Clickety-click. I love work days that go clickety-click. The days when the words keep flowing and the computer keys keep clicking. So much of my job consists of writing briefs and motions that I�ve grown to love the clickety-click. It�s almost like floating to suspend myself in a writing challenge and then magically watch it come together. Some briefs appear in fits and starts. The best ones appear by clickety-click.

Every mind has its own particular gift, the thing that it does the very best. Kat�s mind is a highly creative one. It hates repetition and lives for flashes of inspiration. Mr. Philately�s is methodical and thorough, noting each small detail and remembering it. Day-Hay�s works like an engineer�s. Her mind is at its best seeking unusual but solid solutions to practical problems.

My mind�s gift is organization. I love taking pieces from here and there and fitting them into a cohesive whole. I love finding the connections. Some say as they do on Sesame Street, �One of these things is not like the other.� My mind says, �Yes, but I�ll bet I can find the way they are the same.� Some say, �All of these are alike� and, in so saying, inspire my mind to say, �No, I can find a way they are different.� I sort and re-sort and then I set forth a scheme that incorporates it all. I�m a big picture sort of gal.

Perhaps that�s why I was at clickety-click yesterday. I had a legal problem that was unusual. I was not going to find a single case that gave the answer. I had to string an answer together and sell its strengths. I can do that. I like doing that.

Some days I hate the more solitary aspects of appellate law. I�m a reasonably social person, a trial court personality, who found I could achieve better balance in the more controllable world of appeals. Research and writing are primarily solitary pursuits and I bounce out of my office more than many just to share an idea for the human contact. But I didn�t need the contact yesterday (except at lunch. I love going out with people for lunch.)

It was just me, my books, and my computer. We�ve had our ups and downs but yesterday I almost would have agreed to an exclusive long term relationship but not quite. It might become too routine, too lacking in passion�and I�d miss the clickety-click.

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