Mile End

I Might Be Going To Hell, But All My Friends Will Be There 

Back in Palo Alto, my buddies and I once went to this all-ages club on California Street--downtown Palo Alto wasn't exactly hip so you can imagine the coolness factor of an all-ages club on the street a couple of miles away from downtown Palo Alto. The inside was all blue light, day-glo and little girlies on their cell phones calling daddy. Hey look, we were bored. Anywho, in walks this pair of poser goth chicks--fishnet stockings, ankhs, eye shadow, etc.--holding hands. Now, I'm assuming that my buddy was deciding to go with the adage of "go ugly early" with his next action, but up he walks to the skinnier one and asks her to dance. And she looks at him, wrinkles her nose and says no, walking away hurredly.

So last week, Gateway Gig told me that I was, essentially, the smartest kid on the short bus. Yeah, I know I don't want a permanent position at Gateway Gig. But I'm sure my buddy didn't want to score with Clymidia Blackthorn.

Gateway Gig is one of the better firms I've worked at, but they are horrible with administrative matters. Newbie started this week, and I didn't want a sitch where I'm sitting on my ass for a week because no one had bothered to tell me they weren't going to give me work. So I talked to Named Partner to ask him directly if he still needed my services after Newbie started.

Named Partner said yes, and that he wanted me to stick around to do contract work. However, he also said that there was no way they were going to offer me a permanent position because someone always had to look over my work. Gateway Gig still retained me because I was better than most contract attorneys. Or in other words, I was the smartest kid on the short bus.

Now I don't want to be a permanent associate. But being told that my work was only just passing cheesed me off. First of all, I'm a temp, I'm not a full time associate. The firm does not pay me associate rates. So fucking aye, of course someone will have to look over my work because I'm not managing these cases. Second, I'm not the attorney who left things at the last moment so that we were forced to file a 52-page errata (legalese for we made a few mistakes--and by the by, the average errata is 3 to 4 pages), nor was I the attorney who had drafted 3 separate briefs in three separate cases quoting the wrong local rule. So yeah, I make mistakes every once in a while, but I'm not the only lawyer on the short bus.

In the meantime, I need to get my MCLE requirements done, which is easier and cheaper when your with a firm. Plus, earning some extra mulah is, like, a good thing. But the end is near, and soon I will be back to writing, working for the day in which my mind, my heart, and my wallet are content.