Blogging on the Road?

After reading this post, I downloaded the Dragon Dictation app.  Today, since I have a lot of catching up to do on blogging, decided to give it a try.  It... umm... failed!

Here's my attempt to talk about how Erik took over the wedding planning during the summer while I was in NYC:

I'm trying a new thing where I dictate my blog to my phone and it got 
all the words to your blog like I've been in meetings I can find for 
her birthday Brandy doing fine but yeah so maybe this will allow me to 
catch up on all of o'clock today but I have tried to do the just 
having fun today I think was the last official claim I'm fascinated 
and well I think the guy capability catch up 30 with him when I got 
back from New York on a job on the way through kind of a day I'm on 
your 14 days but I had between getting back from New York City I am 
going to be getting married in fact I had on me if you have everything 
done before you do pack up and go to the subpoena are you

Started out okay (for the first 13 words) but then it got kind of weird.  Basically, pure gibberish.  Also, talking into my phone alone was a bit odd and uncomfortable.  I tried it some more (maybe it's something that's a practice skill) and it turned out better.  It really needs to be done sentence by sentence enunciating every single word perfectly, which is completely antithetical to creativity. It also sucked my battery life.  It's amazing I had any battery life left to call to make a reservation for the night before graduation.  At any rate, those 3 hours in the car were not spent blogging.  Rather, they were spent listening to the Spanish-only stations. Yes, I know.  I don't speak or know Spanish AT ALL.  But for whatever reason, I love the music.  I even "Shazaam-ed" 2 songs, which I will download very soon!

Day in the Life

Official Title: Day in the life of 3L T-minus 8 Days from Finals

After reading this blog and this one, my friend Katy and I decided it would be fun (and slightly narcissistic) to do our own "dailies".  Enjoy. :)

7:46am: Alarm goes off.  Yes, I set it for 7:46am.  Not sure why I did that but whatevs.

8:06am: Manage to get out of bed after snoozing twice.  This is a horrible habit that my hubby started me on.  Partially regretting getting 5.5 hours of sleep the night before (damn earl grey tea at 3pm) and not going to bed until 1am (damn Star Trek Next Generation reruns) last night/ this morning.

8:08am: While making coffee using the leftover coffee from yesterday plus a few scoops of new coffeebeans to “freshen” it up, thought about how we have a coffeemaker with a pre-set option that we don’t use.  This is further evidenced by the fact that the coffee maker’s clock says 9:00pm.

8:36am: Realize that we have no breakfast food because I haven’t grocery-shopped in 2 weeks. Grab protein bar to eat in class.

8:38am: Drive to school.  I’m not sure if anyone else does this, but whenever I’m driving near someone mowing their lawn, I have images of rocks flying out from their lawnmower and hitting my car causing a horrible accident.  This may have something to do with the fact that whenever my father would hire a neighborhood kid to mow our lawn, he would make them wear safety glasses, which was embarrassing at the time but now, after law school, makes perfect sense.  Anyway, now while driving past lawnmowers I’m hyper vigilant in case there are errant flying rocks and/or other projectiles.  This line of thought is also true for pedestrians (who may randomly jump in front of my car) and bicyclists (who may fall into my car).

8:50am: Mad dash to law school from parking lot.  Wait for crossing with another law student (male) that spits on the pavement next to me.  Ew!

9:00–10:15am: Elder law class (3d to last law school class ever!).  While prof lectures on Medicaid eligibility, I reflect on the myriad ways that the govt. can screw people over.  Sure, you can keep some of your non-exempt assets... up to $2,000 (a number set in 1965!).  Also, makes this article make more sense—not less tragic, just less surprising.

10:15-10:36am: Putz around on internet in the law school library and generally avoid studying. This is all while secretly hoping no one annoying sits next to me—including kissy couple from undergrad and foot-twitcher.  I generally don’t study at school this close to finals, but fortunately the library is not very busy right now.

10:36-48am: Outline Medicare Part B.

