So Lonely

So BF and I have instituted Happy Hour/ Appetizer Fridays. Don't get too excited- it's just the two of us. You see, we don't have any friends. At least not any within an hour of our podunk town. It really stinks. We both have friends from college (and BF from middle school) in the northeast, but no one close by.

We really love our neighbors as they are all really nice and helpful. However, we don't see inviting any of them over for cocktails any time soon as they are all probably in bed by the time we are just getting the drinking started! We joked about trying to head out to a bar to make "couple friends." BF said that he would have to be the wingman.

I was thinking about putting up an ad on Craigslist to see if there are any other young people in our town or anywhere nearby. BF somewhat scoffed at the idea...but how can it hurt? The Craigslist in our area is pretty sparse, but maybe there are people out there? Otherwise, it's going to get very expensive always traveling to see other people....

Secret eating

Hmmm. The conference is over and I am kind of hungry. It's only 4:30pm and we have dinner already made at home. Maybe I could just stop for a snack since I have an hour drive home. I should go get something healthy. But I am feeling too lazy to get out of my car. Maybe I should just stop at McDonald's.

No, I really shouldn't. McDonald's is really bad. Tons of calories.

But I am hungry. It's kind of hot out....I could just grab a vanilla cone. That can't be TOO many calories, right? Right?

(A few minutes later, I notice a McDonald's.)

I really shouldn't pull in. I really should just keep driving.

(I turn in anyway.)

"May I please get a vanilla cone?" That should be healthier than a double cheeseburger or a small fry.

"I'm sorry but we do not have any ice cream today."

Shit. Well, I might as well go with my staple.

"Okay. Then can I have a double cheeseburger and a small fry?"

"That will be $2.16. Please pull to the first window."

F*ck. Why did I just do that? I should just get out of line and not pick up the food. But then the person at the window might get into trouble.

(Picks up the food and pays.)

I should just throw this out. It was only $2.16. I shouldn't eat this food. Damnit. I really need to stop doing this. I suck.

Ring Watch 2008

Well people...I hate to say it, but I don't think that I will be getting an engagement ring any time soon. I know that I had discussed it here, but I have a bit of an update. This past weekend BF and I were chilling on Friday night, relaxing and drinking after a long week of work. I don't quite remember how it came up, but I joked about getting engaged. BF then said, "what makes you think that we are going to get engaged soon?" When I looked over, he looked completely serious. Ummmm that would be us looking at ENGAGEMENT RINGS back in June.

I am not pressuring BF in any way to get engaged right now. But why go ring shopping almost three months ago if you are not at least thinking about it? Why ask me if you need to ask my parents for my hand in marriage? I'm very confused.

There are two possibilities. 1. That BF really isn't thinking that he is going to propose any time soon. This would mesh with a discussion we had this past spring about BF "not being in any rush" to get engaged.* 2. That BF is trying to throw me off the trail, as he does love surprises. I obviously hope that this is the right one. Maybe I didn't see a statement from one of the jewelers? Only time will tell......

*Which is why I was so surprised that we did go look at rings.

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So continuing on the subject of getting engaged, I have had some funny thoughts lately. As I mentioned before, I really never thought about getting engaged while growing up. But after the bar, I kept thinking that it would happen. Obviously, it hasn't yet.

But the oddest thoughts keep popping in my head. We passed by a bridal festival sign last weekend and I thought, "BF should pop the question before this festival so that I can go." Or thoughts like, "we should get engaged soon because planning a wedding takes about a year. What if we decide on a summer wedding? If he doesn't propose soon then we will have to wait until 2010 to get married."

Ummm where the hell are these crazy thoughts coming from???

Did you know?

Did you know that when there are shoes thrown up on a telephone wire that it is a drug dealer marking his territory? I found that out yesterday. One of my co-workers (who is a mother) wondered why kids would throw away a perfectly good pair of shoes. If they are selling drugs, kids probably don't have to worry about the small cost of a pair of shoes....

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Why do people feel the need to back up after missing an on-ramp? IT IS NOT SAFE. Why don't you just find a place to turn around a little ways up the road and try again?? Sorry. I saw this on my way to work today. It is really lazy and very dangerous. Stupid drivers.

