August 29, 2007

Dear Sis~
Just a note to inform you that I finally completed the draft of my cert petition & mailed it off by Priority Mail last night. It's a big relief to get that behind me (although there will be follow-up revisions & editing. But the heavy lifting is done). I'm really exhausted from the last six weeks of work, a surprising amount of mental exhaustion due to the time constraint pressures and having to digest & analyze hundreds of pages of US Supreme Court decisions (often spending hours pouring over 40, 50 pages just to glean a few sentences or a paragraph to plug into the cert petition at a particular spot). My final draft was 57 hand-written pages, which normally converts to about 42, 43 typed pages. However, the limit is 35 pages, so we've got a lot of cutting to do. My deadline for filing is Oct 12th, which leaves us 44 days from today.

Anyway, Sis, I've gotta rest my writing hand for about 48 hours (this is common after I've written an appellate brief or cert petition or a really long motion or petition). My hand, after the 7th or 8th day gets like a claw! Sometimes it goes numb, the whole forearm and elbow (like tennis elbow), at which point I have to take a 24 hour break before resuming. I'd give just about anything for a typewriter or word processor. I'll write again after Labor Day!
Love, Bill