So all this talk about proms has made me revisit my memories. Most people recall their big hair or their outdated tuxes or their bad dates with a sense of enjoyment and nostalgia. I remember very little about my prom. I went with my first real boyfriend in a beautiful dress, and I recall we had a fine enough time. But after thinking about this ex of mine for all of 3 minutes, I always recall what I still consider the longest, most desperate night of my life.

I was a freshman in college, my parents were out of town and the only brother who still lived at home was staying at his girlfriend’s. I had the flu and my then-boyfriend, who I’ll call Asshole, came by with his friend early in the evening to say hi. They were heading out to a concert on The President–a paddle boat that used to cruise around the Mississippi River playing live music. As soon as they left, I fell asleep on the sofa in the den.
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Jenny at Absolutely Bananas continued what Chris at Notes from the Trenches started–they each dedicated today’s post to linking to others’ blogs in honor of Stop cyber-bullying day.

Here’s my faves of late:

Rusty over at Why I hate DC had me in tears laughing at his retort to another blogger raving about how much she loves DC. This has a couple of real gems–Number 4 is my favorite!

Chris Martel from Metroblogging New Orleans describes New Orleans’ increase in two key industries: “car washery” and ice cream sales. I recommend you not click on the audio link–that song will be stuck in your head for days. Funny stuff (it’d probably be funnier if it weren’t so true).

I found the honesty and grace with which Blog Antagonist’s post “Broken” handles what any parent would find quite difficult and taxing very heartfelt and inspiring.

Sarcastic Journalist’s blog in which she write a letter to the “People That Make the Store Brand Diapers With the Care Bears on Them” makes me question yet again whether I am ready for a baby. Love the line about the pony.

And finally, in honor of the U.S. Attorney-firing scandal, a quote from the Crooks and Liars blog:

“‘It’s unreal - it’s open warfare over there,’ a former Justice official with close ties to Gonzales’ team told the Daily News. Gonzales blames Sampson, McNulty blames Goodling, the White House blames McNulty, Republicans on the Hill blame Gonzales, and no one on the right has figured out a way to blame Dems, the media, or MoveOn.org. It’s a wild west, every-man-for-himself environment …and these guys are yet to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Someone practically invented popcorn for a situation like this.”

So grab some popcorn and read some blogs!

My chiropractor is a genius. All my terrible back pains are GONE! It’s like the pain was never there. I am truly awed by what he’s been able to do in a few short weeks.

CS and I had quite the journey in getting pregnant, and to us, this pregnancy is a gift. I relish every moment of it–sore back and no alcohol and weight gain and all–because I really had my doubts whether it’d ever happen. Further, I have had a really easy pregnancy (thank my luck stars)–no morning sickness, reasonable weight gain, no cravings or aversions, no stretch marks or varicose veins (yet), etc. And I don’t want to sound like a complainer, but, well, I have a complaint.

Tuesday my ankles looked swollen to me. I have the family “bird legs.” All of the legs in my family are thin, stick-like things. And frankly, I’ve come to like ‘em that way. I mentioned my concern to someone in the office Tuesday, and he assured me my ankles looked fine. Hmmm. “Normal” ankles are far fleshier than my bony things, so I wasn’t so sure. But then, last night there was no mistaking it–my ankles have started to swell. I guess I thought this maybe wouldn’t happen to me (I’m naive that way) or that it would happen in the last three or four weeks of my pregnancy. But I have 15 (FIFTEEN, people!!) more weeks to go.

I’ve read up on what to do to reduce the swelling–drink lots of water, elevate them, lay off the salt (my favorite food group!), sleep on my left side. Yeah, yeah, I’ve already been doing all of that. Best I can do is to redouble my yoga efforts, try to exercise more and try not to look at my ankles. I’m not even in the third trimester yet, and all indications are that it will only get worse as it gets hotter. Summers in New Orleans are not inviting–a friend has described a quick walk during lunchtime in the summer “like walking in warm spit.” God help me.

Oh, and did I mention the Braxton Hicks contractions started this week and have been oh, so much fun? Ugh.

As I recently mentioned, I was a groupie to a local band back when I was in law school. They were a big part of my maintained sanity. My friend reminded me of a CD they’d made back then–I’d forgotten they did one (even though I now recall visiting them in the studio several times while they were recording it)! I had just remembered a tape and a CD of the lead singer after he went solo. Anywho, I just found the CD and am delighted that I like them just as much as I’d remembered. Oh, the sweet memories. I still especially love the songs with the mandolin.

