cindy's world

Work is so. bad. today.

I already called the regular bailiff in here (who’s not here today) and told him that I hate him for not being here to help me. Twice.

There are just too many curve balls thrown at me today in an area of law that I had zero training in.

I am so short-leashed and so cranky and I hate everybody and everything.

Add to that, I couldn’t even work out my aggression at lunch because some crazy guy was following me around the gym saying stupid things at me. I won’t even put the conversation on here. I’ll just say he was crazy, and apparently thought he was being interviewed for the position of “boyfriend.” Ugh. UGH!!!

I was actually parked in my local gym’s parking lot yesterday evening, gabbing on the phone w/a friend, when my long-lost friend Dwaine called in thru call waiting. I had been trying to track this guy down for a year, so when he said he was in the local area and asked if I was free to meet him, I scrapped my workout plan.

I met him at BJ’s and since I was there first, sat down at the bar and ordered a bottle of Belgium Kriek Ale. (I wasn’t classless; I poured it into a curvy glass.) A man approached me to my right. “Everybody’s betting that you’re waiting for a guy friend,” he said.
It sounded like a line to me, so since I’m kind of an ass, I said, “Who’s everybody?”
He looked put on the spot and turned and pointed in a general direction of a large table behind me. “So, are you waiting for a guy friend?”
I looked at him again. “How much is at stake?”
“What?”
“What are you betting?”
“Oh, just a beer.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “That’s nothing. That’s inconsequential. I’m not going to answer the question.”
He badgered me a little, and I finally admitted I am waiting for a male friend I’ve known since junior high whom I haven’t seen in years. He said, “You look like you’re barely out of high school!”
I laughed. “I just missed my 10-yr reunion.”
“I just missed my 30-yr,” he said. And then he went on about how he was at his daughter’s wedding last weekend instead. So wait. You’re 47, 48, you think I’m in my low 20s and you’re HITTING on me? Nevertheless, he insisted on talking to me until my friend arrived, which he did, and Dwaine admirably simply introduced himself to this guy and shook his hand. I smiled at the stranger and thanked him for making my day.

Dwaine and I hit up a few different bars in Fullerton, in search of a place with good drinks and some form of entertainment that isn’t so loud that we can’t hear each other. We do have some great conversations; in a restaurant years ago after the two of us exchanged incredulous looks when the next table’s conversation traveled over he’d said, “Just once, I’d like to overhear a conversation that’s half as interesting as ours.” We ended up at a restaurant/bar that had a live jazz band, and a guy happened to be there filming a documentary on the bar. I wish I remembered what the bar’s called. Anyway, Dwaine and I charmed our way thru (as usual) and we were interviewed, signed releases, and we may see ourselves on TV sometime in the future.

By that, I mean not that I worked out at lunch, which I didn’t, but that the day at work worked out.

I’m pretty proud of myself for figuring the system out, both the courtroom and the computer system.

I also had a lot of fun chatting with the bailiff, courtroom assistant and reporter. It’s a blessing to find people who can make me laugh and whom I can connect with. It’s nice to have friends around me.

So now I have to hit the gym after work for at least 2 hours to make up for not going to the gym at lunch. *sigh* At least by the time I get out of here (still have 4 restraining order minute orders to complete), the gym will hopefully no longer be crowded.

My supervisor already pre-apologized to me for putting me back in here tomorrow. Unfortunately, the regular bailiff will be off tomorrow so I don’t know who I’ll have in here. The calendar’s bigger than today’s, and I won’t get as much help with a relief bailiff, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. But first I gotta check to see if my group got called in for jury service…phone’s ringing right now…recorded message has started…service is not needed and service is complete! Well, that was easy. I have mixed feelings about this, tho… I almost rather do jury duty than another day in family law listening to these people’s drama.

I was told I would be in my own department today, altho dark, to clear out my stupid family law divorce case load. Did that happen? No. I am presently sitting in an actual family law department, for which I have had zero training and zero experience, and I don’t even know how to do a calendar on their computer program. At least the bailiff in here is a friend of mine. We used to dance at the after-work parties so he’s more familiar w/me than some other people. He already said he’ll do most of the work for me. =/ But he can’t do the computer work.

He just checked everybody in. It’s a freaking full house. I am going to be in a very foul mood today. Oh, just now I found out we have a 1:30p calendar, too.

You know what this means? I am going to have a ferocious workout at lunch. I almost left the house this morning w/o my workout bag. I had my car halfway backed out of the garage, and then when I realized what I was missing, I ran back into the house and threw my workout clothes together. This morning, I was down 3 lbs with a 1% increase in body fat which means I am debloating. Ugh. I am so cranky, I feel the black clouds swirling.

This is probably all in my head, but I think I look better already. 65 minutes on the elliptical trainer on a cross-training program after work. Not too high of a level, just level 4, but I was definitely sweating. I think my legs look more toned, too. Hopefully the puffiness is due to bloating from my sodium high so the sweating and the excess water I drank all day will take care of that.

My judge is at a dude ranch right now with his family on vacation, so I’m manning another courtroom which is presently engaged in a robbery jury trial. The clerk who’s normally in this courtroom took the day off to go to the Ford dealership to pick up her new 2005 Mustang Saleen.

