Oddities

I learned tonight that the reason my "Love Actually" CD won't play in my car is that I had the soundtrack and movie discs mixed up--I've been trying to play a movie in the car's CD player.

Friday night, I attending the Ben Folds/John Mayer concert with a friend (she procured our tickets from what turned out to be a 15 year old John Mayer Fan Club member whose grandmother drove him to the ticket/money exchange point, a Barnes and Noble). The combination of our semi-late arrival (near the end of Ben Folds' warmup act), Shiner Bock beer drinking, swooning over JM and blaring of a John Mayer CD in my top-down car while waiting for parking lot traffic to clear out afterward all added up to me feeling about 20 years younger. I'll let you decide if that was a good thing or not. It felt good to me!

As did the Cubs' sweep of the Chicago White Sox this weekend. Always a good thing!

In sad baseball news, Rod Beck, who is a part of Cubs pitching lore, died this weekend at age 38. I last saw him when he threw out the first pitch and sang "Take me out to the ballgame" at the Cubs/Giants game on my birthday last year. His untimely death is sad, as he was by all accounts not just a great baseball player, but also a great human being.



Downtown Dallas Sky, Last week, by Me

Sorry, I forgot to tell you.

In addition to fulfilling the duties of my full-time job and my civil rights volunteer work, this week I am very busy with a second job of attending Chicago Cubs baseball games. Yes, the Cubs are playing in Dallas, for the first time ever!

And I have had a glimpse of what my life would be like if I lived in Chicago and attended a Cubs game each and every day they were in town. Except that in Chicago I could take public transportation to the very handy ballpark, while in Dallas, I have to allow at least an hour to travel to the game via a soul-sucking, packed and slow highway.

My dinner for two nights running has consisted of a hot dog and peanuts. So far, the Cubs have won one game and lost the other, and I witnessed history last night when Sammy Sosa hit his 600th home run.

The third and final game is this afternoon. I have a million and two pictures to post for you, of the Cubs and Seattle and even going back to my May trip to New York. Soon, my friends, soon!

Seattle Skyline, From Boat

Mount Rainier, from Airplane

Loving Seattle so far . . . more words and pictures soon!

Freddie Visits Per Se

I am enjoying playing with my new Adobe Photoshop program. This is an example of the "watercolor" function.

Soon I will have a link ready so you can see other photos from my May trip to New York. I figured it was about time, as I leave this week for another trip, this one to Seattle.

Until then, check out Nina's fabulous pictures and excellent writing about Norway. (Via Althouse)

Panic

Tonight I am experiencing a full-blown case of panic. It is a non-specific panic, so I do not know the exact cause of it. I'm going to lean on my experience, which tells me things always look better in the morning. Here's hoping it is true!

A Reminder

I've been feeling pretty down on myself lately, mostly due to the aforementioned malaise that prevented me from accomplishing much over the last few weeks. But some nice things have happened recently. They serve as small but powerful reminders of why I do what I do.

Perhaps my favorite was last week, when a client for whom I fought long and hard in an intense business dispute, ultimately obtaining a very favorable result, called to tell me he has sold his business. It was bittersweet news: this was his family's business and the only career he has ever known. This client is among the nicest I have ever known . . . he is both kind-hearted and an excellent businessman, and unusual combination. Anyway, I was touched that he called and pleased have the chance to talk it over with him.

Today, a different client honored me with an invitation to a very small gathering of the primary lawyers his company uses nationwide. I won't go into it in detail here, but suffice it to say that his decision to include me is both professionally and personally meaningful to me, and I am proud.

The point of this post isn't to brag about myself . . . far from it. Rather, I wanted to acknowledge that no state of being is forever, that circumstances are forever changing and that there is always a chance for things to get better. You just never know what will be around that bend in the road.

A Little Legal Laugh and other Tidbits

I found this post, by Galveston County Judge Susan Criss, well worth a giggle. Maybe this is what Paul Harvey means by "the rest of the story." Via Susan at Kiss My Big Blue Butt (worth a look as well).

In other news, do you know these 100 words? Via Kottke.

Finally, a nominee for most annoying homeowner occurrence: Yesterday, the locksmith company tells you they will be at your house at 7am today. Today (at 8am), they tell you their locksmiths don't begin work until 8am and that yours is on another job, but will be at your house soon. Sleep is precious to me. I do not give it up willingly. I was awake at 5am today because I knew I had to be up and ready for the day when the locksmith arrived and was afraid if I went back to sleep, I would miss the appointment. I canceled and will call a company that doesn't lie tomorrow. ARGH.

UPDATE: If you click here, you will see that even people in Asia are wondering "how Bush won." This search brought the searcher to my blog.

Happy Friday, people! And eat your bananas.