SLUDGE . . .

Can four years be called an era?
If so, then today, an era in my life ended.

Today, I left the womb of my legal career, cutting the apron strings and embarking on ... I don't know what, yet. After three years in attorney heaven, I am now officially unemployed. It's not the unemployment that gets me down; it's the departure from heaven.

Working for two truly honorable judges, in a warm and welcoming courthouse, with intelligent and kind colleagues who quickly became dear friends, among friendly and open staff ... never a day went by without a gut-busting guffaw, an "always-funny" joke, a satisfying cup of coffee that was extraordinarily sludgy only when I dipped my heavy hand into the coffee grounds, and a goofy attorney or client who made our jaws drop in disbelief and laughter. The cases were consistently challenging and interesting, if not always the most clearly presented. (Spell-check exists for a reason, folks. Use it.) Planning for lunch at 9:48 in the morning. Planning to leave at 4:38 in the afternoon. Cake every month, bad parking jobs, the occasional scary fire drill or power outage, the resident leprechaun, brown sauce on Chinese food, special-needs pets, desk paraphernelia (not including Kahlua), grumpy in-house attorneys, political intrigue, song n' dance routines, vanilla in the bathroom.

Where am I ever going to get this again?

I never could have been as prepared for "the real world" of attorney-ing if I had not spent this era, at this time, in this place, with these people. And yet ... though part of me is ready to move forth, a larger part of me screams, "I don't care if I'm prepared! Tie those apron strings back on me noooooow!"