Gone Campin'

Dear Loyal Everybody,

This weekend I shall be communing with nature.
Because of an FBI probe, I've been forced to go off grid.
I lost my keys in the UP and I've gone to search for them.

I'm going camping!  There.  That works.

My friend Tim was awesome enough to invite me to come along on his camping trip this weekend.  Delightfully, the wilderness is full of experiences I've never had before.  Sadly, I won't be writing until at least Tuesday.  I hope Memorial Day BBQs, car races and celebrations treat everybody kindly.  Until then...


Peace out.
I'm outty-5000.
Later, bitches.

Bye!

Day 136 - Do the Shuffle with the Consul General of Macedonia

Date: May 22nd, 2010

So let's talk about P.W.A.P. for a second.  That stands for Party With A Purpose and it is the name of the group my good friends and neighbors, the Nicholases, started as a new way of raising money for charity.  Because they aren't directly affiliated with a specific charity, they have the freedom, each time they plan a party, to send their money somewhere new.  I think its just a fantastic idea.  I've also been trying to get myself to one of their parties for almost a year, but without luck.  Seems to be every time I'd hear about a P.W.A.P. in the near future it would be at a time when I was out of town (the last one was in February, I believe, when I was in DC) or when I'd already made plans I promised to keep.

Having gotten deeply frustrated with myself for never being able to attend, I sat down with Josephine and Jihan and devised a plan.  Wait for it.  I'm going to give you all a moment to marvel at the brilliance you're about to read before I actually lay it on you.  Here goes.  Maybe, my exquisitely intricate brain reasoned, if I committed to doing something to help them plan their party, I won't be busy when it happens.  Sort of a "clear the calendar, here I come" idea.  I know, it seems simple.  It may even resemble an idea one of you has had, but I assure you, it was genius.

Day 135 - Price Items for an Auction

Date: May 21st, 2010

Over the past couple weeks leading up to May 22nd, I was working on gathering items for a small charity auction.  I got a ton of great donations from friends, which was wonderful, but now that it was the day before the party and I had a well defined pile of stuff, I had no idea what it should go for.  Luckily, that was completely up to me.

Granting that it was a relatively small measure of personal power, I greatly enjoyed getting to name the prices of the auction goods.  At the time that I was doing it, I felt like I was truly and completely in charge of a project.  I've managed projects and been second-in-command on projects, but having the entirety of the decisions rest on my shoulders is something more new for me.

It struck me that, sink or swim, it was on me.  I planned it, put it together, got the donations for it, priced the items, figured out the way it would run.  Everything.  The day before the actual auction was supposed to take place, it hit me what a big responsibility it is to be in charge of a project and have the final outcome rest on your shoulders.  It was scary, but it was also a good feeling.  I liked knowing that the lessons learned and the things gained from the experience or putting it all together before the party would be mine and mine alone.

Day 134 - Call Clients Directly

Date: May 20th, 2010

I'd like to write a flamboyantly egotistical entry about how easy it is for me to meet people, kiss hands, shake babies, etc.. but that would be a lie.  When I know what I'm going to say or I'm enthralled by what the other person is saying, I generally manage pretty well.  When that's not the case, like most people, I struggle a bit more.  I fear the awkwardness, wonder what kind of a first impression I'm making while I'm still making it, and let my mind wander to a safer place, inevitably losing my place in the conversation.

Because of that vaguely rational fear, I've generally avoided jobs that involve cold door knocking or cold calling people.  See, in those cases, having a pitch is a double edged sword.  Sure, I have something to say to start the conversation, but what if the person says something unexpected?

Me: Would you like to subscribe to People Magazine to help blind children today, sir?
Gentleman: It depends.  Is People Magazine endorsed by Xenu?
Me: By who?
Gentleman: Be gone, vile temptress!
**true story**

And that's where the less rational part of the fear kicks in.  As easy as it is to talk to people about my blog or my family or even just to listen to them talk, when it comes to business calls, I get worried.  What if I don't know the answer to one of their questions?  What if they lose confidence in the service we provide because I mess up and tell them something wrong?  What if I forget to water the houseplants?  Its deeply concerning.