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Sorry for the non sequitur and short post today. I was at a conference all day yesterday and
don't have too much. Plus, I am drafting my fantasy team tonight.

Toppers

I have a friend that I have known since freshman year in college, so over 10 years. She is part of a group of eight from our freshman hall that still email each other all the time in big "reply all" emails. Since we are all over the country, it is the easiest way to keep in contact with my girls- especially since six are married, three have two or more kids, and one is pregnant with her second. This friend, we will call her CS, has the "topper" syndrome. She is the only single girl left in our group which is maybe one of the reasons she does this? As in, for attention?

So anyways, all eight of us regularly send emails with updates on our lives and try to find time to get together. Whenever someone writes something, CS always has to "top" it. I would complain this summer about the long hours that it was putting in the library for the bar, she would then complain about her long work hours and how much more sleep I was getting than her. I would complain about BF having to travel every week last year, she would complain about her travel and how many hotel points she has because of it. One of the mothers in our group was complaining about lack of money because of the economic downturn...CS then complained about her lack of money. Keep in mind that she is a consultant, making about $200,000 a year with no kids or pets to take care of financially. It's ridonkulous.

Her life certainly does not suck, but in addition to the "topping" of others, she just complains a lot. It's like she can't be happy with her life. I actually feel bad for her in that respect. She changed a lot (and not for the better) after getting her MBA. It's always more, more, more. There is definitely more to life than always wanting more...at least in my opinion.

At one point I thought that she would be a bridesmaid in my wedding, but now we just aren't as close. Now that I have more time (not in law school), I am making money (can't WAIT to get my first real paycheck in three years), and BF is not traveling (YAY for time to spend together during the week), I am really happy right now and want my outlook to stay positive. That doesn't mean I will stop talking to her, but hopefully her unhappy rants will not get the best of me.

I'm kind of a big deal

So I'm kind of a big deal at work- it is a nice and welcome change from past jobs. I'm not a huge fan of the almost two hour commute every day as it does cut into the amount of time BF and I spend at night. After we get done making dinner there are only two hours or so to check email, check Google Reader, and play my words on Scrabble Beta/ Wordscraper.* I'm sure that as soon as I get my computer at work that time at night on the computer will decrease as I can do some of these things during the day.

How much of a go-getter are you at work? My boss got into a car accident on Tuesday nights, cracking a couple of her ribs. She still came into work on Weds morning to go to a meeting. I was shocked. I went to the meeting with her...had to drive the company car (felt bad driving over every bump in the road), carry her bag, etc. Although she promised that she would show up, clearly there was no need for her to go. Thankfully she left after the meeting and hasn't been back to the office.

I think that if I was to get into a car accident, I would not come into the office the next day! At my first job after college, I didn't want to lose any vacation time so I came into the office with strep throat three days in a row. I would do a few hours of work, and would then be ordered home by my boss. Strep throat is very different from cracked ribs though- not to mention my ulterior motives in coming into work.

Here's hoping she is feeling better soon as early next week we have a conference at [redacted] casino. Too bad there will be no time to gamble! I wish that I could tell you guys more about my job- what I do, where I do it, the awesome programs that I am involved with, but I don't really want that information all over the internets. Needless to say, I am happy as a clam and feel that I am actually helping people with my work. It's a great feeling. :-)


*I have decided that I don't like either of them and will be deleting both apps on Facebook. Bring back scrabulous!

The issue of divorced parents

I am lucky in that my parents have been married for over 30 years. BF's parents? Divorced when he was in college. It wasn't what you would call the most corgial divorce. Ever since then, BF has had to split time between the parents on holidays.

Recently, BF's dad emailed him and asked if we wanted to host Thanksgiving. I had already made the decision not to fly home for Thanksgiving as BF and I will see my parents earlier in November for a friend's wedding. We agreed to host, but I told BF that he should clear it with his mom first. This Thanksgiving is not just a worry about splitting time...BF's mom is getting married the Saturday after Thanksgiving. What if she wanted a rehearsal-dinner-type event on Thursday with family before the wedding? Not only that, but she will have enough to think about with the wedding on Saturday....making a holiday dinner would just add to the stress.

