And we're off to the races...

I have officially started studying for the WA bar exam. Actually, I started yesterday evening. I know this may seem a big aggresive, but remember I'm still going to be working up until maybe 2 weeks before the exam, so it's all about maximizing the time now.

Through a fellow blogger (E. Spat), I was able to buy a girl's study materials from last summer, and boy are they fabulous! I actually met up with both of them yesterday, which was quite nice. E. Spat was just as cool as you'd think -actually, more so.

And cool as it was, it's quite jarring to realize that the stuff I write here doesn't just go off and dissapear into cyberspace. It's there as a permanent record. To those of you who have met fellow bloggers, what was it like? Did you find that you had inadvertently already decided what they should be like? And for those of you who already knew me - is this site a fair representation of ME?

Don't you just hate that...

...when you happen to be walking by the glass doors of a filled conference room just as you are adjusting the waist-line of your pants.

Splendid.

So that's what it's like when you get your back cracked.

I went to the chiropractor today.

I finally figured out that the pain that shoots down my leg is from a pinched nerve, and today was so bad I finally reached my pain threshold. And you know that it was pretty bad for me to decide I needed to go get fixed today.

I went after work, and I think I found a great chiropractor. He's more of a sports medicine guy, and attractive to boot. He took 2 x-rays of my lower back, and shock of all shocks, my spine is CROOKED, which is PINCHING MY NERVES. Instead of being straight, it curves to the right. He thought it was a combination of: law school (HA!), some crookedness as a child, bad posture (naughty!), and then the rollerblading incident a few months ago just made it worse. The look on the chiropractor's face was disconcerting at best. Seriously, it's frightening to see your spine curving to the right more than just a little bit when it should be straight and you're only 27.

Needless to say, I'm seeing him again tomorrow and Wednesday, probably every single day for a while. He did some adjustments today, and mentioned that I'd probably be sore tonight. Uh, YEAH, that's one way to put it. Erg.

Tomorrow I'm pulling out the Wonder Woman suit.

Today I accomplished everything on my list. Seriously, everything. I got every piece of laundry done, the entire apartment cleaned, some mail taken care of, my sister's birthday present ready to go, my WA bar exam application filled out & my character references contacted, a pasta salad made for lunches this week, and my nails done.

Holy cow. Maybe tomorrow I'll take on world peace.

Yesterday Husband & I went shopping. We started at The Sharper Image...apparently we were both feeling like Big Spenders! We walked out with this awesome ambience/soothing noise radio alarm clock (the "ebb tide" soothing setting rocks) which was way too expensive, an emergency battery/uv/hand crank radio/flashlight/clock (we've decided we should put together some sort of emergency kit), and a new umbrella for me!!! I can't tell you how excited I am about this umbrella. It's got a vent so it's wind resistant & won't turn inside out, which totally pisses me off, and has a button to make it open and close automatically. Yes, we're talking luxury in umbrella-land. I'm so excited I actually hope it rains tomorrow so I can use it! And it's got a super nice handle - very comfy.

Right now I'm watching a What Not to Wear marathon and this chick has a black obsession that is making me itchy because as Husband says, I'm not allowed to buy ONE MORE PIECE OF BLACK CLOTHING!!! I don't care what you say, Stacy and Clinton, you'll have to pry my black and white wardrobe from my cold, lifeless fingers.

Doing the happy dance.

This morning in the shower I realized one topic I will not be encountering (yet again) on the Washington bar this summer: REMEDIES.

HA HA HA HA HA!

Happy dance? Yes. More like Happy STOMP!

Despite the fact that I encountered remedies 3x for the California bar, AND the fact that the Washington bar has Article 9 on it, I'm still savoring this realization. Of course, all happy dances will stop tonight because Article 9 makes me cry. It's such a bully.

Uff-dah...uff-dah indeed.

Thank goodness tomorrow is FRIDAY! I am so tired I think I could sleep for a week straight. I should also give you a warning that because I am so tired, don't expect this post to flow.