A girl walked in with a motion that needed to be filed next door, so I instructed the bailiff to direct her there. She left, and a few minutes later the relief clerk next door came into the courtroom with her papers to reaffirm that it’s supposed to be in that department, and I explained it to him. Then he asked, “Did you go to Diamond Bar High School?” I looked up at him in surprise. “Yes…” I racked my brain for who this relief clerk was in high school; he looked a bit older than me. He then explained that the girl with the motion had asked him to find out because she had recognized me.

I had no idea who the girl was because, as usual, I made no eye contact with strangers. After learning from the relief clerk that she was still in his courtroom, I walked over, looked her square in the face and… did not recognize her. She greeted me warmly. I said, “I’m sorry…” and she took the hint and told me her name. Cathy. Oh my gosh! Is that what a little eyelid surgery does for Korean girls? She looks so cute! She and I didn’t hang out directly, but we had a lot of common friends and we would often be at the same event. I think she was even my tennis partner in PE at one point. We caught up on our common friends, I broke the news to her about Grace’s passing, and complimented each other on how we look now. Heh. I guess she changed more after HS than I did, altho she said she wasn’t totally sure it was me.

I just returned from the gym. I hadn’t set foot in a gym for 2 weeks because I hadn’t had the time or the energy (and barely any sleep). I felt guilty and sheepish going in. Luckily, people I know just welcomed me back w/o giving me a hard time.

It’s scary, dismaying and frustrating how the body deteriorates after just 2 weeks. Looking at myself in the locker room mirror, I’m puffier in certain areas than I was even last week. On my bike warmup, I was out of breath before I started sweating, which means my cardio’s off and my metabolism’s on low. I fully planned on doing a solid weight training session for an hour or so, but I didn’t have the stamina. I supersetted chest press/lunges/single-legged dumbbell rows, 3 sets each, and then I hit abs (hard) and lower back. I did get all the major muscle groups burning (thereby “activating” more calorie burn), but I didn’t get as many exercises in as I thought I could.

3.5 weeks before Cancun. If I do weight training at lunch and cardio after work daily, I should be able to tighten up just fine. I hadn’t gained much weight, probably a couple pounds, and my body fat percentage hasn’t budged. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The jury came back before lunch with 15 guilty Lewd Act Upon a Child Under Age 14 verdicts on our trial. It took me over 20 minutes to read the verdicts into the record. Because they also found true the allegations that there were multiple victims at the time the crimes were committed, the defendant is now facing a maximum sentence of fifteen 15-yrs-to-life sentences, or 225 years to life in state prison. In common language, the defendant needs to serve 225 years in state prison before he even becomes eligible for parole. He’s 37.

This is what working in a criminal courtroom and seeing these cases does to my humor. In a discussion about this case, I said to a bailiff earlier, “That’s pretty convenient for the defendant. He’s probably just sittin’ there one day, thinking, ‘I want more sex. I know! I’ll just make 2 daughters and get another goddaughter, and that way, when they get older, I can have sex with them!’ ” They warned us in training that criminal clerks develop a dark sense of humor to survive in that environment.

They were wrong.

While I was driving around yesterday after work, running all my errands, I was playing phone tag with Thomas, and I therefore blame him for distracting me enough with his entertaining conversation (by that I mean, listening in on all the female attention he got while walking his apparently babe-magnet dog) such that I FORGOT TO CALL IN TO JURY SERVICE. I came into work this morning and as I walked into the courtroom, it struck me out of thin air that I possibly am supposed to be in Fullerton Superior Court at that very moment. I ran out to my car to get the jury duty notice and called in; luckily that courthouse didn’t order any jurors last nite for today. Whew.

FedEx made 3 daily noontime attempts to deliver my plane tickets to my house. Obviously, I was at work. I also don’t go thru my front door, so I didn’t see the tags until Saturday. The FedEx phone clerk assured me that my tickets would be at a particular FedEx building until today, and that if I didn’t pick it up today, it would be returned to Orbitz.
So I drove straight to FedEx after work. The guy at the counter looked up my tracking number in the computer and told me, “Unfortunately, your package has already been rerouted back to the sender.” “What?!”
I explained what the customer service rep on the phone said about the package being there. He said that yeah, the person was apparently trying to save himself the extra work of setting up a control # and logging in the conversation and requests in the system, and therefore FedEx did not know I called and that I wanted them to hold the package for me for pickup today.
I tell ya, it pays to be courteous and female. While I was patiently asking him for suggestions on what my options now are, since I do need my plane tickets, another FedEx counter guy overheard the conversation, looked at the computer screen over the shoulder of the guy I was talking to, and said, “Lemme see if on the off chance, it might still be here in the loading dock.” I gratefully thanked him. The guy I was talking to said that the other guy used to work in loading, so if anyone could find it, it’s him, altho it’s difficult to know which truck it’s been loaded into if it’s even still here. I sat down and waited about 10 , 15 minutes. The second guy came back and said, “Do you have your ID on you?” I lit up. “Really?! You found it!” I kept thanking him for his efforts and kissing his ass, and then I thanked the guy I was talking to for his suggestions and information.
The second guy said to me as I left, “You have a nice day.” “I definitely will now, thanks to you!” I sang.