Aaron's First Day of Work

Well, it was my first day of work.

I got up at 7am, which I haven't had to do in quite some time. Samara made me a bologna sandwich and I packed up some popcorn to go with it. (Also a Pepsi and a candy bar, if you're interested.)

I walked down to the courthouse. I met my boss, Judge Torrisi. He's a nice guy. I saw all the front office (Clerk of the Court) staff again: Tonya, Shawna, Kyrstin and Holly. I also met Judge T's secretary, Theresa. Magistrate Monte was there too. And, of course, the person I'm replacing, Ruby. They're all nice folks.

The courts here use an SCO Unix system to keep track of cases. They refer to the process of making notes about cases as "tickling" them. I will apparently spend lots of time "tickling" cases. When I tickle a case, a note will remind me about it later. When the note reminds me about the case, I pull it from the files and review what's going on in the case. Then I see if it needs to come to the Judge's attention.

In some cases, I'll need to write a memorandum to tell the judge more about the legal issues in a case. I have one of those already this week, so that will be interesting.

Samara came by right after I ate lunch. She locked herself out of the house, so I took a break to go open the door. In fact, they don't really care what hours I work precisely, and I can take lunch when I need or want to. I guess my official hours are 8am to 4:30pm.

Samara and I stopped by the post office first. We had a box of checks from our new bank, Wells Fargo, and we also had some good mail. Boxes from our mothers and one from our friend Ann. All three fine women sent us lots of goodies. Our cupboards are much better stocked. We have lots of good snacks, and real food as well. We've also got some ice trays. We are very happy. Of course, it did suck a little carrying three boxes home from the post office. I almost hope that our clothes that we mailed to ourselves don't show up until our car does. I guess we can get someone to help us take stuff home.

After rescuing Samara, I went back to work and tried to learn a little more about what I needed to do in order to not screw up too much on my first day alone (tomorrow!). I just hope that I can figure out what I need to do to keep my co-workers happy before too long. It seems like Ruby does a whole lot around there. On the bright side, there really haven't been that many law clerks there before me. Before Ruby, there was Ruth, from China, who graduated from Judge T's alma mater. Ruth didn't really train Ruby, so it's been different with each law clerk. Since we're in the bush, at a bush court, it's not the same as being a clerk in Anchorage. No real training, and expectations that can be modified based on one's tastes.

All in all, the first day went okay.

Monte, the magistrate, gave me a ride home, and Samara had soup almost ready. It was really good. Now we're watching television, and I'm looking forward to another day tomorrow.