298 in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

Last night, I could not sleep. My left leg pops when I move it. My stomach was resoundingly unhappy. My neck and back feel like an accordion player mistook them for his instrument. So… I didn’t get much sleep. And to cap it off; I spent a (collective) 130 minutes on the toilet.

So, when it came time to go to work today… I was on the toilet and decided I could not quite get away to be on time. So I texted Jude and let her know. Then after getting off the toilet, I played some music (because Wife was awake, so I wouldn’t have to worry about waking her) and finally fell asleep. For 3 hours. Woke up, got dressed and went in to work… because I have court today. When I got into work; Jude said “(She) could tell (I) was not feeling well because of (my) eyes.” So… awesome? My eyes declare that I feel like crap. Hooray.

So I’m considering packing my laptop up and grabbing some files and working from home tomorrow. Not just “calling in” but actually working from home tomorrow. I’ve said before that I could probably be more successful. We’ll see. Frankly, there still isn’t actually much to do here. Because there never is. Which is always a stupid bullshit thing to say. Because I do have stuff I can do. Phone calls to make, paperwork to snail mail to people. But… none of that feels active. At no point in my day do I need to actively do something. Just… passively check on things.

And the Doomsday Clock has just moved again. Closest it has been to Armageddon since 1953. So there’s you “Make America Great Again!” After all, a lot of people who chanted that were thinking of the 1950s as “the last time America was great.” Well… since we have a President/Government that can’t take us back to the 1950s in positive ways; I hope they’re happy to take us back there in negative ways!

Mother. Fucker.
I should know better. Or at the very least.... I should expect this kind of stupid, moronic shit.
I had a Mental Health Hearing today. Here is how they should go. Step 1: State defers to Medical Order. Step 2: Patient agrees/disagrees and states case. Step 3: Magistrate writes order. In Omaha… that is a 5 minute hearing. In Council Bluffs… that is a 10 minute hearing. Here? THAT IS A 115 MINUTE HEARING! Seriously. Seriously. Because the Magistrate here never did any trial work. So we have to explain her job to her; then she explains her job to the patient; then she asks us all what should happen; then she requests that we tell her how to write her order; then she explains to the patient that she is writing an order; then we volunteer specific wording and sentences to her about the order she is supposed to write; then on and on and on. MOTHER. FUCKER. Because… this isn’t practicing law. I was practicing law more when I was working in the Douglas County Law Library. This is… just… baby town frolics and the masquerade of a system that substitutes for judicial as the county has no concern for legitimate Judicial Activity.

As to my cases? Well, I’ve told you I don’t have many. I’ve told you that there is work I can/could/should be doing about the cases I have. Well… I decided to ask Ran. And here’s the deal (a genuine issue I’ve realized)… I work better “on the page.” If we have a discussion about The Law… I will forget. If you write it down, I will remember. So… I have Five Cases that have officially become “old.” Old, in this case, means that there are no future trial dates nor future judicial events. Essentially, it is a case that started over (in some cases) 6 months ago that should really come to an end sooner than later. Honestly, only having 5 cases like that (and those cases being at most 6 months old) is not bad. That puts me ahead of the curve on Ren (predecessor) and Boss. But still… just because I’m doing better than the Bad Examples that came before me… that doesn’t mean I’m doing well. So, I e-mailed Ran to let him know where I was on those cases and what help I could use on those cases. Hopefully, he gets back to me. Because… it would be nice to have No old cases. In fact, secret goal (just between you and me)… it is deep hope that by the end of February… I’ll have no active cases from 2016 left. I know, it is a bit crazy. But… it would be nice if (within 2 months of a new attorney starting and a new year), all of my cases were FROM THIS YEAR.

So… Ran is a talker not a writer. Came in to discuss the e-mail. On two of the cases where I’m waiting for people; he gave me good advice on something I can actively do to move the case along. Good. I need that. On cases where I need or am still waiting on Discovery? Ran is like, “Wow. Yeah. We need to make a form we can send to the officers. Because we can’t be expected to hunt them down every time a case comes up. We should have a form that says what we need, and they can give it to us.” YEAH! Like… how FUNCTIONING Attorney/Officer Relationships work in Counties where The Board and The Officers aren’t The Only Powers. But mentioning that form again… doesn’t make it materialize. :/ So… we need that to happen, buddy.

That has been my work day. I have not read PB Entries but I may (very likely) do that when I get home. I have not responded to the wonderful (and appreciated) notes from yesterday but I hope to do so when I get home. I would sound off with a positive, pleasant, or at least amusing thing but… I saw this:

This was tweeted by a City Councilor in New Mexico. However, it could easily have come from one of my cousins. Or most of the people in my county. Or a number of people in this country. Here’s the issue: When I support the Women’s March, it is because things like this are so familiar to me. Perhaps, as a woman, you’ve never seen anything like this before and feel that the March was an unnecessary waste of time; a group of privileged women bitching that they aren’t special or whatever. What I saw at the march was this. It was women in a country that pretends we’re Post-Racism and Post-Sexism saying: After Trump’s election; you have to face that we aren’t Post anything. Trump’s election, whether intentional or incidental, did a good job of showing the Racists, the Misogynists, the Homo-Phobes, and the Hateful that “they have a place here.” When Trump says that we are dealing with an “American Carnage” and the hateful think “We know how to solve that”.... the hateful need to be reminded. This should NOT be a country where, after 3 generations Born in America, a Hispanic Child is told to “Go back to Mexico.” This should NOT be a country where, after a lifetime of military service, a Muslim Marine is told “You hate America, you dirty Muslim!” This should NOT be a country where, a law abiding upstanding citizen is given less civil liberties because “You fuck men, faggot!” And this should NOT be a country where women are treated as second-class citizens by being told to “Get back in the kitchen; stop your bitching; or I’ll slap you.”