list of things to do

on my list of things to do is visit the Pendleton Woolen Mills.

I just visited their website, since their factory is closed right now. And I want this bed set. It would look so good in my trailer. And even better in my cute, clean, amazing Seattle home!

My dad even mounted my buck horns from this fall, so it's like I'm already on the right path. NOM!

P.S.
OMG someone please buy THIS for me!!!

and the second week

Today:
I met with a client for the second time.
I didn't have a whole lot of work to do after that.
No one was in the office, the lights were out, I didn't know how to turn them on, I worked in the dark.
I tried to hang fliers but got rejected; one security officer didn't believe that I work for the tribe.
DUDE, I'm not trying to solicit people! WTF? It's a casino!! Just let me hang my flyer!
I had a margarita and three pork tacos for dinner. It was only $8.
It's 67 degrees and lightening and hailing outside. Crazy.
Also I want Seattle.
And now I'm watching 30 Rock on Dustin's Netflix instant play account. I wish he were here watching too.

Moral of the story: I really like the work I'm doing out here. I wish there was more of it so that I would have more to do and wouldn't feel so bored and lonely at night. Also I shouldn't have read "ROOM" even though it was really good. Now I think that I'm going to get kidnapped! Ha. But really, I haven't been that engaged in a book in a long time. I thought about it when I wasn't reading it. And now that I'm done with it I'm still thinking about it, but in a different, scarier way now ha.

work (in)appropriate?

As I've said before, the office where I work (at least the area I work in) is pretty casual (see: jorts). However, I was told when I started that the dress code was business-casual, so I usually try and dress a little nicer. I figured it couldn't hurt since I'm such a young intern, maybe dressing up a little will give me a little more credibility? Who knows!

Anyway this weekend Nordstrom was having a sale, so Dustin and I took a trip to northgate and I got these babies:

Jessica Simpson nude & wood heels! Yay!

Naturally I wanted to wear them to work today. I wouldn't normally wear something this high and this open toed to work, but whatever I guess.

This is what I wore them with:

oversized dress shirt and skinny braided belt: H&M

black skinny pants: Forever 21 (what can I say, I'm classyyyy and poor haha)

background: single wide trailer in the Lucky 7 trailer park (seriously, so classy guys!)

So my question to you: are the shoes inapprops for work?

Now I'm off to hang some fliers around the Rez. I need to get some more clients A-Sap!

day three and the drive to Seattle

Yesterday was my third day of work. I had my very first client meeting at 7:30am with an older gentleman who loves to tell stories. I learned so much about his family and his life and his reasons for leaving his things to certain people. On my 2nd day I wished for an easy first client and that wish basically came true.

On Tuesday afternoon to end my work day I went into Pendleton and met with the old supervising attorney in order to get some unfinished wills and things from her. She was super nice and helpful and after an hour or two of going through boxes of old wills I found my first client's first will (thanks the BBY). That definitely made me life a lot easier (I basically had a template to go off of, as well as old correspondence and all of his IIM and ITI reports - awesome, right?). I was worried about meeting with him because the first time I met him he informed me that he wasn't sure whether or not he was married (whattt?). After reviewing his file I discovered that he was in fact still married but hadn't seen or talked to his wife for over 20 years. Talk about living separate and apart. Sheesh! Our client interview meeting was over two hours long, but I got everything I needed out of him before he had to leave to go back home.

One of the interesting things about meeting with a lot of the clients on the reservation is that they don't have phones (let alone e-mail, that's just not happening). It's so crazy for me to think about. I guess when you live in an extremely small community you don't need a phone for communication because everyone knows where you live and knows your whereabouts at all times. I, on the other hand, don't know these things so it makes my life kind of difficult, but it'll be ok.

I wonder if this means that everyone knows that I fell SO hard on my run the other day along the one main road running through the reservation (right by the BIA office)? It was so embarrassing, I fell so hard I tumbled across the sidewalk. Ouch, my ego hurts.

Although a lot of my clients don't have phones, I finally got my work phone hooked up yesterday! I have my very own phone that rings to my cubical - how exciting, right? That was big girl thing #1 for the day. Big girl thing #2 was this:

YAY! Anyway, yesterday afternoon I totally had a sneak attack client. It was an older man and his son (don't worry, supervisor, I talked to the older man alone about whether or not anyone was "pressuring him into making a will." I'm on top of that ish!).

