What I'm Reading Now -- Breaking Dawn

It's true, I'm reading the last book. I still haven't finished The Secret Battle, but I have made some progress. It's a slow read, and I just need something to keep me going. So Stephanie Meyer it is.

Anyone hungry for a piece of roasted fan belt?

Sorry, I know it's been a while. It's just that not much of note has happened in the last few days. I've been working a lot at the bookstore in my "free" time, and that is where the one and only interesting thing happened.

But before I get to that interesting thing, get this. In one night - one night! - I was asked two of my favorite bookstore questions:
1. Customer, after taking a long, hard look at my nametag which clearly says Barnes & Noble: "hi, do you work here?" No, sorry, I don't.
2. Customer: "can you tell me where the non-fiction section is?" "Well, ma'am, everything that's not in the fiction section is non-fiction, so could you maybe be a little more specific?"

And now, on to the car fire! We were closing the store one night, when one of my co-workers looked outside and informed us that there was a car on fire in the parking lot! It was crazy. The fire department showed up a few minutes later and took the entire car apart to make sure it wouldn't blow ip in the middle of the night. Sorry, no picture, though :-(

Holy Paperwork

I knew, entering the field of law, that there would be a lot of paper involved. But my (erroneous) assumption was that it would be paper having to do with clients, not with me.

Not true. In the last week or so, I've had to fill out stuff for the Missouri Bar, the US District Court, malpractice insurance, a notary commission, and...I'm forgetting something. And whatever that other thing is. I'm hoping that this is all because I'm new, and I won't have to do this forever. I think I need an assistant :-)

I'm Waiting...

K, it's time for a new question on your blog.

When your link fell off the bottom of the list, I got a special request to put it back on so that people could read it. Now give us something to wonder about!

Good work, Mom!

She finished the puzzle without my expert assistance!

Missouri Bar Enrollment Ceremony

Today, I became a lawyer! K, Dad, and Grandpa were in attendance at the ceremony, and lots of good wishes came in from peeps all over who couldn't make it. Thanks to everybody!

Sadly, there aren't any GOOD pictures of me getting my license, and until K sends me the ones she took (hint, hint), there aren't any! But here's what I have from the day:

The dome atop the Missouri State Capitol building

The Missouri Supreme Court building

Self-explanatory, isn't it?

J and I, after it was all said and done

The Reader -- Take 2

So, the truth is, I wasn't crazy about it. I thought the ending (which I won't spoil) was very appropriate to the story, but my fear that the entire book would be rather self-indulgent unfortunately came true. (Example: the narrator compares himself to the Holocaust victims because he was "betrayed" by the woman he loved, who worked for the SS during WWII.)

But the writing was pretty good, and I liked the way the author pointed out some little things in life that are so true, but don't seem particularly interesting or significant until someone writes about it. (Example: there's a section where the narrator is complaining that he can't sleep, so he sits up at night reading. As his eyes and his book start to close, he realizes what is happening, shuts the book, and turns off the light. As soon as the light is off, though, he's wide awake again. That happens to me all the time!)

Anyway, two good things I can say about the book are (1) that it was a pretty quick listen, and (2) it made my plane rides more entertaining than they otherwise would have been.

North Carolina, Day 4

Sorry for the delay in posting the pictures. I'm very busy and important :-)

Last day in NC :-( Sadness. But we had fun while we could. Mom made fresh biscuits for breakfast, and I had biscuits and gravy. We lazed around most of the morning working on two puzzles: a jigsaw puzzle, and a stereo puzzle (getting all the jigsaw pieces in the right place is way easier than getting everything out of boxes and making sure all the cords are plugged into the right place).
We went to lunch at Guglhupf bakery and had tasty soup, sandwiches, and pastries. It's the best bakery in D-town! After that, we met up with E and her friend G, and the four of us went to the Nasher, an art museum on the Duke campus. They had an exhibit on Picasso which E and G had planned to see, so Mom and I tagged along also. It was interesting, and there was a wider variety of stuff than I expected to see. I've only been to one Picasso exhibit before, and it had mostly cubist, Guernica-esque type works. And there were a lot of those here too, but also there were some more realistic ones, which I prefer.

