A to Z

Lots of thoughts I've had but not blogged in the last month or so.

*Finally saw the last Harry Potter movie and waxed nostalgic about growing up with Harry.
*Also waxed nostalgic on September 11.
*Took the Little Guy to the zoo, Thanksgiving Point gardens, the aviary, and the State Fair (not all at once), and a great time was had by all.
*Watched the Little Guy grow up more every day until . . .
* . . . He had his first birthday this weekend. (WOW.)
*Made donuts for the first time ever yesterday.
*Working on starting up a small business. Yeah. I'm going to have a preneur.

But today isn't about writing those blog posts. It's about being lazy but wanting to post something, so . . . meme time! (Thanks to megcellent for this cop-out.)

A. Age? 28.
B. Bed Size? Given the choice, king. But our room is only big enough for queen.
C. Chore that you hate? Lots of them, but especially cleaning the bathtub.
D. Donuts? Yes, please. (Hey, I made some yesterday!) Love Banbury Cross donuts in Salt Lake.
E. Essential start to your day? Brush my teeth.
F. Favorite color(s)? Varies, but I do love most shades of blue.
G. Gold or silver? Silver.
H. Height? 5'5" ish.
I. Instruments you play? Piano, kazoo. I'd love to learn how to play guitar.
J. Job title? Work-at-home mom. Best description would probably be Freelancer, Independent Contractor, or, now, Entrepreneur. I guess. Also Writer.
K. Kids? One, the best Little Guy EVER.
L. Live? For theatre, yes. For TV, usually DVR.
M. Mother’s name? Ellen.
N. Netflix? Oh, yeah.
O. Overnight hospital stay(s)? I think just two. Obviously when I was born (does that really count?) and when I gave birth to the Little Guy (for five nights because of the c-section—does that count as more?).
P. Pet peeves? Improper spelling, punctuation and grammar. (I saw someone the other day write "Can you blaim them?" No, but I can and will blame them severely.) Just recently I've also picked up a new one: Bicyclists who do not follow traffic laws. I would love to share the road with you, folks. But it's a lot easier when you don't run red lights or SWERVE RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY CAR WHEN I'M DRIVING 40 MPH. Thank you.
Q. Quote from a movie? Almost always. Today let's go with "I swear she ain't using real words." -Chicken Run.
R. Right or left-handed? Right.
S. Siblings? One older brother and three younger sisters.
T. Time to wake up? About 20 minutes later than I end up actually waking up.
U. Unusual quirks/phobias/factoids? Praying mantises freak me the heck out. Also snakes and really big spiders. And calling people on the phone. My main quirk is that I have a freakishly good memory for useless facts and trivia (see Quote from a movie above).
V. Vegetable you hate? Beets and nalcas.
W. What makes you run late? *sigh* What doesn't? I'm going to say that it's because, unlike George-Michael Bluth, I don't have a really good natural sense of rhythm.
X. X-rays you’ve had? Dental and once on my ankle when it got caught in a bike spoke when I was three or so.
Y. Yummy food that you make? I make a mean enchilada. And those donuts I made yesterday were pretty tasty. And the Geek Out Crew tends to like my Brie Bread and Cherry White Chocolate Twist.
Z. Zoo animal: Gotta love the monkeys and the penguins.


It's not much, but it's something. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

2010, at last.

Yes, yes, I know I'm a month late for the year-in-review game. Just live with it.

Here are some of the awesome things that happened in 2010. As I suspected, it was a MUCH better year than 2009. (Although, let's be honest, it wasn't hard to do.) As always, if I didn't list something you thought was awesome, it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it; I just can't remember everything.