10:48am: Realize this is not working.  Download new music Not Myself Tonight by Cristina Aguilera instead.

10:50am: Back to work!

11:00am: Remember that I have to reply to an author for their Article.  Email new editor to get back to her.  Proceed to move all Law Review emails to an archive folder and delete all emails from inbox folder.  Feels really really good.

11:02am: Go back to outlining in a significantly better mood.

11:37am: Get lunch before lunch rush at café across the street. Get turkey avocado sandwich and splurge on bbq potato chips (I eat like crap during finals).  Don’t get sandwich toasted because I don’t want to lose the 5 minutes.  Bump into acquaintance and end up getting sidetracked anyway.  Regret not getting sandwich toasted to 1) avoid conversation and 2) have a tastier sandwich.

11:54am: Get back to work while eating illegally in library.  Try to look busy so no one else talks to me.

11:59am: Remember that I have yet to email some people for their addresses to mail invitations to a baby shower I’m co-hosting after graduation.  Quickly send out form email individually to each person (to protect their privacy).  Contemplate how this is a little extreme, but send them off nevertheless.  Check in with other co-hosts to let them know I’m on top of it!

12:09pm: Back to work. 

12:54pm: Prepare for 1pm coffee date with prof by looking up bio online and hope that coffee doesn’t take too long. 

1:58pm: Come back to computer in library.  I love that at the law school library I can just leave everything for an hour and go across the street without fear that my possessions will be stolen.  It’s a nice feeling.  At my computer, I have 7 new messages – most of which are re my friend’s shower.  One of which is about hotels for graduation and that the room I reserved and pre-paid for won’t work for my MiL.  Grrr....

2:03pm: Realize I forgot to take my vitamins and rosacea and ulcer meds... Head to hallway to get more water to take said pills.

2:05pm: Bump into friend at water fountain.  Awkwardly swallow 4 pills while talking to her (reflect about how I look like a drug addict or something).  End up talking about recruitment initiatives and meeting with the Dean about our school’s abysmal employment at graduation rate.  She suggests I talk to Dean about recruiting sororities because that’s a potential new market for us.  On walk back to library table, I remember why I normally study at home—love talking to people but need to get work done.

2:17pm: Attempt to outline again.

2:28pm: Make eye contact with former student.  Immediately look at computer to look too busy too talk.  She comes up and asks me about her fall schedule.  Tell her I think it’s a little tough and recommend not taking Corp Problems before taking BA.  Again remember why I study at home (not that I don't love to help!).

2:33pm: Back to work.

3:13pm: Snack & bathroom break.  Still emailing back and forth with MiL about hotel and schedules for graduation.  Remember that I have a TON of paperwork to fill out for BigLawNYC LLP by May 3.  Why would they set a deadline in the middle of finals?!

3:20pm: Back to work!

4:05pm: Finish typing up notes from reading for Medicare.  Experience hand cramping and feel sad that I can’t mark this section off my to-do list because I still have to go through the supplemental reading and class notes, which brings up another point.  There are people who don’t outline.  As in, they have the outlines from students who took the course before and that’s it.  It partly makes me feel like a chump for continuing to outline, but I'm just sticking with what has served me well the last 5 semesters.

4:30pm: Corporate tax (2d to last law school class ever!)

4:50pm: Class over early because I’m the only one that brought review questions!  It was pretty awkward and turned into my own personal office hours without the effort of walking to the prof’s office, which is all the way down the hall.  I asked some really random questions that either made me look really dumb or really smart (because people haven’t reviewed those assignments yet).  Unfortunately, there wasn’t much explanation needed for my questions—mostly just “yes”, “no”, “that’s not on the final” type answers.  Hence us being out of class way early.

5:06pm: Back to work on Medicare.

5:25pm: Experience bad pain in my neck, hands, and knees.  Remember that I have a massage booked for tomorrow after we have a workshop about “Loan Consolidation & Repayment”.  Hopefully, they will some good practical information related to this.  I looked online and the government gave me 3 different types of loans (expected) in 13 different loans with 13 separate statements (unexpected)—one of which is only for $200.  Why U.S. government, why?

