What a day

I rolled out of bed yesterday morning both excited and terrified. The thrill of going to game 6 of the World Series was tempered by the horror of the deadline looming on my first article for the American Bar Association. I had exactly 6 hours to get drop off my son at day care, get into the office, bang out my article, get it approved by the guy I was writing about and fire it off to my editor. Oh sure... No problem.


Except that I was suffering from the world's largest case of writers block. So I frantically emailed my favorite writer/editor/blogger asking for advice. I considered myself fortune that his advice didn't begin with "I NEVER wait to the last second to write my articles" or "I'm so talented, writers block doesn't apply to me." But his words helped me find my own and in 2 hours, I wrote one hell of an article.

Except then I ran my word counter and saw that my article was literally less than HALF the size it was supposed to be. My 750 word article was a paltry 314 words. I spent my entire day writing and then rewriting this article. But finally - 9 minutes before I had to leave the office for the ballgame - I held my breath, hit the word count and saw my total had reached 751! I didn't bother proofreading the thing again, fired it off to the guy I was writing about for his approval and shot it over to my editor with a note that the article was still waiting for final review and comment by the subject.

I'll be honest. I don't have a freaking clue what I said. It could have been the best article ever written... And it could have been utter crap. I have no idea. But I got an email today from my subject telling me what a great job I did with it, how honored he is that I chose to write about him and that the piece was "beautifully done." (Okay. I love the compliment - but the guy's no idiot. He's not going to slam someone who's writing an article about him in a national publication) Except I also got an email from my editor telling me it was a great article. So I guess I have to listen to her. She'd tell me if the article was a piece of junk.

That left me feeling pretty good.


Oh. Did I mention that the votes came in for the Super Lawyers and Rising Stars? (Super Lawyers are the best and brightest lawyers in the state. Rising Stars are basically the same thing, but for young lawyers) Guess who's a Rising Star this year?

Anyway, I digress... So at the end of the day, I wrote my first article, which actually turned out pretty decent all things considering. I got a pretty cool award. AND...



THE YANKEES WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!

And I got to be there to watch it. For all the games I've been to since I was 5, I never got to see the Yanks clinch the Series before. Such an unbelievable experience.

To top it off, I won my bet with Matty. But that's a post for another day...