New Job. New Outlook on Business.

Hello all. I know it’s been a while since I blogged. I finished studying, testing, and have officially started my new job. Many of you have already had the pleasure of hearing all about my prior experience at the firm before this new place. I would like to take the time to make a simple five point comparison which only does my new position moderate justice in explaining the fabulousness that working hard and steady brings.

1. For the last two weeks I have walked into work around 7:30am only to be absolutely shocked that the Bossman and much of management is already here. Additionally, imagine my amazement to find that when I left between five and six they were STILL here in the office. This is certainly in sharp contrast to the “It’s 10:30am on a Tuesday, do you know where your boss is?” motto that my Protégé and I coined.

2. The second day here the Bossman told me he would want to talk to me Thursday regarding administration stuff. I assumed this was simply a passing comment, not an indication of the behavior he would actually exhibit on said Thursday. Picture my face when, you guessed it, he followed up his verbal undertaking that Thursday morning without any prompting from me. Definitely a change from the previous experience of having to keep track of my boss’s personal and professional “things to do” and then remind him to talk to me about admin issues.

3. I have not heard a single person fight with their girlfriend, wife, relative or friend on the phone once. This is amazing since I’m in a cubicle with a room full of at least 15 voices I can hear. I think we all know where I was going with this.

4. I heard the Bossman tell a client the entire truth about a service and then recommend that the client not use our services because it would not be cost effective. I know. It was amazing to see that lying to get clients is not something promoted here. So I guess I won’t be told to lie about my religion or what Church I attend?

5. Finally, in a serious conversation about the financial community and various individuals (which was done with the door closed and with discretion- whole other story really) the Bossman indicated that to him “integrity” is an integral part of success. I still can’t bring myself to believe that this statement was made in a place of business. I almost had to look up the very definition of integrity I had forgotten it for so long. I guess that means I should not plan on lying, cheating, stealing, or getting rich off the backs of others then?

Thank god for the new job and the team here. I will keep you all up to date on the new career.

Weekend Update

Morning all. Had a great weekend. Hung out with the usual suspects at Cdizz and my co-sponsored BBQ. We did have one interesting guest....which leads me to today's topic. Women and the men they want to "fix".

All women have been victim's of their "fix it" mentality at one point or another. It's usually when we are young and inexperienced. You know, the age when we still innocently believe that everyone has abilities and gifts and if we can just find them and bring them out, anyone can be a successful human being. Well this weekend I realized, in a sad turn of events, I've outgrown this wishful mentality. I now realize some people are just trainwrecks at life. It might be one too many Ayn Rand readings, but individuals are who they want to be and no wishing for them to be otherwise can make that happen.

So I've made friends with one of these life trainwrecks. I'll call him BED. This is in reference to a rather ridiculous tattoo he has. Ladies we know the type; very attractive and has that "bad boy" thing going for him. Anyway, in the hilarity that ensued this weekend, I learned wayyy too much about this fellow. He proved to be entirely predictable in a realistic way. In the past I probably would have been totally sucked in by his "charm" (and by charm I mean good looks only). However, I found myself viewing him as a sort of ...lost puppy or more like an animal at the zoo you go and observe. He managed to tell me his sad (and rather uneventful) life story complete with his various addictions (alcohol, gambling, sex) and his latest attempts at "not being a scumbag" (his direct quote). I almost felt condescending in the very way I looked at him while he overshared this ridiculousness. Satan's theory is that he was attempting to appeal to my "fix it" side. As Satan so cleverly described it...I bombed that idea for him.

Anyway, I guess my realization is that I've learned and fully accepted society will have its winners and losers. It makes things a lot easier, and now I can just appreciate the view without having to deal with a daily trainwreck.

Thatcherism at its finest

"The root of the matter is this: we have been ruled by men who live by illusions: the illusion that you can spend money you haven't earned without eventually going bankrupt or falling into the hands of your creditors; the illusion that real jobs can be conjured into existence by Government decree, like rabbits out of a hat; the illusion that there is some other way of creating wealth than hard work and satisfying your customers; the illusion that you can have freedom and enterprise without believing in free enterprise; the illusion that you can have an effective foreign policy without a strong defense force; and a peacful and orderly society without absolute respect for the law."