*The new year began with what was probably the best party we've ever had or ever will have at our house. New Year's Eve: Geek Style brought awesome Jenga, lots of laughter, great conversation, and just enough craziness to ensure that none of those present will ever be elected for public office.
*Beginning the final semester of law school and feeling great about my schedule, even though it involved an 8:00 a.m. class three days a week.
*Actually making it to class on time for the first several weeks of class.
*Getting Baby (our car) repaired after she sat in the cold and snow for a month and a half after the big break-down in November '09.
*Having to repair a flat tire in the snow and gunk of our parking lot before we could actually take Baby in.
*Steve's Intermountain is the best mechanic's shop in Provo. Just sayin'. He's honest, doesn't talk down to me just because I'm a woman, and is genuinely nice.
*Staying home all day one Wednesday while feeling sick and crampy and reading.
*Aubrey's wedding with Kat and KEY.
*New red coat, yo.
*Rejoining ILMR and editing a really horrible article, but at least the head editors were much better.
*Working at WSP with an awesome team of editors and friends.
*Geek Night X. The second-best party we've ever had here.
*Making Mario cupcakes with KEY for Geek Night X. Yeah, I'm still proud of those.
*Shallow Man finding the trauco in an old box while KEY and I were decorating said cupcakes.
*Our already-decrepit fence blew halfway over in a major windstorm and we had no choice but to pull the rest of it down to avoid damaging the siding.
*More Just Jane, including the expansion to 10 members, with the inaugural meeting of the new, improved club also being the first non-Austen-themed, but still Jane [Eyre].
*Lunches with KEY, when they happened. And even when they didn't, the weekly "I'm so sorry for being a flake, but . . ." conversations.
*Starting to feel a little weird the last week of January/first week of February, but knowing it wasn't what it felt like.
*Buying cruise tickets with the Cruise Crew on Friday, Feb. 5th.
*Taking that test on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 6th, just to prove to my body that it wasn't pregnant so it could stop acting like it.
*Ten minutes later, when I could think again, wandering dazedly into the bedroom and, after staring at the ceiling for several minutes, saying to Shallow Man, "So . . . I think I'm pregnant."
*Driving to Walmart that evening to buy another test just to make sure, and having the car start acting really funny again as we drove there.
*While shopping, thinking of the most hill-free route to take home to save the car from going up any hills while it was on the fritz, then getting out to the car and finding out that it would no longer shift into reverse. This officially bumped the two days of Feb. 5th & 6th, 2010, into "Most expensive weekend yet in our family."
*Riding in a tow truck.
*Our ever-growing collection of Steve's Intermountain keychains. Finding out it was not the whole transmission, thank goodness, just the sensor. FINALLY having a functioning car, but being afraid to accelerate or go up hills for the next (okay, I'll be honest) three months.
*Walking to the Student Health Center on Monday afternoon to get the blood test and trying to figure out how far along I was.
*Getting the quantitative results back and wanting to sing.
*Feeling great until placement break (of course!) and then getting hit with morning sickness, big time.
*Working from home. A lot.
*Missing a lot of class. (My professors were all in on the secret and very supportive.)
*Going to a lot of different wards (our 9:00 a.m. meeting time didn't gel with my hours-that-I-am-not-hunched-over-the-toilet schedule).
*Julie and Julia for Valentine's.
*Telling the rest of my family (my parents already knew) at my birthday party. Much rejoicing.
*The tree in our backyard had to be cut down before the HOA would replace the fence (we at least got them to pay for the removal). It ended up being removed on the morning of my birthday.
*And thus we were introduced to the power of the pregnant sobbing. (Confession: I would have cried about the tree anyway. But I wouldn't have been reduced to blubbering.)
*Trying to make dinner for one of the pregnant sisters in the ward without looking at any of the ingredients, all of which made me sick.
*The saddest day of all: Baby decided not to let me eat bacon for the rest of the first trimester. This is especially sad when you consider that I had just discovered The Pioneer Woman's Fancy Macaroni the first week of February.
*Shallow Man took me to see 12 Angry Men performed at PTC in Salt Lake for my birthday. I snuck in trail mix and managed not to get sick during the performance. Lots of fun!
*Olympics! So much fun to watch. Also, they helped me discover the joys of pregnancy emotions (I have never cried so hard during a commercial).
*Bar applications. Yuck.
*Hire's and the Roquefort Bacon H. "Whatever that is."
*Cousin party and Rayman's Raving Rabbids. Whoa.
*Going to the first doctor's appointment in March and having everything look good. But, just in case, he scheduled a sonogram for the next week.
*Coming back to work after that appointment just to find out that the company had apparently imploded (not literally) in our absence and that all but a handful of employees were being laid off.
*We were not included in that handful. Actually, everyone from me down.
*Which meant that I got to break the news to all of my friends that they were being laid off. This included going to the homes of two of them who hadn't been in the office to let them know before they heard it from somebody else.
*Fortunately, seven horrible days later, we saw Baby for the first time, and heard the most beautiful sound ever: a strong, healthy heartbeat.
*Spilling the beans to everyone and seeing all our friends get so excited for us. (I put it on Facebook, and then it was true!)
*Viewing party for New Moon (mocking commentary mandatory!) and the Team Jacob t-shirt.
*Morning sickness escalation and the first prescription, which made it worse. Lost five pounds in one weekend alone.
*Getting the second prescription and starting to feel human again.
*Except for the only being able to eat Easy Mac part. But HEY, if that looked appetizing, it should give you an idea of the amazing effectiveness of that second prescription!
