Blah

Had my practice trial for trial team tonight. It was fine. I'm really not overly hard on myself about these things so it wasn't really great and I'm just saying it was fine. And, I'm not exaggerating either which is why I'm not saying it was terrible. But, after the amount of work I did, fine doesn't feel very good or very promising.

And, quite understandably the husband is asleep. So, I am drinking a glass of wine and watching Law and Order by myself and being... blah.

SKH shouldn't have kids, number 1 in a series

I left school at about 6:15 today, early as of late. There were two rather frantic messages from husband on the phone. The boy (our dog) wasn't home when husband got back from work. WHAT?! Enter SKH stream of conscious/ events:

Dog walker decided to keep him out late. Call husband tell him she probably left a message on our rarely used home phone to tell him this. NO MESSAGE? HOLY SHIT? Check cell phone. Don't have dog walker's cell number on cell list. Call home number - no answer. What the fuck kind of person am I not to have her cell number. WHY HASN'T SHE CALLED. Oh, wait, check incoming call list. OK, there's her cell number. Call, leave absolutely frantic message. Manage to make it to my car in the parking garage, shaking and having thoughts such as: oh God, he's so hurt. He jumped out of the back of her car as he sometimes does and was hit by a car. He's barely hanging on for his life and we're not there and there's no fucking reception in the vet's office. But, dog walker is responsible. She'd totally step outside to call us. Maybe something happened to dog walker. Maybe she was abducted. Holy shit. Maybe she fainted at the park and some kind sole took her to the hospital and has all the dogs. OH FUCK, maybe she and the dogs were all kidnapped by terrorists. Have at this point made it out of parking garage but have to pull over about to puke. Call husband again, about to puke or cry or GOD FORBID smoke in the car. Oh.

He just got home. Another dog walker dropped him off. Our dog walker is on vacation and let us know months ago Dog Walker B would be taking him out, but she has more clients and brings the boy home last, sometime after 6. And, as usual, I am too self absorbed to remember this kind of shit or write it on our calendar. She's getting a big fat apology and the boy's getting an omlette for breakfast. I, well, I need a good swift kick in the ass.

Cheesy Friday Night Quote

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. -T.S. Eliot

Jumping on the bandwagon a little late

A recent Forbes article warns men about marrying career women.

Luckily, Forbes has now saved themselves a few hundred lawsuits by balancing that perspective with one of us unmarriable types. I could say a lot about the article, but it would all be trite and less well written than the other Forbes article or the Boingboing perspective or Why You Should Marry a Doormat or the better titles for this article including Why Michael Noer Never Got Laid Again, Except By That One Girl Who Works at The Piggly-Wiggly and Cain't Read so Good.

Family Ties

This past weekend, we drove down South to Huntington Beach where my best friend from elementary through most of high school was getting married. My parents came to the wedding too. I was all set for a good time despite driving 8 hours Saturday and Sunday. But, well, damn that SKH family hex.

I'll preface this by saying that I love my dad. He's a good hardworking guy whose done a lot for me. He's worked construction since he was 16 and never missed a day of work. He's funny and offensive and the line between the two is VERY narrow. So much so that I want to start a blog for him: Papa SKH's Pearls of Wisdon ("More like a Pearl Necklace Dude!") And, offensive is okay when in the privacy of our house. Not so much at a wedding with 150 guests who probably don't want to hear AC/DC no matter how many shots of over-priced tequila they'd paid for. I saw the sign of a questionable time when he was crabby about not having a drink in hand during the ceremony.

We all took turns trying to babysit, especially once he got the dead eye. A typical conversation went something like this:

"You've got a good head."
"Thanks, dad, I appreciate that."
"But what's UP with HOMEBOY over HERE? WHAT'S HE WEARING?"
"Uh, dad, he can hear you."
"HEY, I know whatsup. I'm your old man, but you! You've got the head."
"Thanks."
"You know, your moms all like..."
"Like what dad?"
"Yeah."
"If you guys ever need, you know..."
"I know dad, thanks, I appreciate it."

See, he's offensive *and* sweet. When he saw the bride, he started crying and said, rather articulately for the evening: "I remember you and SKH being all dorky and young. Are you happy?" She nodded and cried a little. "Well then, rock on. I'm proud of ya, giiirrll."

So far, not so bad. I got to shake my bootie and swing dance with husband. And then...well, we drove back to the hotel and he passed out in the back seat. We tried to convince him to get out, but he wouldn't hear of it. Luckily (depending on how you look at it) the bride's parents were coming out to the parking lot at the same time. Brides mom sweet talked my dad out of the car.

