Mara the Drug Mule Goes to Las Vegas

Yes, that's right. Mara liked Hawaii so much, she thought she'd take another trip, but to Vegas this time. She forgot that lipgloss is a gel, and failed to put it in a quart sized ziplock. Mara sucks at not getting pulled aside by security. Mara did eventually board a very, very small plane and wobble across the sky on her way to LA where she spent an hour and a half staring at the odd mish-mash of people headed to Vegas. There was a large tour group of Japanese boy teenagers. Field trip? A couple got to the airport 15 minutes late, but our plane waited, so we got into Vegas at midnight, took the tram to the baggage carousel, where we waited an additional 20 minutes for out luggae. I admired a boy with a mohawk and Ramones T-shirt for Stephanie and another boy for myself. I caught a cab, did not get mugged checked into the Excalibur, and then watched TV until 2:00 am.

Getting up was rough, but there were adventures in dressage to be had, world class riders to criticize, saddle pads to buy...So off we all went and had a nice day. I managed to get a ticket to se KA, one of the Cirque de Soleil shows, and quite enjoyed myself even though I had to go alone. I gambled on the Wheel of Fortune slots, my version of crack, and did actualy win some money off an on, but don't worry, Mara made me give it back to the casinos before we left.

Friday everyone got pissy and I regretted having to spend time with them, but fortunately, Allison, who is the most cheerful person ever, distracted me AND bought me a drink, so I recovered from my own crankiness in time to enjoy nerve-wrackng show jumping. Go Shutterfly! Germany won, of course. They win at everything equine, but that's OK because they do it all so well that it's a joy to watch. Ended the night drinking until 2:00 am and chatting about the S.C. justices.

7:00 am Saturday cme waaaay to soon, and Allison heade back home. ANother nice breakfast with only minimal crankiness on everyone's part. I won some more and gambled for days on the little penny slots. Did another hit of Wheel of Fortune crack. Took a nap, and then attended the finale of the Dressage World Cup FInal. Isabelle Werth mopped up the floor with her competitors, but Netherlands and US came in 2nd and 3rd respectively, so really, all was right with the world, and the three always end up in the top spots. I am inspired to ride more, and to do it well. But first I have to gamble, pack, clean up, and then struggle to get my 5 hours of sleep.

I survived another cab ride and the guy got there fast enough that I saved five bucks. Then Mara struck back. They failed to give me a boarding pass at the check in counter, but the people at the gate didn't really want to give me one either. About five minutes before the flight boarded I went and asked and she was like, "of course you can have one." Bitch. She said she'd call me. Oh, and she stuck me in the absolute last seat on the plane, back row, window. I could recline. I was sooooo tired. Thanks. Thanks a lot. The adventure continued at LAX where they gave me a better seat, but then gave anoter copy of my boarding pass to someone else who boarded before me. Unalarmed by the fact that someone was given a boarding pass with my name on it despite the fact that they are supposed to show an ID, they had me take another seat. I'm surprised the plane didn't blow up. I do not feel secure. The seat they gave me was a bulkhead seat, and the recline feature was broken, so I sat there and semi-slept until we landed in good ol' Sac., and I was actally greatful to make it home.

I am terribly behind. but ask me and I'll tell you a funny drunk story, not mine. It was definitiely one for film had they thought to capture the moment. Boy that kid's gonna be embarassed.

I Lost!

Shocking, I know. I didn't make it to the final four...but I am releived because it was getting more stressful and I have soooo much to do. I need to focus on school again, and I still plan to flaunt this on my resume. And I probably will get to take Advanced Appellate Advocacy, and then I cna be the best next year.

I am a good pinata!

I made the top eight! The pressure is on. I must study. My parents think I can make the top 4. Must try...to learn...more.

Round 2 for Int'l & App. Advocacy

Ouch!

