I hope Sushi gets some kick-ass drugs to take care of her lungs. I wanna see the photos (well, plus I want her to be better....but I wanna see the photos too)!

This morning in geology I have to do a presentation about my poster project. Yesterday, to prepare for this, I reread my notes while sitting outside on the porch steps. I now sport a sunburn across my chest and arms. Well, at least I remember the stuff about my project, too.

And I snuck in some research on Roman history, specifically about the Late Republic. I'm doing a seminar about faking one's way through history, which I'm hoping won't come across like History 101. Still, I feel its important for folks who want to roleplay living in Ancient Greece that they know at least passingly what's going on in the world around them at the time. Mostly I want to talk about mythology as it ties in more with the mystical aspects of our game, with a smidge of "current affairs" in Greece circa 46 B.C.E.

Did you know that somewhere in the past few years, they changed plain B.C. and A.D. to "B.C.E" and "C.E."? I'd had no idea and after reading dates with those designations started wonder what the heck they mean. Apparently, for the non-Christians' use, "B.C.E." is "Before Common Era" (what we used to call "Before Christ") while "C.E." is the "Common Era" formerly known as "A.D." So now you know :)

As you may read for yourself, Sheepster bought himself an ultranew grand spiffy neato keen gaming computer. It's on the top of his desk, which is starting to look a bit like Stonehenge, what with all the PCs (there are two), flat monitors (two), speakers (I lost count -- this would be math) and sheep.

He said that the reason the PC is on the top of his desk rather than underneath in the part of the desk built for it is so that he can more easily open it up and admire its insides. The truth is, the behemoth won't fit into the desk and he has no choice but to set it on top. Plus he wants me to have to look it in the eye each day and turn colors from other than with my self-tanning lotions. Men.

On the bright side, it will keep him entertained. Although I hope he isn't so entertained that he forgets to fix my pinball machine. While I'm gone next week, that's his mission in life. Herein fail not at your own peril!

Yesterday's news had a couple of interesting items regarding the government paying for restorations for the Old North Church. One thing that separates this from 'government supporting churches' is the element of history tied to this building. It's okay for the government to become involved when the structure is symbollic of something beyond its religious roots. Look at Europe where tourists get to see all those beautiful cathedrals built ages ago; while I haven't gone out to do a research study on their funding, I'm sure some of it is by their government, in recognition of what the building means rather than what it is. In my mind, God isn't tied to a building and messages of peace and hope aren't the possession of any one particular faith. The symbol of a building may be faith but Old North Church also symbolizes the birth era of our nation. I don't think fixing it up equates to pushing the church's spirituality on anyone. Losing the church could be more symbollic in a negative way than the government assisting in its restoration could ever be.

Rob and I saw "Down With Love" over the weekend. He went to see Matrix too, but I'm not that kind of girl :)

Down With Love had its moments, but it was missing a bit of spark. I must admit, some of my disappointment is that Ewan MacGregor has such skinny legs. There's a couple of scenes showing him pulling on his socks (I suppose some sort of reference to safe sex? ;>) and his legs are just not very manly. If I saw him in shorts on the beach, I wouldn't find him attractive. Legs say a lot about a man.

My life for the rest of this year will be pretty tied up and I'm becoming anxious thinking of it. Three AM and I woke up, my mind reeling off all the different things I must do by next week Tuesday, for next Wednesday I have a geology lab, then must dash to the airport and will be gone till late Sunday night, followed by final exams. The Thursday of that week, I return to semi-full-time employment.

Congress passed an extension of unemployment benefits that would be beneficial to me in these circumstances. I need to keep checking on it and make sure I'd still qualify. The income I get from the job will of course be deducted out of the pool of my benefits, but that makes them stretch further and hopefully, will keep me and Rob on the same financial footing we've been on for the past year anyway.

Has it really been a year? :/

The summer will be rough for me schedule-wise. My first class in the morning (7AM!) Monday - Thursday is Algebra, following which I go to work in Seattle. In the afternoons, I catch the bus, Monday and Wednesday and every other Tuesday, I have night classes that will keep me on campus till at least 9:15PM (although thank goodness, the Tuesday class ends at 6PM). Nights this summer, I'm taking Practical Accounting. That would be two math classes in one quarter. Oy.

In the fall, the schedule will be slightly brighter. I won't have any day classes; my two final courses for my AA degree are a science (Intro to Computer Science, Monday and Wednesday, 7PM - 9:20PM) and an online math class. Originally, I intended to move onto the University of Washington evening degree program immediately thereafter, but I think I want to hold off on that. That would be two more years of never being home on Mondays and Wednesdays (and potentially Tuesdays and Thursdays) and I'm so tired of this racing around. I want to be competitive but I also want to enjoy myself a little bit.