And with this sneak attack client came my first work mistake. BOO! I totally semi-mis-advised him and today I had to call and remedy the situation (oh I couldn't call him, but instead had to call his son's phone and have his father call me back a few hours later - I told you, NO ONE has phones out there). I definitely felt awkward about it, but both the father and the son were really nice about the situation. Hopefully nothing like that will happen again. But like my supervisor said, it's not the end of the world and we all make mistakes!

After I got off work I grabbed my things from my trailer and headed for Seattle (yay)! I was so so excited. The drive totally wasn't terrible and I was stoked that I had made it to the pass in only about 3 1/2 hours. AND then just as things were moving along nicely, this:

What?! Completely stopped in traffic. Luckily I had seen a sign with an AM radio station listed so I switched to 16something AM and found out that traffic was being stopped from 7-8pm for rock blasting. It was 7:08pm. FML. I sat there for an entire hour before we finally started to move again.

When I got back to Seattle I stopped by my house to drop my things then headed to Dustin's for some delish dinner (thanks, you!).

I've never been so excited to be back in Seattle (at my nice, clean, awesome home). Even my hair is excited:

it's being all perfectly naturally wavy and thingz. Winning.

Anyway, I have been working on some wills from my desk in my room in Seattle today and I'm happy about my work space. Oh and I've been drinking Seattle water from my Britta which I am also SO happy about - Pendleton desert water is yuk! Over it! Ha.

Later I'm planning on making some panzanella salad, meat and this cookie dough dip. I'm pretty excited about it. I hope everything turns out as tasty as I'm imagining it will be.

next time I need a job...

I am totally taking advice from THIS GUY!

click here for image credit and the full article

blogging from work: day 2

Hi friends! I'm at work right now being a semi-bad/irresponsible employee.

oh hi, it's me!

But that's not your problem so let's just get past that and let me tell you about my day. I'm here on the Umatilla reservation, working in the Tribal Governance center. It's a really nice/new/pretty building. I'm in a cubical, in the corner on the 2nd floor. Who would have ever thought I'd be working in a cubical? Not me! Do you all work in cubicals? I'm not sure what all the people in the other cubicals around me do (one lady is the person who set up my trailer park housing, one is the office manager and I'm next to the DECD Director's office - but I don't know what that means haha he is really nice and helpful though, so basically we're besties). My cubical is fine and nicer than the cubicals on Office Space, and clearly it's not too busy, because I can get away with blogging at work. However, it is like a freaking igloo in this building. Who needs the AC on when it's 50 degrees and raining outside? Confused. And cold!

This morning I got off to a busy start (after I got here and registered for classes, that is - but the registration period was really frustrating because even as a 3L I couldn't get into ANY classes, well actually I got into 2, but that was all, WTF). The first thing I did this morning was look up some Oregon law and then draft my Oregon Health Care Directive Template. I'm super jealous of all the Washington interns who already had all their documents pre-drafted and ready to go. But I guess it's good I had something to keep me busy. Next I changed some language in the template Washington Indian will I have in order to make sure it comples with Oregon laws and statues. Blah blah blah, I know! My life is so technical and almost boring! Ha! But it is a nice change from school.

After doing a few hours of real work I took a break to read some blogs b/c I've been slacking and eat this snack (nom):

I found this snack at the wal mart super center in Pendleton last night and it was tasty. Cheese, pretzels and apple slices = awesome!

After my mini-break I had a gentleman come and talk to me about getting his will drafted. He set up an appointment with me for tomorrow morning, bright and early at 7:30am. But of course, my first client can't be an easy one. He informed me that he isn't sure if he is married or not. He is not with his woman friend, so I'm not sure if it is an issue of whether or not they were ever married or whether or not they ever got divorced? Maybe both? Also he doesn't have his IIM or trust land information. I guess tomorrow will be a good exercise? Gotta look at things from the positive side of the fence, right?

