Summer Salads

The Minimalist (Mark Bittman of the NYT) is my favorite recipe-guru. He just put out a list of 101 summer salads, and it's divine. Some of his recipes are a little too east-coast for me (I'm not a huge fan of canned clams, or tuna packed in heavy oil, and getting some of the finer ingredients can be tricky here in the Rockies), but mostly they are creative and new and easy. I've entertained using his 101 appetizers list, and people thought I was a magician in the kitchen. I haven't tried any of these salads yet, but it being summer, and hot, and produce being what it is right now...I can't wait. So I thought I'd share.

Here are the first three I'm going to try (I've only read the first few dozen, because I can't process 101 recipes at once):

13. A red salad: Combine tomato wedges with halved strawberries, basil leaves, shaved Parmesan and balsamic vinegar.

24. Blanch spinach, then drain and shock in ice water. Squeeze it dry, chop it and toss it with toasted pine nuts, raisins, olive oil and a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar. Capers are good, too. Quite elegant, actually.

44. Make a crisp grilled cheese sandwich, with good bread and not too much good cheese. Let it cool, then cut into croutons. Put them on anything, but especially tomato and basil salad. This you will do forever. (My note: why didn't I think of this? And he's right, I will do this forever).

I'm drooling.

Good news. Seriously.

I got a job interview. I'm trying not to get too excited (ok, I'm really too shocked to even be excited), but given how things have been? With the no-jobs-at-all-ness? I'm pretty excited. This, in large part because it's not just a job interview, it's an interview for a job I would actually like to have. Again, with the shock. I've been considering applying to be a cop (but those shifts really suck), I've applied to be a receptionist at a hair salon, I've applied to work for free, and so on. And I'm a lawyer, for chrissake. So this interview? For a job as a lawyer? But not a sucky firm job?

I'm probably about to wake up, aren't I? Please say I'm already awake. And that it's real. And even more important, please assure me it will go well. It took a year to get this interview. I can't wait another year.

I live in the #1 Best Place to Live in the United States!

Louisville (Colorado, duh) was named the best place to live in the U.S. by Money Magazine. We were #3 a few years ago, but we've moved up the list. I'm surprised it took me two and a half years in Boulder to figure out how awesome this little neighboring town is. I really didn't even know it existed for a while. For shame. Louisville really is the best place to live, and I plan on sticking around. Little traffic, low crime, street fairs every Friday night in summer, fabulous restaurants, affordable rent (affordable to buy, too, I just don't have first-hand knowledge of it!), Colorado weather, and terrific neighbors. What's not to love?

Okay, so I'm lazy

So, as usual, I didn't write it. But Maureen Dowd is just so on top of things, why bother? Here's another good Dowd column. A dig at Sarah Palin. Go forth, and read!

P.S. My favorite line is the one calling Bristol Palin the "ambassadress of abstinence." Which is demonstrated by Bristol holding her son....who was, of course, conceived in abstinence.

A litany of contradictions

Ok, so I didn't actually write anything for this post. But, this column by Maureen Dowd, about Gov. Mark Sanford, is super-duper fantastic. Please to read it?

Insomnia

I'm not one to suffer from insomnia. Usually. In fact, I can sleep some 20 hours a day if I need (want?) to. Well, that particular rule is out the window. Here is a bulleted list of the potential reasons that I can't (bad word) sleep at night:

• The job market
• The fact that after looking for over a year, all I can find are low-paying, short-term jobs
• My law degree, which cost $100,000 and is worth about $10/hour. I made more before law school.
• Planning my wedding
• Paying for my wedding
• Guilt over the fact that Rex makes money, but absolutely hates his job. I get to stay at home all day.
• Staying at home all day, feeling like a total loser.
• Rent, which apparently has to be paid every month. We don't make enough to pay it every month!
• Medical bills. A few thousand worth.
• Medical billing companies that have no sympathy for the unemployed.
  
• The fact that I'm not actually applying for jobs full time. That's what they tell you to do. What they don't tell you is that (a) there aren't enough jobs to take up that much time applying (b) after a while, it's hard to motivate because it feels so futile.
• Basically? It all comes down to money. You need it for EVERYTHING, but we really don't have any. I have $76 in my bank account, which is great when you don't have a job and therefore don't have more coming in.
  

I'm so stressed out!

"Landscaping"

Rex and I have been spending a fair amount of time in the yard at our (still relatively) new rental house, fixing it up and making it pretty. Which is a lot of work, because it was absolutely trashed when we moved in, and the neighbors all say it's been 20 years since it looked halfway decent. We're determined folks, though, so we've been watering and weeding and planting grass seed and making a vegetable garden. It was all going so well, until our landlord decided she was going to have the south side (the worst of all), landscaped. Actually, she said xeriscaped, and Rex and I were fine with having someone else pay and perform the work to leave us with some attractive, low water landscaping.

