Law Students

Nausea, Playgrounds, and Pregnancy

Posted on October 18, 2009
Thank you everyone for your kind comments on my announcement. It made me feel very happy at work on Friday as I fought through nausea and exhaustion while trying to write a brief on a complicated securities law issues. Each gmail "new message" alert gave me a reason to smile, and watching for them probably kept me from closing my door, curling up in a ball under my desk, and simply wishing my brief away...

An Announcement

Posted on October 16, 2009
I wasn't going to post this. Not yet. I was going to save all my drafts on the topic and then publish them at a "safe" time, but I hate the duplicitous feel of it. You all have been through so much with me, and should anything bad happen I would need to write about it and I would want you to there with me...

Productivity Has Plummeted

Posted on October 15, 2009
I woke up feeling very queasy this morning and the feeling stuck around for most of the day. I'm remembering everything I didn't like about being pregnant. This is why men and women can never have perfect equality in the workplace - even if there are sufficient maternity leave policies, pumping rooms, and a genuine commitment to family-friendly flexible work arrangements, men will never be pregnant...

One More Thing

Posted on October 14, 2009
In addition to what I just wrote, I'm also pregnant and apparently "Pregnant women are six times more likely to have severe flu disease than women who are not pregnant." JP or Landon better not have the flu and I really better not get it. Also, I had some spotting last night and it scared the shit out of me...

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The Balance is Tipping

Posted on October 14, 2009
JP has been sick for the past few days and on Monday he spiked up to a 102 fever and sat shaking and shivering on the couch all night while I made him tea and took care of everything else. Yesterday he was still sick, hovering around a 101 fever with terrible heartburn and sat curled up on the couch moaning occasionally...

Guilty but Not Guilty

Posted on October 12, 2009
I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it. - William Faulkner.About a week ago I read a blog post by a stay-at-home mom regarding why she thinks staying home is best for her and her family, and why she does not believe working and daycare could be as good for her children or her...

New Clothes! and other distracting things

Posted on October 12, 2009
New clothes are always exciting, even if they're of maternity variety. My mom visited Austin this weekend and took me out shopping Sunday for some stylish pregnancy work clothes. We actually found some, and I now have 3 maternity dresses, 2 pairs of stretch panel pants, and 4 maternity tops hanging in my closet...

Saturday Productivity

Posted on October 11, 2009
I just spent a delightfully suburban day with my little man. We went to Target and the mall to buy his Halloween costume and a few fall clothes. The temperature dropped very suddenly here in Austin Thursday night and I sent him to daycare on Friday in shorts and a t-shirt, not knowing the temperature wasn't going to go above 65...

Utter Contentment

Posted on September 30, 2009
I realized something as I was driving back from a hearing in Fort Worth yesterday- I love my job. Love it. I'm not sure I've ever felt this happy or satisfied with everything in my life. It's a marvelous feeling and one I barely know what to do with. I love the two main cases I'm staffed on - they are interested and complex corporate and securities matters and I find the facts, law and strategy involved in each to be fascinating...

Off the Wagon

Posted on September 28, 2009
Reading is my greatest guilty pleasure. I have no self-control, so I generally read in phases- a few weeks on, a few weeks off. I have to let my body recover from the nights spend hunched over on the cold tile floor of my bathroom while I read "just one more page" of a book I started with a promise "just to read the first few chapters...

Sleeping Solo

Posted on September 25, 2009
I'm on a business trip in Houston, staying at a very fancy hotel, with a very big, very comfortable king-sized bed at my exclusive disposal. I've had over-priced drinks at the bar, enjoyed a nice shower, wrapped myself in a fluffy robe, read a few pages of my current Sharon Kay Penman novel, and turned off the light with a relaxed and happy heart...

It Goes On

Posted on September 22, 2009
I've almost written this post so many times. If I slept with my laptop by the bed, it would have been published around 3 a.m. after awaking from a nightmare many months ago. But in the daylight, when my life is full and busy and almost impossibly wonderful, I can't find the words or the will to go back to a darker place...

My Favorites

Posted on September 21, 2009
There's a lot that I love about being a mom, and a lot that I love about being a working mom, but my very favorite thing has to be picking up Landon from daycare at the end of the day. Even if he's in a terrible mood and fussy for the rest of the evening, those moments after I walk in the classroom are always happy...

Vacation Hangover

Posted on September 16, 2009
With our recent return from a 6-day vacation, I should be all kinds of busy, but so far each night has found me curled up on the couch with a book. I've read five in the last week in a half, it's like a drug for me. I haven't even caught up on my DVR'd shows...

From the Northeast

Posted on September 11, 2009
This is the longest I've ever gone between posts. Part of the reason is that I wanted to write about something besides my relationship, but that was all that was dominated my mind over the course of last week. I have one more post on that, but not now...

A Week of Anniversaries

Posted on September 03, 2009
Yesterday was my one-year anniversary at the firm. I've promised a post on litigation v. corporate work, but I'll just say for now that I really, really like what I am doing. I even frequently love what I am doing. I am so much of a litigator I can't believe I spent five months as a misguided transactional attorney...

