WonL

The random thoughts of an architect-turned- lawyer from the deep south living in Washington, DC...

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Cause for celebrating...or toy shopping

My little "project" hit the $2,000 mark today. Okay, maybe it hit the $1,997 mark and that annoyed me, so I threw in a couple more bucks.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Must snap out of this pissy mood!

Things that are not helping:

1) friend showing up 45 minutes late for his one hour shift this morning collecting toys

2) student organization taking over the table that I have had reserved for OVER A MONTH to distribute condoms next to our toy collection box

3) other friend giving me a "what the hell are you doing Law-Rah?" look when I try to give him a hug after not seeing him for a while - remind me not do to that again

4) the dude that said "I'm not giving toys or money to the kids in New Orleans. What they really need is a better central government." Shut the hell up! I assure you, a 5 year old child living in a trailer in the mud next to his destroyed house does not want to listen to your bickering about they government...he wants some damn transformers!

So, since I fully intend to be in a good mood tomorrow night for this...I am taking today off from smiling or being nice.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Great mail day

I got a check from him for this.


I got a plane ticket from them to Key West.


And my absolute favorite: I got a check from them for $320. Granted, it was merely an envelope with a check in it, but I read between the lines to know what they would have said had they enclosed a letter. In my own words (since they gave me none), it would say this:


Dearest bestest most tolerant customer ever,


You know how we have been at odds for months now over your Cingular service? You remember, right? We kept sending you overdue notices tacking on late payment fees. We harassed you with all of those 9am wake up calls from our Cingular recorded guy who kept telling you to pay your bill. C'mon, we continually threatened to interrupt your service. Remember the hours upon hours you spent on the phone with us (using all your minutes) trying to figure out what was going on? You said you were so frustrated with us that you had previously paid $320 online so that we would leave you the hell alone for at least 7-8 months. We told you we never received any money from you. In fact, when you faxed over all of the information and proof from your bank that the money was in fact paid to Cingular and someone from Cingular did in fact receive the money...we just brushed you off. Remember that time that you told the Cingular customer service representative that you never had these problems with AT&T and that they "were by far the worst customer service you have ever come across and that was saying a lot since [you] formerly owned a Dell"? Remember how we thought you were crazy for inventing some phantom Cingular account that contained your $320? We ignored you when you kept begging us to just check our databases. Um, well, yeah, um, we are sorry about that. Apparently, we are morons and we did have your money all along. Apparently, the account was not in fact phantom at all. Apparently, we owe you a huge apology...and $320.


Sincerely,
Joe Schuck
of the Committee for Humoring our Chumps (formerly referred to as servicing our customers)




Yeah...I know that's what they meant to say. Honestly, though, an envelope and a check suits me just fine:-)

Oh my gosh!

Being an architect, and soon to be lawyer, living in Washington DC...this makes me sad.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Momma

Granted, I have not hung out at a public library in quite some time (okay, more like, never) but since when are libraries a loud place to be? Seriously, since when is it OKAY to play hide and seek with your three year old amongst the stacks?


"Momma, I see you."


"Momma, I bet you can't find me!"


"Momma, where did you go?"


Yeah, if I was your momma, I'd have left too. Now shut up!


Oh yeah, and Momma: turn your damn cell phone off...this is a library!


Yes, I am getting pissy and no, it does not help that I left my headphones at home.


UPDATE: haha...it's not just me:-)

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Kicking myself

So far, I have had a pretty low-key semester schoolwise. Thanks to that crippling depression and all those days weeks I didn't want to get out of bed, I really have not done much this semester. Well well well, apparently my professors were not in tuned with my inability to concentrate on anything scholastic and they just kept assigning work. Bastards. Now, I am finding that attempting to read every single thing that every single professor assigned this semester in two weeks is, um, well exhausting. Being locked up in this apartment for days now, I have learned to kick myself in my own ass, which I have to admit is not an easy thing to do. This apartment is making me lonely too. I rode the elevator a few times earlier today just for the social interaction with random strangers.


