I am so sorry, dear readers,

to have left you hanging like that!!! Here's the scoop:

First: no, I have not been hired by my dream employer.

Second: but almost everything else that I could have hoped for occurred this weekend, including:

• I learned a lot about the racial justice issues that exist in the areas of immigration, drug enforcement and the "war on terror" and was even able to contribute a few small ideas on how to assist in the fight on those issues--but mostly, I learned, soaking everything up like a sponge;
• I was massively energized just by being around approximately 75 folks, both lawyers and organizers, who are interesting, brilliant, committed and wholly devoted to fighting for human rights;
• They were also very kind, as demonstrated by the fact that they were all very welcoming, friendly and inclusive despite my fear of ostracism due to my status as a management-size employment lawyer;
• I was able to confirm that I still believe this is what I really want to do, as evidenced in part by my participation with rapt attention and also by the solid and unmistakable feeling that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing;
• I met all the people I need to meet in order to begin volunteering for them, and they seem very open to and even interested in me volunteering for them, and we have already been in touch about it to some extent.

So, there's the story. What I have been hoping for and wishing for, but that just wasn't happening despite all of my e-mailing and networking, finally fell into place just because I saw this conference notice and made the effort to be there. I could not be more happy. Please keep your fingers crossed that this continues to move in a good direction.

Here's a photo from our Saturday night outing . . .



fittingly, it was held at the "Victory Grill." Totally fun!

P.S. If it makes you feel any better, I, too, had to suffer some suspense in my day. Typically, my two dogs greet me happily at the front door when I return home after a long day at work. But tonight only one of them did. Kip, who was not at the front door, will turn 10 this summer. Because I'm good at things like worrying about events that have not come to pass, I have begun mentally preparing for the fact that he will die one day. "But it's too soon!" I cried out in my head when he did not come even after I called. I ran upstairs to see where he could be, only to find that he had apparently managed to lock himself in the bathroom while destroying a bag of trash, and that Orley had chosen not to let him out (the bathroom door can be pushed open by a dog from the outside, but the lack of actual fingers prevents a dog from opening it from inside). I was so happy to find him safe that I didn't even yell at him for destroying a sack of trash. For your viewing pleasure, here is the formerly imprisoned one: