Wednesday, November 17, 2004

one day down....

So, I am home from day one of work. I ended up at work for almost 12 hours...talk about starting a job and hitting the ground running. But, honestly...I love it like that. I like jumping in. One person at the job is leaving her position, so I am going to be pinch hitting for her for a while.

So...what do I do exactly? The easiest answer is a little bit of everything. I work in an alternative sentencing program for those who have been convincted of drug and alcohol related offenses. So, sometime I am working with those involved directly in the courts. Sometimes I am working with offenders who are involved in treatment. Sometimes I am involved with offenders who are doing community service (you know...those punk kids picking up garbage on the side of the road).

Today, I was working in the drug court program. It's well...what it sounds like. It's an alternative program for those who want treatment instead of jail time. You'd think everyone would sign up for this, yes? Well, no. Drug court is much much harder than jail time...jail time is usually no more than 90 days, if that. Drug court is for at least a year, if not two. And...the things people have to do in drug court are much harder than just sitting in a cell doing your time. Anyways...it was an interesting day, hanging out with the offenders, checking in and then going with them in front of the judge.

BTW- the jugde....is a RIOT! He should get his own judge show on TV. He has the witty, dry sense of humor. I just loved it. We got to court early. No wait, we got their on time, but they were backlogged...so, I got to go into the court early and watch his regular cases before drug court started. It was SO entertaining.

Here is my best story from court today:

This guy came in to contest a ticket he got. So, he was basically representing himself. Well, that seems fine...but he is going up against the ADA...a lawyer and a damn fine one at that. It was just so entertaining watching this poor schmuck trying as hard as he could to talk his way out of this ticket...while this lawyer was just hovering over him. He ended up admitting to speeding 4 or 5 more time while he was trying to talk himself out of this ticket...where he was actually pulled over. Umm, didn't seem like the smartest move to me. and yep, in the end...he talked himself right into that ticket, with no question. It kept me smiling...

One day down...many more to go. This job is going to keep me going...running from thing to thing, but I think I am going to really like it.

Now...I am going to watch Lost. I can't let my job get in the way of TV!