waterloo de-brief

on paper, i work for a really great company. visiting head office last week was eye-opening, but not all in a good way. the company itself is one of the best to work for in Canada - they seem to really value their employees and reward them with lots of little perks (free Star Wars preview, logo clothing, free exclusive concerts - the rolling stones for their 20th anniversary, great physical working environment, picnics and golf tournaments and can you say "expense it?"). if i could move the legal department to vancouver, i'd stay with this company indefinitely. or would i? the one thing i learned about the "legal assistants" in waterloo is that they are really glorified secretaries (no disrespect intended) / personal assistants. i mean, i know it's hot out and you're the VP but really, couldn't you walk to the other building? it's across the street! and doing the nails of my lawyer is way beyond where I draw the line. maybe i just have a really self-important view of what a paralegal is but in staying with this company for a long period, i don't think i'll ever realize my vision of what a paralegal is. i might be able to make it more than what it is now but in reality, they'll never move the legal department here and that's pretty much what will determine whether i actually stay or whether i go.

the lawyers were awesome - and two of them were really cute :) (although, one I work with directly and another...well, I thought he was showing some interest until, as i was leaving the building on my last day, I saw him chatting up some bottle-blonde princess in the parking lot. then i realized i wasn't his type!). the support staff was mostly good but you could sense that some of them didn't really like that i was there - nor did they appreciate the circumstances which brought me there (i.e. the VP's favouritism). doesn't matter - i had fun, despite the 12 hour days - of doing nothing. i was begging for work on the monday - so much so that rumour got around and one of the lawyers whom i don't really work with asked me if i wanted to do some filing - i jumped at the chance. but, i'm glad i got to meet everyone.

waterloo itself is...um...boring. because of the 12 hours days, i never did get to shop at the outlet mall, which was probably a good thing. i didn't get to go to the african lion safari but that's ok - really, lions in Waterloo? i did get to catch the tail end of the multi-cultural fest on the sunday but it was wrapping up, literally, as we walked into the park. there area lot of parks in waterloo. and a lot of brick houses (the Commodores' song runs through my head everytime i think about the houses there). the seagram's distillery was turned into loft housing - gorgeous. one of the lawyers told me that he looked into buying one when he moved there a couple of years back. the lofts were about 1400 sq ft., in a decent area of town and cost about $216,000. my jaw dropped. you can get a loft that's about half that size in gastown (!!!) for the same price. apparently, they're not selling well as for the same price, you can buy a house. i'd buy the loft :)

i seriously considered moving to waterloo after my six month stint so i could work with everyone at head office - seriously. and then, the tuesday thunderstorm hit and i was longing to be back on the west coast. they all laughed at me, cowering in my cubicle. "this is nothing - we had a tornado touchdown last week." excuse me - when is the next flight out of kansas??? and i don't know how many people expressed how lucky i was to be living in the most beautiful city in canada and how many people told me that the food was way better in vancouver than toronto.

so, my decision for the week is that i'll wait out my six months, go back to my job with the crown after that and try to get into the DOJ while i work my old job. gimme my pension!