The Trading Post Inn

I can now see that the most important factor in maintaining a Blog or a Diary is discipline. It is so easy to get distracted by what is going on around you, and completely forget about it. I intended to add an entry when I checked into the Trading Post Inn, but, here I am. I think I will stick to the John Grisham model. He writes a book by writing a page (no more and no less) a day. It is not this insurmoutable "thing" or "task," and you can do it realtively painlessly when you have free time during the day. The only proviso is that you HAVE to do it. If you miss a day (or two or three or four) then you have to play catch-up, and then it DOES become a huge "thing" or "task" that you will not do. Enough said about that.

I also have to apoligize to whoever may ultimately read this (esepcially the ladies) that I am not as inarticulate as my gramatical errors or spelling errors would indicate. I usually have my legal assistant clean those up in the edit. What I do requires me to be very prescise in words, and how they are used. But what I do, is not necessarily what I am! What I write here is the yin to the legal yang. I can be free and rambling, and just let the keys on the 'ole laptop take me where it wants to go. What is a few grammatical and spelling errors between friends? To be able to write this was is . . . liberating . . . which is exactly the point of the exercise. I don't want to have to worry about this Blog being letter perfect.

Let me see if I can express it this way. Although I have never been married, I have lived (co-habitated) with three different women. I have been "trained" to keep things extremely neat and tidy. That said, I need one room, all of my own, to be just mine. There I keep a mess. It is my catharsis. That the messy room exists, allows me to maintain the balance of my organized existence. Contradictory, I know, but there it is. I ask, dear reader, that you consider this Blog my "messy room" and not hold me to the professional standard the rest of the world would hold me to.

Ahh. I feel better already.

Which is exactly the way the Trading Post Inn makes me feel. I arrived later than I planned (I had to wait for the car rental, and got lost along the way). I think my official check-in time was 10:38 p.m. I did not get a chance to meet the rest of the guests. The individual that checked me in told me the place only holds 13 people. I was the 13th person, although several of the guests are out on a side excursion up in Maine, and will not be in until sometime next week. So, over the weekend there will be less than the full complement. The Inn is a realtively small/quaint place, and it reminds me of somewhat of the youth hostels that you see in Amsterdam. (Yes, I had a chance to experience the cliche' European tour during undergraduate school). What I mean is there are a lot of double rooms, so you can end up rooming with a total stranger for a week or two. When I look back on that European vacation, I remember this odd arrangement actually facilitated friendships (and adventure) that ordinarily would not have happened. I look forward to re-capturing that same atmosphere, here, later on it life. I had no idea that a place like this even existed here in the United States.

I, forutnately, have the single room.

So, I went to bed. I slept in late today, for the first time in along time. Until 10:00. I plan to shower, and go out and explore the area. Maybe meet some of the locals. Maybe meet some of the other guests.

I can tell you this. This place has totally relaxed me. It is like breathing crisp fresh air for the first time in a long time. That is the perfect environment to get a persepctive on your life, and decide where you are going.

For me, it is easy. Do I continue on this professional life track, or do I take a step back to start a family of my own? A nearly 40 years of age, it is getting rather late in the game. If I am going to start a family, I have to start soon. I do not want to be one of those older guys with a really yound wife, and younger kids when I retire. It's not fair to me, and not fair to them. I want to be able to experience the joys of marriage and parenthood, when I can share it with others in my age group.

Maybe after the trial on the nig case I was talking about, I'll sit down and really decide what I am going to do. I have enough money stashed away from my other cases to scale down my practice. The only potential problem is that the reast of the firm, esepcially financially, revolves around my success. If I scale back my professional life, in favor of a personal life, I may be affecting the careers and financial health of a lot of other people, including my partners. We all know that nothing lasts forever, but still, that is a lot of weight and responsbility to carry on one's shoulders.

Sorry for getting so heavy. That's not today. Today, I am free from that world, at least for a little while. Today I am just . . . me. The me that nobody gets to see. I am going to enjoy my day.