Shadow Shot Sunday - Yes, it's been a while

I know, I've missed a few SSS posts. But I've been a little crazy, and shadow shots weren't presenting themselves to me. Until...this one.


I noticed this when I was laying in bed the other night. Because the light is from a streetlight outside, I knew I'd need the fancy camera and a tripod, otherwise I was never going to get the exposure to come out. I also knew that by the time I got everything all set up, curiosity would have gotten the best of my dear Severus and he would have moved, thus ruining the shot. So I had to remember to set it up before bed another night. He always gets in that same window whenever I open it to let in the cool night air so I didn't think there would be an issue with the pose.

It took me a couple days to remember to set everything up, but I finally did, and then last night the window was open, the cat was perfectly positioned, I had the camera all set on the right shutter speed, f-stop, and "film" speed (for lack of a better term...it's a digital camera but there's a setting for what would be the film speed), so all I had to do was slowly creep out of bed, hit the button (without shaking the camera...I should have set up my cable release too but I didn't think of that) and hope the cat didn't move too much in reaction to the noise of the shutter going off.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now, but I wanted to post this while it was still Sunday. =)

Oh, by the way, go to Hey Harriet for more Shadow Shot Sunday fun.

Broken Thought Process...uh...Thuriday?

Jenn has been doing this on non-Thursdays, and the whole thing is her idea, so it's all good.  I only missed last night because Vanessa suddenly came out of her room, came to my door, and said, "I'm bored, are you bored?  Let's go to the Cheesecake Factory."  Well, I'd be crazy to say no to that just because I wanted to write a blog post, so away we went!

I know I missed BTPT last week, but you all saw why. Cat sick, car sick, too much sick.

Anyway.  Dad's helping me pay for a car now, and we've expanded my budget a bit beyond what I was going to be able to do myself.  I'll pay him back eventually.  So now I just have to find a car, yay!

He and I decided this on Sunday, but because of sick cat I've been very focused on that and haven't really been browsing car ads.  Much.  I'm being a little picky about type of car, I'd prefer to spend my money on a Toyota or Nissan at this point because I need something that I can rely on for a couple years until I'm in a financial place to go do the fun car shopping.  Although even then I'll probably get another Nissan, just much newer than I can go right now.  I've been eying the pretty new Altimas for a couple years now.

As for sick cat, he's been getting better.  I had a really worrisome moment this morning, he seemed to be backtracking because Wednesday and Thursday he was waiting about two hours in between trips to the box, then this morning he suddenly made like, 4 trips in the hour I was getting ready.  But I checked and there was pee in there so it wasn't urgent, and therefore I couldn't stay home because I knew the vet couldn't do anything more than what we'd done (antibiotics and new food) as long as he was still peeing and hadn't gotten blocked.  So, with worry on my brow, I head off to work.  Which turned out to be an adventure this morning.  I was already cranky because I'm not a morning person and I was worried about the cat AND it was nasty and rainy again, and then I ended up forgetting my headphones for the third day in a row.  I really like to block out the other sounds and people and such, unless I'm with a companion on the T, my headphones are key.  But anyway.  To make matters worse, I sat next to this pair of Asian women (I want to say Chinese...there are many Asian groups in Oregon, I have a bit of a sense about the differences in appearance and such, but I'm not always certain) and because of my mood the sound of the language just got to me.  Plus, they were talking awfully loud, considering the fact that it was a little before 7 am and the train was fairly empty.  But even just that would have been fine...until we hit the next stop after I got on the train and the woman announcing what stop was coming up along with various other info (JFK/UMass, change here for Ashmont service and Commuter Rail service) was WAAAAAY too perky.  And loud.  I know sometimes it's hard to understand the announcers, but if you know where you're going (which, at that time on a weekday morning, I can't imagine you DON'T know where you're going) you don't even really need it.  So I'd much rather have one of the normal announcers that kind of mumbles out the information, sounding like they're still pretty much half-asleep just like me.

So anyway.  You'd think that would be the last of my troubles.  Well, then my commuter rail to the town where I'm actually working was 20 minutes late.  Nice.  Luckily, they don't actually care when we get there or when we leave as long as we get the 40 hours a week.  They like us to aim for arrival by 8:30, but it's not set in stone or anything so we're certainly not going to get in trouble for random stuff like late trains.

