tomorrow/today

the search for honey-colored boots

i ordered a pair of honey-colored boots, my most recent obsession, from zappos.com.  they were perfect in every way except circumference.  me and my fatty calves.  i don't have cankles (thank you jesus) but i do have knalves (knee/calves).  for some one who runs as much as i do you'd think i'd have nice toned superlean lower legs but i don't.  i have table legs. 

so, the zappos shoes went back, but being the ever-hopeful optimist that i am, i again logged on to zappos, endless and piperlime, and at piperlime i found a pair that might be even better than the ones i had to return.  the shade of honey is a tad bit darker than i wanted, but i really like the rounded toe. 

now i have to find the perfect pair of sunglasses.  i lost what i had become my summer 2007 shades, so i've been wearing big brown oversized sunglasses that looked hip and fresh last year but look so dated and old now. 

*sigh* a shopper's work is never done......

another day, another pair of shoes

i have been looking for the perfect honey-colored boot for the fall.  i want one tall, the appropriate mix of comfortable and sexy, and inexpensive.  i ordered one pair on zappos but they might be too short. 

sunday nights suck.  i want a life where sunday nights don't suck.  where i never dread monday mornings.  my firm has free donuts on monday morning.  but even the thought of chocolate glazed goodness can't dispel that knot in my stomach.  and i don't have any particular reason to dread tomorrow, but....

i'm BAAAAAAAAAAAACCKKK!!!

it was too hot and muggy to blog.  that's my excuse. 

now there's so much to report.  in no particular order:

1) i am the high bidder on the 1988 collectible holiday holly hobbie doll on ebay, with a big of $9.95.  as most of you know i share a name with the doll, and as few of you know, my childhood bedroom was decorated in holly hobbie decor.  actually, all i can remember are holly hobbie bedspreads.  bidding ends in 9 hours so i think i'll win.  i'm designing a sexy holly hobbie costume for halloween too, so i need to look for some cheap lace up boots to bid on.

2) i had surgery this week.  it was elective surgery, which i never thought i would undergo.  i changed my mind though when i realized that i was starting to experience chronic pain from jutting my jaw out selfconsciously because of how much my chin naturally recedes.  also, chin augmentation surgery is fairly simple, as surgery goes, and a lot less expensive than i thought it would be.  i purposefully picked out a surgeon who doesn't do boobs, and wednesday morning i went under the knife.  according to the nurses, my first words upon waking up were that i needed coffee, and i needed to use my blackberry.  they gave me 2 sodas and some morphine instead.  here's a little tip for anyone considering plastic surgery: during recovery, it gets worse before it gets better.  i sent emails and made phone calls to some close friends and some coworkers on wednesday assuring them i felt great, and then spent thursday and friday in a stupor popping vicodin like anna nicole.  but, this morning i can tell the swelling has gone down.  my bandage comes off monday morning and i think i'll be back to normal, or as normal as i ever was, by then.

3) the peruvian and i have decided to see other people.  it's breaking my heart.  i think about him all the time, but go through this mental loop where i think about how strong my feelings are, and then think about all the objective reasons why a longterm relationship wouldn't work, and then come back around to my feelings, and rinse and repeat about 100 times.  why is love so hard?  why do i want a husband, nuclear family and house in the 'burbs on the one hand, and a jetsetting lifestyle with a sleek bachelorette pad and revolving door with sexy lovers on the other hand?  more importantly, why can't i have both?

4) i am seeing a new guy, but not sure how i feel about him.  i don't feel comfortable describing my dates by their nationalities, because that's not the way i think of them and i don't want to reduce them to that.  but i also don't feel comfortable printing their names.  so in the interest of convenience we can call this new guy the indian (as in bombay).  he is VERY cute.  but a little reserved.  anyhow, we're going to hang out again after my face gets back to normal.

5) is it bombay or mumbai?  is one more politically correct than the other?  he says bombay so i'm just repeating him.  i have a constantly evolving list of about 10 cities i'd love to see, and bombay/mumbai is currently somewhere around #8. 

6) my latest money saving tip is to buy a big vat of vanilla yogurt and a box of granola, and make your own yogurt parfaits instead of paying $3.49 for one at starbucks.  i've saved at least $40 so far this summer.  yay me!

7) i got a raise at work this month.  nothing boosts morale like more money.  the week after i got the raise we got swamped with an emergency hearing, and i had to work from about 8 to midnight for 7 days in a row, and i didn't mind at all! 

8) i signed up for spanish classes.  they start on tuesday during lunch time, and they are at another firm in downtown houston.  the class is geared towards lawyers, and i'm interested to see how a bunch of type A's take to learning spanish.  i was studying spanish fairly diligently this spring but it sort of fell by the way side this summer, and i thought the class would help keep me on track.  i've been listening to a lot of luis miguel as my own sort of "full immersion" exercise too. 

well, time for a nap.  that's the news from here, for now.  love, r.