I also had a woman come and talk to me yesterday about getting her will re-drafted because her husband had walked out on her and her kids about a month ago and she hadn't heard from him since. She isn't yet divorced and hasn't yet gone through custody proceedings. Sticky stuff. Her issues are complicated - and not just from my point of view I'm sure. I wished for an easy first will when I was going through my training, but unfortunately that's probably not going to happen. I am super thankful that I have such a great supervising attorney though. He always answers my million e-mails right away and so far has provided me with good, helpful answers. I definitely appreciate it and I don't know what I would do without his advice. Too bad he's all the way back in Seattle.

Or is it too bad? If I had a supervisor here I probably wouldn't be blogging from work. But since I'm basically my own boss and I basically do what I want (no rulez when you set up your own mini summer practice on the rez, right?), I have some freedom to do things in the most comfortable way for me. Minus turn down the air conditioning, and the really inappropriate office music. I think those are both stuck. Bummer.

a day of firsts

 

Today I started my “big girl job.” I woke up late (oops), got ready quickly, saw it was raining then decided to drive the 1/2 mile to the governance center. I first went up to the Legal Department where I introduced myself and put down my stuff. It wasn’t long before I was moved to a new area and a new cubical. And left there. There weren’t very many people around but there was some pretty inappropriate office music playing from a nearby cubical (at one point baw with the baw by kid rock came on, if that is any indication).  I sat at my cubical quietly working until about noon when I finally decided to run home and quickly eat (I was so starving at that point). I came back to my cubical and tried to find things to do until 4 when I was finally off work.

But, the things I got done today were mostly: sent about a million e-mails, edited documents, talked to one woman about writing her will, met some of the people working around me, researched, made some fliers etc. I hope I get some real clients soon.

It was raining so I couldn’t really take a picture outside, but here is my first day of work outfit (I bought it especially for today):

Shirt and skirt: H&M
Flats: Steve Madden

After work I decided to (a) take a nap then (b) drive into Pendleton to check things out (mainly downtown which I hadn’t been to yet) and make a wal mart trip round two. Downtown reminded a little of downtown the Dalles. Or something. It actually wasn’t too bad, but most everything was closed. I’m looking forward to hitting up the Pendleton Wollen Mills and store, and some book stores while I’m here.

Here is a picture I took from i84 driving into Pendleton yesterday (big city haha):

When I drove into town I spotted the Rainbow. A bar/cafe I had heard good things about from a few different people. I decided to stop in for a beer. This is the first time I have EVER gone to a bar by myself (minus the bar at Brian’s Pourhouse but that is only b/c I worked there and all my friends were working so it wasn’t really like I went there alone). Anyway, I snapped this picture then walked inside:

When I walked inside everyone stared at me. One guy greeted me with a HUGE hello and I sat at the bar. The super friendly guy then asked me if I would marry him. What? I then ordered a bud light. The friendly and very drunk man and his very drunk friends then decided that they should be best friends with me. It was nice having some people to talk to even if they were kind of trashy and drunk. I chatted with randoms for a while, was totally the most popular girl at the bar (new girl, right?) and made friends with the bartender (he was a really nice older man who totally warned me about the crazies at the bar and told me the other cool bars in town, as well as the ones I should avoid). Finally the drunkies left and I finished my beer and got ready to leave. The bartender gave me his number in case I got into any trouble and then as I was walking out a nice older man said that he overheard that I was new in town too and started talking to me about how he is also here contracted working for the new casino the tribe is building. So many new friendz.

I finally got out of the rainbow, went to wal mart and now I’m at home. So tired. I’m waiting for a phone call for Dustin, then it’s bedtime. More stories to come tomorrow.

Moving to the Reservation

So today was the big day: the day I moved to the reservation. This morning I woke up in Hood River and had breakfast with Dustin and Pickle at the Riverside Grill. After breakfast I said goodbye to Dustin (sadface) because he was heading back to Seattle then I drove up to my parents’ house before leaving for Pendleton. I hadn’t heard back from the woman who was in charge of my housing here yet, but decided I needed to take my chances and start the drive out here anyway with the mindset that worse case scenario I could rent a cheap hotel room in Pendleton for the night and figure out my housing tomorrow when I go to work at the tribal government building.

