OMG...the bar exam is close!

The bar exam is July 29-30, super, super close now. I'm starting to really freak out...the worst part is that I try hard to study, but I wind up falling asleep or surfing the web a lot. WTF? It's like my mind doesn't understand the importance of this exam; I must pass or the last three years become a total waste of time. Also, I think I would feel humiliated if I failed. It just cannot happen, yet my brain doesn't get that yet. Yikes!

Before panic set in, I was still doing fun things, and one Saturday actually included 3 parties and a crazy tight schedule that required the use of a GPS system and synchronized watches! Because I need to get back to studying, I won't say much about that stuff now. Just know that if I fail the exam, I did manage to have some fun this summer. That must be worth something!

One last note - my sister Amanda is pretty much the best travel planner ever. She has our road trip/camping trip all charted out, and she has even narrowed down which campsites we should stay at. Additionally, she found and booked an awesome looking float/whitewater rafting trip for one of our days at Grand Teton. It's on the Snake River, and it sounds totally awesome. So excited for the trip, and to be done with the bar exam.

On that note, I must get back to work. Peace out, y'all!

PS: Happy belated bday to P-funk and the millions of others in July, and happy early bday to my sister Samantha, who is celebrating her golden birthday. Woot!

PPS: Happy early anniversary to K and D!

PPS: Here's a shout out to Kropp, one of my faithful readers. It was great to see you on Saturday! I miss you.

Kids really do say the funniest things

Last night, Beth was watching her nephew, Charlie. She brought him over so we could all go swimming in the pool, and then we ate dinner afterward. Everything went quite well, and he is a very well behaved little guy. However, as we were driving home, he said something that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe.

As we were driving, he was sort of struggling a bit in his carseat, and then he said it hurts. B said, what hurts? He then said in a totally calm way, "my penis hurts." Now, I think it's great that his parents have taught him about his body parts, etc. Really, that's great. But it still made me bust out laughing - he said it in such a matter of fact way and he was so sincere. Adults just don't say things like that, and that's one of the reasons I love kids so much. They are honest, sincere, and don't care what the world thinks. That's what makes them great! :)

People are Strange

I have BarBri class almost every morning, and since it lasts 3.5-4 hours, they give us two 10 minute breaks. Typically, I go outside to warm up during those breaks, or I venture off to find "secret" bathrooms to avoid the long lines in the main building. Today, as I was coming back from one of the "secret" bathrooms, I noticed a guy sitting on a bench. At first, I thought maybe he had hurt his feet, as he was bending down and touching his toes. However, as I came closer, it became apparent that he was actually cutting his toe nails, with a clipper and everything. WTF?!? Who brings a nail clipper to BarBri so he can cut his toe nails during the break? He can't possibly be studying so much that he doesn't have time to do this at home. Seriously, I couldn't believe he was doing that as the rest of us stood around outside. Does he do this in other public places? The bus? The train? At parades? Odd, really, really odd. Honestly, people just never cease to amaze me!

Life with Tony

I feel I must start this post by saying that I love my cat Tony. I really do. However, I might need to kill him in the near future. Why? Well, he's in the habit of pooping on my bed, and now my roommate's bed too. Awesome. I'm pretty sure I know why he does it (stress from missing me, and my stress affects him too - thus, law school was rough on both of us). Knowing why it happens doesn't make it any better or easier though. Really, it's just time consuming, frustrating, and gross.

An example: I dogsat for Matty this weekend while B was in Chicago, and to make my life easier, I chose to stay at her place. Sunday, I received a call from Carolyn, my roomie, saying that Tony had pooped on my bed, and that it was diarrhea. Excellent. Being the excellent roommate she is, she washed most of my bedding. I just had to wash the mattress pad and I can then put my bed back together. However, when I arrived home this afternoon, Tony had also pooped on C's bed. Sigh. Now I have to wash her duvet too, and the doors to both bedrooms need to remain closed until peace returns to the kingdom.

Really, I'm at my wit's end with this, as I don't know what to do to make him happier/calmer/more content. Any ideas?

