Assisting the Druitt list

I set alarms on both my phones last night just to make sure I'd wake up early today. I only needed one, and woke up at about 5:30ish. I had breakfast and got ready, leaving at about 6:40ish, getting to the office at 7am to pick up my trolley.

It was a big of a struggle to get it onto the train because it was so heavy. On the train I read up on some Cth law, and before I knew it I had arrived, half an hour early.

I stood outside waiting for a while before the court opened up. I walked through the scanners, somewhat proud of my new status.

I stood around waiting a bit more inside before Carmelo arrived. I told him it was just one court for our matters and the name of the judge. It was the same one that Yoj had made a complaint against.

Pretty much as soon as Carmelo got there people and lawyers started coming up to us to talk about their matters, and for me, it was like the beginning of chaos. It's hard for me to organise things, so it seemed like everything was everywhere. Carmelo, on the other hand, was very calm and spent time with everyone discussing their matters. I thought he took more time than he should've, but it was like he never ran out of time doing it. I really admired his calmness.

When we were let into the court, it was a struggle just to get the files organised. I tried to sprawl them on the floor in alphabetical order before the police pro told me the cofficer needed to walk there, so I started stacking them up in separate piles. I could feel a lot of sweat building up.

When the judge came in, I didn't think she looked very mean, and she was a lot younger than I had imagined. But her attitude shone through almost immediately. You could see that she could get ticked off very easily.

Carmelo did one of my matters, probably accidentally, and I thought that it'd be easier if we kept it that way so as not to mix roles too much. I was pretty content just handing him the files. But then when one was mentioned, he gestured for me to do it, and I announced my appearance. It was just a mention anyway, but that was my first formal appearance as the CDDP.

I was nervous, and even though I had looked at the files the day before, all of a sudden I was lost for information. I didn't know where to go, where to write, and kept scrambling through papers looking for god knows what.

Before I knew it, morning tea had arrived. I thought we had done about half, but Carmelo said it was probably only about 10. He was probably right, but it just seemed like so many.

We talked during the break, which was a lot longer than expected for whatever reason. When it resumed we went through to 1:15pm before having our lunch break.

Carmelo had brought his lunch, so I suggested he come with me to lunch, and I ended up getting a hot dog from Wendy's, hehe. We sat in the food court and had a really good talk, about our past and the current office. Some things I found out:
- we went to the same uni
- the Chris guy who interviewed me is seen as a bit of a meanie, who likes to keep his distance from people
- Carmelo's Italian
- he used to work at Robin's firm before her, then opened up his own firm before going to the CDPP
- he is getting really bored working on just one big tax case, lol

It was a good lunch, I felt like I was talking to a friend more than a colleague. I felt that we got along really well.

We headed back to court and finished off our matters. One of mine, that Sarah lady from LAC at the end asked me which police station the fingerprint orders was said, and so I asked the judge, and she went off at me by repeating all her orders like I was a retard who was deaf.

I took it in stride and just ignored it. Afterwards when I told Carmelo I only did it because Sarah asked me to, he said it was "sly". I'm not sure if she did mean to, but she could've at least apologised afterwards, which she didn't. I recall not having a very good memory of her when working for Nom. I'm gonna hammer her clients next time we meet.

Carmelo got smashed by the judge as well, when one person was sent down to the cells, and he forgot to ask for an order (and spilling his water, lol!) and she got mad because she had to bring the person back up. I watched as she held her pen and pointed it at Carmelo as she chastised him for his lateness in bringing it up.

I sat there thinking that people like these, people who have to spent energy and time belittling people, being condescending and demeaning, have problems. I used to think it was me, but it's them. I don't know, maybe they weren't hugged as kids. But it's like she was out to prove she knew more than anyone else. It's easy to shit on people below you, but not easy to do to people above you. Big person she is.

I ended up doing two sentences today, both I didn't make any submissions. I just didn't feel the need to, and the judge's results were pretty fair.

Also, my knee was hurting through the entire list. It was this heavy-bearing ache that wouldn't go away. I kept telling myself to quickly pay off my debts so I can save up for the operation.

I was so relieved when we got through it at the end of the day. I couldn't believe it! We went to the registry to get some final paperwork before heading to the office car Carmelo drove in. We planned to put both suit cases into the back seat, and he was surprised that I lifted one by myself.

He gave me a lift back to Stratty. He said I could leave the suit cases in the car so I could go home, but I opted to take my one. We had a really cool chat in the car as well, just about our past experiences as defence. Wow, we have so much in common!

I caught the train from Stratty back to the city, and dropped the suit case off in the office. I checked the roster to see that Katie was at work today and had left at 4pm.

I left the office shortly afterwards and went to the supermarket to get some canned pineapples as my mom had requested. I caught the bus home and then got changed to go for a mile jog. As I was approaching the lights, I decided to maneuver around a tree branch and slipped a bit on the kerb. Some guy driving by laughed out loud. I stopped at the traffic ligths and smiled, almost laughing to myself because I could see the humour in it.

But it was the beginning of the last stretch, and that just gave me motivation to go hard. I started off a lot faster than last time - this time it was much closer to a sprint. On and off every 10 seconds. I thought about it earlier - it really wasn't that hard, it's pretty much what you do in bball anyway.

After that I went to the gym, then bought some chicken to take home to eat. The lady gave me some free potato cubes, which I thought was nice of her. Sure, she was probably going to throw them out anyway, but it made me think that if I ever wanted to buy anything of that sort, I'd go to that shop.

Mmm...I am so glad today is over!