Good morning Mama!

I am ashamed with how long it has been since my last post, so let's not even talk about it. There is no excuse. I am getting new glasses soon, hopefully tomorrow, and I've been thinking about that trip we took to get your new frames with that Groupon. Oh dear, we had no business being in that part of town, but you got some super cute glasses!

I wish I could come see you oh so badly, but the soonest I can possibly make it is after the MPRE, maybe early April? I will probably have finals going on then, so it may not be the best time either. Ugh, law school is ruining my life. If nothing else, I will definitely be there some time after I take the Bar exam and after the shock of the baby has worn off. You seriously may have a hard time getting me to leave. I'm thinking it would be doable: get a sweet job in Seattle (I won't be licensed there, but a law degree should help me get some type of cool gig), hang out with you all the time, either convince CKB to move up there and practice or we can rock a long distance thing. It would totally work!

I think it would be good for me to get away from The South for awhile.

Phone date soon!
Proms

Roomie-
I miss you! WA is wonderful, and even though the clouds are usually gray, it is beautiful. We have had some really clear days here as of late, so it has been breathtaking. You will love it here!
I got a new job as a teaching assistant, and I love it. The children are fun, albeit active. They were fascinated with my jewelry yesterday, the girls telling me my rings looked like flowers, and the boys curious on how my bracelets slide on and off. These young minds are very entertaining!
Mary Todd is having issues with me being away during the day (even though it is just for a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Barry informed me she was quite the grouch yesterday while I was out (he popped in for lunch and to visit MT), and she has been extra cuddly with me when I am sitting on the couch. I actually am enjoying all of this love and attention from her!
Please come visit soon... I miss you! Tell me all about your life, law school, work, everything! I miss you lots, and I love you!

Love Always,
Abby

better late than never

My Dearest,

Let me start by apologizing for my lack of blogging as of late. I don't really have a compelling reason, so how about we just let this one slide?

I'm currently typing away whilst listening to Colin Meloy serenade me, the washer wash things and the air conditioner cool things down. It's probably the last hurrah for old air conditioner for awhile, as autumn is wrapping itself around us more and more every day. Did you know I canceled (cancelled?) my cable television? Well I did. I think I'm getting more "granola" every day. I dig it though. Now I listen to NPR on my radio most of the time. I like how it hisses softly in the background, because I can never get the needle in exactly the right place.

I cannot believe it's almost time for you to move. It hurts me for some reason, even though you are already far from me. I am also very excited for you, and just a teensy bit jealous. I think the Pacific Northwest is the coolest (this is purely speculation - I've never been there). I will be coming to visit you as soon as the bar exam is over. Be figuring out the coolest places to go. I want to see a badass show while I'm there. Preferably someone folksy and awesome. Think you can arrange that? :)

Regarding your desk: I honestly and truly think you should repurpose furniture for a living. It's your thing, girlfriend. My desk is one of my most prized possessions. You should forget about seeking an employer for reals.

Let's text a lot tomorrow, okay?

I love you,

Proms

Mary Todd, a desk, and Washington state

Mary Todd is being quite precious right now. She had to get groomed today, and she looks adorable! Of course, the first thing she did once we got home was roll around in the wet grass (ugh, sick). After she wiggled and writhed and ate a tasty treat of Animal Crackers, she is now curled up on my lap and dozing -- pitiful. She is spoiled rotten, I tell you!



This is one of my favorite pieces I have done so far (other than the desk that you now possess)! (Please disregard how messy the floor is. I keep all of my craft and sewing stuff in the guest room, so it just kind of spills out everywhere!) I didn't take a picture before I primed, painted, sanded, and stained, but just imagine this as an unfortunate pine desk, and you will have it! I had been wanting to do a two-tone piece, and this was so not the way I had envisioned it turning out ... but I love it so. I had wanted to do a bajillion other things with this desk (like painting it navy and having a light drawer, or maybe painting it gray, and then distressing it but not too much, etc.), but as I was working on it, the plan evolved until I finally stumbled on the "This is it! This is what it is meant to be!" moment. I was debating selling it, but Barry said he loves it (and quite honestly, I do love the way it looks in the guest room. Like we are all studious and stuff.), so I guess we'll be holding on to it for a little bit longer!