Yesterday I decided to pull Miss Sanguine out of the closet and go to a bar with a coworker and a bunch of her friends after work. I usually have a great time once I go out, but I have to pull my own teeth to get myself out. So it's impressive I even went. And I had a great time - I drank good beer, met some cool people, and had fun. Of course when I finally got home last night, the cat really let me have it because I was home late. Naughty me! He must have gotten over it by this morning, because he woke me up at 5:00 a.m. giving my hand a very thorough bath. At least I was clean today.

I am interviewing with one of my two bosses (boss #2) tomorrow for the job I'm already working - so I can be a permanent employee & make more moolah instead of still being through the temp agency. My other boss (boss #1) opted not to interview me because she wants me for the job. Which is great - it's always nice to be wanted. I'm a little nervous about interviewing tomorrow, though, because I haven't had nearly as much interaction with boss #2 as I have with boss #1. I'm sure it will go fine, but I'm annoyed that I even have to go through this. And on CASUAL FRIDAY. Erg. I'm totally taking jeans and changing afterwards. If everything goes well, I hope to report soon that I'm a permanent employee and making a nice chunk more than I currently am. So, keep your fingers crossed!

What else....OH YEAH. Yesterday morning I missed my bus. Barely. I even ran after it, but the bus driver evidently hates me. So this morning, in my zealousness to NOT miss the bus again, I ended up catching the earlier bus and got to work at an impressive 7:15 a.m. !.

One of the attorneys at work brought me her bar stuff today. It's from 2002 and she's loaning it to me, but it's a great start. I found a girl through the VERY AWESOME Ms. E. Spat over at Will Work for Favorable Dicta (too lazy to link, look at my favorites list) who is selling me all her bar stuff from last summer. I can't believe how I've lucked out! Thanks, E. Spat, YOU ROCK!!!

I'm sure I have more to say, but I'm totally fading away (and it's only 7:22 p.m.). I think I'll just lay here listlessly on the couch flipping through channels until time to go to bed.

Ciao.

It looks like someone has a case of the Mondays!

Somehow I lost my mind last night and convinced myself that because of the time change, getting up this morning would feel like I had slept an extra hour. Um...NOT SO MUCH! Then I got to work and ended up printing like 50000 pages and then stopping to think if I was supposed to. I was, as it turns out, so it was all okay. But for a minute there I about had a hissy fit at myself.

Today began the carrot takeover; I'm back on the Healthy Eating/Fat Camp bandwagon, and I fear I may just turn orange by Thursday. And no, I'm not eating only carrots, I'm just only allowed carrots if I want to snack...and since today was the start of yet another diet revolution, I wanted to snack all day. Good thing I had a huge bag of carrots with me.

I think I've decided to go with used study materials. Especially after I called Bar/Bri to see what the so-called "alumni discount" would net me. WELL, after you factor in the total cost of the home study program costing $2100.00 (yes, I said TWO THOUSAND, ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS), it will cost me $1650.00 for some fucking Bar/Bri books. ARE YOU SERIOUS?!? The other main study company will cost me in the neighborhood of $1200.00 I DO NOT FUCKING THING SO. I posted a want ad on Craigslist, and a girl is offering to sell me her 2005 Bar/Bri books for $250...and you better believe that I'm going with that. Jeez. Talk about it all being a big, fat money making scheme. Seriously.

(By the way, I had this much to write about b/c I kept notes today whenever something popped into my head...as I'm just not sure how either the company or the temp agency would feel about me blogging while at work. Oh, and I've applied for the position as a permanent employee, and I feel pretty good about it - but keep those fingers crossed for me!)

Still dealing with writer's block...

I realize I've ignored you guys this past week. I'm sorry. I'll try to keep it up better, promise. I'm still having serious writer's block - probably the biggest reason I haven't written anything for a week.

I decided to take another foray into baking tonight - spritz cookies with my cookie press I got for Christmas. Well, my cookie press is a piece of shit. I couldn't get the cookie dough to separate from the cookie press after I'd pushed it through the shape disc. I finally got so fed up I quit. I'll just use cookie cutters on the rest of the dough later.

Another slightly more successful task I took on today was finishing the rest of a bottle of red wine. 1/2 of the bottle, in fact. I think I made all alcoholics proud by drinking it straight out of the bottle, and made the French happy by eating sourdough bread with it.