How'd I get on that anyway?  Oh right.  Back to the cat.  So I did call the vet when they opened just to check in and make sure the random issue in the morning wasn't a sign that maybe we need a different antibiotic.  After telling him the story of having seen improvements and then having them go away, he asked a few questions about the other behavior besides the frequent trips (crying, whether he did pee, etc.) and said that really the medicine and the new food are all we can do for him.  The only thing is if he does look like he's getting a blockage then I have to take him in.  Oh, regarding the new food, so basically it's the cat's version of a person drinking lots of cranberry juice.  It does the same thing for his system that cranberry juice does for ours.

Anyway, I've now been home a few hours, he's back to the more normal bathroom pattern at this point, so who knows what this morning was all about.  It was raining really hard, he gets anxious about how loud it gets on the skylight in the hall, so maybe that had something to do with it.  You never know with animals.

So I have to say that I really enjoy working as in-house corporate counsel.  At least, at a big corporation.  It's busy, but it's clear that even the full-time staff (non-interns) aren't working too much more than 40 hours a week.  And there are lots of perks, at least at this particular place.  We have free coffee until 10:30 every morning, and there's a cafeteria with very reasonably priced food.  And they do different specials every day, along with the standard sandwiches and salad bar and such.  The food is good too.  I've been getting the specials a lot, yesterday I had a taco salad that I'm pretty sure was bigger than my head.  I only managed to eat about half of it.

The company is on "summer hours" right now which means we work 9 hours a day Mon-Thurs and then we work 4 hours on Friday.  The 9 hours are a bit tiring, but it's so worth it when Friday afternoon rolls around and you're already heading home.  So anyway, my lunch was kinda weird.  The cafeteria was still open and I certainly could have gone down and grabbed something, at least eating it at my desk or something, but I had a giant breakfast (Friday is breakfast buffet day so there's eggs and potatoes and breakfast meats, and this morning they had pancakes!) so I wasn't really hungry enough when lunchtime rolled around.  So I ate the remaining half a roll of Ritz I had at my desk (I like to keep desk snacks with me) and some Pringles before leaving.  Then when I got home I ate my cheesecake from last night because Nessa and I decided to take it home since we were about to explode after our dinner.  But you can't go to the Cheesecake Factory and NOT get cheesecake, right?  Now it's close to dinnertime and I think that slice of cheesecake actually left me rather full...I might wait and just eat late.  Ha, that rhymes.

So when I checked the weather earlier in the week it said it was supposed to clear up this weekend, now it's still supposed to be raining AND there might even be lightning.  So I still can't go try out the pool here at my apartment complex.  If it were just rain, but warm rain, I might go, but with the potential lightning it's a really bad idea to be swimming around in an outdoor pool.  Or any body of water.  Lightning will hit water, and then it goes through the whole pool.  Yeah, not a good idea.  Lame.  Maybe next weekend.

Well, I think that's about all the thoughts I've had going on this week.  Until next time!!

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Okay. It can stop now.

My car broke again on Saturday. After already breaking the week before and getting fixed. I'm selling it and getting something else. I'm just tired of it. I don't even care that I'll get less money by selling it "as is" than if it were working.

But then there was more drama. Had to get to my first day of work on Monday and then work out a plan for transportation from there. Because, of course, I'm working outside of the city and there's no good method of transportation between the commuter rail station and the office. So I was going to rent a car for Monday then talk to people so that I wouldn't have to do that for too long. But then I went to rent a car, and when they went to run a credit check they apparently couldn't find my SSN at Equifax. A bit disconcerting. Even though I made her do it three times, I still suspect that she just did something wrong, maybe at one of the points where she was just entering various codes that had nothing to do with me. But anyway, it was a little weird to basically be told I don't exist.

So then the issue was, once again, how in the hell do I get to work? But, luckily, Amanda was going to be driving down the exact same highway to go to her first day of work so she was able to drop me off Monday morning and then pick me up after. But, that meant sleeping on her couch. Which meant I was EXHAUSTED on my first day. And I didn't really catch up throughout the week so I'm still rather tired.