I was pretty emo during my drive out here. I was feeling super anxious about the move and the fact that I hadn’t yet heard from the woman in charge of my housing. The drive was almost exactly two hours from Hood River. It was really pretty too which made me feel a little better. When I finally got out here I stopped in Pendleton for gas and the gas attendant gave me directions to the “town” of Mission – where I’m living. I drove past the casino and then past the tribal Government building where I’ll be working. Then I came to the Mission Market and saw the trailer park. I’m not going to lie, my first thought was “OMG this is ghetto!” After that I decided to drive back to the Casino to use the bathroom and waste some time until (a) my family arrived – they were just about an hour behind me, or (b) the housing woman called me back. Luckily after using the casino restroom I got a phone call complete with directions to my new trailer. They basically consisted of: turn right at the stop sign by mission market, take the first left and it’s the second trailer in on the left. She also told me that the door would be unlocked and the key hidden inside. I was so relieved to get that call. But when I got to my trailer the door wasn’t unlocked. Bummer. But it was easily remedied by a phone call and a five minute wait that ended in a cleaning woman coming to my house to open the door. Then finally I was in.

I brought my things inside and started to unpack as I waited for my family to get here. When they finally got here my brother kept talking about how ghetto my new place is and my mom kept hinting that she is basically convinced I’m going to get murdered here. But when they were here we discovered that not only do I have an old, nasty window air conditioner in the broken closet in the spare room, but I also have central air conditioning: win. I’m going to need it this summer since I’m basically in the Oregon desert.

After I unpacked a little and my family had a look around we went to the Wildhorse Casino. I’m not really a gambler (my mom and dad and brother go to the casino together, but I always pass up the opportunities – there are other things I’d rather do with the little money I have ha). But my dad gave me $20 to gamble with today because he wanted me to have a good time. He and I sat down at the roulette table (it’s like the only thing I know how to play) and slowly but surely my chip pile started to grow. My dad lost some money and decided to get up and go play something else. I stayed and for a while I was the only person playing. But after about an hour I had won $32.75. I tried to give my dad back his $20 but he wouldn’t take it, so I was feeling pretty good with a little over $50 in my pocket. My dad then bought us all dinner at the buffet. It wasn’t the most amazing dinner, but it was pretty good considering it was from an all you can eat buffet at a casino. After that my family decided that they wanted to do a little more gambling. I however, was done, so I said goodbye to them and headed to Pendleton to go to Wal Mart to spend my roulette winnings on some sheets (Dustin gave me a pair of his old sheets and his old comforter, but the sheets were for a full size bed and wouldn’t fit on the Queen size bed they furnished me). I also bought an iron and a mini ironing board (because grown ups iron their work clothes before wearing them haha – also I don’t have a washer/dryer here and my first day of work, grown up clothes were really wrinkled).

After Wal Mart I came back to my trailer, popped a Harry Potter movie Dustin gave me from the trunk of his car this morning into my old laptop (which is doubling as my TV for the summer), and ironed my outfit for tomorrow while I waited for my family to stop by to say goodbye before heading home. They just finally stopped a few minutes ago, told me again that they were worried about me, I assured them that it would be fine and they left.

Now I’m super tired and I have to leave for work in a little more than 8 hours, so I should probably go to sleep soon. I have to admit though, I am a little nervous to spend my first night here alone and I kind of wish Dustin or someone were here with me for moral support, but like I assured my family: I’m sure everything will be fine.

Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of everything (I’m too tired tonight – this day feels a million years long)! Get excited everyone!

work is the hardest

Hi friendz! This week I've been doing training for my summer job (estate planning for tribal members on the Umatilla Reservation). It has been a rough week (ha). I train from 9:30-4:30 with catered breakfast and lunch, and today we got snacks too (mixed nuts + coffee = yes). Then after work I occasionally have homework (Ex: today I had a write up a fake Indian will for a fake person = one step closer to real lawyer things) but mostly I just drink happy hour margaritas with my friends. I think I've probably gained some weight this week haha.

While this week hasn't been super difficult, I have been extremely tired all week. Training is a weird change from school. You have to pay attention for longer periods of time and well, I guess that's about it. But still. It's a change from my usual school routine and one that apparently makes me tired. So there, I said it.

I am really excited to start my new job in Umatilla on Monday (at 8am, whoop). I think that the experience will be super rewarding, and I'm really looking forward to meeting the clients and getting to know people on the reservation. Every day in training I get more and more excited to be doing real lawyer things this summer. And not just real lawyer things, but real lawyer things with Indians. It's going to be awesome!