A rebuttal to the sheepshead of this household.

While I did indeed comment about needing a shoe rack downstairs, unfortunately my remark was timed just as he was settling down to write a journal update. I haven't got a revolving shoe rack filling my upstairs closet. But I do have at least five pairs of shoes downstairs and it looks untidy. I hate being untidy.

As for the Sims -- argh, my association with that game is entirely his fault. I lived a happy, peaceful existence before I encountered it six months into our marriage. Notice that Rob forgot to mention how when he went with me to the store to get it, he commented to his EQ friends that he had to go -- if he got me that game I'd then leave him alone for the rest of the weekend.

Men.

Anyway, I see a peep of sunshine out back. I'm going to see if it's warm enough on the steps to toast my legs. One of the problems with self-tanning creams is the smell and so today I have not reapplied any and I'm fading. Our convention comes too early in the year for me to have a natural sunny glow and it'll be too hot to hide my legs in long pants, hence I must sun when possible.

The doctor called and left me a message. The post-operative biopsies were clear, so now I'm back to once a quarter visits again. I'm not sure why that last bit sounded like an improvement on anything but there you go. She lassoed and scissored things with precision.

One thing that keeps me going some days is thinking about the stuff that Corey does. She's so dang busy, yet she keeps her sense of humour (at least with her journal!) and finds the golden underwear lining her trials. Some of that spirit was with me last week as the doctor (trying not to touch anything lest she ruin the cleanliness of her gloves) directed the nurse as she searched for a new lasso wire. I offered up some commentary which had them both giggling, and my doctor said, "You always have something funny to say and I'm glad to hear it." Which probably means she's glad I didn't lose my temper at having myself in an awkward position for a half hour only to discover there was a glitch in the machinery that would keep me there for another half hour. But think of it, what would losing my temper have done anyway? It's not like I could finish the job myself or something.

My poster looks nice. I turned in my business law paper last night, so my last major project is the paper for my internship class. The paper outlines what I've done, what I wish I'd done and other bits about this past quarter.

When I go into the law firm where I'm interning, my first thought is always, "I don't want to be here." Not an encouraging sign. When I worked for Liz, one of my boyfriends called up every so often and commented that everytime he called, I was laughing when I answered the phone. That's because I loved working there and we were always having fun.

The law firm folks are nice people, and I hope that as things settle down (the ceiling tiles, one of the last bits of construction, were installed this week) I'll feel more a part of the group and its efforts. I feel so guilty watching Chris, my attorney's other paralegal, drown in papers that I can't help with because I don't know the cases and it would take longer for Chris to explain it than for him to do it. There was a rather nice moment yesterday, when one of the partners was teasing me about something and the associate (on whose case we missed a filing deadline) piped up, "Don't scare her away; I like Tracy." I know I could learn a lot there, if only things were more settled. Perhaps this summer will change my perception as I'll be there five days a week. Five days in a row can make one feel a lot more a part of the group as well as increasing my exposure to the legal world.

They are hiring me as 'the receptionist' for the summer, at $10/hour. That's less than I make on unemployment. However, unemployment runs out in June and I'll need something, anything. I notice that the female attorney doesn't wear nylons which is encouraging; I usually never wear them in the summer, but would have felt compelled to if she did. Of course, one of the other female paralegals there shows up in jeans alot, so I shouldn't worry about clothing anyway. :) Another plus is that come August I can mark on my resume that I've worked for one law firm for six entire months, which is six months' experience I hadn't had before. Another plus is that it's on the same side of downtown, albeit up hill, from where Rob works. We could meet for lunch sometimes!

So, it's not perfect but then it's not a perfect world. And as this past year has taught me, you can suffer through anything and come through it with your integrity intact.

I've been working on my geology poster project, which may have triggered the migraine as I spent a lot of time bent over the dining room table (after removing pinball machine guts therefrom), fussing with its layout. It looks okay and I like the process of leaving it unglued so when I walk past I can fuss some more. But it's due tomorrow so my fussing needs to end, which it will tonight :)

Mittens is feeling awfully snuggly these past few days. He's been following me all over and as soon as a lap presents itself, he's curled up into it. At night he waits until I turn off my light, then jumps up and noses his way under the covers, then turns around so he can rest his chin on my shoulder. It's very sweet. I still think he's a dog. But lately, he's a lap dog.

In today's episode: parking at the gym.

