Category New York
Nuit blanche
The message at 10:00am this morning: “It’s Friday before a holiday weekend, and we’ve got people who need to leave for family and vacation. Let’s get as much done as we can before 6:00pm, and then we’ll break and wrap things up when people are back in town.” The message at 10:00pm tonight: “We’re not stopping, and […]
Here we go again
I didn’t have to go to New York today after all. You’d think that would feel like a reprieve — but it didn’t. Because the client didn’t communicate its expectations regarding travel until the last minute, I stayed up until 1:00am last night packing my bags, and then was ready to go early this morning. […]
There’s no place like home!
I’m back! At long last, I’m home! After last night’s walk-out, we were all in suspense as to what would happen next. We got an email around 3:45am from our lead negotiators saying that they had just left off discussions with the other side and that they would be in touch with further word. Later […]
Because who doesn’t pack thirteen ties for a two-day trip?
Dad sent a text this afternoon asking if I was trying to break a world record for the longest time living on two days’ worth of clothing. The answer is yes — if not a world record, then at least a personal record. But let’s be clear about one thing: I may have spent the […]
Pack up your toys and go home
Oh man, I love the theatrics of negotiations. After two weeks of pitched battle, we’re down to the wire on this deal — the documents are getting hammered out, there’s only a handful of outstanding, big-ticket items left to be resolved, the negotiations are ferocious. I had just finished turning another draft of the main […]
Early release
In any right state of the world I should not get home from work at 2:00am and think, “Wow, it’s so early! What am I going to do with the rest of the day?” But each of us must live the life we have, and that’s where I am — so I’ll take it. After a week and […]
Snorting milk at 4:00am
Okay, so the great thing about working from 8:30am-4:00am is that, by the time you get back to your hotel, you are STARVING (like, Donner Party starving) and completely slap-happy — so you feel zero qualms about settling down with a $25 box (well, boxes) of cold cereal from room service to read a few funny blog posts before […]
Livin’ the dream
It has been nine days since I flew to New York on a last-minute trip for an urgent client matter with a suitcase packed for two nights. In the seven days that followed, I billed 115 hours, including two consecutive days of over 20 billable hours each and only four hours in between. That means that in […]
And another
Let’s see, I think the hours were 6am until about 1:15am. I can’t wait to tally my billables this week; I’m confident I’ll easily break my current record of 86 hours worked in a week. Today was better than yesterday, in the sense that we were super busy all day — no sense of twiddling my […]
New York – A sudden change in plans
At 5:20am I received the following email: “We’re a go. See you at the airport.” In just over an hour, I was showered, packed and en route to the airport, simultaneously directing the cabbie and leaving messages to cancel my haircut and let Amy know that I wouldn’t make it to ballet class. By 9:30am I […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 