Rockin' road trip

The planning for my August road trip is well under way now. Amanda is coming with me, and we are both super pumped. Our friend Jessie might come for the first part of the trip as well; I hope she can make it work. So far, Manda is doing most of the researching and planning; all I've done is order some guide books and a TripTik from AAA. She and I both got some new clothing too, as we are going to be camping the entire time. Here's the plan so far:

Depart from the Twin Cities on August 2nd, with the first destination being Grand Teton National Park. We will drive as far as we can without falling asleep that first day, hopefully making it to a hotel near the park (I don't want to set up camp in the dark). After a few days in Grand Teton, we will move on to Yellowstone, which is only about 70 miles away. If everything is going well and we are feeling good after Yellowstone, we will head on to Glacier National Park in Montana, almost in Canada. After that, probably on August 12, it's homeward bound. Should be a fantastic trip! I can't wait to share the pics; I bet they will be amazing (not because of my skill, but because of the subject matter).

If anyone has been to those parks and has recommendations for can't miss things to do or places to see, please shout out. Thanks!

Birthday shout outs

Happy birthday to my mom, Stacey, Gricus, and America! July tends to be a busy month for birthdays, with those four in the first six days alone. Paige and Samantha follow later, and others too. So, stay tuned for more shout outs later in the month. :)

Matty keeps kosher!

Beth is out of town this weekend, so I'm watching Matty. I brought her to my mom's birthday party last night, as I knew we would be outside most of the evening and I thought she would have a good time. Indeed, she did, as she was able to run around within a fenced area and she received tons of attention from different people. Also, mom gave her some treats, which she liked for the most part. Just not the pig's ear. At first, she happily accepted it. However, instead of lying down to enjoy it, she suddenly started pacing the yard along the fence, appearing sort of anxious. Finally, after a few minutes of this, she went to a corner and actually buried it! It was quite funny to watch, and I really couldn't believe she did it, as she normally wolfs down treats. The only conclusion we all came to is that she was attempting to keep kosher by avoiding pork products; that must have been it. B would be so proud of her good Jewish dog!

4th of July excitement

Obviously, yesterday was the 4th of July. It was quite a busy day, as I'm dogsitting for 3 dogs this weekend and also was invited to two parties. First was the the annual 4th of July party at Kelly and Amy's. As usual, it was great, even though I couldn't stay long. It's always just a really chill party with lots of different people there. Folks play catch and lawn games, eat good food, and just sit around and talk. Can't complain about that!

On a random note, K and A made me feel good by asking me to bring a music mix for the party; they said I always make good mixes and they needed some current tunes. It turns out the compliment made me so happy that I actually felt the need to make EIGHT cds. I guess I got a little out of control, but I found lots of fun songs and was able to divide them up by genre, or at least pretty closely. I think they turned out pretty well, and the first cd was a hit at the party. Yay, I love music!

After K and A's, I drove over to Kami's to let her dogs out. I stayed with them for about 45 minutes, and then it was off to pick up Matty so she could accompany me to my parents' for my mom's bday party. We had fantastic food with great company, and we got to sit outside with a fire; does it get any better? Well, it turns out that when you can see the town's fireworks from your own yard, it can get better! I watched a few fireworks, and then Matty and I headed for home, with a quick stop to watch the finale. I love fireworks. There is just something...magical about them. My hometown doesn't do a huge show, but it was still neat to watch.

After I dropped a very tired Matty off at B's, it was off to Kam's to let her dogs out again. I spent some more time with them, and then finally came back to B's to crash. Unfortunately, B's neighborhood sounded like a war zone, with everyone shooting off tons and tons of fireworks late into the night. That with the accompanying police and ambulance sirens and the hospital helicopter made for a loud night, and I think both Matty and Elijah felt quite nervous. I know all the noise and activity made me nervous, so I can't imagine they liked it. Eventually, we all fell asleep, or at least I did!

All in all, an excellent 4th of July!

What's up with my stomach?

