Nerd, Dork, it's all the same

Today I decided to try out a new floor of the library. Yes, I know, my life is boring. The big news is that I ventured out of my usual cubby hole in the basement in an attempt to find a warmer place to strain my eyes and wear away the keys on my laptop. The spot I picked was empty at first: four wide tables, end to end, occupied by just my self. But after a couple of hours the empty chairs around me filled with eight men studying for the bar exam, who clearly claimed this area as their territory long ago. So here I am, one lone first year female student surrounded by eight third year male students. As they skim the pages of their review books, I am reminded of when I was studying for the LSAT.
I took a 16 week Kaplan course to prepare me for the exam. I had a stack of books almost 2 feet high that I would carry to the Kaplan study center to review. The routine became mundane…practice problems, timed section practice, strategy review, practice tests, and then more practice problems, timed section practice, strategy review, and yet another practice test. As the exam date drew closer, the stress within me became more palpable. Finally, it was two days until the exam. I made my way to the Kaplan study center to take one last practice test before relaxing my brain for the next couple of days. As I sat down to start the exam, my nerves were at an all time high. This was it, the last time I would open these study books. I was nervous about my preparedness for the real exam but also excited at the prospect of putting this phase of my life behind me. Toward the end of the practice exam, a large group of high school kids entered the room. They sat down and were waiting for a Kaplan proctor to administer a practice SAT. Most of the kids were quietly talking to each other, but this one kid…oh, this one kid…he was loud, and he was annoying, and he was sitting next to a T.V. Trying to be funny and garner the attention of his classmates, this kid grabbed the T.V. remote and began turning the T.V. on and off, on and off, on and off, on and off. The sound of the T.V. snow – that noise the T.V. makes when there's no reception – was too much for my frazzled nerves. I turned around and looked at this kid; without flinching and in an accusatory tone I asked him, "Are you using this T.V?" The chatter stopped and the T.V. snow filled the room. He sheepishly replied, "No." I reached over and slammed my hand down on the T.V.'s power button and rhetorically asked, "Then why are you playing with it?" Without giving him time to reply I turned back to my exam and didn't say anything else. The room was silent until I finished my practice exam and got up to leave.
Now, as I sit here surrounded by these men quietly studying their bar review books, I wonder if they are annoyed by this lowly first year student, hacking away at her computer keys, flipping through stacks of papers, and interrupting their routine?

Baking

I baked this pound cake...it looked so pretty and it tasted really good. Just call me Susie Homemaker.

Month One

This coming Sunday will make four weeks that Chris and I will have been married. As we march toward this relatively small land-mark in our married life, I find humor in reflecting on the adjustments living together has necessitated.

First of all, we are newly-weds in the truest sense of that term. I'm sure our neighbors are tired of seeing us flirtingly race each up the stairs on a regular basis. Chris does the dishes each day and cleans on Sundays so that I can study or relax. I cook dinner, trying out new recipes or requests from Chris (the latest was a fresh pot of home-made beans). The other night I burned broccoli, my first burned meal, and Chris just scraped-off the burned parts and ate it anyways. Oh, the love and bliss that fills our home, everyday, all day, until...bedtime.

Chris likes to go to bed between 10 and 10:30. I usually go to bed between 11:30 and 12. It's not fun going to bed an hour later, rummaging around in the dark to find your pajamas and set the alarm. Then when you crawl into bed you find out that your loving husband, in the innocence of his sleep, has claimed the middle of the bed, relegating you to the small space between his knobby-knees and the edge of the mattress. Fortunately, because I no longer spend an hour each night talking to Chris on the phone, and because I've stopped watching late night TV, I've been able to move my bedtime to coincide with my husband's. I get more sleep and I no longer waste time watching re-runs of Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Since we both go to bed at the same time now, we often spend 15 or 20 minutes talking to each other as we lay in the darkness waiting to fall asleep. Just last night Chris made a comment about this trend. Those few minutes are the closest thing we have our hour-long phone conversations of the past. Don't get me wrong here: I'm not complaining that we don't talk to each other all day, because we do talk to each other during the day. During the day, however, we are doing other things as we communicate. As we lay in bed, there are no distractions.

The other night, as we were laying in the darkness, we got into a somewhat heated discussion about why we wake up multiple times during the night. Chris is of the opinion that the bed is too small, and thus we are constantly "touching" each other. I, on the other hand, believe the problem is that our blanket is too small, and therefore, we are constantly playing tug-of-war. In an effort to prove myself right, I decided we would sleep "Norwegian Style." Norwegian style means that rather than sharing one blanket, each of you has a separate blanket. At the time, I didn't know we were sleeping Norwegian style, but when my Norwegian friend at church explained to me that we were sleeping Norwegian style, I told Chris that he should not complain about the separate blankets because I was actually trying to "culture" him. Anyhoo, we've both decided that the blanket on our bed is too small, although Chris still believes that a bigger bed would also be beneficial. I think we need a bigger apartment first. Our 650 square feet can't accomodate both a king size bed and a home office.

As an alternative to the bigger bed, I have jokingly suggested that we get a smaller bed, adjust to that, and then our queen size bed will feel just right. For some reason Chris doesn't like that idea...

It's Saturday afternoon and I feel fabulous. Right now I'm sitting in our rental "cabin" in the Appalachian mountains in Blue Ridge, Georgia, which is about 100 miles north of Atlanta. As we left our lovely room at the W Hotel in Dallas on Monday morning, I was perplexed when I found out that we would be flying to Atlanta.

We landed in Atlanta just in time to make it into the city for a fancy dinner at the top of Atlanta's tallest building. We left the restuarant stuffed and awed by both the view and the food. Once we arrived at our cabin, I understood why we were in Georgia. It's gorgeous. What a wonderful way to spend the first week of married life.

We have sucessfully split our time between busy and relaxing activities. On the busy side, we went to the world's largest aquarium, which is located in Atlanta. We saw some beluga whales, some electric jelly fish and a giant tank home to over 55,000 fish, including a hammer head shark, 4 whale sharks and some black tip reef sharks. We also went to the World of Coca-Cola, a museum commerating the history of the world's most famous soda. The museum is cluttered with memorabelia and art, all dedicated to Coke. After watching a montage of Coca-Cola commercials from around the world, the consumerism of the place became a bit overwhelming - all I could say was something about how I really wanted a Dr. Pepper. But the best part was yet to come - the tasting room. There we filled our stomachs with different sodas from all over the world, only to discover that most of them are either the same as the ones we drink, or else they are really nasty. We also went for a lengthy hike one day and later drove into town to wander around historic blueridge.

On the relaxing side, we have thouroughly enjoyed our cabin. We have enjoyed the ping-pong and pool table, as well as the hot tub in the evenings. We finished a 1000-piece puzzle yesterday. The abundance of windows in the cabin allows us to enjoy the view of the river that runs by outside. We have watched half of season three of the office and have done plenty of sleeping-in. Chris was especially excited on Wednesday morning when we awoke to a blanket of snow. Since then the temperatures have warmed up and today is beautiful. Not sure what's on the agenda for tomorrow, but I am not looking forward to leaving on Monday. Too bad life isn't one big honeymoon...