Because I know you're curious

I am still very busily trying to meet client deadlines this week while also preparing to be out of town for the half-marathon/wedding anniversary weekend, but - I know you are wondering about the first day of private investigator school.

It was a bit anticlimactic. First we met the three instructors for the year and learned about them and the structure for the course - all of which was covered in the informational session I attended before applying to the program. Then the lawyer took over and we did a little review of the court system in the U.S. Most of which I knew, but that's ok. I learned a few things.

What was interesting was the diversity of people in the class. About 40 students, of all ages, roughly evenly split between women and men, including: some paralegals and lawyers; a (female) bounty hunter; forensic nurse; retired high school biology teacher; accountant; engineer; realtor; computer programmers, of course, because this is Seattle and you can't throw a stick without hitting a computer geek; a couple guys who worked in security or the military and threw around the term "Homeland Security" WAY too much for my comfort; retired business people; some people who just thought it sounded interesting; some people who just needed a new job and this seemed better than most; and me.

I described myself as a professional nonprofit interim executive and consultant. Although I don't have a long tenure doing the interim work, I AM starting a new gig this week and I thought it had the most easily explained connection with private investigation: You have to get into a situation and try to figure out what's really going on. I also didn't want to list my potential interest in writing murder mysteries, because somebody had already done that and come off sounding really pompous about it.

The lawyer instructor was fascinated by my job, as it turns out. "Professional interim executive? Seriously, that really exists as a job? Who knew." He had me explain how it works in more detail during the break, and asked whether the same thing exists for schools principals and headmasters (yes) and for-profit business (dunno, but I assume so). It's always a good day when you get somebody to say about your profession: "No, seriously, that's actually a real job?"