Life and Chaos

As the wedding date approaches, I am more and more worried about my work. Primarily because I just started and I am still learning the ropes. I don't know how I am being perceived by the people. Am I doing a great job? I suppose it comes from my previous boss who was a bit on the demanding side. I still remember how much it hurt my pride when she said that perhaps she hired the wrong person. Don't get me wrong, I got back to her by telling her that she might be right.

But all that is light years away. I am now with a nice big, humongous law firm and I have a great new boss who seems as sarcastic as I am. He was even insightful enough to hire someone so overtly qualified for the job that it is not even funny. Thus, I find myself sitting for nearly four hours at work writing reports while the rest of the time is spent running myself ragged trying to figure out the system of the lawyers and various other personnel in the firm. And last Friday, the lesson during group meeting was NETWORKING. And so, he took us out to lunch with two other managers and let us get to know them. How good can you get?

I still miss my group however. I thought that I was on the way to building a really great team and I was going to be able to brag about it wherever I went. However, now, I realize just how unprepared scientists can be for the real world. We just function in a very dysfunctional way. In some ways, we reward mediocrity. We suck up to bosses though people will tell you that I never did that after grad school. At any rate, my worries now are just confined to me, myself and I.

On the homefront, things are getting to the line of the wedding. My baptismal certificates are on the way from the Philippines hopefully. I sent in my shoe so that the soles can be changed to leather. Hello dancing shoes! Actually, I was supposed to shop for Florsheim shoes for the wedding. My father always got Florsheim shoes. if it was good enough for such a picky person as him, it was going to be good enough for me. But the salesman at the shoe shop said that Florsheim was just not the same any more.

Speaking of shoe shops, I still go to this small storefront store in Berkeley run by two African-American gentlemen. And I do mean gentlemen. They are old and grizzled, but they call everyone "Sir" and "Maam". You can see that they won't take any lip from anyone. And they are proud to be shoe salesmen. Well, salesmen who happen to work on shoes. I suppose the proper term for them are cobblers.

It is great to see that in this day and age that I can still find someone who likes quality shoes and makes and mends them. For those getting on in years, go to PW Minor to see some nice shoes. Comfy and very nice.