B and I went out to eat on Saturday night, and as the appetizers arrived, I turned to her and said, I think I need to throw up. Now. WTF? I proceeded to go inside to use the restroom, and I vomited. A lot. Fortunately for me and the other restaurant patrons, no one else was in the bathroom. I cannot imagine returning to eat after hearing that.

Anyway, you might be wondering why I'm telling this gross story, because really, who wants to hear about this? Well, I tell it because it's sort of funny, if you think about it, and also because it seems to be happening to me a lot lately. I'll be feeling fine, and suddenly, I'm totally ill and need to vomit. Once I do, I eventually feel better and then go on to have a good time. Saturday is a good example: I returned to the table and ate some rice (thinking that Malaysian food wasn't a good idea). Eventually, I felt better and B and I went on to hang out the whole night. Jigga what is that about?? Perhaps I need to start eating better, or stop eating such random combinations of food. Who knows, but I do know that I don't want to have to blog about this again. :)

Mean mean mean

Beth and I went to the Twins game on Friday night. When we sat down, I noticed that the woman next to us was slightly developmentally delayed. She was quite chatty and very excited to be at the game. She was cheering loudly and was just generally happy to be there. I gently teased her about protecting us from foul balls, as she had her glove with her, and we had a nice banter going back and forth before the game started. All was well, that is until I noticed the two assholes sitting in front of us.

Asshole 1, the husband, literally turned to stare at the woman every 30 seconds. It was obnoxious. Asshole 2, the wife, with a full on long mullet and crazy big bangs, kept covering her ears and making ridiculous comments about how loud the woman was, how annoying she was, how her ears hurt, that the woman was annoying, etc. She also kept covering her ears, as if this woman's cheering was hurting her. Now, I was sitting next to this woman, and not once did my ears hurt. I wasn't even bothered by her cheering. I thought it was great that she was so excited, as I love being at the games too.

However, the asshole couple would not let up, and I mentioned it to Beth. Being much more brave than me, Beth leaned down and told them that her sister was mentally handicapped and could not control her volume. They both said that she was annoying and that she could be quiet. Beth argued that they were missing the point - she actually probably couldn't and that she really wasn't being that loud anyway. They eventually turned around and started behaving at least a little better; the turning and staring stopped, and the ear covering only happened every once in a while. Once again, all seemed well, at least until Beth left to get some water.

As soon as B left, asshole 1 turned to me and said, "are you trying to be annoying?" Being somewhat stunned by this, as all I had been doing was cheering and clapping regularly, I said, "uh, no." A1 said, "yeah, you are." At this point I had no idea what to say, but fortunately, the man sitting next to B basically said to him, "what's your problem? Why don't you just watch the game at home?" It was totally, totally awesome! A1 and A2 both turned around and shut up then, and I thanked the friendly stranger. The best part: the friendly stranger proceeded to clap loudly next to A1's head for the remainder of the night. Finally, the assholes left the game in the 5th inning, which was a shame, since it was a fantastic game. All I could think was good riddance, assholes - thank god you are going back to the rock you live under.

In good news, the woman next to me and her dad never seemed to notice that she was being mocked/told to shut up, and she had a great time at the game. We continued to chat throughout, and it turned out she knew tons about baseball and the Twins. Others in our area were friendly with her too, and that warmed my heart.

Clearly, the asshole couple needs to learn a thing or two or a million in this world. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it's possible to grow a heart, especially when you are starting with such small ones. They were absolutely disgusting people, at least that night, and it made me ashamed of the human race. Every time I think we've made progress, I run into assholes like them or I read the StarTribune reader comments (homophobic, sexist, racist, making fun of disabled folks, etc.) and I'm reminded of just how many absolute ignoramuses are running around. Quite sad, but at least there were good folks at the game too. They were the silver lining around the ugly cloud of the asshole couple, and I was grateful for their presence.

On a different note, I was quite proud of Beth for standing up to the asshole couple. I was very close to doing so, but I truly hate confrontation and it takes a lot for me to provoke it. She didn't hesitate for a second, and as a result, the woman next to me never had to learn about the asshole couple's poor behavior. Yay, B! You did a great thing, and I'm proud of you. :)