I don't think so

I had 9:00 Contracts this morning. I like to get to class a few minutes early so I can settle down and collect my thoughts. That was my attitude last semester.

At the start of this semester, I have to get to Contracts because the Über Estrogen Brigade wanted to take over the entire row. Maybe it shows a strong front from the lesbian members of the class?

This morning, I was sitting in my seat, arranging my books and highlighter when I was confronted regarding the seat, which I was assigned to for the entire year.

PROUD LESBIAN LAW STUDENT

I think that's my seat.

DORA

No. I've been sitting here since last semester.

PROUD LESBIAN LAW STUDENT

I'm telling you that on the professor's seating chart, my name is on this seat.

DORA

I don't think so. I've been called on by him a few times last semester from this seat.

PROUD LESBIAN LAW STUDENT

I put my name on that seat on the first day of class this semester.

DORA

He didn't pass out a seating chart at all this semester.

PROUD LESBIAN LAW STUDENT

He didn't? Oh.

After class ended...

PROUD LESBIAN LAW STUDENT

Hey, sorry about that before. I didn't mean to be confrontational.

Well, maybe you're a confrontational person who believes she should be in law school because the fiery blood of a potential lawyer is pumping through her veins!

FYI: I have nothing against lesbians or gays, etc. I find it difficult to distinguish each of my classmates and that's how I tell her apart. Go lesbians!

Reading is funda-MENTAL

Yesteday, I got up at 7:30 and was at the reading room at school by 10:30. Why not the library, you ask? Well, the librarians at my school are food and drink Nazis, so you can only bring water into that building, unless you put your beverage or liquidated sandwich into the specially sanctioned NYLS sippy cup mug. The reading room also has comfier seats, so if I'm settling in for the long haul, I'd rather my butt be comfortable. In general, the reading room is the nicest room in the entire school. Everything else looks like a flimsy piece of crap. I get this feeling that the school isn't trying very hard because they supposedly have plans to move locations. It won't happen until after I'm done though, so I don't care.

I was at the reading room until 5:00 yesterday. This morning, I did it again, only I got there a little after 9. I was so early that all the lights were off, so I had to try out a dozen light switches to get the overhead lights on. I never realized how much my voice can echo in that room. Since I had it to myself for an hour, I was talking on the phone and dancing on the tables. I'm just kidding about the last part. I stayed until 2:00 today because I forgot to bring one of my books.

I was also annoyed at this older, heavy-set woman in the reading room with me. She kept opening and closing her bottle of soda. I had my headphones on and I could hear the hissss each time she opened it. She also kept walking in and out of the room, letting the door slam and echo through the room. When I went to the library to look for the book I'd forgotten to bring, I realized that the woman was walking back and forth to the library to use the computers and do research.

JUST SIT IN THE DAMNED LIBRARY AND STOP COMMUTING BETWEEN TWO BUILDINGS EVERY TEN MINUTES!!!!!

Pretty soon after that, I decided to leave.

Buy stock in Bounty

The cats have been so bad lately. Here are just a few things they've done:

1. Morty jumped into the shower and got soaking wet and then sat in the litter box while the litter clumped around his wet paws. Then he got out and shook himself, scattering clumps of litter all over the bathroom.
2. Half an hour after the floor was washed, Morty stepped in poop and tracked it on the no-longer-clean floor.
3. Morty fell in the toilet (on a different day).
4. Eli got curious about a glass of soda on the coffee table and when he stuck his paw in it, he knocked it over and soda was all over the floor.
5. Somebody didn't clean their butt and got a poop smear on the duvet.
6. Eli stole a chunk of raw chicken from the bowl that I was about to pour marinade into. Then he put it on the floor because he took a piece that was 5 times bigger than his mouth.

What are kitties doing now? Sleeping, of course! They're so pooped from sleeping all day that they have to nap all evening.

Winter wonderland

My backyard

It was nice being holed up for the weekend while the blizzard raged, but I don't like dealing with what it left.

The sidewalks have a slick coating of gray slush and each street corner has a huge bank of dirty snow. I have to walk super careful, or else I'll slip, a vision of grace. Picture a blue puff with awkwardly flailing arms topped with the ugliest white hat imaginable pitching forward into a large pile of gray slush dotted with pieces of dog crap.

Yeah, that'll be me tomorrow.

Spellcheck!

I read a number of blogs regularly since I'd rather do almost anything besides the reading that's due. One thing that annoys me is spelling and grammar. Oh, I understand there's that certain way of typing when you're online because it's faster and informal. However, when someone's trying to be serious on their blog about some current event/issue, I find it hard to take them seriously when they don't take the time to check their spelling.

Try this on for size: how u gon get you're respect?

I find it difficult to write that way on purpose. I'm not saying that blogs have to be perfect because they don't! It's push-button publishing so people can voice their opinions, etc. I'm sure I've got all sorts of weird mistakes all over my entries. I just hope people are more careful in their professional/educational writing before wrong impressions are made to superiors who aren't so carefree.

I heart eBay

Thank you eBay. I am now the proud owner of Mary Poppins and Princess Diaries 2 for $18.00. Mary Poppins was a bonus, but will be enjoyed as well. My elementary school alarm clock used to wake me up with "Chim Chim Cher-ee." I hope I don't have some kind of negative association between that song and my waking up for school.

In other news, I don't think Chicago is the only "Windy City." New York's awfully windy too. Every time I'm walking the path between school and my apartment, my eyeballs feel like they're going to freeze in their sockets.

Happy 3 Months!

