Delirious Stylings

I'm just going to warn you, I got 3 hours of sleep last night and I'm exhausted and my eyes burn and my fingers aren't listening to my brain telling them which keys to hit on my keyboard. There's a lot of backspace going on. Yesterday I was in the office for 20 hours, leaving here just after 4:15 this morning. I can say that without bitterness or complaint because today this case is OVER. The jury will deliberate, things will be decided, and a matter that has consumed 14 months of my life will close (except for the Federal Circuit appeal, but I won't be working on that... much, and technically it will be a new matter number).

This case has taught me a lot and has given me more respnosibility and client contact than I've ever had before, but it is also directly responsibile for the few times I'm in my career I've wanted to cry or quit (or both). Last night's project consisted of drafting two Judgments as a Matter of Law that will need to be filed this morning in that tiny window between the close of our case and the jury leaving the courtroom to deliberate. And because it's a motion that basically says "hey look at all this evidence on our side! no reasonable jury could ever find against us on X issue, so judge, just decide it our way now before they get their instructions," you (I) have to cite allllllll the evidentiary trial testimony to back up your factual statements. And because of various issues in the case and the way the trial was trifurcated, everything I needed to cite came from testimony given yesterday. So I was up until the wee hours reviewing the trial transcripts as they were filed to drop in the citations we needed for statements I pre-wrote based on the direct- and cross-examination outlines, craft eloquent parentheticals to force hostile witnesses to agree with what I was writing, and otherwise re-work my motion with each new transcript I received because I'm not in court and don't actually know what was said until I can read it. (Bonus road bump: there were four transcripts to cover all of yesterday's testimony, covering 700 pages of single-spaced court reporting, separted into volumes A-D. I received each volume about 90 minutes apart starting at 9 p.m. in the order: B, D, A, and C. Extra fun!). I sent it to the partners at 4:30, they read it at 5, I woke up to edits at 7:30 and it's now ready to be filed. And I have to admit, after my final read-through this morning over tea, I'm pretty pleased.

The other issue taxing my brain lately, outside my case and its crazy trial, is selecting outfits for our upcoming family pictures. Our last attempt at pictures was rather disastrous (see Outtakes), so we've re-hired the original photographer who took our beautiful newborn portraits to do a "mini" session to get some updated pictures of the kids in time for Christmas cards (and to replace those 1 year/4 year shots, which have little value beyond their potential for comedic captioning).

Getting four people to "go" but not "match" and to look "nice" but not fussy or too "done" while thinking about what colors will look good in an outdoor setting, in Fall, with cool morning temperatures is REALLY HARD. Also, we all have different coloring, different sets of already-owned clothing, and I have not had time to shop in months. I perused portrait photography blogs to see what I liked and what I didn't like and quickly decided I wanted something simple and fairly neutral. Then I wanted an excuse to buy riding boots, so I decided I would wear jeans, those new boots, and a white or cream top and everyone else would work around that.

Some late night internet shopping and lots of office deliveries and shipped returns later, I have this assortment, which I'm quite pleased with:

Me: new riding boots, skinny jeans, one of these two sweaters (if they fit):

 

Landon: jeans, the shirt below (rolled up sleeves), and his tan cowboy boots

Claire: one of these dresses, possibly her adorable little tan boots, depending on how they look with the dresses I haven't yet seen in person

JP: jeans, brown boots, the sweater below

Yesterday I found this picture on our photographer's blog and I decided I want it, but with me and the Bear (and, if at all possible, with that woman's hair and body:

And now that my styling job is (nearly) complete (let me know which of Claire's dresses you prefer, I'm leaning towards the lavender), and I've rested my brain for a little bit, it's time to clean off my disaster of a desk and start reading over 200 pages of materials a partner sent me to read for an article I volunteered to co-author with him over 2 months ago. I've never even opened the attachments to the emails and the draft is due Friday. Oops. Back to work.

Updated on request with links to my selections (many purchased last night with the currently available 25-35% off discount codes for gap and oldnavy.com): White v-neck sweater (Old Navy); white shawl neck sweater (Old Navy); "Becky" brown riding boots (DSW.com); striped shirt (Children's Place); pink striped sweater dress (Gap); lavender dress (Gap); blue pullover (Old Navy).