This coming week is my last week of school. I don't seem to have very much time to ensure that I don't flunk out of law school. Toning down the dramatics: this ain't so bad. I can do this, right? I mean, I only have three exams and one paper. A paper that is due on Thursday. A paper that I only started this evening. A paper that is really a letter to a client that begins: "Dear white lesbian foster mother". Yep, I am in trouble.

Crossing the line between "acquaintance" and "friend."

That can be a really hard line to cross, especially when you begin to travel in different circles. When I gave up my life and went back to school, a lot of my 'friend circles' began to wither away and I found myself with many more acquaintances and many less friends, which can be a hard thing to deal with. Prior to law school, I had all my circles of friends perfectly in place to keep my comfort zone in check. I knew who to call when I was in the mood for a quiet evening on my sofa with some movies and who to call when I needed a hardcore evening of alcoholic indulgence. Sometimes I did not even need to call to call...things just worked themselves out. I had the group of girlfriends that had monthly slumber parties to decompress. I had the birthday friends that always got together to celebrate someone's "another year older." I had the football friends, the museum friends, the sorority friends, the work friends, the Louisiana friends...you get the picture. Granted, a lot of my friends traversed group lines, but nevertheless, I only had occasional acquaintances, and even they were usually introduced through a friend.


Then came law school. I fought very hard to keep ahold of my really close friends. There were a few that I was not going to let get away regardless of how tough this was. This is not to imply that all of my friends were not worth hanging on to. I tried to generally keep ahold of my life as I knew it, but my futile attempts did not last long. The nature of the law school beast forced me to decline invitations, back out on dinners, miss weddings, completely forget birthdays, and frankly lose a lot of friends. It is surely a crappy feeling, but this is a life choice I made. I am going to be strained for free time for the next few years (and by "next few" I mean forever) and chances are, I will not get back some of the friends I have lost touch with.


I guess I never realized just what it takes to cross the line between acquaintance and friend. To make it into someone's cell phone; to get a greeting card in your locker; to take a study break and go to a movie; to have someone say "but not good friends like you and I"; to get a phone call on your birthday; to share a holiday with; to know you can cry to that person. To have someone welcome you into their world...to look at you and say "we've hung out a couple of times now and you are pretty f-ing cool." It's not an easy line, but so worth it to cross:-) To my new law school friend: thanks for letting me in. Glad you are more than just that random acquaintance at school.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Nothing of importance...

Exam time is upon us, and you know what that means: random blog postings about absolutely nothing and everything.


LSU is playing like crap today. GUYS! It's Arkansas for chrissake. This should NOT be a close game. And with a name like that, I bet he got picked on as a kid.


I do not want to be sitting at home studying right now. I would much rather be here with my friend right now.


How many freaking times are y'all going to let them intercept the ball?


Since the above mentioned friend is trapsing all over Europe right now, it got me to thinking how I never go anywhere fun. Since I graduated college, my only real fun "vacation" was to Iceland a few years ago and even that had a somber tone because I was with a boyfriend who had found out only a week before he got into medical school...um, in Australia (but blessings in disguise are a topic for another post). Anyway, I have not been on a real vacation since then. It's always home to Louisiana or to Houston to see my brother. I decided that I need some fun after this semester is done. So, today, I booked a flight, leaving Houston on Christmas day and heading here. I've never been there...should be fun, right?


THEY are not even ranked!!!


An older gentleman in Pennsylvania emailed me about my charity (you know, the one bringing toys to the children displaced by Katrina). He said he heard about us in the paper and was interested in helping. Until, that is, he went online and did some research on us. He said he was quite disturbed to find that we are not actually doing anything for children much less the hurricane victims. HUH??? I emailed him back expressing my confusion. I told him exactly what we are doing and that if anything that I (or the organization) has said or implied otherwise, I apologize and would appreciate him bringing my attention to it. It's been bothering me for a few days now. I hate being misinterpreted. So, PA man emails me this morning and said he cannot remember exactly what he read but it was about lesbian sleepwear. REALLY? First thought: he must have clicked on the wrong website. Second thought: sir, I think you mis-understand what kind of toys we are bringing to Louisiana!


