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My very long day
Dec. 1st, 2006 10:15 pmIt started at 5:30 this morning. I set the alarm for half an hour earlier than usual due to the weather warnings. It didn't look too bad when I got up, but I was out of the house before 6, and on my way after getting the slush off the car windows. More than two and one-half hours later, I was at the office. This is twice as long as usual. Nasty. If I hadn't been on trial, I'd have taken a vacation day.
I arrived to a message from our client, saying that he had decided not to testify. Stupid, stupid, stupid. We had, of course, structured our entire case, opening statements, cross-examination, etc., around his expected testimony. We had spent last night wrapping our heads around some complex jury instructions that we intended to ask for, based on his expected testimony. So that was a waste. And I had to restructure my close. Well, no one can say we didn't tell him. (Oh, yeah, we lost. No surprise there.)
As a result, we had a verdict in the early afternoon. I'd thought about leaving right afterward, but my desk was a complete disaster area, what with the trial this week, last week being a short week due to the holiday, and being off a couple of days the week before that because of my injuries. So I spent the rest of the afternoon finding the surface of my desk, returning phone calls, doing paperwork, and left only about half-an-hour early. (But I am taking Monday & Tuesday off. And at least five more days before the end of the year, since if I don't use them, I lose them.)
I had a $15 gift card from World Market burning a hole in my wallet, so I stopped by on that's on my way back into the city. I found a nice small rug (washable) to put by the cats' litter boxes and a tea mug (with infuser and lid) decorated with pandas for my sister.
On to Casa Italiana for Movie Night, Roberto Benigni's La Tigre e la neve. Oh, I loved this movie! Funny, sad, romantic, fantastical, all in one. Benigni is Attilio de Giovanni, poet and teacher of poetry, divorced with two children, a bit of a womanizer, but in love with Vittoria, a writer who is working on a biography of his friend, an Iraqi poet, Fuad. Fuad returns to Baghdad just at the beginning of the U.S. invasion, and Vittoria goes, too. Then Attilio receives a call from Fuad, telling him that Vittoria has been caught in a bombing and is in hospital. He immediately decides to go to her, and is faced with the reality that is Iraq at war, the lack of medical care, the (literal) mine fields, the danger of roadblocks when no one can speak the others' language. In the midst of this, he tries desperately to find the medicine to save her. And in the midst of this, being Benigni, there is laughter. I don't know when, or if, it will be released in the U.S., but if you have the chance, see it.
I arrived to a message from our client, saying that he had decided not to testify. Stupid, stupid, stupid. We had, of course, structured our entire case, opening statements, cross-examination, etc., around his expected testimony. We had spent last night wrapping our heads around some complex jury instructions that we intended to ask for, based on his expected testimony. So that was a waste. And I had to restructure my close. Well, no one can say we didn't tell him. (Oh, yeah, we lost. No surprise there.)
As a result, we had a verdict in the early afternoon. I'd thought about leaving right afterward, but my desk was a complete disaster area, what with the trial this week, last week being a short week due to the holiday, and being off a couple of days the week before that because of my injuries. So I spent the rest of the afternoon finding the surface of my desk, returning phone calls, doing paperwork, and left only about half-an-hour early. (But I am taking Monday & Tuesday off. And at least five more days before the end of the year, since if I don't use them, I lose them.)
I had a $15 gift card from World Market burning a hole in my wallet, so I stopped by on that's on my way back into the city. I found a nice small rug (washable) to put by the cats' litter boxes and a tea mug (with infuser and lid) decorated with pandas for my sister.
On to Casa Italiana for Movie Night, Roberto Benigni's La Tigre e la neve. Oh, I loved this movie! Funny, sad, romantic, fantastical, all in one. Benigni is Attilio de Giovanni, poet and teacher of poetry, divorced with two children, a bit of a womanizer, but in love with Vittoria, a writer who is working on a biography of his friend, an Iraqi poet, Fuad. Fuad returns to Baghdad just at the beginning of the U.S. invasion, and Vittoria goes, too. Then Attilio receives a call from Fuad, telling him that Vittoria has been caught in a bombing and is in hospital. He immediately decides to go to her, and is faced with the reality that is Iraq at war, the lack of medical care, the (literal) mine fields, the danger of roadblocks when no one can speak the others' language. In the midst of this, he tries desperately to find the medicine to save her. And in the midst of this, being Benigni, there is laughter. I don't know when, or if, it will be released in the U.S., but if you have the chance, see it.
