Here We Are

So who am I? Why should you listen to me?

I have no idea, yet you’re still here, Dear Reader. I’ll tell you the things I’ve done and places I’ve been to, but they are not who I am. I am greater than the sum of these jobs and places. My experiences informed me, shaped me, but they do not define me.

I’ve practiced criminal defense law in Texas since 1998. I sobered up in a small English-speaking AA group in Worms, Germany in 1990. I married a man with spectacular blue eyes, and his three children, in an army chapel on Fort Gordon, Georgia in 1987. We met in 1984 in Nurnberg, Germany over the winter holidays while working at the American Armed Forces radio station. I’ve had a lot of jobs. I’ve sold encyclopedias in Georgia. I worked as a short order cook in a neighborhood bar in New Jersey. I stocked shelves at food stores in central Germany. I even ran for the US Congress along the way and I do not recommend it.

During college, I worked as cashier at Bamberger’s department store, now defunct. Back in the day when there were no scanners feeding info into the cash registers. I had to punch in the product number, price and tax. I was slow and customers grew impatient during the Christmas rush. I screwed up the numbers. My receipts didn’t tally up at the end of my shift. I was Lucille Ball and no one was amused. And yes, I was fired.

Upon my graduation, my college chaplain Father Ruane, advised me to “fail while you’re young because you will learn more from failure than success, and have time to recover”.

My very first job after college was working for the non-profit, United Way, in central New Jersey. I was hired to speak to organizations to solicit their contributions. I really wanted the job, but I was terrified of failure, so I kept dodging my boss. I lasted less than two weeks. When she fired me, my disappointed boss told me with emphasis, “you’re flaky”.

The good priest was right, good advice.

And here I am.