Secret shame

No, I’m not going to admit my love for trashy reality TV shows. Like that’s even remotely a secret, please. 

Although TV side-note...every time there is a television show based on a book, I have to go read that book. Which is how I spent weeks reading the entire Southern Vampire series, despite never having watched True Blood. Also read the Dexter books, but that is a rare instance where the show is much better than the book. Anyway, it should come as no surprise that when Gossip Girl came on I eventually caved and read the first book. 

But then I decided to read the next nine…

No, I didn’t actually go out and buy these books (because then I would have to show my face to the cashier). Instead I went through a stealthy little process at the library, which went something like this. Start at the real books, find about six to check out. Slowly meander towards the teen section. Sneak a peak to see if it’s empty. Casually saunter closer. Make the approach. Quickly add as many available books to the middle of the stack (so no one sees, obvi). If anyone asks, prepare to lie and say they’re for your appropriately aged make-believe niece. Go home, read quickly, and return to the dropbox surreptitiously. Luckily, I only had to do this a few times. Then I discovered a delightful little trick: the library website. (Website? You’d think it was 2009 or something..) Putting books on hold - totally avoids the secret shame process. It's amazing! So obviously, I finished the Gossip Girl series in no time. And I’m not gonna lie, it was awesome. End of story? Psh. 

In case you haven’t heard? There’s a spin-off.

I know. But thanks to my new-found ability to shamelessly procure teen novels, I also read every book in the “It Girl” series. which actually, in spite of the awful name, they are better than Gossip Girl. (Too bad Taylor Momsen's idea of emoting is adding more eyeliner. Otherwise they could have had a legit spin-off instead of that awful 80's episode they tried to float.) Then I moved on to the other spin-off, and...okay yeah, I can't even try to defend myself anymore.

But having knocked out the Upper East Siders, I figured I was done with ridiculous teenage books. Of course Lainey, having long ago convinced me to read Twilight, had already posted new reviews. So I read Sloppy Firsts. And Second Helpings. Then Charmed Thirds. And Fourth Comings. And finally Perfect Fifths. These, you guys, are actually good. (So good in fact, that a Georgetown law student plagiarized them a while back….) They start out in high school, but by the end, she's 26 and randomly runs into her high school ex-bf. Suffice it to say: check.

Anyway, now you are in on my secret shame: I  have the literary tastes of a tween.  But if you are looking for some good, fun reading  -  you’re welcome. And now that I am on work-release from my casebooks, you better believe I am going back to the library website - after all, New Moon's not gonna re-read itself!

Bad Boys II

You remember this guy? 

I managed to avoid him for a year. AN ENTIRE YEAR. 

Do you know how impressive that is at law school? Seriously, we are all locked together in the same building, the same classroom even, for 10 hours a day. It required keeping my head down, looking very busy, faking iPhone distractions, and occasionally just straight up hiding. But I avoided him. For a whole year.

And then...

Oh yes, my ghost of Halloween past returned to haunt me. 

It started when I ran into him during composite pictures.* The moment had arrived when I couldn’t avoid him any longer. (I would have tried, trust me, but we were the only two people there and we had a long wait. Even I cannot realistically check my email for that long. ) He gave me bedroom eyes. I blushed bright red. [Note: I blush easily, it's really not fair.] Awkward small talk ensued.

Over the next few days, we ran into each other at school a few more times. Awkward hellos were exchanged.

Cut to the next week. I sign onto Facebook during class, as all good law students do. All of a sudden, my biker boy starts FB chatting me. WTF? 

And what does he lead with? 

"Hey, hope it wasn't awkward running into each other last week."

"Umm maybe a little awkward. Did my bright red face give it away?" [I'm telling you. Not fair.]

Then, for an even better follow-up, he tells me that he would like to repeat the occasion, but his girlfriend wouldn’t be too happy. Oh, but wait, what were his chances? Just hypothetically?

Yeah, he actually lives with a girl – a girl who is also in law school - and is still trying to get me in bed.

Have guys always been this shameless!? Or does shamelessness come with the leather? (Actually yeah, that would make sense.)

