Commute

The worst part about this economy has been being forced to apply for and contemplate accepting jobs with an unreasonable commute. Admittedly, I think that anything over a 20 minute drive is an unreasonable commute, whereas I know plenty of people who commute for an hour and a half and think that it’s just fine.

The amazing thing about this job has been how much my mood has shifted. I think to myself, "nobody can possibly feel this happy and this good all the time." I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. But so far, it hasn’t, and I think the fact that instead of getting into my car and driving 25-30 minutes, I leave my house, get on my bike or set out on foot, and I’m at work 5-15 minutes later, chock full of vitamin D and happy endorphins. I read an article yesterday at the gym that talked about exercise and mood, and it explained to me that the 30 minutes of exercise I get from walking to/from work are enough to provide a subtle mood boost for the rest of the week.

I read this article on Lifehacker this morning about all the terrible things that driving does to you, and inwardly, I gloated to myself about how awesome my life is, but I also groaned a little bit – because the day may come when we pack up and move out of the city. That day doesn’t have to come – there are a ton of families in our neighborhood, raising young kids – but I don’t see kids older than 10. Once kids are middle school aged, parents look at the public school system, pick up, and move out. We are talking a lot now about houses and whether we should buy one, and if we do, where? But the problem is, that will mean that we risk having terrible commutes one day – we will not have the freedom to pick up and move to wherever our jobs are, which is one of the nicest things about renting.

There was also an article awhile ago I read that said that couples that commute in the same direction are happier – it makes no sense, but husband and I commute in objectively similar directions and things have been good lately, so, so far, it’s working.

I do know that one of the answers to not having a terrible commute is to not move to areas with horrible traffic issues – moving back to my hometown is not an option for us, and a big part of that is poor traffic and a decreased quality of public transit. What have your solutions been to commute woes? Does anybody have a really long driving commute and figured out a way to make it better?

A Few Notes on Professionalism

I’ve been on my own in this job for 2 months, and I strugge a lot with professionalism. I believe that I am professional when it comes to my communications with my clients. I believe that I am professional with regards to my communications with opposing counsel and with the Court. But it’s still a struggle. I strive to make notes of unprofessional behavior when either I see somebody else do it, or I realize that I did something unprofessional. Here are a few things that I have learned are unprofessional and attorneys shouldn’t do. The jury is still out on open toed shoes and/or stockings, but the following are inappropriate:

• Using LOL in emails to opposing counsel.
• Telling the Court that you are frustrated by your client and telling opposing counsel that he’s an ass.
• Not standing when you address the court.
• Standing while opposing counsel cross examines somebody.
• Getting so frustrated that the person on the stand is committing perjury that you gesticulate wildly in frustration, roll your eyes at the judge, or yell at the person and try to get in inadmissible evidence.
• Interrupting the judge.
• Interrupting opposing counsel except to object.
• Having a witness testify as to evidence that is not even remotely relevant.
• Not being sure what you are asking the court for – do you want a dismissal? Do you want a finding of contempt? Do you want the opposing party to go to jail?
• Not being sure what the legal basis for the remedy that you are seeking is.
• Not being absolutely prepared. If you are offering visitation, when, where, and how will exchanges take place?
• Showing up late. If you are going to be late to court, call the Judge’s chambers and let them know. Keep those numbers in your phone, just in case.

Anyone have anything to add?

Detours Handlebar Bag

Last Friday, I was reminded by REI that I needed to spend my member coupon, so I perused their outlet. I ordered a messenger bag to fit on the back rack of my bike, but it was slow in coming and I was beginning to think about a handlebar bag, maybe something that would be good for yoga or the farmer’s market, as well. So I was extra excited when I saw that REI had the Detours Handlebar Bag on clearance, and promptly ordered it. It came on Wednesday and I mounted it to my bike and have been able to ride both yesterday and today with it.

If you are looking for an easy way to get your stuff around town, this bag is definitely for you. It holds all my stuff for work, which is pretty much just my clutch/wallet with phone, my business card holder, my makeup bag, and my lunch. I can’t put client files or anything in it, but I don’t usually take those with me. I can fit all of my gym clothes and a spare pair of shoes. Last night, it fit everything I needed for yoga, an extra grocery bag, and five yogurts. I’m sure it will also easily fit my DLSR and I might make it its own insert.

The attachment is pretty good, but not perfect – it’s a little too big for my handlebars, and jerks around a smidgen, plus sometimes it takes a bit of jiggling to get the bag in and out – but it is light years better than any of my other solutions, including bungie cording my bag to the rack. It also has a waterproof top with a see through compartment, so if you, like me, find yourself still holding your keys after you’ve put everything else on your bike, there is an easy place to stash them.

