I Don't Want To Be In Charge

I must have been exhausted, because I went to bed around 11 last night and woke up at 10:30 this morning, with only a short layover for some diet Mt. Dew in the middle of the night.  I decided that I don't want to be an adult today.  I don't want to be in charge, I don't want to worry, and I don't want to think.

So I considered some New Year's resolutions.  So far, they are:

1.  Get a new car.
2.  Get a Wii and dance my ass off to silly songs on video games.  Maybe I can update my dance moves to approximately 2007.  Considering they're currently from 1999, that'd be a total upgrade.

I also thought about Christian Death, a goth band (deathmetal?) I liked when I was a teenager.  So I read its Wikipedia entry and listened to some songs on Youtube and remembered that I liked slower goth more than the psychobilly goth.

Then I looked at list of songs I remembered when reading GPOM's Encyclopedia of Punk, and looked up this song.  There is nothing punk about it, except maybe the male chanting.  Maybe.

Today's awesome phrase is: Irrepressibly untalented.  It was a descriptor for Sid Vicious.  Apt.

Political Malaise

For the past few days my Facebook, Twitter, and TV news feed have been full of the "atrocities" being committed all over the state, country, and world.  I gotta tell you, I am so exhausted of it.  I don't know what to believe, what it true, how much is slant, and I might be becoming a bit of a Republican.

I kinda tore into a few people last night, so much was my incredible disinterest in what's going on far outside my door.  This morning I felt guilty about being so direct in my attempts to just get people to stop already, but even the guilt didn't make me feel badly for my strong reactions.

I spent my early afternoon looking through an heirloom birthday book.  (It provides proof that my family really is Prussian!  Woot!)  I felt closer to my mother's family and got to add entries into my own family tree.  Still, I didn't quite put my finger on the problem.

GPOM just got a text from an acquaintance of his in Seattle, who wished him a happy Thanksgiving and who told GPOM that he's planning a holiday dinner for the homeless and the people who use the dog park outside of GPOM's former place.

That.  That.  THAT was what was missing.  I needed a reminder that what can be fixed nearby carries more weight than links from websites hosted in places I know nothing about.  I told GPOM that the world needs more Patricks.  Not more screamers about links.  Patricks.

We're sending a donation to Patrick's homeless and dog-park family.

Waiting For Bar Results

I don't think I've discussed this before, as I'm generally reticent to talk about my work or work history here.  But today I was read Carolyn Hax's weekly live advice chat, and I read a question from someone who is getting ready to sit for the bar again (best of luck to you!) and wondered how to answer the inevitable, "What do you do?" question. 

Here's what I did while I studied for the bar and waited for results:  I worked a series of contract jobs.  I worked for MDA on its fundraising campaign for a brief period of time.  Man, did I hate that job.  I fully support the cause, but I didn't like the efforts to get donations, and as I am a terrible salesperson, I hated cold-calling people for more support.  Took me about five weeks before I called the agency to beg for a new assignment.

(Psst - the MDA website has music.  Who does that anymore?)

After that I went to work for a mortgage broker at what was then Wachovia.  That was an interesting experience - this was summer 2008, and I could see her selling those Pic-A-Payment mortgages to customers and thinking what a terrible idea this all was.  Now, don't assume that all the buyers were dopes - many were engineers and scientists.  I think so many were taken it because of either naivete or extremely high self-esteem. 

The point of this is to remember that I've learned a lot about the nature of business and the nature of myself from contract jobs.  So, to that young person who's waiting, I say, learn as much as you can, because it will come in handy.  I can do real estate work much more readily because I've built mortgage application submission packets and I've reviewed the closings that returned from the brokers.  I can work with all kinds of people on both sides of the "cash register".  So study hard, don't freak out, and learn what you can.  You'll use it, I promise.

Post-Bake, Pre-Wash

The chaos I had anticipated for the rest of the week has turned into a different kind of chaos.  As you know, I am quite the creature of habit, so even subtle changes throw me off.  I intended to spend the end of the week at a conference in Montgomery with GPOM, because who doesn't love a legal conference?  And by that I mean, who doesn't want to get out of town?

GPOM, apparently, when he told me today that he might not want to go.  OK, you don't have to, I said, but I was disappointed.

Yet, we got home and I got a call from a potential client and also was reminded that my motion does not yet have a ruling, and I decided that I also would not attend the conference.  I wish I could - there's going to be some very interesting speakers, plus the governor and the attorney general, but these things can't be helped and I am reminded that an attorney's day can be difficult to schedule.

Yeah.  Like everyone else's day runs like clockwork.

So I baked (cookies!) and am about to start laundry and more than anything, I'm so very tired.

Back From The Midwest

The rest of the trip was really fast.  By that I mean that Momma and I stayed nowhere very long, but drove very long hours to at least get cursory glances of her cousins, graveyards, my great aunt, my aunt and cousin, and Momma's best friend.  We made it home three days early, and I am ever so grateful because I think Momma and I would have killed each other had we spent too much more time together.  We get along famously, but eight days in a car with anyone would drive you to distraction.

Pun.

So, instead of giving you the blow-by-blow of the trip, I'll instead let you look at pretty pictures.  I've got a true story of a sad crime to tell you in the days to come, but I have more research to do.  This story has fascinated me since my grandfather told me about it years ago, as he remembered the event, and I want to share it with you.  Later.