So we are planning our trek to Washington state, and let me tell you, it will be quite the haul. Our shortest day we will drive approximately five hours (not including any stops), and our longest day we will drive approximately 10.5 hours (again, not including breaks). *insane* We are hoping that Mary Todd will discover that she loves road trips, that the bladders of the females in the vehicle will magically be able to withstand limited bathroom breaks, and that the Captain doesn't go crazy by my roadtrip singing. (I get really into hymns and can belt out some country, FYI. And I usually have some type of pretend microphone, you know, to be legit about my singing career.)

Proms, it is so your turn to write me a bloggy note! I know you have tons of goodies to share since you work, go to law school, have a bf, and are already picking out your Christmas presents off of etsy.com, so please, do tell!

Love you, bestie.

-Abbs

Where have we been? Ahh, Current Events

For starters, apologies on letting months (and months) slip by without so much as a "G'day, good sir and madam." I don't really have a whole lot going on in my day to day life that should impede the upkeep of this blog, so I will try to do better (much much better!).

First of all, I need to bring something up that was MONUMENTAL in my life. Something that happened last night. Piers Morgan brought Nancy Grace to near tears. Nancy Grace! As anyone who is anyone knows, she is tough as nails and is ballsier than a Bruce Willis/Vin Diesel ninja gang member. She has nerves of steel that course through her body and even to her hair, which explains why it never moves. She is hardcore. And yet little Piers, with his nice tenor voice and his delicate British accent (sidenote: I only just learned that he is, in fact, NOT gay. Surprised.), brought this stone-wall-of-a-woman down by prodding into her past. Apparently her fiance (years and years ago, when she was in college) was murdered at his construction site by a fired employee. Her fiance was not the boss, but just happened to wander up at the wrong time. He had been getting drinks (soft drinks, not hard drinks ... by the way, I only just realized how cool it is that we have "soft" and "hard" drinks, one referring to innocent bubblies and the other to dangerous grown-up beverages. But I digress.) for the crew, and when he pulled back up in his truck, the fired employee (who had been waiting for the boss) decided to open up and shoot. Poor Nancy was trying really hard to stay composed while she was telling this horrid story, and even though I am leery of people who know how to manipulate emotions, it got me. I feel so awful for her! She said it took her 30 years before she could even think about marriage, before she could utter the word without shaking. Bless her soul.

Well, now that ol' Nancy Grace's almost-waterworks has been taken care of, let's move on to Teen Mom. Catelynn is darling (but her mom is awful. Can I adopt Catelynn??), Farrah is a little misguided when it comes to "getting boobs to make money," because you first have to HAVE money to get boobs, and if you are not making ends meet to begin with, should you really be getting a loan for a boob job? Your argument that you are doing it to make money (by way of landing more modeling jobs) is a little hole-y, my love. But kudos to you for getting a great rack (and having a super precious baby). Maci, I still love you. Mainly because you are in TN, which is my home, and you go to school in my hometown. Amber is crazy. Not in the "oooh, girl, you crazy" kind of way, but in the "I honestly think you need to be in an institution" kind of way. And choosing between Gary and the loser who says he loves you isn't really a win-win. Gary is better, hands down, but please, let's not act like it's rocket science to choose your baby daddy over some guy you randomly met who is telling you he wants to marry you and have a family. That is super creepy, and you have an adorable daughter who needs you to be the adult. Step up, be one.