Do you know what my landlord meant by "xeriscape?" I found out last Saturday, when I walked out to check out the new yard, only to find a giant mulch field. With a kidney-shaped "dirt pool" in the middle. I always wanted a pool. Just not a dirt pool. And there's nothing planted in the small respite from a sea of mulch, just dirt. The landlord has indicated a desire to wait on planting in the dirt pool, so we just get dirt. Do you know how attractive several hundred square feet of mulch is? NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT ATTRACTIVE. The dirt in the middle? Doesn't help. See?:
Here's a close-up of my lovely pool (of dirt):But it gets better. The landscapers (dare I call them that?) told us they had taken the liberty of installing soaker hoses in our veggie garden, since they were already installing them in the dirt pool. Rex and I thought that was great--we'd been meaning to do that, and now, we didn't have to! Only last night, when I planted a bunch more veggies, and went to water them, do you know what happened? The soaker "hoses" are actually solid tubes, and closed at the end. So no water comes out, anywhere but at the spigot where it sprays like crazy due to the pressure. Pressure that builds at the spigot because the hoses ARE NOT HOSES. They are closed tubes. Running all over our lovely vegetable garden, and all around the dirt pool. The beautiful tubes look like this:
And, we can't even unscrew the tubes to attach our actual soaker hoses, because they affixed them at the spigot in a rather permanent fashion. So. Watering cans for the vegetable garden. And watering with my eyes closed, so I don't have to see the sea of mulch with its kidney shaped dirt pool.

Ha!

nataliedee.com

Bad math

I was listening to Denver Mayor Hickenlooper on NPR this morning, and he was talking about the recession, and city employment, and the economy, and all that fun stuff. When I tuned in, he was going on about how layoffs are the absolute last thing the City and County of Denver would do to free up extra cash. Which, I think, is a good thing. Isn't it better to have everyone make a little less, than to leave some people high and dry while their colleagues are doing just peachy? In Denver, we're talking 3-4 furlough days. Period. Over a year. This isn't the 3-4 per month that Hawaii has instituted. Looks like we have a good plan.
Only, the details seemed a wee bit murky to me. To avoid layoffs, the government must trim costs in other ways. Naturally. By way of example, Mayor Hickenlooper said that agencies are starting to share services, like IT and fleet maintenance. That way, he said, we can trim about 20% of the workforce needed to perform those operations.
Wait. Isn't cutting the work force tantamount to layoffs? What, are we expecting 20% of the IT staff for the City and County of Denver to spontaneously retire all at once? Can someone explain how eliminating 20% of our IT and fleet maintenance crews, among others, we are avoiding layoffs? Kthx.

The life of leisure I'm leading

Some might call this being an unemployed deadbeat. After spending ALL DAY sitting in the sun at my favorite coffee shop, alternately doing nothing and chatting with friends and acquaintances, I call it a successful life of leisure. Women of leisure usually have money, and are not desperately in need of work so they can pay rent (nay, they own). Today I say FIE! I've chosen this life of leisure (no I haven't) and I won't give it up for anything (except any reasonable offer of employment)! Oh, but it's so nice. Why must I work? Why can't I live this life forever?

On Unemployment...

Well, I'm still unemployed. I finally applied for Unemployment, but they got my income screwed up so I'm still waiting (UI thinks I made $0.00 last year, which = no $$ for me. They're wrong!). Applying for unemployment was no small feat. The problem, in CG's words, is that you have to be a lawyer to figure out the damned unemployment system. It's true--I figured it out, but the paperwork is NOT easy to understand. First, the online system boots people out randomly. If you're in the middle of your claim (or almost finished, as the case may be), you have to start all over. And it's S-L-O-W. So you have to have lots of free time. Not exactly a problem for me! After the fun of filing online, you start to get mail. Lots of mail. The first batch includes lots of letters that make it look like the check is on the way. The next batch includes a debit card for the money they'll be sending. The problem? Tucked away in one of the letters they send (which you get with an avalanche of information) is a little box that says "Monetarily Eligible." Below that, it either says yes, or no. "No" in that box means there is no money on its way to the debit card they sent, and you have to file more information. "Yes" means money may or may not be on its way, and I have yet to figure out what you do in that situation. I got a "no," because of the aforementioned UI glitch where they said I made $0.
Who is supposed to know to look for the box, in the middle of a whole series of boxes in a whole slew of letters, to find where it says "monetarily eligible?" Is that language that the vast majority of the population can understand? And why are they paying for postage on the 6 or so separate letters/packets I've gotten? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just send everything together? Why do I have a debit card with no money on it? How do I find out if there's money on it, or when they put money on it, and so forth? C'mon people, I'm a lawyer. If I can't figure it out, we're all doomed.

