Enigmatic Female

Q-Tip

It's a little anticlimatic being able to clean my ears entirely with a single q-tip after using more than 20 to their fullest wax-collecting potential in cleaning out Quincy's ears.

Oh Happy Day

My iMac, after two months of sickness that I was too busy to address, has been restored to full health by the lovely folks at the Soho Apple Store.* I have had only spotty internet access, as my iMac administrates the Airport Network, so I have been siphoning from other wireless networks in my building, until each of them, one by one, have gotten wise to my ways and password protected their shit. Blogging just isn't as fun on a 12" iBook that may lose connectivity at any moment. I am now back up to full speed with all systems a go!

The past two months have been insanely busy.

First there was work, where there was this case. It was a good case and I liked it. It was supposed to go to trial yesterday and I was excited about that, but exhausted by a long string of 15 hour days. It settled last week and the outcome was extremely favorable. I have been on a constant high since then, with more energy than I can responsibly use. This likely indicates a return to my drama-creating ways. Those around me beware.

Second there's my drive for health and fitness, which actually began months ago with a strong push toward improved nutrition through the wonder of antioxidants and fresh foods. Then I got this trainer who calls himself the Ben Man (if his name were Ben, which it isn't, so just imagine a dude with a one syllable name that adds man to it and you can see what we're dealing with). He's amazing. He taught me how to box and think positively. I've lost an entire dress size since I started working out with him.

Third there's been a bit of hardship in my family. My sixteen year old cousin died in a car accident last month and it has been hard to feel OK being frivolous or funny in light of the pain that my family, and especially my aunt, is experiencing. Also, my dog, Molly, and my mom's cat, Dusky, were very old and sick and had to be put to sleep (euthanized? there is no good way to say this) the same week as the car accident. Molly was my thirteenth birthday present and I loved that dog. Here is a picture:

I have also had a ton of random reconnections with people from the past, mostly guys I've known and never dated, so there's a new world of possibility.

Finally, I joined a soccer team and the Met and intend on meeting many many new people in the next month. Should be an interesting time.

*For the New Yorkers out there, word on the street is that a new Apple Store is being constructed in Midtown on Fifth Avenue. 

One Week Out

The Bar is a week from today, and in the sense that  I know what needs to be done before then, I'm almost ready. Today will be my last day of furious index card production, finishing off with Contracts, Agency/Partnership, Wills/Trusts, and Domestic Relations. This is much more than I've accomplished on any other single day, but I took a bit of a holiday yesterday to realign some of my negative thinking and get back on track. I did laundry and went to the gym, then went out to dinner and had a walk. I feel like a new woman today, ready to take on the rest of this crap. In fact, for the first time in 5 days, I haven't woken up to shooting pain in my arm--a definite sign of improvement. Tomorrow I will work on essay questions all day, Thursday will be MPT day, and the rest of the week will be spent working through multiple choice problems and learning the corresponding law a bit better, hopefully memorizing a good deal. Whenever I have doubts about my readiness, I think about what one of my friends said, "There are a lot of dumb people taking the Bar." Word. My motto is "I won't be in the bottom 20%, I won't be in the bottom 20%, I won't, I won't, I won't, I won't, I won't be in the bottom 20%." (If anyone can tell me what this quote it adapted from, you get a gold star.)

In other news, unrelated to the Bar, last weekend was full of things I didn't write about yet.  First, my dog (she's very old and in not so great health) got bitten by something on Saturday morning on her muzzle, which caused it to swell up so much on the right side that her eye got swollen shut. Her muzzle was like an inch thick. The vet thinks it could have been a spider or something. The poor, pathetic dog!

My two young cousins came to visit that same day and the 14 month old is adorable. I called her a "fish kisser," because she's all about the open mouth kisses. She opens her mouth, like a fish, and leans in for you to kiss her. It's hilarious, but not as funny as what she does when she sees someone else with food. She opens her mouth like a baby bird and stretches out her neck to let you know she'd be interested in whatever you're having. And then later, when we had ice cream, I thought she was going to bite the bowl off the spoon the way she was attacking it. A very funny kid.

Probably the strangest thing that happened was my brother storming around our kitchen and cleaning it. When my dad asked what he was doing, he replied "Cleaning the kitchen. This place is a fucking mess." My brother said that? The one who tracks piles of grass into the house and once had 14 soda cans strewn about his room? Yes, that brother. Then he cleaned his room and did his laundry. A definite Twilight Zone moment.

Home, it's where I wanna be...

This weekend has been exactly what I needed. My sisters and brother and parents and my dog and my sister's dog and the cats were all waiting for me when I got home. Within 10 minutes of walking in the door, we were sitting down for a typical NC-17 family dinner, complete with complaints about our various romantic lives. My older sister is sad to be away from her man on Valentine's weekend, my younger sister and brother were both snarkily trashing Valentine's Day and making plans to go to cheesy restaurants to make fun of people who took their dates there, and I held a family meeting to discuss whether I should grow out my hair.

My older sister pointed out that if I grow it out and it's puffy and frizzy like it used to be, I should keep it short and sleek and under control, but if I could manage to get a great cut and styled it everyday, then I should definitely grow it out. My brother immediately said I should grow it out, citing recent confusion regarding my sexuality and to its intimidation factor. My younger sister said I should keep it short, but echoed my older sister's concerns about letting it get poofy and out of control. My mother said that my hair is one of my best assets and to keep it short might be a bad strategy for getting men. (Gotta love mom.) My dad was silent, but he has a strong preference for women with short hair; witness my mother who he thinks is sexiest with short hair.

My own opinion on the hair thing has fluctuated recently. I love it short...it's cute and easy. When it was long, I often hated it, doing nothing more than letting it air dry and pulling it back. However, there were some times that I loved it. I am a sucker for guys brushing my hair or running their hands through it, a definite problem when it's short. Also, I've been having dreams about growing it out and being able to put it up in a ponytail and run my fingers through it. I was also told by a male friend/admirer that I need a makeover and am presenting the wrong image. And I can't ignore Brian, who thought getting it cut short was a mistake in the first place. He's smug whenever anyone agrees with him about that.

The conclusion is an intense hair-growing program for the next 6 months that includes pre-natal vitamins (they help hair and nails grow much faster), extending the time between salon visits from once every four weeks to once every eight weeks, and no more hair color until it's longer. If you hear me getting frustrated with growing it out, or talking about getting it cut, STOP ME and remind me of this post.

Travelog Day 4

At some point many people will be humped by an unneutered dog. Today I was humped by an unspayed FEMALE dog. The funnier thing is that she was a miniature daschund, so humping my leg was out of the question as she probably couldn't even get her little paws around it. Instead she humped my arm. I feel so cheap!