The Gurly Life

More iPhone fun

Now that I'm doing a lot of litigation, I'm finding that I'm just not as creatively inspired as I would like. I spend all my creative juices drafting briefs. Which are usually long. Whatever.

This is a photo I took on my phone and played around with, and then turned into a Polaroid. I wonder if over time the ePolaroids will turn yellow and/or fade.

This is me and Wendy, under the fluorescent lights. We look like ghosts. Kinda cool.

This is my friend/colleague, Kathya. She's getting married next weekend. Awwww!

This is Cricket. If you don't know this is Cricket, welcome to my blog!

Here is Maliboo Kitty, photographed with the Hipstamatic app. I don't know, I kind dig it. Note that I have the gall to tag this post with "art." Hah. Who's going to prove me wrong?

A sniggly snag that worked out

Sometimes, things that appear to be a huge pain the ass, things that are conspiring to ruin your whole entire vacation, turn out to be ok, maybe even blessings in disguise. Sometimes, clouds turn out to be the silver lining.

I explain.

My upcoming trip to Europe and Egypt has been planned to the last minute. Planes were booked, people were mobilized, everything was set. Then the Egypt people, 2 weeks before the Egypt trip (it's a Nile cruise from Luxor to Cairo) said, oh sorry, the boat has been cancelled (?) but you can go on another boat on different dates.

I was all, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME WITH THIS SHIT? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY MONTHS AHEAD OF TIME I HAD TO PLAN TO MAKE THIS ALL WORK? Grrrr. [shakes fist angrily]

One of the dates the Egypt people suggested could not work because I would have had to move my return trip, and that was not possible (per the airline, who almost laughed at me when I asked, but were too polite to actually physically guffaw).

The original plan was: London, Barcelona, Egypt, fly home. Hang out with cousin on dad's side Raffy and her family in London, then hang out with cousin on mom's side Giuseppe and a couple of other cousins in Barcelona, then Egypt with my dad. The new plan basically messed up Barcelona. I huffed and puffed and declared I was pissed, but then decided that Barcelona had to eat it.

Instead, the new plan looks like this: London (and I get an extra day there), Egypt with dad, Sicily with cousins and other family members over Giuseppe's birthday weekend. In this scenario, I get to see not just my cousins who were getting together in Barcelona, but also aunts and uncles and my very old grandmother -- 105 and counting.

So one plan was scrapped, at some inconvenience and expense to me and my dad, as it turned out, but another plan was put in place that ensures that I see more of my family. Perhaps the universe doesn't give a shit about my money and convenience, but demands that I go hang out with my family.

Who am I to argue?

Where does the time go?

The last few weeks I have not blogged often. There are reasons that have stifled my creativity, but I won't really go into them in any detail. I know, shocking, right? I will say this: I'm stretching into bigger and more complicated stuff at work, and feel out of my depth most of the time. I feel like I'm going to screw up any minute, and it will be a huge screw up, and then it'll be really bad. I feel uncertain, and not entirely safe.

This uncertainty, in turn, affects my confidence that I have something to say that anyone will want to read. So I don't write. The less I write, the more I feel pressure to write something funny/wise/interesting. It's like when it's 1am and you have to get up at 5 and you have a big day ahead of you and need the sleep but can't get to sleep because you keep thinking and stressing about how you really need to go to sleep and can't. Ack. Like that.

I've been so uninspired that I haven't even had one single idea for a Pictorial Representation. Remember those? Yep. Nothing.

I will make a pledge right now: to write something every day from today until the end of the year. Anything. Long, short, silly, boring, whatever. Writing comes with writing.

Check in again tomorrow, when I will have something profound and life changing to say. Or not.

An update on sicky

Since I know your lives are on hold until you hear that I'm doing ok (eh-hem), then here it is: I'm ok.

Yesterday was touch and go. I really felt the infection, I felt fluish and exahusted, plus my back really hurt. I mostly flopped about and watched tv. Reading made my head hurt. Last night I slept 12 hours (always a good sign) and woke up feeling better. I'm still in pain and tired, but I don't feel like my body is overrun by toxins like it was yesterday.

I'm drinking a lot - water, diluted juice, green tea, mint tea - and not eating much and mostly resting. No fever and the pain is marginally better today. No headache. I think I'm out of the woods, though of course I will be taking it easy.

