cindy's world

I was trying not to bitch about this, but, clearly, I failed. It’s common knowledge that if a relief clerk takes your place in your courtroom, you’ll come back to things either not done, not done right, or things misplaced/changed. I got all 3 categories.

The trial we got yesterday has two probation violation cases trailing it. That means that the guy’s in trial on one case, and if he’s found guilty, he’s obviously violated the terms of his probation on his 2 other cases cuz one of the terms of probation is to not commit any crimes (duh). (Of course the defendant gets due process on the probation violation cases, i.e. a probation violation hearing.) Anyway, the relief clerk only did a minute order entry on the main case. I had to find out that there were 2 trailing probation violation cases for which nothing was done, and I really don’t want to do work for someone when I wasn’t even here for the hearing and have my name attached to a legal document, but hell, it’s not gonna take very long. So I had to email my supervisor to ask for her ID# to input into the system for her 2 orders, or at least her name, so that I could put it into the comment section. Of course he hasn’t responded. I hope he just tells her to do the two entries herself. As for our 7-defendant criminal case my department did in the morning before the trial, I’m scared to look in there in case she screwed stuff up, and the heavy file’s just sitting on top of the file cabinet, not even put back in a filing cabinet. Apparently some important things happened in that 7-defendant case, i.e. a lot of charges got dropped and 3 defendants were therefore released from the case, subject to refiling. That’s a lot of updating in the system.

And here’s the more petty bitching: my chair was lowered all the way down and stuck like that so that it took both me and my reporter to yank the thing back up; my favorite pen is missing. I’m not saying she stole it. Maybe she just didn’t put it back anywhere I could find it.

If I wanted the day off or I called in sick or am on vacation, that’s fine, I made the request and it’s a sacrifice I considered. But when I’m here for work and I get taken out of my courtroom to fill in for another courtroom and my own courtroom is in session, without any forewarning when they could’ve planned this better by arranging for someone else to fill in the other courtroom last week or at least by letting me know so that I could make some prep in my courtroom… argh!

OH MY GAWD! I just leaned back in my chair and the whole back just goes completely back! I don’t know what the hell adjustment I need to make so that I don’t flip out of it if I leaned back! Waaah!!

We’re doing a criminal trial, and I’m half listening to testimony but keeping myself busy processing more divorces.

Is there a sick irony that the 2 self-addressed stamped envelopes a petitioner included in her divorce papers, in which envelopes I’m to send the final divorce documents back to the parties, have postage stamps showing a hand holding a big bouquet of flowers with the word “L O V E” written across the bottom in big block letters? I wonder if the petitioner (the person who filed for divorce) thought anything when she put the stamps on these envelopes. I’m probably just thinking too much, as usual. But if it were me, and let’s say the respondent, my soon-to-be-ex-husband, cheated on me, the only way a “love” stamp would’ve been on the envelopes would’ve been deliberately, as if to scoff, “Love, ha! If you knew how to love you wouldn’t be receiving this in the mail, ya jackass.”

Wilco told me in the wee hours this morning that I need to stop hanging out with people who are so down and disillusioned about marriage. Even if I started hanging out exclusively with happily married or optimistic-about-marriage people, this basketful of divorce cases alone would make me cringe. Sometimes I get lucky. I get a phone call from a divorcee inquiring about the status of their divorce case in my courtroom, and I get an earful of how he/she got screwed by the soon-to-be-ex.

Sad. It’s just sad.

I discovered in the wee hours of the morning that the pain becomes manageable if I curl up in a tight ball, hugging my knees, and remain upright. So I rearranged the pillows on my bed so that I could sorta sit and lean sideways and finally get some rest. I woke up with a start with the morning light streaming in through the windows, and my alarm clock, which had not gone off, was flashing 2:40. I’d lost power to the house 2 hours and 40 minutes ago. What the hell time was it? It was a bit past 8:30a. I called my supervisor and left a brief voice mail explaining my tardiness but saying I’m on my way, and clamored to the restroom and brushed my teeth, washed my face, decided to skip the makeup and instead bring my face to work with me in a makeup bag. I figured I’d make an appointment with Kaiser when I got to work.