Rob and I live down the street from Bally's Fitness Center. Every afternoon they have several classes of aerobics, weight training, tennis tournaments. Their parking lot is a good size, and there's even a lot behind it. So why do folks who go there, presumably to work on their health, feel compelled to park as close to the door of the gym as possible? This makes turning down the road occasionally hazardous, as folks line their cars along the street as close to the building entrance as can be, even though there are empty stalls in the parking lot. Last month, the city finally did something about this and marked off a section of the street as non-parkable. For the first couple of weeks, folks continued to park there, usually right under the no parking sign because it was positioned close to the building entrance. Now when I turn down our street, that stretch is car-free, but folks are still parking on the one bit that was left unmarked and that just makes me shake my head.

It's not that it rains constantly here and these folks must park close to stay dry. They're just plain lazy. No amount of exercise will cure that.

In between squinting due to a migraine, I note an email from a certain company announcing one of its products is live and can be ordered online by clicking on the link! So of course I must rush over to JohnR's blog, like I need him to confirm it, and lo! he has indeed likewise announced the product is out -- so it must be true! :)

It's official, my interim days as club president are over. I presided at my last meeting today, counted up the votes from last week's election (for which I chose not to run as I'll be done with the program in August) and passed my notes over to Shawn. It was rather amusing though, after I announced he was president there was an eruption of side conversations that he tried to speak over and they didn't subside till I pounded my gavel (well, my pen). She's still got that a-thor-i-ty!

Going to lie down. I hear that Rob's watching Buffy behind me, not that I recall him ever watching it before, but it's the last episode. My head hurts though, so off to bed.

The problem with having surgery in your intimate bits is that when you wander around and then try to sit down, you behave like someone with a hernia. I have never had a hernia, but that's the mental impression I get of myself, lowering gingerly to a chair and wincing if I drop down too fast.

Rob was gracious enough to suffer through two nights of Asian food to comfort me (and no matter how much he insists, Cantonese is not very like Thai). When I hurt, I want my own brand of comfort foods, some of them familiar and American (like Chee-toes, puffed) and the rest Chinese and Japanese. It's funny, I haven't really got any comfort Korean foods. Although I do miss the squid kim chee my mom used to make :)

Broos, you may not hear from my cherub this week. Apparently this clueless mom didn't realize he'd turned in his draft last week. But you're a saint and an angel even while moving to offer up your thoughts. Chris and I had a good chuckle at your description of his desired job classification. Heh!

I have to gingerly make my way to the couch now and gather my books for school this morning. There's a quiz in geology and an hour of lecture on metamorphic rocks.

Ouch.

Which conversation is most likely to happen:

A. Woman 1: I'm having surgery on my intimate bits.
Woman 2: Ohmygod! I'll go with you to the doctor's office in case you need anything!

B. Man 1: I'm having surgery on my intimate bits.
Man 2: Dude! That sucks! I'll go with you to the doctor's office in case you need anything!

Blessed be Renee, who waited with me for half hour before my appointment, waited for me during the hour it took for the procedure to be completed, and then bought my lunch afterwards. I am home now, fairly uncomfortable but should be okay. There was a bit of excitement in the middle of the procedure during which the lasso wasn't working and there were no replacement lassos so we had to wait while the nurse went to get....scissors.

Hence, ouch. I'm going to lie down now.

An update by Sheepster. He spent a few hours with FrontPage and now has a cool new look! Check it out! :)

Sushi -- Live from E3! Hehehehe!

In today's news: I have bronzed my legs. Not in the same way as baby's first shoes, but still pretty effective. Remind me to not walk from the bathroom toward the bedroom looking down at them and admiring the sunny glow such that now I have a bronzed lump growing on my scalp.

I also have bronze palms, which is rather amusing. I hope wresting with pumice-infused soap will take care of them. Plus I'm sort of sticking to things, possibly leaving bronzed thigh prints wherever I go.

The things we do in our vanity :)

We had a good weekend. Rob made me breakfast on Saturday and offered to bring it to me in bed, only I haven't got a breakfast tray. Yesterday, we went to one of our favorite local breakfast joints and then, after finding out that I had a flat tire, came home to change it before heading to the bowling alley for a couple of rounds. When we came back, Phil and I Dance Dance Revolutioned our way into some calorie loss while Rob and Chris went to Norrath.

Must put in a good word, in general terms. We opened a major expansion in the little game Saturday night, for which things went as expected -- some things didn't work that folks insisted they'd tested thoroughly, we had to improvise over a couple of spots where the players had trouble figuring out the clues to keep the momentum going, nothing really major -- and now we have a gloriously HUGE new space. Go, us!

