A Blast From the Past

I've lived in my current apartment for close to 18 months, and I have at least four boxes that I have yet to unpack.  For the most part, they're full of crafts.

The past few months have been full of work.  Not only do I spend 45-50 hours at work, but then I come home and study for tests that I'm encouraged to take for - you guessed it - work.  My next test is scheduled in five days, so I've been going all out.  

Tonight I wrapped up a 642 page prep book.  Tomorrow I'll start on the nine practice exams I have yet to tackle.  However, I'm done studying for the night, which is why I decided it'd be a perfect time to do something like change the two light bulbs that burnt out earlier this week.  While digging around in my junk cabinet,* I came across one of those boxes I haven't unpacked.

What's the best way to procrastinate?  Do things that you've been meaning to do, but have been neglecting - like laundry, dishes, or unpacking a random box.

That wonderful little bankers box was full of all sorts of high school memorabilia.  We're talking student body cards, certificates of recognition, old love letters, and so, so many photos.  

Here's what I learned from my own personal time capsule: 

5)  I was a big, big freak in high school.

4)  I was convinced that I was hilarious, but I'm not so sure about it now...

3)  The mid- and late '90s were not kind - fashion wise - to small town Oregon.

2)  Over the past 15 years I've been working to shed my pack rat ways, but for some reason I've moved the junk in that box over 6,400 miles.^

1)  My streaked hair - black, blond, red, sometimes orange - didn't look so bad.

*I live in a studio and have so much junk (e.g., potting soil, pots, light bulbs, etc.) that a single drawer will never be enough.

^The number would have been higher if I hadn't stored it during the other 16,472 miles.

JD Receptionist Part Deux

As you may know, I started with my company as a temp at the front desk.  Within three months they had hired me as a permanent employee, but then I was locked into that position for a year.  I finally moved into a new position the beginning of this year, and I’m still getting used to the novel idea of working (and not messing about in NASA’s various Flickr Photostreams) during work hours.

One of our regular receptionists is currently away on her honeymoon, so they brought in a temp.  I’ve had several people tell me that I started a run of over educated people working at the front desk, because this temp also has his JD.

When I was at the front desk, I was a little embarrassed by the fact that I had my JD and I was doing an administrative job.*  No matter how bad I felt for myself, I feel a little worse for this guy.

He graduated from law school in 2010 after being kicked out for a term (his grades slipped below the minimum average), passed the bar in the spring of 2011, but didn’t pass the ethics portion of the bar (it’s a separate test that most people take during law school) until this year, so he’s been licensed to practice for about four months now.  Since then he’s had one legal job interview, so he’s seriously considering teaching English in South Korea for the next year or two – like his brother – just to have a job to start paying down his student loans.

I had never spoken to this guy before today, and I learned all of this in about ten minutes.  He may just be an over sharer or I may just be a great listener, but I couldn’t help but think of the two times that I’ve seriously over shared with people who are barely acquaintances.^  I remember the tidal waves of frustration, anger, despair, and disbelief.  I don’t miss those days.

If I’ve done the math correctly, this guy is two years younger than I.  However, he seems so, so young and I do not envy the major life changing decisions he’s about to make.

*I wasn’t embarrassed about the work or think it was below me.  (Dreams and moonbeams weren’t going to pay my bills…)  However, I was embarrassed by what I assumed other people thought of me.

^Number one was during undergrad.  I was working at 7-Eleven and the TA from one of my photography classes came in and made the mistake of asking me how I was doing.  I unloaded on him.  My dad had had a stroke two months earlier, and was still hospitalized.  I was supposed to study abroad in Greece and had already invested thousands of my Slurpee pouring, hotdog selling, and beer hawking money into what was supposed to be my first grand adventure.  I was torn between going and staying.

Law school ushered in number two.  While sitting by myself in the student lounge area, my socially awkward Legal Research TA happened upon me.  He made the mistake of asking how I was doing, and the floodgates opened.  I had just moved over 3,000 miles to the opposite coast.  I had gone from urban Portland, Oregon to rural Concord, New Hampshire.  My law school (Franklin Pierce Law Center, which is now University of New Hampshire School of Law) was one of the only two stand alone law schools in the nation (the other is the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois, which is now the last stand alone school.  Anyway, there were only about 350 students in my entire school between the JD and graduate programs.  I hated most of my classes.  The one class that I was pumped to take – Legal Writing – was crushing my will to live.  I hadn’t made any real friends, and I was SO sexually frustrated.  Again, I was torn between going and staying.

Okcupid, You’ve got a Touch of the ‘tard in You

I’ve already deactivated one account on Okcupid, but I was later talked into signing up again.

After conversations with douche bags, guys who cancel dates the day of and want to reschedule, 18-year-olds, and most recently Captain Observo* - I think I’m over it.  Again.

* Aug 4, 2012 – 9:48 p.m. he wrote:

Baby, where’d you get your body from? Tell me, where’d you get your body from? Baby, where’d you get your body from? Tell me, where’d you get your body from?  I got it from my mama I got it from my mama I got it from my mama I got it, got it, g-got it

Aug 6, 2012 – 6:05 p.m. I wrote:

I do enjoy some will.i.am.

Aug 6, 2012 – 8:51 p.m. he wrote:

So can I get a name, I find you attractive and would like to chat if interested... Plus you are stacked...   :P

Aug 10, 2012 – 10:52 p.m. he wrote:

Sadness...