A few brief announcements:

I know you can't see half the navigation bar down there. I'm working on that. [later: see, I fixed it!]

My friend Elise who moved to California in January just got a job. Yay Elise! I will pimp her company relentlessly in here if she tells me it's okay, although I would probably do it anyway, sneaky bee-atch that I am.

There are quite a few of you out there who have not yet entered the Oscar Pool. Tick tock, people.

And now back to our story.

Not that I'm trying to be self-serving, but you can check out Melissa's entry about the trial from a spectator's viewpoint. (The only thing I protest is the sensibility of my shoes. They were 2-1/2 inch heels. They didn't feel sensible. Although frankly I'm just glad she didn't point out how much the blue of the suit and the blue of the shoes didn't quite match up.)

She of course spoke very kindly of me, but I want to encourage all in attendance to feel free to poke fun if it is warranted. The whole thing's kind of a haze for me now, so if I said anything ridiculously silly (along the lines of my objection quoted in this entry), please, please share.

After the trial was over, we piled -- and I do mean piled -- into Corina's sassy new Honda and drove to what is apparently the place to get cheesesteaks. The only thing I was concerned about was getting Cheez Whiz on my suit, which happened after about ninety seconds. However, Melissa was right there with the Shout Wipes, and in no time, I was good as new.

They returned me to the courthouse and waited until I found out whether my team had advanced, which we had. I relayed the message via Colleen's cell phone to the group waiting outside in the car, and promised to meet up with them for dinner.

Six hours later, I was back at the hotel, my team out of the tournament, me out of my suit. I again called the ubiquitous cell phone and spoke to Wes, who gave me the name of a restaurant and an intersection.

A five minute cab ride later, I was at the end of a table containing Colleen, Melissa, Corina, Wes, Kate, and Holden, who I was very glad to finally be meeting, him having taken ill during the weekend I first met all these folks in December. I was given a short lesson in how to order crepes, but still went around the table and made everyone tell me what they had. I ended up getting one with roasted chicken and lemon butter, and a glass of water, a diet Coke, and an amaretto sour.

I was evidently very thirsty. By the time the night was over, I had a cup of coffee in front of me as well, which perfectly complemented my heavenly nutella-and-caramel dessert crepe.