HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Life has gotten kind of crazy. I know that's not really a good excuse for why I haven't been updated, but it is what it is.

Let's start with today and move backwards, shall we?

I found out TODAY that there is a DSW opening up on FRIDAY in Bellevue!!! Hooray!!! I absolutely cannot wait for it to open! And since I'm a DSW Rewards member, I got invited to a preview on Thursday night - I'm SO going to be there!

I am currently engaged in a serious battle of germs in my sinuses. Now that we've moved into the new building at work, it's like an incubation tube for germs... or like working in an airplane cabin. Fantastic. So many people have been sick last week. I'm sure the candy corn I'm currently cracking out on is helping the germ warfare.

I entered into new territory yesterday: I dyed my hair. It's actually not completely died, but instead I got 3 different colors put in with foils. It's very subtle, but I really, really love it! I think next time I'll do it a little bit more obvious.

This last weekend, Husband & I went to see his mom & step-dad in Vegas. It was a quick weekend trip - we flew there Friday night, flew back late Sunday night. But it was so much fun! We went to Red Rock Canyon on Saturday afternoon, then to see Cirque du Soleil's show Ka Saturday night - it was AWESOME!!! We did gamble a little bit, but only on the nickle slots. And I won $8.62! Sunday morning we got up and all went to the driving range - it was my first time hitting a golf ball...let's just say that I'll be checking into lessons come Spring. :-) Then the Mother-In-Law & I went shopping! It was fun! We went to DSW!!!

In the ongoing saga of my poor little laptop-with-the-dead-harddrive, I am still waiting for my system replace disks from Compaq. They were supposed to arrive on the 16th. Apparently, Compaq still doesn't have them from their supplier, and they don't know when they'll get them. This is awesome. Tonight the tech guy offered to give me a deal on a brand-new laptop because this current situation is "ridiculous" (I wholeheartedly agree!) - he said less than $600. While a great deal, I just want my damn system disks so I can have my computer back. That and I'm wondering how low they'll go when I don't have my disks in another 2 weeks. :-)

I have also waged a very serious war with Verizon Wireless. I think I won, but does one ever really know with cell phone companies? They're all out to screw you one way or another, I suppose. I don't think I have the energy to go all back into details, but they were trying to screw me by making me either stay in a contract extension they never told us about or pay through the ass. I think I have gotten the $100 charge reversed, but in any event my contract is up on November 6th. So only a little over 6 more days with them, then I can shop around. What a pain, though. All I have to say is once you sign a contract, NEVER EVER change ANYTHING on your contract or else you'll be getting yourself into a heap of trouble.


This coming weekend I am going to San Francisco to see my two of my bestest friends from college! It'll undoubtedly seem way too short, but regardless, it will be so good to have some quality girl time! The weekend after that my aunt & uncle are coming to visit from Chicago - I can't wait for their visit! Then we have something like 5 days and then my dad is coming for Thanksgiving. It's going to be a busy month! And of course at some point in there I'll start studying again...sigh.

So, how are all of you?

Guess who's having THE BEST WEEK EVER!!!

Let's just have a short recap, shall we?

Saturday morning: I find out I only passed half the bar exam. We're thankful for the bits and pieces.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday: At work, we moved into a new building, a brand, spanking new building, and Tuesday was the first day in the building. We have these new Mutli-Function Devices (or, rather mother f*cking devices as we prefer to call them) that I have jammed every single day this week...jammed to the point that the technician had to call the back-up technician. Lovely.

Tuesday night: after being on hold with Best Buy's Geek Squad for 40+ minutes, I find out my laptop's hard drive is beyond dead. Dead, naughty, gone to hell and burned up, never coming home, GONE. My laptop is less than 2 years old. Stupid piece of Compaq CRAP. I'm just glad I bought the 3 year warranty. In any event, if they can't recover anything off my DEAD & GONE hard drive, I'll have lost: all my pictures, all my music (as in CDs that were stolen, iTunes music I bought, etc.), everything I ever did for any bar exam I've ever taken, everything I did for law school (there are a few things on Husband's Apple computer) ... sob ... GONE.

Wednesday: I went and picked up my essay answers and found out that I missed passing the bar by 12 (TWELVE) points. If I had gotten 10 more points, I could have appealed not passing. At least I was very close - I'd rather be super close than way off the mark.

Thursday morning: I found out some potentially really bad health-related news about Husband's mom. She's probably going to be okay, but we won't know until next week. Sigh.

Thursday night: I take Husband out for dinner & beer, and as we're coming out of the restaurant, I slip on the gravel/small rocks and take a lovely, BIG, HARD fall. I land on my lower back/upper arse and elbow. You should see my bruises. I've got 2 separate spots of bruises on my ass, and my elbow is looking delicious.

Today: I decided to cough up $595 dollars for an bar essay course that is essentially 1-on-1 tutoring. Hopefully exactly what I need.

I think that about covers it...

The proper way to recover from half-disappointments...

I say "half-disappointments" because I half-passed the bar. I'm not complaining - I'm VERY glad I passed part of it, don't get me wrong, I'm just still not over not having passed the other half. Grrrr. At least come February, I only have to re-take the naughty portion. I say "naughty" 'cuz I'm going to kick its ass.

