Odds-N-Ends

The Boy I Like sent me flowers yesterday to cheer me up after my accident...yellow daisies and roses. With a card (partially) in Italian. Sweet!

The guy from the accident has had his family members calling my insurance company looking for money. My insurance is being awesome and not giving any money to anyone until they can determine who the car belongs to and whether this guy even had a license to be on the road. It may begin to suck if he starts to claim medical expenses, but so far he hasn't. He was driving a 1988 Toyota Corolla junker, so I don't think fixing the bumper is going to be too pricey.

Work is very busy. I'm working a pretty large property damage claim, which is exciting but also nerve-wracking. Tomorrow I'm sitting in on my first settlement conference, so I think that will be really interesting. Overall I'm pretty much overwhelmed, but I think that might actually be better than having time to think about it.

Aside from all of this, I am:

Drinking too much

Spending too much time on the phone.

Looking forward to Boy I Like coming back perhaps as early as next weekend.

Dreading bar results coming out perhaps as early as next weekend.

Buying expensive lingerie. Because I can.

Increasing my auto insurance coverage. Because I need to.

Feeling really great about having so many wonderful friends out here.

Loving my job.

Being grateful I'm not back at school right now.

Worrying too much about stuff I can't control.

Taking my vitamins.

Getting really excited for M's visit in mid-October.

Just 30 seconds!!!!

I'm not gonna lie, when I see this guy, the first word that comes to mind isn't "Listerine." Oh - drinking it you say?

Oops.

Today on the way home I had a car accident. As you can tell by the utter lack of posting, I have been very busy. But, I was on my way to see an apartment, and was turning left and ran into a car that was coming down the other side of the street (i.e.: he had the right of way).

This only turned into a saga when the guy didn't speak English, his eyes were totally red and bloodshot, he was acting pretty inappropriately (laughing and stuff), and then when his friend got there he finally admitted he didn't have insurance. He wanted to leave before the police came (no surprise), so I gave him my insurance information - he wouldn't really give me any of his info. I ended up just writing down his license plate number and make of his car, and then I called 911 back, said we had "exchanged information," and came home. I know that I would likely have to pay no matter what, but it really pisses me off that this guy doesn't have insurance...it's just so irresponsible. Anyway, he told several people he wasn't hurt and didn't need an ambulance, and I pretty much set him right up with my insurance info, so I guess all is as well as it's going to get.

Anyway, other than all of that, life is moving right along. I am anxiously planning for M's visit out here in October. Many of you know she's been out of town since May, so this is a big deal. We are having two full days of beauty treatments, and I am really looking forward to it.

Bar results will likely be received by next Saturday (a week and a half)...nerves are setting in.

Everything is going good with the Boy I Like. He supposedly will find out tomorrow when/if he is EVER coming home...this is getting kind of ridiculous. He was really cute tonight about the accident, and was so upset he wasn't here to help. I did call him and have him ask the guy if he needed an ambulance or anything - helps to know someone bilingual sometimes. I hate to admit it, but I kind of miss him.

Home sweet home.

I am home. Exhausted, but home. It was a whirlwind of a trip with lots of stuff to do, and many glasses of wine. I got to meet lawgeekgurl, which was totally fun. More to come later - I have to go to sleep now. Even Boy I Like went to bed early tonight, and we've been talking at all manners of weird, middle-of-the-night times lately. Poor guy...I think he's exhausted, and ready to come back.

I'm off to Portland.

Last night we had "Girl's Night Out" at the Shooting Range (Tuesday is "Ladies Night" there...no really). Ex-Roomie brought her bf and he brought a friend from work, so it ended up being three women and two men, thus skewing the whole "girls" part of the "night out," but we had such an awesome time. I love taking people shooting. It makes me feel really good to see people who were scared or apprehensive about firearms get into shooting and walk out feeling confident about their ability to shoot safely and with some knowledge about the way firearms work. Everyone did wonderfully, and I was really impressed since they are all first-time shooters except Ex-Roomie, who I have taken out a couple of times during law school. I will be posting pictures of my targets if I ever get around to taking some.

I am going to work for a half day, then I'm off to Portland for a work seminar. I'm (happily) staying at a pretty swank hotel, and I definitely plan to enjoy myself while I'm there. I will be taking my laptop, but I have no idea what the wireless situation at the hotel will be. I have tentative plans to meet at least one blogger while I'm in town as well, but I can't remember if she tells on her blog where she lives, so I have to figure out if I can talk about that.

