a little list

1. i made another batch of brownies last night. less than 12 hours later, they're gone.

2. i think i've exceeded my mother in my blog-stalking. i'm starting to get impatient when anyone's blog reaches 24 hours without being updated. sick.

3. i still can't figure out jamie's or brian's word games on the brilliant cousin's blog.

4. i really like not working.

5. i'm hungry.

6. i'm really really very tired of not having a car. it makes self-sufficience difficult and planning difficulter.

7. is sufficience a word? the blog editor doesn't think so.

my kryptonite

my eye is twitching

i just spent the last hour trying to customize my blog. and i'm very frustrated with the lack of options.  just when i get the colors to harmonize, i decide i need a new template. then i have to redo the colors. and then the fonts aren't quite right. or the page elements aren't balanced properly. or this link stands out too much. or i can't see the blog titles. or something's too bright and it just throws the whole thing off. and my title is still in the wrong place and it makes me shudder when i look at it.  and also, i need a coke.  meh*

*my texas roommates and i used to use this when there were just no words left to describe our stress or desperation. the diaz trio seems to have a similar fake word.  theirs is pretty good, too.

in case you were wondering...

about my blog title "kite strings."  in grad school i wrote some vignettes and made some prints* about alex, which came to be known as "the kite stories."  here they are:

Me and Alex and Dad flew a kite at the part across the street. I wanted to hold the kite all by myself. Alex got to. Dad finally let me. He said don't let go! But the wind made the kite heavy and pulled it out of my hands. It flew into the lake. It was a red kite.

I went to play in the woods with Alex but I saw two eyes watching me from the bushes. I ran all the way back home and told Mom. She said I shouldn't let a 'possum scare me. But now I feel those eyes on me all the time.

Grandma told me her tummy is big like that cause she swallowed a watermelon. I bet that hurt.

Mrs. Vincent gets mad when we turn around and talk in line. She said if we do, she'll take our mouths and sew them to the backs of our heads. She said it happened to a boy once. But that wouldn't help. Then we could talk without turning around.

Me and Alex won some goldfish at the fair. We brought them home in baggies. Mom put them in Mason jars so they could swim around. And we fed them every day. But they still died. Mom gave us spoons to bury them in the garden. Just like we buried Alex in the mountain.

Mrs. Vincent told us our pictures were boring. She took my paintbrush and made a dippy sky. So I made a red sun. The other kids saw it and told Mrs. Vincent. She wanted to know why I didn't make it yellow. I don't paint red suns anymore.

It takes a long time to walk around the block to Emily's house. So sometimes I walk the back fence instead. I have to be careful. I don't want to fall.

Graham Glauser was riding his bike in the street. I saw the car knock him over. It bent his bike and he cried. There was blood in his hair.

Erin and Angie's swing set fell over. Me and Alex wanted to go see. Dad said no. We sat on top of the fence and watched. Then Alex jumped into the yard. But he stayed by the fence. Then he went to see the swing set. So I followed him. We were right by our yard, but we still got in trouble.

Mom and Dad wanted us to go with them to the funeral home to see Alex. Abby sat on a chair outside and cried. Amanda and I sat on the couch across the room and watched. That's not Alex. He's too stiff. It isn't him.

They shut the coffin and now I'll never see Alex again. Mom stroked his hair and straightened his tie. She kissed his face. She told us to say goodbye too. I wanted to touch him, but that isn't my brother. My brother is in the mountains.

We followed the coffin outside. His friends loaded it into the hearse. It was sunny and very cold.

*i'll post some of these eventually.

filling in the holes - the indy 387

i just discovered that people have left me comments. it was very exciting.  as a thank you, i will now proceed to fill in some of the black holes from the past few months...in the order that they come into my head, which has nothing to do with chronology.

"the indy 387"

i mentioned in "the yellow ones don't stop" that my suitcase had arrived from indianapolis. i was there from april 28 - may 22 working on a trial. it was not fun.  i did get to stay in a pretty sweet hotel. unfortunately, i totaled 387 hours that month and averaged 3.5 hours of sleep per night so i didn't really get to enjoy the massive, intensely comfortable king bed. i'll tell ya, though, those 3.5 hours i DID get to sleep in the bed...heaven.  i watched zero tv.  ok i lied. the day i left i watched about 20 minutes of oprah.  i also watched part of the indianapolis mini-marathon and the kentucky derby. but i have no idea what is happening with jim and pam or who won american idol.  here are some enjoyables from the trip, utilizing the bullet list that is so trendy amongst our family blogosphere right now: 

• running with katie (a senior partner) and meghan (a junior associate). i only ran with them a few times in the entire month, but they were lovely runs.
  
• meeting obama. yes. i shook his hand and he chatted with our group for about 10 minutes around 11pm after a gruelling campaign schedule. he has my vote.
• seeing ironman with frank (a senior partner), who reminds me a lot of dad.
• eating dinners with the trial team, at the best restaurants in indy, for free
• going to church with dean (in-house counsel for the client), who is also lds
• learning how the law REALLY works. it isn't just about who's right and who's wrong. there are so many rulings that happen before a case even goes to trial. there was a lot of evidence that we weren't allowed to present and terms we weren't allowed to use. it was interesting to see how the attorneys restructured their arguments (sometimes on the fly) because of a ruling that came down years ago, months ago, last night or immediately from the bench.
• flying to utah for a short (36 hour) visit on the client's dime (don't worry, it was on the up and up) and going shopping with abby, max, amanda and mom. damage was definitely done.
• winning the case. the client was so happy he promised to fly us anywhere in the continental US for a celebratory dinner in a few months. he also flew everyone else home on a private jet the next morning. i could've gone with them, but wanted to get home to go to the beach.

so that's all for now. stay tuned for more in the series "filling in the holes." right now i'm going to go jump on my sleeping roommate and make her run with me.

the yellow ones don't stop

i moved. so now i have to take the bus to the metro.  the first day i waited 30 minutes for a bus, which took me in the wrong direction and extended my commute by about 20 minutes, making me late for work.

in order to catch the correct bus home, i looked on the metro site, which directed me to the 10A bus from the pentagon city metro stop. Thirty minutes later, an inquiry at pentagon city revealed that i was actually supposed to get off at the pentagon stop. by that time, the 10A had quit running and i was stuck lugging my 50lb suitcase (which had just arrived at my office from indianapolis) the 1 mile home.

so the next day i printed the schedules and poured over them studiously. i still missed the first bus by about 30 seconds. i wasn't worried, though. i'd come out early, just in case such a situation should arise. i also knew that 2 other buses should be by in the next 10 minutes. so i took out my book and made myself comfortable on the bench. as the next bus approached, i stood up and, to my surprise, it didn't even slow down. i stared after it, bewildered, then sat down on the bench and pulled out my trusty schedules, thinking i'd probably misread them. but NO! it WAS supposed to stop, as was the next bus, which also blew by me, causing my skirt to swirl dangerously.  i, once again, waited a total of 30 minutes for the bus and was late for work. 

on the way home, i got off the metro at the pentagon stop, but in trying to find the correct bus, once again missed the 10A. the other buses that run by my new place were on the other end of the depot. rather than risk missing all of them and then missing the next 10A, i waited 15 minutes. i got on the 10A, missed my stop and got home 30 minutes late.

now i walk to and from the metro. it takes me 30 minutes.