Overall, this bag seems pretty good and I’m excited to see what else Detours offers, especially products that use the same mount – I’m picturing one on my road bike and one on my hybrid and being able to swap bags.

Phone Ettiquette

We talk a lot on the internet about email ettiquette, and while it’s important, I will forgive my clients their typos and spelling errors in their email. The phone issues really get to me though, so I’m offering the following tips for phone ettiquette and to make sure your call is taken seriously and returned.

1) Have a normal voicemail message. "Hi, you’ve reached MY NAME at MY NUMBER. Please leave a message and I’ll return your call." I don’t want to represent anybody whose message says something else, and I certainly don’t want to hire them. It is important to have your name and number in the message.

2) Have a normal ringtone. I know it’s cool, but do not have music play instead of a ringing noise when people call you. I, and every other attorney I know, find it very irritating when clients do this.

3) Do not play music during your voicemail message. I have a client who I will never ever leave a message for again, because it plays a minute of music, then the client screams the message from (1) over the music, then the music keeps playing.

4) Leave as short a voicemail greeting as possible. I hate state agencies that make me listen to a super-long voicemail message with all their offices and hours before I get to the menu of people that I’m trying to get to.

5) Leave religion out of it. Telling people to have a blessed day is probably viewed as really nice by some people, but some people find it offensive. I don’t think anybody gets offended because you didn’t tell them to have a blessed day, so maybe leave it out.

6) When leaving a message, repeat all numbers twice. All phone numbers, case numbers, client numbers, etc. Repeat them. Also repeat your name at the end of the message.

7) When answering the phone, answer with, "hello" or "this is (your name)". Unacceptable responses include, "yeah, what?" or "if you’re gonna block your number, I’m not gonna answer" or "oh hey".

Any other tips you might have?

Career Day!

Next week, I get to go to a career day. This is very exciting. I get to tell them what I do, why I decided to follow this path, and what law school and my life is like. This is great, because I absolutely love my job. Except for the email I just got from a client who is being threatened, but otherwise, best job ever.

The big question I have is this: I come from a world of pretty heavy duty privilege. Growing up, all of my friends had at least one parent who was a lawyer. I’m third-generation-doctorate, meaning not only do both my parents have doctorates, my grandparents had doctorates. I’m not sure how far back in my family you have to go to get to somebody who didn’t go to college, but on my Mom’s side, I think it’s back to the early 1800s. I’m going to go talk to a bunch of kids, half of whom may very well not finish high school.

I could care less if these kids decide to become lawyers. What I want them to decide is that they have options. I want them to decide that school is good. I want them to feel like advocating for social justice and positive change is good. I want them to understand that they can go places. However, I do not understand how to get them there. I don’t know what options are viable for them. I don’t know how to connect. I recognize that thinking of them as different from me is not necessarily the right attitue, but I know if I go in there and act like they all already plan to go to college and grad school and are deciding between law school and a Ph.D in anthropology, they either won’t listen or they will think I’m just some "college educated pencil pusher".

I also don’t want to talk these kids into a mountain of debt. There is a very real concern there. I watch my friends struggle with debt. At the same time as I feel a paternalistic need to not tell them that if they go to law school, their lives will be great, I do not want to assume that they can’t handle the debt or the world might change in ten years.

I’m thinking some kind of interactive game or hypothetical to get started and break the ice. Or just, "I’m a lawyer, what does that mean to you?" and then challenge their ideas.

Getting Faster

While we were marathon training, my friend and I discussed that we wanted to finish the marathon, but after that, we wanted to focus on our other running goal – running faster.  We’ve often dreamed of a sub-2-hour half-marathon finish, I have been hoping to run a 5k in under 27 minutes, and I really want to beat a 1:30 ten miler time.  I also dream of being able to run with my speedy husband, or my speedy sister.

I’m signed up for two more half-marathons this year, and I’m running both of them alone-ish.  My husband is running one with me (along with a few friends), but mostly, I’m not running them with any of my runner friends.  We are talking about having children eventually, and I don’t know how many more opportunities I will have to run half-marathons, especially considering the chances that I have a bad race are pretty high, since I’ve had a lot of not-great races lately.

I’ve been saying for years that I want to get faster, but I’ve never actually wanted to put in the work.  Last summer I went to local track workouts during the summer a couple of times, and I think it would be helpful to go to those again this year, but it kept being REALLY hot (like, 105 degrees), and I don’t do well in heat.  So this year, I decided to use the best tool I have for speed training at my disposal – my treadmill.

