Perfect Day for Quick Takes.

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This is a warning to anyone who is considering staying at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles (I hope people googling the hotel will see this).  IF YOU WANT TO GET NAKED IN YOUR ROOM, CLOSE THE CURTAINS, NOT JUST THE BLINDS (unless you don’t mind people seeing you naked).  Tonight I was visiting an apartment in the Pegasus, which is an apartment building across the street from the Standard hotel.  The rooms have these thin metal blinds AND heavy curtains, and as I am now painfully aware, those metal blinds are not opaque.   As I glanced out the window, I saw a very naked man walking around in a room that had the blinds closed, but not the curtains.   AHH!  My friend then informed me that it is a frequent occurence where he looks out the window and sees naked people walking around and showering, thinking the blinds block the view.    They should really warn their guests about that!!

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I settled a case today.  WOO!

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That needle in a haystack that I couldn’t find?  I took a brief moment for the 8,000,000 other things I was doing today to try one more search, and I FOUND THE NEEDLE.

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I’m still thinking about that naked guy.  *SHUDDER*

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I got a ticket to the Martha Stewart Tall Show!!!!  However, it’s February 11th and I’ve suddenly become really busy at work so I don’t know if I can pull it off 😦  (not to mention how expensive it would be… yikes!!).   I am still contemplating it though.  There is a united airlines direct flight that has wifi on the plane.   Lexis searches from the air?   I might be able to justify that….

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There is this thing going on on facebook this week where you upload a picture of a celeb that people say you look like.   This is mine:

Jennifer Carpenter, aka Deb Morgan on the show Dexter.  I take it as a huge compliment because I find her really attractive.   And I wish I was thin like her and had her toned arms! Ah!    Anyway, I have had 5 or 6 friends who know me really well say I look like her.   So I uploaded the picture, and today I got 3 facebook messages asking me if it was me and/or when the picture was from.  Ok, I don’t look THAT much like her people!! 😉

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24 has been filming outside of my building this week.  And I’ve also seen NYC cabs and NYC cop cars around.  So I can’t figure out if they are just filming a 24 scene in L.A. pretending it’s NYC (show is currently set in NYC), or if the NYC cars are unrelated and there is going to be an upcoming episode with some Jack Bauer action in L.A.  Time will tell I suppose!

7 Quick Takes.

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The whole “post your bra color as your facebook status” thing kind of annoys me.  I think the idea is brilliant—everyone is posting random colors as their facebook status, and then people who don’t know what it is are like “whaat?” and then someone says, “Tah dah! It’s breast cancer awareness month! (Be aware that breast cancer exists!)”  However, this would be a much more helpful venture if people actually took that revelation and thought, hmmm, maybe I should be checking myself regularly.  But unfortunately, this seems to be a case of good idea in theory not working out so much in practice.  To me it seems like most people just get caught up in the fun of getting to post their bra color on facebook and the cuteness of confusing all your friends who don’t know what the color is about.  I’m pretty sure EVERYONE knows that breast cancer exists.  So, what are we doing about? Are we just going to talk about our bra colors (which last I checked, won’t cure cancer), or are we going to REALLY do something about it?  

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On a less soapbox note, yesterday the thought crossed my mind, “Am I neurotic?”   I’m not even sure what that word means, and I should just look it up.  But here’s why I thought it:  there are certain thoughts that always cross mind.  For example, every time I walk into a women’s bathroom, for a split second I panic that I’ve walked into the Men’s bathroom.  Even if I double checked the sign, even if I see there are no men or urinals in sight, even if I’ve used the exact same bathroom for months or years.  Technically, this one’s not a fair example because I actually have, on more than one occassion, including recently, waltzed into a Men’s bathroom.   Other examples?  Every time I send an email or text for a split second I panic that I’ve sent it to the wrong person.  Sent a joke with a smiley face meant for my friend Stephanie to a random partner at the firm, texted a personal, girly detail about myself meant for a girl friend to a random male coworker.  No matter how many times I check the to and from lines, I always panic that I’ve messed up and will embarrass myself.   Whenever I set my alarm, I check it like 5 times to make sure it’s actually set. I’m always really paranoid that somehow I didn’t set it or didn’t set it right and I’m not going to wake up in time.  Every time I go into a public bathroom and I go to hang my purse on the little hook on the back of the door, I remember this episode of Oprah I saw BACK IN HIGH SCHOOL that talked about people who lurk in bathrooms and steal purses while you are pulling out the toilet seat cover.  I always think of the episode, EVERY time I go into a bathroom stall.  So then I think about putting my purse on the floor, and I remember this episode of Dateline from 10 years ago where they said the bathroom floor is actually the dirtiest place in public restrooms.  Where to put the purse then?  I continue to wear it on my shoulder.  Nice, right?  Ok I’m going to stop there.   Really random tangent.  Maybe paranoid and OCD are better terms to describe me?

