One thing I hate most of all in this job is that I always feel like I am asking for something. I am asking for a deal for a client, I am asking a judge to grant my motion (or not to grant the state's), I am asking for bullshit charges to be dismissed, I am asking a cop to cut my guy a break, I am asking asking asking. Sometimes my ego just gets tired of it. Sometimes I end up in a screaming match with a solicitor. Sometimes I hit things in my office. I get frustrated.
In addition, my clientele is in large part a population of drug addicts, alcoholics and schizophrenics. Everyone is poor. No one has a job. Everyone has had a tough life. I am polite. I shake their hands, which some of my co-workers refuse to do. I talk to them about their family. I ask how long they have been smoking crack, how many beers they had that morning before they came in for our appointment. It took me a while to get comfortable asking such personal questions, but it really does help my relationship with my client. Yeah, it takes a little longer, and requires a bit more patience. I see grown men cry and cry and cry, not because they have criminal charges, but because they just don't know what else to do. For the most part, getting caught isn't the problem.
I have clients I love and clients I love a little less. Today, for hour after hour, I heard story after story. My office smelled like cheap beer evaporating from human pores. A client who was released from the jail this afternoon shows up right at closing time without a jacket or a place to stay. A lot of my job is social work, and I really don't mind.
Don't get me wrong, I still wash my hands a lot....
In other news, I made another recipe from my new cookbook. This one was DE-LISH! Totally a keeper, good for making a big batch at the beginning of the week:
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| Chopped spinach and quinoa salad, with garbanzos and homemade vinaigrette |
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