Law Office Adventures (Parts 1 and 2 of probably more than 2)
It's been an interesting week at the office. I got to check a couple of big things off of my Giant To-Do List of Doom, which felt pretty damn good. The process of getting there was a little more entertaining and adventuresome than I might have chosen, but it makes for good stories.
Part 1: Adventures with my Boss
A couple of months ago, one of our clients got into a bit of trouble and landed in jail. I guess that's all part of the scenery if you work in criminal law, but I work at a civil law firm where we deal mostly with personal injury and the occasional medical malpractice or business case. I'm not used to doing jail visits, but we had some paperwork that our client needed to sign, so I had to figure it out.
I call up the jail information line and find out what I need to do, get directions to the facility, get all the paperwork together, and my boss and I set off to see our client. We get to the facility and go to check in at the desk.
Officer at the Desk: Inmate name?
Boss: *gives our client's name*
Officer: *checks list* I'm not finding that name on the list.
Boss: ?!?
Officer: *shows page of list where our client's name should be*
Boss: O.O *double-checks spelling, still not there*
Officer: Let me check the computer database. Name was *****? Spelled like this? Ok. Date of birth?
Me: *flips through file, supplies date*
Officer: Hn. Looks like he was released by the court yesterday.
Me and Boss: O.O !!!!
Now, this is fantastic for our client. We're thrilled as far as the release goes. However, the papers still need to be signed and now we have no idea where our client is. None. So the boss and I go back to his truck and check the client contact sheet in the file. Alternate contact! Yes! Luckily, our client's brother is able to give us a cell phone number and we make contact. Our client has an appointment at 1:30 and gives us the address. We say we'll be there before the appointment.
We find the place around 1:10, but we still have to park my boss's monster of a truck. In downtown San Francisco. In the middle of the day on a weekday. We finally manage to park, hoof it to the meeting place, and get about 5 minutes with our client before the appointment. We have just barely enough time to check in and update our client on the case status and get the papers reviewed and signed, but we manage. Whew!
The boss and I trot back to his truck and start heading back to the office. My boss has a phone appointment for another case at 2:00 and a meeting with a prospective client at 3:30. His phone is dying and there's no way we're going to be back at the office by 2:00, so I put the other client's number in my personal phone, which is the only one I have with me, and we stop for lunch. We sit in the truck for about 20 minutes while my boss talks to the client, with my boss making several promises under his breath to feed me as soon as he's done. We finally get lunch and make it back to the office with a whole 10 minutes to spare before his next meeting.
Part 2: Adventures with Technology
Yesterday and today, I was madly prepping a packet of documents that had to go out the door today. This involved, among other things, scanning a number of documents. Normally, this is achieved with no problem at all. I drop the documents in the scanner tray, tell Adobe to scan them, and we're off to the races. Not this time.
Yesterday afternoon...
Me: Hey Adobe, could you please scan these very important documents that have to go out tomorrow?
Adobe: *appears not to have heard*
Me: Hmm, maybe you didn't hear me. I'll try again.
Adobe: Nope, you can't do that. I'm busy scanning.
Me: What? Then why are the documents still sitting in the scanner tray?
Adobe: Beats me. I'm scanning. Scanning is in progress, yo.
Me: Why won't you pull the papers from the tray and scan them? Why are you telling me that you're scanning when you're clearly not!?
Adobe: Because fuck you.
Me: Fine! I quit!
Adobe: Nope, you can't do that. I'm busy scanning.
Me: Aaaaagh! *force-quits with the Task Manager* I hate you!
I went through this cycle about five times, trying different things to see if I could fix it. I reinstalled the latest updates, checked that the presets hadn't gotten tweaked, and used the installation repairer. In the end, I had to use a coworker's computer in the end to get the documents scanned. This morning, I called our Super On-Call Tech Support Guru Man.
Me: Help me, Galen-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!**
Tech Support Guru Man: What did you do?
Me: *describes problem*
TSGM: Did you try these helpful things?
Me: Yes. It told me to go fuck myself didn't work.
TSGM: How about this other helpful suggestion?
Me: *tries*
Adobe: *laughs at me*
TSGM: And you tried this helpful idea already?
Me: Yes. It didn't work.
TSGM: Hmm. Tell me more about your presets.
Me: Presets blah blah blah. Also, I have this box checked for this prompt that it hasn't been giving me.
TSGM: Un-check the box and try again.
Me: *un-checks box*
Adobe: *scans test-page* I told you I was scanning. What's all the fuss about?
Me: Aagh!
TSGM: What?
