Twenty years ago today, March 16, 2002, I opened up a lined blank journal and began writing. I’ve posted before about my first words in that journal (“The only way to start is just to start—take the plunge”). I still recall the trepidation I felt as I faced that blank […]
Continue readingTag Archives: career
Forty Years Ago Today I Began My Legal Career
Forty years ago today, September 4, 1979, I started working for Hallmark Cards. It was the day after Labor Day, summer was over, and it was time to get to work. My husband and I had spent the summer studying for the bar exam, taking the three-day test at the […]
Continue readingThe Rest of the Part-Time Story
A few months ago I wrote a post about my father telling me I should take “a nice part-time job” and how angry that made me. This post is a confession—I asked for that advice. Well, not for that advice specifically, but for any advice he could give me during […]
Continue readingThe Importance of Brag Files—My Father’s and My Own
During my first visit to my father’s house after his death, I reviewed all the papers in his office. There were at least six file drawers, plus a two-shelf cupboard, plus two plastic boxes under a desk—all crammed full of neatly labeled folders, and all the folders were stuffed with […]
Continue readingStorytelling Is Important in Many Professions, Whether Reciting the Facts or Making It Up
Lawyers are supposed to tell a story when they are trying a case. Professors taught me that in law school classes, I read countless columns by James McElhaney in the American Bar Association Journal over the years giving the same advice, and I went to a National Institute of Trial […]
Continue readingThe State of Washington Lied To Me When I Was in High School
Sometime during my sophomore or junior year of high school, I was required to take the Washington Pre-College Test. This test was necessary to apply to universities in the state. I intended to apply to both Washington State University and the University of Washington, so I dutifully signed up for […]
Continue readingTravels to Europe As Book Ends of a Career
In August 1979, shortly after the bar exam, my husband and I traveled to London for two weeks. It was our delayed honeymoon, almost two years after we were married, and celebrated the end of law school and the beginning of our working careers. We knew that it would be […]
Continue readingMy Blog Nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award
This is my week for blog chains. Monday I followed a tag by Juliet Kincaid, and today I am thanking Kate Loveton for nominating my blog for the Versatile Blogger award. Check out her blog, Odyssey of a Novice Writer. Calling me “versatile” is something of a joke in our […]
Continue readingWorking Through the Generations: Happy 80th Birthday to My Father
I’ve written before that I am a lot like my mother. But I developed my attitudes toward work by watching my father. My earliest memories of my father at work date back to when I was in pre-school. When he was in graduate school earning his Ph.D. in metallurgy, he […]
Continue readingAge Changes Our Perspective on Family Myths
I visited my parents over Christmas, and one day I walked past a picture in their home of my maternal grandfather (the grandfather who took many of the pictures I’ve featured on this blog). As a child, I thought of my grandfather as an old man. I saw him as […]
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