I wrote my last blog post just before I started my clerkship, because my judge made it clear that I should not be blogging during the time I worked for her. Although I hated to give up this wonderful way of organizing my thoughts and sharing my experiences in life and work, I honored her wishes from day one. I even gave up on my plan to write a "goodbye for now" post because I didn't get it done before my first day at the court.
Well, my clerkship has been over for a while now, and as I begin to find my footing in the next phase of my life, I have started to feel like taking advantage of this blog being fair game again. I guess the freedom, time, and energy to say what I want about the last year and a half has made me realize: I have a hell of a lot to say.
I expect to post here and there about the major events and changes that made my life look the way it does today. But then again, I don't want to spend TOO much time looking backward. I mostly want a space to think and write about all the changes still in store for me. So, to get you very quickly caught up with the present, here is a quick summary of these eighteen crazy months:
- On August 25, 2011, I started my clerkship. Where this is concerned, I plan to name as few people or places as possible in order to maximize what I can appropriately say about my experience.
- The following month, at an event held by Austin Pets Alive to clear space for animals evacuated into Austin during the devastating Central Texas wildfires, Russell and I brought home a new family member. Simon is a friendly, lanky brown tabby who plays the mischievous younger brother to our older cat, Ramona, and now we can hardly imagine life without him.
- A few days later, Russell made good on a lot of long conversations and asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes with all my heart. We got to share the good news a week later at the Pennyslvania wedding of one of my awesome cousins.
- On October 27, 2011, my beloved and incomparable Nana lost a hard fight with lung cancer and left our family without its matriarch. Even as I reeled from the sudden shortfall of awesomeness in the world, I treasured the way the family pulled close afterward to share laughter, tears, and the strangest Halloween on record.
- A week later, I learned that I had passed the Texas bar exam. I was a licensed attorney at long last!
- In early 2012, I found the perfect dress for our wedding and we chose a date (a Thursday in October) and venue (the beautiful Barr Mansion). The planning was officially underway!
- Around the same time, I learned from my judge that my clerkship would last only one year instead of the two years I had expected. This is a long, long, long story you will certainly hear at another time.
- That March, I started applying for jobs to follow the end of my clerkship. I focused on nonprofit and government offices in the Austin area. I had three interviews between early April and early May, and then I had to cross my fingers and wait.
- On May 17, I learned that Harvard had awarded me a fellowship to work for an Austin nonprofit, the Appleseed Financial Access and Asset Building Project, for a year. I was elated to have at least one option for after my clerkship.
- On June 12, the City of Austin Law Department offered me a position as a criminal prosecutor. While prosecution was not a career path I ever expected to take, I had heard great things about working for the City and felt very actively courted by the people there. The job also offered a much better salary than the fellowship from Harvard and would not require me to start searching again in only a year. With great difficulty, I chose the job at the City over the fellowship.
- On July 6, 2012, I was released from my clerkship and free to start my new position. My early departure was the end of another very long story I plan to share here sometime.
- For the remainder of the summer, I learned the ropes at the city prosecutors' office. I learned to conduct trials, which are a huge part of this job, and battled the surprisingly intense anxiety that the first few of these can cause even a comfortable public speaker. But I gradually overcame that with the help of my friendly coworkers and outstanding boss.
- That summer we also opened a gym membership and spent a few sessions with a trainer learning butt-kicking exercise routines to make good on a very old promise to be in the best shape of our lives for our wedding. Russell lost over a dozen pounds, and I lost about twenty and saw a huge change in the shape of my body. We knew we couldn't keep it up forever, but damn, clothes and photos were a joy for a few months there.
- On October 18, 2012, in the middle of a week-plus of amazing time with both sides of my family, Russell and I got married in the most kickass ceremony and reception we could ever have imagined. Pictures of the awesome clothes, crowd, food, dancing, and details to follow. Probably in much greater numbers than you actually care to see, but hey.
- Now things have most decidedly quieted down, and Russell and I get to focus on things like work and losing the weight we put back on over the holidays.
- We have also planned (and then rescheduled, due to an unfortunate snag in the City's leave policies) an unbelievable honeymoon in Italy, Greece, and Turkey. We can hardly wait for takeoff in early March. For now I'll leave it at that, because I will surely be unable to shut up about this in plenty of posts to come.
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