- Margaret Thatcher

A winter of discontent in Britain brought this great lady to the world. Will our discontent in America save us?

How much is a few hundred bucks worth to you?

Dear Former Employer,

Let me first thank you for the experience and lessons I have gathered while working for you over the last few years. Let me provide a specific list of the lessons I so cherish.

1) Lawyers should only strive to serve those who are wealthy. As you always reinforced, those who are without a summer house do not deserve the same level of representation even if their dollars are still good. Never mind your individual integrity and self worth of doing the best job you can for any client.

2) I also want to thank you for teaching me that Christianity is all about tolerance and commitment to doing the best job you can everyday. This includes, the mentality of as long as you can get yours it's okay to cheat anyone and everyone around you. Especially if they can "afford it" what is the sense of doing what is right when you might be able to score some extra goodwill or a couple bucks from bad behavior?

3) It is important to get other people to do as much work for you as possible while striving to do none for yourself.

While these have all been excellent lessons, what I most want to thank you for is living up to your standards of professionalism and courtesy by refusing to pay me for all the hours I worked my last two weeks. Additionally, it was an excellent real-life teaching moment when you relied on one of your employees to fill me in on why you thought you were entitled to do this while you ran tail between your legs from the office.

As the above lessons suggest, you probably assumed it was okay to cheat me out of a few hundred dollars because 1) I have a financial backer, and 2) you were angry about a filing issue. I'm not sure what you thought since you relied on a third party to awkwardly report your feelings to me.

While I will not be contacting the California Bar Association or the California Labor Department to report you regarding this illegal activity, I would like to say thank you so much for ending a business relationship in the most respectful and desirous manner possible. I cannot wait to start my own business someday and use your behavior as a model of how to obtain repeat business and also keep potential future business relationships happy.

I would wish you well in the future. But my guess is you do not need it since you have managed to earn no only my respect and appreciation but anyone I meet in the future regarding attorney referrals will hear about my wonderful experience.

As you would say, God Bless.

Jenny

Life update.

Since I haven't been around too much on the blog, just thought I would give a general life update from the last few days.

1) This weekend:

Pretty good. Actually, went to two very different parties. Saturday I started at my Protege's BBQ. It was really fun. I really like her and her hubby's cohorts. I plan on forever crashing her events from now on!

Following that I went to Devil'sAdvocate's housewarming party. Cdizz and I happened to be the only right wingers there. I was informed by Devil'sAdvocate beforehand that I was to be mute when politics came up. However, I was poked and irked by general stupidity and liberalism that I was forced to set the record straight. How do you keep silent when one of the attendees insists on calling money earned by military personnel "blood money"? I about died. Following that the liberals began demanding rich people work less so they don't have to pay as much in taxes. I am not kidding. They actually openly admitted they were fine with individuals not reaching their full potential all to avoid taxes; Thus, proving why socialism will stifle a society. Following that ridiculousness they then began asserting why public transportation was necessary. What really irked them was they couldn't "convince" me. The night ended with one shouting at me, as if you talk louder I will then agree. I really am fine with liberals, but I tend to throw them for a loop when I just refuse to agree with their "compassionate giving". That and when I use facts they apparently know nothing of such as basic American and 20th Century Western History.

2) This week:

So far it has been study study study. I am taking tomorrow off to head up to some hot springs. My day off is just in time too- today my brain literally turned off. I can't even understand a basic percentage. So- breaktime.

3) Ayatollah Obama:

Finally, I will leave you with this great news story. I turned on the usual Fox News at lunch and saw that apparently BO attempted to force protesters away from the usual protesting area outside the White House. Of course the White House is denying that the police's attempt to move the protesters was independent of them, but who is actually believing this story? Protesting areas in the nation's capital are used daily and are standard. Apparently the capital police aren't aware of them?

