i love work!
written: 12:05 a.m. on Monday, Jul. 23, 2007

Okay, maybe not seven days, since I spent the first two days of my internship sitting in the library, reading the dictionary and then King Lear. So five days it is then, including Saturday and Sunday when I went back to the office at 10 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. and left at 2 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. respectively. I'm really surprised that there wasn't even a moment of resentment, a voice in my head asking why the hell I was there on a weekend when I'm still a bloody student.

Because, like I told another associate who's working on another case and was also back on both Saturday and Sunday, I found myself enjoying the whole thing on top of the fatigue, the headache, and the beginnings of yet another round of flu. It wasn't like I was compelled to go back on the weekend; in fact, I'm the kind of person that doesn't give a shit if my not acceding to their request for my presence in the office on the weekend would give them a bad impression of me, etc etc etc. My LA-in-charge (I just realise that referring him to MY LA kind of makes it sound like he's working for me, ha ha ha ha ha) told me that it was entirely up to me, that it was all well and good either way, and he double checked and made sure that I was comfortable with going back on Sunday. So yes, I did it because I wanted to - period.

I think I'm nuts, really. On Saturday I found myself the subject of many surprised stares when I walked past the boardroom, in which another team of lawyers were housed to prepare for something they have to do on Monday ("getting up" is the term they use; my in-charge explained it to me but I don't remember what he said exactly, ha ha). On Sunday the first associate to talk to me at the Firm walked past the library where I was, stopped at the door, and said, "You do realise it's a Sunday, right?"

I went, "Yeah, I do!"

He said, "I'm getting paid for this, and you're...well..."

He's this super nice dude. I met him in the pantry on Monday and politely inquired about his work and he brought me to his office and showed me some contractual document that he drafted and I ended up having a decent conversation with him. Another time, another associate stopped by the library where all the interns sans Kenneth (he got his own workstation and it was just outside the pantry, lucky guy) are housed and said hello to us. So, you know, everyone is really nice. I think I'm quite in love with the Firm.

But we'll see how things go. There are still options I want to explore before I commit myself to anything, and there's no commitment to be done anytime soon anyway so, yes, we'll see how things go.

Anyway, I would like to tell everyone that I had an extremely, EXTREMELY tiring and harrowing Friday. The day started off rather decently: I spent my morning reading up on change of position because I couldn't answer the LA's questions, and in the end I managed to make myself an amateur authority on the defence. It was around 12.30 p.m. when I was ready to move on to another issue.

So I was taking out the relevant cases from the big black files and I was flipping through one of them, when the LA came by where I was sitting and told me that he wanted to go through the law with me that afternoon, after lunch. I gave him my "fuck, you're KIDDING" look, and he was all, "It's fine, we'll just go through the cases. Do what you can."

I went, "Okay!" in a scared, on-brink-of-freaking-out manner. I was this close to skipping lunch but thankfully Mag came by and whizzed me off to Lau Pa Sat where I had a proper lunch. I ended up going back at around 2.05, 2.10.

I moved my things to the meeting room which we'd declared our war room because I was initially seated with the secretaries which meant phones going off every split second, and I was reading fucking Etridge which made NO SENSE. So I'd barely settled down in the meeting room where it was much quieter, when the LA popped his head in and told me that he needed me to do something for him by 5.

When I heard that I was like, "Shit. SHIT. Is it some law thing? 'Cause I totally can't do it by 5."

It turned out that he needed me to pick up something from somewhere nearby. I waited for the fella to call him back so that he could give me the details, and I attempted to use that time to understand Etridge (I failed, by the way. I SO should have paid attention in Contract, dammit). At 2.55 p.m. he came back and said that I could pick it up after 3, so I might as well leave then. So I packed my stuff, grabbed my bag, and got out of the office, but not before he told me to "fly like the wind".

Uh, okay. That really depended on the cab driver, didn't it? Anyway, so I got to the place, retrieved the thing I needed to retrieve, and cabbed back to the office. I passed the relevant stuff to the relevant people along with the relevant instructions and got back to the meeting room where, once more, I tried to understand the case.

Before I knew it, the LA came back in and told me that I had to go to the High Court to drop off another something, but they needed to prepare that something so I had to wait for a while. Okay, fine, another errand to run. That's great. I went back to Etridge, didn't understand jack, and asked Kenneth to explain it to me.