5:40pm: Leave law school and head over to Tina’s (my wedding dressmaker) so that she can hem my graduation dress.  (Side note: I don’t know what Amazon woman J. Crew made my dress for but it’s like 6 inches too long but still fits on top.  Who is this person?)  While eating an apple as I walk to my car, I reflect that the American auto is very righty-centric and thank the Universe that I am right-handed.

6:00pm: Get graduation dress hemmed.  Prof. Colombo comes in while fitting is going on.  Fortunately, it’s less awkward than my wedding dress fittings.  Enjoy catching up.

6:14pm: Leave dressmaker’s and make last minute decision to have a glass of rosé and dinner at Wines at the Pines.  They have internet so I “study” while hanging out with the owner and other friends.

8:47pm: Leave wine store after being super productive.  I completed my scheduled outlining for the day, which was amazing and the first time it has happened since starting reviewing for finals this time around.  Maybe I should study at the wine store more often?  Or maybe I finally set realistic goals...

8:53pm: Get home and see the shower invites (that finally arrived).  They are great.  Scanned one and sent to co-hosts. Will make address labels and send tomorrow.

9:03pm: Break time.  Eat brownie, drink red wine, and sit (okay lay) on the couch playing the Sims (and hope that my ulcer doesn’t hate me too much for this indulgence).

11:02pm: Watch Star Trek Next Generations sans hubby.  He's still at work.  It's not as much fun as watching it with him.

12:15am: Give up on watching TV and waiting for Erik to get home.  Just as I'm brushing my teeth, I hear someone come in the apartment.  I stand in my bathroom (all the way in the back of the apartment) and hope that it isn't some home invader. It isn't—thank goodness!  We chat briefly because he has to get back to work at 7:30am.

12:30am: Crash.

¿¡¿¡¡¿ Was I Abducted by Aliens, or What?!?!

Okay, so I kind of freaked out in my last post.  In fact, I kind of freaked out from last Tuesday until today actually.  I mean, maybe freaked out is a bit strong but I was just NOT myself.  I'm hoping that it was either just the worst-PMS-week-from-hell-ever caused by my lack of working out on a regular basis for the week prior or it was a flare up of my ulcer, which could have been caused by said not working out and the switching from red wine to white wine, which tends to be more acidic.  At any rate, I had extreme fatigue and just a general feeling of ickiness and not wanting to do ANYTHING.  For anyone who knows me well, this is very very unusual.  

In fact, by Day 3 of the fatigue, I scheduled a doctor's appointment.  Something had to be up!  Unfortunately, I couldn't get in until Monday, but I'm keeping it anyway because when I plug my symptoms (extreme fatigue, recurrent heart burn, etc.) into web-doctors, I come up with very undesirable possibilities.  And the fact I feel better today doesn't mean that everything is A-okay either.  Of course, much of this could be due to being done with law school in a mere 17 days.  Wow, hits a little closer to home when you write it out.  I'm currently in the thick of studying for finals while balancing the upcoming stresses of having family in town for graduation and being gone for many other events this summer while studying for the bar, which itself is a MERE 99 DAYS from now!  Wow, and the nausea and heartburn and weird (hopefully, tension) headache are back... funny how that works.

Anyway, felt a little guilty after my last post. :P

I'm Blond, Get Over It

Okay, so that's a little combative of a post title.  I understand that.  But I'm having a "moon day" (if you are male and reading this post consider yourself warned not to think about that too deeply and maybe should just consider moving along...).  Seriously, it hasn't been this bad in awhile.  Maybe it's the new moon (not to be confused with New Moon).  I just had no energy to do anything today.  I made myself outline 1.5 sections of Elder law but that's as far as I got.  I would love to say that I cleaned my apartment or did the laundry or ran useful errands or even paid bills today, but I can't.  I wasn't nearly that productive.

