St. Louis...
Jen and I were two ships passing in the night this past weekend; I'd been in St. Louis until late Friday night for the 8th Circuit's week of hearing cases, and she took off Monday morning for a week of face-to-face managing of her newspaper and staff.
I've been a single dad all this week, which renews my respect for those who do it full-time; I can't quite imagine how anyone makes that work (there are only so many sugar-beet-plant field trips one can undertake). Jen'll be back Sunday night unless she decides to extend my suffering. Actually, no, the kids have been taking it pretty easy on me; I haven't had to burst into tears yet. Yet.
I enjoyed myself greatly in St. Louis. We caught a Cardinals game Wednesday night, in which the Cards pulled themselves out of an 8-game losing streak that gravely endangered their division lead – the 3-run homer in the 8th did the trick.
Tuesday night was the circuit's annual court dinner, where the judges and their staffs, and the circuit staff in St. Louis, all get together for a very nice evening. The judges introduce clerks old and new. Judge B. mentioned my efforts to drag people to Fargo for the marathon in May, a mention that bore fruit, as a staff attorney I met with later in the week signed on to Team Ibu once we finished talking business.
The rest of the week, we ran around to blues clubs, trying to underspend the per diem the federal government has us traveling under (It's actually fairly generous – I may eke out a small profit for the week).
One thing I was very happy to learn about St. Louis is that at the end of a block bearing three blues clubs, there's a White Castle:
It occurred to me that I'll probably get to know St. Louis' night life far better than Fargo's this year, as the judge's staff and I will be returning to town something like six more times, five days at a shot, and I don't have a damn thing to do other than wander around the city.
It's a far cry from real life – Jen and I recently realized that we haven't gone out on a date even once since my judge's lovely reception back in July, when we first arrived in Fargo. We're kind of used to this kind of date-deprivation, given that I've been in night law school for the past four years. But, geez, this year our evenings are free! No classes for me, no commute for her!
We've promised each other we will line up a babysitter as soon as Jen gets home.
I've been a single dad all this week, which renews my respect for those who do it full-time; I can't quite imagine how anyone makes that work (there are only so many sugar-beet-plant field trips one can undertake). Jen'll be back Sunday night unless she decides to extend my suffering. Actually, no, the kids have been taking it pretty easy on me; I haven't had to burst into tears yet. Yet.
I enjoyed myself greatly in St. Louis. We caught a Cardinals game Wednesday night, in which the Cards pulled themselves out of an 8-game losing streak that gravely endangered their division lead – the 3-run homer in the 8th did the trick.
Tuesday night was the circuit's annual court dinner, where the judges and their staffs, and the circuit staff in St. Louis, all get together for a very nice evening. The judges introduce clerks old and new. Judge B. mentioned my efforts to drag people to Fargo for the marathon in May, a mention that bore fruit, as a staff attorney I met with later in the week signed on to Team Ibu once we finished talking business.
The rest of the week, we ran around to blues clubs, trying to underspend the per diem the federal government has us traveling under (It's actually fairly generous – I may eke out a small profit for the week).
One thing I was very happy to learn about St. Louis is that at the end of a block bearing three blues clubs, there's a White Castle:
It occurred to me that I'll probably get to know St. Louis' night life far better than Fargo's this year, as the judge's staff and I will be returning to town something like six more times, five days at a shot, and I don't have a damn thing to do other than wander around the city.It's a far cry from real life – Jen and I recently realized that we haven't gone out on a date even once since my judge's lovely reception back in July, when we first arrived in Fargo. We're kind of used to this kind of date-deprivation, given that I've been in night law school for the past four years. But, geez, this year our evenings are free! No classes for me, no commute for her!
We've promised each other we will line up a babysitter as soon as Jen gets home.
posted by Tom at 11:43 PM
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