grind

Well it's been a while since my last entry, and it's my work that's to blame. The biggest case that I'm working on is scheduled to go to trial at the end of April, and the craziness has already begun. I've been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Pre-trial preparations are a long and painful, and exceedingly tedious and repetitive process. For instance, we are working to create an exhibit list. That means that every single significant document in the case that has ever been identified, discussed, referenced, hinted at, maybe even imagined in someone's mind ("I think I might have seen a memo in the 1980-1990 time frame that mentions X") needs to be located, evaluated, indexed, and the best possible copy of it needs to be obtained. At one point that list topped over 1000 items; thank goodness we have now cut that down to around 400. But believe me, there is plenty more to do. And so we're working late, coming in early, working weekends... that's what I have to look forward to for the next 2-3 months. My whole team has relocated to a common work area on the 3rd floor of my building, which could best be described as an apocalyptic mega-cubicle in an unfinished commercial-industrial workspace. HVAC ducts, network cables, and long rows of fluorescent lights hang from the ceilings and walls unconcealed and unfettered by the niceties of wall coverings or ceiling tiles. Boxes and binders line the partitions and windows of our work area. It's pretty overwhelming and intimidating. Some of my coworkers admit to having work-related nightmares involving massive quantities of documents, numbers, binders.

We do try to keep it pretty relaxed though -- if you're going to practically live at the office you might as well be comfortable. This weekend one of my coworkers brought in a little Chihuahua puppy that she is dogsitting -- his name is Benjamin Franklin. Cute little guy, he wandered around on the table poking his nose into our documents and threatening to pee on our network router.

So, it's going to be long days, late nights for a while. I do still try to get in an hour or two of online deathmatch on the PS3 every so often; it helps me unwind to blast some slimy Chimera butt before I drop into bed...