In the next few weeks I have to sign up for the Washington bar exam and decide what I'm going to do about getting study materials. Do I want to buy/borrow used books? Or should I give myself the full advantage of getting new stuff? If I decide to buy new stuff, do I go with Bar/Bri or Rigos? And I'm absolutely not going to a class so I can keep working, not to mention the fact that I don't want to waste time sitting in a class. I know what I need to do - I just want to get books so I can start memorizing now. The beautiful thing about the WA bar exam is there is NO MBE!!! HA HA HA! I know this will sound a little crazy, but I'm actually excited about starting studying, because I won't have to divide up my time between essays and MBE - just essays.

This last week Husband & I finally watched Walk the Line. I thought it was really good. I haven't seen Capote yet, so I can't really say that the right person didn't win the Oscar, but I was mightily impressed with Joaquin Phoenix. We're thinking of signing up for Netflix - any horror/love stories out there?

How to hang pictures the Negligent way.

1. Start with a rubber mallet. This is very important. Using a regular hammer will result is massive amounts of damage to the wall, the nail, and YOU!

2. Screw rulers, measuring tape or levels; eyeballing it is the way to go.

3. Select the first point in the wall.

4. Hang the picture.

5. Swear profusely, as the picture is 7-8 inches too high.

6. Pull out the nail and select a spot on the wall about 3 inches lower than your first attempt.

7. Hang the picture.

8. Again, swear profusely.

9. Again, pull out the nail and choose a spot about 4 inches lower than the last misguided selection.

10. Hang picture.

11. Swear profusely again, because the picture is still about 2 inches higher than it should be, but decide you've had enough pounding on the wall and GIVE THE F*CK UP and leave the picture where it is to mock you everytime you walk by it.

12. Repeat this process SIX more times.

*SIGH*

As you can see, the day that started with a lovely gash in my finger from my adorable (yes, adorable) Ikea wineglass has not gotten any better. On top of that, I've been feeling very uninspired when it comes to posting, but still feel an obligation to write something. I've just felt very stilted and blocked. Maybe I need to go back to doing lists?

That's certainly one way to justify lazyiness.

This morning as I was washing a wine glass, it decided to break. On my little finger. It's really quite a nice, deep gash. This was about 3 1/2 hours ago. If I don't move my finger, it doesn't gush blood. But I still have to clean, especially since I gave myself a "pass" last weekend due to being sick. Husband thought that perhaps I should go to the emergency room, but I'm stubborn.

Last night Husband & I went to see the movie V for Vendetta. He was convinced it was just going to be another Batman, but he ended up loving it. I did, too, although it did get a little gory at the end. But I thought it was great. Everyone should go see it.

Our pizza is here now (cheeseless but delish), and I'm not feeling very chatty, so that's all for now.

Thank god today is FRIDAY, that's all I have to say.

The alarm is on Husband's side of the bed. This morning, instead of pressing SNOOZE, he pushed OFF. Yeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh.

I woke up when I was supposed to be leaving the apartment to catch my bus. I suppose that's not so bad for oversleeping, I mean it could have been hours. Still, not good when you're new on a job and hoping they decide to hire you on as a permanent employee.

As soon as I realized the time, I went like gangbusters and was out of the house in 15 minutes, showered and everything. 15 minutes. I think that's fairly impressive! I ran to the bus stop (which fortunately is in front of my apartment complex), but just barely missed the bus. And then I had to wait for twenty-five minutes for the next bus. Except I didn't realize I would be waiting that long, or I wouldn't have ran out of the house like I did. I ended up getting to work a half hour late. Sigh.

I had 2 different training sessions today. Ugh. And I still have another session to go on Monday. Where I work on Fridays is super casual - as in jeans and t-shirts. Since I was running so late this morning, I grabbed the first t-shirt I found in my closet, which just so happened to be a Beatles shirt (oh, I'm such a rocker-cool chick). Well, after the 5th or 6th person asked me if I "liked the Beatles?", Mz. Snarky in my really wanted to respond: "ACTUALLY, NO, I HATE THEM." Of course I didn't, new job and all. It just kills me, though, how so many people feel the need to be Captian Obvious.

