Back At Last

Life as a litigation attorney is often unpredictable.   Sure, there are times when I know months in advance about some major event – say, a several-day hearing before the court, or a multiple-week trial in front of a jury – that will consume my every waking hour and interrupt the few hours of sleep I will try to get each night.   And yes, there are occasions when I can foresee a relatively light period at work, during which I will be able to reduce my time in the office so that I can take care of long-neglected personal matters.   But then there are times like the past three weeks, when every case on which I am working suddenly and unexpectedly blows up at the same time, and I find myself with clients, colleagues and courts all waiting for something that I am supposed to provide.   Making matters worse this time around were several personal commitments, all of which I had agreed to before the storm hit and none of which could be easily rescheduled.   Put it all together, and the free time I had available to post here took a major hit.

That's not to say, however, that my gastronomical pursuits ceased during the past three weeks.   In fact, whenever an intense period of activity arises at work, I find that any time I can take to sit down and eat a decent meal becomes a retreat of sorts from the whirlwind of insanity that is otherwise swirling around.   So, for example, during a three-week trial that my colleagues and I had in Philadelphia earlier this year, a small subset of us made it a point every few days to seek out one of the city's nicer restaurants in order to take a quick breather over some good food.   And it's probably not an overstatement to say that the enjoyment those meals gave us in the middle of incredibly long and stressful days is what enabled us to press on.

And so it was over the past three weeks, as I made a concerted effort to squeeze in several diversions from the fires that I was battling at work.   These included a dinner at Fleur de Lys, a dinner at the new restaurant from Hiro Sone & Lissa Doumani called Ame, and a six-course dinner for 10 at my house – which I somehow managed to plan and execute in the middle of all of the craziness.   Look for posts on all of this in the coming days!