Went to a firm dinner tonight and didn't mind it much. I adopted my usual approach of grabbing a glass of something -- ANYthing -- and standing off by myself, waiting. I think I stood there for four minutes before someone glanced my way and made a beeline over to persuade me that their Mighty Big Firm was the best.

I ended up sitting at a table with two 3Ls who'd just accepted, both of whom were very nice, and four lawyers, who were just chatting and catching up. Which was very nice too -- got to see some interaction between people, and it totally took the pressure off from having to maintain conversation and ask questions and generally feel like I have to make the dinner COUNT for something as far as decisionmaking goes.

There was a woman there tonight who now does some contract work for the firm (she moved to another city) who made a very good case for this particular Mighty Big Firm. Another 2L and I were talking when she dropped by, and the other 2L joked, "Oh, hk was just leaving, she's not very social. She stays for 2 hours at most."

"Actually, an hour and a half is about all I can take," I said.

"You are totally my kind of person," said the lawyer, and proceeded to disparage law students, lawyers, the whole kit and caboodle. "This Mighty Big Firm isn't fratty," she said, neatly tying it back to the goal of the evening. "There's no social pressure, you don't have to go these events if you don't want to. People have stuff to do after work and that's fine."

I bolted out of there pretty soon after that (I'd hit the 90 minute mark) and breezed by the guys at the front door with a "Hi! Bye!" (literally), but was stopped for just a moment when one of the greeters said, "Wait! Take one of these!" It was a bar of Ghirardelli chocolate with the firm's name on it and the inscrutable message: "Ideas should be clear and chocolate dark. - Spanish proverb"

Yeah. It's funny. But I did start considering this place seriously tonight. It seems like a grownup type of place. I do want the opportunity to go overseas, though, and I don't know that it offers that. And the assignment system is funky -- apparently you get on a team of lawyers who mostly do a certain type of work, but not always. It's not divided by practice area, which is weird.

On the way home, I dialed a couple people, including Mr. Rocks, to see if he was in the office at that time (he wasn't), and Def and Stave. I considered calling Mr. Destroyer, because I am stupid, but redeemed myself by calling Joiner instead and demanding that she convince me not to call.

I've since deleted Mr. Destroyer from my phone. It's just too dangerous otherwise.