*Going to Cracker Barrel because spoiled pork chops made me cry. (Yeah, not fun.)
*SLA night II, which ended up being me, Motion deSmiths and Megan watching "She's the Man." Awesome.
*Going in for our 12-week appointment the day before my last law school classes. I had nightmares for the whole week leading up to it about the last time we went in for a 12-week appointment. But he found the heartbeat instantly. I may or may not have cried.
*Holy cow, I do not even know HOW I finished that last semester of law school. But I did.
*Last class of law school.
*Last final of law school (which is the closest I will ever get to living that nightmare where you have to take a final for a class you didn't realize you were enrolled in).
*Substantial writing, aka Major Paper (neigh!). It nearly killed me, but I did it.
*Last papers of law school, for the most useless class ever, and the professor who I'm pretty sure gave me a lower grade because I had the audacity to be pregnant while taking his class, even though I can't prove it. He was the only professor who wasn't 100% supportive and willing to work with me. He did work with me, but under protest and not without accusing me of unprofessionalism first. Blech.
*Graduation! I am so glad we got to walk in the Provo Tabernacle! We were the last class to be able to do so, as there was a fire in December and the roof collapsed.
*Partying, relaxing, and lots of sighs of relief.
*Hitting the second trimester two days before graduation, and briefly thinking that the morning sickness would stop. (It did leave me alone for graduation, thank goodness.) This turned out to be a lie—the sickness wasn't going anywhere for the next few months. But at least I could eat bacon again.
*Being re-hired by the publishing company as a part-time independent contractor.
*Mother's Day wasn't traumatic for the first time in several years.
*CRUISE!!!
*The toilet of lost souls.
*"Aw, hell."
*Balcony!
*Cruise director Gary.
*Dennis, our waiter. ("Denniiiiiiiiis!")
*I ate escargot for the first time ever.
*Only having to send one plate back because I nearly gagged just looking at it (roast beef, of all things, which I love. Weird.)
*Cruise ship entertainment. ("You can't pay money for those shows!") The big talking purple couch.
*The Land Whale. ("Freeeeennnnnncch Toooooooooast!")
*Our seven-year anniversary, spent in Grand Cayman, with the most beautiful beach I have ever been to.
*The group excursion in Honduras—snorkeling, good conversation, yellow fish, not enough sunscreen despite reapplying frequently and liberally.
*Feeling Baby kick for the first time that I could definitely say was Baby and nothing else while standing waist-deep in the beautiful blue water at the beach in Honduras.
*Banana slug blisters. Apparently my pregnant skin does NOT react well to sunburn. (I haven't blistered since I was maybe 12, and never like THAT.)
*Magic shows with lame final tricks that rely on fictional sob stories.
*Piggy banks made out of coconuts, discovering ice cream and cinnamon, and an amazingly choppy boat ride in Belize.
*Karaoke and attempted dancing.
*Delicious food in Cozumel.
*Floppy hat!
*Trying to figure out what the heck the towel animal of the evening was supposed to be, and sometimes feeling glad that we didn't know.
*Renting a van and driving around Miami.
*Horrible service at Bubba Gump's, which I didn't notice because Baby had started the first-ever round of kick the bladder.
*Worst ever TSA experience at Miami international.
*Weather delay in Miami led to missing our flight in Dallas. After a mad dash across the airport on what ultimately turned out to be a wild goose chase (more Kick the Bladder ensued), we and the Smiths were given vouchers to a surprisingly nice hotel.
*Finally getting home, and the cats gluing themselves to our sides for the next day or so. ("Never leave again!")
*Early morning Spanish.
*Helping friends move.
*The most awkward dinner visit we've ever been forced to endure. (If you're reading this, it wasn't with you.)
*So much Gloria's.
*Camping for Memorial Day with our AWESOME NEW AIR MATTRESS. Seriously, it's amazing.
*Motion deSmiths left us. How we wept, precious!
*The Ultrasound on June 3rd. Despite having a feeling that Baby was a girl the whole time, as well as having a girl's name already picked out, baby very clearly showed us that he was a boy. He also was sitting curled up like a potato bug, blocking the technician's detailed view of his heart, thus necessitating a follow-up visit six weeks later (oh, darn!).
*GIVE MY SON THE JUICE!!!
*Family camping trip. Lots of fun with Kick the Bladder and pit toilets. Wind so strong we felt like our tent was going to blow away with us in it. Being the cool hangout for our nephews because with the huge air mattress our tent was like a carnival bounce house.
*I remember we got our oil changed in June because the sticker they left on our windshield said that the date for our next oil change was the day Baby ended up being born.
*Southern Culture Night. Hands on a Hard Body. Lots of good food. Very Yes.
*I finally finished reading Great Expectations, and it was better than I had expected.
*Lots of fun trying to change our car battery. Riiiiight.
*But we got the car inspected and registered and such WAY before the end of the month. No sneaking around backroads like last year.
*Fireworks with the family for the fourth.
*Bar study all the time. Post-traumatic stress and such.
*Follow-up ultrasound, where everything still looked perfect. :)
*One year later, and thinking what a long way we'd come, and being happier on that day than I would have thought possible a year before.
*Actually getting to go to my mom's birthday party this year.
*Having to get a doctor's note in order to take food into the bar exam. ("Because not all pregnant women need to eat.")
*The Dreaded Bar. Two days of UNGH in which my feet swelled up to ridiculous sizes.
*BUT—my magic spreadsheet predicting the essay question topics was pretty much spot on. The only one I didn't predict was Property, but that was okay because it was still an MBE subject. Yeah, I felt good about that.
*IT'S OVER!!!!
*Dinner at the Mayan with Megan and Mr. G, just because it was there. It's still as cheesy as I remembered, although I was greatly angered that the chocolate pot was no longer a dessert option.
*Finding out that E was pregnant and S was adopting, and we were all having boys. Hello, three musketeers!