Right now I guess I better go pack. I got home so late from shooting, and then the Boy I Like called me, and then it was midnight and I was way too tired to pack. We had a long conversation about how weird (but good weird) it's been for him to be out of town all this time, and for us to get this chance to know each other outside the physical realm. I told him that to me it feels a bit like my notion of old-fashioned dating, where you see each other for a couple of hours on dates for quite a while before anything ever happens. I kind of like it because I really needed this time to get to know him and to figure out what was going on with myself, plus I'm so busy at work, I know we wouldn't be seeing each other this much if he was in town. Chatting on the phone and email allows talking to be squeezed in during drive times or other times when, if he was in town, we wouldn't drive out to meet somewhere.

Anyway, I'm off to Portland. Likely back to blogging on Saturday when I get home depending on the wireless situation out there.

I care!

Contents of care package I am sending to Boy I Like today:

1. Two books, both by J. Maarten Troost: The Sex Lives of Cannibals and Getting Stoned with Savages.
2. Huge candy bar.
3. Animal crackers. The good ones...the kind in a box with a string.
4. Whistle shaped like a helicopter. Why? WHY NOT!
5. Mad Libs.
6. Hopping Lederhosen.
7. USA vs. Commies Army Men.
8. Aveda Skin Cleanser and Lotion (it's humid in the South and my pal, the man formerly known as Fitz Hume, recommended it to me).
9. Pencil for the Mad Libs, with pencil topper shaped like a molar.

So, as you can see...it's not the best care package in the world, but at least I tried to strike a good balance between food, skin care, and mindless entertainment.

I'm special!

I'm going on my first business trip! I leave Wednesday and come back Saturday(ish) - I'll be in Portland, OR. So, yay for me!

Shopping and drinking and drinking and shopping.

This weekend I did exactly two things to excess...drink and shop. I bought four pairs of shoes at Nine West, including TWO knee high pairs of boots - chocolate brown suede and red leather (HELL YEAH!) (similar to the picture, except they have a little buckle thing on the side). I spent the vast majority of the weekend with Ex-Roomie and her bf, hanging out and drinking tons of beer and eating too much. It was really fun. Today I finally came home and did some housework and I'm going to watch a girl movie in a couple of hours. Highlights of the weekend:

1. Getting my nails done. By a midget.
2. Giving a gun safety class to my three girlfriends last night, since I'm taking them all shooting on Tuesday night.
3. Teaching Ex-Roomie to drive stick on her bf's new Acura.
4. Sitting next to two guys from Texas at one of our local bars and talking barbeque for nearly an hour.
5. Going to an open house for a really nice condo.
6. Staying away from work even though I really should have gone in this weekend.
7. Getting a drunk dial every single night from the Guy I Decided I Do Like and listening to him ramble incoherently, plus one text message consisting entirely of a quote from The Three Amigos.
8. Going to lunch at a local Indian restaurant and being asked if my friend (who is a girl) and I were on a first date. I mean, it's awkward, but wouldn't it be so much MORE awkward if we WERE on a first date?

Anyway, life has been crazy busy, but I am hoping that I am eventually going to get it under control. I guess we'll see! The Guy I Decided I Do Like is potentially coming back in about two weeks after being gone this last month. So, I think it will be nice to spend some time together and see if we can reproduce in person what we have over the phone and email...a sort of easygoing, comfortable banter. He is literally the funniest guy I have ever dated and definitely the smartest I think. The chemistry thing is...well, I mean, who knows? Right now all seems well, and I guess that's the most I can say until he comes back and we just see what's up.

Drunkiety!

Don't you haet it when you are JUSTT the right amount of drunk and the person wuou you whant to drunk dial isn't home or answring their cell phone???? DAMNIT!

So, you're saying today is actually the worst day of your life?

Yesterday was very awful. Very, very awful. All day I got screamed at by claimants, who accused me of everything from purposely secreting their checks for a couple of days every month so they would be late and the person would get kicked out of their apartment (I don't even have time to eat lunch!!), to wanting someone to stay sick because it would somehow be "better" for me (yeah, it's totally better for me to continue to pay out tons of money indefinitely), to being accused of being a rich-bitch ("well, you were probably BORN rich, but I wasn't, and I need this money!").

To top it all off, I fell down the concrete stairs outside my building after work and, since I essentially tumbled all the way down, I have bruises EVERYWHERE!, and my hand is all cut up.

