SF!!!!!

Chicago is...
...getting rid of me for three weeks to try and recruit me forever.

My firm overhired for the summer. We have 60 summer associates in a 200-250 lawyer firm. They didn't overhire for future associates, however. (If that makes any sense) By the time my class starts in the fall of 2009, Skadden Chicago will have moved to new offices down the street that are much bigger than our current offices. Meaning they'll have room to chain all sorts of new associates to their desks by the time we would start full-time.

In the meantime, they are hiring lots of summer associates in anticipation of that move but they don't quite have the space/work for us yet. Or at least this what I guess they're doing because the firm has decided to give us the opportunity to travel to various other foreign and domestic offices for 2-3 week stints. While originally I really wanted to go to Moscow or Brussels or Hong Kong, it turns out you can only go abroad if you are interested in transactional work. And I'm only interested in litigation. In fact the idea of transactional work sometimes makes me break out in hives.

Enter the subject line of this post. I get to go to San Francisco for three weeks in July!!!! I've never been and I'm very excited. Best of all, I've also never met the infamous Mr. San Francisco, and quite frankly, I don't believe the man has gone through enough hazing to officially become a pseudo-member of the family. I take my duties in this area very seriously, even if the rest of my family doesn't. He better watch out.

Not dead, just sold my soul to the man

Wow. Has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted? I doubt anyone even checks this blog any more!!! If you are still hanging in with me, here's the update I promised. The theme of this update is the "Love Is..." comic. So here's the first installment of what life in "Chicago is..." like.

Chicago is...
...swanky and scary all at the same time. Life as a summer associate in a big city firm is swanky - there's no other way to put it. It's like a 3 month stretch of wining and dining and I don't know how anyone could really complain. I go to 2 hour lunches for free 3-5 times a week and they host tons of nighttime events like theater trips or dinner parties or booze cruises. They gave us all blackberries that we still don't have to use for work and they pay us more than we're worth. The scary part comes at 6 o'clock every day when I have to go home. Turns out my apartment is not in the greatest area of Chicago, to put it mildly. Case in point: last week I was in a cab on the way to a firm event when my cab driver started chatting it up with me. We talked for 5 minutes or so and then he asked me where I live. When I told him, he jumped (literally) in his seat and told me in a thick Polish accent that I "give him a shock attack!" He then proceeded to laugh at me and my plight for a full five minutes. Another taxi driver told me I live on one of the most violent streets in Chicago. Greeeeat.

Chicago is...
...more social than life in the Bend all year. Because I don't like venturing out of my apartment after dark, I've taken to staying close to downtown every night until I absolutely have to come home. As a result, I'm spending much more time going out with friends than I normally do during the school year. That, and I don't have cable. Life without cable is dull - I have to make my own fun. That's not hard to do in Chicago - last time Lauren came to town for a date, I found her a kinky ATM and a fireworks show over the canal all in 15 minutes. I'm talented - what can I say?

Chicago is...
...a shoe-shopping addict's nightmare. I've developed a new obsession this summer. I blame my little sister - she was my old obsession, but she decided to up and go to Middle of Nowhere, America this summer and so I had to replace her. My new poison of choice is shoes. Currently, I'm obsessed with patent leather and 3 inch heels. My feet are a wreck because of all the bad shoes I wear, and my calves kill by the end of the day almost every day, but I can't stop. I'll wear ugly shoes all winter long in the Bend, so I'm going to wear cute heels as long as I can this summer.

And even though Chicago is...crazy busy, I promise to be better updating from now on!