What If...

This week, I've been listening to legal education lectures to complete the continuing legal education credits I need annually to keep up my bar association membership.  Today I was listening to a really good program on intellectual property law for non-specialists while I was on a longish drive.  And while I was driving and listening, I was struck by how we lawyers have it deeply ingrained in us from the first day of law school to try to anticipate everything that might go wrong, and then work on planning how to avoid that.

It's that sort of cheerfully pessimistic thinking ("But what if the sellers try to back out of the deal? What if the product is defective? What if the person you hire absconds without doing the work?") that makes us lawyers so fun to be around.  We've gotten a lot of education and experience at imagining the bad side of "What if?"  And it's our professional obligation to anticipate those "what if's" and figure out how to avoid them. 

But it struck me today that the "what if" aspect of anticipating all of the things that could go wrong is not very far from the "what if I try X" creativity that so many quilt artists explore.  For a long time I have loved and followed Jude Hill's "What If" blog, where she explores some question with a bit of stitchy exploration.  It's probably the seed of creativity for a lot of ideas, wondering what would happen if we mixed those paints or combined those fabrics or tried to depict that image in fabric.

It is a more positive approach than the "what if the worst happens" that we lawyers go to automatically -- but I like to think that my "what if" training is helping me on the creative side, too.

* Photo: Neighbor cat bravely illustrating "What if I stick my paw into this hole?"

More Coffee, Please!

I feel as if I am slogging through mud. I wake in the morning and have the urge to just stay in bed all day. I am tempted to wander around the house in my cozy bathrobe and Ugg boots, with occasional collapses onto the couch to rest after the exertion of going downstairs.

In contrast to my external lack of energy, my brain can't stop the whirls of color and pattern flying by. I lay in bed at night and think about quilts I saw, what to do with that one piece of fabric I've had in my closet for the last year, how to finish the border on an almost-done top that is folded on the UFO pile.

And the reality is that once I'm upright each morning, I have to force myself to the computer, open up my work files, and turn down the volume on the right side of my brain so I can summon some lawyerly thinking to deal with the pile of work on my desk. I'm analyzing the legal definition of criminal negligence and trying to ignore the thoughts about how to quilt my pink quilt top as they fly past my inner eye.

So here I sit, yellow pads of paper scattered to the sides of my keyboard. I'm getting down to work. Just ignore the doodles of quilting designs all over them, okay?

13 Years Ago

Where were you 13 years ago? Until I saw on the news last night that OJ Simpson has just been convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping, I hadn't realized that yesterday was 13 years to the day since Simpson was acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Isn't it bizarrely coincidental that this new jury verdict should come in on that anniversary?

13 years ago, I was newly married, practicing law in Concord, New Hampshire, and teaching in the legal writing program for first year students at the Franklin Pierce Law Center. Of course, the Simpson trial was capturing the attention of everyone around the country, but the trial created special interest among lawyers and at the law school. The first year students -- so recently admitted to the world of legal jargon, procedural rules, and constitutional concepts -- talked and argued about it all the time. When the verdict came in, pretty much everyone at the law school clumped together in the school's big lobby to watch. Even after the broadcast ended, I remember, law students stood around debating and questioning. The moment the jury returned that acquittal was one of those defining moments of the 1990's, I think. If you ask folks where they were when the Simpson verdict came down, they know.

Last night's verdict is such an odd end to this tale. Or maybe it's not the end. (I would be surprised if Simpson's lawyers are NOT drafting appeal papers based on the strange and potentially prejudicial matter of a jury being asked to render judgment against Simpson on the exact anniversary of the very controversial acquittal.) It's hard not to view the episodes -- the Brown/Goldman deaths and the more recent effort of Simpson to "get his stuff back" by hiring thugs and waving guns around -- as reflecting something pretty fundamental about his personality.

During and after the murder trial, there was so much press and speculation about Simpson's kids ... I find myself worrying about them now.

If you read this all in a novel, you'd think the coincidence is just too tidy to be believable. Real life truly is stranger than fiction, you know?