On my first week on the job, my supervising attorney sent me off to make calls to clients about appointments, their current case status and other important information.  That fear started creeping in and I tried to think back to the last time I called a business client.  Never at Plum, seeing as cashiers didn't get phones.  Not once at Cisco or Yahoo.  The US Attorney never asked me to.  Ok, no problem, what about volunteer positions?  No... nope.... never.

Having realized that my work assignment could count for my thing of the day if I wanted it to, I decided to do it up right.  I sat down for a few minutes, took some deep breaths and ran through the conversations in my head.  I thought about a variety of reactions, from grateful for the help to rude as heck to a level of crazy as yet not understood by modern science.  Then I decided to focus on fighting through my fear of awkward irrelevance.

At the end of the day, my calls weren't perfect, but my confidence was way up.  I realized that I am a strong enough person to fight through fear when the situation calls for it.  Maybe its not the same as locking up an abusive husband, but those clients needed information or a meeting time or an update on their cases and my ability to provide that for them hinged on my ability to, quite frankly, suck it the heck up.

So... I grew myself a spine and made the calls.

Day 133 - Sing Pub Songs at a Pub Sing

Date: May 19th, 2010

Let's talking about singing.  I don't do it.  Not in front of people anyway.  Why, you ask?  For the good of society and our children and our children's children.  God blessed me with a fair number of talents.  Which He traded me for my singing voice.  That is the only logical explanation I can come up with.  Generally speaking, in church, I've adopted a practice of humming, on the belief that using my singing voice in a house of worship may or may not be an actual affront to God.

That is the place I was operating from when I accepted my friend Louis's invite to the Ann Arbor Morris Team's vaguely semi-annual Pub Sing.  What's the word for "once every couple months with some regularity"?  That's what that Pub Sing was.  They meet up at Conor O'Neils (the place I didn't realize was amazing until just recently) and sit around singing old Irish, Scottish, English, Welsh, and random songs.

Day 132 - Engrave Something

Date: May 18th, 2010

 Given that my summer job is a nine to five affair, I'm back to having to balance the life I know I want with the way I want to live it.  Its an interesting challenge because of how important this project has become to me and how important becoming a lawyer has always been.  In the interest of not messing up my project, I brought a few of the home-based projects with me to Lansing to do in the evenings after work until I get my sea legs, so to speak.

I went looking for a new twist on an old staple for me.  I unwind very well with highly specific, detailed, repetitive tasks.  Not unlike the frog that I loved making a few days earlier, I thought an art project that follows a particular structure would be a good idea.  Having already done the coloring on felt project, I went for an engraving project instead.

Day 131 - Send a Letter to a Client

Date: May 17th, 2010

As much as I love this project, it don't pay the bills.  Now that school is over for the year, it was time to get myself a job.  I few months back I found one at Legal Services of South Central Michigan in Lansing.  What I didn't realize is that I would hit the ground running on the first day. 

There's very little to tell about my new experience today, except that I was incredibly nervous about it.  Putting together a letter to send to a real, living, breathing human being whose life will be impacted by it is very different than writing a brief about excessive ATM fees for a law school class.  I had an almost overwhelming sense that not getting this right would matter. 

At the end of the day, that feeling was a silly one, since my letter was double-checked and signed by the attorney I'm working with over the summer before it was sent out anyway.  For me, though, the point remains that it felt so much more real than it did in school.  When I was growing up, my mother used to tell me that she hated math until she started learning about the mathematics of money.  Then it made sense to use this formula or that calculation because doing them right changed something real and material instead of just numbers on a page.

That's how I started feeling pretty much immediately at this job.  At the end of the day, my one little letter may not matter all that much, but there was something almost surreal to me to think about what was going to happen to that letter.  At some point in the near future, someone, a client, would open that envelope and hold that specific piece of paper in their hands.  Its no Supreme Court brief, by any means, but it was a big step towards really, truly, having the career I want.

Day 130 - Solicit Donations from Local Businesses

Date: May 16th, 2010

There were several valuable lessons that I learned today.  Among them were the importance of knowing your own elevator pitch really well, giving yourself time to fill out paperwork and being ready to have some doors shut in your metaphorical face.  In short, my thing of the day was not the usual lighthearted fare, but rather a day of disappointment, perseverance and hear-learned life lessons.

