Herein lies my first post, and maybe it will be true.  I didn't start out as a lawyer.  I thought of myself as a painter, then a wife and mother, then a nurse.  I actually became a nurse in 1977 and continued in that profession for nearly 20 years, working in various regional hospitals in the U.S.  At some point aware that I was rapidly getting older, I then decided to go to law school, since lawyers can retain credibility and even become more credible with advancing years.  Plus, I had always had this way of speaking that was a little baroque (some might call it pompous), even when I was a little kid.  I would be a shoe-in, right?  So, in going to law school, I submitted to the standard amputations (common sense, moral certainty, and capacities as a visual artist, to name a few) and came out of it feeling diminished and sad, at least until I managed to pass the bar exam.

To my great surprise and gratitude, I was hired at a public defender and wound up really liking my job.  Even my clients and their flawed (sometimes fatally flawed) characters and circumstances were--and continue to be--sources of rich purpose.  I am close to completing my 10th year at the public defender.  Now I have administrative and supervisory duties in the office which require me to be more resilient and circumspect, more creative and positive toward my coworkers, and altogether more organized than I have ever been in my entire life.

So now a blog.  I want to tell some stories, yet I know I have to be careful about the rights of others--clients and coworkers--particularly the rights relating to those rascally confidentiality issues.  So I think I will try to edit things in order to avoid divulging what must remain private, and yet find the nuggets that make the tales fun to tell.  Maybe I will find readers, and writers who can share their stories as well.

OK it's now way past my bedtime, so I shall sign off for now, with a promise to tell stories in the near future.  Ta Ta for now.