Working in the Background

I'm hopeful I'll finally be able to shake this whatever-it-is I've been carrying around.  I keep trying to kick it out and it won't go past the door-sill.  Grr.  Uninvited guests are usually a joy.  This one ain't. 

A lot of the background work I've been putting into the division has paid off in expected ways - which then pays off in unexpected ways.  I thought I'd have to cancel yet another doctor's appointment when the State continued their pattern of nolle pross or CTS on our trail cases, enabling me to get some more (and more potent) western medicine.  I'm not sure the last case we had which involved further jail time/additional terms for anyone.  I mean, we've had them, but just not in the past few weeks.  For us (as a division) "a few weeks" means about 100 cases set for trial. 

I passed on what sounded like a very fun trip to Savannah, GA with friends.  Besides coughing in the car with them for 10 hours (ack!), I've a few housekeeping things to catch up on, not to mention some trial prep.  (I snapped a great pic of The Mayor with our stack of cases - it was about 1.5 feet deep on his desk.)  We must be ready on everything we must be ready on, of course.  This week features some charges I haven't seen before, some interesting issues, and a handful of cases that, if not dropped, must go to trial for different structural reasons.  So I'm fairly confident that I'll be in front of a jury on Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs.  Unless of course, the state crumbles.  Which happens. 

Some of you may have read about the massive budget problems the FL judiciary is facing, resulting in threatened lay-offs.  I think my job is fairly secure, but in any event I'm not worried.  One thing I do well is land on my feet and go on.  And to be honest, I haven't really spent all that much time thinking about it, except for a few seconds of very non-emotional "huh - well, I guess I'd have to do X, Y, Z."

**

It's good Friday, which means I have the day off.  Yea!

And it certainly looks like an awesome and breezy day outside in my tropical city.  I got a wedding invite recently for cousins who are getting hitched down in the D.R. which will be fun.  I'm not saying Miami has jaded me, but the weather above our palm trees is *so* consistently amazing down here that the thought of the D.R. is kind of ho-hum. 

I have to wonder how much the fact that I love my job, despite the chronic overworkedness, comes from a) our success for our clients, b) the awesome weather and sunlight, c) the ability to bicycle at any point  in the day/week/year without massive prep work, d) the amazing people I work with.  I mean, I don't want to imply that I don't inherently love what I'm fortunate enough to be paid to do.  Because I do.  But I could see it getting to me if I were slush-bound, in low-lit dark weather, jury/voir-dire-less, and/or working with a bunch of disengaged self-absorbed would-be litigators.  Which I understand happens in places.  The Mayor and I talk about this a lot - he's from Uruguay, I'm from New England, so we both understand real seasons.   

I think I'm going to go goof off for a bit.  Buy a cigar.  Have an aguapanela or a cuban coffee, a couple of pastelitos de guayaba.   Walk around in Little Havana for a bit listening to a new set of Skatalites songs.  Stop in a cafe and work on some poetry.  Maybe catch dinner/whiskey later with The Mayor. 

I'll stop by the office at some point and get a few things done in there as well, probably with the window open. 

Hmm.  Sounds like a plan.  See y'all soon.