*Being able to say that we were now "After the Bar."
*Failing the other test I took that week. (Nasty glucose test.)
*Failing the other nasty glucose test I took the next week.
*Hello, gestational diabetes.
*Hello, sore fingertips.
*Possible pre-eclampsia (what is with these whale-sized feet?). Fun sample collecting.
*Celebratory post-bar pedicures. (So at least the whales had cute toenails.)
*Inception. Twice. Even though my feet hated me for it later.
*We bought a car seat and stroller! That felt like a major accomplishment, somehow.
*Trying to find a suitable crib.
*Trying to figure out what the heck to name the Little Guy.
*Tensions between Barrie and Joyce.
*Weekly and sometimes bi-weekly non-stress tests, as well as another couple of ultrasounds. Which do, incidentally, help ME de-stress, because I get to see the Little Guy and hear his heartbeat on a regular basis. We find out baby has a big noggin.
*Reunions and birthday parties.
*Reading The Hunger Games Trilogy and being very glad, as I hit the end of the second book, that I waited until all three were out before I started them.
*Pre-natal classes with uncomfortable chairs and videos.
*Blood pressure acting sketchy.
*Geek Nights, Just Janes, more tense moments.
*Bar results come out and WE BOTH PASSED. Holy cow.
*Baby shower!
*The crib FINALLY arrives and we start putting it together Thursday night after our class.
*Friday morning I go to my 36-week appointment, planning to run some errands afterwards and then wait at home for the delivery man to show up with the new camera we've ordered. Instead, the nurse looks at my blood pressure and sends me to labor and delivery.
*Did I mention I was planning to pack my hospital bag later that day?
*Shallow Man's wonderful co-worker brings him to the doc's office and we head to the hospital. My angel sister heads to our house and packs bags for us, arranges for a neighbor to sign for the camera and bring it to us (she was headed to a concert in SLC and couldn't wait for it herself, which only increases her angelitude in my opinion), and even cleaned up the boxes from the crib (which we were too tired to throw away the night before) and fed the cats. At some point in the next few days she even did laundry for us, and I don't know what all else. Let me take a moment again to emphasize that she is amazing and an angel. Thank you so much, sis!
*The short version here is that after 30 hours of labor, I had a c-section on Saturday night and the Little Guy made his entrance to the world. Shallow Man and I fell instantly in love with him and it's only gotten better.
*Adventures in hospital staying. I found out that morphine is awesome. And I have never been happier to eat a milkshake in my life.
*Finally made it home the next week, although I had to get a prescription for blood pressure meds because mine was still higher than they liked.
*Having a moment of panic when I had to sign the "Parent/Guardian" line on the hospital release forms.
*Near-daily visits to the hospital lab for bilirubin counts. We were nearly on a first-name basis with the nurses there.
*One night with the Little Guy on bililights and I hope I never have to do that again.
*A fun trip to the emergency room for me because my blood pressure was reading something like 201/120. Yeah. When we got there and it was only reading 175/105, they couldn't understand why that made us so happy. Meds were upped and things turned out okay.
*Tripping down the stairs one of my first days home alone with the baby. Not recommended.
*Shallow Man having to work till 11 p.m. most nights the week after we came home. Also not recommended.
*Much pain and suffering and frustration and tears (on both ends) trying to figure out the whole nursing thing. Thank goodness for the lactation clinic.
*Being sworn in as lawyers and actually getting to go to the ceremony. Wahoo!
*Oh, losing, like, 40 pounds in the first three weeks after the birth. I was back in pre-pregnancy pants two weeks after he was born. I don't know how it happened, but I'm not complaining!
*Making a Hiccup (from "How to Train Your Dragon") costume for the Little Guy for Halloween, even though he maybe should have been Mount Vesuvius.
*The arrival of two more geeklings (one before, one after the Little Guy, and both girls).
*Slowly and gradually healing.
*The Little Guy's blessing day. I've been waiting for that one for a long time. (Yes, I cried.)
*Going to the funeral for my great-aunt, the last surviving member of my grandmother's family. Losing one of the Little Guy's socks at the graveside service.
*Thanksgiving. And pie. But mostly thankfulness for being so blessed.
*The Little Guy's two-month appointment. He is a string bean—long and skinny, but very healthy and cheerful.
*Completing 30 blog posts in 30 days for NaBloPoMo.
*Going to the Christmas party for Shallow Man's work at La Caille. Delicious food, even if the atmosphere is a bit silly. Two of his team members (sitting at our table) won prizes. We enjoyed the juxtaposition of our car being brought up by the valets at the fancy restaurant.
*The failed attempt to see my sister's quartet perform, and the encore just for us.
*Getting to see Red and Harry Potter in theaters when awesome people baby-sat the Little Guy for us.
*Finally leaving the publishing company for good and all.
*Working with Shallow Man again, only this time he's my supervisor, sort of.
*Little Guy's first smile.
*Little Guy's first laugh.
*Little Guy just being awesome in general.
*Another cousins party at the end of the year, this time with three new babies. :)
*We are a three-stocking family now!
*Spending Christmas at my parent's house along with my sister and her family because they were moving out of state on Christmas afternoon. Packing up their house in the days before Christmas.
*The best Christmas ever.
*Also the most tearful as we all gave our last hugs and goodbyes and my sister and her family packed up and drove off for four years of school in the South.
*One wonderful week of having a bread maker before it died.
*First eye appointments since the beginning of law school.
*Oddly, all of our invited guests for New Year's Eve ended up having to cancel, so we rang out 2010 as a family, with just the three of us. It was a good end to a good year, and I think the vast difference between the beginning and the end of 2010 were in keeping with the other surprises and changes that came along the way.