I plan on blogging about my whole experience (hopefully at the end of every day I'm there - a few days a week I can draft from wherever, so I can't promise anything super exciting those days) and I want to write a more detailed overview post, but right now I'm way too tired, so that will have to wait for another day! And hopefully Sunday night I will have some pictures of my new home - in the trailer park on the rez! Whoop. So fancy. So maybe everything will come together in a more meaningful way Sunday. We'll see.

This is the rest of my week: tomorrow I have training, then I pack, then late tomorrow night I pick Dustin up from the airport (work trip = so standard, excited to see him again = even more standard). Friday I have my last day (it's only a 1/2 day) of training, then I head for "home" to visit the fam, and my friends, and fluffy face before heading to the Umatilla Reservation on Sunday. Busy busy.

But now it's time to get some sleep, which I have been craving all week, and totally deserve because of all of my really hard work (duhh). Goodnight lovelies!

end of school rager

So, on Friday my roommates and I threw a party at our house to celebrate Erin and I being done with another year of law school. And to celebrate the fact that we have an awesome house and an awesome backyard/deck which is perfect for parties. The party was mostly good minus the fact that our upstairs toilet got completely destroyed (thanks Dustin for fixing it the next day), someone lost part of my lawn game (I think it is probably in the neighbors’ yard), someone put gum down the garbage disposal, someone spilled beer on my bed and someone broke a swing on the swing set and then my landlord showed up unannounced the next morning to take it apart and take it to their new house (BUSTED big time). The keg was still sitting in the back yard too. Good thing I had just finished like 3 hours of cleaning and mopping floors before he got there so at least the house looked nice and clean and smelled good (again) haha. Oh and I kicked some randos out of our house. That was kind of awkward too. Whatevs though. We killed the keg + some, it was Julia’s birthday, Dustin brought and grilled a bunch of tasty food and I think everyone had a good time. Yay for being done with another year.

Erin and I = done!
My BFF Katie and I

Dustin cooking
Sister roommies

Dustin and his friendz
Brittan, me and Forrest

Dustin and I = heart ha
My cousins and myself (yay)

Dustin’s BFF, Pickle who was up from Portland and myself
Me and the birthday girl, Julia (who was also done with some more law school) yay!

Oh and P.S. Tomorrow morning I start training for my first ever big girl, lawyer job. Send me some good vibes, please and thanks!

I’M DONE WITH ANOTHER YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL!

WHOOP! I think the title says it all. It feels so good to be done for the summer. But I kind of don’t know what to do with myself. I am exhausted yet too excited to sleep and everyone is at work right now so I’m bored/confused haha. But I did go to H&M in the village to run an errand and while I was there I bought a new pair of sunglasses ($6, yeah!). Afterward I went to QFC and I picked myself up a bottle of champagne and Juanita’s chpis (Hood River, represent) & salsa and then I came home sat out in the back yard in the sun and had a solo picnic. It was really nice.

solo celebration!

sunshine in the back yard = love!

sydney fashion week

I stole this picture from my friend Marissa's facebook page and I want:

Also the Ce Jeu song is magical (youtube it, the video is awesome too) and I can't get it out of my head. I want to dance around to it in these shoes. Both pairs. At once. WHAT?

trendy girl bun

My lovely friend Beth took this picture of me at Gasworks park when she came to visit a few weeks ago. She took it with her disposable camera and I just love that - she would!

rain on the inside

Today is a final day. So I got up, took a shower, went downstairs to get some clothes out of the dryer, and realized that the floor was SOAKING wet. Whaaat? So I look up and realize that it's raining. On the inside of our home. Eff! I call our landlord and leave him a frantic voice message telling him that I will be in a final for a large chunk of the day and that he has my permission to enter our home to fix it. I don't really know what else to do. So I made a smoothie:

1 banana

1/3 cup frozen blueberries

1 tablespoon peanut butter

1 heaping tablespoon ground flax seed

1 scoop of chocolate protein powder

milk

Now I'm sitting in my room, drinking my smoothie, getting ready to go over my outline a few more times in an attempt to memorize everything before my 1:30 final and not think about the rogue water in the laundry room. Also I have my happy light on for good measure!

