil soulless bureaucracy, headed, they say, by the Devil himself, and I'm afraid doing anything week after week would constitute an Alteration To My Normal Tour Of Duty, which is a big no-no and punishable by death by firing squad. Seriously. Look it up.

In other news, I'm gonna do me some ghetto weight watchers for a few weeks and see if I can't fit my fat ass back into my cute summer dresses (that are left over from high school, back when my parents paid for everything and I could therefore afford things that one would describe as "cute" and not just "cheap" or "mommy can i give the homeless lady a quarter?" "no dear, she'll only spend it on liquor.") I'm not paying for it, since I'm poor, so I made myself a spreadsheet and decided 25 points a day sounds like a good number. We'll see how that works out. The first two hours have gone well.

Oh, and I also chopped off 12 inches of hair, which I'm supposed to donate whenever I feel ambitious enough to find a padded envelope, and dyed it bright red. I hate it. I went with a friend from work to her sketchass unlicensed ethnic salon (did not know this beforehand, obviously) and feel lucky to have escaped with any hair at all. Not amused. The dye looks cheap and the haircut they gave me has to be blow dried every morning so as not to look like leftover dead rat casserole, which is something I specifically said I could not deal with. Bastards. And this is exactly why I had 12 inches of excess accumulated hair in the first place. So I guess it's back to the drawing board in another two years.

Oh Lord Won't You Give Me A Job At Appeals

Well I don't think it went particularly well. But, clearly, when you think an interview/test/first date has gone well, it actually means you're a miserable failure (not that the event it self was, mind you - you know you're the big loser.) I don't know if the opposite is true though.

It sounded to me like they were looking to hire the least lawyerly lawyer possible. They want someone who won't write 60 pages when will do and who can take orders from a non-JD without getting some kind of superiority complex. They also kept saying they knew I could do the job but that they're looking for the right personality fit.

That's my downfall I think. If they want to see people's personalities, they should take us out drinking or camping in the woods or make us express ourselves through the wonders of collage. The one thing I'm not in an interview is myself. But could they really, possibly imagine that I would sit at work shaking and sweating with a twitching eye all day every day? And didn't the guy down the hall with the twitching eye who collects his own hair and fingernail clippings in jars on the shelf at the back of his office come off as a real charmer when he had his interview 27 years ago? You bet he did, and that's why they're so nervous about hiring people now.

Third Time's A Charm, Right?

I've got an interview with the state Department of Revenue this Thursday. They called this morning and I didn't call them back immediately because I didn't even realize who was calling me. I've been applying to a ton of random non-lawyer stuff, and I had applied to two jobs at DOR that are similar to what I'm doing at the IRS, so I thought it was for that. I was totally freaking out when I realized who it was and what it was for (and how much more it would pay - almost $20k - yeesh!)

So if anyone is still out there, cross your fingers for me next Thursday at 4.

I've Got Nothing

Things have been pretty busy up at Ye Olde IRS, as you might expect. I got certified to work by myself last Friday, which means I can work overtime now - sweet, sweet overtime, where I net more than double my normal hourly rate. I've been home sick for the last two days, but I'm pretty sure I can still work overtime, because it kicks in if you work more than 8 hours in one day. Awesome.

I also got a commemorative pin for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence or something like that for having lots of perfect reviews. I get to wear it on my id badge neck strap and make everyone else jealous. I thought I had skin cancer or some kind of hideous fungus or something for a week last week until I realized that it was just the neck strap wearing away my skin. I bought it at my law school's bookstore too, so selling me razor sharp ribbons to wear around my neck is just one more thing they're doing to look out for me after graduation. Thanks guys!!! It was probably manufactured by unemployed law students they locked in a dungeon to make them go away. And that boosts the numbers too, since technically slavery is a form of employment.

I've been semi-productive with my job applications for the last few days. I just found something that sounds very similar to my current job, but with the state. The major difference is that it pays $11,000 more to start. Is that not completely ridiculous? I want $11,000. Think of all the shoes I could buy! Not to mention the purses. It's still not an attorney position, but I've pretty much given up on ever getting one of those.

Down With Daylight Savings

I find it severely unfair that I had to get up at 4:45am this morning. And don't tell me that it was really 5:45 just because Congress decreed it so. It was 4:45, and I was so tired I thought I might vomit all morning. I spent the morning rounding down instead of rounding up in retaliation. Oh ok, not really, but I certainly fantasized about it. I'm going to bed at 9:30. I can't wait.

I got a voicemail from the Worthless HR Bitch this afternoon confirming that they have in fact revoked their offer back down to it's crappy original form. So no, WHRB, I am not still interested, but thanks so very much for all your gracious assistance. I'll just assume that blogging my answer is sufficient to inform them that I'm declining until I hear otherwise.

Their stupid crappy job does pay like $3000 more a year, but I think it's more worth it to stay at the IRS since if I ever were to get a law job, by some miracle, I would want to do tax law. I found a listing for a more interesting IRS job this morning too, so maybe that will turn into something.

My poor, innocent tv is trapped in the attic, which we can't get to because we're having the second floor floors finished this week. We gave serious consideration to setting up a ladder so we could climb through the third story windows to watch tv, but since we're in the suburbs now I was afraid the neighbors might call the cops or organize a petition against us or whatever angry suburban people do when they're not watching tv. We're listening to some cheerful thing about suicide on NPR right now. I miss my tv.