Order in the Court!

Due to our camera still undergoing repairs, which results in a total lack of evidence that tonight actually took place, this case is dismissed!

"OBJECTION!" (I can hear you saying...)

Okay, okay...here's the update some of you may have been waiting for. Tonight, Chris and I attended the Intellectual Property Law Association's annual judges dinner in the Capital Ballroom of the Stephen F. Austin International Hotel. This was a dinner attended by mostly local IP attorneys, who paid a pretty penny for their dinner, and the 4 members of UT's IP Moot Court Team and their guests (lucky us, us poor folk got to eat for free.) There were also a few judges that were there to be honored and appreciated.

I have to start out by telling you how handsome Chris looked in his "lawyer costume" tonight. (sigh) I know I am partial, but he is just so cute! I wish I could get my hair chopped at Supercuts for next-to-nothing and look so adorable. Ain't happenin'! And I lamented to him, on our drive back home, about how easy it would be to dress myself if I were a man. Men have to make nowhere near the painstaking efforts to look good as we women do, and the choices are between A and B...it's really as simple as that...for men. Not so for the ladies. Oh well.

I really like my new suit. I'm glad I don't have a picture of myself wearing it to post here, because I might change my mind after seeing myself from your point of view. It was a little awkward wearing it at first, I admit. I sort of felt like a man, but luckily, I was wearing some nice heels and accessories that helped me escape that feeling before long. It took us over an hour to drive downtown to the hotel, and by the time we arrived, I'd long forgotten that moment of awkwardness.

Because we arrived just in time to check in (we had to dodge some basketball game-goers on our way into downtown), there wasn't a lot of time for mingling, which was really a blessing since neither Chris nor I really knew anyone there at that point. He did run into a guy from a firm that interviewed him today, and we were introduced. Throughout the evening, I met 2 other men from the same firm, and they were all very nice. From what I saw, I think I would be really happy if they wanted to hire him. (I get a little protective of him, so I was pleased that these seemed like good people that he'd be happy working with.) I hope we get some good news soon.

The dinner, itself, was really nice. It was served buffet-style, though, which, in my opinion, makes things a little LESS nice usually, but it was fine. The food selections were excellent and included beef, chicken and salmon as well as 2 kinds of potatoes, a vegetable medley of carrots, squash and asparagus, green salad and a variety of bread and cheeses. For dessert, there was a beautiful array of cheesecake and pie choices. Chris had a plain cheesecake and I had some sort of lemon cream pie that was delicious.

While we were finishing up with dinner, the ILPA president made a little speech and presented each of the judges with a gift, a coffeetable book on Texas courthouses. "Gee, just...what..I, um, always...wanted.." No, I'm sure they really liked it. Then, the keynote address followed and was delivered by a cool judge guy. I don't mean to say that his address was boring in any way, because I could follow along enough to know that the guy had a pretty good sense of humor, but for someone like me who isn't in the field, the whole thing reminded me of a cartoon my mom once clipped for me about what humans say to dogs and what dogs hear:

Human: "Ginger, you naughty dog! You go outside right now, Ginger! If I have to tell you one more time, Ginger, to..."

Dog: "Ginger, blah blah blah! Blah blah blah blah blah, Ginger! Blah blah blah, Ginger, blah blah!"

You get the drift. HOWEVER, I WAS doing my best to pay attention and I really was trying to get something out of this. At one point, I did get distracted and began trying, without making it obvious, of course, to check out what the other ladies were wearing so I could have a better idea for next time. Suddenly, Chris sort of spun around in his chair with this huge smile on his face. I thought the man must have commented on something we had been laughing about earlier. (On the way to the hotel, I jokingly asked Chris for some one-liners I could use in case anyone confused me for someone who had a clue. He gave me some line about tort reform that I can't even remember now, but...it was pretty funny, but I guess you'd have to have been there.) I asked Chris about that later, and he said that, no, he was just checking to make sure I wasn't asleep! (And he checked on me several times.) I thought it was cute how concerned he was about that, but I assured him that I would never do that to him and explained that even as incomprehensible as the speech was at times, I was more concerned about whether or not I seemed out-of-place. He was very confident that I did NOT seem out-of-place. What a sweet compliment? I thought so anyway.

After the keynote address, the meeting was adjourned. Before leaving, Chris introduced me to him teammates. Again, another very nice bunch of people. All in all, we had a wonderful night out together.