"Civil Practice, putting people (and kitties) to sleep since 1976."
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Move over Legal Eagle, I have a Legal Cat
"Civil Practice, putting people (and kitties) to sleep since 1976."
Lucky Ducky.
I am a lucky, lucky girl. This week of sunshine has me breathing deeply and opening my eyes wide to all that fills my life. I had to stop and pinch myself when I got home from work the other evening and looked out the back door to blue skies over pastures full of horses, my "Barbie's dream barn", the garden plot waiting to be planted, and my handsome boyfriend playing fetch with my textbook good looking and goofy golden retriever. (I know, I know, feel free to vomit in your mouth a little or send me hate vibes...it's just so perfect...I can't help it!) Rewind tape, when did all of this happen?! I don't know, but I'm going with it. Top down, grill fired up, legal work under control, and I'm picking up a brand new pony tomorrow! Life. Is. Beautiful.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
You know your room is a mess when...
...you completely lose your phone in it after having hung up said phone not more than 5 minutes before commencing the search! I had to g-chat a friend to call the silly thing just so I could unearth it from beneath two comforters.
However, I think it is fair to say that my room is frequently messiest when my life is the most fun and full. And that, my friends, it is! A friend once told me that she thought an overly tidy house was a symptom of much larger problems. I'm going to take solace in her opinion.
Looking forward to early evening and into the night riding, grooming, tack room cleaning, rock picking, rock path building, bush-hogging, tilling, and grilling most every night this week. Can you tell the sun has come out? Also that my court dates have thinned for a bit. And yes, "bush-hogging" is now something that is on my to-do list. Who would have thunk it?! I generally rock over sized shades and some sort of skirt on the tractor though.
Never a dull moment.
Farm Girl
However, I think it is fair to say that my room is frequently messiest when my life is the most fun and full. And that, my friends, it is! A friend once told me that she thought an overly tidy house was a symptom of much larger problems. I'm going to take solace in her opinion.
Looking forward to early evening and into the night riding, grooming, tack room cleaning, rock picking, rock path building, bush-hogging, tilling, and grilling most every night this week. Can you tell the sun has come out? Also that my court dates have thinned for a bit. And yes, "bush-hogging" is now something that is on my to-do list. Who would have thunk it?! I generally rock over sized shades and some sort of skirt on the tractor though.
Never a dull moment.
Farm Girl
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Non-sequiters.
My horse has a black eye this morning. Ok, so it is just swollen, but it looks like he got into an equine boxing match. The vet is on her way. I get to work from home. And by work, I mean catch up on bills and budgeting, make a shopping list for my spring horse supplies, catch up on e-mails over two pots of coffee, and THEN start to work. I also will miss the lunchtime "weighted workout" that was to follow up "cardio core 'n more." Oh fee.
It is nearly impossible to have enough hours in the day to accomplish all that I have set out to do. I am still doing all of it. I'm learning to live with that.
I had a very challenging day at work yesterday with a minor panic attack, an embarrassing moment on th phone with opposing counsel, conflicting advice from respected attorney friends, and in the end agreed once more with where I'd started (thank you, dear Dad, oh sage and respected attorney, judge, father, friend). Now I have to determine how to support this position in a learned and persuasive way. It is a good mental challenge. I enjoy it. It also makes me enjoy all the more the most basic of tasks that are required of me every morning and every night like clockwork. Feeding, watering, cleaning stalls, and putting each horse where he or she belongs for the day or night. Simple tasks. Concrete results. Routine. I don't know how I would practice law without this grounding. I don't know how I would spend a life with horses without the challenge of a brain-y profession. For this balance, I sacrifice sanity. And yet I also gain it. Hm.
I also sacrifice a clean and tidy house and car! Oh well. Life is too short...
Looking forward to a family birthday party, the "Bowling Ball!", a horse and supply buying trip to NH, egg dyeing, and Easter all in this one little upcoming weekend. Work and mud be damned for a day or two!
It is nearly impossible to have enough hours in the day to accomplish all that I have set out to do. I am still doing all of it. I'm learning to live with that.
I had a very challenging day at work yesterday with a minor panic attack, an embarrassing moment on th phone with opposing counsel, conflicting advice from respected attorney friends, and in the end agreed once more with where I'd started (thank you, dear Dad, oh sage and respected attorney, judge, father, friend). Now I have to determine how to support this position in a learned and persuasive way. It is a good mental challenge. I enjoy it. It also makes me enjoy all the more the most basic of tasks that are required of me every morning and every night like clockwork. Feeding, watering, cleaning stalls, and putting each horse where he or she belongs for the day or night. Simple tasks. Concrete results. Routine. I don't know how I would practice law without this grounding. I don't know how I would spend a life with horses without the challenge of a brain-y profession. For this balance, I sacrifice sanity. And yet I also gain it. Hm.
I also sacrifice a clean and tidy house and car! Oh well. Life is too short...
Looking forward to a family birthday party, the "Bowling Ball!", a horse and supply buying trip to NH, egg dyeing, and Easter all in this one little upcoming weekend. Work and mud be damned for a day or two!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Ouch.