The next morning we went to breakfast. Dad ordered a beer. The waitress delivered it, saying, "Here's your hair of the dog," trying to pretend it was entirely normal for a guy in his fifties to be ordering beer at 8:30 in the morning at a diner. As she walked away, he offered another pearl:

"Dude, she's like totally dust in the wind."

::

Uh, I'm really busy and boring at the same time. Some thoughts:

* Con Law seems really interesting. The prof is funny, the reading is hard, and oh holy shit I wish I'd spent more time learning American History in high school.
* My reading brain went to mush over the summer, despite the thousands of novel pages I read. Not quite the same as criminal procedure.
* Trial team: I have a lot of work. A lot of work - like learning evidence in the next two weeks.
* I do get independent study credits for working. I have to write a paper, but, eh, not so bad as taking an entire other class.

My semester may just get better

Found out today that Trial Team will likely be 2 non independent study units per semester AND that I can get 2 independent study credits for continuing my internship. Which means, if all the administrata gods are with me, I will only have to take 3 actual classes. Cross those fingers stat, please!

Formal shorts have gone too far

Dear Banana Republic,

You are a pretty reliable suit seller. Navy, Black, Blue, skirt or pant. Classic and well made, totally work ready. This is not okay. Any establishment that requires you to wear a suit to work is not going to allow these no matter how "smart" you market them to be. But, at least with the others, the shorts are an ignorable addition to the reliable Banana skirt and pant options. A usability flaw in the name of fashion. But, really, this? A "suit" for which there are only shorts? Next time I need dressy African Safari, I'll take this outfit into consideration. In the meantime, Gah! Please take this post into consideration and keep making things we can actually wear.

Thanks,
SKH

::

Back from vacation, back to the grind. Kauai was amazing, I will try to post pictures some day. Highlights: the beach closest to our hotel was full of sea turtles (Honu)bobbing about in the surf, the entire island was beautiful, the best snorkeling. Husband could spend all day in the ocean while I devoured books from a chair on the sand. Only complaint is that the food wasn't very good. A, you were right about Beach House. A total factory dining experience. $8 for a glass of Beringer? But, the Lava Flows were cheap and the sunset view luxurious. So...

Feelin' the Love for My Hood. For at least one minute.

As my 4 readers know, I've been a little down on my 'hood for a while. This culminated on Sunday morning when going to do laundry, I found human diarrhea on the door to our basement. There was a nice spout from about human ass level sputtering to an enviable blob of shit on the ground. Guess who got to hose that off? Yeah.

Well, today I am loving the neighb. I was doing a little back to school shopping and met a friend for coffee at the one local shop that has outdoor seating. As we're sipping our respective beverages a gun metal gray Sebring convertible pulls into the parking spot directly in front of us, three well dressed African American gentlemen inside. Friend looks at me and says, "Is that, is that Mos Def? It would make sense, that's totally a rental car." We stare as they put up the top, exit the vehicle and neglect to feed the meter. Why, yes, yes it is. And oh, holy hell. The driver of said Sebring is Dave Chappelle. No clue re: random third guy. Why neither of us thought to use our camera phone is beyond me. I told friend, we should write to US Weekly. "Stars, They're Just Like Us: They forget to Feed the Meter." "Um. No way in hell did they forget. They just didn't give a fuck.”

Off to Kauai tomorrow. Wa-hoo!!!!

Sigh...

Today was my last full time internship day (going to stay one day a week in fall and as long as I possibly can). I'm a little sad.

But, tonight there is wine and a lovely husband cooked dinner. There is Kauai next week. That should be enough to temporarily distract me from the doom of next semester.

And, something that makes me smile...Supervising attorney came in this morning and asked if we were in a good mood last night. Co-intern said: "Oh yes, I believe there was some fist pumping on the ride home."

The highs are indeed high

When I started my job, my supervising attorney said this about her work: "The lows may be low, but the highs are really high."

Today may be the high of the summer. Appropriate as it is the second to last day of the full time part of my internship. I want to go into detail and since the court proceedings are matters of public record, I feel like I could. But... in the abundance of caution I will just say that one defendant was sentenced and another convicted. These were two complicated cases with lots of social biases at play. My supervising attorney did great work and I'm proud I was part of it.

Then, I learned that my friend N will be returning to the City in two weeks.