I brought a chocolate sheet cake to work the other day.\u00a0 I\u2019d asked for an \u201couter space\u201d theme for the decoration, and the cake decorator at my favorite bakery didn\u2019t disappoint.\u00a0 There was a quarter moon, and a sky full of stars, and even the planet Earth in blue and green frosting, showing the Western Hemisphere side of things.<\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n The reason for the celebration was to mark the ten-year anniversary of my joining the staff of the Sheboygan District Attorney\u2019s office as a state prosecutor.<\/p>\n The \u201couter space\u201d theme was to mark the fact that in those ten years, I\u2019ve driven more than 130,000 miles back and forth from home to office.\u00a0 If you look that up, you\u2019ll find it\u2019s more than half the distance from the earth to the moon.<\/p>\n Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase \u201cgoing the distance\u201d! \u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019d asked me ten years ago if I\u2019d still be there, just based on the distance alone you\u2019d have gotten a derisive snort.\u00a0 I\u2019d jumped at the chance to interview, just a few months out of law school.\u00a0 It was a part-time position, just what I was looking for with young kids still at home.\u00a0 And in criminal prosecution, no less, my \u201cdream\u201d job.\u00a0 I looked briefly at a map just to see where Sheboygan lay in the universe, and thought, \u201ceh, looks like maybe thirty miles.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m notorious on both sides of the Atlantic for miscalculations like that.<\/p>\n So, under the mistaken impression that the Sheboygan County courthouse was no further than my morning drive to law school, I put on my best (and only) navy suit, slapped on some mascara, and set off to make a good impression.\u00a0 My heart sank as the miles racked up on the odometer, coming to rest at a grand total of fifty miles charted door-to-door as I parked my minivan in front of the courthouse.\u00a0 Before I even got out of the driver\u2019s seat,\u00a0 I had committed to never coming back.\u00a0 It was just much too far to drive on a regular basis.\u00a0 I would walk in, shake some hands, take the tour, and leave, period.\u00a0 There simply had <\/em><\/strong>to be something closer.<\/p>\n Of course, love, and time, and snap judgments make fools of us all.\u00a0 After a long free-wheeling, soul-baring, values-sharing interview with the district attorney, his deputy, and the victim witness coordinator for the office, I left with my head spinning.\u00a0 What on earth was I going to do if they offered me a job?? <\/em><\/strong>Despite the distance, I felt like I\u2019d somehow \u201ccome home.\u201d<\/p>\n I took the job, of course, trusting my gut that something that felt this good straight out of the gate had to be right.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t had a second thought about it in all that time . . . although there have been some wretched and dangerous winter mornings where, halfway between home and work, I wished I\u2019d stayed home safely under the covers and let the wheels of justice turn without me for a change.<\/p>\n The first few years were the steepest learning curve, of course.\u00a0 I felt I had an advantage coming in off an earlier career (journalism) and the system of checks and balances that life hands out when you\u2019ve got multiple children to manage.\u00a0 Still, each case that I charged or that I prosecuted posed its own unique set of challenges that were never mentioned in law school textbooks.\u00a0 Confidence grew with experience, as did the concept of \u201ccreative problem solving.\u201d\u00a0 Not every crime deserves the same outcome in court, and the ability to think on your feet requires covering a lot of ground first.<\/p>\n