Day 129 - Fire a Cannon

Date: May 15th, 2010

"Where is your drill sergeant, men?"
"Blown up, sir!"

After much deep thought and contemplation, I have come to the conclusion that explosions are amazing, but only in a few select situations.  Fireworks at the Fourth of July and Chinese New Year both come to mind.  Controlled blasts to destroy buildings in Vegas are so cool they throw parties to watch them.  Any and all explosions in movies are amazing as well.  That is what is known as the Michael Bay Principle.

And, of course, explosions of flavor.

Day 128 - Attend Someone Else's Graduation

Date: March 14th, 2010

I'm an only child.  At times that is a lot of hilarious fun and at times it can be pretty lonely.  One thing that I never thought about, though, was the whole graduation situation.  My whole life, graduations were for me.  I had a kindergarten graduation when I was five.  My classmates and I were painfully adorable.  The next graduation was at Phoenix Academy.  They liked to, you know, celebrate our accomplishments and whatever.  I have a drawer full of pins declaring me good at History and Spanish.  I got an ethics pin once.  Once.

High school was bigger.  Family flew in from out of town.  We had a party.  A party I left early for my last speech competition, but a party nonetheless.  Then there was college.  It was another family affair.  A large contingent of my extended family showed up for the graduation, which was in Michigan in December.  I think it goes without saying that a blizzard was braved.  I shoveled my own driveway on my graduation day.  Hilarity ensued.

Day 127 - Have a Full Day Orientation for a Job

Date: May 13th, 2010

I've had a bunch of different kinds of jobs before, but for the most part, training consisted of pointing me in the direction of a computer or cash register and telling me not to mess up.  Oh, and filling out I-9s.  I-9s are the bane of my existence.  I'm not for draconian or Orwellian governmental programs, for the most part, but man would jobs be easier if I just had a little scannable chip in my hand.  Just saying.

I was mostly worried before work started that having a full day of orientation would get boring.  Not that the job would be boring.  I've been giddy-over-the-moon since I got hired.  More that being bombarded with information about all things office-related would get tiring after a while.  The thing about an orientation is that you're not really doing anything affirmative.  Your job for the day is to become a sponge and soak up the sticky, sugary spill that is your summer internship.

It went a lot faster and was a lot more engaging than I expected it to be.  I think what I wasn't realizing about the job was that there really, genuinely was a full day's worth of information that we needed to get started.  There is a computerized case system, a series of rules and procedures required for dealing with callers, several laws concerning what we can and can't say to people and forms for just about everything.  Realizing how important the information was made the day fly by.  I ended up rereading the orientation packet a few times over the weekend to try and commit more stuff to memory. 

It was a bit different from my other jobs in that the orientation felt more necessary.  Don't get me wrong - I loved my other jobs.  The companies I interned for as an undergrad were both fantastic.  However, because there weren't, ya know, specific laws and whatnot, that I had to know before starting, the only thing I had to orient to was the break room.  Knowing that there are things that I absolutely must know how to do properly is a little daunting, but its definitely better than, you know, not knowing until after you mess up.  By the time orientation was over, instead of being bored, I was incredibly excited for work on Monday.  I was pumped.

Day 126 - Color on Felt

Date: May 12th, 2010

When I was younger and I needed to de-stress I did one of a select few activities to calm myself down.  I used color patterned pictures just to feel the structure of drawing in the lines.  Sometimes I'd sort skittles to avoid thinking about whatever thing was bothering my mind.  There were certain types of structured coloring that always worked to calm me down and others that, quite frankly, I never tried.  You'd think, for example, that with my structured proclivities, I'd be totally into paint-by-number.  However, as has been established on many an occasion, paint-by-numbers is not among the things I've done with my free time.

Day 125 - Find a Tracked Dollar Bill

Date: May 11th, 2010

My new thing for the day was one of those cool experience that I always wanted, but never thought I would actually have.  I know that sounds melodramatic, seeing as people put getting married, having kids, being a CEO, skydiving and winning the lotto in the same category as that, but its not.  See, what happened is this.  A couple years ago, a friend of mine told me about a website that tracked dollar bills based on the serial numbers. 

