Hawai'i Bound

It's been a long, long few weeks here in Alaska. Temperatures are fluctuating between single digits and mid-30s, but are steadily getting a little warmer every day. We now have about 12 hours of daylight and there are massive puddles of melted snow in parking lots and roads. These are signs of good things (summer) and bad things (standing water, flooding, icy pavement until June).

Clerkship life continues on. I've been very busy and just as frustrated as ever. Highlights from the last few weeks include being told my memo was "useless" and then instructed not to find that comment "unflattering." Um, OK. This week the boss man is out of town so it's just me and the secretary who hates me and leaves me to watch the office alone all the time. Yesterday she scolded me for not sufficiently completing her job duties when she takes afternoons off (meaning literally every day the boss man is out of the office). About 20 minutes later I forwarded her an email from the boss man re: a calendering matter. She then burst into my office and yelled at me, asking why I sent her an email instead of speaking with her in person. I explained that the email contained all of the information and I thought she'd appreciate seeing exactly what our instructions are. Am I crazy for using a tool like email to increase office efficiency?

Whatever. These people have deeper problems than I can wrap my head around...

All this work business is keeping me from tending to my new obsession with apartmenttherapy.com. This is probably a good thing because I'm going out of town on Saturday. At this point I'm already leaving a few project halfway finished. The last thing I need is more inspiration leading to me to start new ones only to leave more rooms in my house halfway decorated while I'm on vacation.

Speaking of vacation: Some weeks ago I was having daily pity parties after work, sometimes complete with tears. The wanderlust side of me needed to get out of town and the abused law clerk side of me needed a break from seeing my co-workers. Leigh has no time off, so she ordered me to book a trip somewhere. First I tried Europe, but the airlines wouldn't let me use my air miles for the dates I wanted. Then I thought I'd hike to Machu Picchu in Peru, but again the airlines had no space for poor little me. So Leigh says, "just go to Hawai'i. It's exotic, the food is good, and it's relaxing." So I used my air miles, reserved a car, and paid for a campsite. The grand total was $250 for a week in paradise. Not too shabby. I fly out Saturday afternoon and return on Thursday April 5. Hopefully this is exactly the break I need.... but I am really going to miss Leigh while I'm gone....