Surprise! I still know how to type (she says as she makes a typo)

After nearly three months of not posting, I figure this post will be surprise morsel for the ever-faithful who continue to check back in hopes that I'll eventually get off my robust ass and post something.

The working part of the summer is more than half over for me. It's been a great time so far--Firm #1 was an absolutely awesome experience, and I was a little (okay, a lot) homesick for it during the first week at Firm #2. Thankfully, by Friday of my first week at F2 I felt more in the swing of things. Maybe it's just this particular legal market, but the cautionary rants about how soul-sucking summers are in the firms have turned out to be the total hogwash I thought they were. Everyone I've worked with has been brilliant, insightful, gracious, and completely willing to talk to me about anything I have on my mind. There's an awful lot of food, which is all fab except for the 10lbs or so I've managed to keep with me somewhere south of my ribcage. What little freetime I have has recently been consumed with various forms of working out in a valiant attempt to combat the summer spread. The work is really interesting, though if one hated their legal writing class it would probably seem like hell, since research and memos of various forms seem to make up much of the work landscape in summer associate land. Eh, I think it's great, and I now know an alarming amount of information about things like Sarbanes-Oxley's application to non-profits, states that have abolished the Rule Against Perpetuities, franchise taxes in Nevada, the newly revised Texas Workers' Comp legislation, Roth 401(k) contributions, and whether or not a contract can be considered an amortizable intangible according to section 197 of the internal revenue code. And, you know, some other stuff, too. It's a little scary to move to a new section and, upon meeting a partner therein, see a copy of a memo you wrote in another section on that partner's desk. This happened when I went to tax at F1--I put together an overview of the most common ways the non-profit sector has held itself to the standards set forth in Sarbanes-Oxley, and the tax partner had requested a copy after hearing about it and deciding it would be good to read since one of his clients (a non-profit entity) was making SarBox noises. Kind of cool, but kind of anxiety-producing, too. It's not that I didn't think they'd use our work for real purposes...except I totally thought they wouldn't. But anyway.

J comes to see me next week, and I can't wait! There are so many places in this city I want to take him that it has been an ongoing dilemma as to how I can boil it all down into 2.5 days. Well, that's not quite accurate--I'm not trying to show the *whole* city, just some really great highlights in an effort to showcase this town as a great place to live...because it actually is. It's funny, I had to go to a year of law school and come back to really get that, but this is a great city. Hopefully, I'll fine tune the weekend's plans this week and my careful orchestrations will pay off!

Oh, for the skin-challenged, I highly recommend checking out the fine folks at Mario Badescu. There's a spot on their website where you can fill out a questionnaire about your skin and (eventually) they'll send you samples of a bunch of their stuff. I was so impressed with the products they sent me I ordered almost all of it. And let me just say, the Drying Lotion? Fucking miracle at making zits go away overnight. Gone. Done. No drama. The cleanser smells so good I want to eat it. And considering how the prices of the better drugstore brands have increased in the past few years, the prices are pretty reasonable. The bottle of cleanser I bought is pretty big (8oz) and was $12. Summer here usually makes my skin a wretched mess, but my skin has never looked so good. I suppose the short version would be that I? Am a big fan.

Speaking of skin...I got a facial during F1's all-firm weekend. It was sooo nice, up until the woman started the "extractions" portion. It was uncanny how this very nice woman with very nice hands could go from someone I would describe with fond words to someone I would kick upon sight in a matter of minutes. There was a cloth over my eyes, theoretically so I wouldn't go blind from the spotlight she shone on my face (the better to see lurking pore-gunk, my dear!), but I think it was more so I couldn't see what was coming. If you can take a minute and think what it would feel like to have someone jab you in the face with a knitting needle, or perhaps a corkscrew, that's pretty much what it was like. The only thing worse than the right cheek was the pregnant moment before she started in on the left cheek, because I knew what was coming. Yikes. I did, however, greatly enjoy playing in all the relaxation pools and stuff that was part of the spa. The disposable swimsuit was too weird too pass up, and though I'm glad there was no one else to witness it, I had a blast romping around in the whirlpool while wearing it.

And so it goes...hopefully with less time until my next post!