Day 252

So, for awhile now I've been wanting to write the story of how Rick and I met.  I've been inspired by the Pioneer Woman who blogged her story and then got a book deal. haha

It all started back in the Spring of 2003.  I was about to graduate from K-state with a degree in Psychology.  The only thing to do with a degree like that is go to graduate school, and I knew that at some point I wanted to try out law school.  But before I dropped $100,000 to go back to school, I wanted to be sure that was what I wanted to do.  So, I set out to get a job in a law firm… easier said than done.  About a week before graduation, after many sleepless nights fretting about my future, I got an offer through AmeriCorp to work in a legal aid office in Champaign Illinois.  I was thrilled, because my other goal after graduation was to get the heck out of Dodge... Kansas, so I signed on to start in August and settled in to enjoy a carefree summer with my friends.

As August got closer the enormity of my decision to move 500 miles away from everyone I knew began to sink in.  I may have had a small panic attack and seriously considered backing out.  I’d signed a lease to live with three other girls, whom I’d never met, and we had been emailing over the summer.  They seemed nice, but they weren’t the best friends and family I was leaving back in Kansas.  

The night I moved into my apartment in Champaign, my roommate Cindy invited me out for drinks with her sister.  We went to a bar called Cowboy Monkey that had an outdoor patio where you could watch all the passersby.  As we sipped our drinks we covered all the get-to-know-you basics.  At one point a tall red-head waved hello to Cindy as he passed us on the sidewalk.  He stopped to chat and before I knew it he was asking, “So, what’s your story?”  I briefly explained my new job and cross-state move; we exchanged nice-to-meet-you’s and he went on his way.  Cindy later explained that they had met in college when their houses had social events together.  I didn’t think much of the meeting...I was just excited to be out for drinks on my first night in town.

Day 251

Tonight I headed over to KC to spend some quality time with my sister and see Water for Elephants with her and a friend.

The movie was really good and definitely did the book justice.  Ever since My Sister's Keeper... where they killed off the wrong girl... I'm scarred on books being made into movies.  Talk about taking creative liberties. geez.  Anyway, Water for Elephants was pretty true to the book and really good.  Although, I still don't get the Robert Pattinson obsession.

Anyway, about 20 minutes into the movie a lady down the row from us turned around and flipped out hushing this guy in the row behind us.  I hadn't really noticed before but this guy was basically translating the movie.  You'd think 'sshhh' would be universal, but this guy just couldn't stop.  At one point I turned around and he was waving an imaginary knife around just like the guy in the movie, while frantically whispering to his wife/mother.

Afterward, in the parking lot we saw the chatty couple and the man was like 10 feet ahead of his wife/mother walking to the car.  You'd think if he was willing to translate the whole movie for her, he'd be willing to walk a little slower in the parking lot for her... guess not.

Now I remember why I don't like going to the movies.  With Rick's giant tv there's really no reason haha

day 250

These arrived for me in the mail today. 32 pounds of bar review books. Can't wait for this summer. It's going to be awesome.

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Day 249

Last day of law school classes... and all classes... EVER!!

One settlement agreement stands between me and graduation.  Although, it's really not that exciting because then I just have to study for the bar all summer... boooo!

Day 248

We're moving back to Champaign!

After a really, really long wait we've finally made a decision.  We're sure that everyone thinks we're crazy for not moving to Southern California... who doesn't want to move to Southern California?  But it's really just not us, and we know that Champaign is the right choice for us at this point.

Our kids will probably read this someday and hate us for making them live in Illinois instead of California.  But, we made a pact to re-evaluate everything in 2 years and if we want to move or we're sick of Champaign then we'll make it happen and move somewhere new.

Day 247

Today class was a little boring, so Christina and I decided to see if we could list all 50 states and capitols.  Waaaaay easier said than done.  I managed to list all 50 states but it took me awhile.  I tried to go across the country from West to East, but things got a little iffy around Ohio.  The Northeast is tricky, and for some reason I forgot Mississippi.  Apparently, I'm terrible at capitols.  For the life of me I couldn't think of the capitol of Maine.  I couldn't think of a single city in Maine and I've been to Maine on vacation.  Ridiculous.

I looked up a map after class, and now I just feel dumb for not knowing so many.

I have a serious case of senioritis.  Good thing tomorrow is my last day of class. EVER.

