I am too scared to leave my house

I am too scared to leave my house... because I read my email.

My kind friends and family, the folks who have my "real" email address, have been sending out a rash of warnings lately. It has paralyzed me.

I might actually be out driving at night and would be stupid enough to flash my lights at a car that's driving without headlights on. I mean everyone knows that is just an invitation to be killed by gang member initiates, right?

Or I might be walking in the mall parking lot (without my keys in my hand and pepper spray at the ready), and not pay attention to the nondescript white van parked next to my car, whose occupants clearly intend to kidnap, or rape me, or are hiding under the car to slash my ankles.

Or I might believe that the Koran actually predicted that "the Eagle" would "cleanse the lands of Allah; and there {would be} peace" (in verse 9:11 no less).

Or I might use my microwave.

UPDATE: 8/1/06 9:32p.m. Or use a freakin' Glade Plug In to freshen my home. Great, between that and the microwave, I should go hide under the bed and suck my thumb, because even my house isn't safe!

Why can't people use Snopes before hitting the "forward" button?

Law school approaches

I can't decide how I feel about Law school approaching. Sometimes, like today... it feels like this: a giant impending ball of doom that is going to consume my life and personality and free time for the foreseeable future. I am worried that I won't be able to manage my time effectively -- that won't be able to pay sufficient attention to my son and my studies.
I feel very without support right now and getting more anxious. Not about the law or learning itself -- just managing my time and giving Law School its due respect while remaining a good parent.

Sometimes however, I am so looking forward to Law School starting that I wish the next 19 days would just speed by. I am so excited to be back in the classroom as a student, so anxious to be intellectually challenged, and yes, even looking forward to academic writing again.
So this is my conflict.

How to get nothing done

• Wake up late and have leisurely morning with Clownfish.
• Drop him off at daycare for a few hours so you can Get Things Done.
• Remember you're supposed to leave the car in for service, so you have to go home and clean out the car.
• Bring some important papers that are on the floor of your car (for safe keeping) inside.
• Realize you've been meaning to ask Hubby about 'important papers.'
• Log onto email.
• Answer other emails and write hubby to ask about 'important papers.'
• Check blog for comments and mess around with blogroll because you forgot to add someone.
• Hubby asks you to check 'something else important' in online banking accounts.
• Do that and surf the web.
• Eat.
• Realize you still haven't cleaned out the car and now its too freakin hot so you may as well drop it off tomorrow and pretend you thought the appointment was for Thursday (tears may be necessary but that shouldn't be too hard.)
• Decide to work on Civ Pro. Do half a chapter.
• Make some iced tea and drink it.
• Email sis about the song list. Engage in ongoing email chat with sis.
• IM another friend for a while, while drinking more iced tea and doing something else but it mustn't have been important because you've already forgotten what it was.
• Try to shop for some used law books online.
• Make a to do list.
• Remember you have this photo that you have to scan so you can give the original back to daycare center today as promised.
• Retrieve photo from car and get the mail.
• Feel bad because you only did half a chapter of civ pro.
• Write out an aggressive plan for tomorrow.
• Try to pay some bills and realize check book is in car.
• Wonder how it got to be 3:45 and you still haven't accomplished anything.
• Shit you still haven't scanned the photo.
• Update blog.

This is what I have to show for 6 hours of my life:

Bills are not paid.

Car is not clean.

Dryer is not fixed.

Garden is not cleaned.

I have no intention of doing the last two, but I haven't called anyone to do them either.

"Important papers" are on dining room table, still not dealt with.

Half a chapter of Civ pro is done.

Photo is scanned.

Blog is updated.

Sigh

Shame sung blue...

Angry Pregnant Lawyer had a great post on her blog about the most embarassing songs on her iPod. And she got some awesome responses from readers who had a shameful little secrets in their playlist. So this goes a little deeper than the top 25, but should be songs you definitely listen to occasioanlly (not random crap loaded there by family members/friends/junk from compilation CDs).