North Carolina, Day 3

E had to work all day today, so Mom and I hung out. Mom made ebelskiver for breakfast, some of which were filled with raspberry jam and some with lemon curd. They were quite tasty.

We lounged around the house for a while doing not much of anything, then decided we should lounge around the pool. She still has a key to the pool at her old apartment - the new tenants aren't moving in until later this month - so we took advantage.

We did a couple errands after that: Barnes & Noble and Home Depot. We got loads of stuff at HD, and by "we" I mean "mom." I only got some paint samples. I've been wanting to live in a place that had some color on the walls, but I held off painting because I thought I was moving out of my apartment. Since I just signed a lease for another year, though, I'm considering my options. My colors are difficult to match, because the "living room" is brown with some red, olive, and yellow, and the "dining room" is lighter green and blue. But the two rooms aren't really separate, so I either have to find a color which works with both, or find some way to divide the two by using different colors. Choices, choices. And we know how well I do with those.

Anywho, after errands I went to yoga with E again. We did a lot of balancing work, some of which I was good at, and some of which almost made me fall on my face. Then we came back to mom's for another celebration dinner because E got 100% on her orgo exam! E also dug through some boxes of her kitchen stuff that my mom has, because she was inspired by the chocolate exhibit yesterday. She has a copper hot chocolate pot, and she wants to put her new hot chocolate cookbook to good use. And while she was polishing that, we decided to put ourselves to good use and also polish my mom's copper bowls. It was a pretty rockin' party. Too bad you missed it.

North Carolina is going to the Dogs

Some pictures of E's and Mom's dogs, Surya and Molly.

North Carolina, Day 2

I went to my very first yoga class today! It was fun, but there was definitely some stuff I couldn't do. Apparently I need to do more ab work. But I was pretty good with the leg stuff. I could stand to be a bit stretchier, but what can you do? E and I went, along with her friend T who came up from Wilmington for the day.

After yoga, the three of us, along with some of E's other friends, went to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences! Yesterday was BugFest, and outside the museum entrance there was a giant butterfly carved out of sand that was trucked in from the beach. There was also a giant shark's mouth that a full-grown adult could easily swim into without ever knowing you were inside a shark! They say this "Megatooth Shark" was and ancestor of the Great White. Twenty-five of his (possibly 308!) teeth were found in NC in 1992, and donated to the museum.

The reason we went, though was because there was a special Chocolate exhibit. It was all about the history of chocolate: the Mayans and the cacao tree, trading with the Aztecs who made a drink out of it, the Spanish invaders who took it back to Europe and added sugar, all the way through the modern making of candy bars. And we got a little piece of chocolate when we bought our tickets! The rest of the museum had free admission, and there were some cool things.

After the Chocolate, we went back to Mom's house for a bar passage party! There were 8 people in attendance: Mom, E, E's friend T from Wilmington, E's housemate, Mom's friends J and P, E's boyfriend B, and me (duh). We drank Vampire wine (red, of course), and there was some white too, and ate loads of food: chips and mango salsa, crackers with gouda, salad, baked chicken, risotto, asparagus, bread, pumpkin soup, and CAKE!

North Carolina, Day 1

First things first. I went to Art Outside at Schlafly Bottleworks with my friend L on Friday night. I bought this fabulous new necklace that I love! The little colored bits are microscopic images of pollen spores, which the artist printed and colored, then set in some powdery stuff which, when baked at high temperatures, becomes resin-like. I was so excited about it that I put it on my bed when I got home and packed for my trip, choosing only outfits which matched my new necklace!

It's possible that I've never had a flight as glorious as the one I had yesterday morning. There was nothing spectacular about the plane or anything, but I got to sleep the entire flight, except to wake up and ask for some water. It was badly needed, and it was lovely.

E picked me up from the airport, and we went to hang out with her boyfriend B. And by "hang out," I mean that I met him for the first time. He and a bunch of his friends have coffee together every Saturday and Sunday morning, so basically we were crashing the party. Then I got to see E's new house. She's sharing it with the woman who owns it, and together they have 3 dogs: Surya (E's dog), Starbuck, and Darius. Then off to see my mom's new house (everyone's moving!), which is super cute. Molly (mom's dog) is as crazy as ever, but Surya seems to put up with it very well.