Becoming a member

I just joined the Louisville Chamber of Commerce. Not only does that make me feel grown up (it does!), it also makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. I'm not sure what yet, aside from the obvious fact that I'm out $260. I stuck the sign in the front window of my house, encouraging people to stop in and check out this Chamber member's business. Well, it might be my house, and having folks stop in randomly would be a little weird, but still...I had to put the sign somewhere.

Getting political

Since I'm still out of work, I figured I better do something with my time (in addition to looking for work, of course). So, I decided to teach myself web design and design websites for both of my parents, who are both self-employed, and who don't have websites (*gasp*). The real kind, not web-in-a-box--I'm looking to develop my skills here, people. Skill I seriously lack. And who doesn't want a web designing lawyer on staff?

The other thing I'm getting into (though both things are unpaid) is political. I always thought politics were hideous, horrid things. Not unlike the plague. The older I get, the more it turns out that I really like politics. So. I'm volunteering with a Democrat's campaign for my House District here in Colorado. It's a solid Dem district, the issue is beating the more conservative, more well-known candidate. I like a challenge. And I'll work for free. Looks like I found my niche (till my $700 in total assets runs out).

Out of work lawyer...

That's me! I passed the Colorado Bar Exam (with flying colors, even!), so it's official--I'm a real life lawyer. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm an out-of-work lawyer. The $100K-plus that I spent on the degree isn't doing me much good right now, as I sit at a local coffee shop trawling the job ads online. So, if you hear of any law jobs in the Denver/Boulder area, or contract work, or have any other money-making ideas (except direct sales--I'm already on that one), let me know! I'll give you my first born child, for the right job.

The Constitutionality of Fairness

I get to talk to a lot of unhappy people at my job. It's often better when the voicemail talks to them, because sometimes it's hard to keep smiling, and not reach through the phone lines and strangle people.

Yesterday, I got a message from a lovely gentleman unhappy with the Colorado Legislature's proposal to offer health care benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. It's a controversial subject, I know. Homophobia is rampant, especially among conservatives. This guy went another step, though. He explained, with citations to the Colorado Constitution, that it was unconstitutional to extend benefits to same-sex partners because in this state, marriage is defined as being between one man and one woman. Sadly, that last part is true. We do define marriage that way. I wanted to say to this man, "sir, that's the whole reason for the bill. It's because we restrict marriage this way that we have to take extra steps to give homosexual citizens the same rights you have. The Colorado Constitution prevents them from getting married, but it does not, thank goodness, also say that they are not entitled to all of the other rights that you are."

Alas, it was just a message, so I couldn't. Well, I couldn't have even if it was a live call. My job is just to listen and smile. And what's saddest? That we do need legislation for this kind of thing, and even worse, that there's a good chance we won't achieve it this time. Will the bigotry ever end?

Sharing the love

Miss MZ has given i like stuff an award! I think it's very awfully nice of her to think that I'm award winning. I'll try to keep up the good work, so I can feel like I earned it.

I'm supposed to return the favor by passing out 5 of these babies myself. Well, here they are:

• I don't think this is the intent of the award, but Miss MZ is just so super that I am re-awarding her. Her blog (well, she has two, but the one most inspiring to me) From This Point. Forward. is a personal, eloquent journey through her battle with the immune-system attacker RA.
• Miss [Dis]Grace. She's responsible for getting me into blogging (for better or for worse), and was/is a great friend and co-adventurer. Her blog, Miss Disgrace, is about the trials and tribulations of raising her fabulously handsomely adorable son.
• She doesn't post much, but my sister has a blog where she shares her terrific insight (on occasion). For someone as young as she, I'm always impressed at her musings. She blogs as Thoughts from an Undecided Undergrad, aka Tuna's Thoughts.
• On to the bloggers I don't know...
• Dooce. She's so popular, I'm not sure she needs my awarding, but I do LOVE her blog about life, and raising her daughter (soon to be two daughters!). She's Heather B. Armstrong, a recovering Mormon in Utah.
• The Daily Coyote. Another uplifting blog, chronicling the life of a rescued coyote named Charlie. The author posts a daily photo, and coyote puppies? Are so cute.

To finish the task, I shall be posting a comment on each of these award-winning blogs (four out of five, I know, have won awards previously, so I'm a little behind the curve, but whateva').

Dear Weather,

It is very nearly May. Please stop snowing now? Snow is for winter. I know that you forgot to snow all winter long, but I promise it isn't necessary to make up for it by snowing profusely all April long. That is all.
Sincerely,
Your Friend Paris

Shop for Mother's Day - Stella & Dot!

