04.17.07
Posted in personal, miscellaneous, front line stories at 9:12 pm by misstyrios
Today was another long, exhausting day. But, unlike my post on Friday after a long, exhausting day, I do not have the luxury of a three-day weekend ahead of me to recuperate (yes, Massachusetts has a made-up holiday so that thousands of crazy people can run 26.2 miles. It’s awesome). But I had to reflect on a couple of things -
1 - I have only been a public defender for about 7.5 months. And, obviously, it has been a very steep learning curve in all respects. But today, I realized that I have grown enormously in the small (but vital) area of taking things in stride. I am, by nature, someone who gets harried and stressed out when faced with difficult situations, or even just a lot of things going on at once. And dealing with that was one of my biggest challenges as a PD. When I had to be in 12 places at once, I couldn’t focus on any of them and would get flustered, sometimes to my embarrassment (please tell me that I am not the only one who has cried in the courtroom before). I couldn’t formulate thoughts when the judge threw me something unexpected and I often just would not be able to remain calm and deal with things one at a time. Today, when faced with a very difficult situation and a very difficult judge, I actually just…stayed calm, thought threw the twists, said everything right, and resolved what was looking like an unresloveable situation. And my brain said “Hey, you wouldn’t have been able to do that a few months ago. And now you look like a real lawyer! And a good lawyer!” Then I mentally patted myself on the back.
2 - I have given probation departments and probation officers a lot of grief. They are sometimes much more difficult to deal with than prosecutors, and their jobs are not, by definition, to be out to get people. But today (in the same difficult situation referenced above), I worked WITH (not, for once, against) the best probation officer in the state (title conferred by me). He went far, far above and beyond what he had to do (which was…nothing) out of actual concern for my client. He was, in simple terms, awesome. And I wish I could pat him on the back. But that would be a little weird.
Permalink
03.22.07
Posted in personal, miscellaneous at 12:09 am by misstyrios
I am taking off for a much-needed vacation to Las Vegas in a few hours. To amuse yourself while I am away, check out these interesting stories and sites:
Article about the legal challenges involving transsexuals and employment discrimination
Needled - A blog about tattoos by the fabulous lawyer Marisa DiMattia.
TV Gal - This has nothing to do with the law or politics, but I enjoy TV a little too much and have been reading Amy the TV Gal’s column for over 10 years now.
Celeb Warship - Again, this reflects my pop culture interests and is the best snarky gossip site on the interweb (written by my dear friend Alyk).
And finally…Viva Las Vegas!
Permalink
03.17.07
Posted in personal, miscellaneous, front line stories at 12:10 am by misstyrios
Guess what? I’m back to the blog. I know it has been seven months and honestly, I’m ashamed of that. I started this blog as a labor of love, after having my semi-professional writing gig come to an end. But since taking the bar last summer, I have actually become a real public defender and cases and clients and commuting have consumed me. By the time I am home and able to write, my brain is fried and I end up watching television. But I have recently discovered the fantastic plethora of public defender blogs out in internet land and I have been inspired to truly kick mine into gear.
To keep you occupied while I start writing up a storm, I recommend Indefensible, written by David Feige, author of the book by the same name. And I have just discovered Ipse Dixit, which beautifully combines PD musings and American Idol snark. That combination must be loved. Finally, a special shout out to Arbitrary and Capricious, the only blog by someone I don’t know to link to one of my stories here!
Today, I was on arraignment duty in district court. It was a light day without many arrests, so the atmosphere in lock-up seemed a little more bearable than usual. Most often, it is crowded, smelly, and hot and I focus all of my attention just on the clients I need to talk to. I have learned to generally shut out the cat calls and insults that are sometimes hurled around by men whose confidence is somehow boosted by being locked up. But today, there were only a couple of people there and they were quite friendly and funny:
Defendant 1, upon seeing me waiting at the door of lock-up for a court officer to let me back into the courtroom: You don’t have a wedding ring! You’re not married?
Me: Ha. No, I am not married.
D1: Are you getting married?
Me: Eventually, hopefully.
D2: Aww, you should get married. You’re so pretty.
D1: I have a couple of engagement rings I haven’t used. Do you want one?
It was rather hilarious.
Permalink
07.20.06
Posted in personal at 12:08 pm by misstyrios
I apologize for not writing regularly - I am taking the bar exam next week and it has eaten up my entire life. Once it is over and done with (and I hopefully pass, thus allowing me to become the bleeding heart and broke lawyer I have always wanted to be), I will be making almost-daily updates. So stay tuned.
Permalink
06.02.06
Posted in personal, miscellaneous, politics at 10:55 pm by misstyrios
First, yes, I realize that his name is Senator Barack Obama, not “O’Bama,” but here in Boston, we like to give things an Irish twist whenever possible. And since I would like to advocate opening this city (and every city, town, and village in the country) to this man and his ideals, I would like to give him a little hometown flavor as a token of love.
Today, my younger brother graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, at which Sen. Obama was the keynote speaker. By a series of fortuitous connections, my family got to sit in the second row VIP section with Deval Patrick, the equally fantastic gubernatorial candidate here in Massachusetts. If these two men could lead the country with a 1-2 punch, I would be in bleeding heart heaven. Luckily, the two men are fast friends. And both have loveable senses of humor: yesterday, Patrick proclaimed that he wanted to win “every single vote on every single ballot” in the election for governor and Obama wrote a tongue-in-cheek epistle to comedian Stephen Colbert, who was delivering the commencement speech at Knox College, where Obama had spoken last year:
Before you deliver your remarks in front of literally millions fewer
people than you would at say, a nationally televised political
convention, I’d like to offer you a few words of advice. First, I know
you’re fond of your Peabody Awards, whatever those are, but I’d
recommend not bringing them. The students at Knox are down to earth and
not impressed by materials possessions like my Grammy Award for Best
Spoken Word Album.
Second, use hand sanitizer after the Pumphandle. Lots of germs there. I
cannot stress this enough.
And finally, don’t forget to bring the Truth. I’d recommend putting it
in your carry-on bag rather than in your checked luggage. O’Hare Airport
is notoriously unreliable.
Obama gave a truly perfect commencement speech and demonstrated why every other hopeful bleeding heart in this country is overly anxious to see him skyrocket in his political career. He spoke of never, ever ceasing to be amazed at the world and - most near and dear to my public defender heart - about taking the path that others may frown upon. He spoke of graduating from Columbia University (where I also happened to graduate from) and, rather than going to Wall Street as so many of his classmates, he set his heart on becoming a “community organizer,” ending up working for an organization of churches in an impoverished Chicago neighborhood for $12,000 a year. It may sound like typical commencement idealism, but it was the way he spoke those words that made me well up (part of that is also attributable to the fact that my little brother was graduating, of course). And it is that power, coupled with that true idealism, that makes Obama the amazing politician that he is. So here’s to hoping - Obama in ‘08 (or ‘12 or whenever).
So don’t let people talk you into the safe thing. Listen to what’s in you and decide what it is that you care so much about that you’re willing to take a chance.
Permalink
· Next entries »