Good Day

Well, today has been pretty cool. In Bus Ass, where I did not get called on, I read my email and dicovered that i made the top 16 for our oral arguments. That is 16 out of over 220 students. Holy cow! The bad news is I have to argue again, but the good news is that it can only help me.

Then I had an interview for a job with the State Public Defender working on death penalty cases and habeas cases. He wore a stained polo shirt and jeans. he was cool, and he didn't really ask me anything. Apprently unless someone from later in the day seemed way better than me, i'm in based on my paperwork. Hmmm. This is new.

My dog has weird red spots developing on his back, and really smelly farts, but he is clean and apparently in perfect health. Thanks Doc. He helped us meet a cute older guy at the dog park today. "Meet" might be a strong word for it though. I only learned the name of one of his dogs, and some other lady did a much better job talking to him. Stephanie and I think he's hot. I am disturbingly attracted to much older men these days. I need to be older, look older, something. Maybe I need a labotomy.

I think I'm taking summer school. For fun. Am I losing it? Yes. But it's sort of fun.

Calling all high school students!

Who is out there!? I haven't heard from anyone, partly my fault for sure, but how the heck are you people doing? How is school? What's going on? Fill me in?

A Toast to Science Class

Everyday at Starbucks they have a question of the day and if you get it right you get a free shot. Yesterday the question was, "What important part of the anatomy of the leg are babies born without?"

Me: Can I just guess for fun?
Barista: Sure
Me: Is it the patella?
Barista: No
Me: Can you tell me?
Barista: (whipsering) it's the kneecap
Me: Isn't that the patella?
Barista: I don't think so.
Me: Sigh.

Weird Day

This morning at 7:00 I awoke to the sound of this **^*@&M duck outside my window and I couldn't go back to sleep even though I'd only been in bed for 6 hours. I am so frickin' tired these days, and everyone makes me so crazy. I can't seem to go a day without getting irritated. Grrr.

I cut biz ass because I didn't get the homewok done because I am working on my paper for Monday, and went into work early so I could get their brief done by tomorrow. Unfortunately for me, there are actually no cases AT ALL that help the clients at all with what they want to do, but I am supposed to come up with something brilliant by tomorrow, and get my con law, evidence, and ed law done, AND finish my paper so I can take it to Kinkos where it will be lost/burned and I'll fail anyway. But back to work. So as I am walking by the secretary's desk, I managed to knock her stupid snow globe off her desk and it broke and spilled fake snow all over the floor. She was pissed, and people were staring, and all I could think was, "who in the hell has a snow globe out on their desk in February!?" Bastards!


Blah, blah, blah...work just went on and on interminably. The person who gave me my last writing assignment came in and basically said it sucked and caused me to completly lose it while working on the next one. I knew this school wasn't teaching us jack crap about legal writing.

I came home, passed out, and slept through the time I was supposed to do my homework for the class I am in now. Then I got here and and found out I was supposed to have prepared an oral argument for this week, not next week, because he screwed things up when he changed the syllabus, but since I am the only one who didn't figure it out, I am toast.

Oh, and speaking of toast, Stephanie brought home this weird bread from the co-op called 1927 Penny Loaf. Huh? WHo makes this crap up? Furthermore, who buys it? My crazy roommate. But at least she walked the feral dog for me this morning. Otherwise, i don't know where I'd be. God, let tomorrow be better.

Help! I'm sinking!

This week is turning out to be a doosy, partly because Stephanaie and I are dumb, and got a new dog; partly because our other dog, Daisy had a big abcess and the stupid emergency vet charged a small fortune to fix it, only she didn't really; partly because I managed to get waaaaaay too much work for myself at my internship, and partly b/c my brief is almost due and I have done practically nothing. I am doomed! But in two weeks, all should be at least moderately OK, and I plan to go to the beach house and freeze my ass off by the sea. It should be great!



Not Titan, but maybe a distant relative.