Anyway, I told him that homewrecking wasn’t really my thing and tried to disengage from the conversation as quickly as possible. Even so, he managed to elicit a few more blushes...[So. Not. Fair.]

PS – As it turns out, boys are not only shameless, they are also really into FB chat. That turned out to be the first of three ridiculous conversations I had with three shameless boys in three consecutive days. I think maybe it’s time to leave FB. 

Oh who am I kidding?

*Composite pictures, really? Like I haven’t done enough of those? And yes, of course I wore pearls – triple strand.

Half-moon manicure

I've been seeing these everywhere lately - ok, mainly just on the runway and in InStyle. But that was enough to get me intrigued. I finally decided to give it a try. If it means avoiding studying for Secured Transactions, I'm willing to do just about anything...

Anyway, thought I would share the results of my little experiment. It looks gray and black, but it's actually light blue and navy...way more fun! It's not perfect, but I was actually surprised by how easy it is.

And, ooh, bonus - the real grown-ups in my family will hate it! Yes, I realize I am a 26-year-old who is passively rebelling against authority via nail polish...don't worry about it.

(What's that in the background, you ask? Why yes, it is my statutory supplement and outline. Welcome to my wonderful life!)

Such a happy girl

Tough Love has returned to VH1.

Sunday nights.

Watch it.

You will thank me.

Wedding weekend is here

On Saturday, I stand up at L's wedding and give a toast in front of 400 people. You would think I would have prepared for this, right?

Oh wait, all three of you who read this have met me.

So obviously you know that I have not even come close to writing anything. Instead I've been taking care of important stuff like pedicures and picking out a dress for the rehearsal dinner. (To be fair, there's been some legitimate important stuff too...say, law school)

I'm kind of hoping that if I put off writing anything until Friday night, it will give me less time to be nervous. I'll let you know how that works out...

Fun with Baby J

The perk of being in Indy every weekend is that I get to see the nephews. Unfortunately, not as much of A, as he is in school now. But we still manage to squeeze in some Lego Indiana Jones on the Wii. And I get lots of quality time with the J-Bird. Here are some highlights:

J looking a little stunned -

After all no one was expecting this! (cough, Boilers beat OSU, cough)

(Please don't remind me that I had the "good sense" to skip this game and my father was the only one there to take this pic)

Finally, Baby J's first Halloween. Elvis has left the building!

Dolphins and Past Lives

When I was little, like 3-years-old, I climbed up into my parents' bed one morning and told my mom that "when I was big, I used to swim with dolphins and whales." She must have figured I'd had a weird dream. But a few days went by and I kept telling her the same thing. I kept trying to explain to her that it wasn't a dream or a story, but I just knew I used to be with the dolphins when I was big. I think it started to wig her out. No wonder, I was probably starting to sound like one of those creepy movie kids. But apparently I got over the whole "when I was big" thing and no longer freaked out my mother. Though it obviously stuck with her enough that she asked a psychic about it a few years ago* - who, btw, said that I was channeling a past life (apparently kids are good at that) and that I totally did swim with the whales and dolphins. I'm just sayin...

Anyway...so growing up we took a lot of family vacations to Florida (18 hours in a van, oh the memories). To get to the island, we had to cross this cute toll bridge; my favorite thing about driving over the bridge was looking out for dolphins. And I almost always found at least one. When I was little it seemed like they were there just for me, to welcome me to the island. (Because duh, they totally remembered me from back in the day, obvi.)

I told you that to tell you this: I just read this great article about intelligence and socialization in dolphins. It has some really fun stuff - apparently dolphins totally watch and understand television. Who knew? And they tend to act like "boisterous teenage boys." TV and boys? No wonder I like them!

I especially love this story about a dolphin who I'm pretty sure is smarter than me.

One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

No real point to this. After a rough few weeks, it was just nice to stumble upon a fun story that reminded me of being a kid again.

*My mom went back to the psychic this year. She said that I'd get married and have love and money. My Magic8 Ball, on the other hand, says "OUTLOOK HAZY"

I know, I know...

