TGIF

Well, I'm pretty much losing my mind. I apologize for the lack of updates, though I'm not sure I'm apologizing to anyone other than Ashley (and maybe Tara).

This week has just been absolutely insane. Work has been ridiculously stressful, both in general and personally. We have a ton going on, so we've all been here very late, and I just haven't been able to do the greatest job. So, there have been very mature episodes, featuring me crying in front of my boss. They will totally remember that for bonus time. I'm such a grownup.

On top of that, my bridal shower is this weekend! I'm really excited to see everyone who is coming in for it, and I'm excited for the party. It's going to be a great time. Of course, nothing is ever simple with my family, and there have been endless conversations about planes, trains, an automobiles, all of which have also left me in tears multiple times. I never used to be such a baby! But, it looks like everyone is taken care of now. I'm not even supposed to be involved in any of this, and my family and bridesmaids have done a fairly good job of keeping me out of it, but, as they say, shit rolls downhill. So, I don't know about any of the good stuff -- all of that is a surprise -- but I do know who is on what train and when, and how they feel about it. Awesome.

Also this weekend is my BACHELORETTE PARTY. Wooot woot! I'm just really excited to have a girls' night out. It's been forever. We've all been so busy with work, and now that I live a little bit out of the city it's more difficult, and I just don't have the time, energy, or money to go out big like I used to. I'm really looking forward to it. Fiance is staying in a safe place Saturday night -- with our priest! (sweetie, if you're reading this, don't forget to call him and confirm :) )

I'm taking a half day today because my friends are already on their way in for the festivities. We are going to do a little mani-pedi and shoe shopping, hopefully have dinner out tonight, and then we'll see.

I should have a much more fun update on Monday :)

It's the 24th!

..... I just realized my wedding is in exactly two months. Holy crap.

Monday already?

I know you're all dying for the weekend recap, so I won't keep you waiting. But first, who wants to know what happened with Partner confronted Admin about her mistakes? You'll recall that I asked her to make corrections to a letter, and that she would not let me show her, telling me that she can read, etc etc, and I left it on her desk and walked away. Well, Partner did talk to her the next day, showed her the mistakes she'd made, and said maybe next time she should let me walk her through the corrections. Her excuse for the mistakes? "I was already so aggravated by what had happened, that I just wasn't focused on the letter when I was doing it." This girl should run for office.

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Weekend Recap

Friday we finished up work and I met Tara on the bus, sort of (fiance had worked from home and was meeting us at church). I sat all the way in the front of the bus so I could pass Tara my metro card when she boarded, and so she could sit next me. Well, some lady who got on at the same stop as Tara, but slightly before her, plopped herself down next to me and did not offer to move, even when she saw me pass Tara the card. So, Tara and I chatted on blackberry messenger while this opinionated, obnoxious woman prattled on for the entire hour-long bus ride, telling the driver her thoughts on everything from her national merit scholar niece to the best vacuum for your money to why slate floors are the best in bathrooms. It was surreal.

Finally, we got off at the stop near church (and I remembered my purse!), and we headed over. Had a lovely evening over there, and then I went home and crashed. I woke up on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. I can't even remember the last time I slept past 8. It felt good, and it seemed to help me avoid the cold that has been threatening me for the last couple of weeks.

The rest of Saturday was nice. We drove to Jersey City (Fiance did end up driving me since I felt like crap), and I tried on bridesmaid dresses with my friend and a few of her other bridesmaids. I think I selected a nice dress (we each get to choose our own). It will be this, but all black:

I'm pretty sure I found a picture of it in black, below, but I'm not positive.

I'm pretty pleased with it. Of course, I'll be an old married hag by the time that wedding comes (well, it's only 4 months after my own) ...

Saturday night we went to church (noticing a pattern?), and then went to a great little Greek restaurant in Bay Ridge called Elia. Excellent. We went with Tara and another friend. We all shared a fried calamari appetizer which was perfectly done, and then I had a shellfish dish baked in a clay pot. Delicious. It's a great little place. After dinner, we went home, and Tara and Fiance played some Wii while I snuggled on the couch.

Sunday was a busy busy day. The parish council had to set up the coffee hour because our custodian was out, celebrating his own Easter. So, we missed most of Matins and the first fifteen minutes of Liturgy, cutting bread, arranging olives and everything else, putting out everything ... and then we get downstairs after Liturgy and there is ten times as much food, uncut, in tinfoil pans, out downstairs. There was a 40-day memorial for someone, and the family brought enough food to feed a small army. Greaaat. They are supposed to tell people when they are going to do that! So, on top of the fact that everyone was running around buying food and missing church to prepare, we had about ten times as much cleanup to do. Oh well. It was good food anyway.