Erin, myself and Kylee in front of our house in August - right after we moved in!

and PS here's a little happy music for everyone:

Inspirational & Motivational Posters

So I think the finals stress has fully set it (see: stress eating chicken strips and tots with Lisa and Brittan b/c I am a bottomless pit of hunger, crying for no reason tonight, studying ALL day and until almost midnight and still not feeling like it's enough, hating driving anywhere and feeling extremely stressed when I have to drive to school to print my outline, etc but I think you get the point). Also I'm feeling severe back pain b/c I've been neglecting my therapy massages (I never thought I'd say this, but Josh I need your tender, magic handssss - so creepy on so many levels, but that's a story for another day - I promise).

I think all of this together is making me really hard to deal with. Tonight I freaked out because of the move I'm about to make (if you didn't already know, this summer I'll be moving 5+ hours away from Seattle to an Indian reservation in BFE Oregon - more specifically a trailer park on an Indian reservation in BFE Oregon- because I'm going to be doing some estate planning work there for the Umatilla Indian people. Real lawyer stuff, guys!!). I'm so scared and nervous that I'm going to be lonely and it's going to be awful. But I think that I just need to keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for me. I'm doing this as an investment in my future - which is going to be awesome, you're jealous of my future, don't lie! I need to remember this not just about the move/new job, but law school in general.

Yesterday I got really upset. I was feeling like I give and give and give to school but I get nothing back. My grades aren't usually as good as I'd like (stupid extremely low curve at SU law, and just stupid curve in general), I don't feel like myself a lot of the time, and I'm not seeing any tangible return on my hard work. Getting nothing back but a letter printed on the computer screen for all that time and stress and hard work (harder than I've ever worked) somehow doesn't feel good enough. It's often a let down in more ways than one. After my final last Wednesday, Kyle said to me as we were walking outside: "look on the bright side, it's just law school." and I thought, yeah but it's also my wellbeing and livelihood and happiness being crushed under an enormous pile of debt and stress!

Sometimes it's hard to remember that I'm doing this as an investment in me. In my future. All my hard work and craziness is making me a better, stronger, smarter person. And when I get through this, I'm going to be a lawyer. At 25 years old. And that is going to be amazing - an awesome accomplishment that I will be truly proud of. Graduation is only a year + a week away from now, and it cannot come soon enough. I can't wait to come out a better version of my old self on the other side of this whole law school experience. And in the mean time, I need to remember that "I'm doing this for me!"

So that is my motto for the night. And for the days ahead - this summer and beyond. I offer it to you too, fellow law school friends. Maybe it will help you through your craziness to remember that too.

But I do guarantee you that in two weeks I won't even remember this, and I'll think law school is the most awesome thing ever because I've blocked out the horribleness of finals like a new mother blocks out the child birth experience. And then it will be on to worrying something else (hopefully something more mundane, like boys and clothes haha). But this is what's getting me through now. I even made myself a little note and put it on my desk, I WOULD. It's the closest thing to an inspirational poster that used to be in Mrs. Taylor's high school math class that I could come up with on such short notice.

Anyway, this post feels weirdly like a Professional Responsibility feelings journal assignment. So with that, I'm dunzo for the night.

today is mother's day

Today I've been feeling so emo (like black heart, write poems in the park status) ha, silly finals making me feel awful about life. Good thing I was able to take a mid-day-break to offset my emo-ness. I took a nice, long walk with Dustin. We walked down Greenwood Ave which then turned into Phinney Ave. We window shopped and held hands and it was nice. On the way back we stopped at a little wine bar called In the Red. It was the only place along our walk not jam packed with moms and their families. I had a glass of Sawbuck Malbec, Dustin had a beer and we split some tiramisu. Nom.

Also, today I tried to be a good daughter and I called my mom, because, you know, it's mother's day. Our conversation:

Me: Hiii mom, happy mother's day

Mom: Hi honey, how's-- What?! How?! FLUFFY!

Mom: Jerry, do you see this? How's he get in here?

Me: what?

Mom a few moments later: ohh apparently Fluffy hopped in the house through Jim's open window. I saw snack looking all grumpy and then noticed that Fluffy was sitting in the room too.

I have the silliest kitty! He would! That definitely also made my day a little happier. I can't wait to see him again. So anyway, happy mother's day to all you moms out there - new, expectant and old (and also to everyone who has a mom). I hope everyone has had a wonderful day!