Yeah, all in all, I think 2010 is my favorite year yet. As the Little Guy grows and develops even more of a personality and gets even cuter (if such a thing is possible), I'll be excited to see what comes next!

You're on notice, 2011. You've got a lot to live up to.




I have to say, seeing as this post is a month and a bit late, that so far 2011 has not disappointed. Onward and upward!

Victory Lap!!!

Well, we made it! I didn't know, at the beginning of the month, if I'd be typing up my 30th post in as many days today, but it worked! Thanks to all of you who have stuck around during this undertaking.

I've realized that blogging more frequently is a lot of fun, and completely doable as long as I make time for it specifically. That being said, I've also realized that I don't necessarily have enough to say to keep blogging every day. Looking back at the last 30 days, I've done:

*A whole lot of cop-out posts, usually about how tired I am because of something the Little Guy has been up to. Don't get me wrong; I would much rather be tired and boring and have the Little Guy around than be energetic and witty and still childless. But as I have said before, being a good mommy sometimes means I have to be a bad (or at least uninteresting) blogger.

*A few posts about musicals you may not have heard of but should totally check out.

*A book review.

*A series about word nerd-age.

*Much linkage.

*A moderately successful De-Lurk Day (if you never did de-lurk, or if you thought you weren't included because you don't technically lurk, you are still more than welcome to comment now!).

*Maybe one or two actually interesting posts about random stuff from my brain.

Not too shabby, I suppose, but it also has lots of room for improvement, substance-wise. I'm thinking of some changes and organization for the blog which I hope to implement in the coming month. But I reserve the right to occasionally pop in with nothing more than a note saying I'm still a mommy, and I'm still alive. But I guess if you've made it this far with me, you'll probably understand that. And, as always, if you have any suggestions and/or requests for blog post topics, please let me know and I will do my best to oblige.

Thanks to all of you for reading, and for making me feel like there were people I shouldn't disappoint, which kept me posting here this month. I love knowing that people read this random stuff I write, and that some of you even enjoy it.

So I guess I'll see you in December!



My Amazon PayPhrase today was "Elliespen's Unstable Essays." I'm not sure what to think about that.

And, in case you didn't notice before, yes, this is DAY 30! Mission accomplished!

You never know what a Monday will bring.

So today did not start out very promisingly. In short, things did not look good for Homestar Runner (read: the rest of my week). I got to work and found out that my little half-gallon of milk, whose sell-by date will not arrive for two more days, not only smelled rancid but had little bits of stuff floating on top. I don't know how a half-of-a-half-gallon of milk spoils that badly over a weekend (Shallow Man surmises that there was a power outage over the weekend and the fridge got turned off for a while), but it didn't make me happy in any event. This frustration was repeated when it turned out that half of my individually wrapped string cheese packets (whose best-by date is not until Oct. 30) had also started to putrify in their wrappers. This is not the way you want to start a Monday.

I'd rather not get into the story of how my boss's inability to handle looking at and sending out a 1-sentence document in less than 96 hours also started to send my blood pressure skyrocketing. Let's just say I'm not getting paid nearly enough. And that it did not bode well for the rest of my week.

Third trimester nausea is also back in full force and was really making its presence felt today, too. But I don't want to talk about that, either.

But then Shallow Man and I had an appointment for another ultrasound today, this one as a follow-up for the exciting new gestational diabetes issues going on. Baby is doing fine but was being a punk and hiding again so we couldn't see his face. But seeing the rest of him helped lower the blood pressure significantly. The technician took all his measurements and then took them out to the doctor, so the doctor saw Baby's stats before she saw us, and was a little worried about how big his head seems to be (not ginormous, but bigger than you'd expect). Then she came in and saw Shallow Man's large noggin, and heard how even I have a hard time finding a hat that isn't too small, and she was reassured. Yayy for crazy genetics rather than weird complications, I suppose. We also got a good picture of Baby's foot and determined for certain that he has what are referred to in my family as "Daddy toes." Very cute. (Can't tell yet if they're webbed like his daddy's or not, though.) So that helped make Monday feel a bit better.

And when we got home my Monday luck underwent a major change. I may or may not have mentioned in my last post that I like YA literature. And that I am anticipating the release of several awesome YA books this year.

Well, one of those books is the highly-anticipated Mockingjay, the final book in Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games series. (I must admit that this is not the number one book on my list of anticipated releases, but that's just because I haven't had a chance to actually read the first two yet. Law school managed to take up a lot of time, and then I figured I may as well just wait until the third one is out so I don't have to do the whole waiting-so-impatiently thing. But it was still number 4 on my list.)

Mockingjay is not supposed to be released until tomorrow, August 24, 2010. Or, at the very least, at midnight tonight.

Yeah, Amazon just delivered it to my door about an hour ago.

This means a few things:

1. Someone at Amazon made a shipping error.
2. This kind of shipping error would be considered lucky for the recipient.
3. I am that recipient.
4. That means something lucky happened to me, to wit, I have a copy of the year's most highly anticipated YA release in my hot little hands a full seven hours before I am supposed to.
5. This situation definitely calls for a diabolical laugh.
6. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

This is not the kind of lucky thing that happens to me very often. I can't decide if this means that my week is not going to be as horrible as I was afraid it would be, that my overall life luck pattern is about to change for the better, or that the universe is simply giving me a small apology for a quarter-gallon of wasted milk and the fact that I had to eat my regularly scheduled peanut-butter-and-jam-on-toast with no milk to wash it down this morning.

I figure, whatever works.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a trilogy to read.

Story time! And time for a VOTE!

And again, this isn't a real post. But it will be, WITH YOUR HELP!

