Volunteer Recognition and Evening at the Symphony

I have previously mentioned my volunteer work for the Debt Clinic which is one of about 25 clinics in the King County Bar Association's Neighborhood Legal Clinic (NLC) program. Today I continue to volunteer at the Seattle Debt Clinic as a Clinic Assistant.

About 2 years ago I also took on the role of Scheduling Coordinator for the clinic. It’s a pretty detailed job which is my thing. Scheduling is no easy task, but I find it fun and challenging, and I get to work with some of the nicest people around. Yes, I’m talking about attorneys! Attorneys who volunteer their time to help people who just need some legal advice and probably can’t afford to retain their own attorney privately.

About 6 weeks ago I received a voice mail from the woman in charge of the NLC programs. She wanted to know if I would be available on the 20th of November for their volunteer recognition event. Why? Because they wanted to honor me as outstanding scheduling coordinator! What a surprise. Well, shock is more like it.

I try to do the best job I can, sure, but I had no idea anything like this would happen. I certainly don’t do this for accolades. The work is so rewarding by itself especially since the clients are very appreciative and you know you are making a difference in some lives.

As for the event, of course I would be there. The evening was held at Benaroya Hall (Seattle's symphony hall). It started with a reception followed by the awards ceremony. And after that we attended the symphony concert for the evening which included Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet.

One of the first things I did was call my friend Kimber to see if she and Mike would like to come along and enjoy the evening with me and Walter. Lucky for me they said Yes!

The evening was really nice. It was fun to get a little dressed up. We met Kimber and Mike at my office building (next door to the symphony hall) and walked over together. We all wore name tags and since I was receiving an award I got a red rose corsage. Thank you to Kimber for figuring out how to get it attached to my blouse. That was no easy task!

In fact I really want to say thank you to Mike and Kimber for making the evening even more special and certainly more fun than it would have been without them.


Walter and I enjoyed watching the awards ceremony and chatting with them about various topics. When it was my turn to receive the award, Kimber cheered me on (Yay Carm!). She also took some pictures for us.


I participated in a group photo of all the award recipients. We enjoyed some cheese and cookies and drinks and more chatter. And then we went off to the symphony concert.


As you can see from the photo we had pretty good seats. I was very pleasantly surprised as I was afraid we might be at the back of the hall. Not only could we hear well but thanks to Mike and Kimber we had fun picking out some of the more interesting characters in the orchestra. (Imagine a violinist with a beard down to his waist and a cellist with Einstein hair!) At intermission and at the end of the concert we enjoyed more conversation with Mike and Kimber about symphony orchestras and what goes into them. It was a really great way to spend an evening with our friends.

Thanks to the King County Bar Association for sponsoring this special evening. From now on I will plan to attend the annual volunteer recognition events if for nothing else than to support all the other volunteers.

Random Silliness

A friend on 43Things shared this wonderful video as an after-Thanksgiving pick-me-up. It's just something fun to make you laugh. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Walter and I celebrated Thanksgiving with my Mom and my sister Jozi in Olympia today. It would be a bit difficult to transport a full Thanksgiving dinner from Seattle to Olympia and of course my mother doesn't cook any more, so we all went out to eat at J J North's Grand Buffet.

We weren't the only ones who had that idea. The buffet was full of people with some waiting, although the lines were not as long as I've seen them in a past year. We didn't have to wait long (less than 5 minutes). We saw a lot of folks with canes and walkers which makes sense as those people would be less likely to make a big meal at home.

It felt like we were eating with the community instead of just eating alone at home. People were not afraid to talk to each other and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. We enjoyed it. The food was good and we all ate way too much. Here's a cute picture of Jozi and Mom.


I hope each of you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving feast and time spent with family and/or friends. Happy Thanksgiving!