"One of the pluses of getting older is you set some limits."
I've always been a little envious of the lawyers around town who close at noon on Fridays. There are a bunch of them, their phones sent to voicemail at lunchtime. And it's not like they're using the quiet afternoon to get some work done--when I drive past their parking lots, there's rarely a car to be seen.
I used to work when no one else was around. The boys watched videos in the conference room on Saturdays when I'd head to the office. I worked Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve. I worked the day after Thanksgiving. And those were my favorite days, when the phone went dead and I could do some thinking work in a deserted office. In retrospect maybe it wasn't all that healthy, being in the office all the time.
So today I'm only working a half day myself, leaving around 11:45 to drive up to the airport for a 2 p.m. flight to ATL on a trip that terminates at Tara. I feel a little irresponsible burning half a workday schlepping through airports because I miss P and Corning and need a mental health break for a few days. But the truth is that I am looking across at the armchair in my office piled with files I'll take on the plane, and those along with the zip drives downloaded onto this computer guarantee a few hours of productive, billable work while the nice flight attendant plies me with Diet Coke and biscotti.
Speaking of which, I'm not sure how I'll handle the issue of how to stuff my face on the plane or at Hartsfield in this latest Covid surge. My stylish black N95 mask is crammed here in my shirt pocket, but it won't be doing me much good pulled down around my chin so I can swill drinks or go to Paschal's at Hartsfield for my fix of fried chicken and greens. Managing the whole risk-benefit thing when exhaustion and worry have eroded my impulse control is a challenge.
My first call is in a few minutes, another hourlong session of lawyer bloviation over the contents of a case management order. Not a hill I'd die on, but for some attorneys this game of getting the last word in editing a document gives their lives meaning.
Three hours to go.
Never feel guilty for taking well earned time off.