Well, nevermind...

So, after much debating on my part and weighing of the potential pros and cons, I finally settled on Option B, living in an apartment closer to work.  I thought this might be a needed change of scenery for me.  Unfortunately, YKW still works at the restaurant that is literally 2 minutes away from my apartment, meaning that EVERY TIME I LEAVE MY APARTMENT I have to see it and be reminded of him.  So, even if I'm not thinking about him at the moment, suddenly, WHAM, there's his work and oooooh, yeah... So, I thought that, even though I don't necessarily want to live that far away from my friends and family, changing scenery might be a smart move...

Except for when I've tried to call the guy who is renting the place out, I haven't heard anything back from him.  So, I asked Golf what the deal was and Golf checked into it and said that Guy has been really busy lately and hadn't had a chance to get back to me.  Oh, and he's not sure if he wants to allow cats in the apartment.  Seriously??  I discussed the cats when I went and checked out the apartment and he asked me a few questions about them--mainly regarding whether or not they use the litter box (which they do, because I can't handle cats who don't)--and then said it shouldn't be a problem.  But now it's possibly a problem.


So, while I haven't gotten the official "no" on it yet, I'm guessing it's more than likely not going to pan out.  I can't possibly get rid of my cats.  I know, I know, I'm a weird cat lady, whatever.  For some reason, being super into dogs is totally fine and normal, but being super into cats makes you crazy.  So, fine, fine, fine, I'm crazy, whatever.  


But honestly, do you see this business?? This adorable, whether you like cats or not.  And considering I come home to this and it cracks me up, he's got a lot of value for making me feel better.

And then there's Oscar, who must cram himself into the tiniest possible space ever.  Although he has at least 2 cats-sized beds, the empty show box is his spot of choice.  How could I ever get rid of these two??

Answer is: I can't.  So, the Option B apartment is pretty surely no longer an option.  Maybe something will change, but I guess I'm not banking on it at this point in time.  So, it's back to the apartment search in my current city.  There's like 3 apartment buildings total here, so it's not like I've got a ton of options.  I'm a little nervous about whether I'll actually find something or not, because I sure am not making a lot of money and now with YKW no longer in the picture, I've got to pay for everything on my own.  So, I'm not sure I'll find something that I can afford.  Mmm, homeless public defender...that sounds so chic, doesn't it?  Bleeehhh...I'm a little disappointed because the apartment closer to work was really nice and it sure would be awesome to wake up like an hour later than I currently have to in order to make it on time.  But, I guess that's the way it goes.  Gotta figure something else out. 


Other than that, I've got nothing out of the ordinary going on.  Just the usu (which is supposed to be short for "usual" but there's not really anyway to phonetically convey that...).  Work is still kicking my butt big time, although there's a new contract attorney in our office for a few months and apparently she's going to be helping me out a bit, along with doing other stuff.  I wanted to leap out of my chair and hug her when she asked me if I had any files for this coming week that she could help me with--I actually thought she was kidding for a few seconds but then realized she was totally serious.  I was SO thrilled.


I think the problem I'm having is that I've had to pick up the misdemeanors again, since about 4 months ago or so, whereas before I was just doing felonies and gross misdemeanors. While I do have a pretty good chunk of felony and gross misdemeanor files at any given time and they tend to be a lot more complex than misdemeanors, it's those damn misdemeanors that are killing me.  They flood in to my inbox like an avalanche and I have to be in court all the time for them.  It used to be I'd be in court for a few of my felony cases during the week but still had time to get back to the office for an hour or so after court to check my voicemail, see if anything important came for me, etc.  But the misdemeanors are so numerous that I have a lot on the calendar at the same time for multiple days in a row, on top of my normal felony court appearances, and then I'm unable to get back to the office and take care of things.  Which then spirals into my other cases.  I wish I could go back to just doing the felonies, because I was not nearly so swamped with I just had those.  The very misdemeanors are like being swarmed by flies or something--the second you get rid of one, 5 more come in!  It's never-ending and terribly exhausting.  


Plus, it's hard to be as invested in a misdemeanor case at the same time as felony cases.  I recognize that for my misdemeanor clients, the charges are very important.  I don't doubt for one minute that they care just as much about their cases as the felony clients do.  Sometimes even more because some misdemeanor clients have no criminal history and have no experience in the court and want to make sure it stays that way.  But, it's hard to throw as much time and effort into an Underage Consumption of Alcohol ticket as into a Felony Assault or Stalking or something.  In part it's because I can almost certainly guess what the offer/sentence on the Underage would be--$200 fine--and there's no jail time involved (and probably not any probation either, unless it's like the person's 5th one or something).  So, I know it's low-stakes, because there are some pretty standard offers for most misdemeanors and they are reasonable.  So, I find myself trying to muster as much energy as I have for the felonies as I do on the misdemeanors.  It's not like I work any less zealously on those one...it's just that I'm not so invested in the outcome because I usually already know the likely outcome.  


So, I'm buried in these misdemeanor cases and they keep coming in faster than I can resolve them, which means that I'm spending a lot of time on those and trying to also stay on top of the felonies.  I wish there was enough funding for us to hire some more attorneys so we could have misdemeanor attorneys and felony attorneys--I think it provides better service to the clients, too, since the attorneys aren't trying to balance really serious with less serious cases.  But the chances of that happening aren't really high.


So, work is kicking my butt.  And, since I'm constantly working to try to keep up, I have pretty much zero time to do anything else.  Sadly, my house is starting to look like an episode of "Hoarders."  It's just that, after pulling a 9-12 hour day, I'm really tired and really hungry and possibly really cranky and really mentally wiped out.  The last thing I want to do is clean the house.  I want to eat some dinner, watch some TV/read a book/do some crossword puzzles and then go to bed.  Cleaning the house isn't high on the list of things I want to do when I get home.  Maybe these cats could start pulling their weight around here and do a little cleaning while I'm at work.  I mean, honestly, would it kill them to pick up the living room a bit and maybe take out the garbage??  Lazy bums...