Mother's Day, it's a comin'. May 10, in fact. Time to think about getting Mom a present. Or, getting yourself a present, if you are a mom. Mom's deserve all the gifting they can get! Shop now!

Confused Tea Party-ers

I was marveling at the lack of logic in the Tea Parties held last week, and I stumbled across this article. It's worth a read. My favorite is the repeated mention of the number of taxpayer-funded facilities and resources used to put on anti-tax events. It's a bit ironic. Dontcha think?

Help out a great cause!

The MESA (Movement to End Sexual Assault) Canine Classic 5K/10K run/walk is coming up, April 19 at the Boulder Reservoir! Register to participate, or donate to help end violence against women, here. MESA is a non-profit in Boulder, Colorado with a terrific track record of helping women who have been assaulted or abused. It's an extremely worthy cause, and no donation is too small!

More than meets the eye

toothpastefordinner.com

Worst economy in how many years?

I'm about to be unemployed. One month from today, I will leave the lap of luxury (y'know, the $10/hour one where I make less than an unemployment check?), and be without work. It's not for lack of trying. Oh god, there has been trying. I'm applying for anything and everything I can find, but with 150-1400 people competing for single positions, the odds are a teeny bit stacked against me. And many others. The 149-1399 others for each and every job. I'm getting rejection letters like Miley Cyrus must get fan mail. So, knowing that finding "regular" employment ain't gonna happen anytime soon (especially if I talk like that!), I'm striking out on my own. Sort of.

Enter Stella & Dot. It's a direct-sales jewelry line, which means that I'm technically a small-business owner, working for myself, but get some hand-holding (and someone else is responsible for the creative genius part). Stella & Dot is a pretty fabulous jewelry line, one with prices just about anyone can afford. So, I'll be hosting parties and selling online, in the hope that July rent can be paid. We're good on rent till then (thank goodness), but after that, well, you know what happens. Landlords don't like people who don't pay rent.

If you need a little sparkle in your life, some retail therapy, or want to get some friends together and have a party and try on jewels, cruise on over!

Ignorant people shouldn't speak

There is a blogger in Colorado who goes by the catchy title of Rossputin (his name is Ross), and he has spent a good amount of time debating the merits of House Bill 1299, which would enter Colorado into a compact to give our electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, if and when enough states have entered said compact. I'm not here to discuss the merits of the bill, I think there are good arguments on both sides. I'm here to debate Rossputin's intelligence. So much more fun.
I have taken issue with a number of his constitutional arguments on my own time, but this simple inability to navigate the interwebs is my favorite. On his blog, in a posting made yesterday, 4/1, he has this to say:

"Not even 48 hours after my state Representative, Claire Levy, sent me a long explanation of her support for HB1299 which would nearly eliminate the important of small (and small-ish) states like Colorado in Presidential elections, Mrs. Levy has not only deleted that same note from her web site’s home page, but she has deleted the entire “National Popular Vote” page from her site. And she does not mention the issue on her “Current Issues” page."

Well, Rep. Levy's webpage was last updated on Tuesday, 3/31. As of today, there is an ENTIRE page devoted to the issue of the national popular vote and HB 1299. It's titled, "National Popular Vote," which isn't exactly subtle or difficult to find. I think it's the precise page Rossputin is referring to? The one he says isn't there? This page was up when the genius Rossputin wrote his posting about how she's a coward. Way to go, smart guy. Maybe surf the interwebs a tad bit before you go running your not-entirely-literate mouth!

Two days off work...

We had a rather impressive snowstorm here yesterday (about 18 inches at my house), and because the traffic is known to get gnarly going to Denver, Rex and I decided not to go to work. Good call, because we heard it took some people 4 hours to make the commute, instead of 30 minutes. We got today off, too, because the House was in adjournment (I can only guess it's due to the snow).

Here's what I did instead of work:

• Work. At least it felt like it. I've been applying to any job I might actually want. Several a day, which doesn't sound like much until you've done a USAJobs.gov application. They take FOREVER. (NB: I did not use the KSA service I told you about). Cross your fingers for me, and do let me know if you hear of any good enviro jobs in the Denver/Boulder area.
• Walk to the grocery store. Our little cars would have none of the snowy, slushy, icy roads. So we walked, trudging through 18 inches of fluff. We got home soaking wet, feeling like kids. And it was good exercise!
• Shovel snow. Lots of snow. With a garden shovel, since we only have one snow shovel.
• Clean my kitchen. I am a winner. (Ok, it was filthy and long overdue).
• Cook dinner. Again, I am a winner. This was the second night in a row!
• Nap for three hours. I love napping, and this was most excellent.
• Sulk about the job market.
• Enter the Denver Post Sweepstakes. Five times. If the economy is going to suck, I have to be creative. I intend to make a living with pennies-at-a-time services that pay me to look at ads, entering sweepstakes, and the lotto. Again, you should probably wish me luck.