First Day of Work

Today was my first day of real work, and I got to learn this cool program that helps you keep track of all the important information in your cases. Then I entered tons of stuff for my first attorney, Kara. I sat and stared at the screen for 5 hours, really, but I felt good b/c the first task they gave me was something I am actually able to accomplish. Hurray!

My job is great b/c everyone is super nice, particularly my supervisor, Brenda. She introduced me to everyone and many friendly people have offered to help me whenever. She also set me up to observe a hearing this week, and I even get to count it as part of my hours! She also sent out a memo to invite people to my introductory lunch for next Monday. How cool is that? I am welcome to take a day off if I need to, and I can ask forr more of the types of tasks I like once I figure out what they are. I feel very lucky. Who knows, maybe I'll even like what they do! Oh, and Roy, this older attorney there is sooo nice and I am going to get to do discovery stuff for two of his trials when he comes back from a month long vacation in February. He says I can feel free to knock on his door and ask for help. Yeah!

Meanwhile, starting to panic about my paper b/c I need a good grade and I haven't read a single case yet. Tomorrow I am supposed to turn in my outline and a little activity that I haven' even read over yet. Hmmm. This otta be interesting.

Daisy, our new old dog finally ate two full meals today. Perhaps her hunger strike is over. Topaz is enjoying having a warm body to sleep next to every night, and I am enjoying having company. So far Stephanie and I are having fun living together. No fights, and we are doing a pretty good job of keeping the dishes clean and the rest of the house somewhat orderly. It's so cute here. I love it.

Grades

Hmmm. I believe the take home message of the week was that I need to buckle down this semester.

On the brighter side, I started my internship today, and everyone is very nice (for lawyers anyway!). But seriously, love my boss, and even though my the lawyer with my first assignment agressively disagrees with me about high school stuff (not that we really discussed it), she's pretty cool too. So yeah!

We're Back!

The view from our hotel

Mongoose!

Dolhins held captive by the hotel make for good TV

Our first sunset

That's all for now. I'm too lazy.

Aloha!

We got to the airport to leve for Hawaii pretty late. Then my ticket said Mara, so they wouldn't let me through security. United couldn't change my name, so I had to go through the entire security rigamarole. Oh my gosh! I had to go through the puffer machine that sniffs for drugs, and then they specially screened all my bags, rubbedthem down with those little cloth, and then emptied everthing out. At one point I told Stephanie I was a drug mule and the security guard said, "Hey, someone's gotta do it. It pays the rent." It's good he had a sense of humor about it. Anyway, by the time we got through to the gate, we were the last few people to get on the plane...but we made it!

Then, thanks in large part to Stephanie's ability to divide by two, I won the contest to guess what time we would reach the half-way point. Stephanie was a runner up. We cheered and the flight attendant congratulated us. I won three containers of macadamia nuts, which is much better than the time I won wine, but Stephanie thought I should have won a plane ticket. At any rate, we were both pretty proud of this little victory and repeated the story to my parents, who apparently didn't hear them call out names.

The last of the amusements for the day came when I got to call 411 for Snorkel Bob's number. The lady thought I said "Local Bombs" which caused me to completely crack up on the phone, and she joked back that she might have to call the cops, and then she put me through to Snorkel Bob. That was the funniest mis-hearing ever!

Stephanie saw her first whale breach. Out hotel has apparently been taken over by mongeese. They're everywhere. We have a beautiful view from our rooms, no doubt thanks to David, and even though Stephanie fell asleep at 8:30 Hawaii time, I think she's having fun. We'll see what adventures tomorrow brings.

I feel like I did on Day 3 of my first trip to Yosemite when I thought I might die if I continued to move, and I still have to assemble my bed and two book shelves, load all my stuff into the SUV and unload, at least 2 times. Ugh. Everything aches and I've got bruises from kneeling on the hardwood floors to assemble things. However, people have been quite helpful and other than the 3 1/2 foort high stack of enormous boxes in our living room from all the IKEA furniture, the house is shaping up to be quite cute and spatious. I'll have to take pics today.

