This morning I barely had enough time to get myself together and out the door -- no time for writing. I had to make that court date that I thought was yesterday. I breezed into the court room right before 9am, feeling like an expert now. I watched people plead "Guilty." One lady plead guilty to her dog being off leash. Ohhh please. Two guys plead guilty for driving solo in the carpool lane -- one guy tried to argue the case and the judge said he wasn't allowed to because he already said he was guilty.
"Whew!" I thought as I watched people accept their sentences one by one. Good thing I'm not going to plead guilty! People still had to pay over $400 for carpool violations even when they showed up in court -- what's the point? My carpool violation trial is next week -- continued once because the cop was on vacation. I have a good argument -- how the heck was I supposed to know the carpool lane would crop up on the right? And it's not safe either.
I never plead guilty. In this country, we're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty! So today when it was my turn, I walked up to the microphone feeling confident.
"You have a speeding ticket from 2007, and you are eligible for traffic school. How do you plead?"
"That was a long time ago," I said.
"Yes it was," said the Judge. I was still a little confused about a ticket that I don't even remember getting.
"I plead not guilty!" For a fleeting moment, the judge looked a little shocked, but she regained composure quickly. I asked to waive time and could I please have my trial in January after the new year? They complied. Whew, I was out the door and on my way to work in no time it seemed.
As I sat at my desk, I kept dashing into the break room across from my desk where the SF Giants playoff game showed on the big screen TV! Nervous coworkers traveled in and out of the break room, and a couple finally gave in and took an early lunch. This apparently was the game that would decide whether the San Francisco Giants would make it or not. I have to admit I was pretty excited -- even though I'm not a huge sports fan, but a lot of people in my family are huge baseball fans, especially my Dad. I knew he was watching the game or listening to it on the radio -- I knew he was excited because my Dad always gets excited about the SF Giants and baseball. He took us to Giants games at Candlestick Park when we were kids. So when the Giants actually have a chance, and when they won the world series two years ago, yes I did get a little emotional. Finally...and my Dad got to experience it too.
It was nerve wracking -- we were on pins and needles right up until the very end! The building engineer showed up, a couple of attorneys and paralegals, staff -- we all cheered when the Giants won it! Yayy! Okay, now time to get back to work!
So, I'm supposed to write something witty or exciting -- work on my fiction, or my nonfiction -- or send my "book" out to be published right now, but instead I'm just rambling on and on, spilling more words on to the page. It's Day 2 of 40 days of writing and it's not midnight yet (in California that is), so even though today was a super busy day -- and I worked on my tech writing project today -- wondering if I'm even cut out for tech writing -- for ANY kind of writing! Maybe I'm just a fraud and I should not even call myself a writer at all.
After a long day and a meeting with my "tech writing" group and fighting stop and go traffic on I-680, I am finally home...I'm watching my favorite old sitcoms -- "Friends" is on right now. and I noticed on Facebook that Kathleen and her family made it to Montana -- remembering Kathleen when I used to babysit for her and her older sisters Eileen and Maureen, a long time ago...in San Francisco in the early 1970s. At first, I was not happy to hear that Kathleen and her two baby boys and her man were moving away from the San Francisco Bay Area to a remote part of Montana. I reminded Kathleen that she was a San Francisco gal after all. Then I felt bad, remembering...so I wrote to Kathleen and let her know....
Hi Kathleen, glad you made it to your new home -- but wow, you are way out there in the boonies! that's both exciting and scary! the second time we lived in Germany, we lived in a small town called Soegel which was 100 miles from the closest military post -- Bremerhaven. One friend who drove up from Friedburg said, "This is where the boonies turn into boonies!" -- we lived among all these tiny towns dotting the countryside right near the Dutch border...there were only a few Americans there so when I got lost while driving my car around to "sight see" with kids strapped in carseats in the back, I couldn't find anyone who spoke English to help me! Finally I understood one guy because I knew what "right" and "left' meant in German and he managed to point the way back home...we lived there for three years and grew to love the area (by the way, Jeremy was born in a German civilian hospital cuz we couldn't make it to the military hospital in Bremerhaven -- in a town called Hasselunne...beautiful town that looked like something you'd see in a fairy tale book! So who the heck am I to say anything about you and your family's journey to Montana, huh? how far is the closest town??? We sang Leavin' on a Jet Plane again at our uke club meeting -- not even my suggestion this time! Luv, Mary Lane
day 2 over and out.
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