Something I haven’t talked about recently, is work. I’ve always been a little closed lipped on the blog about what my day job is, but that’s mostly out of respect for our administration and clients. I’ve probably said that I work in the legal field, but I’m not sure I’ve given much more detail that that. I’ve been working from home for almost a year and since I hopped on to share a peek into my corner office, I thought I’d share a little more about my day to day life.
But, first — the office. When I first started working from home in March of last year, I assumed it would be temporary. I usually had my laptop set up on our dining table — or on my lap — or on a tiny desk I put in the sunroom to be near Polly. In the beginning, we weren’t doing much work, since the shut down happened so fast and not all of our systems functioned the same way from home — not to mention, courts were closed and my responsibilities were greatly reduced because of that. I took advantage of the extra “maternity leave” and spent as much time with Polly as I could.
Our office reopened in late June and I worked in the office exactly one week before falling apart. It’s not that I hated working in the office, but after being able to do drop off and pick up and seeing the girls so much more often, those two hours of daily commuting were a buzzkill. I submitted a written proposal requesting to work from home indefinitely and my bosses have been so kind to work with me on a much more flexible schedule. I still go into the office, as needed, but that’s not usually more than one day a week and sometimes even less frequently than that.
Once I got the go-ahead to work remotely, I knew I needed a more permanent office. Sophie’s piano was on our second floor landing, but since she wasn’t taking lessons and using it less frequently, we considered getting rid of it to make space for me there. Our home office was here my entire childhood, so it only feels right to continue pecking away at a keyboard in this spot. I know many of you are freaking out about our lack of stair railings, but I’m not kidding you when I say it’s been this way since 1987 and we’ve never had any issues with safety. We probably should install railings at some point, but I’m not sure what I want and it isn’t at the top of my list. Polly is never upstairs unattended and even the big girls aren’t allowed at my desk without permission. That blue painter’s tape on the floor is Polly’s cue to stop. Any time I’m working upstairs and she comes up to see me, she always stops and asks if she can cross the line. It’s THE CUTEST.
I ordered the desk and shelving units from Amazon and they were put together and installed in a matter of hours. My art and craft supplies had been in a closet for years and it was so nice to have it all where I could see and access it more easily. I still move around with my laptop from time to time, but I’m much more productive up here.
I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I actually pursued a fine arts degree in college. I was an art major concentrating in graphic design and traditional printmaking, with a minor in art history. It was all I ever wanted to study and my plan was to return to grad school for a teaching certificate and teach elementary or high school art. I had wonderful art teachers growing up and I just knew I would excel at that myself. It’s funny looking back, because I don’t think I’m cut out for that, but I have no regrets about my education.
Josh and I decided to get married the summer after I graduated, so my plan was to take a year off before pursuing a master’s degree. I continued to work at a Court Reporting firm during that year and my role eventually became something I enjoyed enough to continue. That first year came and went and I’m not sure Josh and I ever talked about me going back to school again. I worked there until Ella was almost a year old, before I started looking for a similar job at a law firm.
In December after her first birthday, I started my current position. For almost fourteen years, I’ve worked as a paralegal in our Birmingham office. Despite that title, I do less paralegal work and more technology and information systems for our litigators. I help to plan and prepare documents as we approach trial and used to spend a significant portion of my time at the courthouse. I can’t tell you how many trials I’ve attended and the stories I’ve heard. It’s one of the best parts of my job, but also one that diminishes year after year. Fewer cases make it to trial that when I started and coupled with a global pandemic and courthouse shutdowns, it’s been a really long time since I’ve been inside a judicial building. I’m hopeful that hiatus ends later this year.
A few weeks ago, we found out that our firm was merging with a much larger firm. We are the oldest firm in the State of Alabama and have remained relatively small, by comparison. We will now be one of thirteen offices for a much larger Regional firm. It’s a weird thing to wrap my head around — I essentially got a new job without ever going on an interview. The location and my fellow employees will largely stay the same, but my job will be evolving quite a bit. I’m still going to be working from home (at least for now), but I’ll be learning a lot of new skills and it means I’ll probably be a lot busier than I have been this last year. The next few weeks will be weird as we watch our new email address and logos and interfaces roll out, but also exciting as we continue to meet new team members and learn more about our new working environment (HELLO, CASUAL FRIDAY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!).
This is probably the first and last time I’ll talk about my job here, but it seemed appropriate given the circumstances. Just one more thing that evolved during quarantine.