After a lot of talk, excuses, and other well-honed avoidance techniques, I bit the bullet and joined the gym. My mother, who through diligent attendance at weight watchers is rapidly approaching smaller sizes than her youngest daughter, helped foot the bill for three months plus an 8 week group personal training class. "Beach Body Blast" it's called. I e-mailed the front desk at the office that I would be leaving for 1.5 hours for lunchtime workouts at least twice a week for awhile. In my world that is huge...I put it on the calendar. It will happen.
I roped a friend into joining it with me. She says that she isn't fishing for a beach body, just a wedding body. I said that I'm not fishing for either, just the one that I had the last time I fit into my favorite jeans! She also warned me that this group trainer is particularly "enthusiastic" about fitness. Ruh-roh.
In an effort to prepare ourselves for this couch-to-boot-camp-drill-sargent world that we just PAID to join for 8 weeks, we hit up the regular group class today. It was messy. Cardio, Core, 'N More. I think I provided the "'N More." Pretty sure I got out-squatted and over-lunged by Grandma Moses in the second row, and my friend and I both caught some sideways looks for even showing up as newcomers given the small amount of coveted space for giant steps, balls, weights, and other instruments of torture. Wouldn't it be nice if I were more like my puppy or my horses in that the less I exercised, the more energy I built up? So that when I got to the class after not having gone for ages I just couldn't contain my pent up joy at getting to exercise and took a few wild spins around the room (tail up & farting if I'm like the horses) just for kicks before settling into the squat routine? Alas, such is not the case.
Nevertheless, I did it! I'm one foot forward now. And now I'm lightheaded and wobbly armed as I type this post and prepare to dig in to three or four more hours of legal work. I get to write a "Motion to Quash"! And also a reply motion where I'm engaged in a verbal battle with the opposing counsel which I thoroughly enjoy. I'm also supposed to write some interrogatories, serve some disclosure subpoenas, make an insurance claim on behalf of an estate, write a contract, AND tighten up a DE-401. One step at a time, and that's just at the office!
When I get home I have to take care of 13 horses (my 7 and the neighbor's 6) and write a grant for the garden food pantry project. I'm supposed to drive to the bowling championships an hour south and hit the after party as well, but I don't see that happening. At least I'm learning to cut a FEW corners here and there.
Speaking of cutting...before I go I need to let you all know that I may have successfully cut the budget proposed for finishing my riding ring by 2/3rds today!! After a 1.5 hour meeting with a couple of contractors and mi padre and a phone call to the engineer, I think I opened their eyes to miraculous possibilities for a fraction the price. Included in my estimate (yes, the one at 1/3 the cost of the original and thus within reach!) is even an immediate solution to mud-stopping-riding woes in the form of a small amount of sand poured on top of scraped off topsoil in my small paddock. I could be up and on and teaching again in a week. And after my ass-busting workout today, I'll have some empathy with my out of shape ponies....
I roped a friend into joining it with me. She says that she isn't fishing for a beach body, just a wedding body. I said that I'm not fishing for either, just the one that I had the last time I fit into my favorite jeans! She also warned me that this group trainer is particularly "enthusiastic" about fitness. Ruh-roh.
In an effort to prepare ourselves for this couch-to-boot-camp-drill-sargent world that we just PAID to join for 8 weeks, we hit up the regular group class today. It was messy. Cardio, Core, 'N More. I think I provided the "'N More." Pretty sure I got out-squatted and over-lunged by Grandma Moses in the second row, and my friend and I both caught some sideways looks for even showing up as newcomers given the small amount of coveted space for giant steps, balls, weights, and other instruments of torture. Wouldn't it be nice if I were more like my puppy or my horses in that the less I exercised, the more energy I built up? So that when I got to the class after not having gone for ages I just couldn't contain my pent up joy at getting to exercise and took a few wild spins around the room (tail up & farting if I'm like the horses) just for kicks before settling into the squat routine? Alas, such is not the case.
Nevertheless, I did it! I'm one foot forward now. And now I'm lightheaded and wobbly armed as I type this post and prepare to dig in to three or four more hours of legal work. I get to write a "Motion to Quash"! And also a reply motion where I'm engaged in a verbal battle with the opposing counsel which I thoroughly enjoy. I'm also supposed to write some interrogatories, serve some disclosure subpoenas, make an insurance claim on behalf of an estate, write a contract, AND tighten up a DE-401. One step at a time, and that's just at the office!
When I get home I have to take care of 13 horses (my 7 and the neighbor's 6) and write a grant for the garden food pantry project. I'm supposed to drive to the bowling championships an hour south and hit the after party as well, but I don't see that happening. At least I'm learning to cut a FEW corners here and there.
Speaking of cutting...before I go I need to let you all know that I may have successfully cut the budget proposed for finishing my riding ring by 2/3rds today!! After a 1.5 hour meeting with a couple of contractors and mi padre and a phone call to the engineer, I think I opened their eyes to miraculous possibilities for a fraction the price. Included in my estimate (yes, the one at 1/3 the cost of the original and thus within reach!) is even an immediate solution to mud-stopping-riding woes in the form of a small amount of sand poured on top of scraped off topsoil in my small paddock. I could be up and on and teaching again in a week. And after my ass-busting workout today, I'll have some empathy with my out of shape ponies....
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