In the interest of full disclosure: I refuse to consider (most) songs by either Billy Joel or Elton John to be embarassing. And I am not embarassed by my Meat Loaf collection. Though I probably should be. Or ABBA (love me some of that Dancin' Queen!). Or the country stuff, though again, shows I am tragically un-hip. So now... the truely shameworthy...

Here are my 5 most embarassing:
5 Jewel. Several songs.
4 Gwen Stefani "Holla Back Girl" (B-A-N-A-N-A-S!)
3 George Michael "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" (though Elton does sing on this)
2 Air Supply "Making Love Out of Nothing At All."
1 Weird Al Yankovich "Amish Paradise".

Anyone can top that?

Grrr

Still haven't gotten my schedule. I did, however, get a bill for my tuition and was able to determine my section for next year from that. From there, I figured out which profs I'll have (yay, I got the Contracts guy who speaks English). But what this did NOT tell me was what I really want to know:

What freakin' books do I need??

I want to buy used and the good deals on gently used books are fast disappearing. Grrrrr.

Also, I have class on Friday til 3:00. Isn't that not supposed to happen in law school? Good news, though, earliest class is 9:00 (though I couldn't find out about Legal Research/Writing so that could change). But as of now, Clownfish and I can have some morning time before the mad dash to daycare.

Blog Category Guide

All of the posts on this blog are organized by category and you can browse just the topics that interest you by looking at the LABELS list in the left side column.  Some of the blog post categories are self explanatory. Some of them are less intuitive, hence the handy guide.

MILS? MILP!
The Weekly MILS (Moms In Law School) Roundup is now the Weekly MILP (Moms in the Legal Profession) Roundup because we discovered that these women eventually graduate and become lawyers. Who knew? We considered MILF (moms in the legal field) but figured the p0rn Google hits weren't worth the pun.

It is hosted on a rotating basis bewteen PT-LawMom, Atty Work Product Atty at Large, and Butterflyfish (that's here) and is posted each Sunday.  Personally, I like to work a theme, which means sometimes a great post from the week I do the Roundup doesn't make the Roundup. Which is why you should just read everyone in my blogroll. They've all been vetted (by me) for awesomeness. 

Roundup: (Updated 8/11)
The Weekly Law School Round-Up is used to be published weekly at Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground and Divine Angst, Nobody ... elsewhere. These are posts that either met that week's theme or otherwise caught the attention of the Roundup. If you're looking for a quick overview of posts to get a feel for the blog, click the Roundup category -- you'll see a little bit of everything. Which could add up to a whole lot of nothing. 

Life after law school:  Working Girl (updated 7/2010)
The posts that apply to my first job out of law school are under the working girl-1st year tag.  My second job out of law school was a dream job that I had applied for once before and didn't get, but then I applied again, and I did.  Those posts, including the chronicle as to how they earned this moniker, can be found under the working girl-Lucy chronicles tag. 

I'm no Bryan Garner but....
I very occasionally blog about legal writing.  But I am no expert.

Law school-revenge!

I very occasionally get the urge to write about law school or something of interest to law students, but as I am now a graduate, it doesn't otherwise fit into another law school category.

Neutral Buoyancy
The blog category formerly known as 'just me.' Neutral buoyancy is a diving term... it refers to the status you attain when, under water, you are no longer floating upwards due to too much air in you 'vest'(BCU), nor are you sinking due to too much weight. When you achieve this state, you float -- suspended, perfectly balanced, at peace. You can then focus on the beauty around you.

I always had difficulty achieving this state underwater.  I also have difficulty achieving this state in life.  That's what this category is about.

Truth is Stranger

Hat tip to Legal Quandary for pointing this one out to me. After I fell out of my chair laughing, I decided this needed a broader audience. So in case there is anyone who reads this blog and not LQ's (which by the way, bad idea... read us both!)

Remember the judge who cited Adam Sandler?

He's got nothing on this judge. This is one of the funniest court decisions I've ever read. I aspire to be this awesome.