So many great and blog-worthy things have happened in the last couple of weeks. Well, some not so great, but still blog-worthy. But the upshot is that with all the time I've spent actually living through these things (and the rest of my time being spent doing ridiculous law school stuff *cough*edits*cough*), I haven't had time to actually blog about them. And now I'm just too tired to blog about them all.

So I think I'll put it to a vote. Do you want to hear about:

1. The night we did epic battle with the fence in the massive windstorm with 40 mph gusts?

2. The epic saga of Doooooooom! that is our car, beginning with a failed attempt to see my little sister's play and ending, most recently, with us being stranded at Walmart this evening?

3. A love song to mac and cheese and my newfound domesticity?

4. An ode to my car's left turn signal (not to be confused with the epic saga of Doooooooom!)?

5. A well thought-out and intelligent book review of an awesome book I just finished reading?

6. A tale of adventure on the high seas?

7. Or an introduction to a new blog?


Leave a comment with your top three votes, and I'll write a blog post on the winner, and possibly the runners-up, sometime this week.

Until then, I think I'm going to take another nap.

But Mother, I don't WANT to edit an article about civil liability!

(said in my best Wendy voice)

Argh.

I have two or three great posts I want to write up for the blog but I can't because I'm supposed to be editing an article for the law journal.

I don't LIKE editing articles for the law journal. First off, I don't think it's the editor's (namely, my) job to write your thesis sentence, roadmaps, arguments and footnotes for you if you couldn't do it yourself. Is this the way it works for all journals? Because with my limited experience in publishing, it seems like editors usually give the author ideas, suggestions and feedback about what work needs to be done and then make her do it herself. (And why is our journal accepting articles that have no discernible theses to begin with? Who knows.)

The point is, there are so many more interesting and useful things I'd like to be doing. Cleaning off the kitchen desk. Baking bread. Exercising while catching up on Gilmore Girls. Playing old-school video games. Blogging.

Come on, people! Don't you understand? There are cupcakes to decorate (a new-found love), scarves to knit (because I'm totally going to teach myself to do that now), hats to crochet, old blogs to read, new blogs to discover, recipes to try, offices to organize, houses to redecorate, numbers to paint by, and OH MY GOODNESS books to read.

SO. MANY. BOOKS. (Some of them written by highly attractive Welshmen.)

FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, THERE ARE BOOKS TO BE READ!!!!

And, unfortunately, at least one article on civil liability for misstatements in offer documents (yeah, you read that right) to edit.

With attendant threats of demerits if someone doesn't get it done in time. (Really, people? Demerits? Really?? Are we not past the elementary school stage yet?)

So the books by gorgeous Welshmen will have to wait.

And so will you, because my more interesting posts will not get written tonight.

So long, 2009!

So I've been looking back at 2009 and I just can't quite muster up the same feelings of AWESOME as I did for 2008. Which is probably because 2008 was pretty darn awesome and it would probably be hard to beat by just about any year's standards. But I think it also has a bit to do with the fact that, in many respects, 2009 was just not that great. It did have some good points, but the overall backdrop for my personal year (see, e.g. the economy) helped lend a sense of doom and foreboding to the year. And I don't think it was just me.

But here are some of the things that come to mind when I think about 2009:

