Justin's Family Email- 9/12/07

Dear Family,

My first week of work was certainly a trial by fire (yes, TRIAL, he he). I started last Tue and after some training I received my first little assignment that afternoon. The next morning I was put on a big case and really started working. Our client builds yachts and is being sued over a 17 million dollar yacht that cost him 30 million to build. It’s the real deal, 4 floors, hot tub, an elevator, the works. Pretty interesting.
Thursday and Friday were more of the same. I don’t ever show up until just before 10, but I always end up staying past 7. On Friday night Kelsey picked me up and we headed over to Trader’s Village, the largest flea market in Texas, to see the national Pow-Wow Indian Dancing competition. They started an hour late, so we only got to see a few of the categories (kids dances mostly) but it was still fun. I kept telling Kelsey I should have been out there, representing my Cado blood.

On Saturday we had a MILLION things to get done (still moving in, etc). I bought a lawn mower and started mowing the lawn and then the phone rang. It was work, they needed some help on a case that is going to trial this week. So I worked all day Saturday until 7, and missed the first half of the BYU game. I drove home and got Kelsey and the kids and we headed over to Dallan’s. We stayed for a while afterwards to hang out with Dallan, Bethany, Christian and Emily. Eden has made fast friends with Emily’s kids. She and Morgan (Emily’s 4 year old girl) have a lot of fun together.

Sunday was Stake Conference. Our stake is so big we have two sessions- we don’t fit in the stake center otherwise. It was fine. After church, you guessed it, I went in to work to help get ready for trial. I was there from 3pm until 3am, and that’s not even bad compared to the partner running the case, he hasn’t slept more than 3 or 4 hours a night in weeks. Why would anyone ever want to work that much?

Monday I had to get up at 8 and start all over again. Tuesday the trial started, so things slowed down a bit. I went home at 7. But I got a call at 12:30 at night from the partner, asking me to do some more research for the case in the morning. Luckily I did it from our computer at home, but I was up until 3 again working on it.

The good news is things are rarely this bad. I will have to work long hours, but I’ll get home at a reasonable hour at least a couple times a week. Plus I don’t have to get to work early. And the cases are endlessly interesting. All of them are close cases, involve a lot of thinking and preparation, and a lot of money. There are nice perks, too. They took us to lunch at the Ritz Carlton last week for lunch. I had a piece of salmon that changed my life.

Kelsey brought the kids downtown and met me for lunch yesterday. It was nice to see them during the day, a lot of times I get home and they are already asleep. We went to the Dallas Farmer’s Market and tasted all the fruit, and then ate at a little Mexican restaurant. I think we’ll probably have lunch like that once a week. I also plan on meeting Dallan for lunch once a week. He works 2 blocks away. We grabbed a slice of pizza today, and had a nice long talk about lawyering.

In other news: Eden started preschool. She really likes it and has made some friends in her class. It is a nice break for Kelsey, too, (three mornings a week) and lets her get some things done. Last night Kelsey’s friend from high school, Syble, came over for dinner. She lives here in Dallas, and has a daughter Eden’s age. It was fun. I drove to work one day, and it took me more than an hour (coming home Sunday at 3am took 26 minutes). So I ride the train, it takes about half the time. The only problem is the train station is 3 miles from our house, and Kelsey has to drop me off, and pick me up. Sometimes its after the kids are asleep- so she rips them out of bed and puts them in the car. We desperately need a second car, but haven’t had time to look for one.

I’m sure this is more than you wanted to know, but oh well. We like how things are playing out so far, except for the long hours of course. We’re excited to see tons of the cousins this weekend, and have Joel and Heather and Austin here for a while. Talk to you later.

Justin