E's green bedroom...

...and orange bathroom.

Mom's Kitchen

If I said I didn't take another short nap, I would be lying. Then we went to buy supplies for tonight's party! We went to this store called The Fresh Market, which was awesome! They had the most fantastic-looking produce, and lots of healthy organic stuff. Mom, E, and I went to dinner at a Japanese/Thai place called Shabashabu. It was quite tasty and well decorated. (It's in the old Macaroni Grill building where E used to work!) They had a jazz/r&b band playing live, which was great once we got them to turn the music down a bit.

Veggies at The Fresh Market

Who doesn't think Mimosa Jam sounds delish?

Our table setting at Shabashabu

E and me at Shabashabu

My chicken yakisoba -- quite tasty!

We saved our dessert for when we got home -- I made Rice Krispie Treats! I hadn't had them in forever, and they're so easy and delicious! We didn't last much past dessert; just a mug of tea and bed.

I Can't Believe I Forgot!

I passed the bar! So did J, and our friends L&L.

The Enrollment Ceremony where we get sworn in and officially become lawyers is on Thursday the 17th. We're headed back to Jefferson City for that, and after all the fuss, there's lunch with Paul to be had!

What I'm Reading Now -- The Reader

OK, actually I'm listening to it. I was searching through the audiobooks on my ipod for one about marketing at a small law firm. The problem, though, is that most of the tracks for the audiobooks are cryptically titled "Track 8," or something similarly unhelpful. I found one that was "Part 01 of 67," and discovered it to be Chapter 1 of The Reader. So now I'm listening.

The main character makes some interesting observations, but it's a little self-indulgent so far. We'll see how it goes.

What I'm Reading Now -- Eclipse

Actually, I finished it last night. I decided that reading about teenage vampire angst was more compelling than reading about WWI, at least when there's lots of other stuff going on. It's easier to turn pages and doesn't require as much of an emotional investment.

I read Twilight over this past Christmas break. Or was it the one before that? I can't remember. Anyway, the writing was terrible -- absolutely awful -- but my brain was tired from all that education I was getting, and having something totally mindless to look at made for a nice change of pace.

I made it through the second book, New Moon, during the semester! I think it was the only non-school book that I managed to read while classes were in session during all my three long years of law school.

I have to say, I did notice some MILD improvement in the writing between the first and third books (which doesn't mean much -- it's still not good). And the story is just as angst-ridden as ever, maybe worse. Now Bella is in love with two people, rather than just the one, so there are twice as many opportunities for her to whine about how miserable her lowly human existence is. However, this nonsense still keeps me turning pages, and it's one of the few things that's been able to do that lately. (Yes, I'm admitting that.)

I'm important, too!

I drove past a funeral home with its flags at half mast. I have never noticed it before, so I assume that their flags are usually at full mast, except to note "important" deaths. Shouldn't a funeral home's flags always be at half mast, to note the "important" death that is today's client? If that person isn't important enough to have the flags flown at half mast, I don't want my body to be shown at that home. I am half mast worthy at any funeral home, I think.

Airplane Tickets

I just bought tickets to go see my mom and my little sister in North Carolina. No big deal, right? People buy plane tickets every day.

But for some reason, whenever I buy them (especially online, because then I can't blame any errors on anyone else), I get irrationally nervous. I check umpteen gazillion times to make sure I have the right dates and the proper destination, and I still am totally freaked out that I did something wrong.

It all seems irrational because I know how to read a calendar, and I know the name of the place I want to go, so it really shouldn't be that hard. Maybe it's just because the airlines make it so impossible to change anything once you've actually purchased a ticket. But isn't that when they should be nicest to you? They already suckered you in once, and if they want you back again, they should make it a pleasant experience, no? But I guess they operate kind of like cell phone companies. If they're all big jerks all the time, then you have no incentive to go anywhere else, because you won't be treated any better.

Boo hiss.