i like too much of you when i'm gone

right now i am in seattle, washington, in a house in the neighborhood of queen anne. i haven't seen her majesty as of yet, but i await her arrival any moment. i am told she comes out during the day in her bonnet.i am hoping she doesn't notice my dirty pant cuffs.

i saw miss katie meyer cross the finish line after rounding the last turn in the seattle half-marathon this morning. it was all very exciting. later tonight i'm taking her out to dinner at a nice place, because wow, was it cold. and rainy. and terrible. but the people looked so happy when they crossed the finish line! katie too. she clapped when we cheered for her. i got a nice picture. you can see it, if you want.

i haven't taken my coat off yet. i also can't believe it's only 1:32PM right now. it feels so late! maybe some scrabble is in order, huh? yes ma'am!

oh, but i have six and a half more pages to write of a brief that's due on wednesday. shitcakes. that's okay, i guess, right? sure. surrrrrrre. maybe i'll write a little bit this afternoon? it seems like a nice lazy sunday though, the kind for playing games and surfing the internet and only talking when it's pleasant to. sooo, maybe no work today. maybe i'll just save it for tomorrow instead.

you know, when i get back i have to take two exams! i keep trying to figure out if there's a way i can just not take them and still pass those classes, but there's really no way. is there? maybe i'm forgetting something. i'll keep you updated, don't worry. don't you worry your little face.

sleeping bear (guess the theme)

here's the problem. okay? okay.

i'm supposed to be writing a four page summary of a report for the district.....excuse me, THE district attorney right now. i'm supposed. to be. and what am i doing? updating my blog. why? because i like you. and because i'm dreadfully tired. and because when i was in chicago, i went into the four story barnes and noble on the corner of clark and washington in order to buy a book, and i did, and i can't stop reading it because....remember real reading? i just did. it's even better than i remember.

the other problem is that i am stuffed with chinese food and white wine. you can't go wrong with that combination, i assure you. i suppose if i really wanted to procrastinate, i could just pack for the old seattle trip on tuesday, but for some reason i can't seem to get up from this chair. i think pretty much the only thing that would make that happen would be if the purpose for it would be to go to bed. man. bed is nice. i'm going to have to do that.

ohhhh, except....i can't! i can't. i promised i wouldn't go to bed until one-thirty, eastern standard time, for an excellent reason. that's a promise i would like to fulfill, but i have a feeling i might only last another hour or so. when did i get so tired all the time? geez. it's not even eleven yet.

alright. two pages! i can do two pages, right? sure, no problem. nooooooooo problemo. yee.

took my bags, illinois

hello friends.

thank you for your awesome well-wishes for my interview yesterday. i don't find out whether they want me to work for them like a real magical attorney until the first week of february, but if i don't get the job it'll have nothing to do with the interview. there was some rocking of socks, is all i'm saying. vigorous nodding was involved. eye contact to an almost scary degree. some establishing of a rappaport. or something. did i spell that right? i have a feeling someone will tell me if i didn't.

in other news, remember chicago? that's a really nice place, isn't it? i was really disappointed and a little angsty about the fact i didn't have any time to do any of the things i wanted to do or go to any of the places i wanted to go, or! even! get to see adam or sarah or anything. oh well. janurary i'm going back, so it'll just have to wait until then.

in worse news, things with newfangled are sort of falling apart, by which i mean the leaf raking project is pretty much a minor disaster. poor preparation on my part and being unable to anticipate the loss of both jamie and nathan (the latter quite unexpectedly), as well as a very frustrated and silent-on-the-subject-until-it's-too-late-to-fix-anything remainder has created a complete mess. this is really just business as usual, with the exception of one thing: this semester i can't really afford the added stress. i have quite a lot to do that is frankly vital--as opposed to incidental--to my life and my career (am i allowed to use that word? i feel like it's too expensive for me to say), and i need to get it done and worry only about that. and not about leaves being raked. i don't know what the end result of this is, but as of this minute, it is looking like an early resignation. we'll see after oliver gets back from ireland.

in new life news, jamie gale russell hale had her baby last night at 11:24PM, a daughter named ritter. she is six pounds, fourteen ounces (ritter, not jamie), and they are both doing fine. diana marshall nabring, already the proud mother of sam, is pregnant again.

i continue to not be pregnant.

i think my father is buying me a bottle of macallan right now. i used contextual clues to figure it out. that would be nice, now wouldn't it? this is what i have to remember when i get those feelings of wanting to be married and have a family: you would rather have a bottle of macallan than a baby. this is true.

i'm just going to take a lot of lovers. there's a sign-up sheet by the door.

