Phase I: complete!!!

I have now finished phase I of my study plan. This entails(ed?) making a 1 page sheet for each topic with everything I have to memorize on it (no margins, small font, etc.). Some topics were a bit attitudinal with this plan, ahem, Property, I'm looking at you, but I'm all done. I'd get up and do the Happy Dance if I wasn't so tired...and enjoying a glass of wine.

Tomorrow starts with phase II: memorization. Which means if you see some crazy girl on the bus tomorrow morning appearing to talk to herself, it's just me memorizing. Be nice - maybe buy me some coffee?

I do have superb news: I GOT HIRED! I found out Friday morning, although it isn't quite official because the HR girl was on vacation and will be back tomorrow. But I got an offer and it feels damn good. Now I'm officially no longer "that temp girl". Tomorrow will be interesting as far as seeing what all the benefits are and how much of a raise I'll be getting over what the temp agency was paying me.

I was incredibly productive today: cleaned, went like gangbusters through 4 topics (I'm superwoman, didn't you know?), and got 3/4 of the way through the laundry. And now I'm looking forward to going to bed in a 1/2 hour. I'm sure this week I'll update more - most likely driven beyond frustration from trying to force knowledge into my head. Sigh. Hope you all have a less brain-intensive week than I will.

Craigslist: where couples find other couples to date.

I know I owe some sort of explanation as to why I ended up ridiculously hungover on Saturday. And yes, I realize I'm finally getting to this on Tuesday night.

Here's the short story:
I went sniffing about on Cragislist in the tickets section, because there are several concerts I would love to see (Fiona Apple and Pearl Jam among the many), and saw a posting for 2 free tickets to a Mariners game. Turns out this couple had 2 extra tickets, and didn't want any money - just beer in return. I called Husband, who thought it sounded potentially very shady, but we decided to go anyways: (1) we were meeting at a brewery across the street from the stadium, so if they looked crazy, we could just be a no-show; (2) they were taking just as much of a risk as we were.

We ended up going and had a surprisingly nice time - the tickets were fantastic, the game was fucking cold, and the couple was very nice (can't think of another adjective starting with "f"). Except the guy was completely blotto...I mean, I'm not sure I've ever seen someone that drunk still functioning. We ended up leaving the game early (it was so cold people were walking around with sleeping bags wrapped around them - & it was too cold to properly hold a beer) and went to this cool place called The Garage (incidentally owned by Eddie Vedder's brother).

We ended up leaving there when we got kicked out because the guy was so drunk he passed out while we were sitting at one of the tables. Husband & I put up a valiant effort to keep up to how much they were drinking, and ended up getting quite drunk ourselves. In fact, I got so loopy I'm fairly sure I have her the info on this website - which I NEVER do!!! Well, hardly ever do. I certainly don't go around advertising this, so I'm hoping that I really didn't give her the website. Oh well.

***
I still don't know if I'll get hired, and at this point I care more about knowing the outcome than the actual outcome. My gut tells me they probably won't hire me, and I'm actually okay with that. If they don't, I guess it wasn't supposed to be, and there's probably something better out there...at least I keep telling myself that. I'm also still studying - although tonight hasn't been as productive because Husband coerced me into going to Target. COERCED. I swear. I mean, he totally had to suggest it twice and everything...what a bully, huh? Both of my bosses are gone tomorrow for all-day meetings elsewhere, and since I anticipate a fairly dead day, I'm taking some study stuff with me. It can't hurt, and you never know - I just may learn secured transactions after all. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

hung.o.ver.

At this point in my hangover recovery, all I have to say about last night can best summed up like this:

BEER!
BEER.!
Beer.

uh, beer.

(N.B.: This would be entirely more effective had the font option decided to actually work.)

I just sent Husband out for the big hangover reinforcements - gatorade. It's come to this.

Just hand me the bottle of wine and nobody gets hurt.

I have lots of things to say, but am super tired so a few of these things may come out in list form (cut me just a wee bit of slack, Roonie, please!).

1. My inner chocolate addiction has GOT TO CALM DOWN. I think it's a problem when you're having no-sugar-added hot cocoa packets several times per day. I can't keep this up much longer, or the food police are going to be knocking down my door, no-sugar-added or not. Not to mention the fact that I really don't have the expendable funds to be getting a decaf-soy-medium-no-whip-mocha from Seattle's Best Coffee every morning.

2. Between Saturday and Tuesday, I made my short outline for 4 topics. Now I just have to get through the other 50234 topics and then memorize the short outlines. And I'm thinking tonight is going to turn into the second night in a row of not being able to remove myself from the couch.

The bigger issue for me this week occurred when I found out that although I'm doing a bang up job in my current position, and was told just last week of all the possibilities for upward movement within the company, apparently my law degree may prevent me from being hired on permanently. I'm quite frustrated. I hate being in limbo - from the start, everyone there has told me they selected me with the intention of hiring me on permanently, but then one of my bosses mentioned to another co-worker in our group (who nicely clued me in) that they would hire me in an instant but I am taking the bar exam and am leaving...oh, and apparently there now isn't anywhere to move up in the company.

So if I get this situation right, I'm doing a fabulous job, knocking the socks off everyone, but my law degree may prevent me from getting hired and now there's no possibility of upward mobility when last week there was? This, this is rich. WTF is really all I have to say...WTF.

Of course it's not over until it's over. And I really am trying to keep a good attitude - if it doesn't happen, there's something better out there, but IT STILL SUCKS. Words of wisdom? Anyone?

Yes, cat, you now have my attention.

The cat is most emphatically NOT a fan of me studying in the evenings. Actually, he wasn't at all pleased with me studying yesterday. I think it's safe to say that he's just not on board with this whole studying plan at all. I tried to explain to him that this is what has to be done, but he's not buying it.

I'll be sitting at the table, and all of a sudden I see his little head pop up, peeking at me over the top of the table. Now, I ask you: how can I possibly study with such unbearable cuteness like that?

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?