When I got to my desk, I saw a flat little jewelry envelope sitting unobtrusively between my stapler and hole puncher. Inside is a metallic cookie-cutter type angel ornament that appears to be hand-painted. Definitely more sentimental than impersonally mass-produced. My staff knows nothing of it. I called a couple of coworkers who have left things anonymously on my desk before, and none of them seemed to know what I’m talking about. Who has access to a secure courtroom early in the morning, who would think to do this? I thought it was someone who reads my blog and therefore knows what I’m currently experiencing, and wants to leave a little token of support to tell me that I’ll be fine and that an angel is watching over me.

There is a small metal angel clipped to the upper left edge of my rear-view mirror, which I got after my first and only car accident. A circle around the angel reads, “An angel to watch over you.” I now have a courtroom angel which I will pin up on my desk bulletin. So to whomever left it, if you are a blog reader of mine, thank you for the reminder that things will work out. They do always work out.

I am going to juggle between my courtroom and a specialized courtroom down the hall today. They are very short on clerks again. My appointment is at 6:40pm a couple of miles from work, which will work out nicely because I’m gonna stay after work for the retirement party at a nearby hotel anyway. That way I’ll just leave at 6:20 or so to go to the appointment.

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.

What begins with a funeral, ends with a party, and has lots of hard work in-between? No, it’s not the way a dyslexic person describes his life. It’s…today!

I got in to work early to meet up with my judge and court reporter, and the judge drove us to my bailiff’s mother’s funeral. It was a nice little service. My bailiff, whom we hadn’t seen for the past week due to his bereavement leave, had his back turned looking into the coffin with his arm around his sister when we walked into the chapel. Then the service began, and he never saw us, because we had to leave early to come resume our criminal trial. It was nice to see that there were so many people there that he wouldn’t have missed us. I recognized his daughter and his brother from photos he’d shown us.

At lunch, I left to go run 4 miles at the gym. Lately, altho I tell people “I’m gonna hit 4 miles today” when they ask where I’m going, I don’t really believe myself. I figure that’s just the tentative plan, but that I’d likely modify it when my athletic abilities don’t allow for the optimism. Surprisingly, I ran 4 miles without any overexertion at 5.8 mph (a bit over 41 mins), then did a lap and a half cool-down jog-walk. Without my MP3 player. I guess my court reporter was right. Sometimes you have an “off” day (like Monday), and sometimes you have an “on” day. I’m glad I took advantage of my “on” day. She, on the other hand, I caught yawning while doing arm curls. She’s “off” today and hated every moment of her workout, but in the end, no matter how much your brain resents the process, your body still got the benefits of a workout in.

Tonight, Mr. W’s buddy is spinning (or maybe just DJ-ing, I’m not sure) at some beach town club. I don’t remember what city he said it’s in. But we’re gonna go represent. The location’s supposed to be just casual dress, but casual in a club is not the same casual at a BBQ, so I have no idea what to wear. Especially since it rained earlier, so looking skanky has its price. Har. On the other hand, I really should wear the stuff I can get away with wearing now, before my body ages and my skin puckers and my parts sag and support becomes not just an option, but mandatory if I don’t want to trip over mammary glands.

Diana has a link to a UCLA page that not only has the words to the UCLA fight song, “Sons of Westwood,” but PLAYS it in its full band glory, complete with the cheer

U! (clap, clap, clap)
C! (clap, clap, clap)
L! (clap, clap, clap)
A! (clap, clap, clap)

U-C-L-A! Fight! Fight! Fight! .

My family law reference judge is/was an active Trojan, and his daughter is presently a USC student following in his footsteps. He is away on a judicial conference for the next couple of days, and won’t be back until Monday. So I called his line in his chambers, waited for it to go to voice mail, and played the song in its entirety into his voice mail. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Gawd, I hope UCLA wins this Saturday against USC at the Colliseum. Cuz if we don’t, when the judge comes back on Monday and listens to this voice mail, it’d just be inane. Good thing I didn’t identify myself.