Today I have a geology exam, after which I must work on my geology poster some more and then there's the voting box to make for tomorrow's paralegal club elections, plus my Schwan's delivery is coming, and tonight business law. Tomorrow is full of geology (class, plus poster review), paralegal club stuff, and trying to relax.

Surgery Thursday. If I think about it a lot, it's a bit scary, but when I think of it in general terms of all the things on my plate, I can make it seem like just another item to cross off, and in that way it's not so unnerving.

Well, I spent a good part of the night not realizing what time it was as I plugged away at this site. All this HTML jazz is like scripting which I'm not very good at, but at least it's somewhat visual which is better for me. Once I'm done messing with it, I upload it and and see if it worked. It was kind of funny to see every word underlined, thinking it was a table, but pretty hard on the eyeballs.

I'll ponder it some more. The stuff I was reading about frames sounds much more interesting, but I don't know that I'm up for that yet. :)

Okay, so I have the basic part done. Now I need to add back in some tables so the archives have a place to go. I've spent some time tonight trying to figure out some of the evil things that had always bothered me about my old format, such as those archive numbers showing up as text. I'll keep rooting. In the back of my mind I am devising 14 items for Joni's fair as I work as well as worrying about my geology project. Multitasking again!

Yesterday I reminded my attorney/supervisor that my instructor is coming on Friday for a mid-term progress meeting. As we talked, Mark said suddenly, "We should just hire you already; we're going to anyway." At which, as usual, I squealed, "You are!?" Probably broke a few panes of the new glass in the walls.

He warned me that it's answering phones and other non-paralegal stuff at first, which is what I've been expecting anyway. In some respects, I almost want that as I feel so out of my element when people around me talk about things that I've seen only in theory. The other day I was constructing a table of authorities with one of the associates (wherein you list every case and statute cited in your legal brief, giving page numbers for each time they appear) and we missed our court filing deadline. Whoopsie. :(

I'm planning my next quarter's schedule to be wide-open days for the possibility of working. The thing is, I'm still not sure I want to be there. Yet, it is a job that will provide experience and that's what I really need right now to get where I want to be. I look at my career plan, which we each had to write out last quarter for our professional development seminar. Mine said that I'd be willing to work anywhere to get experience for three years, after which I'd have to start making a move to the job I really want because I'm getting close to retirement.

Heh! :) That makes me feel so old!

I still look through game company ads too, not that I have the type or depth of experience any of these places are looking for. But it's nice to look at them and dream; after all, a sizable chunk of companies are within 45 minutes of my home. If I were a real gamer grrrl I'd be in heaven.

Not going to be home much today, looks like. Class in a few, then I need to work on the stuff for our Paralegal meeting at 430PM which is followed immediately thereafter by the little game meeting for which some planning is done as well.

Still recovering from the shock of disloyalty; I would never make a good politician. When people you trusted turn into something different it's a struggle to recover a sense of what's right in the world. I don't know how politicians do it, they get this crap all the time. Maybe it's because they expect people to lie cheat and swindle, but that's not my way. At least, it wasn't. I believe that everyone is good and I really hope this past week, arising out of the last month, doesn't change the fundamental being in me.

Saturday morning I got an email from someone that was so encouraging and unexpected it reduced me to a little puddle of tears. Rob was immediately concerned; we have new leather chairs and he was afraid I'd shrink them or something.

Support from unexpected quarters is very nice.

We saw X-2 this weekend and it was really, really good. I've always liked X-Men. Saturday mornings for years, the cherubs would put up with me taking control of the TV to watch the cartoon version (which along with Mighty Max were my favorite cartoons :>). Plus, having seen the movie, I can now read the "more" in Steph's blog! Wheee!

Next week Sunday is Mother's Day. I asked my cherubs to not volunteer for any church activities as I would like to spend the day with them doing things for me. Their church does services hosted by the church youth and I've gone for the past couple of years. This year, I am feeling the need to do things the way I've always done them in the past, with things that please me on this particular day. I've suggested Cheeeeeesecake Factory to Rob. :)

Someone else nominated me for permanent president of the student paralegal association. Gee, that must mean I'm not the bad manager I've been portrayed to be.

It's an interesting position. On the one hand, I am in the middle of a very sad and emotionally disappointing discussion wherein the offense is vigorous and the public defenders must be constrained for reasons of loyalty and duty of care. On the other hand, I have to repeatedly point out to the group who wants me to take over managing a group that I'm not eligible as my student days are numbered. I mentioned it a couple of times and so far, the response was, "I second that nomination."

The yin and yan of my life.

Thank you, Lynn, for being an angel in my dark hours :) And thank you to England John (who will never see this but deserves public thanks) who also is an angel.