Oh, and as for getting to work until my car situation is settled, I'm taking the train to the commuter rail and then the other intern is picking me up from the commuter rail. Then to get home he actually just drives me to Cambridge and I catch the regular subway from there because the commuter rail trains that leave in the evening are either 5:42 or 7:40. So we decided to just completely avoid the whole mess of trying to rush to get there in time for the first train.

So, anyway. That's the end of the car stuff at the moment.

But wait. There's more. When I got home from work tonight, I discovered that my cat was having litter box issues. He'd go in, try to pee, meow about it, then leave the box. Then he'd go back a few minutes later and try again. And back and forth. This can be a VERY bad thing for a cat, it can indicate that there's a blockage in their urethra preventing them from going at all. So I had to rush him to the animal hospital. And, due to the lack of car, I had to do this in a cab. So when I called the first thing I asked was if it's okay if I bring the cat in the cab. Actually, I said something that was just a rush of panic and upset, the operator had to ask me to repeat myself, and then I just said "my cat is sick" and she just said, "That's fine, he can go in the cab" and then got one sent out and just basically took care of it. I actually really love the cab company in my little suburb, they're always so nice. And the guy she sent out was fine with the yowling cat in the back. We just chatted about this and that all the way there, which was good, it kept me distracted.

Anyway, so the vet said there was no blockage, which is good. Unfortunately, his bladder was empty so they couldn't run any urine tests. They asked if I wanted to leave him for a few hours while they gave him some fluids to hopefully build up some pee, and I explained that I had to go back in a cab and then would have to come back and then go home again the same way, so they just decided to send me home with a sedative to help him just generally relax so that the muscles around his bladder aren't contracting, and something that's supposed to reduce any inflammation going on in his urethra so that when he does actually have to pee for real, it won't be quite so painful. These meds seem to be helping. He's at least not running back and forth to the box trying to pee. So that will have to do for tonight, and then tomorrow I'm going to walk down to the vet that's just a few blocks away (they're not a 24 hour emergency vet, which is why I couldn't go to them tonight. They were just about to close when I called.) and have them run the urine test, see what's going on there, and do what needs to be done to deal with it.

So. Anyway. I'm done with random crap popping up. I'm not supposed to be stressed when I'm not in classes. Co-op time is supposed to be my time to destress.

Anyway. I'm going to try to sleep. As much as I can while worrying about the cat, at least.

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Broken Thought Process Thursday

This theme was Jenn's idea.

So last night I pulled out my Knifty Knitter and started a scarf.  Then I ran out of yarn about halfway through.  I hope I can find the same kind when I go get more yarn.  Otherwise I guess I'll finish it off and give it to Severus as a weird, skinny blanket.

I'm so glad So You Think You Can Dance? is on again.  It's the only reality show competition thing I like.  I even like the initial auditions.  Mostly because they don't show too many of the terrible ones.   Just enough to give you an idea of what many people honestly seem to think qualifies as dancing.  I also like that basically anyone who doesn't make it into the top 20 can come back and try again for a later season when they've had more training.

I've been watching really random stuff on TV this week.  I was watching Food Network earlier, until some lady with a really obnoxious Southern accent came on and I had to change it.  Now I'm watching Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet (and I just glanced up at the wrong moment, all I saw was a shot of the back of a meerkat with HUGE balls...relative to his size, at least...lol).  Yes, I'm a little bored.  I've tried to break up the monotony by reading and playing Wii, too, but I'm still bored.  But my internship starts on Monday, hooray!

I really wish Comedy Central would fix the episode descriptions for The Daily Show so that TiVo will only record the new episodes like it's supposed to.  It's not a TiVo problem, it's Comedy Central not properly indicating whether the episode is a rerun or not.  So I have to go in to my list every couple weeks and tell it not to record the ones I know aren't going to be new because they're airing at the wrong time of day. 

On the subject of TV, I'm really angry that basically because NBC didn't promote it enough, Kings has been canceled.  First I don't get to see more of Ian McShane because HBO canceled Deadwood before finishing the story, but now I get him back in another show, that was actually shaping up to be pretty good, and it gets canceled too!  Grrr...