So here’s the one criminal story we all were involved in. The background story is as intriguing and interesting to me as the finale, so I’ll give it all to you.
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Katrina just must be on my mind these days, as I seem to be radar for the “did they really think this would work” items out there. Here’s the little beaut I saw today on my morning commute: a van (you know, the type usually described in an Amber alert–busted looking thing from the ’70s) with Texas plates that someone had shoe polished the following on its side and back windows: “Excepting New Clients Call.” Now, I know this is just a typo with poor grammar. I mean, I hope they meant to say, “Accepting New Clients. Call.” (or, “Accepting New Clients’ Calls”) and not, “Excepting New Clients, Call.” (meaning, we don’t want new clients to call). But are they really getting business from this form of advertising? They had bumber stickers–yes, bumper stickers– that indicated they did construction and plumbing and electrical work. Wow–one stop shopping! Southern Mom, maybe this is the answer to your problems.

We are back from our trip. One thing is sure to happen now when I travel out of state: you good people throughout the country want a first hand account of the state of the city. I am always asked “how IS it there?” Now, I know sometimes people ask this only to be polite. And, hey, that is really nice. And to be polite back, I don’t want to give some diatribe about the problems many of our citizens are facing on a regular basis. So what I usually say is, “well, I was very lucky. My home had very minor damage that isn’t worth mentioning, my job did well, and my day-to-day life is pretty normal.” Then I pause to gauge for a reaction. Most folks do want to hear more. Then I get stuck–do I piss and moan about the sad state of affairs? Do I tell them it isn’t really so bad here (because for me it isn’t)? I really appreciate the concern people show me. But I personally don’t deserve that concern, but many of my fellow citizens do. So I tell bits by bits so as not to “wear out my welcome.”
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I am currently in Georgia for my full-on lawyer geek convention. The highlight is that I am hearing great things from some of the greatest minds in the country on the topics. Way cool but not very exciting to write about. So instead, I’ll give you the lowlights so far and the one true highlight.

CS and I flew in Thursday night. It was one of those rare occasions where the flight was early. We had directions from the airport to the hotel (a 45 minute drive) that we’d printed online before we left home. But the first thing it said to do was “Depart on Local road(s) (South).” That was vague enough for us to ask the car rental place for directions to Stone Mountain. She said something about 2 rights, 285, 85, North and East. I didn’t catch the order of these words. CS said he did. So we headed off and I told CS that this was a test to see how we’d do if we were ever on “The Amazing Race.”
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Southern Mom tagged me for this meme. And in so doing, she shamed me such that I cannot ignore her.

Here are the rules: list seven songs you are into right now. No matter what they are. They must be songs you are presently enjoying. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

I own an Ipod that I listen to all the time, and I have a favorites list with about 35 songs on it. So it was easy for me to at least know what songs I’d chose from. I did not have time to link to these songs, so if you really want to hear them, I am afraid you’ll need to go find them on your own (I doubt many of you will).
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I have a friend that I’ve known since high school, and this is a little vignette I laugh about every time I think of it. My friend’s maiden name is Petty, she’s left handed (like me) and has a VERY distinct handwriting. Back in high school she dated this guy that she’s now married to. So one day back when we were in high school, she mentions to her boyfriend in a very nonchalant way that she’s Tom Petty’s cousin (which, of course, she is not). She adds very little to her story–something like, “yeah, we’re cousins but don’t see much of each other, what with him being on tour so often.” Then she says nothing more for months. She waits.

Her family had this old half-strung guitar hanging around the house, and one day my friend signed it, “Tom Petty.” I can still see it in my mind–my friend’s non-disguised handwriting on this dusty, old guitar. She then tells the boyfriend that Tom popped in for a visit and for some odd reason autographed his full name on this nasty guitar for the family. Even more odd, the boyfriend believed her! He was bragging all over his school for days about it! After about a week, she came clean to him. He pouted for a bit, but got over it. Now that’s true love.
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Friday was one of those days that reminded my why I love doing the work I do and doing it for who I do it for. Such days can be few and far between, and when they occur I try to latch onto them for all they are worth. Unfortunately, by Sunday, I was feeling really down and thought all the brightness of my good Friday was snuffed out.

I started out Monday at the chiropractor–it was an early start. All I wanted was to go back home and crawl back into bed. But I couldn’t. I got to work and really had a lot to do, in part because I will be going out of town this Thursday for a seminar that I am really looking forward to. Two full days of geek-lawyer bliss!
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