From that day forward, I looked at money differently.  That was my sophomore year in college and now that I'm halfway through my 3L year in law school, I still check every bill for that URL.  I'm not as good about writing the URL on bills.  I've done it once or twice, but I forget a lot.  What I don't forget to do, though, is look for it.  Since he told me about that site, I've wanted to find one and see where it had been.  Every time I got money from an ATM or change at a restaurant, I'd scan the bill for the URL in the hopes that I'd get a glimpse into the life and times of the American dollar.  But alas, it was not meant to be. 

Day 124 - Participate in Pub Trivia

Date: May 10th, 2010

I always operated under the assumption that I would rock the freakin' world at Jeopardy.  Sometimes, when I watch it, I yell at the TV over how obvious the answers are.  Of course, there's no one taking money from me when I get them wrong so I tend to only notice when I'm right.  Turns out, when I pay attention, I'm significantly less accurate at trivia than I thought I was.

Day 123 - Learn Morris Dancing

Date: May 9th, 2010

Have you ever seen that one guy in the center of the dancefloor doing moves from before he was born with the kind of zeal usually reserved only for lottery winners and people on fire?  Yeah.  That's me.  Except I'm a girl.  So when the nice young man from the flash mob mentioned that he's part of Ann Arbor's Morris Dancing team and maybe I could come join him at a practice, I was understandably concerned.  Partly about my reputation, but mostly for the safety of the people around me.  I was told there would be kicking involved.

Day 122 - Have a Professional Tarot Reading Done

Date: May 8th, 2010

So after telling my fortune myself, I thought "why wait?  I'll go tomorrow".  As a slight tangent, I'm going to point out that the whole "why wait" thought has been happening more and more.  I can't say as I actually know what made me want to get the Tarot reading right away after the fortune telling debacle.  I think it had to be a combination of impatience and curiosity.  In any case, there is a bookstore on Main Street in Ann Arbor that hosts all manner of paranormal whosawhatzits.  I found it when I was doing my Alphabet Walk a couple of weeks back and the fact that its called Crazy Wisdom should in no way cause you to rush to judgment.

Day 121 - Learn to Tell a Fortune with Playing Cards

Date: May 7th, 2010

I love daydreaming about the future.  I know its wishful thinking, but generally speaking I've determined one of a few life paths for myself.  The first one has me becoming an Appeals Court justice, getting kidnapped, using Kung Fu that I somehow randomly learned to escape and then testifying at trial to put my captors in jail for ever and ever and ever.  I realized what a law nerd I was when I started enjoying the trial portion of my daydreaming the most.  The second one has me joining the CIA, becoming an expert spy, rescuing a random foreign dignitary from a MacGiver-esque evil plot, and then testifying at trial to put the supervillians in jail forever and ever and ever.  Sensing a pattern?

Day 120 - Place a Facebook Ad

Date: May 6th, 2010

In the spirit of shameless self-promotion I have made a logo, gotten business cards and begun working with a publicist.  Although, the logo was a creative exercise.  And, well, the business cards needed to happen for school and professional stuff, so why not have blog cards too?  Ok, so, the publicist is a wonderful family friend who taught me a lot about that industry.  So I guess its not totally shameless.  Buying an ad on Facebook, on the other hand, was absolutely shameless self-promotion.

Day 119 - Have a Text Message Conversation with a Stranger

Date: May 5th, 2010

What do you do when you get a wrong number call or a text from someone you've never met?  If you're like me, its one of the following three things:

1. Say or text "sorry, wrong number" and hang up the phone (or stop responding to messages).
2. Say or text "seriously, still the wrong number" and hang up again or keep ignoring messages.
3. Say or text something utterly ridiculous in the hope that they will respond to your insanity by running, screaming, in the other direction.

Sometimes, if I'm bored, I start with option three.  OK.  Most of the time, but that's neither here nor there.