Day 246

Rick found out last week while he was in San Diego that his Utah Flight Test was back on again.  Lame.  This trip has been the bane of my existence for about 6 months now.  It was supposed to happen over Christmas break but got pushed back, then over spring break and again got pushed back.  Then it was canceled because the apparently changed all its regulations between last year and this year.  And now, somehow, a colonel or general in the army who's a buddy of the professor has made sure it is happening.  So annoying.

Poor Rick had to work on getting ready for it all weekend after a crazy trip to CA and being sick on top of it all.  The only good part is that they have to be out by May 1, so they'll only be down there for 1.5 weeks instead of 3.  Rick keeps telling me it was never going to be 3 weeks, but I swear it was at one point.  It's hard to keep track of all of it when it changes every other day.

Anyway, I'll be glad when this trip is over and Rick is back for good.  I feel like I've barely seen him all week.

Day 245

After our two late nights out on the town  and a crazy week Rick and I were ready for a relaxing night at home.  We decided to order Chinese.  Chinese food has been an ongoing adventure for us in Lawrence and haven't been able to find a place we really like... still.

When we lived in Champaign we always got Chinese from this place called Number One Wok.  It was so good, with huge servings and cheap prices.  There menu was literally 2 feet long with a million choices.  Every time we went in there the cooks would be watching asian cartoons on this little tv in the back.  We always forgot to order ahead so we'd end up watching them too while we waited for our food.

The other night one of my friends recommended the China House to us here in Lawrence, so we decided to check it out.  It was literally the Lawrence version of Number One Wok.  Same menu, same pictures of the food, everything.  The only thing they were missing was the asian cartoons.   It was bizarre how much a like they were.

While we were both pretty pumped to have found some good chinese, we were also mad it took us so long and now that we're moving in  a month we've finally found a good place.

Day 244

Rick got two official job offers today!  One from General Atomics and one from Frasca.  He's already managed to talk Frasca up $3,000 on their offer.  He's such a good haggler, I will never buy anything in Mexico without him haha

I'm so proud of him!  Now we just have to make a decision.

I'm really ready to get my bar application done, and start my own job search.  Hopefully it's half as successful as his.

Day 243

Tonight Rick and I went to a concert/show at the Bottleneck.  It was with Justin Townes Earle and James Nash.  We bought a CD from James Nash and I accidentally called him James Cash (not to his face, to the lady working the CD table) and felt really dumb.  I'm not sure she actually heard me, though, because it was really loud.  Whew.  I'm totally not into the whole 'show' scene but Rick loves to go and he especially loves Justin Townes Earle, so I agreed to go.  I like to think Rick is good at making me expand my interests and try new things :)

Here are some pictures from the show.  My camera work was less than perfect.  I didn't manage to catch a picture of the guy dressed like Huckleberry Finn.  Rick said that Justin Townes Earle is getting really popular with the hipster crowd and that guy was probably being ironic (because that's what hipsters do)... not sure how dressing like Huck Finn is ironic, but Rick's the expert on this stuff.

Day 242

Tonight Rick and I received what I think is one of the best compliments ever.  Our friend Karen told us she never feels like the 3rd wheel with us.  Seriously, I think that's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.  Maybe that's weird, but whatev.   I'm just happy to know we aren't that annoying-can't-keep-their-hands-off-each-other-you're-the-only-person-in-the-room couple.

So, happy 8 month anniversary to us... the cool couple.

Day 241

While Rick is in San Diego I did a little sleep experiment.  I swear that Rick is constantly yanking our sheet untucked or sleep-kicking it all the way down to the floor.  He thinks it's me doing it.

So, here is a picture of our bed after a night of us both sleeping in it.

And here is a picture after a night of just me sleeping in it.  I swear I didn't adjust the covers or anything.

What you can't tell from the pictures is that in the first one the sheet is twisted into a rope right up the middle of the bed, and in the second one it is perfectly in line with the duvet.  When I woke up this morning I thought I had kicked the sheet off because I couldn't really feel it, but then I realized I couldn't feel it because it wasn't all knotted up haha.  So, I've proven my point.  Rick is the sheet kicker/twister/yanker.