Baby cheetahs!  The show on Animal Planet changed and now it's Growing Up Cheetah.  As a general rule, I love any animal in the Cat Family -- big, small, wild, domestic, any of them.  But Cheetahs are my real favorites.  And apparently they're also really sweet and easily domesticated.  Yes, you guessed it, I want a cheetah.  I know it's really hard to get a license to own a wild animal, and it's really, REALLY hard to get a cheetah because they're not only endangered, but they also don't breed well in captivity...but that doesn't stop me from wanting one.

I'm going to watch the fluffy cheetah kittens now.  I hope you enjoyed the journey through my mind on this Broken Thought Process Thursday.

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Ramblings and musings

I just pre-wrote a post for Father's Day because I was inspired...but obviously it doesn't work here.

I've been feeling very...not withdrawn, necessarily...but something like that.  I've been feeling the need to be with myself.  I've needed to let my mind quiet down, and to let my body sleep without the assistance of alcohol or medication.  I've needed to read novels, and watch TV, and play Wii, and poke around online for hours with no particular goal in mind.  I've needed to properly cook for myself instead of eating processed crap to cleanse my body of all that nastiness.  I've needed to take walks with my camera.  I've needed to sit with my cat.  I've needed to clean my entire apartment, exhausted as I may have been afterwards.  I've needed to watch thunderstorms that are pratically right on top of me and almost jump out of my chair when lightning strikes right outside my window.

Okay, so that last one was kind of happenstance.  But it turns out I really did need to do that, too.

This last term in school left me a giant ball of stress.  My sleep was messed up and I couldn't find the right medicine to fix it (still need to get in touch with the doc again and see what we can work out).  15 credits left me almost a shell of who I had been.  I still have circles under my eyes.  I'm only 26 and I'm pretty sure I have a few faint worry lines.  I was so tense I brought back my old whiplash injury, which I got when I was 17.  Or maybe 16.  It still hurts to tilt my head all the way back, like when I'm gathering my hair for a ponytail.  The knots in my shoulders have gone down, but not much.

It's a good thing I only have one year left.  I'm not sure how much more I could take.

Oh, but wait.  I recently decided that I'm definitely applying to a tax LL.M. program.  Which means more school.  Why?  Because I know that's the law I want to do and if I do the extra work, it'll show that much more commitment to it.  Plus most tax lawyers do it eventually, and with the economy the way it is I figure I'll just do it now so that I can have a bit more assurance that I get the job I want.  If I get a post-grad job, great, the program can be either part time or full time so I can fit it to my needs.  If I need it to be full time so that I have the authorization to borrow (even more) living expenses because, horror of horrors, this next year turns out to not be enough time to lift the hiring freeze in many law firms and other legal jobs, then...well, it's one more year where I'll be at least somewhat covered, even if it is living on more borrowed funds.

But, at least the LL.M. program will be like...a more focused law school.  It'll be stuff I really want to learn.  Not that I take classes I'm not at least mildly interested in...there's a reason I'm refusing to take intellectual property.  But a lot of the time I take classes due to a mixture of interest and because I "should" -- either because of the bar exam or simply because it's good for a well-rounded legal education.  This tax LL.M. will be all interest.  Being actually interested in a subject when I'm trying to study always reduces my stress.

I think there will also be less *other* stress.  I won't be stressing about the bar because I'll have already taken it.  And if I don't get a post-grad job, actually being enrolled in the LL.M. program will help while I'm sending out resumes like mad...again because it shows that commitment to the subject.  Plus the whole actually having the law degree and having taken and hopefully passed the bar exam should help on the job front too...I would imagine there's probably some level of hesitation in this economy when it comes to making offers to 3Ls who haven't actually finished school AND haven't actually become a licensed attorney.  There's always the hope that I'll be doing this part time anyway because I'll have the job.  Either way I hope to be less stressed about the whole employment situation too.

Anyway.  I got oddly focused on things besides eating today.  I ate some...but I have a very high metabolism, "some" is not sufficient.  Better go make some dinner before I metabolize all my energy away.

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Shadow Shot Sunday - Seashell

I just thought it was interesting how something so small and low to the ground still makes a shadow.

By the way, I'm done with my second year of law school. Yay!

Okay, that's all for now. =)

Shadow Shot Sunday - Sunset

This is the view from my bedroom window. Jealous? =P