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Whenever I am "chatting" with someone online, I always wonder what it looks like where they are sitting. I've also heard that you can tell a lot about a person just by looking at their workspace. So I decided to take a picture of my desk and share with you this so you can see where I spend Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 to 5:00. I've numbered random things, and although they numbers are a bit hard to see, I'll explain each one.

1. This is our incredible fax machine. The best part about this treasured office machine is that the automatic feeder doesn't really work, so when the boss (who may or not be my dad) decides that he needs to send a 15 page fax, guess who gets to sit there and feed each page separately into the machine? Yours truly. Both the secretary (who may or may not be my mom) and I have asked for a new fax machine, but the boss is holding out for some reason. I think he takes some sick pleasure in the fact that the fax machine doesn't work very well.

2. Number 2 is my lovely computer, which I purchased right before I began law school. It's a Dell Inspiron 700m and the reason I purchased it is because it was the smallest one they had at the time (12.1 inches). On my desktop is a picture of my baseball hero, Sandy Koufax. In my home I have five other pictures of Sandy Koufax, including one that's autographed. Anyway, my computer has held up pretty well, but the "s" button is starting to flame out on me. I wonder if there is a way to make this key more sensitive so I don't have to hit it so hard everytime I touch it.

3. What would a nice workspace be without a Far Side calendar? I complained to the secretary about her choice of calendar (it had to do with "special sayings for women." No joke.) so she went out and bought me the Far Side one sometime in February. Since it was so late, it was only a buck. What a great deal.

4. Here's the keyboard to the desktop which I try to use as little as possible because I don't really fit under it. The desk is only about 3 1/2 or 4 ft tall, and the keyboard hangs under it so when I type there, I don't even try and put my legs under the desk.

5. My phone and my keys. I actually just got a new phone because my razr kicked the bucket. The battery stopped working literally two weeks after the warrant had run out on it. I bought another batter and that one didn't work, so it was time for a new phone. Usually I'm pretty excited, but this time there wasn't anything that I was really interested in. I ended up getting a krazr (sp?). It's ok. I'm just praying that when it breaks (because I know it will) that it does so within a year from now.

6. These are my time sheets. Everytime I stop work or switch clients, I have to start filling out the time sheet and write in exactly what I'm working on. It is a huge hassle. I look back fondly on my days working at the "retirement community" where I swiped a card when I showed up and swiped a card when I left.

7. Typical file folder. I was working on a set of special interrogatories at the time. Here is my favorite paragraphed that I typed:

13.  The terms "RELATE TO" and "RELATING TO" shall
mean regarding, concerning, referring to,
constituting, memorializing, depicting, mentioning,
specifying, listing, summarizing, reviewing,
identifying, establishing, evidencing, supporting,
describing, recording, embodying, studying, analyzing
or discussing.

If there is one thing I love about the legal profession, it's the insane amount of wordiness, which I'm pretty sure isn't a word, but it's the best word that I could come up with right now.

8. This is a Charlie Brown Christmas snow globe. I'm not sure why it's still up, but we put it there before Christmas 2006 and never took it down. It's also nice to have when my oldest boy comes to the office and needs something to play with.

9. Another file that I was using as a reference.

10. A picture of my sister and her oldest kid when she was a newborn. I'm not sure why it's taped to the base of the monitor, but I guess that is where the secretary wanted it.

Anyway, there's a brief tour of my workspace for you. Besides the lack of space on the desk, it's really not so bad sitting there all day. If only we could get a new fax machine...