Satan Claus In Santa Cruz

christmas is not the same when you're 3,000 miles from your momma, but spending it in santa cruz with my sister, fresh off the boat from new zealand, and hot mel was a fabulous substitute -- filled with cookie-baking, coloring books, shiny wrapping paper, impromptu photo shoots, a visit from satan claus the evil xmas demon, and many, many giggling fits and animated discussions re: marine organisms and our abysmal love lives while lined up in the bathroom to apply our mascara. truth be told i did not love california during my 12-hour drive through nothingness, but 6 days later, i'm sure i'll be back -- to update myself on the drama-filled life of my new sister (mel!), see the san francisco zoo (which was closed all week because of a fatal tiger mauling on xmas day) and stick my toes in the pacific.

after a somewhat disastrous day of travel (lost keys, lost voice, dead battery, sexually assaultive cab driver, raccoon eyes, etc.), i am back at work and to good news: 1> i will permanently set up camp in the trailer park of justice on monday. although this probably sounds mundane, the trailer park has a lot of character :) and it's close to the court and my favorite lithuanian security guard who feeds me donuts in the morning when i pass through the metal detector. and 2> i am no longer "in training" which has been a tedious process. i have more than enough wild paranoia to keep me on the straight-and-narrow, asking a zillion questions, and double/triple checking my work for a good long time without necessitating supervision.

which reminds me again why it's important that i take a vacation sometimes... i am an overachieving type-A lawyer who needs the occasional week of debauchery to keep the crazies at bay.

Notes From My 12-Year-Old Self

why did anyone ever think it was a good idea to give me a license to practice law? i'm standing here putting my brownies in the oven for the second time. because the first time i mixed them up and put them in the oven, i found a 1/4-cup of oil sitting on the counter. from where i had poured it out and NOT mixed it into my brownies as directed. of course, i had cleverly decided to make the brownies in fun holiday shapes of snowflakes and snowmen so it wasn't as easy as taking the pan out of the oven, mixing the oil in, and putting the pan back in. at kim's urging (from new zealand no less) i had to spoon a little bit of oil into each snowflake-shaped hole and mix it up individually. which is a little bit difficult given the rugged outline of a snowflake. i've already vowed not to try them tonight and plan to let my coworkers taste-test them tomorrow at the christmas party. if they're gross, it's not a total loss since i did get to eat 1/2 the batter (and oil-free too!)

speaking of my co-workers, they refer to me as "the 12-year-old." not quite accurate, but it probably seems that way because i am at least 5 years younger than anyone they know. and 20 years younger than the average age here in prescott. and also possibly because of my xmas photo. (unfortunately, you can't see my red plaid xmas shoes in the photo, but trust me, they were there.) santa was really glad to see me though, possibly because my hair looked AMAZING. also possibly because i didn't ask him for anything or because i was absolutely thrilled to take a cherry candy cane off his hands. anyway, i doubt anyone will be surprised by my brownie story tomorrow.

in other news:
1. i got my arizona driver's license this morning and it's good until 2047. this is a good 10 years after my last student loan payment is due !!! it was a surprisingly emotional event ... i feel like a real adult now, no longer domiciled at my parents' house, making it difficult to justify packing up and running back there any moment now.

2. i made my first official court appearance on monday. i have one case, which is frustrating to me for a couple reasons. a> my first client, a 16-year-old girl, is charged with 4 felony theft counts, is also facing charges in maricopa county, has been in detention for 2 weeks because her mother refuses to show up at a hearing, and is more concerned about her 22-year-old boyfriend's 15 charges than her own defense. b> even though my 1 case SOUNDS bad, it really wouldn't be so awful if i didn't have an insane amount of time to spend obsessing over it. c> because i only have 1 case, i am forced to shadow my fellow attorneys, which this week involved a trip to the one-room courthouse in seligman, AZ, perhaps the saddest and most destitute "town" i have ever visited, and an hour-long car-ride listening to a co-worker's monologue on her dog's diarrhea. and d> i am a genius and can handle anything that is thrown at me, including a title 36 petition for continued court-ordered psychiatric treatment, which i spent 3 full days on -- both reading the entire statute and researching my client's paranoid schizophrenia that makes him believe that his right eye is evil, which totally justifies his repeated attempts to gouge his right eye out whenever he misses his medication (which apparently is rather frequently) -- before it was transfered to another attorney.

*insert breath here*

and 3. I BOUGHT A CAR !! a picture is forthcoming (once i can get one where it's not covered in snow) but rest assured that you will not be getting a call from me that my car is making a funny noise, that parts have fallen out of it into the middle of the interstate, and/or that i am crying stranded on the side of such-and-such road and could you please please please come pick me up -- at least not for a couple years. tom's taxi service is officially out of business. woot.

It's A Small World After All

today i attended a seminar: coordinating support & rehabilitation services through the child and family team. absolutely thrilling, but preferable to further study of my juvenile law handbook. so mr. michael terkeltaub, purported expert on all things coordination, rehabilitation, etc., begins the morning by having us introduce ourselves. (which is annoying but secretly i like because i get to announce that i'm an attorney :)
hi, i'm kelley jancaitis, i work as an attorney for the juvenile division of the public defender's office in the verde valley.
he says: oh, i played ball with a tommy jancaitis. in norfolk? went to granby high school? played in the state championship game?
i've been a prescottonian for all of 2 days and i've already met someone who went to high school with my dad. plus this guy knows more about my dad than i do!

in fact, the world is so small, that my office in the trailer park of justice (picture forthcoming) is immediately adjacent to africa. actually, it's the out-of-africa wildlife park -- close enough. kennedy says that sometimes you'll just be sitting at your desk, looking out the window and a giraffe will walk by. but maybe it's also a secret time-warp into malawi and i can go visit matt on my lunch breaks.

and finally, in just a few short days, i have discovered cornbread at st. michael's that rivals that found at almost heaven BBQ in mineral, VA. a true piece of home right on historic whiskey row.

it's a small, small world.