In the end, BF's dad has to fly out to CA anyway so we will be hosting BF's sister, husband, two kids, BF's mom, fiance, and grandmother. I'm not sure where everyone is going to sit, but I'm sure we will figure out it. Thank goodness BF is going to cook most of the dishes. This will be our first time hosting Thanksgiving dinner- the pressure!!!! I have already put my foot down and said that we MUST make my mom's stuffing. Man that sh*t is good.

Merging

Last Friday BF and I set up a joint checking account to pay our bills and a joint credit card to use for expenses (i.e. grocery store). We also each got individual checking and savings accounts. This is a pretty big deal. I see it as us moving forward as a couple, facing the world (and debt) together.

A friend from college sees it differently. Said friend (DG) and I were IMing last night and had an interesting discussion. He is in the military (currently in Iraq) and is off-and-on with his girlfriend. They have big trust issues. We started talking about marriage and pre-nuptials. He is all for a pre-nup; I am not. You would think with my J.D. training that I would agree with them. I guess that I do in certain situations. If one person has a lot more money than the other and/or if the couple lives in a community property state, then I could see it.

DG has put a lot of money away every year since he has been in the military. He is worried that if he gets married and is a bigger saver than his wife, she will get half of his 401K if a divorce does occur. I told him that's why you need to KNOW the person you are marrying. You have open and honest conversations about the future, putting money away for retirement, etc.

I read recently that couples that keep separate bank accounts and just split up the bills are more likely to split up because it's "easier" to walk away from the relationship. BF and I certainly didn't get a joint checking account so that we are tied together financially and therefore won't split up. I see it more as symbolic of our relationship- that we are a team.

Right now BF is making a lot more money than I am. But I am scheduled for three promotions in the first two years of my new job (that I start MONDAY!), which means unless BF gets a raise in those two years, I will move much closer to his salary. By that point, I see us engaged or even married. We both have about the same amount of debt. After two years the pay disparity will be a lot less. I see no reason for a pre-nuptial agreement.

I see joint accounts as making decisions together on what we will spend our money on. Obviously, going out and spending money on clothes or something is not a big deal and asking your partner wouldn't be an issue. But, putting a dollar limit, say $500 or $1000, on what a partner may spend before having to ask permission from the other partner seems reasonable. That way money that could be better spent saving for house repairs or in a 401K and won't go towards new surround sound speakers or a future shoe fetish I might pick up.

If you are part of a couple (married/ unmarried), how do you guys handle your finances?

First day down

Thanks to all of the encouraging comments on my last post. I had an easy commute both ways yesterday which made me really happy. The first three and a half hours of work was spent with human resources which was a bit boring. Then because my boss was out of the office and the human resources manager had a conference call, I was told to grab lunch. I walked a few blocks around my new work city and was sad that I didn’t see Panera Bread, Chipotle, or Corner Bakery. At past jobs those were favorite lunch time haunts on the few days I didn’t bring lunch.

Because work is not done with my security check I might not have a computer for a couple of weeks (boo). That means I might get behind on my blog and on my google reader. We’ll see. We were explicitly told that we may use our computers for personal email, but only before and after work hours or during lunch. The back of my cubicle* faces a hallway so depending on which way my computer faces, I will have to be careful not to break the “rules.” I also will not have my building badge, which means no going to the building gym just yet (another boo).

Everyone was really nice today, including my boss. She is the head honcho so I have to impress the most important person in the office! Uhhhh no pressure or anything!

*Graduating law school doesn’t reward me with my own office? Well poop. Maybe someday soon…..

Nervous about my first day

So I am writing this Sunday and not posting it until Monday morning because I have no idea what my first day is going to be like. I am getting very nervous though. It is not like an internship in law school where I know that I have a finite time to do work over the semester/ summer and then leave. An intern with some responsibility, but ultimately, people would look over my shoulder. I no longer have that luxury. Although now I actually get A PAYCHECK. Very exciting.

You see, sometime in my last year of law school I realized that I really didn't want to practice law in a private law firm or corporate setting. Actually, I knew that my first year of law school. It just never was going to be for me. Watching my parents worry about billable hours, working 12 hour days and weekends was never going to make me happy, no matter how much money a firm would try to throw at me.* So, I sought out public interest internships and built my resume on such experiences.