Haha, due to my playing of the UCLA Fight Song in this prank, my bailiff du jour (not my regular bailiff) is now stuck mindlessly humming and whistling the song. HA! Now if I can get this song stuck in more people’s heads… Muahahahahaha!

***
Update 10:40am: I just returned from another floor. The UCLA-USC rivalry is rampant around here! People (judges, clerks and lawyers alike) are actually wearing collegiate pins and colors and insulting each other in the elevator. I always knew the rivalry was a big thing and I’ve been harassed by judges before coming back from jogging at lunch wearing a “Bruins Unlimited” T-shirt. This is GREAT!

I am sooo sleepy. I had lunch with some coworkers instead of doing a 3-mile run. They were going to a new Italian restaurant and it’s hard for me to resist Italian. I had a great manicotti. My coworker Andy advised me before we got there to not drink the water provided by the restaurant because, apparently, “it can choke a horse.” He’d brought this to the attention of the restaurant staff before, and their response was “Yeah, we know, the water in Santa Fe Springs is a bit heavy on the metal.” “Heavy on the metal?! You can float a spoon in there!” was the response. The food was not at all greasy or overly heavy, but golly, I hit food coma anyway.

I need enough energy to hit the grocery store after work to buy ingredients for what I am in charge of bringing to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by a friend: lowfat, low-cal chocolate cheesecake. I know, sounds fishy, but I can do it, darn it! Since i have jujitsu Wednesday, I should make the cheesecake tonite and let it just gel in the fridge. Otherwise, I suppose I can make it Thursday morning. Yeah, Thursday morning sounds good.

I should really clean the house, too. Gawd, the cat can sure spew fur.

Meanwhile, must…force…self…to divorce…more…people…

And then there’s the packing required to go with Mr. W to Vegas for the long weekend, and it can’t just be any sloppy ol’ comfy clothes, cuz it’s meet-the-‘rents weekend. *sob*

I need a maid! And a clothing-packer! And a shaved cat! And a chef!

Things always have a funny way of lining up for me on a theme. The theme this week for me was “character.” I’d said a few times to a few people in the last couple days that someone may look good on paper, but his character almost killed me. And then there may be someone whose “dating resume” doesn’t look good on paper, but I’d never been so comfortable or happy. And then out of nowhere, the plaintiff’s attorney throws this into his closing argument right now on a car accident case:

“I don’t have time to talk about character very long but I will just mention a book that I read about ten years ago. There is a book on who to marry. What kind of person should you marry, should you marry somebody beautiful? Should you marry somebody tall, dark and handsome? Whom should you marry, somebody rich? Should you marry somebody who has all the hobbies you have? The book says don’t look after any of those issues, those are false. The issues you need to look at in the person you’re going to marry are honesty, if they treat you well, if they are hardworking, if they are religious. And if they’re loyal. Because the person you want to marry is the woman that you want who will stay you for 30 years if you become disabled. Or if you’re a girl you want a man that will stay with you for 30 years if you become disabled. All these other issues are not good. You can get a guy that’s tall dark and handsome and he can cheat on you every day and lie to you and be a drunkard and go gambling every day and leave you for another woman at the first chance he gets.
So character is very important in life.”

My court reporter turned to me and winked.

I don’t get it. I got up an hour earlier today than I have the rest of the week, and I’m later than I had been all week. What happens with the time in between getting ready and getting into my car? Do I step thru some warp zone? [Super Mario Bros. theme song plays]

All Network Users:

ISTB Deputy Director for Infrastructure

I (along with the rest of courthouse employees county-wide) have no outside email, I’d left my cell phone at home due to my mad dash to work this morning, and our desk phones won’t let us call out of LA County except for a few geographically closer cities of Orange County.

I must say, it’s kinda nice. Kinda like a technological Walden’s Pond.