Then, after dinner last night, I started thinking that I was going to bring home a file last night, and maybe when I fell I dropped it, and it might be laying in the parking lot at my office. I obsessed about this all night to the point where at 2:30am I literally sat up in bed and was ready to drive to my office and see if the file was in the parking lot. I know that when I fell, I picked up my jacket and my purse and they were all in a big pile, so if the file was there I'm sure I would have seen it and picked it up, but I just worried all night.

I am so glad it's Friday. At least if it's as nuts today as it was yesterday I'll be wearing jeans. I'm going to happy hour after work with Ex-Roomie and her bf, so that's something to look forward to. Let's just hope that I at least don't break my neck today.

This is an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers.

I looked at an apartment today.

Does anyone besides me think that $1100 a month for a one-bedroom should be devoid of holes in the floor?

In other news, the Boy Who I Like sent me a drunken text message last night with a quote from Bridget Jones. He has this amazing talent for remembering tons of quotes from every single movie he sees, I guess that has to do with speaking a bunch of languages...that part of his brain apparently works extra well.

Work is going OK. I am very, very, very busy and have been feeling a bit overwhelmed and upset, and I think that also had something to do with feeling kind of sick too. I'm feeling better physically and I noticed that today I was feeling more positive emotionally.

Still having trouble finding a schedule that works for me...sigh. I feel like I have all the stress of billable hours, combined with learning an entirely new industry besides what I've been doing for the last three years. Anyway, life is nuts, and I'm trying to figure it out piece by piece. I don't want to be professionally succesful at the cost of my physical and mental health, but it's just been slow-going in terms of figuring this shit out.

I am also spending some time phoning and emailing with the Boy Who Is Kinda Growing On Me, so I'm curious where that might go when/if he ever comes back from the neverending business trip, and I'm enjoying getting to know him without all the pressure of traditional dating. I had dinner with a friend tonight and she said that she was afraid I wasn't going to give him a chance because of my doubts about our compatibility/chemistry, but that she's happy to see I'm keeping an open mind. And I think I really am...I mean, if nothing else, all the communicating that we've been doing has really given me a lot of insight into who I am, and who I can be, and how another person who I have not immediately jumped into bed with might perceive me. It's just been really interesting for me.

I'm dying over here.

I have been trying since Friday to convince myself the reason I feel so awful is allergies. It has become clear to me that I may have to admit...I'm sick.

Damnit. I barely got through any work yesterday or today, and there's still three days left. I am cranky, miserable, and would probably be clingy if I had the energy and someone to cling to.

I am going to hit the couch, read some "O"prah Magazine, and go to bed early. If my head doesn't explode.

PS: I'm looking at an apartment tomorrow. More to come.

Red is SEX! RED IS SEX!

Tonight the Ex-Roomie and her bf came over and we ate dinner, drank soda (for us) and beer (for him) and watched Kinky Boots. We agreed it was a fun, lighthearted, feel-good movie. Very predictable, but with a happy ending and not a lot of thinking, which I was totally in the mood for. I learned that you can't judge a book by its cover, that everyone deserves respect, that hard work is rewarded, and that true love can conquer all. Great!

I think I am not going to comment too much on the fact that it's 9/11 since anything I say will sound trite, I'm sure. If anyone cares, five years ago today I was an active duty Air Force officer working in an intelligence unit. Weird how life changes, huh?

I had a day today that was, well, just difficult...so I'm glad the movie was fun. I hit myself in the nose accidentally with a water bottle (long story, maybe tomorrow), which made my nose bleed...I don't think it's broken, but I'm worried I'm going to have black eyes tomorrow. Sigh.

Anyway, it's 10pm, and that means it's about bedtime. Pathetic, I know. But, I'm trying to keep on the gym schedule, so early bedtimes are mandatory.

And, since a couple of people asked, the Boy Who I Like is still out of town for at least another two to three weeks. We've been talking a lot on the phone and via email, which has been nice. I really feel like I'm getting to know more about him, and certainly, our friendship is growing. His work situation means that he's sort of out of town right now indefinitely...so...I guess we'll just see. He's having a lot of fun going sailing at his Away Location, and taking clients out and getting them loaded or whatever, and hopefully he's about to go on a trip to another country that he loves...so, his life is more exciting than mine. As I told him today, I guess I should have learned to speak like five languages instead of going to law school and maybe people would ply me with sailing trips and tours of other countries. My bad.

Overheard at my friend's wedding...

Yesterday I went to my good friend's wedding, which was very fun and laid-back. She invited one of our professors from law school who she is (apparently) very close to. After about five beer the following exchange occurred:

Law Professor: "So, when did you graduate?"