Day 240

Rick headed to San Diahgo, CA this morning for his interview with General Atomics.  He called me as he was leaving the airport in his rental car and we had the following conversation:

Rick: "Wow I don't know how I feel about this, there are people everywhere and everyone drives like an idiot.  I'm not sure I'm even allowed to talk on a phone while I'm driving in this state."

Jessie: "Am I on speaker?"

Rick: "No, I haven't hooked my phone up to the Sync yet. My phone is dying, so I plugged in, but my charger sucks, so I have to keep one hand on the cord to keep it charging anyway.  Between that and the GPS I'm not paying any attention to my driving... I'm a real Californian!!!"

I'm worried.

Day 239

While Rick was busy cycling and helping a friend pick up wood from Home Depot I was inspired to clean out our garage.  Part of the cleaning included cleaning out the mini fridge my mom left in our garage when she cleaned out Tristan's apartment before Christmas.  It was nasty, with some pretty serious black mold growing inside.

After some serious bleach action and a little rearranging, we have a new beer fridge!  (oh the irony haha)

Rick has accepted this as a challenge to fill the beer fridge and any remaining space in our regular fridge with beer.  This might have been a huge mistake.

Day 238

Well last night was fun!

Tom and Libby paid us a visit and we showed them a good time.  After dinner at the Salty Iguana we headed back to our place to enjoy the nice weather on the patio.  The boys proceeded to drink almost every single beer in our fridge.  Meanwhile Libby and I managed to polish off massive quantities of wine and befriend our neighbors cat Trixi/Harold.  Apparently, Trixi/Harold is new to the neighborhood and she enjoys doing laps through our patio.  She's sneaky.

We finished off the night with some rousing rounds of P&A.  Libby was President for the first time ever, with a little help from Tom.  The night ended when Tom disappeared for an extended period under the ruse of going to the bathroom.  Somewhere along the way he fell asleep on the bed, but claimed it was an accident.

Spangles is the cure for all hangovers, so we hit up Rene for breakfast the next morning.

Day 237

Well today may become one for the record books.  If Congress can't reach an agreement on the budget by midnight tonight the whole federal government is going to shut down.  Apparently this happened before, back in 1995, for 20 days, but I was only 10 then and it apparently had no affect on me worth remembering.  I doubt it will have much of an affect on me this time either, unless it lasts a really long time.  Unfortunately, I think we'll still have to file our taxes and Bar exams are run by the state, so no luck there.

It will affect a lot of other people, though.  People who work for the government and just won't get paid.  How crappy is that.  Not to mention the Congressmen who are causing this problem, will continue to be paid.  Glad they could agree on that stipulation.

CNN.com has articles on why the government shutting down can make your day and why it can ruin your day haha.  The 'make your day' reasons really aren't that great.  One of them is "no one will be auditing your taxes"  Well, ya, maybe they aren't right now, but I'm pretty sure if you were going to be audited they will track you down ASAP as soon as things are up and running again.

Hopefully, they can get things worked out.  This country has enough problems as it is, we don't need to create more for ourselves.

Day 236

The Reelz Channel, which is one of the random channels we get, is showing this special series on The Kennedys this week.  I have a minor obsession with them and have read a lot of books about their family.  They're just all so interesting with their huge families and tragic deaths.  It's been on for at least an hour every night this week, and Rick has been kindly obliging me in watching it all.

This mini-series was originally supposed to be on the History Channel but apparently got dumped bc it wasn't very good.  And I'll agree that the acting is sub-par.  Jackie and Rose have really weird accents.  And every time JFK makes some big command decision as president he phrases it like a question.  Are you sure about that Mr. President?

All in all it's been pretty interesting.  I never realized how many big historical events happened during his presidency... Cuban Missile Crisis, the riots at Ole Miss over desegregation.  So, if nothing else it's been a good history lesson review.

Day 235

It occurred to me tonight that my time with my law school friends is quickly coming to an end.  In just a little over a month we'll all be heading off to our various bar review courses... Iowa, Illinois, Texas, California, Colorado and a few will stay in Kansas.

As excited as I am for this next chapter in our lives, I'm going to miss them all.  I'll miss our nerdy law school conversations and jokes that no one but us thinks are funny.  Although, I suppose/hope I'll make new lawyer friends wherever we end up that can also make those jokes.

We'll definitely need to plan a reunion and visits.  I suppose that's one positive about everyone splitting up, I'll know people all over the place that I can go visit.

