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So far today, I have skipped breakfast, been stuck in the tunnels on the T, been evicted from my desk for half an hour by another employee who needed to borrow my phone "for just a minute," and performed CPR on my work computer to no avail. Oh, said computer? The hard drive is fried. And the document I've been working on for the past two weeks is on said hard drive. Nope, not backed up. I'm dumb.

Julian's advice regarding my comatose work computer: Rock it firmly back and forth. Bang it on the floor a couple of times. If it starts up after that, move everything important to a floppy right away.

Wouldn't you know...it worked.

Rachel just called to tell me that Ernest told her that he called the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners, and they said that they had not yet mailed out results from the July 2004 exam but they would go out "this week" and a list of passing candidates would be posted online on Monday.

Pass it on!

One of the other law clerks just emailed the whole group to say that her Bar exam results came in today's mail. We can't leave work until 4:30. Why would she do such a thing to all of us?

I feel ill.

I passed the bar.

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I keep saying to myself that I'm going to start posting to the blog again when I can get my act together enough to catch y'all up on my life. Come on, we know that's never going to happen. I hereby declare the last week and a half (give or take) never to have happened. Except for the good stuff, of course.

Yesterday, I left home at about 7:45 A.M. As always, I got on the T, rode it to the end of my line, transfered to the stupid shuttle bus, and got to work. My arrival time was approximately 8:30 A.M.

This morning, because I had a memo I wanted to finish writing as early as possible (so I could discuss it with the assigning judge), I left home at about 7:20 A.M. Same drill with getting on the T. Arrived at work at...8:30 A.M.

It is now my firm belief that the MBTA is conspiring against me.

I am truly insane. I woke up at 5:20 this morning so I could go shopping at Filene's before work.

Nope, no catchy entry title this time. Just directly to the point: I loathe, despise, detest, hate, and in all other possible ways do not like the public transportation service in the Boston metro area.

This morning I waited outside for about 25 minutes for a Green Line train (*ahem* trolley). They're supposed to run every six minutes during rush hour. When one finally showed up, it was (of course) packed to overflowing. Since I could see another one a block behind it, I decided not to wedge myself into the overfilled car. Got onto that one without incident, but of course it ran very slowly because the first train was right in front of it, making all stops. Why the MBTA couldn't have ordered this first train to go express (since there was barely room for people to get on it anyway) so as to get those people to work faster and free up track space for us, I have no idea.

The second one was completely packed, too, just in case you thought I at least had the benefit of a comfortable ride.

My train was rerouted, making Park Street its last stop. This is one stop short of where I need to get off for my shuttle bus, and the distance between those stops is long enough that it doesn't make sense to just walk instead of waiting for the next train. Luckily enough, there was a train going that way right across the platform. The doors of the first car were open, but that car was already quite full. Second car? Doors firmly shut. "Driver, can you open the doors please?" "No."

No? What, are you afraid of disturbing the seven people sitting comfortably among the empty seats? The closed car sat there, mocking us, for nearly five minutes before the front-loaded two-car train pulled away. In the meantime, an MBTA employee had the chutzpah to walk through the crowd promising us that there was aanother train "right behind this one." Well, what the hell is wrong with this one?

Finally got on another train. Got to Government Center. Spent far too long on the shuttle bus getting to Cambridge.

Hate the MBTA. Hate.

Recently purchased: Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham and Slaughterhouse Five by fellow Cornellian Kurt Vonnegut.

Rather, a Julie. I mean, obviously we knew someone was The Voice of Amtrak (our constant companion during the years when I lived in New York and Julian was up here near Boston), but I guess I never thought that her name actually was "Julie" (as she claimed). It seemed somehow made-up, a generic but not boring name chosen to please the masses. Personally, I always found her annoying. I prefer the straightforward (and faster) "Press 1 for..." systems over voice-recognition combined with prerecorded responses meant to sound friendly and personal. Dude, I know it's a computer, I can deal with that reality, now just let me buy my ticket and get on with my life.

Anyway, Julie is real, and she's local. Cool.

Today has been not particularly productive (to put it mildly). And, although I have gotten full nights of sleep every night for the past several, and wasn't particularly sleep-deprived prior to that, I'm feeling kind of sluggish. I can't seem to find a good explanation for it (and, no, I'm not pregnant; I really wish people would stop asking me).

On my lunchtime walk today, I decided to keep my hat on when I got back to work. It's a decent day to try it out...the judge who sits near the law clerks isn't here and the courtroom next to my desk is not in use. I have no meetings scheduled with any judges, nor can I discuss any of my current projects with their assigning judges in person (since neither of them are here today). The other three law clerks have all seen and spoken with me since I returned from lunch, and none of them commented on the hat. All three know that I cover my hair outside of work, and they're smart ladies, so I'm sure they can figure this out.

I kept my hat on today after arriving at work. One judge walked by without comment (well, he said "Good morning," but you know what I mean). Similar lack of comments from said judge's register and the court officer who changes in our bathroom. At first, none of the other clerks said anything either. After returning from getting coffee, though, one of them asked me, "So you're wearing your hats now?"

Yup. I kind of stumbled through an explanation of how I may take off my hat when appearing in a courtrooms, but I wasn't sure, and I commented how no one has complained "yet," but the basic answer to her question is: yes.