My nephew’s first birthday is tomorrow. I spent all morning shopping for a present for him. It was a frustrating experience. I didn’t even consider shopping for clothes for him since he has more of them than he can possibly wear in a year. I thought I’d get him a toy of some sort, but it turned out to be difficult to find something that neither he nor his sister had or wasn’t like something they had. Toys for one-year olds seem to fall into the following categories:

I. Stuffed animals

II. Musical/noisemaker electronic toys

III. ABC’s and 123′s electronic toys

IV. Building blocks

V. Shape sorting/stacking toys

I figured a one-year old would probably only appreciate one toy from each category. After that, they become redundant. I ended up buying him a big yellow dump truck even though the package indicated it was for 18 month olds. I think he might be ready for that. If not, it won’t be too much longer before he enjoys playing with it. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that he doesn’t already have one.

One of the business paralegals was laid-off today. I feel badly for her, although I’m sure she saw it coming. After three of the attorneys in the business department left to start up their own firm, it was inevitable that we would lose some clients and things would slow down. There just wasn’t enough work for her. The news scared me even though I work in the litigation department and there’s more than enough work for me. Part of the reason it hit home was that I had applied for her position a couple of years ago. Back then, I was upset at having been turned down. I was really lucky to have been hired as a litigation document clerk instead. I think the news was also disturbing to me because it was the first time I’ve ever really been faced with the prospect of losing a job. In times past, I equated being laid-off with news stories about blue collar workers experiencing the brunt of difficult economic times. It was something that happened to people I didn’t know in far away places. Well now it’s not some news story. It’ s happening to people I know and care about.

The network at my office has been hit by a horrible virus. Our computers have been down for two days! It’s amazing how reliant we’ve become on our computer systems for everything from client address books to high-powered databases. We’ve had to change the way we work just to accomplish the bare minimum. People are frustrated and bored. The administrators are trying to reassure everyone that things will be up and running in no time, but people just aren’t buying it. The mood in the office is decidedly glum. Last year, people came to work dressed in costumes and passed out piles of candy. This year, I don’t think anyone dressed up and only one secretary put out a bowl of chocolates. So much for holiday cheer. The minute the clock read 5:00, I flew out of there for the comforts of home.