Small Reflections

Hilary Duff.

She's the everygirl - I now understand her appeal. I watched A Cinderella Story this weekend, and as schmaltzy as it is, it was a welcome bit of teen froth to make me feel good. Who, except for the most privileged of us, couldn't relate? She had no family, had to work, had no money for tuition, had to kiss some ass in order to get ahead, got shamed for being who she is, and got to give the big f-u (figuratively) to the people holding her back. It's a triumphant tale of the everygirl finally getting what she deserves - including the secretly sensitive high school quarterback. Makes you long to be in her shoes because you know everything is going to turn out all right. Where is my secretly sensitive quarterback? sigh...

What's Wrong with This Picture?

My brother. 33. Physically fine except one thing - he can't control the right side of his body very well. It is disconcerting to see an otherwise perfectly healthy man walk with a limp that didn't come from an external injury. I picked him up this weekend in DC and we drove down to my sister's place for the holiday. It was nice to have all of us together in one place for a little while. During that time, it pained me to watch him walk, especially up and down the stairs. God, a little piece of me screams inside to see him lean against the wall to maintain his balance going down the stairs. I believe what he has is some form of neuropathy - a degenerative disease noted by disturbances of the nervous system. I don't know how much therapy can help that - he can't wiggle his toes, and has no fine motor control over the right side of his body. He can barely squeeze your hand with his right hand. The tumor and the treatments over the last 16 years have destroyed the fibers that would give him that control. The brain can supposedly rewire itself - please, God, please let your wonderful creation do it for him here. It still boggles my mind how the government doesn't think he's disabled. Guess they are using fuzzy logic. Assholes.

Speaking of Assholes...

My boss almost had a conniption last week when he saw the billable hours for this month in the toilet. May has generally been dead, and there hasn't been much to do other than busy work. So he tried to throw my words back at me and said that since we are in a lull we should take the time to shore up on preparation (the thing I keep picking at him about) and I should come to him to talk to him about my cases (so he can give me more busy work). Theoretically, that's fine. Except that the lazy fucker will continue to do nothing and be lazy. Anway, I said fine - but make sure you look at the calendar for the next three months before you do it. Of course, asshole didn't look at the calendar before calling me in - and of course, asshole lied about it and said he did. I knew he was bullshitting me, so I printed the calendar out for all of us. Since we were talking about priorities for the next three months, we all needed to be on the same page, right? Needless to say, few actual priorities were gleaned from him. I basically ran that part of the meeting, since I cared enough to look at the fucking calendar. I shouldn't have to be the one forcing him to think about strategy and proper planning. This dumbfuck wants to wait until the last minute because he's too lazy to cement his long term memory. He likes to fly by the seat of his pants, and he likes to make shit up on the fly. "Your honor, I don't have the case law in front of me, but the case law says....[insert his bullshit here]" - he does this shit when he doesn't do a lick of research in advance to support his position AND doesn't know the substantive law. Hell, I can't remember the last time he used Lexis - we do all the dirty work. All he is for my work is a glorified proofreader that bills at $200/hr. Asshole. This bitch doesn't seem to understand basic things from the first year of law school. He doesn't understand the way long-arm statutes work (enabling you to sue nonresidents of a state), and seems to have forgotten about the Statute of Frauds (requirement that certain contracts be put in writing). What good is he? You know what's worse than the blind leading the blind? The lazy and incompetent leading the blind. Where are the feds when you actually NEED them...?