Nervous

I'm exhausted. I spent most of my day preparing for court, meeting with clients to prepare them for court, attending court, and debriefing with clients after court. The exhaustion is what follows hours of being hyped up on adrenaline. Before the adrenaline, mixed in among the hours and days of preparation and obsession, there is nervousness. It seemed appropriate that this story aired on NPR on my drive to work this morning. In it, Chris Rock says,

"Stand-up still makes me nervous, and the play makes me nervous," he says. "The nicest compliment I ever got was from Conan O'Brien; I did the show and it went well, and he said, 'You know what I like about you? You're still smart enough to be scared.' He said a lot of guys come — big-name comics — and they're overly confident, and they bomb. He said, 'I've got to dig them out of the hole they put themselves in.' " Rock's philosophy: "Anything you can suck at should make you nervous. One should always be cognizant of how bad it could go."

Thankfully, I didn't suck today, but it's good to remember that being nervous is normal and actually helpful.

And, for the record, I'm actually growing quite fond of going to court. So much for all those times I said that I would be quite happy to never see the inside of a courtroom.