11.20.08
I’m Thankful
I’ll be heading across the pond shortly (no, that’s not going to get old) to hang out with the Golden Child for Thanksgiving so my Thankful post is coming a bit early. I’m not sure if I’ll have Internet access while in London and my posting may be sporadic or non-existent. I’m sure I’ll be updating from New Orleans between my crazy work schedule and final LSAT cramming (prepare yourselves for posts consisting entirely of curse words). Thanksgiving marks the time that things really began to fall apart last year, and so here is the list of things I’ve been grateful for in the past 12 months.
I’m Thankful For:
1. Not spending Thanksgiving feeling like my ovaries are being preemptively hijacked by in-laws as in years past
2. My loving and supportive family
3. My hilarious friends
4. The fact that I’ve made it through my first six months of singledom without catching some sort of communicable disease
5. That Izzi still seems to be alive and functioning and that I’ve thus far been able to provide for her, as much as a stretch as it has been
6. Friends who have been so generous to take care of Izzi while I’ve traveled for work or fun
7. That through it all my heart hasn’t been broken and is still intact, if not stronger
8. Memories that mean if the right song comes on I can close my eyes and immediately go back to a lazy Sunday on a sunny boat anchored off the coast of a Floridian island
9. For the men that have shaped the past year, in good ways and bad. At least they’re closed chapters
10. For the men that will forever be open chapters and that give me hope for the gender: my father, the Golden Child, and Will
11. Getting the apparent blessedly shallow end of the crazy gene pool
12. My freedom
13. Peanut Butter Pretzel Cliff bars
14. My newfound love of beer, which makes social situations more versatile and way more fun
15. Falling in love with new cities
16. Endless possibilities
17. Barre class
18. Getting custody of the wine fridge and the coffee maker
19. Great health insurance
20. Early release Fridays
21. My LSAT tutor. Yes, seriously
22. Stable employment
11.19.08
New York
I had a pretty perfect weekend in New York. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures because the majority of the ones I took were at that super flattering “let’s take a picture of ourselves while holding the camera a foot away from our chins!” angle and it’s impossible to cut my face off of them without just posting my neck.
I was able to spend some quality time with my parents and do some retail damage with my mom. I’ve tried to pinpoint the time at which my parents went from being rule enforcers to my best friends and supportive units but it must have been when I moved out. I guess taking the element of fighting over where I left my dirty clothes piles really alleviated the stress in that relationship. This theory holds well since I discovered that they still get pissy when I leave dirty clothes around a hotel room. Anyway, after a day out and about (yes, I wore the damn clogs) I treated myself to a free make-up application and then met up with Will.
Will and I always have a good time together, but it’s rare that it gets to be just the two of us and not the entire Usual Suspect group. We were able to catch up on dating, lack of dating, our daunting life choices, and the requisite high school gossip. We found a random bar after Thai food that happened to have karaoke, a birthday party, a touch of Coyote Ugly, and football on TV. We considered this the epitome of all that is well and good about public drinking establishments and proceeded to get just drunk enough to keep ourselves dancing through the concert.
Of course we discovered a full bar service at the venue (unexpected) on arrival so we ended up getting ourselves just drunk enough to dance like complete idoits through the concert. The music was amazing, and we headed back to the pregame bar that had now turned fully into Coyote Ugly and where I ended up getting sprayed with soda water by a bartender even though I tried to run (hobble at this point) away from her on my poorly chosen stilettos.
We decided to keep the party of two going and headed to Will’s Brooklyn stomping grounds for another drink and then the “Quarterandchange makes drunken food choices” portion of every successful night out where I purchased ice cream, chips and dip, and for some ungodly reason, buffalo flavored pretzel crisps. I think I got through a good portion of the ice cream and the chips and dip before crashing. The next morning Will was seriously pushing me to take the pretzels, but I’m a good friend so I left them for his enjoyment. I’m sure that they didn’t sound great while he was rocking the Sunday morning hangover but I guarantee that they’ll save his life during his next drunken binge.
