Happy Birthday Clownfish

He's three years old today... this hour, in fact.

I miss the pain meds. I could use them reading Bus. Ass.

I want to be just like her

So... after my initial rejection, I've gotten an on-campus interview with everyone else to whom I've applied. Only one call-back so far, but its still early in the process, at least around here.

Yesterday, I interviewed for a government job. One of those "not sure I'm interested but not sure I'm not interested so lets click and see what happens" interviews.

First impressions -- pleasant enough, dressed a little informally, Holy God she smells like cat.

After a few minutes of conversation -- ok, so you have jobs, no funding for jobs, and haven't taken on anyone locally in five years, and you don't expect that to change.

After ten minutes of conversation -- you want to know what area I'm interested in working? Where you have no jobs?

. . .

Twenty five minutes later -- to recap: you nephews wear sneakers that are too expensive, you went to law school to avoid working for your dad's small business, you hate cola, and you think this generation of law students are fools to go anywhere but Ivy league/T-14 schools even though you went to a school that no longer exists and you were pretty sure Princeton had a good law school.

Line of the day from one of my classmates:

A: How did your interview with [government agency] go?

B: Did you ever sit next to the crazy cat lady who rides the bus? I think it was her.

Keep it to yourself

Dear Fellow Members of Law Review,

Congrats, guys. You either kicked the shit out of first year exams or (like me) knocked the write-on out of the park. You deserve to be proud of yourself.

Yes, I am freaking out that we have to have a Note topic picked, like yesterday.

Yes, I am even more freaked out at the time line Law Review gave us. Seriously, its going to be damn near impossible to do all this AND have a life AND sleep AND do OCI AND go to class. One of them is going to give. I'm guessing its class, except for the damn attendance policy. Sleep, maybe, is next.

I mean really, the worst of it hasn't even come.

BUT -- and here is the point -- be sensitive to those who may have actually wanted this nightmare and didn't get it.

Bitching about it loudly before class is just a bit ... asshole-ish. Feel free to bitch *a little* if someone asks how LR is going.

Otherwise, get an anonymous blog.

The rest of the 2Ls thank you.

Sincerely,

Me

MILS #8

MILS #8 is at PT Lawmom's

Back here next week.

In other news, today is Clownfish's birthday party.

I need some liquor.

Red panda

We recently took Clownfish to the zoo. They wouldn't keep him. (*rim shot*)

Clownfish has been making up words lately. Its gotten slightly annoying because he knows the word "milk" perfectly well, for example, but wants to call it "wooga" or something equally unhelpful.

Well, back to the zoo. We had a great time and was a good boy, so we agreed to buy him some overpriced merch at the zoo gift shop. We decided on a bag of plastic zoo animals. It was the "Asian" assortment. Actually, probably made in China, so I have that bit of anxiety to add to the others that commonly plague my brain, but I digress.

So among the animals in the bag is an elephant, a tigers, a panda, and a red panda.

He looks at it and announces its a "kaw-ah-di."

I asked "karate"?

He said slowly, "ka-wah-dee," like I was some sort of idiot.

I said, "Well, you can call it a "kawaddy" if you want, but its a red panda."

"No its not! its a kah-wah-dee!"

I realize we could very easily get into a "red panda" "kawaddy" back and forth screaming match, so being the grown up *ahem*, I say "Is this one of your made up words?" He said yes, so I let it be.

Three days later, we're watching Diego, and the parrot he's saving is running from an animal that looks quite a bit like a small red panda, which Diego calls a "kawaddy."

Great, I think, my child is smarter than I am.


*Also, if anyone knows the real proper name of the South American mammal whose name sounds like "kawaddy" you could make me a hero in my household. Apparently, Googling the phonetic spellings of not-quite-three-year-olds doesn't yield good results.

EDITED TO ADD: Its a Coati
COATI PICTURE.

Things I should not say out loud

Why do you want to be a lawyer?

I definitely like being a law student. I'm not sure about being a lawyer yet. Many lawyers are assholes. I definitely don't want to be one of those. But then, many law students are assholes too, and I've managed to avoid being one of those. So we'll see.

Why do you want to work in this firm?

I don't. You're a practice interview.

Why did you leave teaching?

Because I took it home with me every day. I cried every day in my last job. Working with troubled kids exacerbated my depression. I couldn't do that anymore.

Did you always want to be a lawyer?

Ever since I saw Ally McBeal. Did you know as a lawyer you can sing in bars and defend guys who believe in unicorns? Seems like a totally awesome job!


(Ok, that last one is totally untrue. But you know how you have totally inapproriate responses in your head sometimes, and it takes a force of will to avoid saying it? This is what I avoided blurting out today.)

Rejection

Live blogging a moment here, so these feelings will probably cease to be relevant in about an hour.

Butterflyfish, (yes, they know my name at CSO)

I'm sorry to inform you that you have not been selected for an interview with White Corporate & Male LLP.

Take Care,
Mr. Sensitive, Career Services Office

My school doesn't do a lottery system or early interviews or anything that I've learned about talking to students higher in the USNWR ranking foodchain. For OCI, we submit resumes (and whatever else the firm wants) through a website and we wait to see if we're pre-selected for on-campus screening interviews. Then there are callbacks, etc.

I've gotten two acceptances so far. This is my first rejection.

