My younger daughter is now officially certifiably bonkers

[DFW]

She just started work with her new firm on Saturday morning, and worked through the weekend.

Tomorrow, they are sending her to Santiago, Chile. For a DAY. She'll be back in Germany on Saturday.

This is the same one who went to Sierra Leone for the summer to work with the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal during law school while all her classmates were clerking for some judge or other at home. She nearly died from some horrible infection, but managed to come back alive, so it's like nothing big really happened while she was there, nooooo.

My crazy kid thinks she's me, or something. She seems rational enough when you talk to her, but then she goes off and does stuff a fictional character in an action movie would refuse to do.

[uppityperson]

1. The energy of the young. Congratulations on a fine daughter.

She sounds like some one you can be very proud of.

[DFW]

3. We are very proud of both our daughters

This one was nicknamed "Madame 10,000 volts" by a neighbor when she was 2. She doesn't seem to have lost any of her charge in the meantime.

The other one lives in the States. I offered to grease the wheels for her to find a job. She said, no, I'm going to do this myself. She makes what are near slave wages in Manhattan where she lives and works, whereas the other one is scraping the edge of joining the 1%, but we think the world of both of them. Beautiful, caring and fearless. They are quite a pair.

[tk2kewl]

4. good job

[DFW]

27. We did our best with the genes we had

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[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear DFW...

I suspect she comes by her behavior honestly...

We almost always think our children are crazy........didn't our parents think we were too? I suspect my parents did.

More power to her!

[hunter]

5. I've got to wonder about businesses that do that to people.

My brother had a high powered highly paid job and they'd fly him off on trips like this. All he'd see of a distant place was the airport and a view from a car window. The corporate offices were all pretty much the same.

He got tired of that lifestyle. Now he's "retired."

My wife occasionally does that too, but has enough flexibility in her schedule that she can enjoy a day or two actually visiting the city she's in.

In my life nobody has ever paid me to fly anywhere for work. That's okay by me, I hate flying.

Good luck to your adventuresome daughter! I have a sister and a niece like that and sometimes I worry about them.

[DFW]

7. I'm afraid I set a bad example long ago

My job has been like that since before they were born. They used to send me from Boston to Brussels and back in a day. Once, during a Christmas visit with my folks in Virginia, they asked me to run over to Paris, Brussels and Düsseldorf for 36 hours. I made them pay for me to fly the Concorde back to Washington from London so I wouldn't miss out on my visit with my family, and they agreed! But I've run off from Germany to the Andes for quick visits before, myself, though never for a day. I took a couple of days extra and got a tour of some safe parts of the country with some local government people who invited me along, and got to see some parts of the Andes many tourists never hear of. My Spanish helped me immensely, but if I go back for any length of time, I'm learning some Quechua!

We'll fly anywhere, but there is the time factor. On a friend's recommendation, we once ran off to the Seychelles for a week, and loved it, but it's a long flight, and it was made worse by the fact that while my wife could get off in Germany, I had to continue on to Albuquerque, NM, of all places, and was a wreck by the time I got there.

Our daughters have accompanied us on long trips since they were babies, and so they're used to it. I just didn't think they'd get THIS used to it!

[hunter]

11. I'm the child of a very well traveled Matriarchy...

... and I'm okay with that.

Where the women go, the men follow.

[GeorgeGist]

6. I dearly love my two daughters ...

but you are one fortunate parent to have created one so gifted.

[DFW]

8. Gifted, but had better make sure she doesn't burn out early

She was born in 1985, and Chernobyl blew in May, 1986. I wonder if she didn't get some radioactive particles on her skin while playing in the dirt, and has an atomic power plant in her metabolism, or something. I'll have to ask Stan Lee about that.

[NewJeffCT]

9. wow

all the way to Chile for just one day? Why does she need to be there in person just for that one day? Are they at least giving her first class or business class? Even a young person is going to be exhausted if they're crammed into coach for two long flights like that in 2 days?

And, safe travels to her.

[DFW]

15. Believe me, she ain''t goin' coach

Her employer does not do that to their people.

[rurallib]

10. does she have a code name?

[DFW]

22. Yes: LB

But that's just what I called her when she was little. It stands for "little Becky," and means nothing to anyone but her and me.

[Jenoch]

12. Your daughter works for a firm in what industry?

Today is Monday. Tomorrow is Tuesday. If she goes to Chile for a single day, and she is 'back' in Germany on Saturday, where will she be on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. I am wondering the same thing ... typo, maybe?

still, an awesome woman ... gotta admit.

[DFW]

18. Got me.

Last edited Wed Nov 5, 2014, 04:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Maybe she said next day, and I interpreted it wrong. All I know is that she said she'd be there for a day and was turning right around and coming back to Germany afterward--and that she was the one the people in Chile requested.

[DFW]

16. No idea

Rio? Sao Paulo? Timbuktu? She does stuff like that.

[rug]

13. The 1% does not spend this kind of money without getting something in return.

[DFW]

17. It's not her money

She does international law for a big law firm. Apparently they thnk she is hot enough a property to entrust her with tasks that require this.

[rug]

20. I take it that's it's commercial law.

[DFW]

21. International law

She got the job in the first place because her original firm needed someone who was bi-lingual English-German, had a US bar exam (i.e. so she could practice and represent US clients), and the right to work in the EU, which, as a German citizen, she has.

[a kennedy]

19. You must be so proud......

there IS life in those that come behind us.

[DFW]

23. Her sister, too

Her sister has a job in a field where she'll never make the big bucks her sister does, but she's cool with that, and just enjoys life on her own level. Not an obviously easy thing to do when you see your younger sibling on a fast track to being a millionaire by the time she's 35. We're very proud of her for that. You know what she envies her sister for? The six weeks paid vacation they get in Germany. She can live without the big money, but would kill for 6 weeks paid vacation.

[blaze]

24. Two kids happy with their lives

Don't get much better than that!

[blaze]

25. ps... where's the thread about your book?

I tried to find it in Kindle version when you first posted, but all I could find was the paperback version.

[DFW]

26. At first Kindle missspelled the title

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018681650

The Time Cellar is now correctly spelled on the Kindle site

[blaze]

28. Thanks!

No wonder I couldn't find it the other day!

Now downloaded!

[DFW]

29. I hope you find your persistence worth the effort

If you turn out not to like it, I'll have a guilty conscience!

[okieinpain]

30. congrats. sounds like a great young person.

[DFW]

31. Thanks. She's still "Madame 10,000 volt"

But that's now her boyfriend's worry (mostly!)