15 Days and Counting...

In 15 days I am leaving for a 17 day vacation. I've been privately counting the days for quite a while now. I figured two weeks before is a fine time to start the public countdown, but I couldn't wait for tomorrow. Plus it is very likely that tomorrow will find me as crazy busy as I have been since my last post here.

Anyway - vacation. A real one. Mostly. My DH and I leave in 16 days. We'll spend three days in San Fran, which for whatever reason I have yet to see despite having been told for years how I will love the place. After three days, it's off to the gorgeous island of Maui. That's right. Two weeks in Paradise! We are renting a condo away from the crowds, on the edge of the rainforest, very secluded, but with a pool. Like a second honeymoon - if we'd had a first one. So, its like a first honeymoon. Except while we're there we'll be attending the wedding of two of our greatest friends. These are two people who you would expect to stay together forever, but never expected to get married. They just seemed too cool, or laid back for it. But, they're taking the plunge and we'll be there to witness it. On the top of a mountain in Maui, with 360 degree views of the island, starting at sundown, on the night of a full moon. Pretty f'in cool, right?

Now, this vaca is costing an arm and a leg, but I figure, what the hell. What's the good of having money if not to spend it, right? So in preparation for this fantastic little trip, I've picked up some great new clothes from this adorable little boutique in Hoboken (Rubee's Closet -- a shameless plug for my friend that owns the joint), two new swimsuits, and some new luggage to pack all my crap in.

Of course I already have luggage, but not nearly enough space for 17 days. My shoes alone will take up half of my "weekend" bag. I know - it sounds like I am planning on seriously over-packing, but to be honest, I don't know any other way of packing. First, where we're staying is hot during the day, but cool at night. That means cover ups if not two whole outfits for each day. Then, we're not really sure what we want to do while we're there, so I have to plan for contingencies. I already picked up a one piece bathing suit in case I decide to take surfing lessons. And suppose I should pack my hiking boots so we can hike the volcano. Whatever -- all my suitcases have wheels, and my DH will be there to help, so I'm not worried. I just can't wait.

In case anyone cares, I won't be posting during my vacation, which I think I mentioned starts in 15 days, but I am planning on keeping a travel journal and will excerpt from it when we get back home. Which reminds me, I need to pick up a blank journal. And sunscreen.

Picture compliments of MauiQueen

Mostly Yankee, Part Dixie

Just futzing around, waiting for the go ahead to go home and came across this "linguistics" test. My results are...

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% Yankee

40% General American English

15% Dixie

0% Midwestern

0% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Italy Rocks!

Finally someone has had the balls to stand up to the bullshit tactics used by agents for the supposed "Land of the Free." And don't you know, the country with the cajones...the motherland. Italia. Of course.

Check it out.

Winning is cool!

I paticipated in my first ever trial last night. Of course it was a "mock" trial, but still a trial nonetheless. You'd think after three years of practicing law I would have reached this milestone earlier, but alas such was not my fate (see my earlier post Overload).

In any case, I participated in my first trial (fake as it was). Going into it my partner and I were pretty nonchalant -- neither of us had too much time to spend on it, there were no real clients, there wasn't going to be any verdict (although we were "scored" on our presentation, and argument, etc.), plus we didn't want to do too good and end up having to go to the finals. That means even more work that we don't get any credit for. But...

We actually won! And now my long-dormant competitive drive is all revved up and I'm thinking, Hey, we could win this thing! Of course I haven't expressed this to my partner who I believe may still be on the let's finish 5th and skip the finals track. Whatever, fake as the thing was, and whether we get to the finals or not, winning is cool. Even if there isn't any prize.

Coke Zero and Saving Elmo

Bought a Coke Zero yesterday. Tried it today. Maybe you've heard the hype - its supposed to taste like real Coke. And I'll be damned if it doesn't! Or at least it comes real close -- I haven't done a blind taste test or anything...I don't have that kind of time.

Of course, the Coke company has been accused of some less than admirable trade practices (like assasination and racism), but what are ya gonna do, switch to Pepsi? Or worse, RC? Like that's ever gonna happen. Thanks, but I'll take my Coke and assuage my liberal guilt by giving money to public radio & PBS and by doing my part to save those fine establishments (and the cuddly characters on Sesame Street) from the chopping block. Lend a hand here.

Overload

I used to work as an associate (aka pee-on) at a big law firm in the City, who to avoid being sued I will not name. I did it for almost three years, plus a summer. For those who never worked at such a place, here's a simple run-down of how it goes:

you come in early and stay late - and I mean really late...getting home by 10PM meant it was time to par-tay. While at work, imagine yourself surrounded by box after box after box after box after...you get my point...of "documents". A fancy word meaning crap you have to read even though most of it is worthless. Joining you in your cave of boxes are little post-it flags in all the colors of the rainbow. Your job is to take these little flags and stick them on certain documents...sometimes red meant one thing, sometimes it meant another, sometimes all it meant was that a certain person was listed somewhere on that particular piece of paper, a sort of "Where's Waldo" assignment -- you find a name on a page and stick a flag on it so some other moron down the line can copy that page and put it in a new box.

