In Eckleburg's Eyes - 7/29/2008

On Monday night I had the unexpected pleasure of a visit from CAL. She was in town to buy an iPhone for a woman who helped her bankrupt a man. (The man asked her to.) As usual she chose to meet at the Silver Spoon Café. Any time CAL calls for an early supper, it never fails that I not only have eaten a late lunch, but a late lunch at Silver Spoon.

CAL is having no trouble finding work as an attorney. She did suffer what she referred to as her “latest major disappointment” on July 14th. She lost her first major case - a custody hearing in which she represented the father. The defeat was especially painful as she honestly believed that more time with the father was in the child’s best interest and that she had won the case. I rationalized that since she did a fine job and that her client was in the right, the only possible explanation for her defeat was a corrupt judge. This may have not been that far off as the judge resented the case going to trial. Unfortunately, a settlement could not be reached. CAL is still taking the case hard, which in my mind is evidence that she is making a fine lawyer.

She was recently appointed to a big case which has received some local media attention. She is representing a client who allegedly tied an alleged victim to an alleged truck and allegedly proceeded to drag him down an alleged street in 2007. Allegedly that is. That case will be arraigned on August 4th.

In the meantime, she was assigned to a case in juvenile court on Thursday (July 31st). She describes juvenile court as “worse than the armpit of the law”. Most young lawyers get assigned many cases there. CAL has not been used in six months. The reason? Most lawyers try to get in and out of juvenile as quickly as possible. CAL slows up the process, keeping the court out all night if necessary. That’s our CAL.

Later on Monday night I met KL and MPW at MPW’s apartment. KL cooked jambalaya (with some help from Zatarain's), bran muffins and a salad. It was great. The salad featured homegrown tomatoes from KL’s mother.

We then played Wii until the Wii hours of the morning. (Sorry could not resist.) We played the game Boom Blox. It is the first of three games in a collaboration of famed director Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts. He chose a game he could play with his children. It was released on May 6th.

The game presents a series of physics-based puzzles, the objective being either to keep structures made of blocks from being knocked down or to knock them over. Perhaps not surprisingly I was far more adept at knocking the structure over. This is one of the few video games I think my dad would really like.