The drive back to Maine was a little rough and a lot long. It’s hard for me to leave my friends– the people that are more than willing to have a quiet night in or a ridiculous night out and have known me since I had bangs and braces at the same time. I feel homesick after I see them, and returning to my quiet and boring apartment is harder each visit. I hope that next year I’ll be inviting them into my social and exciting life for a visit rather than it always being the other way around.
11.13.08
Assests
I started physical therapy last night at the recommendation of the cute guy at the running shoe store. Luckily my health insurance didn’t require an actual referral because I don’t know how they’d code that. Anyway, he pointed out that my repetitive stress fractures may be caused by the way that I run, rather than just running itself. He recommended a PT in a nearby town and told me that not only is she the best, but she’s “a small chick who will understand that you don’t want to stop running and ride a stationary bike”. Perfect.
The therapy was enlightening. I do in fact get stress fractures because of the way I run, and if I relearn how to step and stride it’s likely that this won’t be a problem in the future which is very good news. However, if you’ve ever had to run on a treadmill in dress clothes while a stranger says things like “oh, wow. Yeah, that’s a problem” you’ll understand why it was a bit odd. Then we did some exercises that I now joyfully get to do at home. They hurt.
During the exercises it was discovered that I have incredibly strong quads and hamstrings (not surprising) and incredibly weak glutes. Wait, what?
I need to context this by saying I always thought I had a good butt. Boobs, non-existent. Stomach, gross. Legs, thoroughbred like and short. But I had a big, round, and, I thought, strong butt. It was my thing. White girl ghetto booty. My friend even has Sir Mix-a-Lot as my ring on her phone.
But it turns out it’s just a big, weak butt. I couldn’t begin to explain to this perky PT why that was more disturbing than anything else that happened in our session, including the running in an underwire bra thing and the part where she twisted me into a pretzel until I about cried. And there’s very little I can do about my weak butt because my hamstrings seem to take all the work during any targeted exercises.
She also told me that I can no longer wear flats or high heels (except for special occasions) and that I should really be wearing clogs. All of you will recognize why the no heels thing is upsetting, and a few of you will realize why clogs are a particularly emotionally cruel fate.
11.12.08
Bits and Pieces
I don’t have the focus to write an entire blog post on one subject today. As you can imagine, this bodes well for my studying and my job performance. However, I’m ripe full of deep thoughts. Sorry for the lack of organization, but I have three different active spreadsheets going that all share the title of “packing” and I’m spent.
–I hope to have lots of pictures to post from the Girl Talk concert and my trip to NYC this weekend. However, I don’t post my face on here. Will the removal of my giant head from photos result in an optical illusion of larger (read: normal) size boobs?
–I’ve been craving cupcakes for approximately six weeks. I plan to indulge in one this weekend. Leslie is even more excited about this than I am since it means I’ll stop naming different kinds of cupcakes during our runs. She’ll interject our time (“4:15 at the half mile!”) and I’ll reply in pastry (“carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!”).
–This sort of behavior may explain why I haven’t been asked out on a date since the Sometimes-Date in April. APRIL.
–Officially the heaviest girl in barre class I waffle between feeling huge and thinking that these girls are crazy. And yet I continue to go.
–I have three different doctor’s appointments this week. Down from four last week.
–Upstairs neighbors have offered to bring in my mail while I’m gone for 16 days. Very kind. But I’m concerned that they’ll judge my obvious consumerism and the shear amount of crap that gets delivered to my mailbox. Not to mention Ex’s Sports Illustrated subscription that randomly followed me to my new address and that he’s been too lazy to change. Karma for judging their juggling supplies, I guess.
–”Chocolate with chocolate frosting and a big pink Crisco flower!”
–Ex texted to ask how his former dog is last night. I replied that her new harness has resulted in the end of her annoying habit of shoving her nose in between thighs. I’m not sure that’s going to entice him to offer canine support.
–My brother dyed his hair blond for a Halloween costume. He’s also growing a mustache for Movember. He looks like a Swedish child molester, but he’s still getting more play than I am.
–I wonder if his new hair color will make us look more related when I’m in London.
–Being in California for Christmas will mean that I miss my annual cube purging. Honestly, if I ever get to leave this job it’ll take me a full two weeks to determine what is worth taking with me. And what am I going to do with my snow globe collection if I’m no longer a desk jockey?
