New Adventure... CART in court

CART in the court setting. How interesting! How completely unprepared was I on Tuesday to get the assignment from my boss saying, You'll be doing a District Court trial on Thursday for a hearing impaired defendant - providing the CART.

To say I didn't want to do it would be an understatement. I have a lot of stuff on my plate - hey, I was assigned to work my usual assignment, even - and CART is a very challenging assignment.

Off I went - called the attorney. Got three pieces of information - case caption and the traffic ticket. That's it. Oh, and since we don't know when the trial will be, show up around 10 a.m. and wait. Hoo-kay.

But here's the tricky part: I don't have a computer that I can use to display for CART all ready to go. Now, I have LOTS of notebooks... but in various states of, um, updating. I can't output to Bridge from my netbook, so that brings me to my recent notebook - which means updating all my CAT software and my writer; but then I also need a computer for the client to read from - because they can't look at a netbook either. That's my OLD notebook, from about four years ago.

So far it's taken about six hours to get ready, and nothing works yet. But, I have over 12 hours to go, so I'm hopeful. Right about now, the only thing I'm NOT worried about is writing. It is what it is.

Take a page from the Boy/Girl Scout handbook: BE PREPARED! That way you don't run around scrambling at the last minute. (Or, in parental terms: Don't do as I do, do as I say!!!)

Happy CARTing.

What day is it?

Do you ever wonder what day it is? Seriously. As a roving reporter, I'm not always in court - I'm what's called 'on the board' or what most people consider on call. Which means that today didn't feel like Friday. And weekends don't always feel like weekends. Of course, reporters who are in freelance and in court often do work weekends too. It just feels like sometimes I have to look at the calendar to remember what day it is.

Speaking of calendars... I love having a duplicate resident on my computer. When I get ready to do the month-end paperwork or if someone contacts me for a transcript, I go to my online calendar and can figure out where I was, when, and then move ahead.

I like sharing my calendar, too. I have my practice (*ahem, when I practice*) on there, my exercise (*ditto*), my personal stuff, my husband's work schedule and his athletic calendar all available to me. It's cool for planning purposes. Makes me accountable. And the best part?

It highlights what day it is.