27 1/2 by 27 1/2

Maybe it’s just the looming feeling that the bar is imparting to my life these days, but I feel a little compelled to pump up the “human” part of my life. It doesn’t need to be swallowed by the law. Well, it kind of does for the next month, but after that, I want to reach for more balance.

I’ve never made a list like this before, but I don’t believe in waiting until January 1st to start a new life practice anyway. So, here is a list of things I’d like to accomplish before the earth gets a chance to rotate again…

1. Pass the California Bar Exam the first time around. (I guess this one is obvious, but it’s earned the number one slot for this rotation).

2. Go to ballet class at least once a week.

3. Actually make it past barre consistently.

4. Become more re-attuned to my body, eating, and fitness plans so that I feel like I have my dancer body back instead of this more athletic situation.

5. Do one pull-up. (What? I like contradictions.)

6. Post at least twice a week on this blog.

7. Move the blog to a hosted site and actually configure the design in a way that looks somewhat professional.

8. Go to Spain.

9. Attend the first ever annual FriendFest! (I am embarrassingly excited about this one).

10. Buy a bar cart for our new apartment and stock it with everything so that I can make any guest any cocktail upon request.

11. Have a living space that feels like it reflects us and the things (and people) we love.

12. Use the Rosetta Stone and become somewhat conversational in Spanish.

13. Speak to all my closest friends once a week. (In person or on the phone, ideally.)

14. Institute a girl-only night so that I see my (local) female friends on a weekly basis. (I’m thinking a standing brunch date sounds like a really good idea…)

15. Paint something good enough to hang in our apartment. (I used to love to paint before high school, and just totally let it go.)

16. Go to New Orleans.

17. Read at least two books a month.

18. Buy fresh flowers for our apartment every week (or so), and arrange them in all the rooms. (Such an inexpensive and fast way to make sure you wake up every morning and are greeted with beauty).

19. See my family at least every other week.

20. Talk to Dan at least once a week.

21. Go on a real, get dressed up, wear perfume and meet at the restaurant date once a week. (With M). (Obviously).

22. Have a perfume wardrobe. (Scent has always been my most immediate and important sensory impression, and I’ve always felt like my mood can be changed immediately by a spritz of a different perfume. I love it, and yet it’s something I never buy for myself.)

23. Have an edited, adult wardrobe that’s stocked enough that getting dressed for work every morning, for brunch with friends and for dates with M are not sources of stress (and hopefully even fun).

24. Have an operational budget.

25. Pick a cause in which I feel invested, and start offering my time and money.

26. Learn to make at least ten totally new paleo dishes.

27. Take a weekend trip somewhere with just my female friends.

27 1/2. Be a delightful human being as often as possible.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions/substitutions?

Little more of this, little less Rule Against Perpetuities.

Normally Costco Is Not This Profound

Yesterday, M and I were walking out of Costco when he said something that reminded me so much of my dad.

We were steering our overflowing cart out of the exit, and the path to our car was blocked by a little girl looking up at us with giant eyes and meandering veeeerrrry slowly across our path. She was maybe two…not old enough to realize that she was in anyone’s way, and just concentrating on absorbing the world around her.

I just stood there, waiting for her to finish her toddle, so that we could pass. We weren’t in any terrific hurry, and she was trying her best to exist, so there wasn’t any point in rushing her. M, normally a hustlebot of the highest order, watched quietly next to me, and when she finally crossed, he said emphatically, “Beautiful kid.”

She was; all blond ringlets and huge blue eyes. But I heard my father in his statement, because most people probably would have described her as “cute.” “Aww, so little! Excuse me, sweetie!” But my husband and my father are both people who, while they normally fling themselves headlong through life, will recognize and stop to pay homage to actual beauty. She was perfect, and what an amazing thing to have a tiny, perfect person cross your path while you push yourself through the minutiae of your day.

And how lucky I am, that I could watch my father see the world this way, and that I found a man who shares that gift.

Never Claimed to be a Model

Actual husband quote from this morning, when we were trying to photograph each other for the firm’s “new associate” directory:

“No. This is terrible. You have too much hate in your jaw.”

Duh.

I rounded a corner today, walking back to work from lunch, and almost got flattened by a brigade of women. They brandished their strollers like battering rams, shouting to one another as they flooded the narrow Boston sidewalk and forced all the other pedestrians out into the street. Ugh. Come on. I immediately knew I would never be one of them. As a mother, I will never be so inconsiderate. I’m going to dart my future (totally well-behaved) kid around in some super-sleek foldable contraption or wear her on my chest in an earth-mother sling. I even mentally drafted a funny Facebook status about the crazy space-invading moms as I rode the elevator back to my office (does anyone else do this? reflexively formulate every life event into 140 characters?).

Then I thought about my friend reading that status, the one who’s about to give birth to her second child in a few weeks. And how she would probably find it ridiculously insensitive…because it would be. I don’t know yet what it’s like to be those women…maybe they’re lonely stay at home moms, all hopped up on the Q because they finally get to see another adult human being. Maybe the last place they want to live out their mom-hood is downtown Boston (especially this intersection…yikes) but that’s where their partners work, and that’s just how it is. Maybe they wanted rockin jogging strollers but they’re more expensive than the bulky beast version.

What. Ever. What I’m saying is, I look with mad gratitude upon people who understand that being a law student is sometimes a trial (get it? yeah baby) even if my problems are all “first world.” Which of course they are. But I need to get outside myself a little (a lot) more.

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” – Plato