Festive, Fun, and Five O'Clock

My day was rather relaxing again. I start working for real tomorrow or maybe Thursday. I did a number of training sessions today, and I attempted to familiarize myself with a bunch of new acronyms that I'll be using on a daily basis. My new work is rather specialized. I feel like I'm learning a new language.

But I'm legit! Here's my ID that I have to swipe freakin' everywhere.

Oh, and, since there seems to be some confusion in the comments from yesterday, there has certainly been no raise whatsoever. I thought I'd been pretty clear about it, but I want to reiterate that I've traded my high-paying, high-pressure, high-hours job for a less stressful, 9-to-5ish, less lucrative gig.

I actually laughed out loud at the notion of a raise. I took a fairly high five-figure payCUT. You read it right. That is the amount of the cut. Even so, I've calculated that the reduction is not that severe in light of taxes, and it won't change our lifestyle. I know a few of you are looking at me like I'm crazy, but I assure you it's the right choice.

It may not make sense to some non-lawyers out there, but getting an in-house job is pretty close to winning the lottery. No exaggeration. My homegirl JLK can vouch for this.

Anyway, back to my second day at my new job!

I went to lunch with seven guys today. One of my new colleagues said, "How does it feel to be the only girl?" Of course, as you well know, I'm used to this and said as much.

Lunch convo included discussions of Arby's strange and oh-so-bad-for-you (but oddly delicious) "sidekickers" (potato cakes, onion petals, cheesecake poppers, etc.) and the pros and cons of Rocky IV. I think my dear blog readers are right. I won't have trouble making friends here, and I think these guys have already figured out I'm not a stupid girlie girl.

I think they also got a kick out of the fact that I ordered an Orange Bang the size of my head. What? I love Orange Bang! I drank it all afternoon!

When I came back to my office after lunch, I found this gift basket from my recruiter. I gave the two bottles of wine and the wine opener to my secretary, who seemed really happy to take them off my hands. I'm content with the other goodies in the basket.

I also told my secretary my phone smelled funny. Gross, right? I noticed it yesterday, but I thought maybe I was imagining it. Nope. Still smelled today. I can't even describe to you exactly what it's like, but all I can say is that it's nasty. Guess what my secretary gave me?

Brownie points for my new secretary! Germophobes, rejoice!

But I haven't even gotten to the "festive" part of today. At about 3:30, our courtyard looked like this.

There was even an artifical snowblower. I kid you not. I did not get my face painted, but I did score some tasty hot cider with a real cinnamon stick.

I ended my day with phone call from BPLJ. Good way to end another good day. At about 5:00 p.m. Fuck yeah.