My hearing

It’s been a few days since my hearing. That was on Thursday, the 10th. I haven’t posted because I guess I don’t want to jinx anything. But you may be wondering how it all went. Here’s how it went down:

I was the first person to have a hearing that day. My attorney from the company hired to do this for me flew in from Minnesota just to help me – I was her only client here. She’d interviewed me a few days before the hearing and then we met for about an hour before the hearing.

Once in the hearing (here in Eugene at the federal building) there was the judge, the court reporter, and a vocational expert. I was sworn in and the judge immediately started asking about a million questions on about every aspect of my life. It was so rigorous and intrusive. So no, I wouldn’t recommend this to the faint of heart.

By the end of the hearing, based on my testimony, the vocational expert testified that I would not be able to work. After the hearing my attorney told me she was 99.9% certain I would get the benefits. And the vocational expert came up to me and told me that when I was ready to go back to work, that I should connect with vocational rehabilitation because they would love to have someone like me. Kind of cool, eh?

So that’s how that went. I had finished my finals on the day before. So that one really stressful patch was over (until the inevitable next stressful patch, that’s life). I celebrated with some Burrito Boy and then went with my brother and adopted brother to take the dogs out to doggie heaven. It was a lot for one day and my body was in misery. But it was a good day.

Now three weeks of winter break!