Meandering

The last few days have been all about work... which has coincided neatly with my Bernina being in the shop for repair and a thorough cleaning. I'm picking it up later today. And I was right -- turns out an uptake wire in the thread path was out of position, and that's why I couldn't get my tension right. I'm eager to be up and running again.

I've been doing a lot of writing lately for work. That pretty much sums up what I do, really. I've always liked the research and writing side of law, so it's ideal that I've found a way to limit my legal work to the stuff I like best. Still, I think often about what a teacher said when as a young attorney I attended a trial skills course. "Litigation is one of the few jobs," she said, "where for everything you do, someone is being paid to prove you WRONG." It was startling to hear it said like that, but it's true. In the adversarial system, lawyers are paid to prove why their side is right and their legal argument is better, and the other side is wrong and their legal argument is flawed. I found that pretty stressful in person (in the courtroom and such) but in writing, I'm fine with it.

But no wonder I find quilting and fiber art such a relaxing release!

The little piece up top is a line exercise I've just done for my design course. The assignment was to take a linear image and use bias tape to create it in fabric. I don't know what this will be from here, but it's pleasing to me so far.

Meanwhile, the weather has turned grey and chilly (well, California chilly, anyway). It'd be a good day to curl up under a blanket to read and sip coffee. Hmmm, maybe later, after a few more household chores are done...

Education in a Fruit Basket

Well, it's CLE time again. That's "Continuing Legal Education" time. Lawyers in every jurisdiction have to complete a designated number of hours of CLE to keep their bar memberships active. Seeing as how I'm in California while an active member of the New Hampshire bar association, I complete my CLE requirements by watching online video programs.

Some of you regular readers will remember that around this time last year I discovered the joy of listening to online CLEs while sitting nearby at my sewing machine. And yes, you'll remember that I used part of my seemingly endless stash of Kyle's Marketplace fabrics to make a vegetable themed quilt.

So, it seemed only fitting that I got moving on another UFO in the pile to complete an all-fruit themed quilt top while listening to a program on Electronic Evidence and Digital Discovery. (Egad -- I had no idea how totally RECOVERABLE basically everything on every computer is. Did you know your text messages are saved by the phone companies? And can be produced BY THEM if necessary in litigation?) Anyway. My good friend Beth and I have a very long-standing joke about "fresh summer fruit," based on a summer long ago when Albertson's was running a commercial with a jingle that we simply couldn't get out of our heads. And because I'm trying to get rid of these dang fabrics (I swear they're re-seeding in my drawer) I decided to make her a fruit quilt.

I tell you, it's a great way to do this CLE thing.

And I am especially happy today as I woke up to Scott Simon's voice on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. I LOVE Scott Simon and have missed him while he has been away in China adopting his second daughter! You can listen to his sweet essay about welcoming her to the family here. Congratulations to Scott and family and welcome, Lina!

Back to the living

Well, I made it through my massive work project. I have logged something like 60 billable hours in the last week, and I'm pretty tired. But all is done and filed in court and now I have at least a week with no work to do. Plus, there's a big check coming for all these hours so that's handy.

Yesterday, having been to bed at 3:30 am, I woke up at 10am, spent a few more hour on the computer and phone to make sure all the work got to the secretary and was ready for filing, then went back to bed and slept solidly from 1 to 5 pm. I rose, had dinner, and was ready for bed by 9pm. I sure can't do late nights any more, and when I do I take forever to recover.

BUT today I am back among the living. I have had breakfast with Roger and Caroline, I've put away two loads of laundry and have more going, I've tidied up Christmas debris and vacuumed the whole downstairs, I've loaded Itunes on Caroline's computer so she can manage her own brand new Ipod, I've put my work files away (out of sight, out of mind!) and I've made a grocery shopping list. I don't think I've been out of the house in 6 days, so an excursion to the store should be an adventure!

Something tells me I'll be crashing for a nap later...but for now, I feel quite happy to be back to real life. Oh, and I've made the blogger transition to New, Improved Blogger so we'll see how it all goes.

Can quilting be far behind?!