Going Back "Home"

On Thursday I am going to visit my mommy, as well as my 3 "hometown" friends (Rita, Hot Mike and Schmoe). K is supposed to come up there too, so he can see my mom again (after 10 years). I'm excited, but also a little stressed of course.

First, because of the planning. I want to be sure to make time for everyone and sometimes that is hard. Especially with K there. I want girl time with Schmoe and Rita, but I also want K to "meet" them again so that he can put faces to names better. My mom and I want to go to dinner at her friend's restaurant and go see Harry Potter 5. And, I am planning to take K to meet my grandparents.

On top of that I think he wants me to meet people from his family too.

So, it's just a lot going on. And of course the issue of my grandparents is complex. I want K to meet them before they die, but I am REALLY mad at them for the way they are treating my mother. So I really want to bitch at them, but I feel bad making K suffer through that. Maybe I should send him to sit in the car while I give them a piece of my mind. I feel like, with all that is going on, this may be the last time I ever see them, so I don't want to leave anything unsaid.

Of course the final issue is K and I. We seem to be doing pretty good, so I don't think we will be fighting much. But he only wants to spend one night at my mom's house, the other nights he wants to drink. I told him we can't have sex in my mom's apartment, that is just rude. So, I have a sneaking suspicion I will be having sex in the back of a camaro at some point this weekend. Good lord. What am I? 15 again? I told him we could just stay at a hotel but he said no, so, we'll just have to see how that goes!!!

May I Suggest An MRS. Degree?

Thanks to the diligence and dedication of my Missy, we have this to enjoy:



I am practically speechless. It seems that she went up there with one piece of advice: "mention Iraq, that'll show them you patriotic!" But how South Africa got into the mix, I have no idea! Maybe she thought she was being asked to impersonate an American who would not be able to find the U.S. on a world map. If so, she deserves an Emmy.

Adventure Monkey News, etc.

Tiffany just found out that she passed the bar!!!! Woohoo!!! That means she can cross number 95 off of her list of 100 things she wants to do in her lifetime. And it has me, again, thinking about making my own list. But, it’s very hard for me. I don’t know what that means. Am I lacking ambition? Creativity? Am I lazy? Or does it just mean that I am content with my life? And is that a bad thing? I don’t know. I suppose there are some things I want to do, but nothing that I would be upset if I didn’t do. I mean, I would be upset if I ended up jobless or homeless, but I don’t think those are the kind of things to put on the list. But I am trying to think of things, and these are what I came up with:

1. Go to California
2. Take my mom & sister to Quebec City
3. Pay for my mom to travel through Canada (New Foundland, Vancouver, etc.)
4. Help my sister get through grad school
5. Go to Europe (this one I’m not sure about)
6. Work in litigation at a big firm
7. Win a jury trial
8. Win an appeal
9. Never weigh more than 140 lbs. again
10. Pass another bar exam

I can't think of anything else. I know I have posted about this before...but I didn't bother to go back and search for that old post...but if anyone has any adventure suggestions for my list let me know!

Color Me Stupid

So my sister, J, has not had internet for the last four days. Tonight, she IMed me and we had this conversation:

CJ: u should send me ur school schedule when u have internet again
J: i obviously have internet right now
CJ: lol
CJ: true
CJ: i am a dumb ass

I absolutely cannot stop laughing at myself right now.

Am I a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?

I went to Happy Hour today to "celebrate" that 3 clerks are leaving in the next week, one of them being the RD. *tear* I had a good time, but had a few odd encounters. First was that I found out some very disurbing gossip about TF, the guy that my judge has hired to replace me in a year. Specifically, I was told by one of his fellow graduates that he is racist and sexist. The phrases "militant conservative" and "aryan brotherhood" were used. YUCK! I knew this guy was bad news from day one. I'm not sure what I am going to do with this info yet, I'll get back to you.

Anyway, this info led to a conversation with this one guy whose name and rank I can never remember, but who always talks to me like we are old buddies. In this conversation he asked me what I was going to do after my clerkship, he said "I'm assuming something socially responsible." And that just made me cringe. Because, no, probably not. I will probably get a job at a big law firm, and is that SO bad?? He said "So you are debating between selling out and being socially responsible?" I just laughed, but I was really offended. Why can't I do both? Why do I have to be poor in order to be socially responsible? I said that even if I get a job at a firm, I would probably maintain my ties with the innocence project by being on the board or something. But, it just was really offensive to me. I mean, no matter where I work, I will still be me. I will still participate in causes I believe in and represent ideas I believe in. I'm not going to "sell out". But I worked REALLY hard to get where I am, to have these opportunties, and I want to enjoy it. I dunno, I just feel like those judgments are unreasonable, ya know? Especially from this guy who only thinks he knows me.

Whatever. The happy hour was fun and I had a very good day. Tomorrow is my 1st day in my new office! YAY!

The Asshole I Work With

So tomorrow my office will be relocated to our new building. In preparing for our move we had to put labels on everything with our new floor and room number. Apparently this process was a little too confusing for my co-clerk. He said "It would be easier to just move the stuff myself." Yes, moving everything to the new building would be easier than writing 4 digits on a label. So today, he did just that - he packed up boxes, put them on a cart, and took them to the new building himself. He is such a moron.

But it's what he did yesterday that REALLY pissed me off. I got back from lunch yesterday at 1pm. I came into the office, said hi to him, asked him if anything happened while I was gone and then went to my office. Two hours later he pops his head into my office and stutters out the following: "I forgot to tell you, while you were gone, before the Judge left, he said to tell you that you can take off if you are sick of sitting around here doing nothing." Wow. He "forgot" to tell me. Sure. So I sat in my office for no reason for two hours staring at the ceiling. But whatever, I'm not bitter. K said "Payback's a bitch." No shit. So today, I left at noon. ;-)

The Hows and Whys

I am reading a book called "The Varieties of Scientific Experience", which is a collection of Carl Sagan lectures about the universe and the origin of life, among other things. This is an unusually intellectual endeavor for me, I know. But, my Judge gave the book to me, so I am dutifully reading it as "suggested" - and enjoying it more than I thought I would. It reminds me of many questions I have about certain aspects of scientific knowledge. For example, how on earth do we know that a T-Rex couldn't see anything that wasn't moving? All we have are its bones. How can bones tell us about the functions of its eyes and brains? I mean, it can't be the mere position of the eye in the skull that would determine such things, can it? I understand us being able to tell that it can only move its head or arms in certain ways, those are mechanics. But this kind of characteristic seems more neurological than mechanical, like color-blindness. And speaking of that, how do we know that dogs are color-blind? We can't ask them. Even if a dog fails to react differently to different colors, is it necessarily that he can't see them? Maybe he just doesn't care. I am sure that there are thousands of people out there who could explain these concepts to me, and I am sure that Monkey's husband is one of them, but clearly I have never wondered enough to do any specific research into the topics. They are just things that make me go hmmmm. ;-)

Anyway, this book is pretty interesting and easier to read than I expected because of its conversational tone. So if any of you feel the need to get in touch with the nerd inside you, I would highly recommend it.