Adoption fees: $175
Food, Toys, and Supplies: $100
Neutering for Morty: $50
Neutering for Eli, the one-balled cat: $185
Vet visit at trendy TriBeCa vet for Eli, who tried to de-claw himself: $170

Having a purring, annoyed cat chew on your hair 20 minutes before your alarm goes off in the morning because he's hungry: Priceless

Temporary cure

Well, there's no easy remedy for my mood as of late. However, there are some awesome distractions to indulge in.

Josh and I went to Union Square Cafe tonight. It is such a wonderful restaurant. The waitstaff was very knowledgeable and professional. My usual gripe with my server is their availability. Usually, I have a server who bothers me every few minutes or one who hardly shows up. Also, it seems as though the server always waits until I have my mouth full to swoop down to the table and ask if everything is all right. By the time I've finished chewing and swallowing, the server has disappeared again, an elusive ninja. The server we had tonight was the perfect balance of attentiveness and non-existence.

I had a lovely venison dish served with parsnip pancakes and quince chutney. For dessert, we shared a baked alaska filled with milk chocolate chocolate chip ice cream and a graham cracker crust bottom. Josh asked me if I wanted hot chocolate, but I said I was so picky about the hot chocolate I drink that I'd rather pass. I like my hot chocolate made with steamed milk so it's not too rich. Some places have this thick hot chocolate, and it's too much for me. When our server brought the baked alaska, she brought us complimentary hot chocolate, because she heard it being discussed. It was really nice of her, although my suspicions were not unfounded, and the chocolate was very thick.

After dinner, it was still early (because the only reservation we could get was an early 5:45) and I got to visit my new favorite window shopping store, Anthropologie. I got the sweater seen above and it's the prettiest sweater I've ever had. It was on sale too!

We followed that up with a stop in Barnes and Noble to look around, and then went to Petco to look at the kittens. Kittens and puppies always make me happy because they're all so cute. I wanted to adopt a litter of 4 black and white kittens. They all had little tuxedo patterned coats and some had white socks. The kittens kept crying as people walked by and of course, they got attention. They'll be adopted by the end of the weekend and that's good. All kitties should have good homes.

S.A.D. - School Affected Disorder

And so ends my first week of second semester. I'm sure the cruddy weather didn't help the way I perceived the whole experience. There's no giddy feeling of newness. I definitely do not like law school.

Last night, I found a job online that I would have been perfect for and made a good deal of money. I was so tempted to send my resume, considering it's just been revamped for this upcoming career symposium. Josh said it would be best if I didn't send it in because I wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it if the company wanted to hire me.

So here I am, trying to apply for different employers for this symposium at NYU. The website doesn't even work half the time because their server can't handle the traffic.

Law is not glamorous.

Something wicked this way comes

Second semester starts tomorrow at 9:00 A.M. I am not looking forward to it.

The prospect of spending the next four months in mind-numbing lectures laced with moments of rushing adrenaline when called on scares me. Do you know what most students do in class? They play solitaire, spider solitaire, freecell, look at their digital pictures, surf the internet, and chat with friends on AIM.

I miss working. I kick myself now, because when I was working, I said that I missed school. I was WRONG!

Going to law school seemed like such a good idea at the time.

Hold the conversation

Now that I've passed through the worst of my Tylenol Cold-drugged haze, I can tell my three regular readers about something Josh, Joe, and I noticed about our fellow diners at Zoë on New Year's Day.

We were having our conversations about various subjects: jobs, real estate, parents, etc. The tables flanking us were occupied by couples in their 60s. Joe noticed that one of the old people gave him a dirty look when we were discussing bad parenting. To that old person, we were whippersnappers who had no idea what parenting was like, and were therefore ungrateful brats who did not deserve to breathe from the same airspace as them in an upscale Manhattan restaurant. At the other table, the other couple was dining on green eggs and ham (no joke, the eggs were really green). We did notice that the couple did not exchange words at all. Josh believes they were having marital problems. He's probably right that about there possibly being something up besides our youthful offensiveness. We were dining at a great restaurant on a beautiful day! There must be something they can say a few words about. Josh said that the old guy was staring at me the whole time. He says that he was probably staring at my chest.

I say that he was staring at me because I kept blowing my nose. He probably thought I had SARS.

Got your nose

Happy new year everyone!

After all that discussion about what Josh and I were planning on doing for New Year's Eve, it turns out the simplest decision was the best one. We had to choose between going to a fancy party that required formal dress and $150 admission per person at some club or a home cooked meal with less people.

Of course, I was leaning towards staying at home because the idea of spending $150 per person for six hours of entertainment seemed rather exorbitant. The clincher was the fact that there was no guaranteed seating! If I'm paying $150 for six hours, I'd better get my own couch and server kissing my butt! Instead, you'd be standing around trying to figure out how to eat and hold your drink while around 700 people around you are trying to figure out the same exact thing.

In the end, we wound up staying in and Joe came up to visit. We had a great time, but then I wound up with the flu halfway through the evening. It just started suddenly. One moment, my throat wasn't sore, and then the next, it was! At first, I thought that I'd spontaneously developed an allergy to my cats (That is my greatest fear). On New Year's Day, we went out to brunch in SoHo at Zoë. It was excellent and I had the banana stuffed brioche french toast.

I've never had the flu so bad. Actually, I think I get it every year. I filled up a garbage can with my tissues. The cats think it's fun to reach into the garbage can and touch them. I think I'm feeling a lot better now after two days of sleeping. The kitties were happy to have someone to nap with them.

I guess my point is: It's a good thing I didn't decide to go to that party because I would have been extra miserable after paying all that money only to be sick.