Ooooohkay, I think it's time I take my inner bitch and buy her a beer or two. Actually, I'm taking Husband on a surprise date to the Red Hook Brewery tonight. I'm very excited, as we really like their beer. So glad tonight is Friday!

Ahem, why don't you suck face the ENTIRE bus route?

I caught an earlier bus today, and was treated to a couple playing serious tonsil hockey the entire time. It was the type of making out that you did back in high school - where there's no room for breathing. It was almost cute for the first 30 seconds. But after twenty minutes of seeing tongue action (don't make me go into it), I felt like I should take up a donation on the bus for a hotel room.

In non-teenage-hormone-induced news, my cold has moved down into my chest and now I'm producing quite impressive coughs. Soooo much fun. Tomorrow is my first day of doing this job all by myself. And I'm not fully trained. The ensuing chaos should be FUN. It is nice to be getting back into a routine again. I'm very much a routine person...I like having a schedule. Actually, I should say I THRIVE on a schedule. It helps me manage my life better.

Hmm...I guess I've run out of things to say. Now it's off to hunt down supper...

Update: I forgot to mention the most disturbing part of the makeout story: it wasn't 2 teenagers. It was 2 adults having this little slobber session.

TWO

Two what, you ask?

Two, as in the number of kleenex boxes I've gone through. Yes, TWO.

Any ideas for repairing my poor, chapped nose?

Yes, I'd love a heaping side order of GUILT with that decision.

I didn't go to work today.

I am still HIGHLY miserable. The gnomes in my sinus cavities are still doing tequila shots. When they refused to leave, I tried to flush them out by drinking 89 gallons of orange juice, but they're pretty tenacious little buggers.

I doped myself up on Nyquil last night, and I think after 10 hours it finally wore off. And now I'm lovingly stroking the Dayquil box.

The lotion-y kleenex that we got yesterday are making my hands softer, but my poor nose is about as raw as it gets. Sigh.

Sympathy may now be forthcoming.


***
UPDATE: WHY do they make cold medicine so hard to get into? I mean, you already have to go to the pharmacy and sign your life away to get anything that actually works. Or maybe they should just include a pair of scissors in the box of the cold medicine?

This makes things interesting.

My first day went well - I'd go into it, but I'm instituting a policy of silence when it comes to my job. If anyone wants to know more details, email me.

And now I'm sick. Yes, sick. It started yesterday afternoon, and this morning I'm entirely sinus-y. And miserable. I can't be sick tomorrow. Or rather, I can't be going through training like this. Augh. And I don't think not going to work is an option.

Crap.

***
UPDATE: we have NO kleenex in the house, so guess what I've been blowing my nose in? Toilet paper. Better than napkins or paper towels, sure, but I still can't wait to see what shade of red and irritated my nose is by tomorrow morning. At least I'm trying to keep things fun - whenever I get sinus congestion, I sing the song I Feel Pretty (is that the title?). Altogether now, I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and SNOTTY...

***
UPDATE 2: I think I'm going to die. DIE. My entire head is congested. Not even Monty Python can break through, I'm afraid. I dragged Husband out of the house with me to go get Kleenex, cold medicine, orange juice, and a battery for at least one of my (many) watches. Everything except the watch battery was accomplished. Apparently, it's fairly damn hard to get a freaking battery for a watch these days. I am beyond annoyed, because I find my Type-A personality requires wearing a watch when I work. And I am SOL. Sooo frustrated. Yes, I realize I could have gone to a jewelry store (we're talking about Swatch and Eddie Bauer watches, here, nothing fancy...yes, I own many Swatch watches and if any had working batteries I'd wear them). However, by the time Target completely disappointed me by not giving me batteries, I wanted to just come home and die. So I've come home to do so. Now I'm just waiting.

Have I mentioned I'm incredibly whiny when I'm sick?

The final indignity

I just got a lovely reminder of HOW GLAD I am to be OUT of our apartment in California. The people in the leasing office are MONKEYS, and not even the kind they let play with kittens. They were supposed to send us our security deposit back 30 days after moving out. Which would have been roughly 2 weeks ago. Last night after I got back from Wisconsin, Husband mentioned the absent check to me.