He tried explaining it to me. Twice. I kind of roughly got it the second time but...well. Anyway, three-quarters through his explanation the LA appeared from nowhere again and told me that he needed me to serve a document on the defendant's solicitors, and that I should do it after I was done at the High Court.

I was like, "Okay!" It was around 4 p.m. They needed to iron out some details before I could go on my errand, so I stood around/sat around and waited and attempted to get acquainted with the law on undue influence (I hate Contract, have I mentioned that? Fuck me inside out). A while later I decided to go pester the LA's secretary for the document, per the LA's instructions. Somehow me, him, and his secretary ended up standing around her table, waiting for the tech guy to be done with whatever it was, and the LA was hurrying his secretary for the documents he needed. It was quite funny. But anyway, when everything was in order, he handed me 50 bucks for cab (good thing he did!) and again told me to "fly like the wind". It was obviously very urgent; the letter to the defendant's solicitors had the words "very urgent" stamped on it. And since I had to go to the High Court first, it was even more of a rush.

I left the office at 4.30 p.m. I thought the High Court closed shop at 5 because, well, 9 to 5 and everything. I went downstairs and almost died when I saw the long-ass queue for the taxi, such that I hopped into one at the strictly no pick-up drop-off point, just to be greeted with the taxi's spoilt meter.

Like, fuck. I walked to Golden Shoe - too many people at taxi stand, too little taxis. 4.40 p.m. I panicked. I even walked to UOB Plaza where I tried to steal a taxi from this Caucasian man who was there before me. He had to go to the airport though and he suggested that I just walked there - which I did.

I walked all the way to the Supreme Court. I didn't just WALK; I power-walked. In heels. In a long-ass skirt that went down to the knees that made walking fast VERY difficult. I don't know how I did it, but I managed to reach the Supreme Court at 4.55 p.m.

I dropped off what I had to drop off and I discovered that they closed at 5.30 p.m.

DAMMIT!!!!!!! So should've taken a cab man.

So yeah, I was damn exhausted. By the time I got to the defendant's law firm I wanted to collapse on the nearest couch. When I went back to the office, it was around 5.30 p.m. and I had no mood to do anything. Another partner was also in the meeting room with the LA, who left for a smoke and then went off to do some stuff he had to do, so I spent the next 50 minutes talking to the partner. No more work for me that evening. Initially I thought I'd stay a bit and do whatever I could but after that long walk to the Supreme Court? No. Bloody. Way.

I almost fell asleep on my nice cushy chair at Celine's birthday dinner, which was at the Shangri-La Hotel. Food was good, company was better. To top off my long, exhausting Friday, we went to Oosh for drinks.

It was fucking bad. I should NEVER drink anything that contains wine ever again. At the end of the night I almost died. I swear, I fell asleep in the cab, ALL BY MYSELF. I was SO woozy, so out of it, it almost like I was drunk except I was aware that I was very out of it, and I didn't throw up. I couldn't even wash my contacts properly, I couldn't shower, I went to bed without showering, I don't know how I managed to brush my teeth but I did. I collapsed on my bed, my heart racing, the body asleep but the mind awake. I found myself waking up on a few occasions (was thinking about work, actually), feeling like absolute SHIT and wanting the shit feeling to go away. I was giddy, my heart was pounding like it was in a mad rush to get somewhere, I was only physically exhausted. Really, really terrible.

In addition, my dad screamed at me for the first time in a very long while. And I was so out of it that I didn't even care, I didn't even feel uneasy or nervous or whatever; all I wanted to do was to sleep.

So what did I drink that night? A glass and a half of Sangria, a shooter Pearlyn ordered called Beef 52 or whatever it was (I loved it; tasted like caramel coffee liquer) and two sips of Yun's crappy Singapore Sling. How did things get so bad? Ugh, how awful.

I'm not going to drink for a while; I'm in no hurry to revisit that awful feeling. I'm glad I didn't throw up 'cause it would just prove to my dad that I was drunk, when in fact I wasn't. (Maybe it's just me but my test for drunkenness includes puking and rambling your deepest, darkest secrets to the most random people, and not remembering anything the next day. I remember every single thing I did that night.)

So, yes, it was a pretty awful night physically. It was fun though, hanging out with everyone again.

I'm really tired. I woke up at 9.40 to go to work. I need to wake up at 6.45 a.m. later. And I totally need like triple shot espresso latte or something, just in case I fall asleep in court. Sigh.

Quite excited about trial, however. I talked to the client a couple of days ago, but am too tired to write. Maybe another time.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010