I am a bad blogger. Law school, family fun, and wedding-related events have totally taken over my life.

First, they tried to tell me that 3L would bore me to death. Well, yes, that is true. But it is also still working me to death, which was supposed to be over after 2L. But I had the bright idea to participate in a clinic this year...it is currently the only thing standing in between me and my fall break. I'm sure you can guess how happy I am about that. And don't even get me started on the class that made me read un-translated French as part of an assignment. Hello, I'm in law school? The last time I spoke French was when I was a drunk 18-year-old happily babbling to my French-Canadian new bff. (True story, I told him that I didn't speak French and therefore didn't understand a word he was saying and also I was really drunk and did I mention I don't speak French...in French.)

Second, no one bothered to tell me how much family fun I would be having this semester. And in case you didn't catch the sarcasm the first time around, let me clear: family and fun, not so much. Don't get me wrong, you know how much I adore my family. But honestly, I am averaging at least one trip to Indy per week right now. (In one seven day period, I made the round trip three times.... which really cut into my TiVo time.) Not to mention that the most recent trip involved a) countless games of Uno with the OG nephew b) soccer mom-ing the nuvo nephew around all day in the SUV c) picking up a certain relative from jail, and d) the entire immediate family attending a wedding together - from which we had to be driven home by a shuttle because no one was sober...(ok, so that was legitimately fun).

Finally, speaking of weddings...I adore my friends and I'm so happy they are getting married. But can I please have my weekends back??? Even people who hardly know me have started to comment on how often I am at wedding events. The real hustle of this is that I'm afraid it's just beginning. I'm pretty much just blocking off every Memorial and Labor Day weekend for the next four years, as those seem to be hot wedding weekends. And then you throw in bachelorette parties, showers, more showers, and miscellaneous other activities...the schedule is pretty much booked until mid-2010.

Anyway, now that I have a full week off of class I promise I will try to be better about updating. Not like anyone actually knows this exists anyway! (Hi A, M, and J!!)

My love for Essie knows no bounds

So I have crossed a new line in my nail polish obsession. I have actually hunted down and purchased nail polish online. What caused this, you may ask?

Essie Greenport. Tell me this is not the most amazing color ever?

Seriously, I searched all over Indianapolis for this color. It was one of three colors in a collection - I love the other two, which are fabulous shades of blue. In fact, I'm so in love with this one that I am totally wearing it on my toes when - if - I ever get married!

Greenport, however, was nowhere to be found.

So after weeks of craving nail polish (I mean, usually the only thing I crave are Twix and booze!), I finally caved and found it on Amazon.

While I was at it, I figured I couldn't just stop at one. Hence...

Essie has a new top coat called Matte About You. Basically it takes any color you use and gives it a matte finish. I know, matte nail polish sounds weird (and my mother will surely hate it), but these pictures are amazing! I am really excited to try it, I'm thinking matte gray and browns for fall.

Anyway, fingers crossed that they get delivered before I leave on Thursday. Green nail polish is totally wedding-appropriate, right? No? Ok fine, I'll stick with boring Ballet Slippers. But I'm not happy about it.

World Domination? There's an app for that...

M: It's ok, J and I have iPhones. We could rule the world.

A Belated Introduction

My new(ish) nephew: Baby J.

Yes, he's already 6 months old. Clearly, I slack.

And yes, he's only 6 months old. Clearly, he's giant.

Oh yes, and he's also the world's smallest hipster.

Oh. Hey, Blog. How's it Going?

I’m totally one of those awful guys from He’s Just Not That Into You. I’m all like “ohh, Blog…she’s interesting, I like her” and I’m all into it for, like, a month. And then what happens? I pull a total disappearing dude move. No calls? No emails? Not even a text? Bad B. But then, just when she’s sure she’ll never hear from me again…yup. I’m baaaack!

(BTW I promise that unlike disappearing dude, my return will not consist solely of 3AM texts reading “hey, you still up?” or “I’m in town, we should get together”)

PS – Yes, I’m aware that this is a sucky comparison. Just roll with it, I promise to improve with time.