Day 1380: Twenty-six weeks and counting
Check-in:
Spirituality! Better this week. So much better. I have so much room for improvement, but this week was good. I was steady on scripture study, and also I took myself off to the temple (with family names no less!) for the first time in forever, but I am pretty lame about praying unless my husband reminds me. Gotta get better at that.
Fitness! Hahahahahaha what's that? Nope. I mean, I am doing pretty well at taking the stairs, and I walk when the weather is nice, and for the most part I get my stand hours every day, but I had no dance class this week, and also there were some pretty darn cold days, so I spent a lot of time curled up on the couch with Dingo instead of walking Dingo.
Tidiness! Better, if only because my husband went on a couple of minor cleaning sprees and I went to some efforts to maintain what he'd done. The dogs continue to chew bottles and cans because they like those as toys, so trying to keep after that detritus is a chore, but I try. I have discovered that even though bending down hurts crouching down doesn't, so I can still pick stuff up off the floor. Someone suggested one of those claw grabber things and I am still liking that idea.
The Good:
This week was my birthday! I mean, I worked like thirteen hours on that day, and the day started with a boring trial, but my coworkers decorated my office super cute, and I got to open my presents, and people sent kind messages, and my husband cooked dinner that night. Also my niece and nephew called and sang me happy birthday, and that was incredibly sweet.
The day after my birthday was a full day of court, but my friends and I went to a 2Cellos concert. Joh McLaughlin opened, and I'd listen to just that guy and a piano forever. Seriously. I would. He was so good. And of course 2Cellos themselves were awesome. We had an amazing time. Went for Greek food first, as tradition dictates, and then the concert. The encore included a cover of Hurt and also Hallelujah, and I nearly cried. So good.
Friday night Cody and I had dinner with my bio aunt and uncle. Food was amazing, conversation was amazing, and my aunt gave us a buko pie to go after, which was super fun.
Saturday was a pretty chill day, mostly in the lab getting studying done while Cody continued to work on his dissertation (which is due next Monday). Sunday was also a good day. Went to church, had good discussions. Had dinner with our neighbor. Also we went to watch the fights with Cody's younger brother and his girlfriend (she and I are now friends on Pokemon Go). The fights were pretty good, so we had a good time!
Today was also a chill day. Granted, I'd slept horribly the night before so I woke up late and I was pretty slow, but I got good things done, like laundry and study and some writing things. And also reading. I started rereading one of my favorite books from my teen years, and I am pleasantly surprised that I still like it! (It's kind of sad, when you reread an old book you once loved and discover that it's not as good as you thought it was.)
I about had a heart attack when the doorbell rang and, after Cody and I corralled the dogs, the lady on the doorstep turned out to be the stepmother of a child I once represented. But she had brought cookies so I invited her in to talk. Between me not having my glasses on (we'd been having a nap) and not being super coherent, it took about twenty minutes of me silently panicking during our conversation to figure out that she knew where I live because she's in m ward now. But we had a long conversation, and it was surprising but good to hear that even though my client hasn't succeeded so far, she (the stepmother) benefited from the services the state had her participate in, and she's in a much better place. Even though it's my job to advocate for children, it's good to hear that my work can sometimes influence lives for the better, even if not for the children.
Also the cookies she brought were tasty.
Also...my favorite K-pop band had its first comeback of the year. Complete with awesome music video. Good times. And Cody and I have started the new season of Forged in Fire, which is fun.
The Bad:
Oh man court this week. Two trials in two days, both short because parents just...didn't show up. Like some parents do. Of course, we lawyers still had to do our dog and pony show, but still. Court was long and kind of crazy. Teenage boys gave me attitude. I had a chat with one boy, and when we went in front of the judge, the judge said almost verbatim the same thing I'd said to my boy, and the boy turned to me, wide-eyed, like I'd planned the whole thing.
Another boy threw a hissy fit because I told him he probably wasn't going to go home to his mother that day. Why? he asked. Because you keep endangering yourself with poor choices, like using drugs, I said.
The next day he dropped acid at school and had to be rushed to the ER because he was tripping so bad and they thought the drugs were cut with something else.
There was some vicious cold weather this week, some crazy snow. After dinner with my aunt and uncle on Friday night the drive home was just...terrifying. I white-knuckled it almost the entire way, and my head and neck were sore from squinting through the blowing snow. So I made my husband drive the next time we went north...and of course there was barely any snow.
The alarm went off at work, and it was loud and annoying. And took forever to get shut off.
An old case came back with the same dysfunctional parents and another brand new baby. I am not taking that case despite having represented the older sibling. I am okay with that. My numbers are climbing and it would be nice if they would stop.
I am making progress on paperwork to get licensed in New York, but that whole moving thing continues to be painful and daunting. But three people have expressed interest in buying our house - a complete stranger, one of my friends, and someone my husband knows from church. It's going to be a bit dizzy.
Cody is on his last week of working on his dissertation and is tired and stressed. I am about into my last trimester and that whole sleeping badly thing is coming at me full force. And I have court at 8AM tomorrow oh joy.
But we will survive and prevail, because we always do.
Here goes.