Hum-drum but feeling grateful

Lately life has been more or less routine.  Wake up at 6, eat breakfast at 7, get to work by 8, lunch at 12, home by 7, dinner and tv till 9, then maybe some reading or a little more work before getting ready for bed.  It gets kind of monotonous really. 

I am on a new project at work doing doc review with contract attorneys.  In BigLaw litigation law firms deal with hundreds of thousands of documents - emails and spreadsheets and analyst reports and press releases - that are created or used or looked at by a big company in the course of business.  One side asks for pretty much everything under the sun and the other side has to produce all of it.  But you don't just hand over all of your info - it all has to be reviewed first.  That's where young associates come in.  We have to look at every single document to make sure we know what is being given up and to save the client from handing over important information that they might want to hold on to and fight about later on.  The process takes FOREVER and it gets really old really fast sitting in front of a computer screen clicking through scanned document after scanned document.  So when you have a huge production like this, often times large firms will bring on contract attorneys - independent attorneys who go from firm to firm to help out with these kinds of projects.  And having these independent attorneys on board is a huge help, but it also means that I have been spending a number of hours each week at the off-site doc review location supervising and responding to the many questions that come up when looking at unfamiliar, highly technical documents dealing with chemistry and statistics and accounting information that makes my head spin. 

One of the newest contract attorneys who just started last week came up to me the first day and said that he thought we took the bar exam together.  He described just where I had sat during the exam and turns out he sat right behind me.  Kind of interesting that he remembered since I don't remember ANYTHING about that experience except the trauma and stress.  We talked about how he has struggled to find work since then what with the economy the way it is and I really felt for him.  I am so grateful that both Paul and I have good jobs.

I'm even more grateful that we both passed the bar on our first try.  Just tonight I learned that one of my friends that I went to law school with took the Utah bar for the second time and just found out that he didn't pass again.  My heart literally clenches at the thought of what he must be feeling right now.  I know that there are much worse things that can happen to a person, but not passing the bar is pretty much my worst nightmare - literally. 

Is it just me or is this post kind of a drag?  Here is something disturbing yet hilarious to lighten the mood.  I probably watched the Jammy Shuffle twenty times this weekend and cracked up every time. (Mom, don't watch - its not bad, but I'm pretty sure you won't find it hilarious like I do).