Special delivery

So, it's officially been two weeks since I began working at the Travis County Attorney's Office, and the experience has been going rather well. I started off hired in the Transactions division, which, from what I could tell, would have involved sitting in a small room (which contains a small fan that actually takes about a half hour to start up) with three other law clerks and researching things on Lexis. On day 2 and a half, I was whisked down to the third floor to start working with the Family Violence division. Things there have been much more interesting, in that I've mostly been watching prosecutors strike deals with defense attorneys and sitting through most of a jury trial.




Today was a particularly exciting day in Court 4. Fridays are pre-trial days, in which the prosecutors either strike deals or give defense attorneys discovery on the cases. First, not one, but two male attorneys came in wearing seersucker suits. I guess it is officially summer in Texas! Second, and less exciting even, was that a woman in the lobby of the court room went into labor while waiting to... do something. Oh, it was quite the commotion. EMS was called, the sheriffs were attending to the lady in the bathroom, and one other prosecutor was set in charge of caring for the woman's 2 year old son. That's totally part of the job description. Anyway, this kid got a sticker in the shape of a sheriff's badge (AWESOME), and from what I am told, also got a balloon, a stuffed dalmatian and a ride on the fire engine, so I think he came out on top of the whole situation.

As far as my duties go, my main job has been to watch the prosecutors and nod my head every once in a while. Sometimes I look over the files and tell them "what I think", which I am sure they value greatly. Finally, I wrote up subpoenas for a couple of days, so I actually feel like I might be contributing something.

In other news, Crazy Mexicans from Upstairs are gone. The apartment manager ran into me and Stephen outside our apartment on Wednesday, and she sang "They're goooone" with great glee. Now, it's our turn to move to the other side of the apartment complex. It'll be a hassle, but our new place has a balcony that faces a field, as opposed to the parking lot. Apparently we're not supposed to grill on our balconies, but now that our apartment will face nothingness, they'll never know of our covert grilling practices! Mwahaha.