I would love to be qualify for a job. Then they'll hire me!

This sentence was on a website promoting their service of helping job seekers draft KSAs, these nasty things required for federal government jobs.

"They will make sure that your KSA's comply with all the Government standards and showcase how qualify for the position you are."

There are TWO typos in just one sentence. I'm sure they will help me get the job of my dreams. As a janitor cleaning toilet's, if I'm lucky.

Becoming Mrs. Rex (part 1?)

I've known for a while that I'm going to take Rex's surname when we get married, but lately it's started to become apparent that I might want to go ahead and become Mrs. Rex now, rather than later (I don't want my full name on here, so we'll pretend he's Rex Rex). After all, I will become a bona fide attorney, with a license and registration number, in May. Wouldn't it be simpler to start out as Mrs. Rex, rather than having to change the damned information with the Board of Attorney Regulation after three months of practice? On a more practical note, wouldn't it be nice to actually be Mrs. Rex the day of our wedding, rather than having to just start the switch after we've said "I do"? I certainly think so. Which is why I took a trip to the Social Security Administration this afternoon.

The SSA is probably one of the saddest places there is. It's like a cross between a homeless shelter, a halfway house, and a home for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. You take a number, and wait your turn while these poor (quite literally) people are cycled through. Rex and I were by far the best dressed, wealthiest people there. And we make about $15,000 a year.

On a brighter note, I got that first piece of paperwork handled, and it only took about an hour. So, I'm on my way to becoming Mrs. Rex. Wish me luck, this might be a long, tedious journey.

Redistribution of wealth...

Republicans have long been carrying on about the redistribution of wealth that will occur at the hands of President Obama and all the other liberals who are now in charge. It's obvious that socialism is nigh... Right.

I saw this comment to an op-ed piece about the similarities between Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" and the new administration. While the article was written by a conservative, claiming that our county will come to ruin shortly, I really liked this response (grammar notwithstanding):

It is said that the money doesn’t go away it just gets redistributed. Under the Bush administration billions of dollars were reallocated to the wealthiest of the population. Mr. Andrews the “Economic makeover” the redistribution process has already taken place. As a result the middle class is slipping into poverty. I say Atlas has already shrugged and we are currently dealing with the consequences.

It's all a matter of perspective, and I agree with the commenter, who is named as "snowbow."

St. Patrick's Day

In addition to stuff, I also like St. Patrick's Day. I'm a big fan of wearing green and drinking Guinness. I did both, plus I had a Smithick's and some extra special fun. But that part's a secret, and there were only two witnesses. Officially, anyway. *wink, wink*

Going on a little rant...about those damned republicans

As I've mentioned before, I read a lot of [Colorado] news every day at work to stay informed about what's happening here at the state house. I read a lot of conservative opinion pieces, so that I know what those crazy Republicans are up to. It's good for me. But much of the time, it's also really, really irritating.

One of the most annoying topics is TABOR, the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights (I've also ranted about this specific issue many a time). This horrid piece of legislation was enacted in Colorado in 1992, when the state was very red. Well, the state isn't so red now (actually, it's rather blue). The legislation basically made the state go broke, and it's all-around just a crappy concept. Our state revenue is seriously limited by TABOR (mainly by what is known as the "ratchet down" effect), and funding for education and transportation are particularly impacted. Democrats keep trying to amend it, or make other legislative changes that would untie the hands of the state, but it's very difficult since all changes to tax policy must be put to the voters (that's a huge part of what TABOR does). Colorado is something like 47th in education funding nationwide, and if you've ever driven here, you know how bad the roads are. We need to change the way we handle our money, and increase our taxes (or at least let the state keep the money it collects to spend it how we need/want, rather than refunding it when we collect more than TABOR allows). It's hard to argue that we don't need more money for these things. Still, the conservatives hammer on and on about how we have TABOR and how great it is. Usually, the rants I read are so full of typos I think they're written by illiterates. That's part of the irony--people love TABOR despite the fact that they never learned to write under our poorly funded public school system--because of TABOR.

There's a point here (I think). I was reading an opinion piece in the Colorado Springs Gazette that criticizes the recent CO Supreme Court decision upholding a legislative mill levy increase from 2007. I'll be the first to admit that the democrats keep trying to make end-runs around TABOR, but they're not breaking the law. If the Supreme Court upholds the mill levy change using sound reasoning, then it's probably legal. So stop whining about it. Just because TABOR is law, that doesn't make it good. Lots of law is, in fact, bad. And lots more is simply badly drafted. The system IS broken, and we're just trying to fix it. And just because legislation was once enacted by the voters does not mean that we can't later amend or overturn it. In fact, that's why our legislators meet every year and why we vote--we are changing and adding laws all the time. I'm listening to laws being passed in the Colorado state house right now.