I have a love-hate relationship with my treadmill.  The treadmill was great when I didn’t belong to a gym, but I mostly would just load up last night’s daily show, walk on the treadmill for 30-40 minutes, and then call it a morning.  I hate-hate-hate-hate running on the treadmill.  It is sooooo boring.  I know I’m not the only one that complains about this.

So I rolled out of bed the week after the week after the marathon, and I started interval training.  In track workouts, we had started by simply running one track loop really fast, and then recovering for about 2 minutes, then running another loop fast, then recovering.  I decided to adopt this model, sort of, and so I ran .25 mile sprints, and then recovered for about .125 miles.  On my treadmill, this is manifested by a loop graphic that shows where I am on some imaginary “track”, so I run a full one of those, then I recover for half of one of those.  My first few training runs were done at a level 7 or 7.5 pace, with recovery walking at a level 3.5 or 4 pace.  I’ve now stepped it up to intervals at a level 8 pace, with slow jog recovery at a level 5 pace.  My regular running pace on the treadmill is between a 6 and a 6.5, to give you an idea.

I’m not sure yet what the long-term effects will be of this training – I’m hoping both my ability to breathe and to process lactic acid will improve, but I’m not sure yet.  I’m encouraged that last week I managed to run about 2 miles straight at an 8:30 pace, but my long run over the weekend had me running at more than 10-minute-miles.  I need to be doing more long runs with my super-speedy friend E., or perhaps with my watch so I can keep an eye on my pacing.  I will say, absolutely, that interval training has improved my relationship with my treadmill.  I no longer hate it.  I love it for making me push myself so hard, and the intervals make my workouts much more interesting.  I’ll be putting together a speed-running playlist soon, which I will share here (suggestions welcome).

Does anyone have any suggestions for other interval workouts I should be trying?  I think longer sprints are in my future.

Makeup Follow Up

My makeup post got some really great comments, so I ventured off to Ulta to check out what they had.  I love Ulta – not only is their staff helpful, and their rewards decent, but they stock expensive makeup and super-cheap stuff, and the staff is totally honest with you about how you could buy the cheaper brand, and they will recommend stuff based on a budget and not treat you poorly because you are eyeing the Cover Girl products.  Plus, their own Ulta line of products is consistently good, and reasonably priced.

I’ve been using the Ulta Minerals collection for awhile – I’ve gone through two of their starter kits, which include foundation, blush, a brush, and finishing powder.  I’ve started using silicone spheres instead of finishing powder recently, and I still have blush left from the last starter kit, so I just wanted foundation.  It gives really nice coverage, lasts awhile, and is reasonable-ish. ($14 for a pot of foundation.)  Which took awhile to find – apparently it’s now with all the rest of the Ulta products, instead of in the Minerals section.  The good thing was that they were having a buy-one-get-one-free sale, so I could get not only my foundation, but the nearby tinted moisturizer, which I thought might be a good alternative.  I also picked up a white eyeliner pencil, as recommended by my friend Erin, who always looks like a knockout, and then I moved to the lip products.

I was struggling to decide on a lip product, because I’m terrible with both longevity and color, so I pretty much begged the salesgirl for help.  Ulta has a line of tinted lip balm which is kind of awesome, and basically exactly what I’m looking for in a lipstick – something that my lips wear, not my teeth, and I can put it on without a mirror.  I picked the bloom shade, and then was asking about stains.  The salesgirl told me her favorite stains were the Revlon stains (which I have one of, and they are great), but that they go on pretty dark, or they get dark really easily.  So she recommended their long wear lipstick (which I like, but it gets waxy), and then she pointed me in the direction of the NYX tinted lip balm, pointing out to me that at $3 apiece, I could buy a lot more of it than any other stuff.

I’ve worn the mineral makeup two days this week, the tinted moisturizer one day, and the NYX lip balm all four days.  I stashed the moisturizer in my work purse, for days when I don’t have time to do makeup on my way out, and am keeping the foundation at home for mornings when I have an extra 2 minutes.  I’m pretty happy with the moisturizer – it’s light coverage, but it’s good enough to look polished, plus I don’t really need blush with it.  I am madly in love with the tinted lip balm.  It’s pretty neutral, but gives me that slightly more polished look.  It isn’t sticky, it doesn’t leave a mark, and it lasts surprisingly well.  I don’t have to worry at all when I put it on that I might miss my lip line or something, and it doesn’t get on my teeth.  I will definitely be stocking up on this in the future.