Good Lord! I’m covering 3 courts today, all of which have stuff going on. Thank goodness 2 are next door to each other. And thank goodness I’m on very good terms with these judges that they’re okay with juggling me. I’m exhilarated from the activity. The courtroom I’m in now had a civil Mandatory Settlement Conference that settled its case; a civil Default Prove-up Hearing (sort of like a mini-trial); a criminal probation case where the defendant had to bring in proof that he registered as a sex offender and has signed up for various counseling classes; and presently, a criminal kidnapping/threats/assault/cruelty to a child trial with one of my favorite DAs. And my college roommie DIANA, who’s an attorney, by the way, JUST called my cell phone and I had to chuck my singing purse out the courtroom. Sorry D, I’ll call you later when we’re not in session or something. My courtroom doesn’t have reception so I didn’t expect to have to turn off the cell. I didn’t know this courtroom has, apparently, great reception. Anyway, the courtroom next door had a family law divorce case where they were disputing who gets to keep the house; and a criminal case reviewing a post-sentencing report. My own courtroom has a panicking judge who needs to get his family law trial ruling out and mailed by today. He just got it done and it’s 2:27pm. I’m still waiting for the copies so that I can do my part for the computer records and mailings.

We’re really short on courtroom clerks today. Apparently lots of people called in sick, and people’s parents are dying off and there’re a lot of people on bereavement leave. It seems like at the end of the year, people just drop off the face of the globe and it leaves me wondering why they’re leaving en masse, what they know that I don’t know, while the rest of us are hanging around like a bunch of suckers. I can think of 4 people related to this courthouse or this court’s employees who died this December already. Another coworker’s dad is hanging at the brink in the hospital, we’re dreading getting the phone call at any moment.

Well, I still got to hit the gym at lunch today, ran a tough mile at a near-sprint for a warmup and then hit the weights. A friend who was working overtime at the courthouse a couple of weeks ago had asked me as I was leaving at lunchtime whether I was leaving for the gym. I had answered that I was. “All right. Tear it up,” he’d said. I like how that’s put. I like to think I’m tearing it up. Altho to look at the numbers (weight and fat percentage) alone, it’d appear I’m wasting my time.