The biggest problem I have with the TABOR supporters who keep lambasting attempts to fix the budget problems we have, is the fact that they generally don't understand what a "fee" is. TABOR specifically prohibits changes to tax policy without a consent vote of the citizens of the state. However, it expressly allows fees to be imposed without a vote of the people. There is a distinction, and it's allowed under the law. Still, republicans keep complaining that we're "disguising" taxes as fees to pull the wool over. That's just not the case. THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS, and are defined by TABOR (I could go into the difference, but I don't feel like re-living law school just now). Yes, it seems like an end-run by democrats to enact fees rather than trying to get taxes approved, so that revenue can be generated. But your beloved TABOR allows this, so stop crying foul when democrats are just using the legislative process, and doing so legally, to raise money so that our bridges are safe and our kids learn how to read.

I think I'm done ranting for now. In case you want to see an example of a couple of republicans' grammatical challenges and difficulty with spelling, check out this blog posting, and look too at the comment by calGone.

A moment of optimism

I went to a legislative reception yesterday for all manner of environmental groups, which was a good way to spend time since, well, I want to work for one (really, any one) of them in the future. I got to tag along with my boss, The Representative, who thought she could introduce me around a bit. It's too bad that I'm so terrible at the small talk and all, and had to cling to The Representative like a barnacle...but still, it was a good event. After the embarassing gaffe of ordering a beer and then realizing that, oops, my wallet was totally empty (and having to borrow money from my boss), I met this person and that person, whilst the boss mentioned all around that I was a freshly minted attorney looking for work. A few people seemed at least somewhat receptive, and the real score came as I left and got an offer from an old professor to send along my resume. She offered to do whatever she could to help--that's the sort of thing I'm desperate for. It was also nice that she didn't seem daunted by the fact that I got a C+ in her class, or maybe she just didn't remember. Mostly I'm just mumbling on here, but I felt optimistic at the end of yesterday, a feeling that is somewhat hard to come by these days. I'm going to try to hold onto it, a feat I think I can imagine until the rejection letters (or worse, total silence) start rolling in. And I'm sure they will--by the truckload.

Demons and crap

Reading some pretty ultra-conservative news today (I do it for my job, so I know what people on both sides of the aisle are thinking and doing), I came across two great nicknames for democrats. First, democraps. The other, demoncrats. How clever, eh? Both used in the comments to an article about Colorado's SB 09-170, which would give in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. I support the legislation, by the way. If I have the time, I'll share my reasons. In the meantime, here's a great article about the bill and immigration more generally.

The Impending Bar Exam

The goddamned bar exam is the only thing I can think about, so it's the perennial subject of this blog and everything else out of my mouth/mind, and will be until it's over.
The thing is the DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and the panic abated for the last week or so, but really? This is terrifying. Because if I don't pass, I have to wait another 6 months and pay another $600, and in the meantime I won't get licensed and it will be even harder to find work. Which, as it turns out, isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world right now as it is. Can you read the edge in my voice? Because it's there, with a little shakiness. And still, I'm too burned out to study any more. Which only freaks me out more. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you.
I am, however, looking forward to staying at the Hotel Teatro during the exam. And eating at alto the night between exam days. I've never been to either of the places before, but they look amazing on the websites, and are really close to the Convention Center where the bar exam is to be held. I figured I could pamper myself (and Rex), given that this is probably the most stressful thing I'll ever do. At least until I have (if I have) kids.
I'm off to see if I can't force a few more minutes of mnemonic device learning into my head. PATERNITY, KIDBARF, CAMPingMAP, ALIE, SID to the REC, HEDDEC, HOACS, RVCABLEFAILS, this sucks ass. And I only know what a few of those even stand for.

Study Breaking

I could pretend it's been a quick study break....

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Sharing Time

Rex Invictus. He made it up, not me. Creativity in lieu of bar exam studying = good stuff.

Why he's my favorite

Rex just sent me this message:
Люблю тебя всем сердцем, всей душою
It means "I love you with all my heart, with all my soul" in Russian (is that correct, miss grace?). You see, everyone thinks he's Russian, even though he's really from Texas. So it's cute. At least, I think so.

