A New Kind of Love

Some think I am a bit bizarre. But I have found at least one who shares my love.

Yes, new love, new discoveries.

I haven't come up with a name for it yet.

"Cottage Salsa"? ""Hot cottage"? "Mexican Cottage"?

Whatever you call it, I call it bliss.

Take fat free cottage cheese. Mix in medium spicey store brand (Giant) salsa (it has corn and beans in it, delectable). And eat.

Most scoff at me. One friend at work stopped laughing long enough to pick up a spoon.

I am the next Emeril. Try it. I dare you.

and oh shoosh it doesn't matter if I might have discovered this one night after quite a few drinks. It tastes good even without the tequila. So be quiet.

I FOUND A WIFE!!!!!

I am truly, deeply and profoundly happy.

Today I found a wife.

For years I have been lamenting that I do not have a wife.

The men I work with don't vacuum, dust, clean bathrooms, do laundry, mail packages, take dogs to vets, pick up drycleaning, go grocery shopping or do any of the mundane tasks I do in ADDITION to being a lawyer. They are just lawyers.

For years I have had to explain why I need to come in to work late, "Because I don't have a WIFE!"

That all changed today.

Liz came into my life today. She lives in the neighborhood, has great references, is competent, articulate, funny, loves my dogs, and asked permission to move the furniture when she vacuums so she can get the baseboards. Um, YES?!

For a mere $15/hour, Liz will do it all: clean, shop, run errands, take care of my dogs, do yardword, weld (yes I said weld - weld what I don't know - whatever needs welding I suppose), spackle, paint, fix stuff. She is the perfect wife.

Actually, she's even better. I don't even have to sleep with her.

OK apparently I AM old - the adrenaline crash

Last week was litigation craziness at work, which I love (when it's not all the time, which it hasn't been.) I am in a sweet spot at work where I am senior enough to run my cases and teach the "kids" but junior enough that I don't "own" the firm or have that crap to deal with. I love where I am right now.

Wednesday night I "owned" the brief however. I committed to getting a draft to the partner by 7am Thursday. Yes BossMan does get in that early.

Hence staying up until 6am on Thursday to get the brief done. I will admit, writing a 20 page reply brief overnight is pretty cool. Why yes I am a Law Geek. What's it to you.

I caught a nap then went to work. I had a team of 4 "kids" helping me refine things, gather research, gather exhibits, etc. We had a team meeting in my office in the early afternoon and I was rockin'. One of the kids (26 years old, very OCD and dedicated, childless, relationshipless, lives 2 blocks from the office), was amazed at my stamina. They kept saying, "How are you even awake?!" I told them the thrill of the game! And, this ain't NOTHIN' compared to raising twins.

I worked until after midnight Thursday, was back in the office Friday by 8. Stayed until 10pm when the filing was done.

Got home Friday night full of energy somehow and watched a movie.

Saturday morning? Could. Not. Wake. Up. Had a slew of plans for Saturday - cleaning, errands, exercise.

Instead I woke up at 10 - only because the dogs couldn't hold it another second - then went back to bed. Yes. I did. I didn't sleep - I surfed the web on my laptop (wireless is such a double-edged sword), talked to my family, played with my dogs (in bed). Finally, still exhausted but embarrassed to stay in bed any longer, I got up a little after one. 1:00 p.m. In the afternoon.

Apparently, the adrenaline gave out and my body said, "WHAT THE FRICK WERE YOU DOING THIS WEEK? YOU ARE NOT IN COLLEGE ANYMORE!"

Yeah, body, thanks for the reminder.

I think I'll go take my Metamucil and go to bed now. It's almost 10pm....

Too A.D.D. for a simple movie?

What happened to sitting down and watching a movie?

It's Friday night. I finally arrived home from work at 11pm. Yes, 11. Not that I didn't go in at 8am. When we have a filing deadline, life gets like this. And I love it.

I live for craziness. For juggling. For multitasking.

Lately I have been melancholy because with the kids gone and the job slow, well, there is no multitasking. No insanity. No craziness.

This week? I have it in spades.

And so, the brief filed, my deadlines met, I come home to a fire, a glass of wine, a movie and...facebooking, blogging, research (on a personal level) . When did this last bit of "and" come into my life? When did I forget how to sit down by myself and simply watch a movie?

When did I become my children?

Egad.

Back to the movie which, ironically, is "Age of Innocence." A movie about NY in the 1800's. No computers. No multimedia. One of the main characters is a lawyer (a guy of course). Somehow this whole situation is making me shake my head at myself.

Happy Friday my friends. I hope you're having a better Friday night than 1/2 watching a bad movie by yourself while cruising the internet and wondering if it's worth it to get your sad butt off the lazyboy couch and stoke the fire that is dying....

Crawling Out from Under My Rock

She's baaaaack. Well a little anyway.

Where did she go? Well it's kind of like I went to find myself. And I couldn't blog about it because I didn't want to hurt some of the people who read my blog and I didn't want to share with others who read my blog (strange, because this started as the place I could say Whatever to Whomever. But then PEOPLE find out and, well, you have to THINK about your audience!)

So here's what it looked like:

• The Captain and I took a little breather. I discovered he's NOT a rebound, I DO love him, and we need to figure out how to live closer to each other geographically;
• Although I love my job, I need to figure out if my job loves me - does it let me be me? It sure pays the bills. I have choices. This is a tough one.
• I am moving. Come May my house is going on the market. I am either moving closer to my job in DC into a smaller house with a doggie door and a fenced in yard OR chucking it all and moving to Florida. As the job market isn't so hot, I have a feeling it will be DC.
• I have to figure out how not to miss my kids quite so much. I loved loved loved having them home at Christmas. EX didn't want to set a schedule and let the kids go where they wanted. They wanted to be here. A lot. I loved it! But when they left in January the tears started again. I just miss them. Texts, facebook, emails, calls, Skype, it's not enough. I miss the piano going 24/7 and the jokes and the dishes in the sink and the laughter and the yelling and impromptu movie night. Things will never be the same. I am trying to figure out how to embrace that. So far, it's not going all that well.
• I need to get control of my body and my physical well-being. I was working out, eating well, feeling great until Dec 21. Then I got a cold and an infection and the cough from hell. I've gained the 10 pounds I lost and can't shake the crud. I need to Run Every Day, regardless of the hour. I hate being fat and out of shape.

There's a lot of other stuff swirling in my head. I worry about my parents all the time. They are so awesome and such an incredibly important part of my life, even though they live 340 miles away. I wish I could get them to come down here and live with me. Better yet, I wish they would move to Florida with me. I want to put them someplace safe and cook them dinner and chat with mom until all hours of the night and watch sports with Dad and tease him about his teams. I want to get my mom moving again and see if we can't get her to feel better. I want to get my dad away from behind the wheel of the car. In reality they are home where they are - they've lived in that house since I was born and I know it would be hard to get them out. I have a brother and two sisters within a mile of them, so it's not like I'm their only option. But I left 23 years ago and I really want to figure out a way to spend more time with them.

There have been a million blogable moments in the last two months. I am sorry I didn't capture them.

I will try to blog more often. Work is insane right now, which makes me very happy. I went to bed last night at 6am this morning and slept for 2.5 hours and I am still up tonight waiting for my turn at the brief that is due tomorrow. I have all the associates emailing me with questions/follow-up/assignments. We have a great team and I love being busy. But sleep would be nice, too.

If anyone is still reading this blog, thanks! I do promise to be back a little more often.