Day 118 - Learn to Take a Proper Fingerprint

Date: May 4th, 2010

There are certain things that people should just know how to do.  For the most part, this includes things like doing your taxes, getting a passport, shopping for groceries, gassing up a car and other boring as heck mundane activities.  For some people, such as myself, I feel like there are subsets of knowledge that should also be required.  I feel like the list of things I should just know also includes such gems as: writing a proper brief for the court, using LexisNexis without suffering from a brain aneurysm, making quilted socks, and, of course, mercenary spelunking.  Another on the fabled list of things I should know how to do is take a fingerprint.  I love the idea of fingerprints.  They're your body's little witness to all the things you shouldn't have done.  Its like your own skin oils ratting you out for the crime.  That's betrayal right there, kids.

Day 117 - Write a Story in One Sentence

Date: May 3rd, 2010

I love words.  Words are amazing.  I love them so much I use them unnecessarily at every possible occasion.  When I was younger, my parents used to postulate that I just loved the sound of my own voice.  Its true.  Objectively, I have a voice for newspaper, but that's neither here nor there.  The point out, not being verbose is somewhat of a challenge for me.  Especially in the middle of law school finals.  For those who haven't taken one - some are about well-reasoned arguments and others are typing tests.  To the highest WPM go the spoils.  It may or may not be the right habit to be in for actual lawyering.  That remains to be seen.

Yeah, Yeah, More Promises

Hi All!

Today was the last day of finals.  For that reason I make literally no apologies about not having updated this delightful adventure.  You all should've been studying too.  So.  There's that.

Tomorrow is catch-up day for entries so I can prove I totally didn't drop the ball during finals on the whole "do new things" thing.

Love and Kisses,
Me.

Day 116 - Freeze in Place in Public

Date: May 2nd, 2010

I love the idea of flash mobs, but unfortunately, they're one of the things I can't do.  I mean, there are laws against that and, well, I'm trying to become a lawyer.  Apparently, they don't get too happy when you, ya know, strip in public.

Wait.  What's that? That's not what a flash mob is?  No kidding...

Day 115 - Be a Producer for the 1 Second Film

Date: May 1st, 2010

I've seen a lot of movies.  I adore them.  I'm not what you'd call a film connoisseur though.  Largely because being that pretentious takes effort and planning for me.  I mean, you have to read movie reviews, decide if you agree with critics, practice using the word droll without collapsing under the weight of your own ego.  I just have better ways to spend my time.  By going mercenary spelunking, for example.

Day 114 - Use a Star Chart to Find a Constellation

Date: April 30th, 2010

I may or may not have mentioned this at some point, but my favorite thing in the whole widest world is to look up at the stars.  I'm incredibly flaky and holistic about it.  No need for telescopes, charts, ships, observatories, and whatever else.  All I need is me, a blanket and the sky.  In fact, my best date of all time was an evening out under the stars.  My boyfriend, at the time, lived up on the top of a mountain in Los Gatos with his family.  They had a ton of land with a clearing at the top of the mountain.  Driving up through the woods was insanely scary, but I adored his family (they were totes the best) and we went out to that clearing with a blanket, some snacks and candles.  It was tres romantic.  Well, until my pants caught on fire, but that's got nothing to do with the sky.

Day 113 - Send the World's Smallest Letter

Date: April 29th, 2010

I've heard the art of letter writing is dead.  I can see where people say that.  I mean, if I want to contact someone I'll call them, text them, e-mail them, IM them, send them a Facebook message, show up at their house in the middle of the night and hide in the bushes.  Wait.  Scratch that last one.  The point is, I can't remember the last time I sent a letter.  Wait.  Scratch that one too.  I can remember.  It was 2003 and my boyfriend, at the time, lived way out in the boonies.  It seemed quaint.

Day 112 - Get a Fake Buddy

Date: April 28th, 2010

You know what they say - money doesn't buy happiness.  I understand why people say that.  I mean, you can't buy the sun.  Well, ok, you can take a tropical vacation, so that's a bad example.  You can't buy serenity.  Wait.  No... I guess you can take a trip to the spa or hire a meditative guru to teach you how to let go.  You can't buy beauty.  Actually, duh... I mean, botox and plastic surgery beg to differ.  Well, I'm running out of things.  You can't buy friends... I mean, you can surround yourself with sycophants, but not people who just want to make you happy.  Except... that's no longer the case anymore either.