Formalwear Fridays

Today was my first day of work. It was pretty cool. There are nine new associates. We did absolutely no work all day. We spent about twenty minutes learning about the firm's history; next we were shown to our offices (I'm sharing an office with the two who I feel the most simpatico with so it worked out quite grandly); then we went to a fancy Chinese restaurant and were fed sea bass and duck and shrimp rolls and bok choy and scallops (among other things that I didn't get to eat because they were out of my reach and I felt all awkward about asking people to pass the plates); after that we were invited to the firm's monthly first-Thursday-of-the-month-in-house-happy-hour where we ate cookies and chips with guacamole and warm cheese and drank beer (I had a Budweiser - selection was limited to Budweiser, Coors, and Heineken. That should tell you something about my firm.).

I do have my very own secretary. I felt really embarassed introducing myself to her. "Hi, I'm Janey. Are you Rachel? Yeah, um.... well... so... Ithinkyouaremysecretary." I felt so weird about it that I even said something ridiculous like, "So I probably won't be bothering you for awhile" before trailing off into silence. But then I fixed the awkwardness by complimenting her on her eyeshadow (it was far out) and asking her how long she had worked there and otherwise making small talk.

The only bad thing, so far, is that I have to wear a suit every day. Even Fridays! So after work I went to the mall and returned all the "business casual" little skirts and blouses and sweater sets and pants I spent the last week buying. I only have two suits right now and they are exactly the same suit (well, slightly different - one is black and one is pin-striped). So I guess sometime soon I will have to go buy more before I start getting made fun of for wearing the same exact thing every day.