Ok, so, the proper way to recover:

1. Take Monday off. If you're lucky like me, you got today off as a PAID holiday. I know, I know, too cool for school.

2. Sleep in. Only get out of bed when you are good and ready to.

3. Call massage place and make an appointment for an hour and a half hot rocks massage.

4. Go get your eyebrows waxed.

5. Go enjoy the absolute bliss of the hour and a half hot rocks massage. Awesome, by the way, truly awesome. I've been relaxed all afternoon!

6. Go downtown and meet a friend for drinks at this cool wine bar.

7. Come home, eat naughty food, watch bad reality TV (or anything on MTV), cuddle with the cats.

8. Go to bed early. Hot dog - extra sleep!

Apparently we're doing this in baby steps...

Thank you, Bob Wiley, I see your therapist's book "Baby Steps" has jumped from the DVD to my real life. Awesome. I passed half the bar. Seriously. Half the fucking exam.

I can't believe I didn't pass the entire fucking piece of crap exam. I know, I know - at least I passed half of it. We're taking a minute to get to that whole glass-half-full outlook.

Yes, I'm a little angry. I suppose this is normal after all the abuse California put me through. I thought the WA bar would be a more considerate... ah.. lover - more polite, less demanding, more sensitive, less throwing the blame my way...

Apparently, we're only 1/2 way there...now...la la, ...

And yes, this reminds me of a certain Bon Jovi song... and yes, you're all very welcome to sing that particular song to me. In fact it might even be welcome.

I think it's time for another glass of spiked cider - with top-shelp Jamaican rum. Hoo-hah.

I also have to ask - do you any of you know of a good essay tutor?!?

and I also have one more thing to say: LOOK OUT, YOU STUPID PIECE OF FUCKING CRAP EXAM, COME FEBRUARY, YOU'RE GOING TO MEET YOUR FUCKING MAKER! COURTESY OF ME, BITCH, COURTESY OF ME! YOU'RE SO GOING DOWN! (And you might want to put down a piece of padding to cushion your fall, just an FYI.)

You never realize how bumpy a bus ride is until you have to pee...

Tomorrow I am probably geting bar results.

Holy freaking crap, people, holy freaking crap.

Shit shit shit f*ck shit.

That's about all I have to say about that.

Perhaps an R.I.P. for my laptop...

Last night my laptop decided it didn't want to fully boot up. It got part way through, and then decided to go to this very ominous looking blue screen with all sorts of scary code and message that said it was erasing all the physical memory. I've had it less than 2 years... stupid piece of Compaq crap.

So I'm on Husband's iBook G4... I'm afraid the inevitable is finally coming to fruition - am I really going to become a Mac convert now?

Husband & I are currently enjoying all the fruits Halloween has to offer - we're getting into our Halloween movie list. Tonight we're watching The Nightmare Before Christmas - very cute! We have already watched Psycho, Night of the Living Dead (the original), and this one. Yes, we are a little slow...but thank goodness for Netflix! And I am chock full of Halloween spirit - my apartment has been decorated for about 2 weeks now. Hooray for Halloween!

And yes, along with all the Halloween lovliness, there are plenty of those little bite-size candy bars. My thighs are happy to say the least. And of course all my nerves waiting for bar results this weekend has me eating without really thinking about it. Ugh. But I. CAN'T. STOP.!!!

In all seriousness, I think the reason I'm so Halloween-crazy is because I wasn't allowed to celebrate Halloween growing up - I had a very Footloose childhood, but without the fun dancy ending. So naturally I rebelled and am gung-ho into holidays. Especially Halloween. At work we're moving to a new building this weekend, so on Tuesday (I have monday off, lucky dog that I am) I am going to bring in some little Halloween desk decorations. Very excited.

The only thing is that I want to know from you guys about your favorite Halloween costumes. So spill it!

Trying to rack up last-minute karma points...

Blogging has been hard work for me lately. And instead of writing something half-assed, I'd rather just not write anything at all. Stuff has been going on - I got my hair chopped off by a friend who works at a very hoity-toity salon (very cute, short, graduated bob, which has led my stylist friend's husband to call me "Bob"), decorated the apartment for Halloween (hooray!), and made some travel plans.

I think I've come to a conclusion about my job. If I get good news next week (yes, already next week - more on that later), I'm going to begin quietly looking for another job . Don't get me wrong - I really love working for my current employer, but given that it's a fairly enormous corporate gig, my ability to move up from current menial secretarial position to hot-shot attorney isn't exactly mindblowing. I mean, there are opportunities for upward movement, but I'm not sure I'd be able to be patient enough to wait out the process. So I think I'll start seriously looking at options after Christmas - I'm going to try and stick with my verbal year commitment - and hopefully find something perfect. Despite the fact that my job isn't very cerebral, I'm not in a huge rush to leave it willy-nilly. I have really great benefits, and it's paying my student loans...so why leave that stability for anything that isn't a good fit, you know?

Yes, so by next week this time, I should have my bar results. If the postal service is running well and the gods don't hate me. I REALLY don't know how I feel about getting results via the mail, where I'll have to hold an actual envelope and decide whether I want to tear into it or open it slowly with the aid of Vodka. And speaking of vodka, Husband & I just got a very big bottle of vodka and a very big bottle of top shelf rum this weekend. Hooray for liquor! I've been used to getting results in California, where you get your rejection in a more instantaneous fashion. At least I'll have serious confirmation so there'll be no doubts.

If any of you want details about WA bar results, email me & I'll let you know. And may all of us still waiting on results be blessed with lots of good karma...