Mighty Mount Vernon

Being low on money and time, I am trying to squeeze in a real vacation while visiting my sister in Charlottesville, Virginia. Today we went to Mount Vernon, home of George Washington, our first president. It is about two hours from Charlottesville, close to Washington, D.C. My sister is an architectural historian by education, and she explained to me how the house was made of wood, but they used sand to cover the wood on the outside to make it look like block. It really makes an impressive finish and is certainly unusual and maybe even unique in house building materials. George Washington was about 22 when he inherited this beautiful house overlooking the Potomac. I came away with a greater appreciation of George and thinking he was quite the man. It would be interesting to sit down and talk to him. I wondered, if he were alive today, what business would he be in? What would be his passions and his politics?

Tonight on PBS, I got to watch one of my favorite shows, East Enders, which takes in London. The PBS channel in Nashville doesn't show it anymore. I used to date a man from Bristol, England, who said he hated that show. But I like it. The shows I saw tonight were repeats, but it reminded me how much I miss it. I also got to see a show that featured Bob Dylan, which showed clips from when he was very young.

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I have to become a smarter commenter. I have posted a few comments on others' blogs only to figure out a few moments later that they are old blogs--the authors haven't posted on there themselves for a year or more! No need to post on stale blogs.

Missing Meme

It's been three years since my grandmother died, and I miss her so much. I wear her diamond ring, and everytime I look at it, I remember her words to me: "It always comes down to you and me." When I see the diamond ring, I think, yes, that is true. In many ways, she was my rock. I had saved some of her voicemail messages on my phone, and I was still able to hear her wish me a happy birthday, a Merry Christmas, Happy Easter, etc. It was very comforting. Every five days, Bellsouth would send a prompt asking me if I wanted to save or delete my archived messages, and of course I saved them. Then AT&T took over BellSouth, and in one swoop, without any warning, wiped out my voicemail messages. I won't be able to hear my grandmother's voice again. I complained to AT&T, telling them they don't know how much I lost by that and how devastating it is to me. But they just acted like, "Oh well." I don't understand why a company would not have the foresight to send out a message warning their customers of this change. It breaks my heart.

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Today in Virginia, my sister and I went to a local book fair, where we got some great books at a huge discount. I bought a book on Tony Blair for my mother, some pleasure books for myself as well as a constitutional law legal briefs outline for me (hope it is keyed to my textbook for next year--we haven't heard what our textbooks are yet), and a great slang dictonary for my Taiwanese language partner. I can't wait to give it to her. It is really thick, and I wish I had time to read through it myself. I will give it to her Tuesday when we have our last meeting before she moves to New York.

I almost resisted, but I also bought a book on marketing for my new job. I will need to get in the swing of marketing soon. I almost didn't buy it, because there were tons of business books there, and I wasn't sure this was the right one for me to buy. I kept thinking I could buy a similar book later. But I went back and got the marketing book off the shelf. I opened it and was struck by the fact that the page where I opened talked about the very product that we produce! I couldn't believe it! I told my sister, and she said this was an example of "shopping destiny." I like that term.

Online Business

I had my first "online" date today in quite a while. I am a member of match.com, but hid my profile a few months ago. I needed to save money and was getting frustrated with inappropriate matches--men who just seem to want to email forever, but never really meet in person, etc.. and wanted to take a break. The unusual thing was this date was out of town--I am still visiting my sister in Charlottesville, and had lunch today with someone who lives here. He contacted me right before I took my profile down, and we have emailed and talked on the phone a few times. I told him I would be visiting this week, and he suggested we get together. We had a very nice lunch at a private club. He seems nice and is quite a gentleman. Don't know if it is a romance, but it could be a friendship at least. I visit this town several times a year, so it would be nice to have a friend here.

I plan to put my profile back up in the fall, with a new photo and refreshed text. I may even switch online dating services. After you have been on the same site for a while, you keep seeing the same faces.

Some people seem to think that online dating has had its heyday and is starting to wane. I hope that is not true, because it does let you to meet people who might otherwise never cross your path. But like anything else, it has its drawbacks, including the aforementioned people who never want to meet in person, and the fact that it can be a time waster. But I have gotten to meet at least a handful of people I have liked, and even ran across two men I went to high school with!

