I had gone to the mental illness court in Dallas. I had decided I would once again like to begin working as an attorney in the court, representing people who were about to be declared mentally ill. I walked into a room which appeared to be a classroom. People were seated in the classroom and one man who apparently was in charge was seated in a desk in the front. I approached him and explained what I wanted to do. He didn't appear to be very interested in what I was saying, but finally he said I could work in the court a year and a half later. They had enough lawyers until then. That seemed like a long time to me, but I told him I agreed.

I was just about to leave, when I realized the man hadn't written anything detailing when I was supposed to begin working in the court. After I brought the oversight to his attention, he almost unwillingly pulled a form out of the desk and handed it to me. I took it to a smaller desk and began reading it.

The form contained several columns. In the column on the left was a list of names of at least seven lawyers who had already filled out the form. After that was a column to write the kind of car which I had. Some examples of cars were given, all from Europe, especially Germany. In fact, most appeared to be Mercedes. I was a little ashamed to have to say that my car was an old 1980 Honda Prelude. But then I noticed that another lawyer had written that he had a 1970 Honda Prelude, and that made me feel less ashamed.

The next question contained pictures of parts of a car, and demonstrated how to repair the parts. They all looked rather difficult, except one showing how to change a tire. I picked that one.

As I filled out the form, I realized the other attorneys appeared to have filled out the form in German. The form itself even appeared to be designed in German.

One question contained pictures of various objects, and asked which one began with the letter "U." I saw a picture of a tee shirt, and thought the German word for tee shirt was "Unterheft." So I thought "Unterheft" was the right answer.

All the questions seemed like a lot of work to me, and I didn't want to fill it out. I thought might again call Galen (the man who assigned mental illness cases in Dallas), whom I knew was the director of this court. He already knew me, and if I talked with him, I would probably not have to fill out the form.

I finally stood up and walked out into the hall with the form. Once in the hall, I realized I was also carrying a thick textbook of "English Literature." It suddenly occurred to me how nice it would be to be an English professor in another country, especially in Germany. That idea pleased me, and I thought perhaps studying again in a university to receive a degree in English would be a good idea.

With that idea in mind, I returned to the court. I saw that when I had been here before, I had left some opened envelopes on my desk. I walked to the desk, and as I picked up the envelopes, I noticed Boley (a Dallas female attorney) sitting at a desk next to mine. She was writing names on envelopes. It occurred to me that she did the same type of work as I, and that she was sending letters to people who were about to have their houses sold at foreclosure. I didn't like that, because it meant more competition for me. I asked her what she was doing, but she didn't want to tell me.