So I decided to call them today and see what's going on. WELL, after living there and dealing with these primates, I don't know why I am surprised by the fact that there are issues with this. Here's what really gets me: the least intelligent ape in the office gave the apartment's corporate office the WRONG address. Granted, it was only off by 2 numbers, but still. I KNOW I wrote down the address correctly. Being the nice person I'm trying really hard to be, I said "I'm sure I wrote it down correctly, but my writing can be a bit messy, so it probably looks like 2 different numbers than I wrote". This ape says "no, it's ZZ, not XX, and I can fax it to you if you want ot see it". Me: "well, I'm not going to dispute this with you, so what is the outcome of this?"

(I realize I'm not being very pithy right now, but I'm a little worked up over this, so bear with me.)

Long story short: since she gave the wrong address to the corporate ofice, they sent the check out to the wrong address on May 1st. And now they have to wait 30 days before they'll put a "stop payment" on it and re-send it to the proper address. ALL BECAUSE OF THIS STUPID APE-WOMAN.

*sigh*.

IN OTHER NEWS...I just got a call from the agency and I start working tomorrow. While I was looking forward to having another day to catch up on sleep (my niece & nephew's handiwork), it's kind of nice to start a new job on a Friday, not nearly as brutal as a Monday morning. So wish me luck...

Going on a trip.

Tomorrow I am flying to Wisconsin to surprise my dad for his birthday. This plan was hatched about 5 days ago. Short notice, I know, but when someone else is footing the bill... My family isn't really known for being the planning type. Which could perhaps explain my Type A personality.

Since my sister lives near my parents, I will get to see my niece and nephew. I haven't seen my niece since she was about a month old, and she'll be 1 years old at the end of April, so I'm very excited to see her!

I don't think I'll be able to post until I get back on Wednesday night, but just to keep you coming back for more, I might. There's your carrot. I'm not sure how what kind of withdrawal symptoms I'll have from not being able to check all the websites I visit daily, but this is probably a good weaning period for when I start working and behaving like an adult.

Oh, look who went and got herself a job

I just found out about an hour ago...I GOT A JOB!!!

It's not the non-legal job I interviewed for earlier this week. And it is legal. So I guess I won't be running away from law just yet.

I'm so excited to be a productive member of society again!

When will I learn?!?

My apartment complex has a nice perk: in addition to having a workout room, there's free tanning.

Yes, you probably know where this story is going.

I decided after my workout today that a nice little tanning session would be just the thing. Now, I have very mixed feelings about tanning. On the one hand, I love the feeling of being in a nice, warm cocoon. On the other hand, I always feel like I'm frying not only my skin but my innards.

Take today's tanning session for example: the first few minutes the tanning bed was creaking and I kept wondering what would happen if the glass broke and I fell onto the bulbs themselves. And then I started thinking that if they suggest covering your eyes, shouldn't you cover your vital organs? And what about my uterus? Shouldn't I have some sort of x-ray blanket over it? Then I got to a nice warm point and was finally relaxing and it was over.

Yes, I realize I'm ruining my skin. I know, no lectures necessary. It's not so much about getting a great tan but instead about the warmth and heat. And today was chilly here...which I know is a rationalization.

But here's the thing: this was by no means my first foray into tanning. During lawschool back in the Midwest, I went here and there. So why did I think it would be smart to start with 7 minutes? I DON'T KNOW. I'm an idiot, I realize this. And now my skin has that lovely slightly itchy/tingly feeling. Grrr. Maybe someday I'll learn. *Sigh*

A new addiction, producing a rabid fan.

I'm not yet ready to talk about the finale of Project Runway. I need to process what I consider to be a very anticlimactic end.

Since I dabble in baking (NOT COOKING), I stayed tuned for the first episode of Top Chef. OMG. I'm completely addicted. I know some people will say this is a knock-off of the PBS cooking show (that I cannot, for the life of me, remember the name of), but I never saw that one (1/2 of one episode doesn't count).

And I totally just zoned out for like 20 minutes. I think it's time to go to bed.