When you receive $8 in "CVS Extrabucks" you have shopped at CVS too much. I have to go back to buying Trader Joe's brand Rice Krispies, or as my roommate calls it, "poverty cereal." It's so cheap!
As the title indicates, I have basically just been sick this past week. It really sucks. Some day I will return to being a normal person with a normal immune system. But it isn't going to be this week. Today I am feeling a lot better, but that's little reassurance after feeling like crap for six days. I had to call in sick to my internship on Thursday and Friday. That looks really good in the second week.
Last week (the first week) at my internship was pretty good. With one notable exception. So things were going well Thursday and Friday morning. I had research to do, I started writing a memo, and I was generally diving into things. Then on Friday, at 10:30, an attorney from the office stopped by my office to chat. I know the time exactly because there was a time stamp on a message I was waiting to read. I thought it would be a getting to know you chat. Establishing a relationship, ya know, the good kind of chat. And it started out at way. Sort of. The attorney started out by complaining a little bit how some people are a little lazy and lax with their time. They put in the necessary hours and go home, but they don't have a fire to get their work done. Alright, I agree. The conversation moved on. I learned about his life, his law school, his jobs, his problems with the D.C. DMV, his opinions on former co-workers, and so on. I just responded and every once in a while got to say something that wasn't about him. I don't mind that attorneys like to talk about themselves. I mind when they talk about themselves for three hours. That's right, three hours. Three. I was looking at the clock. Around noon (one and a half hours into our "chat") I started getting hungry for lunch. My stomach started rumbling. It's my first week, so I can't exactly excuse myself for lunch. But I started sending him brain waves saying "Leave my office please." That didn't work. I must have sparked his interest with one of my witty, incisive comments (most of what I said was "Oh really?" "Uh huh" and "I see") because he talked for another hour and a half. Three hours of listening to him talk. Remember how the conversation began with him complaining about how some people aren't diligent about doing their work. Ironic, isn't it. Dude, you are an attorney. How do you have THREE HOURS to talk to me? I have work to do; I have a memo to write, and I don't have three hours to listen to your memoirs. What is going on here??? (<-- Three question marks. One for each hour I listened to him.) I was worried that my supervisor would think I was slacking off because every time he walked by my office all he saw was me talking to this guy! Go do some work! Finally, at 1:30 the attorney realized he had detained me for long enough and moved on. I scrambled to the kitchen to heat up my lunch. The rest of the day I rushed to get my memo out. Because from 10:30 to 1:30, I was not allowed to do work.
Also, the attorney said a lot of things I did not agree with. I spoke up about a lot of them, but he never responded well to me and generally pivoted around to ignore what I was saying. So that he could talk about himself some more. For example, hearing I was from Massachusetts, he was incredulous as to how we could elect Ted Kennedy so many times and essentially called him a bad politician. I responded that he was always popular in Massachusetts - he brought home the bacon, he reflected many people's beliefs, he was an institution, and he had the money and connections to keep getting elected. So the attorney pivots to Chappaquiddick. Real original, and has nothing to do with being a good or bad politician. When I pointed out that tons of politicians get reelected after major scandals (not that I'm a Chappaquiddick apologist), he just changed the subject. So after bashing Ted Kennedy without good reason, he just moves on to monopolize my time. Not great.
While I didn't enjoy it, that was easily the most amusing three hour period of my life in the past couple of weeks. Aside from that, it has been sickness, writing my moot court brief, and more sickness. Up for the rest of the weekend: writing my moot court brief and fending off sickness.
I hope everyone is doing well. Doing better than my health. It's in the 50's finally. Fall is here!
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