Me: It worked.
Adobe: *looks innocent*
Me: I hate you.
** Yes, I did actually say this to him. My office is full of geeks. I love it.
Part 1: Adventures with my Boss
A couple of months ago, one of our clients got into a bit of trouble and landed in jail. I guess that's all part of the scenery if you work in criminal law, but I work at a civil law firm where we deal mostly with personal injury and the occasional medical malpractice or business case. I'm not used to doing jail visits, but we had some paperwork that our client needed to sign, so I had to figure it out.
I call up the jail information line and find out what I need to do, get directions to the facility, get all the paperwork together, and my boss and I set off to see our client. We get to the facility and go to check in at the desk.
Officer at the Desk: Inmate name?
Boss: *gives our client's name*
Officer: *checks list* I'm not finding that name on the list.
Boss: ?!?
Officer: *shows page of list where our client's name should be*
Boss: O.O *double-checks spelling, still not there*
Officer: Let me check the computer database. Name was *****? Spelled like this? Ok. Date of birth?
Me: *flips through file, supplies date*
Officer: Hn. Looks like he was released by the court yesterday.
Me and Boss: O.O !!!!
Now, this is fantastic for our client. We're thrilled as far as the release goes. However, the papers still need to be signed and now we have no idea where our client is. None. So the boss and I go back to his truck and check the client contact sheet in the file. Alternate contact! Yes! Luckily, our client's brother is able to give us a cell phone number and we make contact. Our client has an appointment at 1:30 and gives us the address. We say we'll be there before the appointment.
We find the place around 1:10, but we still have to park my boss's monster of a truck. In downtown San Francisco. In the middle of the day on a weekday. We finally manage to park, hoof it to the meeting place, and get about 5 minutes with our client before the appointment. We have just barely enough time to check in and update our client on the case status and get the papers reviewed and signed, but we manage. Whew!
The boss and I trot back to his truck and start heading back to the office. My boss has a phone appointment for another case at 2:00 and a meeting with a prospective client at 3:30. His phone is dying and there's no way we're going to be back at the office by 2:00, so I put the other client's number in my personal phone, which is the only one I have with me, and we stop for lunch. We sit in the truck for about 20 minutes while my boss talks to the client, with my boss making several promises under his breath to feed me as soon as he's done. We finally get lunch and make it back to the office with a whole 10 minutes to spare before his next meeting.
Part 2: Adventures with Technology
Yesterday and today, I was madly prepping a packet of documents that had to go out the door today. This involved, among other things, scanning a number of documents. Normally, this is achieved with no problem at all. I drop the documents in the scanner tray, tell Adobe to scan them, and we're off to the races. Not this time.
Yesterday afternoon...
Me: Hey Adobe, could you please scan these very important documents that have to go out tomorrow?
Adobe: *appears not to have heard*
Me: Hmm, maybe you didn't hear me. I'll try again.
Adobe: Nope, you can't do that. I'm busy scanning.
Me: What? Then why are the documents still sitting in the scanner tray?
Adobe: Beats me. I'm scanning. Scanning is in progress, yo.
Me: Why won't you pull the papers from the tray and scan them? Why are you telling me that you're scanning when you're clearly not!?
Adobe: Because fuck you.
Me: Fine! I quit!
Adobe: Nope, you can't do that. I'm busy scanning.
Me: Aaaaagh! *force-quits with the Task Manager* I hate you!
I went through this cycle about five times, trying different things to see if I could fix it. I reinstalled the latest updates, checked that the presets hadn't gotten tweaked, and used the installation repairer. In the end, I had to use a coworker's computer in the end to get the documents scanned. This morning, I called our Super On-Call Tech Support Guru Man.
Me: Help me, Galen-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!**
Tech Support Guru Man: What did you do?
Me: *describes problem*
TSGM: Did you try these helpful things?
Me: Yes. It told me to go fuck myself didn't work.
TSGM: How about this other helpful suggestion?
Me: *tries*
Adobe: *laughs at me*
TSGM: And you tried this helpful idea already?
Me: Yes. It didn't work.
TSGM: Hmm. Tell me more about your presets.
Me: Presets blah blah blah. Also, I have this box checked for this prompt that it hasn't been giving me.
TSGM: Un-check the box and try again.
Me: *un-checks box*
Adobe: *scans test-page* I told you I was scanning. What's all the fuss about?
Me: Aagh!
TSGM: What?
Me: It worked.
Adobe: *looks innocent*
Me: I hate you.
** Yes, I did actually say this to him. My office is full of geeks. I love it.