Big Firm Gossip

I was just up for a promotion a few weeks ago.... and by the grace of God I got it. With this promotion came, among other things, a new office. The office is smaller than my old office, but the advantage is that I am two doors down from the practice group managing partner, definitely a good move. Then suddenly a member of the practice group left for greener pastures. The hiring committee did several outside interviews but could not find the right person to replace our departed team member. They decided to look internally and their focus landed on me, which surprised me because my job description just recently changed with the promotion. The ink hasn't even dried on my new name plate.
I really do love my job (just ignore my moaning and groaning). The hours are sometimes a bit rough, but workable. There are times when I have about 75% of my advised work load and I pick up projects from other people in my practice group. But usually I am working at least at 100%. So when they approached me I wasn't all that thrilled about it. They wanted me to maintain my current work load and ADD the slack from the person that left. Certainly they were offering great compensation, but goodness gracious!
Anyway, they did more interviewing and came to the conclusion that there was no way that they wanted anyone except me. (Sometime it is nice to be loved, other times it isn't) I negotiated the terms that I was willing to accept and finally got them to agree that it was reasonable. So that being said, the committee decided to take the entire deal into consideration. I haven't heard anything from them yet. So yesterday the practice group manager's secretary walks into my office with a stack of stuff. She says "this should be helpful with [assignments associated with the new position]" I was puzzled but took the files anyway. Today, other people start coming in with requests, assistance, docket reports and files related to the new position. Someone even thanked me for taking the position. Okay, is there something wrong with this picture?! Have you ever been hired before you were hired? Why is it that everyone in the firm seems to know that I have this new position before I have even heard confirmation of it? All I have to say is that the changes had best be reflected on my paycheck come next week. So congratulations are in order - the message of course sent through the grapevine- I guess.