this one's dedicated to Donna

Washington is so wonderful. Today was a run of the mill day. I rode the metro to work with Scott and Brian. Scott and I, it turns out, work in the same courthouse. So do a few other of the LCWS people that I never noticed before. Huh. When I got to work, I pulled some criminal case files from the Clerk's office for some of our files. Then we went down and watched court for a while. Nothing too exciting. A sentencing. Several CPO status hearings. One case sort of surprised me, though I know it shouldn't have. I was sitting in the second row of the courtroom, and a man was in front of me. He was tall, blond, well-built. He was wearing a suit, very well-dressed, put together. The judge's clerk called the next case and he stood up. I thought, he must be a lawyer. He moved to the respondent's side of the table. I thought, he must be the respondent's lawyer. Then the clerk said, state your name for the record. And he was the respondent. It was a little unnerving, that this smooth, good-looking guy could be an abusive bastard. But then, you never know, right? It could be anyone; your next-door neighbor, the guy who sits next to you in class. You just never know.

After a while, I decided to go to lunch. I sat outside and talked to Amberleigh for a while. (A long time, actually.) I realized that I'd missed her a lot. She's getting ready to transition from being a dispatcher to being a patrol officer. I'm so proud of her. Following lunch, I went upstairs to the Intake Center. I prepped a case, pulled another jacket [court file]. At 3:30 every Friday, the Domestic Violence Section meets at the OAG office to go over the cases for the week. Kelli and I went. On the way, she invited me to go out for happy hour after the meeting. I thought, why not. The meeting was uneventful. It was interesting, in a procedural way, but not particularly exciting.

I miss you, Donna.

(Note: edited by the author 11/9/2006.)