Claustrophobia

I've been feeling it lately. In the subway. On the street. In bars and restaurants. In the courts. The fact is simple: there are too many freaking people in this city. I snapped at a crazy bag lady on the subway yesterday because she kept telling people to move into the train (usually a sentiment I agree with) except there was nowhere to move. Usually you just roll your eyes and plug your earphones in against crazy bag ladies. But I couldn't take it.

Maybe it's spring fever and I need to just get away for a few days. Do people really take vacations by themselves? I'd love a spa weekend with girlfriends but totally can't afford it. My loan payments are going up by $76 this month. Awesome.

I saw Duplicity yesterday. Disappointing. Maybe I was expecting too much after reading a few glowing reviews. Despite the witty banter and star chemistry, I think I just can't get into things that are all about money. It's everywhere and nowhere at the same time. You can't turn on the news without being bombarded with dire predictions about how we're all financial idiots, and yet, the next segment is about recession-priced vacation packages.

Haven't done my taxes yet. Gah. Clearly I'm not as Type A as I pretend to be.

On a random positive note, who knew that Grey's Anatomy still had the ability to churn out a damn fine episode?

Dear law students on the #2 train:

I may be in sweaty workout clothes with my hair in a ponytail, but I'm still a lawyer. And I will still snicker and roll my eyes at you when you talk about how so-and-so TOTALLY didn't know the answer in Trusts and Estates the other day because she was TOTALLY on facebook when the professor called on her. Also, yes, you may have gotten free drinks at a law firm event (where you will probably not be hired in this economy) and now you're TOTALLY going to be hungover for moot court tomorrow, but you know what? It's good practice for rocking motion arguments while hungover like I did last Friday.

Keep studying. Just shut up about it, because the rest of us don't want to hear it.

Xoxo,

HE

P.S. You, with the bad dye job, you TOTALLY had a run in your stockings.

Blogging from my phone during CLE.

I hate CLE requirements. They are useless and stupid and solely moneymaking entities. I'm a lawyer. The whole point is I'm educated enough to look up what to do if I don't already know what to do.

Oh. My. God. Has anyone ever died from boredom? I would review cases I have shoved in my bag right now but I think if I billed for the time I was in CLE my boss might get concerned that I wasn't paying attention in the overpriced class he paid for. Not that I didn't have to practically threaten to quit to get them to pay for this crap. Jeez.

I am definitely not the only one glued to his or her phone right now...

"Ghosts definitely live here," I say.

I was ten years old and packing up my room in the house I was born in. We were moving from the countryside of Connecticut to the suburbs of New Jersey, and I was not happy about it. I loved our house. It was roomy and roamy and airy and light. And old. Very, very old. A few years earlier my mother had seen a ghost in the window in the living room. I was a realist/cynic even as a kid, but I believed her.

"What was it Mommy?"

"She was nursing her baby before they had to leave and keep moving."

"Where were they going?"

"Wherever they could I guess."

Our farmhouse was a bona fide stop on the underground railroad. It's included in the town records as a place where "the coloreds gathered" in the 1850s. Seriously.

When I was packing that last day, bitter and teary over leaving my house and my friends and my roaming backyard and field, I saw him. A little boy in the window, for the briefest of seconds. He flashed me a smile and disappeared, and I ran downstairs in fear and exhilaration.

"Ghosts definitely live here," I say.

___________________________________

The above is a wholeheartedly true story, and I stole the first line of this post from "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This town Again," by Julia Phillips, as part of Grace's awesome series. Aside from the obvious, it's awesome because there is no deadline and I can do it a month later than everyone else.

Taking A (Slightly) Sick Day

This is my second sick day in over two years of work. Not bad, right? There have probably been some times where I should have stayed home and didn't, so the fact that today I really COULD go to work and am not...balances out. I do feel like crap - overly tired, three day old dull headache, stuffy, but it's probably not enough to truly take a sick day. And yet I do not care, because, seriously, one sick day in 2+ years, remember? And on the rare day where I have no court appearances and would just sit in my office staring at the brief on my computer screen, billing 8 hours of "administrative time" for a sick day is surely the better choice.