Day 234

We get some real characters in legal aid...
It's always interesting when we have a docket and they all get together.  Some of the most memorable characters have been:
- the man who brought his 7 foot long walking/rain stick into the court room.  (pretty sure that qualifies as a weapon)
- a cross dressing client
- a client who told the judge he couldn't afford a belt to hold up his baggy pants, and the judge told him to go to good will
- another fashion challenged client who work ripped up holey jeans and got kicked out of court
- two clients who were dating and both had 3 kids and declared themselves the "modern day brady bunch"
- the girl who laughed at everything that happened in the most boring docket ever and repeatedly flipped off the judge behind her hand

Day 233

One of my favorite past times is scoping out our neighbors and seeing what they're up to.  I like to try to figure out their lives, who they are and what they do.  Rick makes fun of me.

Anyway, this morning  I was sitting in the living room when I heard a loud beeping like a big truck backing up.  I knew it wasn't trash day, so I peeked out the front window and saw an ambulance across the street.  Then a police car and a fire truck showed up.  That's a lot of action for our little cul-de-sac.  Anyway, when the paramedics got out the man who lives in that house came out and was talking to them. I thought it was weird that he didn't look upset at all.  I would think that if things were bad enough to call an ambulance he'd be more upset... guess not.  About 20 minutes later they wheeled out a little old lady on the stretcher.  She was sitting up, so I think that means she's not dead and it looked like she was breathing okay and everything. I've never seen this lady before, so I can only assume that she hasn't been in good health for awhile and maybe that's why her husband/son wasn't upset?  He didn't even ride with her to the hospital!  I thought maybe he was going to follow in his car, but he just went back inside and closed the door when they left.  weird.

So, that was my eventful morning.  The most exciting part might have been watching the ambulance, the fire truck and the police car all try to maneuver their way back out of the cul-de-sac haha  They had like three firefighters out directing traffic.

Day 232

Yesterday, Rick and I spent an entire afternoon looking at houses in Champaign and researching everything there is to read about getting a mortgage.  We realized that if we end up in Champaign, we should definitely buy a house because our mortgage payment would be really close to what we're paying in rent now and it's just silly to basically throw that money away when we could be investing it.

This is SO EXCITING!  The thought that we could own our very own house in less than a few months is amazing.  I'm so, so ready to have somewhere that is really our own home.  I almost feel like that is something I've never had since my parent's got divorced when I was 6 and after that it was always "mom's house" and "dad's house" never home.  And since I've gone to college, almost 8 years ago, I've lived in a different house every year, sometimes more than one in a year.  So to say that I'm excited to have a place to call home and not have to pack up my stuff in 11.5 months is the understatement of the year.

Day 231

When Rick and I first started dating he was appalled at some of the movies I had never seen.  So appalled that he started a list on his iPhone called "Movies Jessie needs to see".
The list included:
- Lord of the Rings (all 3)
- Star Wars (select ones)
- The Karate Kid (the original one)
- The Big Lebowski
- Indiana Jones (again, select ones)

I'm sure there were more, but that's all I can remember.  It's pretty obvious from this list that my movie tastes did not branch far beyond 'romantic comedy'.  What can I say I'm a pretty girly girl and for the last 6 years or so I've lived only in houses of girls.

Anyway, I can now proudly say that I have seen all of the movies on that list, some more than once much to my chagrin (Big Lebowski?).  And I actually liked all of them.  I'm still not sure I would ever read the Lord of the Rings books, but the movies were really good.  I think Rick was impressed with my ability to remember all of their weird names.

It should also be noted that while I was a good sport and watched all of these movies with him, when I tried to make him watch Pride and Prejudice he was such a bad sport that I had to turn it off half way through.

Day 230

April Fools!
Well neither Rick or I played any tricks today.  We had a good one planned, but it ended up not working out.  We were going to have some people over before this dinner we had tonight to try Rick's new brews.  We were going to mix up some nasty concoction and cap it in a beer bottle and pretend it was his newest beer.  Unfortunately everyone was running behind and didn't make it over.

When Libby and I were little we used to mix up the grossest combination of things we could find in the fridge and make our dad drink it haha.

Anyway, on the upside neither of us got 'fooled' either.  Almost every year my dad calls and tries to trick us all, but he must think we're getting too smart (or too old) for that.