Two Things from the Drive to Mpls/St.Paul

1. Pleasehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif, for everything holy, may I never be the woman in the gas station asking her husband if he used the bathroom. And then, if I am, and he says he did not, let me never ask an adult man whether he is sure he shouldn't go here since we're getting back in the car... I do feel myself nagging sometimes and occasionally hear the voices of other people (some of whom I am related to) coming out of my own mouth. I try to stop. Or at least be sneaky so it doesn't sound like nagging. But jesus christ, I want nothing to do with a man who can't keep track of his own urination needs. And no one wants anything to do with a whiny crazy lady who devotes her energy to keeping track of when other adults have or should have peed.

2. How cool is it that after realizing I forgot to get a prescription refilled in Madison, I could googletext "Walgreens 55102," get the number, call them from Tomah and pick it up as a roll into town? The answer, of course, is very cool.

Since I Last Wrote

I turned 27, traveled from New York to Middletown to Madison to Chicago to Milwaukee and back to Madison, and now to St. Paul. I also got reunited and had a lot of fun. The reunion deserves much more blogging, although since I usually forget to when I say I will, maybe I should mini-discuss it. Obama spoke, we drank a lot, it was very much like being in college with all of the good and a little of the bad that college involved. Everyone reverted to 19, we shotgunned beers, befriended some new people and avoided some of the same people. I was extremely sunburnt and burnt out by the end, couldn't wait to get out of there, couldn't handle the "move-out-day" like good-byes. It was really like a microcosm of college. Brilliant and terrible. But mostly brilliant. I can't wait for the next one.

Update

The blisters have receded. Apparently, the best antidote to 3rd degree alcohol/birthday related burns are non-stop eating, drinking and good friends. And non-stop shitty NYC rain seems to help, too. Probably the mani/pedi didn't hurt. Even if the mani/pedi central american woman thought I had genital warts on my hand.

I just had my second birthday party, it was fun. Vacation in Brooklyn is also fun. It was fun to see a wide assortment of people and remember the community I used to have/remember people will still come out on a Tuesday night to say celebrate (including an uplifting number from the right sidebar.) I am very lucky. And am still not 27!!!

Good Idea/Bad Idea?

Is it a good or bad sign to wake up from your 27th birthday party with hands that look like this:



And what if the blistering were the result of a "flaming dr. pepper" gone awry? It was a very fun party and now I am laundering and packing for the next phase of the bender.

UMMMMMM...

I am not sure if the public knows about this (how could they, since I just discovered it!)

BUT, about 30 episodes each of Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Family Ties (and even shit like Star Wars, The Love Boat, Twin Peaks and McGyver) are available on CBS.com, gratis. Click here and enjoy your past.

Last night I watched teh 90210 pilot. You know, when Brandon, Brenda and Brandon's mullet move from Minneapolis to Beverly Hills. I have to say, the Walshes looked A LOT cooler in third grade.

Could Have Been Hilarious

I am sitting in the grass outside of the law, having just completed my Evidence exam. And there are all these kids being taken on tours of the University. Kid-kids, like approximately 7 or 8 years old. And they stop in front of the law school and their tour guide tells them, this is the law school, this is where we train the lawyers. "Does anyone know what a lawyer does?" So this could have been really funny and cute... but instead the kids says kind of boring (but uplifting things) like, "they fix things" and "they go to court when people have to go to court." Then the tour guide tells them that the law library is the quietest library IN THE WORLD and that when you go in, you have to open your bag and give the librarians your computer and cell phone. This is a lie. He says this is because when you're training to be a lawyer, you have to read very difficult things and can't be distracted. I did not show him the scrabulous game I was working on. He then told them that the law school is sinking into the hill and that the glass structure in the middle of it is what keeps it afloat. I had never heard this before, but for good measure, I plan to stay away from the building until August.

And another thing

The Tonight Show comes on at like 10:30 in the midwest. Which is something I haven't re-gotten used to. I hear the music and think... "fuck.......!" Although it's kind of like how my alarm clock is set half an hour fast, it's a nice surprise once I realize the real time. Cracking up? Me? Maybe.

Recent Highlights

Celebrating Cinco de mayo with Margs and Guac, courtesy of my current-professor-future-supervisor lady. Continuing to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with beer and then more beer at a place that offered $1 Wisconsin beer special. Studying Evidence some more, getting really, really bored. Eating 3.5 feet of Subway veggie patty sandwiches in the past week. Riding my awesome new bike around Lake Monona and continuing to love it. Also getting a little sun in the process. Also sweating out some of the aforementioned beers and veggie patties. I think that's about it. Exam on Friday, then just some bitty papers.

Oh, and today I also won tickets to the show I was going to on Friday anyway and a cash award for criminal law. This continues to be ridiculous. But also feels nice.

Proof the Baby Jesus Loves Me... And is a Socialist.

So the thing about states like Wisconsin (Minnesota USED to be much more this way)... is they love poor people. Ok, no one in America really LOVES poor people. But these socialist-leaning states provide a lot more social services-- health care, housing and so on than do many others. Taxes are higher, yes. But people value libraries and parks and childhood nutrition. The campaign in Minnesota a few years back sums it up perfectly, "Happy to Pay for a Better Minnesota." Raise my taxes, please, and give me schools and park board sports for my kids. Now, lucky for me, taxes are for people who make money.* In Wisconsin there is this homestead credit for renters. You file for this with your state taxes and it's supposed to give some money back to low-income renters. Great, awesome. Even if I didn't qualify, I would love this idea. Well, I do qualify. Heck, I paid $6000 more in rent last year than I earned (thank you, Uncle Sam.) So I file for it... and get $1150 back. Um, whoah. Awesome. This further relieves the stress of paying more or less for two apartments this summer in an unpaid internship AND... well... allowed me today to buy a new bike off craigslist. She is so beautiful. And so fast and fun and who ever knew how crappy my old bike was until she came along. She is this one, although the 2005 model. And bright red. Ooh la la. She also came to me from a woman in Monroe, WI with both a "ten commandments" and a Ron Paul sign in her front yard. An the most incredible added bonus? Upon getting her home, I found this:


Yes, that's right, the metallic baby jesus rides with me. And so I think I am totally converted... Obviously the baby jesus created the Wisconsin Homestead Credit so that I could get a new bike and see how much faster and cooler I could ride with him on my side. My left side, to be precise. So, baby jesus... THANKS!