Remember when WE used to have a defense? Ah, those were the good ole days.


I'm going see this tonight with a school friend.


I feel the SEC West slipping away...


I am very very sad that Mr. Myagi died.


SHIT! They can win this with a fieldgoal.


Said school friend referenced earlier is damn lucky I am still speaking to him after his behavior in front of my family at Thanksgiving. After bringing up every guy in my life/no longer in my life at the dinner table, he decides to ask the table of twelve folks: "so, do you read her blog?" I give him mean eyes. "YOU have a blog???" blurts out the 19 year old cousin. Right after I inconspicuously tell friend "hey, they don't know about it and I'd like to keep it that way"...he proceeds to tell the whole family if they give him their email addresses, he will send them a link. DUDE! What is wrong with you?


HAHAHA...4th and 19...hahaha...interception.


The Rule Against Hearsay sucks.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving!


What are you looking at?

Monday, November 14, 2005

Too busy

Okay, I know I have a rule that "boys don't make the blog"...but this one is just too good.


I consider myself a pretty smart gal. Law school gpa and all that crap aside, I'm really not that dumb. Furthermore, in my years of living, I have come across my fair share of bullshit when dealing with guys in the form of friends, boyfriends, potential boyfriends, etc. Despite all my learning over the years, this one guy still shocks me every damn time.


He comes back with the same "I want you in my life" line he always has. Fine, wonderful, great, whatever...uh-huh. I guess he knew I was obviously not buying it. He speaks in strange words like "marriage...babies...Laura, move in with me." All I hear is "blah..blah..blah." I'm not trying to sound like a bitch here, but give me some credit. I did learn a little something from the last time...and the time before that...oh yeah, and that other time. Without going into too much boring detail, I will tell you one of our biggest problems is our inability to spend time together. Seriously, I have friends in long distance relationships that see each other more often. Did I mention, we live in the same freaking city? Right, but even once a week is sometimes not workable, and let's just say it is not due to...well, anything on my part. Don't get me wrong, I am not a needy relationshippy chick that wants to spend every day/night together. But at the same time, come on...what kind of relationship can anyone have with an occasional email and without seeing each other...ever? If I wanted a pen pal, I'd write to someone in Iraq.


"But things are going to be different this time." Well, forgive me, but I am going to keep my guard up for a while. (Direct orders from some good friends;-) Two freaking weeks, dude. That's all it took. That has to be some sort of record...even for us. Then he decides he is not willing to give up. He is going to soul-search and seek advice and think and make this work. Once again, forgive me for being crude, but I will believe it when I see it. I'm not sure if he is trying to convince me (which may very well be a lost cause at this point) or himself (which is going to take a shitload more than talking to some partner in his law firm) but I was willing to humor him. It was all supposed to be figured out and discussed this weekend. I was supposed to have made some sort of decision or whatnot.


You will never guess what happened. Okay, some of you will guess because we seem to have been through this before. No phone call. No email. No talk. No decision. Today (5 days since we last spoke) I get an email: "sorry, got busy at work. later this week?" I could not help but laugh. He got too "busy" to have a talk about how he could make a relationship work in spite of how "busy" he is. Seriously.


Let the "I told ya so"s roll in:-)

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Greatest hits

The great thing about having a diary/journal/blog/etc. is that every so often you can go back to old entries and just laugh/cry/hurl/etc. I have a friend who only recently found out about WonL and so friend doesn't have to search through months of old postings (which I am sure friend would do;-) I figured I would just do a "favorites" re-cap. This gave me the opportunity to spend some time re-living past moments instead of studying. Much more fun, might I add. So, here goes:


One showing my emotional side


One showing my pissy side


One showing my mental side


One showing my interview side


One showing my HOT side


One showing my artistic side


One showing where my sarcastic side comes from


One showing my embarrassing side


Other (apparently) popular posts:


"Success" in law school


The numbers game in law school


The famous restroom policy



Just in case you have not been around for all of my sides, feel free to re-live my past year+ with me!