[insert title of post here]

where to start....well, i spent the weekend working about 80 hours in less than 5 days.  i couldn't think straight by the time it was over.  on tuesday, i went to the dentist to get 2 crowns and too many fillings to count.  the first thing the dentist did was give me anesthesia, and the first thing i did was have a panic attack.  apparently, this is not an uncommon reaction to anesthesia, but i didn't know that.  my heart was racing, my eyes were size of saucers and i was having trouble breathing.  i calmed down enough after they told me that my reaction was not abnormal, to let them continue working on my mouth.  but, my mind remained in an altered state for several hours.  i was also on nitrous oxide the entire time....

in this drugged up state, i had a psychic vision.  it was of me, living in california.  southern california, near L.A.  that's about all the detail i have.  i didn't have any sense of timing, and the rational side of my brain says it can't happen anytime soon.  but that's what i foresaw in the dentist's chair, while under the influence of drugs and sleep deprivation... 

my new favorite blog....

....is written by a nine year old.  http://www.adorasvitak.com/Blogger.html.  enjoy.

alpha kitties

so i found out today that something i took for granted as part of life as we know it is actually a phenomenon, and that phenomenon has a name--alpha kitty.  or perhaps alpha kitty syndrome.  the existence of alpha kitties. 

alpha kitties are successful women with a girly side.  the most prototypical example would be some high powered executive who insists on wearing stiletto heels all the time, but i think a 33 year old lawyer who hangs her state bar certificate on the wall of her office in a frame covered with pink and silver qualifies as well.....

going to the chapel

my brother is getting married saturday.  i'm a little stressed, mainly because my sister and i are supposed to sing a duet at the wedding, a song my future sister-in-law picked out that neither my sister nor i know the words to.  something about brides and hands and beauty and god.  something like that.

my brother is 6'5" and his bride is 5'5".  our family are all staunch baptists, her family includes former-catholic-turned-agnostic parents, and a zealous jehovah's witness grandmother.  the wedding is at a small baptist church outside annapolis, maryland, but the reception is down the road at the catholic church, to accomodate the polish folk dancing that the bride's family wishes to include in the reception.  in true baptist fashion, no alcohol will be served and the wedding starts at 2 and ends at 8.  fun times....

back home

i moved back to houston 10 days ago, and was surprised at how happy i felt to be back.  it makes me hesitant to move again.  i love knowing exactly where the closest grocery store is without having to stop and think about it.  and knowing to slow down on certain stretches of the interstate because of speed traps.  and knowing when all of my favorite restaurants open and close, and how to get to the airport fast if there's a wreck on my usual route, and i even like learning everything that's changed in the 10 months i was gone. 

i've forgotten my radio station settings though, and haven't had time to find them again.  :(

lost in translation

so long since i last blogged/so much to tell. 

my boyfriend/"friend boy"/guy-i'm-sleeping-with/etc. called me dumbass last week, as in i made some comment and he responded "no, dumbass."

this did not go over well, to say the least.  to make matters worse, BF did not seem to understand why i was so upset.  he insisted that he had called me that before with no reaction out of me, i insisted that i must have misheard him before because i felt certain i would have reacted, and regardless, i did not want to be called that in the future.  at the end, we sort of agreed to disagree.  well, he agreed not to call me that, but disagreed as to what he perceived as my overreaction.  i agreed to continue seeing him, although i disagreed with his perception that calling me dumbass was not a big deal.

have i mentioned before that english is not his first language?  because it is relevant to this story.

he was speaking with a fully bilingual friend a few days ago, and called her dumbass as well.  remembering my reaction, he asked her about the term and discovered that he had been mis-translating a spanish word.  apparently, she informed him that whatever the spanish word in question was (i can't recall), the proper english translation was "silly" rather than "dumbass."  we were both much relieved to learn our difference of opinion was merely semantic.  i don't at all mind being called silly.

the whole thing reminds me of that still-embarassing memory of telling a deaf man in broken sign language that he and i should marry, when i meant to say we should be friends. 

last minute traveler

litigation is sometimes a "feast or famine" situation, and this month is a famine, for me at least.  so i've decided that instead of sitting at work twiddling my thumbs, i'm going to head to mexico again next week, stay with my boyfriend and take some spanish lessons.  that means i have to pack up my apartment tomorrow and friday, because i move as soon as i get back. 

this has all come about very suddenly (within the past hour), but i know it's the best way for me to spend the rest of may.  i'll give an update once i get settled in in houston in june.