Thursday, March 27, 2008

More Scattered Thoughts

I apologize for not being more coherent, but the combination of trying to catch up on schoolwork I missed because I was sick and my recent frenzy of good-mood-inspired socializing and outgoingness has left me too exhausted to really string words together very well. In case that mess of a sentence didn't prove my point. Res ipsa loquitur.

Today for the first time I tried on a swimsuit and liked the way I looked in it. I never imagined that would happen.

Driving through central Grounds today on the way to Anna's Pizza #5, I noticed how alive Alderman Road always seems. There are always people out walking, running, moving in giant first-year-style herds, laughing, talking. North Grounds is substantially more somber. We work too much. I think law students as a cohort lead ill-balanced lives.

Shopping is really exhausting when you do it for six hours in one day. But it's good exercise. And I am now confident that I own all the clothes and shoes I'll need for the whole summer. And as of this moment, my credit card is going to be in gas-and-groceries-only mode for a good long while.

The reformulated Sudafed (phenylephrine rather than pseudoephedrine) works nearly as well for congestion and doesn't give me shaky hands or chills like the old stuff did. But it still causes insomnia. I realized this at 1:40 a.m. today, after having gone to bed around 11:30. Today I curtailed my Sudafed use at 11 a.m. I feel like I will have no trouble sleeping tonight.

I need to figure out how to get my corporate finance professor (who is visiting this year) hired here permanently. This is a completely selfish desire: I just want to take more classes with him.

Two-thirds of a semester of studying the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes has taught me that said taxes are inconsistent and annoying. I feel roughly the same way about corporate tax. No wonder people are so hostile toward the IRS (although, if you ask me, the problem is that Congress makes the rules but doesn't have to implement them... but what do I know).

The current season of Top Chef is sub-par.

I really need to go to bed early tonight.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Thoughts on Sick Days

I realize I'm in the minority here, but when I'm sick, I stay home. Sure, there are exceptions for once-in-a-lifetime, unmissable events (or I'm sure there would be if I ever had any of those), but in the interest in getting well faster and getting as few other people as possible sick, I don't go out when I'm, say, coughing or sneezing uncontrollably, or running a fever.

I just have a cold, but I've been home the past couple days, and I've noticed a few things.

Constant Comment tea is still delicious. This amuses me because I've done my best to become a tea snob over the past year or so. I used to be an occasional tea drinker, and now I'm an almost-every-day tea drinker, and I order loose tea from Upton and make it in a French press. Generally speaking, no teabag-originating tea can come close to the richness and mouthfeel of a good tea brewed from loose leaves, though my parents have a big box of Trader Joe's Irish Breakfast, and that stuff is pretty potent. But since I'm sick, I'm drinking tea with honey, and only Constant Comment really works that way for me. It's just black tea with cinnamon and orange rind, but it's so delicious. I leave my almost-empty teacup sitting on the coffee table all day long and it's like having a bowl of potpourri out. It makes me want to fix cinnamon rolls or something. But I won't, because that's exertion, and I'm sick.

Which leads me to my next point: being sick makes me want to eat pastry. This is generally not a problem I have. Maybe the same overpowering sweetness that turns me off most of the time is one of the few flavors that can get to my congestion-dulled taste buds. However, I don't keep that stuff in the house, and going out while sick is strictly curtailed, so no pastry for me. I could always eat raisin-date-walnut instant oatmeal with a little cinnamon sugar on top.

Daytime television is nowhere near as bad as it used to be, at least if you're like me and have a nearly infinite tolerance for crime dramas of various descriptions.

Sick days are a knitter's best justification for having a yarn stash. I've knitted through most of mine. Don't ask me how many sweaters a girl honestly needs: fewer than I've got, probably, but I'm not stopping anytime soon.

Time for some tea.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Some Small Things

I quit watching CSI and CSI: Miami. I've seen all of them at least twice now, which means that I usually remember them well enough that watching them again isn't that enjoyable. I've moved on to Law and Order and all of its variants. I've seen very few of them, and there are just so many episodes.

Don't tell me that none of these shows is any good. I know that. But they're always on, and they're high-profile enough to get some top-notch guest stars, and playing Hey! It's That Guy! is pretty fun. The other day I saw an episode of SVU guest-starring Stephen Colbert in a completely non-comedic role. The episode that's on right now has Frankie Faison in it, from The Wire.

I've been knitting a lot. It's actually pretty amazing how much I've knitted in the past year. I count ten sweaters just off the top of my head. Eleven. Probably more.

I think my stomach is getting better. But then, I've been thinking it was getting better for almost a year now. I just hope I'm right this time.

I'm surprising myself by loving my corporate finance class. I liked accounting, too. Maybe a JD/MBA program wouldn't have been so bad after all.

I've spent some time over the past few months with my friends from college, and it's just made me want to see them more. Of course, this involves my calling or emailing them, and I've never been good at that. I get so much joy out of other people's company that you'd think I'd be better at pursuing it.

Some of my law school friends are having a couple of potluck dinners in the next week or so, which gives me an excuse to cook. I've really missed it. Much as cooking for one is usually a little challenging, cooking for one who eats very little is even more annoying. James assures me that I can cook all summer long and he'll eat all the leftovers.

I'm really excited to start work this summer. Still about two months before that starts, and I have a lot to do in that time, such as learning corporate tax (it's really hard!), taking five exams, and, well, moving to Pittsburgh. It's neat that, although my schoolwork definitely feels like work, it's not onerous. I guess that's what happens when you study what you love.