Luckily for me, I was able to get a public interest position right before graduation. Also fortunate is the fact that my job is not premised on passing the bar.** In fact, I don't even need a J.D. for the job that I am going to do. And that makes me extremely happy. But, the job still comes with a lot of pressure as the program that I am in is very competitive. I don't want to let my new employer down as they have paid a lot of money to get me on board. I want to live up to my raises. And, you know, live up to the reputation that I graduated law school. Supposedly there is another person starting at the same time that just finished law school. He also took the bar. What if he passes and I don't? That would be embarrassing. At least he is in a different section so I won't be compared too much to him.

On a side note, while trying to give off a professional image, how am I going to check my email? How am I going to check my Google Reader? Perez Hilton? A job is definitely going to put a cramp in my internet usage......


*One of my friends is going to be starting a firm job this fall making $160,000. While I am jealous of the actual salary, I would rather shoot myself than to trade jobs. He will practically live at the office, barely seeing his wife and dog. Nope, not for me at all.

**I have a number of friends that will be fired the day the bar results come out if they did not pass. That sucks.

Going crazy with boredom

So today is my last free weekday before I start work on Monday. I have been going NUTS this past week. I keep commenting to BF that this has been the slowest week EVER. I personally think that he is a little sick of coming home to my crazy rants. I have been making conversation with anyone possible. I am now best friends with the local bank lady and know way more than I should about the person I talked to on the phone about switching my car insurance. Not having anything to do after three years of law school and then studying for the bar? Really sucks.

I know that I am very lucky that I have a job. I should be enjoying these last few days of freedom before starting work again. Instead, I am bored as hell. I am staying up way too late watching tv, sleeping in too late, and generally being very lazy. At least this past week my Wii Fit came in and I got to test it out. (It's great.) BF suggested reading books as I have complained all through law school that I didn't have any time for books. I told him that I have been catching up on all of the magazines that I got (Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, and Newsweek) this summer but couldn't read because of the bar.

I have been rationing the few errands I have left, trying to do only one a day so that I don't run out. BF left Wednesday after work for Indiana for a work trip. He came back late last night....his time away did not help with my boredom. Later today, his boss and wife will be coming to our new house to discuss work stuff. I have never met them before and I suspect it will be an interesting meeting. They know that I was the girl that kept him in Colorado for two years, even risking his job to be with me. At least people visiting the house might make me do more today before they arrive. I don't want them to think that we always live with boxes and stuff all over the place!

Have a great weekend everyone!

What a change in my lifetime

I remember when characters like Will Truman and Jack McFarland were scarce on tv. Nowadays, there are gay characters on major shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and The Office. Ellen DeGeneres is taking over Oprah's talk show crown. There are also tons of gay people on reality tv (Project Runway anyone?).

The CW will be expanding people's horizons this fall when a transsexual will be one of the models competing to win the title on America's Next Top Model. This raises interesting issues. Is ANTM doing this as a ratings stunt? Is Isis a pre-op or post-op transsexual? Will she tell the other competitors? Will the other competitors feel comfortable sleeping in the same room or sharing the same bathroom? I have watched most of the seasons of ANTM and I can bet that there will be at least one ignorant model on the show. It might be my sociology background, but I find this fascinating.

Karma is going to bite me in the ass

The closer I come to actually getting engaged and thinking about an actual wedding ceremony? The more nervous I get about my wedding karma coming around to bite me in the ass. On MSN's home page, they had an article about wedding guests behaving badly and I got very embarrassed.

#1- For a college friend's wedding I had been dating Herb for a while. He hadn't met any of my friends and since I thought that he was the one, I *really* wanted him to meet them. I thought that my friend A's wedding would be perfect. So, even though my name was the only one on the invitation, I RSVP'ed for two people. At the time, I wasn't thinking about how expensive weddings are (she had 400 people at her wedding), nor was I thinking about how this would inconvenience my friend. I wanted to show off the boy I was going to marry and I was being selfish. (hangs head in shame)

#2- For another college friend's wedding I drank a lot at the reception. They had mini bottles of champagne that I found very cute so I decided to have a bunch of them. Needless to say I have no idea how the argument started, but a conservative friend's husband and I (along with a couple of others) decided to have an argument about the Iraq war in the middle of the reception. I believe that it became a little too loud as we were asked to stop arguing or move our discussion elsewhere by the wait staff. Whoops. I did end up puking that night and did not make it to the pancake breakfast the next morning.

