Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good World War II movie. I’m actually quite torn between Pacific Theatre in the European Theatre and enjoy them both for different reasons. In the 20 years after the war ended, some of the best of those movies came out movies like 12 O’clock High, Run Silent Run Deep, From Here to Eternity, Sands of Iwo Jima, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Guns of Navarone, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Stalag 17 and, of course, the 1962 John Wayne classic about D-Day, The Longest Day. The phrase comes from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who commanded the German defenses on the Atlantic coast. In April 1944 he told his aide, Captain Hellmuth Lang, that the first 24 hours of any invasion would decide everything. If the Allies weren’t thrown back into the sea on that first day, Germany would lose. For both sides, he said, it would be “the longest day.” Rommel was right about the stakes but wasn’t there to act on it. He was home in Germany for his wife’s birthday on June 6, and the Allies held the beaches.
Today, the Friday after the October 15th final tax due date, started with a jolt for me. I awoke in my hotel room in Dallas to the news of another mass shooting at a school in Bend Oregon. It’s always hard to get your head around those tragic events, but it’s especially so if it’s in a place you feel you know or have a connection to. We’ve been to Bend a few times, first passing through on our first trip up to the Columbia Gorge, and then to visit our good friends, Chris and Sam, who moved there from our neighborhood. I knew that one of their sons and his family lived near them in Bend, so I immediately texted Sam and asked if he and his family were OK since the shooting involved local school children. He told me his family was fine but that their neighbor’s grandchildren had been on the scene and then witnessed the shooting of their classmates. That’s just too close for comfort and I start the story about my longest day with the disclaimer, reminding us that nothing I’ve gone through this day, even begins to approach the horrors that many people face in our increasingly violent world.
I came to Dallas to give a deposition in a case for which I’ve been retained to give expert testimony. The process generally consist of researching the facts of the case, examining the evidence, analytically, formulating opinions, and then writing a report that’s submitted to the court, and then becomes the primary subject of a deposition by the opposing counsel. I don’t generally write about my cases, which are mostly confidential, but it’s safe to say the litigation process in America involves many bad acts, perpetrated by unscrupulous people against sometimes innocent, and sometimes not so innocent people. Standard practice is for a deposition day to last 7 hours, so when allowing for a lunch break and several other rest breaks during the day, it can stretch yo 8-9 hours. Today’s deposition was scheduled to begin at 10 AM, a very civilized time for lawyers, but 1 to 2 hours later than I would normally prefer to start my working day. On learning the start time I was immediately concerned because 10+9 = 7 p.m. as a potential ending time and I had a flight from Dallas back to San Diego scheduled for departure at 8:40. Friday night traffic and normal weekend airport congestion is a concern these days so I asked that we keep our breaks tight so that I could head off to the airport at 6 PM from downtown Dallas.
Both sides were aware of my desire, but one can’t overplay that sort of issue because depositions like this are often driven by power plays like purposely trying to make someone concerned about ending on time. I determined early on that if push came to shove, I would not let my airport angst get in the way of following through the full and proper seven hour deposition schedule. I got a reprieve from all of that in the middle of the afternoon when American Airlines texted me that my 8:40 departure time has been pushed back to 10 PM. All of a sudden, my concern shifted to having more time than needed at the airport and arriving home rather late in the evening. I didn’t really have any thing requiring my being at home at a specified time, so I shrugged off that concern. It so happens that the deposition ended exactly at 6 PM so I was very much on schedule. I’m gonna stop and remind everyone that being on the deposition hot seat for seven hours makes for a very long day. You’re forced by necessity to listen attentively to each and every question, and indeed, to be wary of attempts by the opposition to wear you down by asking you the same question in multiple ways in hopes of extracting, some soundbite that will help them in their court case the opposing lawyer during the deposition often takes it as his job to try and undercut the credibility of the expert witness so being attentive being able to understand what’s being asked, having good and deep recall of all the relevant and pertaining facts. In a normal business day, you probably spend a fraction of seven hours in that sort of intense attentiveness so in a deposition, you tend to be under significant pressure to perform well. I have been in very difficult depositions and very innocuous depositions, today’s deposition was not particularly difficult, but one never knows going in how things will develop, so the high-pressure exists regardless.
One of the lawyers gave me a ride to the airport. It really wasn’t so bad for Friday traffic and it was all very easy because I got dropped off at the terminal. I had a small carry-on bag. I had had time to change out of my suit, and I was comfortable with my timing. In fact, I thought this would give me a good opportunity to have a nice meal since I had had a small, rushed lunch salad. I found a TGI Fridays, which seemed like an appropriate place in order a small steak with some potstickers. Saturday is my lip bound injection day so I’ve come to expect that my stomach is least receptive to food on the two or three days following the injection, but that by Friday, I was generally not feeling very constricted for 20 years since I had a lap band put in I am used to the sensation of occasionally feeling digestively meal decided to get stuck in my car, restrained, but when it happens in a severe way, I am always taken back. About three bites in to my steak the whole meal decided to get stuck in my craw. Usually this feeling passes in 10 minutes and I can wait it out but on this day everything went. With a great deal of discomfort and I found myself paying the bill at TGI Fridays, while leaving the vast majority of the food on the plate. I’d be lined it for the women’s room and spent the next half hour trying to find some relief. As everyone knows, there are very few feelings as uncomfortable as that sort of distress. Since nothing was happening, I went back out to the gate area to sit quietly in my discomfort, eyes bulging out all the while. With a abrupt suddenness nature decided my system was finished with my dinner and luckily, I had a washcloth in my hand that proved to be a useful receptacle believe it or not. I don’t believe a Sol in that airport terminal realized what it happened so I quietly got up went into the men’s room and cleaned up. I certainly felt better but the experience had left me feeling pretty shaky as well.
I then went through three or four further delays to my flight. To be a high wind weather situation in San Diego that was backing things We eventually departed, almost 3 hours later than scheduled, but at least we were on our way. As we are approaching San Diego, the pilot came on the PA system and said that the weather conditions in San Diego had caused a backup that made it impossible to land. We circled the field for almost an hour until the pilot said he was running too low on fuel and we have to divert to Phoenix. We landed in Phoenix at about 1 PM and we’re told to deplane until the determined next steps. As we were getting off, we were told that what had been a plan to refuel and then carry on to San Diego had been forwarded by a mechanical problem with the plane. Apologies all around, but we were suddenly in Phoenix limbo in the middle of the night. We were told to talk to the American Airlines customer relations people, but apparently there had been four flights like ours that had also been diverted to Phoenix, so the line coming out of customer service spanned about 10 gates.
I thought of John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and I immediately got on the line to try and find a hotel and get on the Internet to try and secure a morning flight. I had already determined that there were no rental cars available in Phoenix on this Friday night. I also learned that the overnight bus from Phoenix to San Diego had left at 1:30. There wouldn’t be another until the morning. That meant my best option was to spend the night and get out in the morning which would’ve been fine if there had been any hotel rooms available.
It is now almost 7 o’clock an and I have been awake for 24 hours. My flight leaves soon and gets me into San Diego at 9 o’clock. In some quirk of fate there was one first class seat left on this early flight, a flight that many people off of those diverted planes were unable to get on. They would be getting the San Diego 3 to 5 hours after I did. Yes, so I suppose I could say things could be worse, but right now I keep nodding off after every half sentence as I write, so it has truly been the longest day.