Work has kept me busy these days.  I arrive each morning, stare at the paperwork, become overwhelmed, and then start wading my way through.  When the clock strikes  4:30 p.m. and it's time to go home, it feels as though I've accomplished nothing.  And the demands continue.  Last week, Justice S. tells me that the Agency needs to make more of an effort to track down a drug addict who left her baby in the hospital to undergo detox.  She skips town and I find myself on the road, travelling to Cape Breton to pay a surprise visit.  I will admit, it wasn't too difficult finding her.  After all, so many are quick to give up their kids, but not so quick to give up their money.  All it took was a single call to Income Assitance in her county and I had an address.  And sure enough, as soon as I grace her doorstep, she tells me that she wants nothing to do with the kid and says that she moved here to have a fresh start.  Fresh start?  The place reeks of pot (coke addicts use pot to kill the craving until they can go on another run), and she's not even looking me in the eye.  She knows she's fucked up.  Her toothless wonder of a boyfriend starts getting all confrontational with me, and so I don't waste too much time there, despite the three and a half hour drive there and back.  You have to shake your head.  So I go back to court tomorrow to tell the judge what we all knew to be true - she's made her choice and the choice is cocaine and anything else she can get her hands on.  And she'll have more baby addicts because she's young, and that's the pattern.  Cynical?  Sure, but it's also the reality.  If you've ever had the pleasure of watching a newborn go through withdrawal, I'm sure you too would grow a little jaded.  I have been so exhausted these days.  You close one file, and another lands on your desk.  The same ole thing, just different names.