The 'find the names' jobs were the worst...um, excuse me but I did not bust my ass in law school learning the finer points of constitutional Law so I could be hired to find names on a piece of paper, something which I might add a trained monkey could probably do if they could be taught to read. At the very least, even Bush could manage this one by himself. But, the pay was good - OK fan-fucking-tastic, so long as you didn't break it down to an hourly wage. The parties, at least in the summer, were, as my girlfriend Kim would say, off the hook. And the lunches -- ah, you have not experienced lunch until you've taken two plus hours to do it and spent $50 bucks plus per person (with the firm's money of course). Plus I made some great friends.

But eventually, a month ago, I traded the big city salary for a smaller suburban one, because I'd had enough of 'biglaw'. I joined a much smaller firm in suburban NJ, where associates are actually treated like real lawyers, and not just glorified paralegals. Its really a whole new world for me. What amazed me more is the new firm actually apologized to me for making me share an office -- an office which I might add is about 4 times the size of my prior cubicle. Wow. Culture shock. And this from someone who didn't even want to move back here in the first place. Now I've joined the NJ work force. The wierdest thing -- I think I like it better than I ever liked my City job, even considering that one summer when biglaw kissed my ass, before they had purchased my soul and caged me in my cubicle.

That's it...I'm moving

OK - so I never really got over the election, but I did drop my insistence that I was going to claim my Italian citizenship, get a EU passport, and go crash on my aunt's couch in Florence until, well, until this country got its sense back. So I stayed, and hoped, and avoided CNN, FOXNEWS, and anything else that would set me off. Now, however, the person who some refer to as President has made me want to start making travel plans once again. And I tried so hard to blissfully ignorant too.

What's he done this time, you ask? (drum roll please) He actually said that the Patriot Act protects our civil liberties! Ahem...uh, what? I realize the man ain't the brightest fellow in the world, but really, shouldn't one of his aides have told him what the P.A. actually says; what it actually allows? If you want to know, a good place to read about it in plain English is here (an old article, but the law is still the same). Not to mention the effect all this posturing about the act's greatness is having on our less educated folks -- someone actually wrote to NPR to say a librarian should be charged with treason for failing to turn over records demanded under the FBI. Listen here.

And now that its scariest provisions are finally about to expire (thank goddess) here comes the push from the right to renew and expand the damn thing. And too many supposed "liberals" are just sitting there, keeping their mouths shut. Its as if no one even remembers that this glaringly oppressive law was passed 6 weeks after 9-11 before most of the people voting on it had even read the damn thing. OK -- its like 300 pages long, but still -- don't you think reading a law before passing it is always a good idea? Am I the only one?

Don't get me wrong, I hate terrorists as much as the neck red-blooded (read: necked) American, but I don't think giving law enforcement outrageous and unchecked powers is going to help fight terrorists. And I don't understand how anyone can believe that it will. Forcing the Bush's golf buddies (aka Saudis) to turn over persons holed up in their country - now that might help, but the FBI reading my library records won't.

I suppose it is yet possible that there will be real debates about this thing before its gets voted on, but I somehow doubt it. All I know is that I'm going to have to start taking donations because a one way ticket to the motherland is almost two grand and I am not so lucky to be friends with a prince.

Radically stupid...

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was quoted as saying, "We've spent weeks and weeks debating radical judges, but we haven't spent a single day debating a health care plan, or a jobs plan, or an education plan that will help hardworking Americans. Radical judges don't deserve our attention." check it out

Radical judges don't deserve our attention? What the f*$# is that? These pyschos are appointed for life (and often supported by the Christian Coalition), but our democratically elected leaders shouldn't pay attention because they have other things to do? Have the dems gone completely mad? Are they totally spineless? Have these people never heard of overtime? Us "hardworking Americans" have to do it all the time when we have a lot to deal with at work. And we aren't guaranteed our salaries for life like Mr. Reid and his co-workers are. Besides, who does Reid think will be judging the validity of his imaginary health, education and jobs plans when they are challeneged? Uh...could it be the radical judges he & the rest of the pansy dems let through?

God I hate politics.

My Story...

Born in Italy, raised in Jersey, I spent the better part of my 20s jumping from one college to the next, and finally got my fancy piece of paper from JMU in 96. Ended up staying in VA for a whole bunch of years and will probably end up back there some day.

Some people might say I can be a little bitchy, and I guess thats true but only because I used to be too nice and found that nice girls finish last. I'm actually a really nice person and I make the best Florentine Lace cookies you will ever eat.

I've been happily married for almost 8 years and am mommy to two black & white kitties. My dear husband ("DH") and I just bought our first house last year and spend most weekends working on it or the yard. Of course come football season, we'll be at Giant's Stadium most weekends! You can find us in parking lot 13A. Goooooooo Giants!

After living in DC, VA and NYC, I somehow ended up back in NJ despite my best efforts to never come back. Seems like the abyss was calling...

Coming soon...

What seems like ages ago, after spending too much time reading blogs of friends and strangers, I thought, I should do that. Being the procrastinator I am, of course, I never got around to it. Now, after finding myself posting entirely too long posts on chat boards on topics that weren't necessarily what I felt like most rambling about, I have finally taken the plunge and started a blog of my own -- a single space where I can ramble as much as I want about whatever I want. How cool is that?. Of course I'll probably only post sporadically...sticktoitiveness was never a strong point of mine. But maybe I'll surprise even myself. This, being my first post, has no real point other than to say more info (and more of my general rambling) coming soon.