renegadeRICEcracker

"yes, your honor."

i had my first hearing today. it was very simple, an unopposed ex parte application to file something under seal, with no argument. the judge kind of ran through the grounds, noted what we argued in the motion, asked if this was correct ("yes, your honor"), and then granted the motion. but it was still exciting to dress up in a suit and go to court by myself. i'd been verbally walked through the steps of paying at the clerk's window, checking in with the court clerk, etc., so it all went smoothly.

it's strange though, another 2nd year associate just called me to ask how it went, because he did some work on the motion we filed today (once received permission to file something under seal). i was not on the case at all, the guy i worked a lot for last year called me and asked me to do the hearing. so i'm here thinking, hmm... he knew i had some availability, why did he staff someone else on the case? and the other 2nd year is thinking, hmm... i am staffed on the case, why didn't he ask me to do the hearing? not that either of us said this out loud. but it's kind of a weird feeling where i think we are both a little uneasy now.

anyway, i suppose what i should focus on is that i did my first hearing. i'm still all dressed up in my suit. :)

baby alex!

my nephew! these photos were taken on his first day of life:

i'm flying out to see him (and his parents) tomorrow evening. hopefully this time i will not be flying with the world's most anal flight attendant, as mimi and i did on our way to chicago. the flight attendant we had on that flight issued her instructions about floatation mechanisms and electronic devices with a passion that made their importance to her very clear. after energetically telling us what we were and were not allowed to do, she seemed very perturbed by every slight transgression from her spoken word.

i got up to use the bathroom after the announcement that we could use our electronics, and as i neared, she said sharply, "the seatbelt sign is still on." i asked, "can i just go to the bathroom real quick?" she had this angry glare, and then said, "i'm just telling you. it's my job to tell you that the seatbelt sign is still on." when i told her i'd go right back to my seat, she dismissed me with a "that's fine." after i went back to my seat, someone else got up to use this bathroom. this clearly unnerved her, because she then went on and angrily told someone that the seatbelt sign was still on, and that we should not get up and move around, and to use the bathroom, and that the pilot would turn off the seatbelt sign when he felt it was safe for us to do so. she seemed all chipper later when she advised us that we then were allowed to get up and use the bathrooms. mimi thought it best that i not call to the crazy lady's attention that the pilot left the fasten seatbelt on for the entirety of the flight.

alias on the upswing!

last night was alias' "two-hour event" leading up to the season finale.

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lena olin is back! and alive! the show has a lot of unbelievable deus ex machinas, but i gotta say... i'm happy! and perhaps it will finally get on track. several of my friends have been fading in and out this season, and ayumi was saying it's getting repetitive, and i was thinking how it was because it had lost the overarching forward progress it used to have regarding rambaldi and all that, so that this season was just annoying backplot about the sisters with uninteresting missions that didn't relate to anything. last night looked promising to change all of that. woo-hoo! and maybe the big prophetic showdown will come and sid will kill nadia!

though they will probably do something stupid like saying that irina and ilena are really the two who will have the showdown, and have irina kill ilena. if they do, they will be LYING since nadia has already shown herself to be the passenger (so maybe if irina is the "chosen one" -- remember, she never climbed that damn mountain that sidney did in season two -- she can kill nadia? whatever. let's just kill nadia. last night brian pointed out (and rightly so) how nadia is the emotional and volatile twit that sidney used to be. yeah. we didn't like sidney like that, either.). though i suppose at this point it is unrealistic to harp at the show about inconsistencies. so whatever.

lena olin! woo-hoo!

it's a boy!!!

well, we knew that already. but sometime around 2:15 a.m. this morning, baby alex was born. hooray! my sister is doing well, recovering at the hospital.

soon!

she's having contractions now. i'm going to be an auntie! yay!

waiting...

my sister is having her baby soon! i believe she is at the hospital now, so the little sucker should be popping out today (or tomorrow). yay!

judge keeps it real

heh. heheheheheh.

craig's list -- bringing people together

my co-worker found this gem today:

Cute girl needs Coldplay ticket+date and fun - $1 (marina / cow hollow)

Reply to: anon-71672646@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-05-04, 2:29PM PDT

Hey guys!

Like most of you I wasn't able to get Coldplay tickets and since they are my favorite band I am really hoping to be able to go. If there are any cool guys who'd like to share a ticket with a 27 year old blonde haired blue eyed girl, I'd really appreciate it. I haven't been able to date much lately, so hopefully I can meet a cool guy who's looking to go. I'm 5'6, 140. Just to be fair, I want to note that I am 5 months pregnant. I'm not seeing the father anymore (psycho), so I'm definitely looking to jump back into the dating scene. Hopefully you are a very kind, generous guy because I'm looking for a relationship since I'm not sure how I'm going to make ends meet once I have the child. Maybe because we both like the same band we'll be able to have some chemistry and have a relationship and something wonderful like that. I'm hoping to meet someone who's tall and cute and between 25-35. Hopefully you are pretty successful too, cause like I said, I'm pretty broke and I don't know how I'm going to care for this child. Anyway, if you're going to this show I'm sure you're pretty well off j/k ;) I have a picture online, so if you could send one too, I'd appreciate it. My picture isn't great cause I have a black eye in it (LONG STORY) but I think you'll see I'm still pretty cute. Hopefully you are too, so send a pic!!! Anyway, I know this is kind of short notice, but I hope to hear from someone, I think it will be really fun. If it helps, I can bring party favors (420 or tina) and we can enjoy before or after the show ;) Anyway, hope someone out there has a ticket cause I'm a huge coldplay fan and I've really hoped I could make it in. Please email me and I'll email you back right away.

hugs and kisses!

Keri

young'uns today

(lifted from an L-Word message board)

When I was a kid adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning .. uphill both ways ... through year 'round blizzards ... carrying their younger siblings on their backs .. to their one-room schoolhouse, where they maintained a Straight-A average despite their full-time, after-school job at the local textile mill where they worked for 35 cents an hour just to help keep their family from starving to death!

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids ... about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But...

Now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia! And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet . . . if we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves!

There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter .... with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to go to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and f@#* it all up!

You want to hear about hardship? You couldn't just download porn! You had to bribe some homeless dude to buy you a copy of "Hustler" at the! 7-11! Those were your options!

We didn't have fancy stuff like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal! And we didn't have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your boss, your mom, a collections agent, your drug dealer, you didn't know!!! You just had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Play station videogames with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like "Space Invaders" and "Asteroids" and the graphics sucked ass! Your guy was a little square! You had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win, the game just kept getting harder and faster until you died! ... Just like LIFE!

When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy sat i! n front of you and you couldn't see you were just screwed!

Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 20 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning... .D'ya hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK, you spoiled little brats!

We didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up .. we had to use the stove ... imagine that! If we wanted popcorn ... we had to use that stupid jiffy pop and shake it over the stove like an idiot forever.

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled, you guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980!

DAMMIT!!!

i am totally getting sick. i spent most of the day with that yucky phlegmy feeling in the back of your throat, where the phlegm gets kinda cold whenever you breathe and you have a constant urge to hack something up. i've been drinking tea, hoping to scald it away or something. it's not working, though i think i am getting a headache from the tea. this is probably imaginary, though, (it's decaf), similar to the headaches that i get if i eat too much garlic.