no, the summer will not go by quickly

Tons of people have offered me unsolicited advice about how to spend my time this summer. Most of it is along the lines of "this summer will go by so quickly - just enjoy it." While I know that they mean well, hearing this for the eightieth time makes me want to pull out some eyeballs, Kill Bill style. This has, quite possibly, been the s l o w e s t summer of my life. I started off working 2 jobs (both miserable boring) 6-7 days a week. Now I'm just working the 1-most-miserable-of-all-job and I think that it actually makes the time pass slower. Early in the summer, I sorta thought, "yeah, maybe everyone is right, I'm sure things will pickup in July." Now, one-third of the way into July I'm convinced that things won't actually pick up for at least another week (which will be one week before we move).

I decided to quit my job a bit early, so next Thursday is my last day. The awesome thing about leaving (duh, aside from the leaving part) is that next week is peppered with free lunch from people I work with. Woohoo!

Also, a quick note to the folks at Apple: Please, please PLEASE get the .mac/mobileme webmail up and running quickly. I easily spend 70% of the time that I am at work on my email, which made yesterday extraspecialsucky since webmail was down. Come on Stevie-baby, you owe me this one.

this is how I know I made the right choice

Last week, my law school finally sent me some orientation info. Since I'm an incredibly antsy and impatient person I have been checking the mail for this packet since March. And do you know what I got? A couple of sheets of paper that basically said, "Calm the Efff down. You don't need to get all crazy-like about something that is still over a month away. We promise to send you some info, soonish." I see it as confirmation that I made the right choice of schools. This school isn't going to always give me what I want - but it has done a fairly good job of giving me what I need (which is to be told to chill). So in the spirit of chill, and also because I'm up to my ears in moving, I'm placing a moratorium on law school prep crap. Only summer fun-time (and packing) from here on out.

what the world needs now...

Is shade, sweet shade. Its the only thing that there's just too little of.

Or maybe that's just how I feel after a broiling hot day of drunken slip & slide. This is how I celebrate my country: by hurtling myself across a soaking wet sheet of plastic. Also, by slathering myself with SPF1billion because if there is one thing I have learned in 20-some years it is that I am a pasty muthahfuckah who needs maximum protection from the great cancer-ball in the sky.

p.s. work advice

I forgot to add this sage piece of advice to my work-complaining.

If you are in a situation where your boss has taken away almost all of your responsibilities at work and left you with bullshit to do, do not under any circumstances, change a shared password (that he never ever ever uses) to "No work to do".

sick day....so I blog about work

Apparently Laughing + restaurant fondue = sick day. This is, for many reasons, bullshit (such as the fact that homemade fondue is no problem, as well as the fact that I need money and sick day does not generate the cash). Anyway, since I'm not at work I decided that I may write freely about it.

I used to love my job. I mean Löve my job. It was engaging, challenging and I felt like I was learning a lot. Also it is part of the area of law in which I hope to someday practice (although I work at a university and not at a law firm). I though I was getting really good experience and besides that I was enjoying the work. Until... my old boss quit and they hired a new guy. New Boss is a lawyer, so I thought "extra bonus!" Wrong Wrong Wrooooong. New Boss is also a control freak who does not know how to delegate. He has taken away roughly 90% of what I used to do (and enjoy). He is even too much of a control freak to let me make his copies. Or send out his mail, because, you know, I might accidentally stick the stamp on my nose and try to mail myself.

For a while, I just didn't have anything to do, but it wasn't a huge big deal (uh, hello, that is what the internets are for). But now he pawns me off on other office staff to make their copies and send out their mail. So, I'm basically miserable all of the time that I am at work (except for lunch). Good thing I've only got 13 days to go.

just because you don't need a license doesn't mean there are no rules

I love me some summer-time bicycling. If there is one good thing about high gas prices, it is that more people are riding their bikes. Plus, my home town is uber bike-friendly (I will miss this in about a month when I am in city-traffic-hell). But! BUT. I have been having some issues with the etiquette of new cyclists. Yes, its fun. Yes, its easier than driving. No, riding your bike does not mean "I can act like even more of a jackass than I do when I drive!" No no no no.

So in the interest of not unloading all of my shit on the next twerp I encounter on the trails, here are my RULES FOR RIDING YOUR BIKE:

1. When riding on a trail, do NOT stop on the bridge. Do not stop with all of your friends and all of your bikes on the bridge. The bridge is the narrowest part of the trail and therefore the worst place to stop and congregate, dipshit.

2. Warn people before you pass them. "On your left" is really not that hard to say. Warn them even if they are just walking, even if they are talking on the phone, even if they have a helmet or hat on, even if they have headphones on. Especially if they have headphones on. Warn them even if you think they saw you. No one I know has eyes in the back of their head except for my mom, and you won't run into her on the bike trail.

3. Stop staring at me if I wear a skirt and ride my bike at the same time. The only way that you could see what you are staring so hard at is if you were underneath my front tire, in which case you have other things to worry about. Also, do not stare at me in misdirected self-righteousness. Riding a bike in a skirt is not slutty. If you do insist on staring at me in lust or contempt, accept the fact that me flipping you off is a reasonable and appropriate response.

wouldn't you like to know

I've been thinking a lot lately about the level of anonymity I'd like to aim for in this blog. It seems that most of the blogs that I read strike this balance somewhere between complete disclosure and "complete" anonymity (with most leaning towards anonymity). What seems more likely is that these bloggers strive for the illusion of anonymity, since nobody with an IP address is truly anonymous.

It seems like plenty of law student blogs eventually are removed or password protected, which I assume is a reaction intended to protect a blogger (Silly Little Law Student where are you? I miss your cheekiness). Whether its a move to preserve career prospects or a reaction to snoopy classmates, significant self-censorship might take the fun out of the entire venture (just ask Butterflyfish). Maybe in retrospect many students decide that they have simply shared too much, or that they are embarrassed by the naivete of their posts.

Do students always start out by over-disclosing and eventually reign things in? I have noticed that some of my fellow almost-1Ls, like Terra Nullius and A Woman in Law School have even posted their pictures on their blogs. I'm not willing to go that far, but I'm also kind of a weenie. I really admire their willingness to be up-front about what they are doing and to truly own their statements and opinions. But isn't part of the fun of blogging the fact that you can blow off some of that law school pressure by venting about all of the crazy people you have to interact with? Thanks, But No Thanks's snarkiness is what I LOVE about her blog and I suspect if she filtered more of her writing it wouldn't be nearly as funny.

There is speculation over whether a blogger should even aim for anonymity, like in this especially good post. I get that. "Anonymity" may be a tempting cover for the wide practice of acting like a moron on the internet. Very un-Dude.

I'd like to set the tone early, in part to have some sort of guide and in part to just keep myself from being as asshole. But I'm blunt and cheeky and not-always-super-nicey-nice in real life, so why should I change that for a blog? Ok, so I don't act this way towards my boss, but I don't hide this side of my personality either. Trying to remain as anonymous as possible (by not checking or posting in class, not telling anyone about my blog etc) feels a little deceptive. Is there a way to achieve balance?

Probably, I shouldn't worry so much about it now. I should do what works for me, while it works for me, until it doesn't. And then I change. Its not necessarily an admission of defeat to remove or password protect a blog, and its not a revision of the past either. It is a revision of the present. For now I'll just try to keep on keepin on.