Needless to say, at every OTHER wedding I have been a great guest. I swear! But I could see these two events coming back to haunt me. For all of the upcoming brides, I hope that you don't have a friend that does either of these things at your wedding. I should have known better, but I will blame the first event on immaturity and the second event on immaturity and alcohol.

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In other wedding news, I have been asked to be a pole holder in an upcoming wedding. I guess Chuppah is a part of a Jewish wedding ceremony where four people each hold up a pole with a sheet attached. The "structure" is supposed to represent the couple's new home. I don't have to wear a bridesmaid dress or anything, but the bride wants all four of us to coordinate what we are wearing. I immediately thought, well, there are two of us that are out of state so black is going to be the easiest thing to coordinate. Then if we want a splash of color, we can wear bright red shoes or something. I don't really know the other girls, but two of them are against the black idea because it is boring. The wedding isn't until the beginning of November so we have plenty of time to "argue" over email.

The bar exam wrap up

For all two of you that care what the bar exam is really like...here is what two days of the bar exam looked like:

Tuesday

7am- Shower, eat breakfast, and head down to the testing facility. Luckily, I am staying at the hotel where the exam is being held so I don't have to worry about driving directions. I highly recommend it.

8:15am- Stand in line to check in. For my state we only need one form of ID.

8:30am- Go to the bathroom for what seems like the 10th time already today (when I get nervous I have to pee- a lot).

8:35am- Spend over 30 minutes waiting for stragglers to come into the bar exam. This part is very annoying. The examiners told us to be checked in by 8:15am. It is the BAR EXAM. How could you possibly be late for this??

9:15am- Listen to test instructions. *snooze*

9:30am- Finally start the first MPT (Multistate Performance Test). It is a "nice" way to start the bar exam (are there really ANY nice ways?) because you don't need to know any outside law for the MPT. They are simply testing you on your ability read the cases and information that they give you and organize a coherent brief, memo, jury instruction, or whatever else they decide for you to write.

11:00am- The First MPT is done and we get a 10 minute break. My hand seriously hurts from writing so much, but I think that I did pretty well with my organization and analysis of the problem.

11:10am- Start on the second MPT of the day. We are done 90 minutes later. My hand hurts even more. This MPT was a little harder and halfway through I thought of a better way to organize it, but when you are handwriting, you simply don't have time to go back and re-do things.

11:45am- I start to get distracted by a proctor that has fallen asleep on a chair behind his "area." There is one girl that is raising her hand that wants extra blue books and he has fallen asleep. Why won't he wake up so that she can put her hand down!!!!! I can't say anything, but I am fully distracted. Maybe that is why I would have liked five more minutes at the end in order to finish the question. Jack*ss.

12:40pm- We break for lunch. Although there was no time to eat during the MPTs we are all starving. We get an hour for lunch. During that time I go upstairs to my room, eat a sandwich, drink a soda, and go over my essay topic notecards.

2pm- After some more instructions, we start in on the essay portion. We have six essays, with three hours to complete all of them. Although Barbri told us not to, I glanced through the questions and wrote the essays out of order. We had a separate blue book for each essay anyway, and I wanted to be able to spend more time on topics that I knew more about. We ended up with the following topics: Secured Transactions, Family Law, Partnership, Torts/ Constitutional Law, Property, and Contracts. The first three I was estactic to see, but none of us were expecting three MBE topics on the essay day. I didn't go over the MBE topics the night before so I was really nervous about those essays. My rule statements were not as strong as I would have liked them to be, but I at least finished all of the essays.

5pm- The essays are over. I think that I did okay (?).

6pm- I decide to go home to have dinner with my boyfriend and his mom. I knew that I was going to get questions like "so, how did it go?" that I really didn't feel like answering, but also didn't want to be sad and order pizza to my hotel room. After an hour dinner, I left to head back to the hotel.

7:30pm- Calls from my friends taking bars out of state start to come in. We had some of the same essays and although they tell you not to discuss the exam, we of course do just that. We all agree that we are having trouble finding motivation to go over MBE topics tonight to prepare for the next day.

9:30pm- I finally stop accepting phone calls and start to look at my notecards, along with doing a few practice questions. I'm trying to figure out the best way to study the night before and it is simply not working.