25 Things, because everyone is doing it.

1. I finally live in a grown-up house. I still rent, but it's a house, with a dishwasher.
2. I am getting married in September. I'm very excited.
3. My little sister is my BEST friend in the whole world. And she turns 21 next week.
4. My college roommate/best friend in college didn't speak to me for about 2 years. I still had dreams about her every few nights. We're speaking again, which makes me happy.
5. I really really don't like bananas. Or anything that smells like them. Yuck.
6. I used to have a gremlin in my tummy. It's back, because of the bar exam.
7. I knit, and crochet. Occasionally.
8. My sister was 2 and a half months premature. She weighed less than two pounds, and almost didn't survive. You'd never know it today (Are all of these supposed to be about me?)
9. I prefer my water "con gas," with bubbles.
10. I tap dance. I've been doing it since I was four, and have performed with my mom and my sister.
11. I had laser eye surgery at the end of 2007. I was almost legally blind at that point. Now I see 20/20.
12. I'm a little OCD. For the first two years of law school, I could use ONLY pink highlighters. Otherwise I kind of freaked.
13. Sleeping is my favorite thing to do. I love naps.
14. I'm taking the Colorado bar exam in just over two weeks. My hands shake whenever I think about how soon that is.
15. I have a law degree, and make $10/hour. I thought I'd make more at this point.
16. My parents are still married. Happily.
17. My favorite color is green. My eyes are green.
18. I really like to stay in hotels, even cheap motels. As long as they aren't too too seedy.
19. I drink champagne regularly. It's not reserved for special occasions in my world.
20. I'm left handed.
21. I hated cats until the day I got one. I'm not sure how I bridged that gap, but now I have two and they are my family.
22. My car is named Harvey. He is 13, but you'd never know it. Except that I just told you, so now you know.
23. I used to freak out about getting older (which included a tantrum on every birthday). That stopped ever since I met Rex. Now I'm comfortable with getting older (old!).
24. We had a dog named Babs when I was younger. She was a really mellow Golden Retriever. I still miss her.
25. I consider myself to be a very fortunate, lucky person. I have a good life, and try to remember that every day.

Making fun of the misled, again.

High school students in Denver got a pair of Democratic legislators to back a bill that will impose a 6 cent fee on plastic bags at the grocery store (really, the language includes all very large stores), and ultimately require that the bags be phased out by 2012. Half the fee goes towards education on the eventual phase-out. The bill is a good one, though maybe not of the most pressing urgency.

The nay-sayers (conservatives) argue that the bill is bad because then we'll just use more paper bags, which require more resources to produce. Well, that is true about paper bags. It just completely overlooks the point--to get people to use reusable bags. Not paper bags, which also contribute to landfills and litter. High school kids aren't that retarded. Unless they're conservatives too, of course.

If you read the article, you might notice the comment that the bill implicates TABOR. Well, if the author knew the difference between a tax and a fee (knowledge absolutely essential to any discussion regarding TABOR), the article might read differently. TABOR specifically allows fees without a consent vote, and a fee is a flat "tax" (it cannot be based on income, for example) that goes to pay for a specific service. The 6 cents per bag is a flat fee (it doesn't depend on how much you spend on groceries, for example--that would make it a tax), and the bill designates precisely what the revenue is to be spent on--the service of educating the public about the bag phase-out. Looks like a fee to me.

All that aside, my favorite part of the op-ed piece is the comments submitted by readers. Naturally, they take the form of debate between those who support the bill, mostly liberals, and those opposed, mostly conservatives. My favorite comment is this one:

I refuse to recycle.
I flush the toilet multiple times.
I use plastic bags and throw them in the garbage.
I drive a car and only worry about emissions at inspection time.
I put used kitty litter in the trash.
I use paper towels.
I use old incandescent bulbs.
I intentionally try to put as much carbon back into the environment that I can.
I refuse to yeild the road I pay taxes to keep up to bicycles.
I run the washing machine with just a few items in it.

I take pride in being a contrarian disestablishmentarain who "fights the environmentalist whacko establishment" any time I can, in my own little way. Mankind, even if totally focused on doing so, CANNOT destroy the planet, nor its environment.

That last sentence is especially my favorite. I'll bet this guy is a big supporter of the Heartland Institute.

Conservatives without Brains

This is kind of long, because I've reprinted a piece from the Daily Camera...
In last week's paper (from the ever-liberal Boulder), was a piece from a local named Don Lloyd, complaining about the "liberal hate mongers." Here is what he had to say:

It is worrisome to contemplate how the numerous liberal hate mongers will react to the sudden loss of their opportunity to express their unprecedented disrespect and hate of our President. Will it be something like drug withdrawals, or will it be depression? Surely, the Camera cartoonist will be saddened that he can no longer express his narrow-minded hate by regularly casting our president as an ignorant monkey.