It's nice to have my mom here to look after me. I haven't really needed much but I probably wouldn't have eaten anything at all yesterday if it hadn't been for her.

Meanwhile, I get to enjoy weather. As in, we have weather. Clouds, scattered thunderstorms, rain. You know: weather! Hey, I'm sick at home, there's not a whole lot to distract me, so the weather is looking pretty interesting right now.

Thanks to all of you for your well-wishes here on the blog and on FB. It really helps.

Son of a...

Sigh. I'll make this short because frankly I'm too tired and even though I have an idea for a pictorial representation, I'm not going to do that tonight. Some time during the day, I started getting pain in my lower back area. I can't quite localize it yet, but it might be another pinched nerve, but this time around the SI joint/spine. It's quite painful, I assure you. Natch, a part of my brain is freaking out because I recently read an article about someone who fought an aggressive form of cancer for many months, and it all started with some back pain. It's just that so many people die of cancer all the time, it feels like an epidemic and I sometimes wonder, is it my turn next?

Anyway, I probably just threw out my back or something, though I wouldn't know it since I've never done it. So I'm going to sleep now. Ouch.

Dog rescue - CHECK!

This morning I was driving to work on the 60 Freeway, heading east. About 3 miles before the 605, nearing the Montebello area, there was a glut in the traffic, and shortly thereafter it became clear that the reason for it was that two dogs were running loose on said freeway. I was in the fast lane, and I crossed all the way to the right shoulder ahead of them, thankfully all the cars were slowing down around them, and stopped in the shoulder. I opened my car door and somehow miraculously got the dogs' attention. When they saw me, they trotted over and I got them to jump in the car, while the rest of the freeway traffic started zooming by me.

As anyone who knows much about rescuing dogs, and dogs on the freeway, they don't normally just come right over to you and jump in the car. But these guys did. They were clean, well kept, and had collars on (no tags and no microchip, of course), and are clearly someone's pets who love people.

The dogs were a young German Shepard and Pit Bull mix. The shepard was the clear leader, by the way. So, I got them in the car, got in after them, and drove off the rest of the way to my office. During the drive I made a bunch of calls to figure out which shelter I needed to drop them at. It is always best to drop found animals at the nearest shelter so that they have the best likelihood of being found by their human peoples.

I finally figured out where to take them, and then Debbie from my office and I grabbed the pups (which meanwhile had fallen asleep in my office) and took them in. I hate to drop them off because it's so sad for them, but it's the best shot they have to get back home. While I was there, I also gave the shelter a donation. Those guys are busy! In the 30 minutes we were there, 3 people (THREE!!) showed up to surrender their dogs. Debbie and I almost started crying, we left just in time.

Here's what the dogs look like:

Awkward as fuck

During law school, I took a semester away from school to extern for a District Court judge (this is a federal judge at the trial level for anyone who's already lost). It was a blast, the work was interesting, and the then-clerks and other extern and I are all still friends and we follow each other's goings-on on Facebook.

Every year the judge, who has a number of children and a slew of grandchildren, has a reunion for all the former clerks and externs. This is a very nice thing to do, and presents a great networking opportunity, too. I try to go every year because I can. Plus I really like the judge.

Problem is, I am always the only single person there. Always. Now, I don't know if it's because all the single people stay away from this event, or if I'm just the only loser in the bunch, or what, but somehow it's always really weird for me to show up alone and then not have a husband and children (and maybe even grandchildren) to talk about. The judge, bless his heart, is very family-oriented, and always gives me a sad and pitying look when I once again confirm that I am not only still single, but childless. Oh, the ignominy.

And so, what is a pretty darn good life for 364 days out of the year is suddenly cause for awkward looks and uncomfortable changes of subject, or I'm just plan ignored. I still go because I figure one of these days I'll just be written off as a frigid old maid, and then I can enjoy myself again because the pressure will be off, and because hot diggity, it's nice to see the judge and sometimes I meet cool people. But I'm really hoping that one of my friends will go with me this year, and bring her girlfriend. I'll still be the only single person, but at least I'll be with friends. I'm not ready to be written off as the crazy cat lady of the group.