My grandfather retired from here.

Homage to Eminem.  No, I did not take this picture while driving eighty miles an hour in fairly heavy traffic outside of Detroit.  That's crazy talk!*

Waves breaking on the shore of Lake Huron.  If Alpena, Michigan needs a marketing person, it should really come to me.  I'm making the place look a lot better than it does in person.

Golden sunset on Lake Huron in Alpena.

I climbed out past the walkway onto the rocks to get closer to the water.  This is, of course, more of Lake Huron.  Walking on the rocks gave me a peaceful feeling; one I rarely have because it required all of my concentration not to fall.  Maybe I should climb rocks more often.

My grandmother's maiden name.  Her family owned a farm and apparently got street naming rights.  I've tried to track down more of the family history, but it gets tricky when the Wagners and the Wegners intermarried, and the spelling of Diemond changed.

See what I mean?  This is the original spelling, and if I can track down the story of Urs Joseph Diemand, I will and I will share it with you, because he was one scary motherfucker.  We're talkin' Original Gangsta here.

This lady is my namesake.  Not that I use that name, but she was my mother's grandmother. 

* I totally did that.

Pics from Day One

There aren't many, I promise, nothing like those late-seventies slide show horror-fest of your youth.

Kids, ask your parents.

This is proof that I was in Ohio.  You can tell I didn't steal this picture from the internet 'cos it's sideways:

And this is the juxtaposition of pretty trees at a rest stop on 271 just about fifteen miles from where we stayed.  Momma and I were both amazed by the colors.  We were even more stupified by the cleanliness of the bathroom at a rest stop.  We recommend this rest stop.

Midwest Extravaganza - Day 2

Most people would balk at spending an entire day in Cleveland.  I know I used to mock endlessly this town, and thought it even lower on the food chain than Birmingham, Alabama, which is still pretty low on my food chain in terms of aesthetics.

In terms of awesome martini bars built into the sides of mountains, well, Birmingham gets the prize.

We left this morning after a restless night for me which included watching Project Runway: Behind the Seams (clever!) three times and sleeping through all three viewings of Project Accessory.  I guess this is because I wanted to see Project Accessory.  Alas.

Anyhoo.. we went first to my old apartment building:

It was a nice place to live, and if you'd like to live there, here's the number:

But before you decide for sure, let me show you the driveway of doom.  Once you're headed in or out, you cannot exit the car until you either are in the garage or at the street.  This doesn't seem like a big deal until the driveway is covered with snow and ice and you're sliding and there's no escape and oh, SHIT, you forgot your phone:

That was about the time that Momma and I moved on to the law school.  Since my shower this morning, I'd been building up the law school into something bigger and bigger, a giant behemoth of a school designed solely to destroy my (pitiable) self-esteem.  My plan was to go in there and take a picture of the school's name, my bar card, and my middle finger.  Instead, I chose this shot:

Clearly, cooler heads prevailed.  So we walked around and I had my flashback moments and the school looked exactly the same and I didn't see any of my former professors so we just left.  But not after noticing that the ASTOUNDING tuition that I and my former cohorts paid allowed the school to replace the nasty, termite-ridden, wasp-attracting wooden benches with these:

Money well spent.

After all this we went to Nordstrom and bought me some essentials, like three pairs of pants and four shirts and a cashmere (cashmere!) sweater and four unmentionables that were so sorely needed that I actually lost fifteen pounds once I put on my new lady necessities and three new pairs of shoes.  We left only when Momma gently reminded me that we had just spent her monthly pension check on clothes for me.

Midwest Extravaganza - Day One

Momma and I left yesterday morning on our trip through the midwest.  Nashville wasn't too bad, traffic light, although I will never, ever figure out how to navigate the various interstate changes there.  I've must've driven through one hundred times and still end up flummoxed.  How did I ever survive without Mandy?

Mandy is my GPS.  She's named after an article in the Washington Post from 2007.  Go ahead, look it up.

We headed out toward Lexington, because my longtime internet friend JMT lives in Danville and after over ten years of online friendship, we'd never met in person.  It was time to fix that.  Mandy gives good directions, although she got confused in the areas where the cows outnumber the people.  Well, cows, horses, and llamas. 

(Trivia aside:  Apparently coyotes are scared of llamas.  Take that, natural selection!)

The bluegrass is very pretty and there are some astounding mansions which were probably built using horse money.  Danville is a personable town - reminded me a lot of Paducah.  JMT is even better!

OK.  I was walking back to my car to get my phone, when I fell off a curb and landed pretty much on my right elbow and my knees.  For I am a graceful ballerina.  It hurt like hell, and took me about two minutes to even consider lifting my body off the pavement.  During this time, Momma and JMT were kind to me and didn't laugh or anything.  Finally we made it into the restaurant where I wasn't sure that I wasn't going to be sick.  (Shock affects me that way.)  JMT was gracious about me clearly not feeling too hot, and instead of asking over and over whether I was OK, he just ignored it and talked with Momma.  I really appreciated that as I hate having any sort of weakness pointed out to me, even out of concern.

He got Momma an awesome antique book and bought us lunch, and off we headed to Cincinnati.

Cincinnati wasn't too exciting, but the pain pills, really, really good cable TV offerings, and clean bathroom were just what I needed.

Now we're in Cleveland and I'll tell you more about it tomorrow.