Anyway, one thing that set me off this morning was the constant reminder that some people just don't like me as a blond and feel compelled to tell me it without me asking.  I get it, it's different than how you met me (if you're a law school person) but really it's not different than most of my life.  I would say the majority of my time here on this Earth has been as a blond—technically, all of it.  I'm "dark blond" by nature and lighter, ashy blond by choice.  I've told said people that it hurts my feelings and that I think it looks good (most of the time), but they still feel compelled to say stuff like, "I liked you much better as a brunette," and "are you going to go back to being brunette?" and even "I still don't recognize you as a blond".  People, it's been over a year now!  If this were a year ago, fine, I get it.  It was shocking.  But we're talking 13 months so get over it already and stop giving me unsolicited feedback about my hair color.  It's really none of your business and besides, it's rude!

Here's a pictoral review:

This is what I looked like when everyone met me:

And this summer (2 years later):

My hair looks good in the photo above but now that I cut it off, I'm having trouble styling it on a daily basis.  So it ends up looking like a hot mess, like this:

So, I don't know.  My rant has lost a little steam at this point.  Mostly due to E coming home.  The thing is that in all of these photos my hair is colored.  I like being blond.  So, anyway, feel free to comment as to which you prefer.  No, I won't freak out on you since it's solicited, but really, I don't think the blond is going anywhere anytime soon.

Random Thoughts

So, today when I was walking home from the gym, some random thoughts hit me—mostly because there are several clover patches on my walk from the gym entrance to my car at the law school parking lot.  

There are some things I hope I never grow out of.  I hope that I always look for four-leaf clovers every time I see a cloverpatch.  I hope I continue trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue when it snows (and no one is looking).  I also hope that I will still get a thrill out of crunching leaves under my feet when walking down the sidewalk in late fall.  

I guess part of this reflection is knowing that in less than 6 months I'm going to be living life at 100mph.  Between being a first year associate at Big Law NYC and living long distance from my hubby, I'll have to make a concerted effort to take notice of these little things.  I think about my friends in law school and think how fast their lives whirl past them too.  I want them to take a deep breath and know that it's okay to go for a nice walk in the park.  Their productivity will probably even increase (and vitamin D is important!).

Anyway, brief post because E and I have things to celebrate tonight.  But more on that later. 

Graduation

So, it really took until today to feel like I'm really graduating.  It took such a girly thing that I'm almost a little embarrassed to write it.  Well, I'm obviously not THAT embarrassed, but anyway.  

My confession: I did not feel like I was graduating until I bought a new dress to wear to graduation.  

Okay, glad that's out there.  The truth is I needed a new dress.  I bought a really pretty pink dress, but upon further reflection, it's a little too sexy for graduation or bridal showers (where I plan on wearing this dress).  I thought with a cowl neck it wouldn't be too bad but really, it's just inappropriate!  Also, I feel like such momentous occasions should be commemorated by a new outfit.  That way, I can wear my dress and think, I graduated law school in this and look! it's very functional because I'm wearing it to this shower. :)  Yes, this is what really goes through my head.  And yes, I am going to be a serious NYC attorney... in October.

So, here's the dress I picked (from my favorite store - J. Crew):

I also just realized that I can wear my wedding jewelry with this dress too.  How perfect!  I just hope it fits when it comes in the mail because blogging about it has made me abnormally excited for an article of clothing.

I'm still debating on shoes for it, but I have to buy strappy black shoes for Steph's wedding so I might multi-task them.  I have a pair (just one) of strappy black shoes but the leather is all stretched out.  Maybe someone borrowed them?  At any rate, I'm waiting for a great sale or maybe I'll find time to hit the cobbler and see what a repair cost would be.

All that being said, it's less than 42 days until graduation!  It sounds like a lot of time, but I know that it really isn't.  Before any of us realize it, another chapter in our lives will be done and there's so much to do before then!