The Partnering

I'm pleased to say that I was elected to the partnership at my law firm, as I had hoped. It's a big feeling of accomplishment, but at the same time not entirely different from before. I have a little more positional authority, and I'll need to delegate even more to leverage myself optimally and have time for more client development and administrative responsibilities, which are already beginning, but mostly the job hasn't changed as much as my way of being compensated has changed. If anything it's more a subtle shift in attitude from the other partners, accepting me more into the fold with a little more trust and autonomy. And a bigger office that I have no idea how to decorate. Overall, it's a very good feeling, but it feels like starting over at the beginning, not the end, and not an occasion to rest on my laurels, so I'm not able to savor it so much as I find myself recommitting to the work. 

The trip to Boston was a success, both from a client development perspective and from the perspective of having an opportunity to catch up with old friends I hadn't seen in years, although in retrospect that was a bit of a distraction from my reason for being there, and I probably won't try to squeeze in social visits on future work trips. Since making partner, I've been asked to go on a flurry of client development trips - I think I'll be traveling a few days out of each of three weeks in a row toward the end of October and in the beginning of November. It's not actually that easy to travel given my childcare responsibilities, but I suppose it's good to get some of that legwork in now, before we have a second child to contend with.

Speaking of which, all seems to be on track for this pregnancy so far, although we haven't received the prenatal testing results and things could still go wrong. But we are cautiously optimistic as my wife emerges slowly from the nauseous stage and we look forward to the next ultrasound. 

I'm looking forward to the holidays. My wife's parents are planning to spend the whole winter here, but my parents are also planning to come for a few weeks after Christmas. Most of my vacations are working vacations, but most years I've been able to take the week after Christmas mostly off for real, so I'm hoping that I'll catch a much-needed break from work then, even though with family visiting it might not be that restful. You can tell that it's needed given that I'm dreaming of it in mid-October. But part of my fatigue might be that it's well after bedtime around here, so I'm off to sleep.