When I first started online dating, I took it seriously and had some good success. But as time went on, I didn't pay attention to it, and started having less great results. I guess like anything, if you put some effort into it, it may pay off.

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I really like this template for my blog. It has called "harbor." I love the water, boats, lighthouses, and harbors, so just looking at this makes me feel peaceful.

1/4 of a Fourth

I am feeling a little frustrated tonight, as I don't really feel like I had a Fourth of July. I am visiting my sister and her family, and we did have a great dinner outside (grilled steak and portobello mushrooms---yum!) and I did get to light about 4 sparklers, but that was the extent of my 4th. I like to see fireworks or do something special connected to the fourth, but nobody else seemed to want to do that. Sooooo, I feel kind of bummed and down about that. But I guess another year will bring more Fourth of July festivities.

Law and Order: Stupid Administration Unit

I really think there should be a new television show: Law and Order: Stupid Administration Unit that explores all the corrupt and just plain stupid acts the president and his administration seem to do on a regular basis. I will get back to that in a minute.

In typical fashion, I left on my trip to visit my sister in Virginia much later than planned. Didn't leave the house until almost 11 a.m., which put me here in Charlottesville at midnight. I made a couple of stops along the way, which made the trip longer.

I spent most of the trip listening to torts tapes. Why in the world did I do that? I had torts three years ago. I wanted to listen to the tapes because I am taking the bar exam in a year, and I need a refresher. If I don't do that refresher now, once school starts again, there will be no chance. I'll be caught up in all the 4th year classes, and the refresher idea will go out the window. It is amazing how much easier it is to understand torts now when you have two more years of law school under your belt. As a first year, it was overwhelming and confusing. I really think that torts is one of the most interesting subjects--covering everything from med mal to slip and fall cases. One of the most hilarious cases I remember from torts class was one we called "Stirring the Shit." It was about this subdivision which contained a small lake that got polluted from sewage from the homes. It was discovered that if someone drove a boat everyday in the lake, and stirred up the sewage, it wouldn't smell. That was a fun night in class. We said that driving that boat would have to be one of the worst jobs in the world.

In between the tapes in the car, I took a radio breather. A lot of the news was about Scooter Libby. I heard some interesting things, including that one of the reasons the president probably commuted Libby's sentence was so he wouldn't turn on Bush and Cheney and spill the beans on them. I wouldn't doubt this for one minute.

Exhaustion Rules (Again)

Here it is early July, and I still feel exhausted from law school finals. I work full time and go to night law school, and rarely get more than 5 hours of sleep a night during the school year. So my sleep deficit is huge! The problem tonight is that I am going on a road trip tomorow (going up through the Shenandoah Valley, and I have not packed yet. I also have a few chores to do before I leave. But I am so tired now, I am tempted to go on to bed and do all of this in the morning. But then I will get started later than I want, and with the nine hour drive, will arrive at my destination once again hours after I want to.

But I guess that is what I will have to do. If I don't go to bed soon, I will fall asleep at my computerzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............

Culture Through Coffee

I just joined Technorati, and I am excited. The first step to making this blog really live, I think. I want to use this blog to explore my switch in careers, my experiences in going to night law school, and just maintaining a personal life! So a little bit of everything will be thrown in here.

Today I met my Taiwanese language partner for breakfast. We were paired up at the business school we both used to be affiliated with, and for nearly two years we have been meeting at least once a week for coffee, and sometimes a meal. We both signed up for a program that paired native and non native English speakers to let the students practice their English and more importantly to learn American slang. It turns out that many of them know formal English but would get stymied when they were out and about and someone threw slang at them, such as a server in a fast food restaurant. They would not understand what was being said to them. So learning slang and American popular culture is part of the goal.

I really have enjoyed getting to know my partner and being involved in this. At first, I was worried I wouldn't have enough to offer an international business student (I was a staff member at the business school), but we quickly fell into a nice routine. It turned out we were one of the more successful pairings. I also benefitted from our get-togethers. I didn't attempt to learn Mandarin Chinese in the time we were together, but she did tell me about Taiwanese customs and lifestyle. We will only get to meet one more time before she moves to New York City for her new job. I will really miss her, but she has invited me to come visit her and I definitely will!

I think doing things like this is good for a career in business. Many people seem to be afraid or dislike globalization, but I think it is exciting.