It's official!

We're half way though law school, and this has most certainly been the tough half.
Hurray!

Ay yay yay!

So, the fax of the rental agreement didn't get faxed right last week, and now that dad has it all filled out, the notary lady who is always there in her office has disappeared and he is waiting for her to return so he can get the damn thing notarized and mailed so it can get to Faith, our odd but less irritating the more I talk to her agent by tomorrow, so we can go pick up our keys before tomorrow's final, so we can put together furniture, potentially in the dark, because I tried to get the electricity on via the internet which seems destined for failure. I also have to go to the bank and get a certified check for the rent. Oh, and I just spent 50 minutes, i kid you not, with SBC ATT guy to get my phone switched and DSL stuff sent to my parent's house, and then cross my fingers that the house actually has enough phone jacks and good faith to run wireless for PC's and Mac's at a reasonable speed. If everything actually happens on time the way it is supposed to, I'll be stunned. Now, I am off to finish cramming Constitutional law into my ever shrinking brain, and to plug in the battery pack for the cordless drill so it is ready to assemble our furniture tomorrow night, potentiall in the dark.

I bet you're jealous.

I am ready to move.

It's 1 am and the lawn sprinkler head outside of my apartment just broke and is shooting water onto my balcony. My glass door is wet. It's pretty loud, actually. I am hoping campus po can think of a remedy. I am sort of laughing at the absurdity of the situation, but I'd also like to be asleep. At least it isn't my neighbor watering her plants. Then I'd be mad.

More Advice

Mostly I am just amazed, so don't be angry with me. But now they have Christmas planet saving advice. Did you know it's actually better to buy a real tree than to buy a fake one becuase the chemicals in the fake one are so bad when they break down? Yikes! Plus you can recycle the tree by milching it after the holidays. (1-800-clean-up or earth911.com) And you can buy cards and wrapping paper made with 100% recycled paper. Decorating your tree with LED lights is 90% more eficient than traditional lights.

Ummmm.

I am watching Al Gore on Oprah and feeling terrified for our planet. Seriously, terrified. I had no idea how bad things are, nor how many sources of evidence there were that we are causing the problem. Polar bears are drwoning! We need an intervention! So, everyone should buy An Inconvenient Truth and if you can afford it over time, these five things:

1. compact florescent light bulbs (they last longer and you can get them cheaper at Costco)
If every American swapped out five regular light bulbs for five of these, it would be the equivalent of taking 1 millions cars off the highway.

2. solar outdoor lights (for those of you who know people who have yards and lights in them)

3. Programmable thermostats
reducing the temp in winter and raising it in summer by just 2 degrees when you're not in the house can lower home emissions of CO2 by 9% (This is not for you, Stephanie)

4. regularly chaging your air filter in you air conditioner can knowck of another 2%

5. Get a blanky for your water heater, and you'll cut CO2 emmissions by over 4% (weird)

6. Buy energy star appliances and save 3% on average

Total CO2 savings: 20%!!! Yeah!

Also, on yesterday's Oprah I learned about a cool new place you can donate money for gifts or for yourself. It's called the Grameen Foundation, and its founder just won the Nobel Peace Price. They make micro loans, mostly to women, and this allows them to get out of poverty and away from corrupted money lenders in thir countries. 58% of the people they've lent to have gotten out of poverty, and 100% of their children go to school. It's pretty amazing stuff.

Countdown!

My first final is in 4 1/2 hours. I slept quite well, but then, once I woke up a teensy weensy bit, the anxiety struck and so here I am about to cram anything else I can into my head in the time I have left. We did get our apt., for real, real this time. We will have 2 days next week to move our stuff, assemble our furniture, clean our old apartments, and pack for home and Hawaii. No pressure. But really, I just want to be home, sneesing and wheezing with allergies, petting kitties and riding the Fritatta. But that will come soon enough. Actually, 11 days from now. AND, I'll officially be half way through law school! Hurray!