*Finishing up my second year of law school.
*Starting up my third year of law school and seeing the end approaching quickly.
*Geek nights galore. We have seen this thing grow from an impromptu game of Duck Hunt to a massive behemoth of multiple systems, games, tons of people, lots of good food, and networking galore.
*Making a very successful pitch to the CEO, CFO and other higher-ups of World Book, Inc.
*Helping to pull a publishing company out of the "some guy working out of the garage" mode to a more stable level. We've moved from the garage to the basement, I guess you could say, but we also have not only a consistent stream of projects each month, we've also got a cushion of projects that are already done so we're ahead of the game.
*Combining my publishing company experiences with Geek Night experiences and being able to hire several of my friends.
*Editing essays. Oh, the essays I've edited. . . .
*Trip to Alabama to visit Shallow Man's family. Love his grandparents.
*Having Shallow Man's sister drop our camera on the hard tile floor and breaking it as we were about to leave. We still haven't bothered to get it fixed, come to think of it.
*This is partly due to the fact that I have continued trying to maintain my Lemony Snicket-type existence, keeping photos to a minimum.
*SPENT and the epic-ness that was the Katamari presentation. Also the battle of the chairs and a return to junior high drama. (Good times, good times.)
*Taking a class from one of the most inspiring and all-around awesome people I ever hope to know, Michael Goldsmith.
*Getting a chance to sass back at Prof. Goldsmith and watch him enjoy it and play along.
*Yeah, I also got a pretty good one-liner off in Business Associations. (Hey, I told you the year wasn't great; I have to take what small pleasures I can get here!)
*Continuing to get to know the awesome people in my law school class. (But not the 2Ls. They are not awesome. Except for a few.)
*Getting a chance to finally read To Kill A Mockingbird for a class.
*Getting to write a paper about TKAM, A Man For All Seasons and Alice in Wonderland, of all things.
*Footnotes. Beautiful, beautiful footnotes. Lengthy, beautiful non sequiturs in footnotes.
*Trying to finish a paper while sitting in my car in the early morning waiting for the gas company to arrive because the carbon monoxide alarm had gone off and thinking we had a leak.
*Oh, the chagrin of realizing that it was just an "Lb" for "low battery" and not a "97" for "that's a lot of toxic gas floating around in your house", which we probably would have realized a lot earlier if we hadn't been so dang sleep-deprived from finals at the time.
*Ice cream after finals.
*Our fifth anniversary. (Holy crap!)
*Finally finding a great doctor who listened to ME and not to the sound of his own voice.
*Getting that positive pregnancy test back in May. Very high point of the year.
*Making lists and plans for the baby.
*Seeing my mother's face (and the faces of the rest of my family) when we told them the good news. They probably had already figured it out, anyway, though, because of the sheer number of times I had to use the bathroom during that camping trip.
*KAT CAME BACK!!!
*Just Jane. I think you girls saved my sanity this year, in so many ways.
*Being an orphan in June when Shallow Man was in DC and all of my other family members were on fun vacations without me.
*Helping to clean out my grandfather's house when he moved into my aunt's house, and seeing the family gathering spot for as long as I can remember all out of sorts and empty. Then seeing it again later after it had been remodeled and loving the new changes, and thinking that it's good that life still goes on.
*Working from home periodically through the first part of the summer when I was feeling sick.
*Seeing that motorcycle accident with the car who made the illegal u-turn over by Riverwoods with KEY and Shallow Man. Crazy.
*Sitting in the doctor's office while he tried to find the heartbeat with the doppler. Sitting downstairs while he tried to find the heartbeat on the ultrasound. Sitting in the hospital waiting for the grouchy ultrasound technician to get around to telling us the results and praying that it wouldn't be what we already knew it would be.
*The worst four hours of my life on July 16th.
*Love and support from family and friends and God.
*The other blog.
*Weddings for my cousins.
*Henry Crawford, Henry Crawford, and Henry Crawford. Did I mention Henry Crawford?
*Driving on back roads for the first few days of August because we hadn't been able to get our car repaired for inspection before July ended.
*Babysitting my nephew and taking him to church while my sister was in the hospital having my new niece.
*New niece = very yes.
*SYTYCD in the summer with KEY and my sis.
*Getting a new nephew, too.
*Baby blessings and almost having to leave my niece's because you just never know when suddenly something is going to be too much. But making it through anyway with only Shallow Man and the four-year-old sitting in front of us really noticing anything.
*Just Jane again. Did I mention you girls are amazing?
*Firing people but finally getting a working staff.
*That horrible, horrible FSU game.
*Discovering the Art City Trolley.
*Game day at the cabin at last.
*Swine flu. Very No.
*Playstation 3, yo. It has changed my life.
*Actually passing the MPRE after not getting enough time to study for it. And kind of rocking it. (Why can't I do that with finals?)
*The primary kids. And the parties. And nearly going insane some weeks.
*Going to see Ingrid Michaelson in October with Kat and KEY. Epic.
*Pink plaid shoes. Oh yes.
*SYTYCD concert with Kat and my sisters. Epic, epic, epic.
*The impromptu dance party with all those other cars stuck at that malfunctioning light.
*The passing of two great men in November within two days of each other: My grandfather and Prof. Goldsmith. A week of funerals and tears, that one, and of good reunions with friends and family. Bittersweet to say the least.
*Fixing the oven door that had been broken ALL BY MYSELF.
*Seeing "Singin' in the Rain" at Hale, even though I had a headache afterwards.
*Working at the same place as Shallow Man and how interesting that's been.
*Billy the bookcase says hello.
*Thanksgiving with my entire family -- so much fun.
*Finishing my Christmas shopping early because I actually knew, for once, what I wanted to get for Shallow Man weeks in advance, and I still managed to surprise him a little bit.
*ROCK BAND. And Lego Rock Band.
*Finishing a 20-page paper in less than 24 hours.
*Having major scares at Stake Conference.
*Baby, our car, finally breaking down. Borrowing Bertha from my cousin. (Thanks again!)
*The adventure to Temple Square and breaking Kat's screen.
*Getting surprised on Christmas with an iPod touch.
*Getting released from Primary without 1) asking for it, 2) moving out of the ward, 3) having a baby or 4) getting a new calling. I still think this might be unprecedented in our ward.
*Extreme Jenga.
*An amazing New Year's Eve party.

This, of course, is in addition to all the late nights with the Smiths, hanging out with other good friends, long conversations with KEY, getting my Kat back, hiring all my friends, great movies and good fun (I especially enjoyed "Up" and "Star Trek") and good books (mostly re-reads, though). So, all in all, not a horrible year, even though I've had better.

Now let's just hope that 2010 can beat its predecessor. I'm looking forward to it.


I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of things here. Just know that if I haven't mentioned something it doesn't necessarily mean I didn't enjoy it. I probably did, in point of fact, but my brain, while it holds an amazing number of things, still does not do everything.

A year of AWESOME!