something more, something halfways

this friday at 11:20 in the morning, i will have an interview at the cook county prosecutors office in chicago, on the thirty-second floor of their building, located at 69 West Washington. i'm flying in to chicago on thursday in the early evening, spending the night there, and then after the interview i'm going to fly right back to good old ohio. quick quick. i realized today i've been thinking about this interview all wrong: as if the sun rose and fell on this office and i on this job, and really that's not the truth at all. i rise and fall on the son, though not he on me, of course. he is risen all the time. rising even for me.

my professor told me just to be myself, because i have to fit with the office. it's like dating, she said. think of it like dating. you don't want to go out on other dates with somebody you don't like, yes? yes, i said. well, she said. there you go. then she hugged me and left.

say it with me now: awwww.

i do have to throw down the cards i'm holding that are marked "bloodshot eyes" and "absolutely exhausted," just because i don't want to keep everything back. i don't think i've ever been so tired as i have been these days. i'm very much, verrrrry much looking forward to my winter break. more than you know. more, probably, than i know. after my exams are over i have a bunch of trials all in a row the next week, but then i'm taking a shit-ton of time off. a shit-ton.

please pray or think good thoughts or both for me for my interview. i'm almost done with my last wills class. allllllllllllmost. and then i'll only have about four classes for the semester. on tuesday, after all, i am gone to the addled sea for a week to see some of the northwest dwellers. they haven't even seen my new funky fresh hair yet!

cobbled

the season of leaf raking for mad cash to support this little non-profit production company is upon me, like so many muscle aches and joint pops. when i wake up it's a symphony these days. when i go to sleep, i have to settle in as comfortably as possible as quickly as possible. moving around leads to a world of hurt.

but it's for a good cause, right? sure. nothing a few tylenol and about a quart of jack daniel's can't help.

i apologize for the lack of updates. in a month i'll be done with my last fall semester of law school, how do you like that? i have a job interview in chicago coming up a week from today. as a matter of fact, i will be at the tail-end of it, i think. it can't be longer than an hour, right? yikes. i haven't even thought about it really, there's been no time!

no time. that's what everybody says, isn't it? i've never really known what that means until this semester of my life, i think. i will miss sectioning my life into semesters.

two things i have learned since i've been away:

it is state law in mississippi that teachers in public schools must teach their students that AIDS is only transmitted through homosexual contact. see if you can pick out the scariest part of that fact.

a polygraph measures your reaction to the question and not the answer. riddle me that one. i'm not entirely convinced those things are very precise. not in the least bit.

falling asleep with gel in your hair is hard. it makes your head very itchy. i have to rake in a couple hours, naturally, and yes on a friday, or i would wash that gel-man right out of my hair. sadly, he must stay. in two weeks i will be in the middle of a trip to the addle sea. swimming in turkey gravy and mashed potatoes, and homemade pies, living a monorail-free life.

maybe i'll think of it

it's been half-hearted lately, hasn't it? writing in this space just to keep up appearances, sitting here in my education law class, the class that has turned out to be a waste of time and moved through in sort of a fog. all i do is work my work and school my school, and i don't connect with anyone by any means other than mentally these days. as reluctant as i am to admit it, i like learning with my hands more than my head. i miss putting my hands on things, on shoulders and upper arms and faces and backs, and i don't mean in a way that would cause talk--though i miss that too, of course--i just mean an actual touch. what's the word for that? there is one, but i've forgotten it.

two for two

today is the multistate professional responsibility exam. it's part of the bar, and i have to get an 87 or higher to be able to practice in any jurisdiction. i had to pay fifty-five dollars to take it, and twelve ninety-five for my picture to be taken by the kinko's people--excuse me, "fedex kinko's," now--so i could paste it onto my "admission ticket." i'm going to show up to the exam with the ticket, my wallet, and two number twos and spend two hours (trend-spotters, go to) and five minutes answering questions about legal ethics.

it's funny that this is the first major conduit of law school--everything about law school is a conduit, but they're just tiny pipes and connectors up until now, this is a rather large circuit--and i've studied for it, of course, but the pressure to pass it the first time comes from nowhere but myself and the ethics professors (who look bad if we don't pass, let's face it. i'm sure they're committed to our success beyond that, but still). the rest of the school, including the remaining faculty, don't seem to think this is a very big deal. why is that? isn't this the whole point?

i have not been reading my bible since the last post, except a few days ago i read some more chapters of joshua. i have been praying every morning, quickly, in the shower, and praying every night not so quickly, on my knees before climbing into bed. sometimes i pray in the car. and that, as they say, is that.

i would appreciate your thoughts and prayers of encouragement, even the the retroactive ones. i think you know my policy on that.