Day 1343: Killing It and other tales of exhaustion

[nagi_schwarz]

Goal check-in:

Spirituality! Not so great. Good at the beginning of the week. Downhill from there. Always a bit improved around my parents, though.

Fitness! Better, again mostly at the beginning of the week, and then downhill because I was tired and also we went camping, and there's not a great way to do yoga while camping (that I've discovered, at any rate).

Writing! Still haven't completed either of my major WIPs, but the fact that I'm making forward progress on the one is pretty pleasing to me. I have made zero progress on that murder mystery, which is fine, because I got my mother a different mother's day gift and she was extremely happy with it, so yay! But I tried a new fandom and am trying new things, and for that I am pleased.

Work! Not making forward motion on the whole studying thing, but hoo boy, I did rock it court this week. TBH, a whole lot of the credit goes to our appellate attorney who told me which laws to look at, but I think I rocked it from there, laying out the argument as clearly as possible and sort of cornering the judge into siding with me. We shall see.

So, without further ado: Round Three against The Most Irritating Politician Lawyer Ever.

Mediation was scheduled for two hours. Pretty much nothing was going to get done. But we had to pretend to get something done anyway.

The Politician only had one of his minions present this time, which was fine by me. The foster parents had their attorney present, a guy I know well, and we get along all right. We've been war buddies on contested adoptions before, so we just kinda gritted our teeth and dove in.

I got some new cute Lindybop dresses in the mail, so of course I wore one, because I wanted to be cute while I ripped The Politician's face off, and also I had an adoption afterward, and I wanted to look nice for it as well.

First off, apparently The Politician really doesn't like me. He cornered Ricky, the prosecutor, and asked Ricky to get his supervisor on the phone because he doesn't like me and wanted me to go away, to not be present. (The prosecutors do not choose when lawyers from my office do and do not appear on a case. That's up to the judge. Of course, Ricky's supervisor shut The Politician down.)

We went into mediation. The Politician fake-cried. I managed to not look like a totally homicidal bitch while the grandparents word-vomited all over me. They wanted to tell me (again, full of lies and with irrelevant asides) about how much they love my clients and miss them. Sometimes people just want to be heard, and it smooths things over. Not in this case.

Hilariously, The Politician brought along an aunt and uncle who are also interested in adopting my kids (but who also fail background checks because the aunt has a supported finding for neglecting...one of the kids in question.)

The mediator told me that The Politician doesn't like me. When I heard that, I got high fives from the other attorneys, because yay. I don't like him, and I kind of enjoy that he is distressed by my presence.

The Politician seemed to have wised up a bit and let Minion 2 do the talking. He thinks that a finding of severe child abuse and two felonies for child abuse are "mere technicalities" in the way of an adoption and the judge can handwave those. I raised one of the points in my motion that I had my staff file at the beginning of the week, that there's a fatal flaw in all of this. He didn't even let me start into my argument. The elephant in the room, I said. Just a technicality, he said.

And then it was time to go in on the case.

The foster mother said to me, I hope you get to talk this time. You never seem to get to.

Don't worry, said the caseworker. When she talks, she makes it count.

So we went into the courtroom, put introductions on the record - and then the judge prefaced the entire hearing by pointing out my elephant in the room, my mere technicality, a law that the grandparents cannot overcome, that prevents the judge from even hearing their petition. At first I was worried, listening to his comments, but then I saw that he was basically going along with my reading, and I had to try so hard not to smile.

The Politician and Minion 2 looked horrified. Apparently they hadn't read - or hadn't ready closely - what I'd filed, or they hadn't understood it, or they had but had been supremely arrogant that I was wrong. Hahaha.

After that introduction, the judge let us make arguments on the question of visitation.

Minion 2 got up, made oral arguments, repeated some of the same stupid, legally flawed soundbites that the Politician spews at every hearing. It's not fair, he said. It's fundamentally unfair (read: failing due process) that the state got to pick a therapist and she said visits should stop. Also, the visits are in a teeny tiny conference room with a caseworker present. If visits were expanded and in a more natural setting, the kids would be happier. If the kids are traumatized by visits, well, let's do them therapeutically, with a new therapist.

Then it was my turn.

And guys, I killed it. I try not to be an arrogant person. I try not to be that jerk who's full of herself. But seriously. I killed it. See, the caseworker was furious during Minion 2's arguments, sent me a bunch of text messages. Because I was taking notes on my phone with my bluetooth keyboard, I could see her text messages and respond to them.

Want me to bring that up? I asked.

YES, she said.

So I did.

I pointed out that not one but two therapists had recommended ending visits with the grandparents. The second therapist was a new one, neutral at the grandparents' request. At the court's order, she met with the grandparents so they could tell "their side". She recommended ceasing visitation with the grandparents after she read the first therapist's recommendation about the same.

Expanded visits? Visits were more expansive before, and after those visits, my kiddos exhibited some of their deepest trauma symptoms.

Don't like visits in the little conference room? It's not a conference room, it's a play room with a one-way mirror. Why is the caseworker in there? She didn't used to be, not at first, but my kiddos asked her to be in there because it makes them feel safer.

What about therapeutic visits? Absolutely, but not right now. My kiddos need a break. They need a chance to heal. One of them started having trauma reactions to therapy because it was on the same day as visits, but once we explained that visits weren't always on the same day as therapy - surprise, no more trauma symptoms. The kiddos had a break from visits. Surprise! No trauma after breaks. So give them a break.

For two seconds after, we were all tense as the judge rendered his decision. Therapeutic visits would be a good idea, he said. But we'll suspend them for now.

VICTORY.

What about discovery? Minion 2 asked.

The judge said, Check the law guardian's motion. In her statement of facts, she tells you what your client was convicted of.

And then the foster parents' attorney got up and asked if he and the grandparents' attorneys should cross-file motions to intervene so they can see pleadings in each other's cases.

No, said the judge. Let me make my decision first. Translation: don't bother. The grandparents' case is going away.

TL;DR - I kicked ass and took names, and then there was an adorable adoption for another sweet client of mine, and you bet that as I left court and The Politician and Minion 2 were conferring desperately on the sidewalk outside of the courthouse I gave them a big smile and told them to have a wonderful weekend.

I did. Went camping with my husband, parents, brother-in-law, and adorable niece and nephew. There was crafting, storytelling, plinking, coloring, lawn bowling, and fun times in the sun. There was going to bed early and sleeping in late. There was all kinds of delicious food my mom cooked. There was lovely weather and safe driving.

Picked up a cute little G42. Like it way better than my LCP. Gonna carry two now, which I grant you seems excessive, but earlier this week I did learn that there's a crazy woman on a case who was released from jail (I was hoping she'd get deported) and she wants to kidnap my kids and she has been violent before (read: attempting to set people on fire) and she's on the loose and already stalking people in hopes of learning where the kids are located (me, I have a list on my phone of where every single one of my kids is located).

This week at dance class I was tired but we made good progress, started divvying up solos. In bobbin lace class I learned something new but I'm pretty awful at it. Gonna have to work at it. I'm going to enjoy the challenge.

Also my girls brumeier and sherlockian_syn and I might or might not have come up with a squad name and will soon have squad necklaces. Go team!

A stranger told me my dress was cute. That was fun.

Here's to a better week. It can happen!