Update:

I just realized this post is pretty lame (I'm sorry, friendz). So I'm offering you this an an apology, because who doesn't like a cute animal video?

It makes me LOL every time!

"best hate sex songs"

I just discovered a tool on blogger that lets you see how people found your site via google searches. Some of the top searches that resulted in Rebeka's Reflections included:

Canadian Tuxedos

Barrister's Ball

Getting drunk at Barrister's Ball

Being a lawyer had better be awesome - How I Met Your Mother

Gaming Papers

Those all totally make sense to me. But the one that completely threw me off, and my personal favorite search that led people to my blog (I'm imagining a drum roll in my head):

best hate sex songs

It's also awkward that I just googled that and I was like the 4th website to come up. I need to make life changes or something.

P.S. that's three posts today and I'm still not asleep. I'm the biggest procrastinator. What if I had spent all this time studying instead of slacking? WHAT IF? I would probably do soooo good in school. Whatevs, that's so not my style anyway. Hah, just kidding guys, I do awesomeeee! (and now I'm just delusional). K goodnight for realzies.

craftz

So, as you can all probably tell, I'm really not very blog savvy. I like blogging quite a bit but I'm really not very good at the technical, lay-out stuff (so if anyone has any advice, please please send it my way and I will repay you with so much love)! BUT today I made a new blog heading. It's super simple, but I'm pretty proud of myself for creating something new. I'll have to search around for some non-portrait images in an attempt to make another (again, any suggestions would be very welcome). The one I have up now is like my 50th version, but I'm not so sure I like the fact that it's a picture of me. Up there. So big and things. But it will do for now.

Can you tell that I'm procrastinating?

I did, however, study for like 7 hours straight today at Zoka. I had planned to meet Leslie there for a study-date. We were totally studying different things today - but sometimes it's just nice to sit next to someone else while you both study to the point of hating your lives. Misery loves company I guess. Anyway I got to Zoka first, because it is only a few blocks from my house, and I walked in to find Lisa and Brittan already there, studying away. I snagged a table by them, got some coffee and started working on condensing my 11 page outline into a single page which I'm allowed to bring into my test tomorrow. After two coffees, a sandwich and like 7 hours of studying, I was left with only Brittan by my side and a complete 1 page outline (hooray). It was a good day - we all got lots of work done, and we had some good laughs (that I'm sure annoyed everyone around us), but all in all it was productive and enjoyable (or as enjoyable as studying can be) and that's the best during finals. Did I mention that I love that I got to be productive with three of my fav law school ladies? Because I do!

Now it's time to get ready for bed, because tomorrow I have my Professional Responsibility final. And tomorrow night I get to pick Dustin up from the airport and spend the night hanging with him, celebrating being done with PR and taking a little break from studying (hooray)! I'm pretty stoked.

finals lusting

All morning I've been lusting. This is a really inappropriate activity considering I have my professional responsibility final tomorrow and I have NO grasp on the topic of ethics. I somehow don't think that writing about my feelings and what I think is right/wrong is going to be enough to get me a passing grade on the final (even though that's 90% of what we did in class - BLAH)! So I'll tell you a little bit about my lustinggg and then I'll get to studying.

I recently saw these shoes (Soludos) and now I'm really wanting them. Really. They're totally casual and cute and comfy looking:

But then as I was reading about these wonderful soludos on their website I realized that you cannot wear them when it rains. Or get them wet, at all... this is kind of a problem since I live in SEATTLE! Ugh, rain, why do you always ruin all of my happiness?

Maybe I can buy a pair and take them to Pendleton with me this summer? It like never rains in central Oregon in the summer, right? It's the desert after all! Maybe a pair of these babies will be my post-finals gift to myself!

But in order to get a post-finals gift I need to get through finals first. So off to study I go.

in the morning before

Today I have my first exam of this round of law school finals. Evidence, here I come! My final isn't until 1:30 though. Which means I don't have to leave here until a little after noon (we have to be there crazy early to get exam-soft running on our computers and make sure everything is working before the test starts). I'm still not nervous. Maybe that's because it's so beautiful outside?

