A Wild Night With the Legal Secretaries . . .

Well, no, not exactly. It was our annual meeting with our local court representatives/rubber chicken banquet. Looking around at our group before they let us into the banquet/meeting hall, it occurred to me that we're an aging bunch, and there aren't a lot of young legal secretaries coming into the profession. In another ten years, we'll still be coming to this thing, but some of us will probably be using walkers and ordering Ensure instead of wine. No, I guess we aren't very wild anymore.

And the food? Not so great. Last year, in an attempt to avoid over-cooked chicken, I ordered beef. Couldn't cut through it. So this year, it was chicken again, and wouldn't you know? The beef looked half way decent! Somewhat optimistically, they even called it "steak."

My chicken, on the other hand--that's it in the photo--well, I don't know. I have no idea what kind of sauce they put on it, and it took me awhile to figure out whether it may still have the skin on it because it looked kind of bumpy and textured. Nope. No skin. Maybe the chicken died a natural death from chicken psoriasis. Or do chickens get leprosy?

The salad and rolls were okay, so no one starved. But really, we don't go for the food. Mainly we go so we can listen to representatives from several semi-local courts talk to us about the new rules their courts have put into effect on January 1st.

There they are up there at the head table, all the court representatives, waiting to talk. And this year for some reason, they came in pairs, two from each court. Normally there are one or two men mixed in but not this year--not a single one! Hummmmm. Maybe THAT's why they came in pairs--so they could go to the ladies' room.

About this time, I was wishing I had that margarita the woman on the right had. I thought I might sneak it from her when she wasn't looking, but she sucked it down pretty quickly before I had a chance. There's a reason for the no-host bar at these events.

Mostly, the court clerks like to tell us about stuff like budget cuts, judicial openings, staff shortages, building plans, and more budget cuts. We really don't care. What we want to know is what we have to do differently each year in order to keep them happy and keep everything running smoothly.

I've been going to these things for at least 15 years--probably closer to 20. I used to really enjoy them, but tonight I was mostly thinking about missing CSI and quilting. Funny how priorities change.

I was kinda looking forward to this tiramisu. I was kinda disappointed. That little white thing on the top? It says "Tiramisu." Otherwise, we wouldn't have known. Pretty though.

At 8:30, the court ladies stopped talking and I slipped away. I might have sped a bit going home. Because sometimes it's fun to feel the power of a car when you press the gas pedal down. And down some more. And sometimes it's fun to feel the car holding onto the curves. Because you're free. Because all the legal secretaries and court clerks are somewhere about ten miles behind you. And you know you don't have to eat rubber chicken for another 365 days. Because really, you'd just rather quilt.