All rise

I don’t have internet access at home yet so posts may be infrequent for a while. I’ve arrived and settled in Vermont. It has been a dramatic change in more ways than I have time to go into. There is a big disconnect between my surroundings and my job. Every morning I put on a suit (a new thing for me) and I feel like a space alien as I walk to work. Sometimes I even walk past a bunch of hippies in a morning drum circle. I imagine them muttering to each other as I walk into the Federal Building: "There goes the MAN, man."

A couple of months ago I came up here looking for apartments with my Mum. We were people watching over a coffee right in the middle of downtown during a workday. We tried to count the number of people we saw wearing ties but we only counted three or four people out of the hundreds that must have walked by. Now I am in that tiny minority of tie wearing Vermonters.

My new job as a federal law clerk does not combine well with blogging. I've already had a couple of experiences I'd like to post about but doing so would be a serious breach of confidentiality. Even though I can't blog about it, I think my new job provides my life with an excellent narrative ark: "Son of public servants grows up to be a public servant!" I think all the novel writers who read this blog [about 1/3 of this blog’s small audience is currently writing a novel] should drop their current projects and get straight to work on this great story.

I have to wear a suit every day because I often need to be in court. The best thing about court so far is when I get to tell everyone to stand up and sit down. I find it hilarious. I try to put on a very serious sounding voice and not burst out laughing. Even better is when I get to "cry the court". It goes something like this:

ALL RISE! Hear ye, hear ye, the United States District Court for and within the District of Vermont is now open and ready for the transaction of business, the Honorable William K. Sessions III presiding.