11:40pm- I finally shut off the lights and try to get to sleep. I then spend the next two hours or so tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep. Very frustrating.

Wednesday

7am- Shower, eat breakfast, and head down to the testing facility.

8:00am- Stand in line to check in. Other people had a lot of trouble sleeping last night so I am glad that I am not the only one.

8:30am- Listen to instructions and start to fill out all of the bubbles on the scantron sheet. I feel like I am 12 again.

9:00am- We start the MBE. The MBE is a 200 question multiple choice portion of the bar exam. Multiple choice SOUNDS easy, but this is where most people fail the exam. We have three hours to complete 100 questions on the following six subjects: Torts, Contracts, Property, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law/ Criminal Procedure, and Evidence.

9:30am- I start to worry as I usually finish the MBE early, but the first 17 questions are freakin' hard and I am on schedule to finish right on time! I swear the rest of the questions were ones that I have never seen before and truly had no idea what the answer was. At one point I was thinking in my head, "I hope that I am guessing correctly." Seriously.

12:00pm- Lunch break. I quickly talk to some of the other takers. Some people didn't finish (I ended up speeding up and finishing with about 10 minutes to spare). Everyone is stunned and also pissed at PMBR and Barbri because we all feel like we weren't taught some of these concepts. I go over a few notecards, but once I start to see a few mistakes, I decide to put them away.

1:00pm- We sit through more instructions and have to fill out all of the bubble information again.

1:30pm- We start the second half of the MBE. I am a little less stressed this half because there are fact patterns and questions that are familiar to me. Thank god. I finish with 10 minutes to spare again.

4:30pm- It takes about 20 minutes for the proctors to pick up our scantron sheets, make sure no one stole the test, etc.

5pm- I have a mojito in hand at a bar and drink it in less than five minutes. I haven't been drunk all summer long and I am determined to make up for that. I meet two guys that I took Barbri and the bar with, and for the first hour or so, we are not really celebrating. We are thinking that we just got our proverbial nuts kicked in and hope that we don't have to do it again in February (the bar exam is only administered two times a year- in July & in February). As the drinks start flowing and the texts/ phone calls come in from friends taking other bars, we start to realize that we DON'T have to study tomorrow and that there is nothing we can do about the bar exam anymore. More bar takers start to come into the bar and we all congregate, but after a while, stop talking about the bar.

7:30pm- BF shows up and I am already fairly loopy. We stay for another three hours, and then leave because he is my ride home and has to get up early for work. I say goodbye to my fellow bar takers who I probably will never see again as I didn't go to law school with them and tomorrow I move from the state.

HERE'S HOPING I NEVER HAVE TO GO THROUGH THESE TWO DAYS EVER AGAIN!!!!

Perks make me happy

Holy crap am I excited about my new job. I'm sure that my excitement is going to wane as it IS a job, but for now, I can't wait to start in a week. I went in to sign papers for HR last Thursday and found out some cool things:

*There is a gym in our building that we get to use for free. No excuses now! I just have to figure out whether I want to go before or after work.

*I get money towards my park & ride commute. In fact, the stipend will probably pay for the whole monthly pass. I'm still trying to figure out what bus is going to be the best, but I was worried that I was going to have to drive the entire way. That way the bus driver gets to deal with the winter conditions and/or traffic- not me!

*There is a possibility that I could telecommute up to two days a week once they get me up and running. Sa-weet! Doing work in my pajamas? Sleeping in a little later because I won't have a commute? Sign me up!

*Fridays are dress down days. Also awesome. Although we are allowed to wear jeans, I think that I will abstain from jeans at least the first couple of weeks. I want to give off a more "professional" image.

*Most of the managers (including the regional manager) are women. I really like working for women.

I am very lucky in that I was able to snag a job before graduation. A lot of my fellow J.D. holders have not been as lucky because of the crappy economy. I am counting the days until my first (real) paycheck in over three years. The second week of September can't come soon enough!

SMUG

As a Prius owner (yes, as in the hybrid) I am happy to be doing my part for the environment. When we moved across the country earlier this summer and gas prices were hovering around $4? Boy was I a happy camper that I was getting 50 MPG. It definitely saved me a lot of money.