8 years

Posted on September 02, 2009
I met JP eight years ago, yesterday. He was on his 8th or 9th Jack & Coke when he bumped in to me near the bar and asked if I wanted one too. I didn't- I was eighteen, underage with no fake ID, and was still feeling queasy from my introduction to Long Island Iced Teas the night before...

I hate everything.

Posted on August 31, 2009
The title pretty much says it all. It's been a crappy day. I'm tired of my husband cheating on me with a swim school. My two year old spent an entire day doing his best to prove the "terrible two" stereotype. I didn't get out to any stores so I'll be packing the same five casual shirts I wear every weekend for our trip to D...

Two Happies

Posted on August 28, 2009
1. Landon is doing great with his new daycare. He was a little clingy Tuesday morning, and then cried on Wednesday morning, and that is SO hard. I knew he liked it because on that same morning he was being fussy and irritable while I was getting dressed, and I asked if he was ready to go to daycare...

So I Married an Entrepreneur

Posted on August 26, 2009
I can't say I wasn't warned. Within an hour of meeting my very drunk yet still very charming future husband, I heard all about his plans to start his own business one day. He was rambling and had just attempted to walk into oncoming traffic, but he spoke with such conviction about his entrepreneurial dreams that I knew he was serious...

First Day

Posted on August 25, 2009
I had dreams for this morning. I would be up early, in plenty of time to blow dry and style my hair. After a few minutes spent cuddling in bed, JP would go cook pancakes while we waited for Landon to wake up, which he would do around 7:45. He'd be dressed in the clothes I already laid out and we'd eat a nice breakfast together before taking pictures and heading to New Center at 8:15 for his big first day...

The Big Switch

Posted on August 23, 2009
Landon starts at his new daycare on Monday. I spent about a week of last month panicking at the thought of the switch and the making of the lunches and the closing 15 minutes earlier and wondered WHY we thought this change was a good idea. I very nearly called new place to see if we could get back our deposit (all one-freaking-thousand dollars of it) and old place to see if Landon could keep his spot, but then I got too busy to do either one and inaction made me re-convince myself we'd made the right decision...

Toddlers and Babies

Posted on August 21, 2009
I feel like most people get pressured to have another child by friends or grandparents, but for us, the pressure comes in toddler form. Landon loves babies. When we're out and about he's always pointing out the babies ("BeeBees") and telling them night night (if they're sleeping) or hi or bye, depending on which direction they're going...

Disjointed

Posted on August 19, 2009
I haven't slept well the last two nights. On Monday I stayed up too late reading The Time Traveler's Wife and couldn't turn my brain off when I crawled into bed. The book mostly takes place in Chicago and just reading the familiar names of the streets, neighborhoods and museums left me missing Chicago so acutely I woke up JP, crawled into his arms and started to cry...

Lazy Day

Posted on August 16, 2009
Yesterday we attended our neighborhood's BBQ cook-off. Sometimes I can't really believe things like this are on my calendar. Five years ago I was living in a bug-infested college apartment in a questionable part of town (my friend's car was stolen from our parking lot- twice), three years ago I was in a tiny downtown Chicago loft, and now I'm in a house in the suburbs...

Healthy on the Inside

Posted on August 14, 2009
I was going to write up a little report card for the mid-year resolutions I wrote so optimistically only three months ago:Work out twice a week. FBuy more fresh fruits and vegetables and eat them. BMake more simple, healthy meals B-Limit diet cokes to one a day A+Go to bed before 11:30 if I'm working and 11 if I'm not...

Mommy and Daddy's Little Helper

Posted on August 12, 2009
Alternate, More Accurate Title: "Lover of Muffins" because I think here he was motivated more by his passion for blueberry muffins than any desire to help, though he likes to do that too. He always runs to the dryer when it beeps (actually, our dryer sings a little song when it's done, the crush continues) and stands ready to hand me each individual item to fold...

Why There's No "In-Law" Tag

Posted on August 09, 2009
I only use about 1% of the blogging fodder and frustration my mother-in-law provides. Part of this is out of respect for JP, though he doesn't actually care. A bigger reason is because it seems unsportsmanlike to talk about them when this blog isn't really anonymous and members of my family read it, while JP's family doesn't know it exists...

Friday Free Flow

Posted on August 07, 2009
Random thoughts/potential blog posts floating around in my head:- JP is going out of town for business and is supposed to leave today at noon and get home Sunday around 4. My first thought about my solo Friday night was, "ooooh, I'm going to go to bed SO early!" And then I realized I am old and kind of pathetic...

For the Baby Book

Posted on August 04, 2009
Two Saturdays ago I had a free two hours, a napping toddler, and a to-do list all checked off. I decided it was time to face the baby book so I got it off the shelf and filled in the last 12 months of Landon's life with pictures, cards, and stars pulled directly from the blog...

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