Once again I can't believe that it's almost the end of the year. Which makes me think back over the year and what I've done. Which mostly adds up to a whole lotta law reading, which I don't feel accurately encompasses the spirit of the year, which was, overall, awesome, and full of awesome things. Here, in no particular order, are several of the awesome things I discovered and/or did this year:

*Geek-out night. Wow. As many as 11 people, three TVs, two couches, one giant LoveSac, five game systems, tons of controllers and many many nerdular games all packed into our living/dining room. Best. Idea. Ever.
*Katamari. And again I say, Katamari. When I tell you that, with all the above paraphernalia available, most of the time we all just sat around watching in fascination as someone played Katamari, you'll begin to understand the sheer awesomeness thereof.
*The fact that we went out and got a PS2 within a few days after the first Geek-out night just so we could play Katamari.
*Duck Hunt. Yeah, I'd never played it before. Which is how Geek-out night got started.
*The Smiths. I can't believe we spent so much time in the same ward, not to mention all the law classes with Maret, before we all realized that we should be spending more time together.
*The Newells. See the above comment except for the part about being in the same ward.
*Also the Shills. Even though we already sort of knew you before.
*Arrested Development. Thanks, the Smiths. You have truly enriched our lives.
*Gilmore Girls. I can't believe I hadn't watched this show before -- I never knew just what a barren wasteland my life was until I was introduced to them in September by the amazing KEY.
*KEY. Wow. We're the same person. See above re: barren wasteland.
*The accordion player at Ottavio's.
*As always, Facebook.
*Many blogs, but especially Cake Wrecks and Seriously, So Blessed.
*Skype.
*Wall-E, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and many other pretty cool movies I saw.
*Sitting outside at late-thirty with Kat, my cousins, and assorted sisters for the Breaking Dawn release. Yes; yes, I am a nerd.
*Kansas. Okay, not really as awesome as I might have hoped. But throw in Oklahoma, the wedding of Margo, her awesome family and also awesome now-husband, plus many, many, many hours of Kat-time = tres awesome. As in, three. Or very. (Yeah, I can speak a couple of extra languages. Can't you?)
*Cleanth and Trilling.
*Leopard. Ahhhh.
*Rooming with Ameeanne while Shallow Man was out of the country.
*So You Think You Can Dance: Season four.
*So You Think You Can Dance: The TOUR! See commentary above under Breaking Dawn. (I am approximately 13 years old. But at least I don't think Stephenie Meyer deserves a Nobel Literature prize, right?)
*Speaking of which, an increased familiarity with the Nobel Literature Laureates. And their photos. Seriously awesome. (Watch out for Lagerkvist-less Pars.)
*The Dutiful Existentialists.
*Campfires in Provo Canyon with the Hardmans.
*Redoing the backyard. And actually having flowers. And actually having said flowers live and bloom and FLOWER until the frost came and killed them all.
*Muse. Thank you, Kat, for your invaluable assistance in selecting some great CDs.
*Ingrid Michaelson. Thank you, KEY, for your invaluable assistance in selecting a great CD.
*IKEA. Several times.
*Three crazy primary kids. Class was many things, but never boring.
*The Best Day EVER.
*Professor Wood and his Muslim hat. Also his French and German hats and, occasionally, his Common Law hat. Even if he only brought his second- or third-rate mind in with them to show to the third- and fourth-rate minds in the class.
*Peach Pie ice cream.
*Peach Pie accompanied by ice cream.
*Interviewing in jeans.
*Trademark and patent law. Mostly this is awesome when you take into account the fact that I was an English major.
*Bocci with cats.
*Watching the two nephews get bigger and cuter and laugh/chortle a whole lot more.
*Smithsonian magazine. The problem is that now I have a whole lot of organizations sending me address labels with vaguely threatening (or at least calculated-to-induce-guilt) statements: "As you use these labels, think of the poor starving legless children in Ydgosriztsilaviastan and HOW THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE MONEY FOR ENVELOPES SO YOU NEED TO SEND THEM MONEY IN AN ENVELOPE WITH ONE OF THESE ADDRESS LABELS NOOOOOOWWWWW OR YOU WILL BURN!!!!! Because only a truly selfish person would use these address labels for non-money-containing post not destined for the poor starving legless children in Ydgosriztsilaviastan."
*Miter boxes. If that's how you spell that.
*Peru. Wait, no. I didn't do that one. But I did do Park City, which has to count for something, right?
*Chalice. Beautiful.
*Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog.
*Anything prepared by any member of the Smith household.
*Also stuffed mushrooms a la Newell.
*"YOU KILLED MY FATHER!" (Which, really, why were we the only ones who took the '80s part of it seriously?)
*The fact that I can, in fact, hold down two jobs, several classes, a Primary class, and a newly-found Arrested Development/Gilmore Girls/Katamari addiction at the same time and still get at least 6 hours of sleep a night, and sometimes more.
*Rich, Tess, and Jake. Also Dexter and Chris. And even Calla. And a few others I won't mention by name, but they know who they are.
*Tiffany's. (Thanks again, hon!)
*My new haircut.
*The Christmas tree skirt.
*My blog readership appears to have increased to maybe even as many as 11.
*A quarter of a century. Makes a girl think.

And last but not least, Keepon. Keep on dancing, little guy. You inspire us all.

Here's hoping your 2008 was also awesome. I can't wait to see how 2009 tops it (although Wicked tickets certainly aren't going to hurt -- thanks again, Liz; also an upcoming 5-year anniversary).

Much love to you all, and a very Happy New Year!


If for some reason you are an awesome person and I know you and didn't mention you on the list, I apologize. You are hereby included in this residuary clause.