Your worst nightmare.

It's like checking for the Boogeyman under your bed, or turning on the lights to make sure the shadows are just from the trees outside. It's something that you know doesn't happen or doesn't exist, but your fears overcome logic and you can't help but to succumb, you just have to verify that indeed, this is just a figment of your imagination.

Except today, imagination became reality.

I walked to the mailbox to drop in my rent check and when I opened the blue lid, I saw...SOMEONE ELSE'S MAIL. You know how you always open the lid again to make SURE that your mail dropped? Well there ya go. Someone got sloppy and forgot to do the check-again lift. I used to just think that I was silly and just being obsessive. I've been validated.

Today was a long, long day at work. I didn't open the door to my house until 9:05 pm, at which point I turned on the All-Star game and was delighted to discover that Roger Clemens gave up 6 runs. Boo-yeah. Check out this article on Slate, very funny.

I like working late because then I have the office all to myself, and I can meet with the kids one on one, on my own terms. I ended up speaking with two clients for an hour each. I've developed a great working relationship with both of them and I got the highest compliment I could wish for - one young man who is generally unhappy and moody when I see him said to me so very kindly with a big old smile, "I wish you were my lawyer on the outside." I was so flattered. That's an indication that I've earned his respect and his trust and with this client population, that can be quite difficult. I actually represented an individual in a hearing today, the third one I've done with him in 2 days, and he wanted to speak to one of my coworkers today about something instead of me. He explicitly stated so. I understand, and I kindly deferred to my coworker, but that still stung. I've worked with him on 3 cases but I think his actions indicated to me that even though we got a favorable finding for him, we still didn't connect in a way that he truly felt like I was a good advocate for him. So it was nice to hear at the end of the day that there are some individuals that feel as though I might be doing a good job.