No, this will not be replaced by similar but conservative purveyors of disrespect, because they seem to have the ability to communicate criticism more constructively. It’s similar to the treatment of liberal versus conservative guest speakers on the CU campus. We never see liberal guest speakers taunted or blocked from speaking, yet the campus liberals, who loudly declare the merits of freedom of speech and the right to self-expression, are quick to prevent any significant conservative voice from speaking at CU, even when they’ve been invited for the engagement. And such behavior is vindicated by what great moral justification? Certainly it isn’t freedom of speech, or a balanced political venue. And now someone has even dared to suggest the need for a new seat of conservative thought on our fair campus – horrors!

It isn’t going to be easy for the libs, when they begin to see the bill for the massive promises being made by President Obama and his inability to deliver on many. But they will readily commit their complete support to our new president, exercising the same respect and support so completely denied President Bush.

If you think this concern for liberal withdrawals isn’t well founded, just consider the numerous hate-filled harangues printed over the past few weeks, trying to get in the last bash before President Bush leaves the oval office to his successor.

Noting that Mr. Lloyd is patently wrong on a few points, let me take this opportunity to point out just what the conservative jackass pretends to know, but really knows nothing about.

First, let me acknowledge that he is correct that there has been much Bush-bashing going on, not just in the end of Mr. Monkey's term, but throughout. As an educated person, I think that the bashing was warranted. The man was an idiot and a fraud, and not fit to lead this country.

Next, Mr. Lloyd goes on to mention the negative treatment of conservative guest speakers at CU. Mr. Lloyd says that the campus liberals "are quick to prevent any significant conservative voice from speaking at CU, even when they've been invited for the engagement." Well, Mr. Lloyd, I hate to disappoint, but at the time of your writing there were prolific advertisments of a conservative speaker, coming to the CU campus to speak. On January 26, the conservative author Dinesh D'Souza engaged in a debate entitled "What's so great about God," on campus. So much for that idea. D'Souza is a best-selling author, a former senior policy analyst for the Reagan Administration, and was described by New York Times Magazine as one of the nation's leading conservative thinkers. Seems to me just like the kind of person Mr. Lloyd was describing.

The other major point in Lloyd's column I'd like to address is his statement that we liberals will essentially follow President Obama in blind faith. Even if we do, I'd really like to know how that is at all different from the astonishing blind faith I saw conservatives put in President Bush, even when he couldn't form complete sentences and had to lie his way through the war in Iraq.

Mr. Lloyd accurately illustrates the ignorance espoused by so many conservatives, and it's always nice to see them put their feet in their mouths in public.

The J.D. is official

All my grades are (finally) in from last semester. I managed to squeak by in all my classes, which means the J.D. is mine to keep. Huzzah! I'm officially an unlicensed attorney!

The bar isn't looking quite so rosy, but I'm intending to keep cramming for the next four weeks (it's 30 days exactly to the exam), so wish me luck.

Busy times

In the last month, I graduated from law school, went to Crested Butte and Texas (spraining my ankle and tearing ligaments in between trips), moved, started a new job, and started studying for the bar. Bar review really, really sucks. What with trying to get accustomed to the new job and get moved in, plus that nagging wedding planning business, bar review, which should be a full-time affair, really isn't even close. Eight hours a week is a surefire way to fail. But studying for the thing sucks way more than law school did. I need: (A) more time in a day; (B) more weeks in January; and (C) the bar exam to be anytime good and later than the end of February. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Oh, and I went snowboarding this morning. My still-not-totally-healed ankle wasn't really thrilled, especially after Jazzercise yesterday. But it was such a beautiful day, I couldn't resist!

Under the Dome

So I've been hard at work for a few days now, really about a week. Having to get up at 6:30 to go to work really sucks, but my job as a legislative aide is interesting.

Except on Monday. The 40 minute commute took nearly three hours because of an unexpected storm, a commute in which I had to stand up on the bus on my sprained ankle (and yes, it's STILL screwed up). We finally got off the bus at an early stop to walk the rest of the way because of the horrid slowness of the traffic. Then Starbucks got my drink SO WRONG (I ordered a cappuccino, it's not rocket science) and I was so cranky that I threw it on the ground because I didn't realize it was wrong until we were away from the store. Rex was kind enough to buy me a new one at the next Starbucks, but then when I got to work the phone rang immediately and I was stuck talking to crazy constituents for the next two hours. One lady took up a whole hour on her own. The rest of the day was good, including the commute home, until we were in the parking lot at the bus station and I slipped on black ice and landed right on my ass. Which was also not so bad until Rex slipped right after me and his leg went right into my back. I burst into tears for a minute, then we were laughing, and then we had wine. Lots and lots of wine, for purposes of curing the Monday-from-hell-ness.

Yesterday and today have been much better.