A Saturday in early spring means no time here on the Vermont/Quebec border for a proper post. The snow has disappeared and revealed all the dirt and sticks and dog doo and everything else that looked a lot better covered with three feet of snow. I am heading out with a rake and a shovel so just stopping by to wave the flag.
But before I forget...
Does Middle School Ever End?
I went to a Vermont Bar meeting over the last couple of days, something I haven't done in a couple of years since I no longer have an employer-provided budget for continuing legal education. (They scared up a subsidy for this one, though I was partly on my own dime).
As a result, I saw a bunch of people (i.e., lawyers) that I hadn't seen in a long time. One, I will call her "Lawyer 1" for reasons that will become apparent, sat in the office next to mine at the big firm where we both worked for a couple of years. Working there was, for both of us, like living with a spear in your back. We left around the same time for something less pointy and I hadn't seen her since. Lawyer 1 has a certain charisma and obvious charm that made it more or less certain she would find something good, which she seemed to have done. I was excited to see her and to catch up with her after our last encounter which included bemoaning the agonies of big firm law. I said we should have lunch and she seemed enthusiastic and agreed.
So anyway, I was waiting outside the banquet room for her (OK, sort of like stalking) when I spied another lawyer I hadn't seen in years. We had worked opposite each other during my stint as a prosecutor (she was a defense attorney). We'll call her Lawyer 2, although lawyer 202 might also be appropriate given her professional circumstances. I had heard some whispering about some big personal disaster that had overtaken her, something to do with a love affair gone bad. I knew she had left the office where I had known her under some kind of cloud. Anyway, I said hello to her and asked how she was. Still unemployed she said. Getting interviews but no call backs. Taking bar exams in other state. Ouch. I didn't probe. Then Lawyer 1passed by and I said, "Bye, gotta go."
We got to the banquet room, Lawyer 1 right behind me. I sat down and saw Lawyer 1 had jagged to another table. I.e., I had been ditched.
I saw Lawyer 2 wander in, alone. She sat at a table with a buffer seat on either side of her (i.e., still alone). Well, I thought I have been both the ditcher and the ditchee here. Live by the ethos of sixth grade and die by it.
A note on today's banner: also not the view from my house but isn't that a cool old picture?
4 comments:
Been in that situation before too. Never very comfortable. Did you go to sit with Lawyer no. 2? I'd have been tempted to.
The scale of the Eiffel Tower close up is amazing. For me, it was the most interesting thing about it.
As for Bar meetings and the like, I stopped going several years back. I spend my working life with lawyers. Why do I want to associate with them in my free time?
Aside: You're right about the whole middle school aspect of things. I find that the same people who tried desperately in High School to be president of the student council are the same ones pressing flesh to get elected/appointed to some office in the Bar. I couldn't understand them when I was 15; I don't understand them now.
Cheers.
When you are speaking of Middle School in relation to children - yes, it last forever but when they leave that grade level time flies by.
I find this area teems with women who have not been able to shake that 5,6,7,& 8th grade mentality, jealousy towards other women. It is due to regionalism - stale social, church and family circles - much of it enforced by the Mid Western Male Attitude (MWMA).
The Eiffel Tower has the most pick pockets and also has the soldiers walking around with automatic weapons. Life is different across the Big Pond and we Americans seem to forget that. Walking underneath and looking up into the black lace patterning the steel structure makes is indeed lovely. We skipped the 90 minute wait on accessing the tower and opted for getting away from crowds....
Mme. I didn't go to sit with her, although I probably should have. In my defense, I was herded to a table with another ditchee and we made a kind of twosome.
Hi R - Nice to have your perspective on the Eiffel Tower (I've never been) and on the gestalt of bar meetings. I was glad to have gone, but glad to get away too.
Hi Deb - I watched a few minutes of some reality TV show the other day which was based on the fun of bringing back together little segments of a high school class 20 years after graduation (i.e., some of the jocks, some of the losers, some of the zeros and a pair of Alpha Females). It was horrifying. Why, I wondered, would anyone want to do such a thing? Needless to say the Alpha girls were still at the top of the food chain since, apparently, looks are everything even 20 years after HS. They were FRIGHTFUL, of course, but since they looked good in bikinis and high heels one of the other women was actually in tears.
I would like to see the Eiffel Tower one of these days. I hadn't thought about the security issues, What a drag that all is.
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