After church Fiance and our friend went home and warmed up the Wii, and Tara stayed with me at church to help clean up. Thanks, Tara! Finally we were able to join the boys at home, and we played a ton of Wii. I schooled everyone in bowling, scoring a personal best of 209. Then I got my butt kicked in tennis and boxing. Well, first I beat Fiance to a bloody pulp in boxing, and then I got my ass handed to me by our friend. Ouch. Today I feel like I've done about a thousand pushups.

I managed to get four loads of laundry done yesterday while we were all playing and hanging out, and I made some pretty fantastic imjadra. It was nice to have company for dinner -- I am just so in love with the dining table.

Fiance and I went for a nice walk around the neighborhood last night, and got to bed early. I had big plans to wake up at 6 and make oatmeal, but I didn't manage to get out of bed until 7:15. Oops. Oh well. Here we are on another Monday ... which brings me to one of my biggest pet peeves, lately:

They just changed the elevator system in my office building. I work on the 15th floor. The building is served by two separate elevator banks. The one I take serves floors 14 through 32. We each have a special key card that we need to use in order to access our floor. You have to wait for the elevator to come, and then when you get on, you have to fight everyone else to make sure that you can wave your keycard in front of a censor, and then push your floor. Since the 15th floor comes very quickly, I have to make sure that I have my floor pushed before the elevator starts moving, or I could miss my floor. If anyone else tries to wave theirs at the same time, you cancel each other out. It's the most asinine system ever, and it gives me endless anxiety.

That's about it for now.

It's Official!

My mom is on her way to the post office with our wedding invitations as we speak. Fiance likes to make fun of me, because every time we've checked off another item on our to-do list, I say "It's really official now! We're really getting married!" But REALLY -- this is OFFICIAL. {:-D

I was very sad to leave my wedding band at home today, but fair is fair, I guess. It is wonderful to have my engagement ring back on my finger, though, and I can enjoy looking at it on its own for the next two months, until it has to share company with my band.

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In other news, who remembers the saga of the irreverent admin? Here's a little update. Things had been going fairly well. I'd actually talked to my priest about how out-of-control angry the situation was making me, and I had resolved to just try to think nice things about her every time she did something that would aggravate me. Well, before I'd even had a chance to implement that new policy, she actually started acting a little nicer to me. Apparently, though, her change of attitude was short-lived.

For the last several weeks, the securities partner and I have been working with the Department of Banking of a certain state, because one of our clients, a broker-dealer, is facing some securities violations there. The potential penalties are severe -- their registration could be revoked, and they could be fined enough money to put them out of business. Not a good situation. So, I've been researching like crazy, to find examples of more severe violations with lesser penalties imposed. Partner has been working on a letter, which is pretty much our last chance to show them why they should settle for less of a fine. On Wednesday night I stayed late, creating squibs of these example cases so that Partner could slug them into the letter. Last night, he finished drafting it all. He told Admin to pull up the file on her computer and to format the letter for letterhead. He told me to print out a hard copy and make any necessary edits (it's kind of my thing).

So, I printed out the letter (about eight pages), and I did some fine tuning. There was one type-o ("gain" instead of "again,") but most of my changes were stylistic: word choice ("incidence" was used where "incident" belonged), punctuation, capitalization, etc. I brought my changes to Partner, and he OK'd them. I walked over to Admin's desk, and she was talking to my friend, Associate. She didn't see me, and was telling him that she was waiting for me (well excuse the crap out of me for doing a thorough job!). So, I said, "you're not waiting anymore -- here I am!" in a really cheerful tone. I walked closer to her desk with the letter in my hand, and I began to show her the changes. She tried to take it out of my hand, and said "Just give it to me, I don't need you to go through every little thing." I said, "I would like to go through it all with you so we are clear." She said, "This is going to take too long -- I guarantee I can do it faster myself" (I wasn't aware that speed -- not accuracy -- was the goal). I said, "Partner always goes through his edits with me, and I'm doing the same with you." I swear, my tone was calm but firm, and not belittling or rude or anything else. Her tone was something else entirely. Well, she says, "[Miranda], I can read, I don't need you to go through this! Just give it to me!" So I said "Fine." and I dropped it on her desk / keyboard, and I walked away. I circled back around the other side of the firm and I went into Associate's office, because he had heard the first half of the interaction. He said "Wow, I didn't know she spoke to you like THAT!" Yup.