–”Vanilla with sprinkles!”
11.10.08
Mono Monday Random Ten
Surprisingly I am exhausted. Weird, I know. So here’s ten random quarterandchange mono fun facts. I don’t have the energy to be more creative.
10. While I was unable to physically leave my couch on Friday and most of Saturday I discovered that I can efficiently do my job while lying down. I don’t know how to feel about this.
9. I slept… forty hours this weekend.
8. I am still tired.
7. I found the matching top to the cherry pants. I rocked that ensemble all weekend.
6. OK, I put on real pants once.
5. Going to the mall with my mom to find a winter coat required six cups of coffee.
4. Izzi still doesn’t know how to prepare soup.
3. Though I did ask her repeatedly to do so while curled on the couch. I realized later that this isn’t that different from most weekends when I ask her to get me food after I’ve had a couple glasses of wine on the couch so I understand her lack of concern.
2. I studied this weekend but it was in day or nyquil induced haze and probably not that effective.
1. Even with mono I’m able to wake up in a panic attack at three am since none of my transcripts or letters of recommendation have been received by the LSAC yet. Great.
11.06.08
Ironic
So, a fun thing about having mono and having to tell people that you have mono is that they will IMMEDIATELY ask you who you’ve been making out with.
Shouldn’t I have at least gotten some action if I have the disease to go with it? And why can’t I have enough tact to stop telling random people (like my boss) how long it’s been since I kissed someone?
Maybe mono affects your spleen and your filter.
Wow
In the past twelve hours:
1. My big girl boots broke
2. I dropped my precious MAC bronzer and it shattered all over my bedroom
3. A dog ATE my iPhone while I was babysitting
4. My doctor called to tell me I have mono
If anyone needs me I’ll be curled up in a ball someplace rocking between doctor’s appointments.
11.05.08
Gah
I’m going to do my best not to delve deeply into politics here, since it seems every single area of my life has become a political conversational landmine. I’ll just say that I’m hopeful, thankful that women still have control over their own decisions about their own bodies, and wearing my big girl boots.
Studying or stressing about applications and LSATs has pretty much become my MO. If I’m not studying, I’m at the gym, babysitting, or slumped in my desk chair at work wishing desperately that I could be studying. I’ll be traveling for about nineteen days before the LSAT, and I’d love to have more time to grab all the points that I can. Oh, and start applications. Yeah, about that. Add to the list? Stalking LSAC to see what transcripts and recs have come in.
I’d love to describe at length the fact that I’ve been unable to sleep through a full night in eight weeks or that I have to go have my TB test looked at in a few hours (um, gross) but I think that may just alienate the few readers I have left. So, hey, let’s look back on the days when I used to date and have sex rather than focus on the days when the closest I’ve been to a man is having him swear into my arm while trying unsuccessfully to get my blood sample.
Truth
Cnn lost me with the holograms. Am I the only one that sang the theme song to Jem the second it appeared?
So I’m watching Family Guy from bed while hitting refresh on my iPhone every few minutes.
Which brings me back to the daily question of if technology has improved or just complicated my life.
11.04.08
Tuesday
Started the day off by standing in line at my local polling place (thankfully located across the street) in an unflattering pair of yoga pants and a messy ponytail. Cause, hey, it’s before 7am and I’m just proud that I’m here.
And as the line snaked through the hallway (s-l-o-w-l-y) I noticed a familiar face. The Hot Guy of my high school graduating class. You know the one… captain of the lacrosse team, kind but not brilliant, and so good looking that you couldn’t stare directly at him. You could, however, stare directly at his gorgeous backside draped in mesh shorts whenever possible.
There he was, dressed in a Brine polo shirt and rocking a shiny wedding band. I don’t know what was more shocking– seeing him when I looked like I did for the first time after graduation or the fact that I’m apparently no longer the only member of my class that lives in Maine.
That was pretty much the excitement at this particular elementary school gym this morning. Other than that, I’m extremely stressed. And thinking that it must be a little easier to do this whole LSAT/work full time/apply to schools/try not to kill your dog thing when you have someone that supports you and loves you . Or at least cooks dinner once in a while and takes some of the load from your shoulders.
