Mah n NoJoMo in BookThree: Flight Log 2016

(1) One thing I dislike about the new Prosebox Format is that it is no longer as User Friendly to discover when I have new notes or new bookmarks. Sometimes there will be the in-page prompt but not always. I find it annoying that at certain times there will be no alerts on the page but when I check bookmarks, 10 new entries have been added.

(2) Days like today I sink into a negative thought about myself. I come to work and have no motivation to do anything. And I wonder if that is why I am here. If I am in a place that is so broken because I myself am so broken. Because I would expect in many jobs in the legal field… I would be required to actually do something within the first three hours of my day. Here I am not required to do anything for most of the day, honestly. But then I reflect on the advice I received from “Abby” who had this position for two years before she got so bloody fed up with it that she left. She encourage(d/s) me to see it all as this place and not imagine that any of it is a reflection on myself. It is sound advice. She said that she hated things when she worked here, but a change in County and now she absolutely loves her job. However, I can’t help but notice how different she and I are. She attended a well loved school in the state, received extraordinarily high marks, and is a native of this area. Thus, as soon as she got away from the dysfunction of this county… of course she was going to blossom! I attended a school out of state… which immediately chafes the Iowa Bar; I did fairly well with a 2.9 but that is average at best; and I am a “native” of the State’s Capital which is a difficult legal market for anybody. I suppose… I must continue to attempt to believe in that which I have no evidence for… to believe that, in a more functional environment, I would be a more functional attorney.

(3) SPEAKING OF how dysfunctional this goddamned place is!! So… my boss announced her retirement in September. We had finished collecting applications for her replacement in early/mid October. We had recommendations on who to hire at the end of October. Had The Board said, “The department, in conjunction with representatives of the Board, have conducted interviews and made recommendations. The position must be filled by December 16th, so we should begin to make offers.” NOPE. Board said… “We want to micromanage and personally fuck up the whole selection process!” So, despite having SOLID recommendations at the end of October; the Board wanted to start over. Annoying but with more than a month until deadline, not fatal. Except, it has certainly become fatal. The entire month of November, the Board did nothing. I find out today that the board plans on doing Interviews on December 7th. December 7th! We wanted the role filled by December 16th. In a professional world, one allows for “a month’s notice to the old job.” This county will not have a County Attorney after December 31st. AND we still haven’t heard if the Board will make the position full time or part time yet! (Of course, this is where my wife would jump in and say, You assume the Board knows how to be professional, which they have proved they do not). Interviews on the 7th! These… asshole bastard shitstain fuckheads.

(4) NoJoMo 29
What was the best present you have ever received?
My wife, when she is feeling better, is an excellent gift giver. I mention “when she is feeling better” because she has absolutely announced this year that she hasn’t the energy to be her “usual self”. Yes, this place is killing the both of us that much. But usually, Wife is awesome at gifts… not just “Oh, you got me the expensive thing on my wishlist” but a full “this isn’t on your wish list but I know you and know you’d appreciate this.” She is amazing at that. Has received massive kudos from almost all of the family for her gift giving. Except, of course, my brother’s small nuclear family. Seriously, if we shop “off list” for them it is a guarantee that we’ll never see whatever we bought them again. Be it book, article of clothing, home decoration, whatever… if it wasn’t on their list; they politely accept it and then store it or sell it.
ANYWAY… as a kid I collected all sorts of different cards. I collected baseball cards passingly, basketball cards every once in a while, Looney Toons Baseball Story Cards when I was at camp, and Comic Book Cards religiously. Particularly from 1993 through 1996. But during those runs, there was a special run where the cards combined to make posters. It took the card collecting game from “I want information and artwork on Marvel Comic Book Characters” to “I want to complete every 3x3 poster!” So, that series I collected with a profound zeal and I got close to collecting them all. Close. But I was missing somewhere between 14 and 20. One Christmas, my Wife surprises me with a Card Collectors Storage Book. She had put all of my cards into the book, and I was thankful… I thought that in itself was pretty awesome… that she would go through and order the cards by Release Number and put them all into a book. But she encouraged me to flip through it and really look closely… and she had found and purchased the cards I was missing. The collection was complete. I’d never had a complete collection of anything in my life. It was… a very cool gift!

(5) Just throwing this out there: Millennials vs. Baby Boomers