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Remember my whole “omg Starbucks” post a few days ago?  Well, it turns out that Starbucks is not stupid like I thought, and they do realize they can’t just stop honoring their contracts.  I found a place on their website that said they were still honoring the cards until their expiration date, printed it, highlighted it, and marched it back down to the Starbucks.  The barista who told me my card was void wasn’t there, but the manager (who also thought my card was void) read the paper and tried my card, and in fact, my card actually works.  So, no class action against Starbucks just yet 😉

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I am drafting some documents for a pro bono case I’m working on that are actually going to be filed with a court.  My name is in the caption!  My name, my bar number, my work address and phone number, and “Attorney for Petitioner.”  I am actually an attorney for a petitioner.  Can you believe it?  (Yes, Michelle.  You graduated law school, passed the bar, and have a job as an associate attorney of a law firm.  Not a far fetch that you are an attorney.  We already know that.)  It still hasn’t really, really sunk in.  Bear with me while I get excited over lame things like captions 😉

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Yesterday, I discovered the world of vegan food blogs.  Oh my goodness!  The blogs are tempting me to just go full on vegan instead of just vegetarian weaning toward vegan.  Why not?  I’m at least going to start trying the recipes and see how it goes!  I also read yesterday that a vegan bakery has opened up in downtown L.A.  It’s in the slightly sketchy area that I prefer not to venture into (especially after my run in with a possible pimp/drug dealer), but I would really like to check it out! 

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I reeeeeaally need to clean my apartment.  It’s such a mess.  I’m not even super busy at work yet and my apartment is already falling apart.   This is why I should be looking for a maid soon. 

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I am really, really hoping to go hiking in L.A. this weekend.  And I am hoping it will be one of many times and I will start getting out more.  And not like that one time where Adam and Krissi hiked once in Malibu Canyon (5 minutes from our apartment) in January shortly after we moved in, and I thought I would go hiking all the time, and then we didn’t hike again until Adam and I needed a break from finals studying in May.  (and I haven’t been hiking since). 

7 Quick Takes?

Since I’m already trying out Ten on Tuesday, I figured I would also try out “7 Quick Takes” on Fridays.   Let’s see how this goes.   For the last week I’ve felt like I really had nothing to talk about, and today I have several little things so this is perfect!

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Today, it looked like “the Nothing” took over Los Angeles.   It’s really weird to look outside and see a thick, grey cloud cover hovering over the city, people walking with umbrellas…. to look at the weather forecast and see multiple days of rain in a row.   What is this water falling from the sky Los Angeles?  On the upside, I have covered parking at work, home, and the grocery store… so technically I don’t have to go out in the rain unless I *really* want to do something extra curricular that requires me to.

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The downside of all of this rain is that a good friend of mine from Portland (Becky) is arriving tonight to spend the weekend with me.  Rain is NOT ideal weather for showing someone around L.A.!   Then again, we are from Portland where we are used to rain, so we will have fun regardless of the weather!

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The upside of the rain is that apparently when it is pouring down rain, they don’t have the obnoxious outdoor concerts that I can hear in my apartment.   Yesterday  it was supposed to rain but ended up being sunny all day and I actually found myself sitting at work, staring out at the sun and feeling a little disappointed.   (What is wrong with me??).   However, although the rain didn’t pick up until much later in the evening, the concert last night was actually pretty good.  What a nice change!

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I scored some great tickets to an orchestra this weekend from a coworker.   That whole “early bird gets the worm” thing is so true.   I knew there was a good reason to go into work so early even though I had absolutely no work to do!  Woohoo!  Despite the rain I now have a cool event to take Becky too, with great seats, and all for free! 🙂  I’ll be sure to post about how it goes.

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Today I finally billed my first hour after two weeks of working on non-billable stuff.  It’s pro bono, but pro bono counts 1 for 1 and I’m really excited about this project.   Plus, it’s a perfect time to get my pro bono hours in while regular billable work is so hard to come by during the holidays.

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I have been DYING to paint again (after my first attempt was such a success), but I can’t seem to get out of the office before it is dark out (it gets dark before 5.. boo!) and I don’t even like to go to the area where the art store is in the daytime let alone at night.  Maybe this weekend if there is a break in the rain I can get over there and buy some more supplies.  I would like to paint something for my office!

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Today when I was leaving work I spaced out and almost drove poor Bella (my car) into a pole.  Luckily, a parking lot attendant was watching and managed to get my attention.  She then offered to back my car out for me and said anytime I was in a tight spot to just ask her to do it because my car is “too beautiful” and I shouldn’t risk letting anything happen to it.   If I would have had any cash on me I would have tipped her.   That was so nice!