I have been a legal secretary for over 20 years.  Somehow my job has had many titles over the years:

  • Legal Secretary
  • Executive Assistant
  • Assistant Paralegal
  • Litigation Intake Specialist

Call it anything you want but I mostly type documents, make copies and scan.  It’s not glamorous, and when not preparing for a trial the daily tasks are pretty mundane.  The day before yesterday my boss, who likes my cooking but rarely appreciates it, asked if she could pay me to bring her lunch yesterday because she was tired of lean cuisine.

Not a big deal – I had chicken tacos on my lunch menu with my baja fresh salsa and crock pot refried beans.  I also had some tortilla chips in my desk drawer

At about 9:45 one of the other attorneys goes into my bosses office and shuts the door fast.  A few minutes they come out and the other secretary happened to be at my desk and they said “happy administrative professional day!”  Let’s buy you lunch!

I explained that I already brought food for me and my boss, and my co-worker had already planned some errands to run at lunch.  Turns out they forgot, but it was nice to be acknowledged. (??)

I had some tortilla chips in my desk drawer, just enough left for our lunch, when my boss comes out at 10:15 declares she’s hungry and reaches for the chips.  I tell her she can’t have any because there is only enough for lunch, so I bring her some  crostini with hummus leftover from a birthday last week.

She took one bite of the crostini and said “Biz take a picture of the bite out of the crostini and put it on your blog that I asked you to make me something to eat on Secretary’s Day.”

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Just to give you an idea (Helen and Shelley have heard some stories via email before) I’ve worked for this woman for 7 years.  She’s never remembered a birthday, I usually get Christmas gifts in the first or second week in January, and before I worked for her?  In her 22 year career before me starting to work for her, she had 25 secretaries.  Yep.  I guess I just have the personality to work with her.  Lucky me!

It was rainy off and on, but I saw my window and went on my walk.  Again, my blood sugar was hovering around 150 so I couldn’t run.  The best part about where I work is that in just a 10 minute walk I am basically in farm country – its quiet, not a lot of traffic.

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walk 4.25

About the last 10 minutes it started to lightly drizzle.  I didn’t care because I keep a hair dryer in the bathroom.  50 minute walk – done!  And yes, I realize I need to trim my bangs. Open-mouthed smile

walk wet

When I got back, while I was gone my boss ran and got me some flowers and she said she’d take me out to lunch next week.  The card read “Biz, thanks for all you do, From All of Us.”   I have to admit, they do smell good!

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As my boss was telling me “aren’t these just gorgeous?” I could feel my blood sugar dropping like a rock – it was 61.  So my hands were a bit shaky putting this lunch together – I used the Mission extra thin corn tortillas – love that you get two for 80 calories!

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Tony had dinner duty – smoked sausage and red beans and rice!  We’ve determined that Zatarain’s is the best boxed red beans and rice.  He cooks it in the rice cooker, sausage and all – but just runs it through two cycles and it’s perfect every time.

That gave me time to do my 30 minute stretch – now that I am back to recording Classical Stretch as a series, I have several to choose from.  Yesterdays was called “Help flatten the abs.”  Holy shizz was that hard – I think it was about 15 minutes of stretch and 15 minutes of abs – I was literally shaking at the end.

And for Chicagland readers, I was wrong when I said it was on WCIU – it’s actually Channel 20 WYCC if you want to search for it.  I just feel so good when I finish it – I know I never really stretched well enough before and can actually feel a difference when I miss a day.

Then it was time for dinner – just put in my bowl, splash with some Tabasco and I was good to go.

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I also had my classic breakfast parfait for breakfast, shocker!

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Stats for the Day:

  • 1343 calories, 40 fat, 188 carbs, 27 fiber and 69 protein
  • 57% calories from carbs
  • 27% calories from fat
  • 16% from protein
  • 50 minute walk at lunch
  • 30 minute Classical Stretch

Question of the Day:  Tell me the worst boss story you’ve had.  Could be some interesting reading!

Make it a great day! Open-mouthed smile