So I'm working at a law firm in downtown Houston. The people are great, and the work is really interesting. They keep me really busy... I usually leave the house around 7:45am and don't get home from work until 7:30ish, so the days are long, but I like that SO much better than being bored at work. The more work I have, the faster I learn - right?
The other summer associates are really nice. I'm the only girl, but it doesn't really bother me (except that everyone in the office knew my name instantly, which is embarrassing when I can't remember someone's name!). Being a summer associate is actually pretty great. The firm had a cocktail party on our first day to welcome all the summer associates, and since then we've had a lot of fun events with the attorneys. We all went to a cooking class at a restaurant in Houston one night, and we've been taken out for drinks/coffee/lunch over and over again. I actually haven't bought/brought lunch since I started... we have lunch meetings a couple days a week and the rest are going out to get to know the attorneys! The paychecks are pretty nice too. The first one I got was only for one week, but it was still the biggest paycheck I've ever received. I have to admit, it feels nice to finally be financially contributing to our little family.
I have a nice office up high in a tall building with a big window that looks down over downtown Houston. Sometimes I spin around in my desk chair and look around and marvel that this is actually my life. It's kind of surreal. The office itself is really nice... there are fancy conference rooms and a bunch of Keurig and N'espresso machines and plenty of water and soda and they put out snacks every day at 5:00pm.
Jeff and I are still getting used to the schedule. It's just kind of weird with both of us working business hours. With my school schedule, I could easily come home at noon and study from home a couple days a week, and I'd use that time to do things like laundry. Now, it's hard to get more than one load of laundry done between the time I get home and the time I go to bed, so I feel like I just do laundry ALL THE TIME.
The same thing is happening with cooking dinner... I don't have time to thaw things or bake things for anything longer than 30 minutes or so anymore. By the time I get home at 7:30, we just need dinner to get done fast. The crock pot doesn't really work either because most Crock-Pot recipes are fora maximum of 8 hours on low, and I'm gone for about 12. I'm still figuring it all out. I think more simple recipes are in my future. I also feel like I spend all day cleaning every Saturday (because I don't do any of it during the week). It's definitely an adjustment.
Oh, and we were thinking about getting a dog in August, but now that I've been working for a few weeks and we've seen what our life is like with both of us working business hours, I just think it wouldn't be fair to leave a dog at home alone for so long every day during the week. So there probably won't be any cute puppy pictures on the blog any time soon.
Overall, I'm just really happy that I like the job. One of my biggest fears about law school was that I'd spend all the time and effort to get the law degree and then graduate and realize that I don't actually like being a lawyer, so it's good that I like what I'm doing at work!
So that's the update... anyone else have a summer internship or something interesting going on this summer? Anyone know how couples have dogs when both of them are working?
We have a dog, he's 2 years old now, and J and I both work but we don't have 12 HOUR DAYS! That's crazy girl. Plus neither one of us works very far from where we live so that if something were to happen and the day was going to be extra long, one of us to make it home on lunch or something.
ReplyDeleteMaybe get 2 dogs so they have entertainment?!
No help on the dog thing since we have cats, but have you looked at the programmable crockpots? You can set them to switch to warm after they're done cooking and it's a huge help. I work 8-5, but sometimes I'm gone 12 hours because of DC traffic!!
ReplyDeleteWhat about getting a timer for the crockpot to shut off after X number of hours? I know some crockpots have that as a built in function and flips to warm once the cooking time expires.
ReplyDeleteI was just about to say the same thing. They have one for like $50 (I think it is Hamilton Beach) and you can either set a stop time or set it to stop when it hits a temp so you know it is done.
ReplyDeletei'm so glad you're enjoying your job so far!! i second (or fourth i guess, ha ha!) the crock-pot warming thing. and luckily you have that fancy dryer with a timer too, so you can stick some clothes in there in the morning and have dry, non-wrinkled ones when you get home from work!
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