Because it's warm out, I decided that I wanted, no needed, a smoothie for breakfast. Too bad I have like zero food (besides Trader Joe's Frozen Meals + Trader Joe's Snacks). I did, however, find some frozen blueberries. So my smoothie today = approximately:

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

an overflowing tablespoon of peanutbutter

1 tablespoon of flaxseed

pinch of xanthan gum

1 cup of soy milk

splash of OJ

ice

And guess what? It's actually pretty delicious. I would definitely recommended it! Here I come, day! And watch out evidence final because I'm coming for you Anton Dodson style! So you can run and tell that, homeboy!

P.S. go to Pandora.com and start a station by typing in "Dance Hall Days" by Wang Chung (you already know how I feel about this music video) and try to be in a bad mood. I dare you. It's so upbeat and danceable and happy! Mmm cheezy 80s music! GO!

over and over and over again

Music and movies are two things I can do over and over again. A favorite song? I'll listen to it every day for years and not get tired of it. A favorite movie? Just ask my friends how many times I've watched The Hangover. It's really too bad I don't have that same mantra when it comes to going over my evidence outline. I have my first spring semester final tomorrow and I just can't seem to feel the "finals anxiety." I mean, I'm feeling it, but in a different way than normal. This year I'm more feelings stressed that I'm not actually very worried about my tests. Maybe it's because I'm just "getting" school more this year. But it's probably just because I'm getting used to the awful awful stress of finals and I'm learning to cope with it in a more manageable way (let's hope that's it). But even if I don't feel super super crazy anxious like I normally do, I definitely do feel stressed out (maybe for other reasons?). I literally feel like I'm going crazy. Like law school is changing me into a crazy, emotional, crazy person. I don't like feeling like this and I'm glad summer is only a week and a half away. But I can't really think about summer either because the thought of moving to the middle of nowhere Oregon, where I know no one, is really stressful too. Talk about anxiety attack. I think I'm worried more about that than I am about finals, and that makes me crazy. Everything is making me crazy. All the small things are adding up. Every last one of them. And all I want to do is watch the same movies over and over again until I forget about all of the stress and anxiety and weirdness law school is making me feel. I want to feel the way I did last summer again. I want to feel the way I felt without law school. I want to re-live that feeling over and over again instead.

the 24th year

Today is my very best friend's birthday! I hate finals for now allowing me to properly celebrate with her, but I will make up for it soon! Yay to my wonderful friend and her 24th year!

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Also, here are some things I'm missing today:

Abbey & Amelia, my "California Girls" (yes, that is a Katy Perry reference) who are living it up in SoCal! So jealous!

And of course my favorite Fluff Fluff. The house feels so empty without my little love.

But tomorrow I have an early study session planned with Leslie, so hopefully my day will be productive. Being productive always makes me feel good! But now it's time for bed, so goodnight lovelies!

stye in my eye

So, I think I have a legit stye in my eye. My left eye is all swollen and hurty (yes, that's the adjective I'm using) on the bottom near the corner. And I'm pretty sad about it. Web MD says no contacts or makeup and that it will keep swelling for three days. I hate Web MD right now.

In more historic news, in case you have all been living under a rock: Osama Bin Laden is dead thanks to some U.S. troops who I can only imagine are excited beyond belief right about now. Dustin and I were grabbing a beer post dinner (I know, its finals and I shouldn't be drinking, but I'm stressed and the break with him was so nice and soo worth it) when the news came on all the TVs in the bar. When Dustin first brought my attention to it I almost didn't believe it. But then I realized it is May 1st and not April 1st, so this isn't some awful, nation-wide joke or something. We watched the President's speech in silence at the bar and it was pretty cool. I don't think I'll soon forget this night.

Oh and also, I wanted to post about my new earrings but haven't had a chance until now. So you also get this little P.S. blog-part. On Friday I was super-stressing. It sucked. But after some study-time I went to Dustin's old apartment to help him finish cleaning and moving the last of his things (mostly cleaning supplies and his stereo) out of his apartment. He knew I was stressing and surprised me with some earrings I had pointed out in a store window the other evening when we were on a walk. He is seriously the sweetest.

They are long, feather earrings that hit just past my collar bones and I am seriously crushing on them. I want to wear them everyday but I don't want to ruin them, because the feathers seem so delicate. AH, lusting after the wonderful earrings and the wonderful boy too.