I Won! I Won!! I Won!!!

Did my first preliminary hearings today, two of them, a dope case and a concealed weapon case. I was a nervous wreck! My hands were clammy, my feet were frozen, and all the while I was actually sweating. My supervising attorney threw me into a room with two deputy sheriffs and said, "go ahead, interview them," and left. Interview them? wha? After the interview I was sent before a judge they call, "the screamer," because apparently he has a really bad temper and screams at anyone in his way. Lovely. To my pleasant surprise, he was actually really nice to me. The hearings went rather quickly, as we only had two witnesses to put on the stand. At the end of it the defendants were held to answer, and when I broke the news to my colleagues in the office, they threw up their arms and screamed, "you won! you won!!" I was in such a daze the whole day that I didn't think about it in terms of "winning" or "losing", but according to them, I won! and that's a very pleasant feeling to have. I have the best office mates in the world, they are sweet, kind, and genuinely nice people. They were a lot more excited for me than I was for myself, and we went out for a celebratory lunch. *sigh* I am going to miss them very much once the internship ends.