So, I decided I would go right into Partner's office while I was still mad. I went in and shut the door, and told him that I'd just had a moment with Admin that I was sure he was going to hear about, and that I wanted him to hear it from me first. I related it to him exactly as I've just posted here, and he took me at my word. He asked if maybe she was busy, because he'd given her some other stuff. I told him she's like this with me 100% of the time, and that I had spoken to Admin Coordinator about it, but that I hadn't wanted to bother him. He apologized for her behavior, which I said wasn't necessary, and he said he would speak with her. I told him I didn't care if he spoke with her or not -- she's his employee, his business -- but that I just wanted him to know the truth about what happened in case she spoke to him.

So, for the next couple of hours, I was working on something else. When I was finished with everything and was about to leave (at 9pm), I asked him if that letter had gone out. He said "Yes, Admin printed it, I signed it, and she scanned it and emailed it to the Dept of Banking." I asked if he'd checked it before he signed it, and he said he hadn't. We pulled out the copy of what was sent ... SHE MISSED HALF OF MY CORRECTIONS.

Thankfully, she changed "gain" to "again," but she left "incidence," and she left "Dollar" capitalized several times. Partner is NOT happy with her. He told me that she had, in fact, come in to speak with him after I had, and told the exact same story, except in her version, she was right to tell me that she didn't need to be hand-held, that she'd been doing this for 13 years, etc (Oh, excuse me, but I was in college and law school during that time, which, once again, makes me more qualified to give you direction). She told him that I threw the paper at her and it hit her in the arm ( 1-- I dropped it; I did not throw it. 2 -- It's a piece of paper). She told him that I was rude to him, and he said he found that hard to believe, as I am always very respectful of everyone. She said, "Not to the staff," which is complete and total poppycock.

I have been treated like "the help" before, like I was beneath contempt, like I was a peon (the two most memorable instances are working as a hostest and working as the caretaker of a house that belonged to cranky old stamp collectors ... but that's a whole other cabin time, as they say). The point is, I would never treat anyone that way, first of all because it's wrong, and I don't think I'm better than anyone else, and second, because I've been treated that way and I know how demeaning and hurtful it is. It is just not in my nature at all, and it's not how I was raised. Implications that I act superior and rudely like that really hit home -- it's personally offensive, and it's also professionally dangerous. Nobody wants to hire attorneys who are rude to the staff.

Thankfully, Partner didn't believe her for a second. And, he promised he's going to point out the errors she missed in this document. When he gets back from lunch, I'll follow up with him and make sure that happened. Based on the way she was bouncing around the office this morning, she clearly believes last night was a win in her column. Not so.

********

I am very much looking forward to the weekend, as you might imagine. It's not Easter for us yet (about another month), but it should be a good weekend. On Saturday I'm going to Jersey City to help one of my bridesmaids and best friends pick out the bridesmaid dresses for her own wedding, which I am also going to be in. If I am feeling brave and the weather is clear, I might just drive myself. Otherwise my gallant knight has agreed to drive me and then go wait in a Starbucks for a while. And people say romance is dead!

That's all, folks!

I'm Jactitating

Don't worry, it's not gross. It's not even illegal anymore.

But, if you're interested, here's the evidence:

Not the best photo, as I took it with my blackberry, but you get the idea!

The Eagle has Landed

My rings are here! It's so nice to have my engagement ring back -- I missed it like crazy. Plus they cleaned and polished it, so it's as shiny as the day fiance proposed (down on one knee, in the Yorkville Diner, after cheeseburgers and beer).


My wedding band is absolutely perfect. It looks roughly like this, though that's not where I bought it. It fits together so nicely with my engagement ring (but fiance says I'm not allowed to wear them together until after the wedding ... he's such a stickler!). For now, I have the wedding band on my right hand and my engagement ring back where it belongs, on my left. When I get home, I'll put it someplace safe.

My engagement ring, in case you've never seen it, looks like this:

Rainy Hump Day

Sorry no post yesterday -- I just wasn't feeling it. Work was typical, but we did go out for nice casual dinner at Circles last night, always a treat.

Work today is business as usual, as usual. I did hear that my engagement ring and wedding band are officially in the mail -- hopefully they'll get here super fast!

I continue to be turned off by Obama's rhetoric. If we are to believe what he says, then he's either very naive or he agrees with Wright. Either way, I'm not interested in seeing him as President.

Wedding stuff is getting very annoying and stressful. We're down to the nitty-gritty details now and they just make me want to bury my head in the sand. Every time anyone tries to talk to me about logistics and timing for the "day of," I just feel my heart racing and my face get hot. It's too much.

Sorry this is such a Debbie Downer post -- I blame the weather. I'll post again if something cool happens today :)