Most of the people that I see in the Prius are older (at least 50). And according to Stuff White People Like, white. So, when friends ask me about the car, I am happy to let them know that no, I don't have to plug my car in at night. And that I do still have to put gas into the car. Most people even want to take a ride in the car to see what it is like. I'm hoping that the more people learn about hybrids, the more people will buy them.

I am annoyed though by Prius owners that have license plates that say "high mpg" or something of the like. Everyone knows that hybrids get good gas mileage...why else are there waiting lists for months on end for a new Prius? A license plate like that is basically bragging about the car and thinking that they are somehow superior. (Okay, okay, I will admit to bragging about the MPG to friends. But it's more to get them to want a Prius- I swear!)

BF wants me to get a license plate with "SMUG." Any South Park fans out there? *cricket* *cricket* Well, if you want to know what I am talking about go here. I think that it would be funny for those who got the joke, but everyone else would just think that I am a**hole.

The issue of exes

Staying friends with your ex after a break up is a tricky thing. The last serious boyfriend I had before BF was Herb.* Herb and I dated for a grand total of 9 hot and heavy months. Three months into the relationship we were talking about marriage. The sex was great. He was adventurous, intelligent, outgoing, and funny. I didn't care that he was in college and didn't have any money (he went into the military for four years after high school). I thought that even though he wanted to live abroad after college, that he always wanted to travel despite not having any money, etc. were exciting things, not warning signs that he wasn't ready to settle down. Things were going fine until he decided that he wanted to study abroad and didn't think that it would be right for us to stay together.

However, he didn't end up going abroad. He stayed in the same city and for another nine months, we were basically boyfriend and girlfriend again, except without the label. At the time, I hated my job. I knew that I wanted to go to law school, but wanted to make sure that it was the right choice. I ended up moving 700 miles away to work as a paralegal. I had to get away or else my heart was going to be broken again.

Herb started to date someone else right after I moved. I was devastated. I had purchased football tickets before I left, and decided to keep the "date" (as friends) anyway. The weekend was fine, but I decided that I needed to move on with other men. Then, that New Years Eve, I get a drunken message from Herb saying that he still loved me. Ahem, he was out with said girlfriend that night. I didn't think much of it, but a few weeks later, he let me know that he broke up with his girlfriend and missed me.

Fast forward to law school. I had just moved west and was still talking to Herb. He talked about possibly moving out west to be with me. I held out hope that he finally had grown up enough to figure out his life and that I was what he wanted. Fortunately, he didn't make that decision.

The reason for the background on Herb is because I was talking with him via Facebook last night and he is currently getting his masters abroad. He is thinking about staying in the country for his current girlfriend.** I don't love him that way anymore, but I wonder why he thinks she is the one to settle down with? Before he left the country Herb would call me (sometimes drunk, sometimes not) and tell me that he would never find a girl like me. That no one would ever live up to me. (These phone calls would upset BF, but that's a story for a different day.) So has grad school changed Herb that much? In the end, I am very happy that I decided to move away from Herb. He was so much fun, but our futures were never meant to be. It just took time away from the relationship to realize that I needed a more stable and grounded man. Thankfully, BF came along and we have been happy ever since.

So do you guys keep in touch with exes? Do you wonder or care why your ex becomes serious with someone after you?

*Name changed of course. Can you imagine doing sexy times and saying Herb?
**This could totally not happen too. This is the first I have heard of this new girlfriend and when asked about her he said: "she's cool." I'm sure that he wasn't worried about holding back to protect my feelings so only "she's cool"???

Ain't gonna happen

BF: *chuckles*

Me: What are you chuckling about?

BF: I was just thinking how funny it would be to get married at OSV. You know, have people dress up in period costumes to go to the wedding.

Me: Why would that be funny? I was reading somewhere that people do a lot of theme weddings. But I think that you have to be really obsessed about something to do that.

BF: You didn't read that somewhere. You saw that on 27 Dresses.

Me: Oh. Well, I'm sure that people do have themed weddings. But that won't be us.

RIP old friend

I just received word that one of my former co-workers died. I haven't seen this man in over five years, but he really helped me through my first job after college.

