Court...

So this last Wednesday I was scheduled to testify in court. I had to travel up to cripple creek which is about

















and hour and a half up into the mountains.

So I got up there and waited and waited and waited in this really cool old courthouse that was literally built in the early 1800s.

Imagine a courtroom similar to the one on left. Except all wood, everything was wooden. When you walk into the court house, you feel like you are stepping back in time. I thought John Wayne was going to be sitting on his house when I looked out the window :)

So after waiting for about 6 hours, I got on the stand and testified to protocol, no biggie and then left.
(cripple creek court house)

















All was fine until Friday!! I am at work, in a meeting and have been notified that someone is on the phone for me and it is an emergency.

So the legal aid for the DA said that the dvds would not play because they redacted them so much, that now they wouldn't play for the jury. The lady relayed to me, that the judge is saying if you don't get up here they are going to have to call a mistrial!

What ?!?!

So I said well let me see what I can do, but I can't give you any guarantees because

a. I am an hour and a half away

b. I am wearing jeans right now (and that would not fly in court)

c. we were short staffed at work and if I left only one person would be here

d. I didn't really feel like driving 3 hours and testifying to my interviews
which I did a year ago
and reviewed 3 weeks ago,
to then get slaughtered on the stand
by a defense attorney
because you do not check your DVD's


Why is that my fault????

But alas I went because if I didn't two kiddo victims would have been put on the stand all over again by a defense attorney for 4 hours each.

So I go home. change. Drive up there flustered.
Then sit and sit and sit.....

and as I am sitting once again in the old court house I am getting more and more mad. Because
if the judge was going to call a mistrial and it was an emergency that I get up there, why then not put me on the stand as soon as I get there.

So.....

4:45 pm rolls around, Katie is called in the court room finally

only to be told that I have to be there Monday morning at 8 am! and WILL BE!

What!!!!! And the way the judge told me was so cruel, demeaning, pompus way.

I immediately walked out of the court room and down the stairs and went to my car and started crying and yelling in my car.

After I drop everything and put a total burden on the people I left at work to make your case work, after you failed to do your job and then you have me sit there all day for no reason. Don't even say I am sorry, nothing.

Completely rude and arrogant.

But there is nothing I can do. I will drive another 3 hours tomorrow round trip to testify for kids, not the DA, not the judge, or the defense attroney.

The kids, who were innocently victimized.

If it weren't for them, I would never be doing any of this and that you can gaurantee :)

School all weekend

So after spending all weekend in class it leaves Monday mornings difficult to get out of bed and hop up to go to work.

I am currently taking 2 classes for grad school for my MSW. However there is one of of them that makes me want to pluck my eyes out.

RESEARCH/STATISTICS

I went into social work, because I am a people person. I am good at helping people. I love sitting and talking with them.

NOT because I love math, or computations, or SPSS, or anything having to do with numbers.
However unfortunately, grad school requires you to be able to learn how to do your own research
then compute that data into a codebook so therefore you can run tests and see if your research is
statistically significant or not. I spent my weekend learning how to run different tests and analyze
that data.

I spend every moment in class concentrating so hard (because I am so sure I am getting something wrong) that by the time I am done I have the worst headache. But this weekend I thought ok ok I think I am finally starting to understand a little bit of this.

End of story: social workers don't do math :)

But I will do what is expected of me in order to make it through grad school. Who knows maybe I will even surprise myself. I did however get an A on my first assignment in stats.

My 3d avatar experience

So here is a funny story from last night


James and I had rain check tickets to go see avatar at the IMAX in 3-d because last time we went there
was not a seat to spare.


So we sit down and it was fine at first but then I was like oh my gosh I am starting to feel
sick and thought I was going to throw up.


So I would close my eyes and feel better
and then just open them
for a split second and immediately feel worse again.


So I felt so bad because I know james wanted to see this
movie SOOO bad and has been waiting to see it for so long.
So I closed my eyes and was breathing deep
so I wouldn't puke.
I was convincing myself that I will just keep my eyes closed for 2 hours until the movie is done.



Totally mind over matter at this point :) I am sure I looked awesome if people around me
were looking at me.


Then I finally looked at james and was like I think I am going to be sick.
I said I am just going to go sit outside and wait until you are done. And he was like, katie there is no
way I am going to sit in here and finish the movie while you are feeling sick and just sitting out there.

So we walked out and I immediately went to the bathroom and tossed my cookies no bueno!
Nothing like doing that in a public restroom, awesome (not so much!)


Then as james went to the ticket counter to get a refund, the actual second refund at this point.
A guy walks up to the counter and said I was just in the avatar 3d movie and got sick. He said
this is my second time trying because I got sick the first time and just thought it had something to do
with the popcorn.


He said but this time I didn't have any popcorn and still got sick.
He asked the lady behind the counter how often does that happen, and she said quite frequenly actually.

So moral of this story is katie does not like 3d experiences.
or at least my tum tum doesn't.
hope your sunday night was better then mine ;o)

day 2

Day 2 without facebook...successful. I sometimes wake up and before I hop out of bed get on my ipod touch and get facebook. I definitely had the urge to do that this morning, but didn't :)

I am so craving a movie night in with frozen pizza. What is it about snow that makes you want to hibernate and snuggle up with a movie.

I am trying to motivate myself to go to zumba tonight.... but again just not feeling it.

Especially when I have to be in school ALL weekend.

Ah we shall see......

Lent

I have never given up anything for Lent before.

Wasn't really a tradition growing up that my family participated in

In fact I have never really thought Lent too much before.

So this year I thought let's challenge myself and give up something.

I wanted to give up something that I devoted a lot of time too,

which for me is facebook.

I know, I know this sounds cheesy and kinda lame.

But its true.

Because a lot of times I have downtime at work where I sit

in front of a computer and LOVE facebook.

I loved it a little too much

and constantly felt this need

to know

the most

up to date

information, status updates and photos

of people.

Does it matter?

Nope but I felt this nagging need

to always know

So I have given it up

and

this will be hard don't get be wrong.

I will probably feel disconnected

and sad

when I realize I didn't see those pictures

people around me are talking about

But also good for me

Today: day 1

I have talked to more friends/family in other forms then facebook

then I have in the last week.

So maybe I won't be so disconnected from not facebooking :)

Also on day 1 I noticed how lovely the snow coming down

the mountain is.

Valentine's Day/James 28th Bday~

My Valentines Day Outfit :)

Dinner at Jame's house

Roses for Vday!

My valentines day was great.

James put a lot of effort into making it special.

I went over to his apartment and he had completely rearranged his apartment.

There was linen on his table with candles everywhere.

He bought me a dozen roses, he even bought a piano cd that could be playing cause he knows I like piano music.

He made an incredible meal that was to die for.

Then we just chilled out and watched a movie.

All in all it was great!

He even got me a personalized journal with a note in it for me.

So he did great!

Monday night was his 28th birthday so we went to texas roadhouse and then were going to go to ITZ cause he wanted to play games.

However by the time we got out the game place wasn't open so we went to go see valentines day movie and actually we both liked it.

I mean it was somewhat cheesy but overall cute.

Previous to the movie we could get the game fix in we played in the arcade :)

James and I played a racing boat game, he beat me everytime but once.

But it was his birthday so I had to let him win afterall!

We had a lot of fun this past weekend and I feel very blessed to have him in my life.

I am thankful that I got to celebrate his bday with him.

I got him a watch and he loved it!