Allow The Flow of Passion in Your Life.





Sun 1.17


This week was a killer, appointments all week, trying to prepare for two hearings on Friday, one in which landlord's lawyer is seeking attorney's fees and costs, $1375.52, for the last non payment trial in which I had not proved how the mold traveled from the cellar to my apartment above it. The other trial was the biggy, the "Holdover," in which landlord seeks to evict me. My lease ended November 1st and that is the only reason needed to expulse me.

I work from morning to midnight on Thursday before the trial and get up at 7 the next morning feeling like a zombie from the planet Overload. My plan is to get to the courthouse early enough to do other chores for upcoming trials, yes there is no end to it. But when I get there and check my name on the list posted outside the two courtrooms, I find that the judge for the attorney's fees and cost case is out on this day and her workload has been shifted to the judge who will send us off to the holdover trial if we can't reach a private settlement.

Judge Shreiber, an efficient, no nonsense, yet compassionate woman actually smiles at the people whose cases she is hearing. Unfortunately, she is not the person who will hear our holdover case. She is merely doing triage, seeing if an arrangement can be accomplished so that a trial can be avoided. Since that is not possible she sends us off to arbitrator who will assign us to a sitting judge that day, (there are 4 usually). Mr. Fernandez, landlord's counsel, is not happy; he wants the judge to hear the money case now while we're in front of her. The holdover trial will eat up the rest of the day scheduling and hearing it, thus eliminating the possibility of hearing the money case for that day. He's aggressive and she does not take kindly to it pointing him out the door. Many people are millling about near the arbitrator's office waiting to be assigned a judge and courtroom. He tells us that we are number 8 in line and will not be assigned a judge before lunch, (1 to 2:15.) It is now quarter to 11; Mr. Fernandez wants to go back to Judge Shreiber's court to have the money case heard. Why not, let's get this over with? Judger Shreiber says no. She adjourns the case till next Friday when hopefully, Judge Schneider, the woman who initially heard the nonpayment case will get to rule on it. Who better than she knows what the trial was about and whether attorney's fees and costs are warranted.

I walk off to the Clerk Of Court's office to take care of business when Mr. Fernandez calls out to me and says that we still have the holdover coming. I point out that it's not going to happen till 2. Once my business is settled, I go back to the arbitrator's office to see how the cases are moving along and am told our case will not be heard on this day because of the heavy schedule. Mr. Fernandez needs to come over so we can choose a new date for the trial.

I cannot find him. Walking past the landlord I ponder, Should I ask her about where her attorney is and tell her about the rescheduling? We have not spoken in a long time and the last times we spoke were caustic. I approach her. She flinches and gears up for an attack. Surprisingly, it is business and courteousness between us. Mr. Fernandez has another explosion in the arbitrator's office when he hears the news. He becomes so rude that the arbitrator, himself upset by the rudeness, tells him in no uncertain terms that he is the arbitrator and has made his decision Ð Live with it! But Fernandez wants to come back after lunch regardless because he wants to . . . I don't know.

At 2:30, he's back calmer and we settle on next Friday for the holdover, again same day as the money case. I am so exhausted by then from the tension and anxiety, the lack of sleep and the intense day of preparation before this one that I go home collapse on the sofa with a glass of wine, some antipasto and sausage, pop in a DVD and tune out till I start nodding off and head for bed.

Does the day seem like a complete wash out? I'd say some ephemeral gains and some losses occurred in court Friday which only time will expose.

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Current favorite this past month has been Black Mold