(no subject)

[raincitygirl]

I have to pick up some tranquilizers for Young Miss Weaver at the vet’s office after work today. See, she’s got her annual check-up on Saturday, and she LOATHES being caged. 99% of the time she’s as placid as a cow (are cows really placid, though, or is that a stereotype? I’ve heard of cows charging people), anyway, 99% of the time she’s very placid and sweet-natured. The other 1% involves vet visits, scratches to my arms, and her peeing on me with fright. Luckily she’s in good health, so I only have the ordeal once a year.

Last year the vet gave me some tranquilizers in a vial to use the next time, but that was a year ago. Naturally, I have managed to lose the vial of pills. So she (the vet) is very kindly going to dispense 2 in advance in the interests of making sure she (the cat) is groggy enough to be wrestled into the cage for transport. Young Miss Weaver was trapped at a feral colony when she was 3 months old, and I suspect that deep in the back of her tiny pea-brain, she remembers that traumatic event, despite being totally tame in all other respects.

In the past, I’ve just given YMW a quarter of an Ativan, crushed up in her food, and that’s worked well enough. But this year I can’t find my Ativan. I got a new bottle a week ago, and what’s happened to it, I do not know. It must be somewhere in the apartment, because it’s not like I would’ve thrown them out. You wouldn’t think it would be possible to lose things while living in a 620 square foot space, but it is. I have too much clutter, is the problem. My mum has been helping me weed out clutter, but there’s still a lot left. And of course, being without my anti-anxiety meds makes me more anxious.

I overheard a very interesting conversation at the coffee shop this morning, between two lawyers (I could tell by their special black and white outfits). One of them is a partner in a law firm and was “taken into the equity” last year. I looked that up on Google and it turns out it means being converted from a salaried partner (i.e. not a real partner except in name) to a partner with an actual share in the profits of the firm (i.e. what I think of when I think “partner”). She now has a job offer from a bigger law firm, but they don’t want to take her into the equity right away, so she’d have to go back to being a salaried partner.

She was in a quandary over whether to accept the job, and discussing it quite fiercely with her friend, who seemed a little bored. I eavesdropped shamelessly (well, it wasn’t difficult. Starbucks puts their tables very close together, and they weren’t being too quiet). I was a little disappointed when I had to leave and she hadn’t come to a decision yet. It’s rude to eavesdrop, but it would be even ruder to interrupt their conversation to say, “Can you hurry up and make a decision, please? This total stranger wants to know!” Anyway, people of my f-list/dwircle who know about legal stuff, is this kind of thing common?

Edited to add: Found the Ativan, precisely 25 minutes after I got home from fetching the kitty tranquilizers at the vet's office in the pouring rain.

Comments

[chaila]

Poor kitty! Mine often sleeps in her carrier when I leave it out on the floor in the corner, but yowls when I close her up in it. Irrational! She evades me when she knows I want to put her in it, but once she's in it she's more or less fine. Although I'm pretty sure that's because she's cowed by fear and not because she's actually okay with it. :(

I'm a lawyer but certainly no expert in law firms, as I've never worked at one (different career track!), but it's my understanding that salaried partnerships used to be somewhat rarer, but are becoming a lot more common with the general economic squeeze on everyone. I'd guess more firms have added them so they can get or keep promising people and keep them with the promise of becoming an equity partner later, but can also be stingy with their profit sharing at the moment?

[raincitygirl]

I'm sure very few cats are okay with being shut up in small carriers. It goes against cat nature. It's cute that yours sleeps in hers, though. I brought the carrier out of the cupboard last week, in hopes she'd get used to seeing it around and just think of it as part of the furniture. But she has a loooooong memory and won't go near it. I put her food bowl just inside the carrier yesterday, and she simply decided not to eat.

It was funny, when I was at the vet's office picking up the meds, a woman came in with a large and shaggy dog of indeterminate breed. The poor dog had a large shaved patch on her hindquarters, so obviously some prior indignity had been perpetrated on her recently. She did NOT want to go back into the vet's office and had to be coaxed into the waiting room with treats. And once in the waiting room, she refused to budge towards the exam room, despite being bribed with treats. She obviously remembered that no good things happen in the exam room. Finally her owner got tired of coaxing, and just picked her up and carried her in, despite this dog being in no way shape or form a lapdog.

That makes sense, re: the salaried partner thing and the general economic downturn. "Making partner" still has prestige attached, but the equity partners don't have to share their profits with the newbie right away.

[legionseagle]

The equity partners don't have to share their profits but, equally, in a massive downturn the salaried partners get their salaries whereas the equity people get whatever share they get. Also, not all equity partners are equal, something the UK habit of quoting firm profitability by PEP (profits per equity partner) disguises. A junior equity partner will likely be only on 50% of the profit share a senior equity partner will be on, and quite possibly advancing through the equity and being awarded more points will be slow and fraught.

It's not unheard of for a junior equity partner in a particular firm having a bad year to have an equity profit share that's less than one quarter of the highest paid salaried partner, if the salaried partner has been poached from a more prestigious organisation on a package which provides for them to come in at an amount roughly equivalent to their last equity payout.

Also, because it's a share of profits you don't know as an equity partner what you've actually earned until ten months after you've earned it (you get paid "drawings" on account of anticipated earnings to live on in the meantime, but it's effectively a loan from the partnership until converted into profits). As a result, you can have one year where you earn £137,000 but by the time they've worked out that that's what you earned (and tax on it has been paid) you're nine months into the next year and it's obvious that the profits have slipped off a cliff so you don't actually get to see any of the actual cash, because it's retained in the business and there aren't profits available for distribution.

[raincitygirl]

This is fascinating. Evidently being an equity partner is no sinecure.

[marymac]

My dad has adopted a strategy of acquiring a top-opening carrier for the Fat Bastard, so that he can be dropped in and lid shut before he realises what's happening. Helped along by his habit of popping himself into boxes to nap, so sometimes he puts himself in it.

This does lead to him rocketing upward like the wrath of hell once he gets to the vet, but she apparently prefers the vertical exit to the horizontal one, as he no longer lands on the window sill and takes out the blinds.

[ETA: I feel you on hte clutter. Am currently thinning out/pre-emptive packing for moving house and boggling gently at the amount of stuff I have managed to stash away in a 10'x15' room.]

[raincitygirl]

That's not a bad idea, getting a carrier that opens at the top. I had to laugh at your description of Fat Bastard rocketing upward like the wrath of hell once the carrier is opened. The poor vet!

Re: the clutter, I'm convinced clutter breeds in the dark of night. I don't even remember acquiring half the stuff that's cluttering up the flat. Good luck with your impending move.

[marymac]

There will be SO MANY boxes.

I am suddenly very grateful for my sister's attack of maniacal cackling and organising of my entire wardrobe while I was in plaster. All my clothes are pre-packed!

[mandragora]

On the legal front, in E&W it used to be standard practice to initially be a salaried partner and later be offered equity, which usually meant buying into the partnership.

Nowadays, many people don't make the leap to equity and of course there are increasingly alternative business structures for law firms, such as limited liability partnerships etc.

[raincitygirl]

Very interesting. Thanks!