Considerations on Friendships

Recently, I have been doing a lot of thinking about friendship. Mainly because it seems as though most of my friends are getting married and they're all doing it in the month of October, except for Best Friend from College #1, who got married in June.

The reason I've been thinking about this is because of the previously mentioned moratorium on social activities due to the commencement of post graduate studying. How do you choose between which, if any, wedding to attend? Do you attend High School Friend's wedding? This is the person that I've known for almost twenty years - one of the few people that's watched me grow up through the years into the person I am today. How do I tell her that studying is more important than her wedding?

And what about Best Friend from College #2? Her wedding is the weekend after High School Friend's wedding. Do I blow off her wedding so I can attend High School Friend's wedding? Do I say screw the books and just go to both weddings? What does that say about my willingness to put in the time for my future?

I'm confused and torn.

Back to School Musings

Today I received the syllabi for my first year law classes. A nasty little surprise that they don't tell you about going to law school is that you get homework BEFORE school starts. That's right - I'm looking at about 200 pages in reading and who knows how many cases to be briefed.

I have not yet gotten into the proper mindset for going back to school. I haven't let my inner nerd out in so long that quite frankly, it panicked and is currently trying to retreat back to safety. I'm not organized - my bookshelves have not been swept clean of cheap, tawdry romance novels or mystery novels. There is currently no place for the stack of law books that looms threateningly in the corner of my living room on my end table, whispering about criminal law, torts, and contracts. I'm not quite certain where my school supplies are - or my bookbag.

I panicked and dashed out to Target for a planner and a three subject notebook and felt a little bit better for taking some action. So for the rest of this week and weekend, I shall be an organizing freak and get everything ready for school so that when I contemplate about those 200 pages of reading and the over 12 cases that must be briefed BEFORE school starts, I won't have an excuse as to why I can't start working on my homework diligently.

I also understand from a conversation I had today with one of the attorneys in the office that I can expect to give up all semblance of a social life for the next four years. What?!?!?!? I had expected my social life to be curtailed somewhat, but none whatsoever?!? What about my brunches? What about the lunches with my friends from college? On the brighter side, if what she tells me is true, I will save a ton of money on not entertaining and being a hermit for the next four years.

Wandering Thoughts

I tend to be a determined person - one who approaches life in a fairly matter-of-fact manner. Granted, I will be the first to admit that I have never done things in the accepted way. Let's compare my schooling experiences with that of an ex-boyfriend from high school (information learned courtesy of classmates.com, thank you very much). Allow me a small trip back in time...

At the end of my sophomore year, my mom and soon-to-be stepfather decided to live together as an experiment. Since my stepfather is sooooo addicted to the beach, he can't live farther from the beach than 10 minutes by car. So my mom and my sister and I packed up and moved to a small beach-side town in Southern California.

Junior year starts and across the classroom, I saw him. After much teen-aged flirting and angst, Soccer Boy (so nicknamed because of his favorite sport) and I became an accepted couple. Of course, since this is my life, it can't possibly be that simple. We were AP students, so we were somewhat removed from the rest of the junior class. Our AP section of the junior class was about 60 and it was sort of like a junior class within a junior class. We knew the other people existed but the important people were the other AP students. So junior year, I pretty much dated Soccer Boy and studied alone or studied with Soccer Boy. Then we broke up and senior year I didn't study at all in outright rebellion.

Graduation from high school - Soccer Boy went on to college and I could not face more book learning after 12 years. So while he went to college and then on to law school, I took a much needed break and figured things out for myself while working a variety of low-paying jobs. About the time he graduated from law school, I decided that it was time to go to college. I got through undergraduate school and took a year or two off in order to recuperate.

Flash forward 3 years - I apply to law school, get accepted, and take my introductory classes with flying colors. I then discover that I'm in charge of putting myself through graduate school, not my parents. It was an ugly discovery. Directly after that little shockwave, I learned that the company I worked for had been sold and everyone was losing their job at the company within six months. So much for starting law school then.

Flash forward to now - Roomie and I finally have the money and income to send me to law school. I'm registered, tuition is paid, and my books are bought. Books are courtesy of mom, who is willing to help out in "little" ways. This particular little way was $600. Thanks Mom!

Back to the original topic - me doing things in a different order than the accepted manner - Soccer Boy has now been an attorney for 10 years and I'm just beginning law school. How upset am I about this? I've been thinking about his a lot lately - and decided that it doesn't bother me so much. First, while my law school may not be as prestigious or well-known as his, it is still a law school and we both had to take the same test to get accepted. Second, no matter how long it takes me, I will still be the first attorney on either side of my family. Third, it's OK that it's taken me a lot longer to get where I am today - I had to do things my way in order to be true to myself.

Sweet Little Machine

I have a brand new laptop - it's a sweet little machine that I'm just beginning to get acquainted with - I don't know it's idiosyncracies like I did my old laptop. You know the type of thing - if it wasn't plugged in and you were working off the battery, you could practically time it when it would shut down on you - you could find the power button in the dark if you decided to write in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep and didn't want anyone barging in on a night run to the bathroom - hey, you still up? Whatcha doin'?

I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm going to become very attached to this computer - more so than any other. I'm going to tell you straight out that I'm not at all sure how I feel about Windows Vista, which is what was loaded on this but I think it's a matter of getting used to everything. I know I'll be using it a lot this fall for school and may even take it with me to classes. Not sure yet.

I've already caught Roomie in here more than once, "adjusting" things on the computer - more like playing with the computer. I know he's plotting to take it with us in July to San Diego for the family reunion.

Getting acquainted with my new laptop is currently my excuse for not neatening up my room and paying attention to my finances or ironing my clothes for work tomorrow morning. It's a pleasurable way to procrastinate on my chores.

Back to the chores....

Introduction

How the title of this blog came to be:

A friend of mine at work gave me this title. Once he was in Nebraska in a very high brow, classy, pretentious jewelry store (you know the type of which I speak). Little old ladies with blue hair whose descendants came over on the Mayflower or one of the ships immediately following like to frequent this store.

Anyway, so the store is two stories - the first floor is the selling floor and the second floor overlooks the first floor.

So my friend is in this jewelry store, shopping for a watch or cufflinks or something and this woman walks into the middle of the floor, plants her feet, tilts her head back to address someone that she knew upstairs. This woman is high-brow white trash - the kind with money that just can't help themselves - the full length fur coat, teeny tight skirt, trashy t-shirt, cowboy boots, and the infamous long blond hair that's been jacked to Jesus.

So she comes into this upscale jewelry store, tilts her head back and says, "So there I was, buck naked and spread eagled...." Needless to say, the entire store came to a screaming halt.