I was a Sociology major in college. I had two internships that weren't interesting to me and after graduation, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. If I was smart, I would have picked a better major. Too late. I spent most of the summer looking for a job while crashing on a friend's couch. I finally got a job at a company whose products I know nothing about- I'm pretty sure that I only got the job because I low-balled my salary in order to get the job.

For the first two months, I worked a lowly position and was extremely bored the entire time. As luck would have it, two people left in the company and I was promoted into a position merging the work. From then on, I loved my job. My boss was absolutely amazing. We had such a cast of characters at the small company. One of them was Hugh.

Hugh was a gruff old man on the outside, but a complete sweetheart on the inside. He would often give me advice such as how to talk a hotel down from their normal rate and how to deal with car dealerships. It was almost as if he was my grandfather, giving me nuggets of wisdom during work. Instead of taking vacations, he would instead take days off near Christmas time to do his holiday shopping.

One day another co-worker of ours came in with poison ivy all over his body from working in his yard. Hugh, being an ex-Navy guy and just tough in general, told him to put Ajax all over the poison ivy to dry it up. All of us laughed at Hugh, all thinking that it is an awful idea to put such harsh chemicals on open sores. But he was convinced that it was the remedy.

I haven't been back to see people from my first job in about five years. When I left the company it was purely because I needed more money to survive in the city. However, I have kept in touch with my former boss and another co-worker for the past five years. Although it has been a while since I have seen Hugh, I hope that he realized how much his friendship affected me. RIP.

Watermelon salad recipe

BF and I tried a new salad last night that I thought I would share with you. I would highly recommend it. Watermelon and goat cheese might not sound like a good combination, but it was delicious. I didn't use the hazelnuts as I don't eat a lot of nuts and I used romaine lettuce instead of watercress (still getting used to the new grocery store). If watermelon is not your thing, the citrus vinagrette dressing was very tasty and could be used with a different salad.

Watermelon & Goat Cheese Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette‏

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
8 cups watercress
4 cups diced seedless watermelon
1/4 cup very thinly sliced red onion
2 ounces goat cheese
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

DIRECTIONS

Whisk oil, orange juice, vinegar, salt and pepper in a large bowl until well combined. Add watercress, watermelon and red onion; toss to coat. Divide among 5 plates. Top with goat cheese and hazelnuts to serve.

1 serving: Calories 224; Carbohydrates 13g; Cholesterol 5mg; Dietary Fiber 2g; Fat 18g (Monounsaturated Fat 12g, Saturated Fat 3g); Sodium 171mg

To the person that googled "law school $100,000" and viewed the blog: I hope that I didn't scare you too much with my post on things to think about before law school! Or I hope that I at least gave you more information to think about. :-)

To the person that viewed my blog from Argentina: I love your country and can't wait to visit again!

My girl card is gone

So yesterday as BF and I headed to the store to check out some tables, I had a thought that I probably shouldn't be shopping and instead I should be studying for THE BAR. *sigh* After three years of law school and then two months straight of studying for THE BAR I guess it is just ingrained in my head. Here's hoping those thoughts go away soon.

So shopping with BF? I should have known better. He claims to have an aversion to the mall. I think that this is true only when he is shopping for clothes. He wants to get in and out as quickly as possible. Home furnishings however? Holy f*cking sh*t. We shopped for EIGHT HOURS yesterday. Yes, you read that right. Part of that time was driving and we did stop to have lunch but the fact that we were gone all day shopping? Ugh.

We did get some things that were badly needed. Curtains for our front window so that we can watch porn (just kidding). Lamps. Plants. Etc. The most annoying part of our day? Shopping for plates. When we left the west coast, we ended up giving all of our plates away to the Salvation Army because we only had a few left. We must have gone to 5 or 6 different stores looking at plates. Some were too expensive, some were too ugly, some were too hard to care for (not microwaveable), etc. Luckily, we found plates at the last store we went to that we both agreed on and were not too expensive. And thank goodness!

During our search we joked that we wouldn't be using the plates very long as we would register for nicer ones for the wedding. And after the day we had shopping for home furnishings? I don't even know if I want to register anywhere!*

*Oh who am I kidding? Who doesn't want free stuff!

I survived!

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday, but I just needed to relax. For those that care, I will post some musings about taking the bar exam, the experience, etc. a little later. Right now BF and I are unpacking our new place so I must get back to that.