Proms, you'll have to do a full Casey Anthony review. I watched some of it, but it just made me sick. And somehow I knew that she would get a Not Guilty verdict; though I was not in the jury, and though I am sure that the media played a big part in me wanting her to be guilty, I have to admit, I was disappointed, dismayed, and brokenhearted when I found out. Had I been on the jury, had I heard all of the arguments and seen all of the evidence, I don't know if I could have delivered a Guilty verdict with no (none, zip, nada) reasonable doubt, but I sure would have tried. (And watching Nancy Grace for 2.3 seconds last night talking about the Casey Anthony trial convinced me of her guilt. NG, you must have been one heck of a prosecutor.)

In more local news, I learned how to sew! Not expertly (or even straight), but I did it! Granted, my mother had been giving me a few lessons, but when Mom is here to do it for me, I don't pay very much attention. But I read my manual, learned how to thread the bobbin properly (after learning what the "H-E-double hockey sticks" a bobbin is), learned to thread all the other things that have to be threaded, remembered to put the foot down when sewing, and then I sewed a super wonky pillow. But I am so proud, so I must brag on myself. Hooray!

Miss you mucho-choco-latto, best friend. (Yeah, figure that one out; I guarantee BabbleFish won't help you!) Love you, and can't wait for your take on current events!

Love,
Abby

random thoughts

I miss you so very much, friend. Friday night and Saturday morning were so fun, and the whole rest of the weekend was no fun at all. Well, Mama came to visit Sunday for lunch, so that was pretty fun, but Estate Planning is the worst. When it comes time for you and the CPT to plan for your children's and grandchildren's futures, do not, I repeat, do NOT call me!

I am completely in love with MT, and our picture with me holding her is now my desktop background. She is such a sweet angel, and I still regret saying that the english mastiff was the sweetest dog I'd ever seen.

Can I come visit you when my classes are over? I am extremely troubled that you might move even further from me pretty soon, and I want to squeeze in as much time as I can!

Have I sent you the YouTube video for the new Hanson song? Well if I haven't, you should look it up. They are still precious. The name of the song is Give a Little.

My tummy has been upset all day. :/

I love you.

omg, you come visit this weekend!

My dearest Abby,

I am so excited that you are coming to visit this weekend, I can hardly put it into words. I have been struggling to have fun in my life lately, which I know is silly because, objectively, I have a great life. It's just that almost everything I do seems like something I don't want to do, and when I finish that thing, all that awaits me is something else I don't particularly want to do, until it's finally time to go to sleep, which I always want to do!

I long for the days when you and I lived together in a tiny room in Elam, and we had a multitude of friends only steps away at all times. Now I can't even remember some of those people's names, and that makes me very sad. If I could have an afternoon to sit with you, Carol, Zack, Will, Corey et al. in the sunshine outside the Student Center, I would be ecstatic. Instead, I spend my days in a stuffy office building with stuffy people (I cannot in good faith be discontented with this, because at least I have a job working with a few nice people, and I'm socially obligated to be thankful for that). School is almost over for the year, thank goodness, but there is the usual mountain of finals and papers due before I can get a taste of freedom.

I feel that my college education, while exemplary, is definitely lacking in a few key areas, namely:

1. How to dress for a semi-corporate professional atmosphere. I am utterly clueless Abbs. It's been over a year now, and I still feel like I can't strike a good balance between the sexretary look and being frumptastic.

2. How to manage time effectively. Weren't we supposed to learn that during pledging? Well, I've forgotten it if I ever learned it at all. I find myself rushing around from place to place, often wearing something completely inappropriate for the occasion and usually with dirty hair.

3. How to handle finances. Budgeting? What's that? Should I have learned to do that? Yes, yes I should have. Yikes.

4. How to handle loneliness. None of my college professors told me how much emotional strain I would be under as an adult. They never divulged that my easily accessible group of friends would soon get married/have children/move away from me. The nights I don't have school, my biggest challenge is finding someone who will eat supper with me. Usually it's the scientists at the Jeffersonian or members of the BAU.

Alas Roomie, I am very sorry this post is one big complaint, but I feel better. I cannot wait to see you! I am going to give you the biggest hug ever, and I don't care if it damages the surgically enhanced parts of my physique!

I love you!

Proms