This week in Young Hungry & Committed, the pressure of keeping up with her busy solo law practice starts to get to virtual office NYC attorney, Vivian Sobers…to the detriment of her unsuspecting neighbors.
On this day of All Things Scary, topping the list: yours truly.
Apparently I have developed a rage issue over the past few weeks. And when I rage, as a man in my neighborhood learned this week, I get spookier than a horror film zombie.
See, I live in Brooklyn and often use my car to get around the City, especially when I have court appearances in multiple boroughs on the same day.
An illegal parker sets me off.
I hate de
aling with street parking, so I pay to keep my car in a lot. It’s one of those old school style lots that’s not much bigger than a postage stamp enclosed by a wooden gate and padlock. It’s the kind of property on which industrious developers will soon figure out a way to construct multi-million dollar condos once the yuppies price out the hipsters in this up-and-coming neighborhood.
There’s a narrow driveway that my parking “neighbors” and me pull out into the street. And of course, on a morning that I was on the edge of being late for an appointment, some jerk parked in front of the driveway and was nowhere to be found.
So I called the cops, they called the guy, and he showed up 20 minutes later. Astonishingly, he then proceeded to give me attitude because I called the police.
A poor attempt at communication ensues.
What ensued was a profanity-laced, bi-lingual tirade that is usually reserved for actually being on the road, which I was technically on, except standing in a pair of heels not inside my car.
The point of my poor attempt at “communication” was that 1. I am self-employed, 2. I had an important client meeting that I was now really late for, and 3. had this been a court appearance, I could have been in a lot of trouble – just because this guy thought it was OK to park his car illegally and then disappear.
Of course this all came out in a slightly less eloquent fashion (and, yes, I may have also resorted to some name calling).
The best one-line retort I’ve heard in a while.
The best part about the exchange was this gentleman’s retort, which was calmly delivered with just the right amount of sarcastic attitude that only a New Yorker could pull off:
“Lady, you may be a boss, but you’re not my boss.”
I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that line.
A few other incidents have happened recently. They seem to involve automobiles and me quite a bit. It all has me a litle concerned. I’m all mouth and don’t have much of a physical presence to back it up.
I feel like I’m chasing my tail.
I feel like the pressures of my practice are starting to get to me. Things are going great and I am busier than ever. But I am also mired down by a mountain of busy work that has me constantly chasing my tail.
The unfinished projects are starting to affect my sleep, that’s making me frustrated, and with the frustration out comes Raging, Scary Vivian.
Good problems to have (professionally) I suppose – my behavior maybe not so much.
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
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Vivian Sobers is a commercial litigator pursuing a solo law practice right out of law school. She is a client in Law Firm Suites’ Virtual Office Program. Vivian’s weekly blog series “Young, Hungry and Committed” documents the trials and tribulations of a young attorney navigating her way through the challenging world of self-employed legal practice.