Me: "This year."

LP: "Oh really? I feel like I've never even seen you before!"

Me: "And yet you have."

LP: "Where?"

Me: "You interviewed me last year to be your research assistant. Someone else got the job."

LP: "Oh. Now I remember."

AWKWARD SILENCE...

We ended up having a very nice conversation about nontraditional job and whatnot, but all I could think in my mind while the above was taking place was... "OH NO YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME ANYMORE!!"

I think I have some problems with authority. Maybe.

In other news, I am considering getting rid of all my furniture when I finally find a new place to live and buying all new stuff. Mostly because I'm lazy.

I'm alive.

I have been so busy. In the last three days of this week, I billed well over 30 hours, which you know means I worked like 40 at least, plus on Thursday I had to attend a meeting down in Olympia, which is over an hour away, so that ate up a good portion of my day. Then last night I went straight from work to dinner with friends, today I am leaving soon for a wedding that is about an hour away, so I'll be gone until late tonight, and then tomorrow I have plans with a friend to go walking and possibly have lunch. I think I have been home a total of less than one hour each day that I wasn't asleep. But, it's been fun and work is going good, which means I'm making lots of money, and I'm getting to spend a lot of time with my friends, which is nice. I got a bonus check yesterday at work, which was surprisingly huge - but I have to say, it's nice to get paid when you work really hard.

I have to go get ready for this wedding, but I will try to think of some stuff to blog about by tomorrow afternoon/night, when I will hopefully have a few minute to actually sit down.

Nails. Done.

I worked a billion hours today, and got my nails done as a reward - they are long and frenchly manicured. Love them! They make my reward-ring look totally awesome too.

Anyway, I got home from my friend's going away party in time to watch Nip/Tuck. Yay! And I went to the gym this morning.

I'm awesome. And a little tipsy.

I'm taking your advice...

I had rather a licentious weekend, what with the bachelorette party and the drinking and the stripper and whatnot. Lots of people are moving away and stuff as they prepare to start new jobs, so I've been spending a lot of time trying to hang out with people before they leave - there's another going-away party tomorrow night. It's crazy!

Anyway, I indulged all my hedonistic impulses this weekend and now I'm taking your collective advice. I am going to get up early every single morning for the next three weeks and go to the gym. I always hear it takes three weeks to make something a habit, so I'm just going to force myself to do it and see what happens. I mean, I think it'll be fine and I'll enjoy it after about the first week...in the past I've found I just have to work through the initial few days of creepiness and then I feel really good about myself for doing it. It has to be done, that's the bottom line.

Tonight is the season finale of The Closer, but on Tuesday Nip/Tuck starts again. YAY!

It's 2am, do you know where your stripper is?

Good things about tonight:

1. Totally cute stripper
2. Totally cute stripper who flirted with all of us and earned every dollar bill
3. Tequila
4. Whipped cream
5. Non-attribution

Bad things about tonight:

1. Digital camera
2. Stripper only about 5'5"
3. I don't really like whipped cream all that much
4. Digital camera
5. Tequila

SHOUT OUT

Shout out to Zuska at Parens Binubus who sent me a really thought-provoking email about attraction vs. everything else. It really made me think, and I'm just drunk enough to have written her back with a big old story about my nonsensical life. I vote that she blogs about it (her opinions, not my email) at some point if she feels like it, but it made me think and I appreciate that. Not just because I'm drunk either. Wine always makes me want to think about all this relationship shit. It's weird.

Ooooh, it' 9. Time for What Not To Wear. Gotta go.

Once I solve all my problems (probably at least one more bottle of wine, as an estimate), I will be blogging about it. Ha.

How much is too much?

My guy friend today asked me "How often is the right amount to call a girl?" I'm too lazy to look up past posts and link, but I've often bemoaned a man's lack of follow-up and inability to call when he says he will - I truly think making assertions that you have no intention of following through on is a serious character flaw, but I don't know how often is TOO often. I'm sure it depends quite a bit on the girl. I like them to call but not too much so that I end up feeling smothered.

Anyway, leave a comment if you want and when I talk to him again this weekend I will incorporate all your comments and ideas without giving you any credit whatsoever. Because that's how I roll. And also because he doesn't know about this blog.

Also, in case you're wondering, I had a FABYOOLESSSSS day at work today and I'm celebrating at home with a bottle of wine alone since all my friends are out of town or have holiday plans or friends in town or whatever. It actually feels kinda good.