Summer? What summer?

As usual, it seems that you turn around and a month has flown by.  Except this time it was a whole season.  Where the hell did it go?  All summer I was gleefully anticipating our vacation at the end of July, which sped by in a blur.  And now it’s frickin’ September?  By the way, someone should study why time goes by exponentially faster when you’re on vacation.  That’s some kinda weird sci-fi thing, right there. 

Now the kids are back in school and even though it’s not officially fall, there is no more summer to speak of.  This weekend is Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally the last big hurrah of the season.  But I have a feeling I won’t be doing much hurrah-ing this weekend.   The Hellion’s 4th birthday party is this weekend, and thank God I’ll have an extra day off to recuperate from surviving a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds jacked up on birthday cake and the sheer excitement of it all.  

We are also gearing up for trial in a little over a month, which means the normal level of litigation chaos has stepped up to Def-Con 3.  Actually, this summer was rather peaceful.  I dared not mention it, since I’ve totally jinxed myself by using the “Q” word before.   Of course, it never lasts and it’s suddenly a different story.  Then again, that’s life as a paralegal.  As usual, the main thorn in my side is Attorney B.  All of the sudden, it’s like, “Yeah, you know that case that I haven’t bothered to look at, or mention, or do anything about for the past 3 months?  Well, I have a list of stuff that needs to be done, um, tomorrow.”   He finally decided to pull his head out of his butt and decided to look around.  FABULOUS. 

Attorney A, the one who is less likely to give me nightmares, has been working his ass off all summer and creating a ton of depos for me to summarize.  Since I’m working with him on 2 big cases coming up for trial, one in the fall and another a couple of months later, he told Attorney B not to give me the newest case that came in because I had my hands full at the moment.  Attorney B’s response to me?  “What’s your deal?  Are you just swamped or are you behind?”  Really?  Nice of you to put me on the defensive right away.  After Attorney A (we were in his office discussing trial prep when Attorney B came in) and I explained I had a lot of stuff to do for the fall trial, Attorney B starts interrogating me on whether I’ve recruited help from any other paralegals.  Yeah, because they don’t have their own cases keeping them busy.  And honestly?  I’ve got over a month before trial.  This is not panic-and-get-everybody-involved time for me.  Yet.  Maybe I’m just optimistic, but I felt like even though I had a lot of stuff to do, I had it under control.  Silly me.

It’s not like I have been sitting around twiddling my thumbs all summer.  I’ve been slowly coming out of my burnout misery and returning to the realm of “I kinda give a shit.”   I’m sure I could have done more summarizing and less twittering.  But it’s a slow recovery, people.  I couldn’t risk going too fast and doing a complete crash and burn, could I?  Of course not. 

After Attorney B backtracked and said that his “suggestion” to get help wasn’t a knock on me, it was decided Attorney A would send an email to the other paralegals asking them to help me on some things for trial so that we were better prepared for the inevitable last minute projects that come up at trial time.  The thought of being able to avoid last minute trial prep projects makes me laugh.  Seriously.  There will never, ever, EVER be enough time for attorneys to do everything they want to do before trial.  There will always be something else they want to research, or another exhibit to make, or some last minute project they’ll come up with.  But they’re the bosses, and this is their delusion, so whatever.  

Thankfully, I didn’t get too much flack from the other paralegals.  One knew it wasn’t my idea and understood this was typical knee-jerk reactionism we’ve come to expect.  EV (Emotional Vampire) on the other hand decided to pout that the attorneys “had my back” and she didn’t get the same treatment when she had trials scheduled.  I wanted to tell her that this whole thing came about because Attorney B felt too much stuff wasn’t done until the last minute during his last trial, which was her case, but I held my tongue.   It’s just not worth going there with some people.

So I’m mourning the end of the always too short summer.  While I’m whining about it, I’ll mention the fact that my husband has worked out of town every week since June.  I have a new respect for single parents.  At least he’s home 2 or 3 days for the weekends.  I have no idea how single parents do it day in and day out without some relief in sight.  

But watch out, I’m getting my feet back under me and getting ready to kick some ass at trial prep and beyond!  Perhaps this rush was what I needed to get my mojo back.