Sample:

After this remarkably long walk on a short legal pier, having received no useful guidance whatever from either party, the Court has endeavored, primarily based upon its affection for both counsel, but also out of its own sense of morbid curiosity, to resolve what it perceived to be the legal issue presented. Despite the waste of perfectly good crayon seen in both parties' briefing (and the inexplicable odor of wet dog emanating from such) the Court believes it has satisfactorily resolved this matter.

Lifeless

I don't know what I sucking the life out of me more... the oppressive humidity and my lack of air conditoning, beating my head against the wall of a federal bureaucracy to get dental coverage (people, just say NO to government managed health care!), or the Erie doctrine.

More toddler stuff

Ok, so it hasn't been that long since the last toddler update, but a really neat thing happened today.

Clownfish loves going to the park by my house. I have talked about it here numerous times I am sure. The best thing about the park (to him) is the large assortment of trucks. He will find one to play with and just sit under a slide or in the woodchips or sand box and just play by himself and watch other kids.

He will let another kid play trucks near him, but he didn't interact much with other kids unless heavily prompted by me.

Today there was a very chatty three and a half year olf boy named Aidan at the park. He wanted a "passenger" so he and I sat in the big metal car and he told me where we were driving. Clownfish rarely joins me on these imaginary excursions (I have been conned into the passenger seat before), but today he did. He participated in our zoo trip (complete with animal noises). But the best part was when Aidan said, "Come on (Clownfish), lets go see the tiger under the slide." Aidan took off running.

This would normally cause Clownfish to go find another truck and go back to playing quietly in his little world. Not today. Today he took off running. And when Aidan left the slide to see his Daddy for a minute by the swings, Clownfish asked me "Where Aidan?" I showed him, and he ran over to him again.

They only played together about 15 minutes total, but to me, it was huge.

I don't know if its a developmental change, a growth in Clownfish's personality, the result of two days in daycare, or what. But I thought it was neat.

Daycare begins

So today Clownfish, aged 22 months, attended his first day of daycare.

He had a good day -- he played with the water, he ate most of his lunch, he ate his snack and ice pop treat, he played with trucks and in the sandbox and with the basketball hoop. Nap was rough -- he didn't want to go down, he kept asking for Mama, and he only slept 45 minutes. But then he played quietly with trucks on his cot while the other kids napped, so a mini-triumph. And he ran across the playground yelling Mama when he saw my car pull in. Priceless. I rewarded him for all this with a quiet dinner for two at our favorite little bistro (yeah, that'd be Friendly's) and then a short trip to the park before bath and bed.

The Milestone that amazed me though was how well he asked for stuff. Its been building for a few weeks, but being separated from him for a few hours gave me fresh ears to hear him with. Before dinner, sitting in the booth, he pointed out that he had a "geen cayon" and "ahange cayon" but "no boo no red." He then said "Mama red? Mama boo?" I took that as him asking for red and blue crayons, and secured them from the waitress. He then handed me the red crayon and the paper and said "Elmo circles." This was an explicit request for me to draw Elmo for him -- something I usually offer to do if the service is slow... sometimes he says yes, sometimes no. But he's never requested it before.

Going to the park was not on my evening agenda either, but he asked "Mama slide?" "(Clownfish) slide?" I agreed, but saw me turn down the block that could lead either to the house or the park, he reiterated loudly: "No Mama house. (Clownfish) slide."

As awesome as this is, it also reminds me of how much I'll miss each day by choosing to go to law school. Damn -- conflicting emotions again!

Daycare blues

Ok, so I dropped the Clownfish off at daycare this morning. Since its a holiday weekend, it was pretty quiet. Only a few other kids, which is good. Allowed for an easier transition. He was a little clingy and disoriented, but got to playing with some toys and let me slip out. (I didn't sneak out -- I told him I'd see him in a little while...)

Conflicting emotions running rampant -- I was looking forward to this; I am lonely; I am worried about leaving my son in the care of people who are essentially strangers; I am able to blog uninterrupted now and go to work this afternoon for two hours; I can get a haircut Wednesday; I miss my son....

He was fine. I am not the train wreck I thought I'd be, but I am probably a three car pile up.

I'll update this afternoon when he gets home.