Way to pull a Chavez. Can't wait for the new financial regulations. Also, does anyone else find the Goldman Sachs timing a little bizarre?

It's a man's world, at least they still think so.

I love when I'm constantly reminded that women are not as smart or capable as men. All over the place, I see men feeling the need to assert their superiority. It is usually done by some imbecile man trying to assure himself that he is better than the poor helpless woman who clearly needs his capable help.

Today at work I experienced this common attitude. We were discussing my ability to pass a certain upcoming test. Basically, the two idiot men (who failed this test the first round) were attempting to make me feel like I would fail the first time. Apparently their personal intellect and failed experience at the test were an indication of my abilities. It was clear (and my Protege witnessed) they were thinking to themselves "How could this woman do something better and quicker than me with less work?" I think after their attempts to bring me down to where I should be (i.e. lower than them on the mental capability list) it appeared obvious I was still too confident about test. Thus, one of them continued to remind me of his abilities and my apparent lack. He went on to tell me the extreme hours I would have to work in order to move up as quickly as he did. He claimed it took him two years to get to management while the women who started with him were still in the same positions. Again, I suppose his anecdotal evidence and lack of intellect indicates my abilities as a human being to perform well at my job.

All this got me to thinking. Am I attempting to characterize men as evil who want to just "keep us down?" I remembered having a conversation a few months ago with my mother about some other interaction with an imbecile man. My mother reminded me then- "You will be bossed around by some jackass man most of your life, so get used to it." So maybe it is just the tone men in society generally have. It seems to be an ongoing theme in my life.

Let me offramp and explain where I'm coming from. I am absolutely no feminist. I have even been informed my opinions on the differences in sexes and our roles in society are "antiquated". It is true, I do not think men and women are equal in the sense of being the "same". I think we are equal in societal value. But we are not equal in abilities in many areas. I also believe strongly in gender roles, especially in relationships. That being said, I have never met a man who is mentally superior to me in any way. I have met many men who clearly think they are and want to assert their importance and cleverness by raping my ears with their ridiculous comments and observations on the obvious.

I have noticed that a lot of women have decided that men need to feel superior so they allow him to do so. In relationships I see it all the time. The woman decides to let the man dominate all things intellectual. Is this done as a means to make her life easier and not be forced to be constantly reminded of her inferiority or is it done because the role of men must be superior for a stable home life?

I guess my central question is- do we need to let men continue to think they are superior in all things intellectual? Will I have an unhappy life if I am always asserting my abilities 100% even if it means outshining a man? The truth is, I could not be with a man who is not at least my intellectual equal; I must have a man who outshines me intellectually, or at least challenges me. Perhaps that very notion is antiquated. So maybe it is not that women allow the men to feel superior intellectually, but maybe they choose men who are superior intellectually?

I'm just not sure. What I am sure of is my parents taught me that I am a whole and complete person capable of anything I set my mind to. However, others have encouraged me to play a inferior role so a man won't feel threatened and instead will feel needed. I guess I just refuse.

Weekend update and other musings.

Weekend Update: Studied. For those of you who knew my pretend studying skills all through law school and the bar exam, let me assure you- I am not pretending this time. I really did hit the books. I think Saturday I studied four hours straight in one sitting (a lifelong record). Maybe it's the new and improved Mrs. Bauer?

Today, Cdizz sent me a link to a hero's website. It pretty much made all my study complaints moot. There are men and women out there fighting and dying for our country and I'm complaining that I have to take a test so I can potentially make a nice living? Time to abort those complaints. So for now I will try.

Other ramblings I have (my brain is fried). Ever since I started my blog I've been noticing a lot of people have blogs/writings up. If you are on Stalkerbook and you have one- I've read it. I was pleasantly surprised by one I read this weekend. Nothing too deep about that except sometimes people surprise you (or impress you).

Okay that is all for now. I'm a bit wacky. I have shitshow fest 2010 to commence with Cdizz as a study break.