Its a weird moment for me -- I've sent out resumes before for jobs -- probably hundreds over the years, when applying for teaching jobs as I moved around the country. But when I cast my net wide and got nary a nibble, there was no sting to it. Maybe I told myself they weren't rejecting me, they just didn't have any jobs available, or maybe they wanted someone with more experience. Something, anyway, that didn't make the process feel so personal.

Here, it feels a little like a mafia slaying -- get up close and stab in the heart; read the resume, and reject you personally. Its you I don't want, not merely someone like you with a similar qualification set. You -- your grades, your experience, your writing. It is all substandard in our eyes and you may be able to make a living as a lawyer, but we think you should maybe go elsewhere. Be gone!

While I am sure my resume was dropped into the shredder hundreds of times before now, I never really knew or felt it.

This stings.



Perspective. . . and I do have some:

Will I get rejected dozens of times in the process of looking for a job in the next few year? Of course.

Am I going to cry about it? Eh, to be brutally honest, maybe. Depends on the situtation. Certainly not over this one -- a firm for which I knew going in I didn't have the "numbers" and didn't have any particular burning desire to work for.

Will I eventually find some work that makes me happy? I am optimistic.

MILS #7

Click for the weekly Moms in Law School Roundup -- it is here at Reasonable Expectations.

The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis at Reasonable Expectations, at PT-LawMom, and at A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning.

Next week’s MILS Roundup will be at PT-Lawmom's.

I MADE LAW REVIEW

That is all.

With a bullet

Hasn't been a substantive post here in a while as I too have succumbed to the busyness of the end of summer. So here's what's been going on:

• Last day of summer job is Friday. A summer "by the numbers" is coming later this week or early next. Or never.
• First day of 2L is Monday.
• This sucks.
• I have not bought books yet and if any of my professors think I am reading an assignment for the first day with all I have going on this week, they're high.
• No, I haven't heard from Law Review yet. Think I should hear next week.
• I haven't heard back from any firms to whom I've submitted resumes for OCI, but then no one has yet . . . way to go [Myschool].
• We took Clownfish to a much bigger museum than our local one to see more dinosaurs. I think he would ahve liked it better if it had been less crowded, if he'd had his nap, and if we would have let him run loose to explore at his own speed. But it was ok.
• Clownfish is staying at Grandma's this week, so Bullshark and I went to the movies last night.
• Bourne Ultimatum does suffer from a distinct lack of ultimatums (hat tip Zuska and Ismael for beating me to that observation). It was a good movie but there was one part that just struck me as totally unbelievable. . . the scene with the East River. Oh, no, not a that part -- I am willing to suspend incredulity for the plot . . . I mean the fact that anything in the East River was visible at more than 6 inches.

Ok, that's about that.

Oh, its Bullshark's birthday tomorrow and I'll be at a firm event until late, so I guess he's having a disappointing end of summer too.

MILS #6

The Weekly MILS (Moms In Law School) Roundup** is the brainchild of Saramel. It is hosted on a rotating basis at the Reasonable Expectations, PT-LawMom, and A Little Fish in Law School blogs and is usually posted no later than Monday morning (the plan, of course, being a Sunday post).

Next week, back to Reasonable Expectations.

Ahem, as its 5:04 on Monday Morning, you see now why I included that little caveat. Better late than never, and I know I missed a post or two that I meant to include...

The Days of a Law School Mommy Edition:

First Day. 1L Wannabe

Due day? Pshaw. Lag liv

Suriviving the first law school exam day. Pt-Lawmom

The day you put up gates if you haven't already. Magic Cookie

The days you can still wear your little black dress are numbered. Peanut Butter Burrito

The day your daughters got high. Diary of a Law School Mom.

Shopping day, the MILS way. Reasonable Expectations.

I want presents and there is no need for a special day. Proto Attorney

Bad hair day. Merits of the Case


If you’d like to have your blog added to the MILS blogroll for weekly review or would like us to consider a specific post, drop the hostess(es) an email or leave a comment at their respective sites.
**Hat tip to the “original” Roundup — Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground and Divine Angst

The WWII Theory of Parenting

A lawyer at my Summerjob proceeded to share his thoughts on parenting.

Apparently, he views his two-year-old as Hitler and thinks his wife is Chamberlain . . . she's too willing to appease. He wants to tell his wife: Dammit, you have to stop giving into him. Poland is not inconsequential, its just the first step. Next thing you know he'll be marching into downtown Paris and then where are we gonna be?

I asked him where he saw himself in this picture . . . he at varying points compared himself to Churchill and Stalingrad.

This seemed a lot more insightful at a cocktail party last night . . . in the sober light of day typed on the blog . . . not so much.

Especially if your two year old isn't committing genocide.

MILS #5

Click here for the weekly Moms in Law School Roundup -- it is at PT Lawmom's place.

The Weekly Moms In Law School (MILS) Roundup is hosted on a rotating basis at Reasonable Expectations, at PT-LawMom, and at A Little Fish in Law School and is usually posted no later than Monday morning.

Next week’s MILS Roundup will be here.

Reactionary

Parolee kills in a quiet neighborhood. Its time to overhaul the parole system.

A bridge collapses in the Mississippi. Its time to overhaul the bridge review system or whatever. And lets throw some money at that problem.

Planes fly into the World Trade Center. Guess we'd better overhaul the intelligence agencies and create a new one to make sure the other ones are playing nice.

Anyone else feel like we do a really good job locking the barn after the horses have escaped?