Been awhile

So it has been so long since I last posted, I forgot my password and had to get a new one. Oops. Since I last posted, I attended the NBA All-Star game, went to Las Vegas for my birthday, hosted Lauren in Lamesa, visited Austin and Arlington multiple times, reread the Harry Potter series, pre-ordered the third Lisbeth Salander book from UK Amazon (which did not work like I'd hoped...they still just sent it today even though it has thousands more miles to travel to get to me than someone who's actually IN the UK...boo hiss), downloaded Words with Friends on my phone (further feeding my word game obsession), purchased additional books and music, pissed off the judge in a big way while doing what my boss told me to do, met Tony's girlfriend, apparently developed allergies to some thing or things in River Legacy Park in Arlington, saw Spring Awakening in Dallas, spoke at the Christian Women's Job Corps about law, specifically wills and child-custody stuff (for which I am completely unsuitable but probably the best they could get in Lamesa, and the only attorney in town within 20 years of the audience's average age), and will this weekend host Beth and Echo during their west Texas adventure.

Life on the job front is pretty much the same: still no trials, I do research and plea offers. There's going to be an intern working for the judge this summer. He goes to Texas Wesleyan but is hoping to transfer to Tech because he's from Loop, one of the even-tinier-than-Lamesa towns in my district. On the one hand I'm excited because he's a not-married, under-40, doesn't-have-kid(s) person like me, and unlike everyone else I work with who are all some combination of at least two of those factors, but on the other hand all I can think is "you poor, innocent 1L...run while you still can! She will destroy any joy you once found in life!" I have to wonder how, out of all the literally hundreds of district courts in Texas, he ended up with the 106th. I know karma can be a bitch, but this guy must've killed a hooker and buried her in the desert or something to deserve interning for that woman for two months. Jeebus. She's like Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, except she's a vocal Republican with a bit of a Napoleon complex.

In other news, I've now watched the first three seasons of How I Met Your Mother, courtesy of Erin. Thanks for the loan, I'm officially a fan. I'm currently wondering how many times I can re-watch before returning the dvds. And it's not lame of me to do that, because I'm in Lamesa and there's nothing better to do. :)

Incidentally, if anyone happens to see Black Cherry Berry flavored tea (made by Celestial Seasonings) please tell me where I can find it. Thus far I've only found it as part of a multi-flavor pack of fruit teas, and I'm hoping it's sold in boxes on its own somewhere out there in real civilization.

That's all the random news I can think of...I'll try to be better about updating. Really.

Baby prosecutor school

I spent the last ten days in Austin. It was amazing and made me realize how much I miss living in a sprawling urban area, since I hadn't realized that already. I roomed with Katie M. during baby prosecutor school and was able to spend time with several other people from UH who have ended up in various DA's offices in Texas. (Special shout out to Alli and Farnaz.) I feel like it was useful but would have been more so if my office were more misdemeanor and more trial oriented. Oh well. I was able to spend two consecutive weekends with Kyle, which was nice. Jordan's wedding was fun but kind of surreal. I ended up spending most of the time hanging out with Dr. Latimore from Trinity, which was fun but it felt weird to attend a Catholic wedding mass while sitting next to a Baptist minister. One of my favorite parts of going to a wedding is just seeing how they do the wedding and reception, because every wedding is different. I'd never been to a Catholic wedding before, so it was interesting.

In other news, I'm eight episodes into re-watching season one of Glee, which is now officially a golden globe winner, for best comedy/musical. :) I can't think of anything else particularly exciting in my life, other than the fact that I bought a lamp and an end table while I was in Austin. Both are now assembled and in my living room. Woo.

Have a good week!

Lamesa reinforces negative stereotypes

So it's been just over a month since I last posted. I've been busy. Finished the Alias series yesterday. (courtesy of Kyle, who gave me the last two seasons for Christmas...go Kyle! :) ) I officially started training for the Frisco to Ft. Worth MS-150 taking place May 2-3. I'm really out of shape and my knees are mad at me. Here's hoping I can get my shit together on that one. Scout got spayed a week ago. Over Christmas week I visited Austin, Houston, Sugar Land, and Arlington, which added up to at least 1,200 miles driving. Why yes, I am hard core, thank you. I made a batch of chicken noodle soup for my co-workers that went (almost) completely unappreciated and uneaten. My coworkers discovered that I can be entertaining when I drink. (lowered inhibitions + an ex-wife named Velvet = what would you do?!?) Last but not least, I bought my plane ticket and reserved my room for Las Vegas for my/DK's birthday weekend. If you're reading this, you're implicitly invited.

I really wish I'd ended up in a place where I don't feel like the odd (wo)man out all the time. The other two attorneys are bff's who practically share a brain, and they and the two investigators are all former cops so they have a common background there, too. I am constantly trying to catch up or get the joke or allusion and find out days later things that they tell each other but seem to forget to tell me. Palm to face. I know I'm just bitching, and I'm sorry if this isn't as clever or amusing as I'd like, but I cannot wait to work at a place where I feel comfortable around the people and don't feel off-kilter all the time.

As for the title of this post:

• Apparently PHARMACISTS in west Texas can't read, like all rednecks, since the CVS pharmacist gave me the wrong amount of my prescription despite it being typed up by the doctor's office. Not hand-written, typed. Clever.
• Based on my co-workers, everyone in west Texas is conservative, Baptist or Methodist, homophobic, and expects a woman my age to be married with kids already. At our office Christmas party, the judge was shocked that I'm a good baker "and you don't even have children." Apparently you can't have one without the other here. F you.
• Mexican food is legit "eating healthy" food, including chips and salsa, enchiladas, and sour cream.
• We drive one block to go to court when we have docket in Lamesa. (Although, to be fair, since I wear heels to court, I selfishly kind of like this even though it's completely ridiculous.)
• Girls are inherently worse at math and science than boys. Seriously, this was said by two of my coworkers in conversation today (both women.) One of whom was an ACCOUNTING major in college. OH MY GAWD THEY'RE STILL IN 1950!!!
• I'm sure there's more gems, but these are all I can think of right now. This is probably the first in a series, though...

Have a good week, a happy new year, and may your coworkers be more enlightened than mine. *plunks head on desk in disgust*

Friends, Alias, and Emily

In reverse order...

Shout out to Emily Hatcher for a comment similar to that previously noted by DK regarding the lynch mob and my being outed as an Obama voter at work. (Incidentally, it seems rather inappropriate that the spell check on this blog still has a problem with the President's last name. It's like Kindles (c) not being able to pronounce "Barack Obama" in news articles a few months back...)

I decided today to restart the Alias series. I own the first three seasons, and I'm already on disk three of the first season. I have a friend here who owns all five seasons (Heather, Greg's wife) but it would be more fun if one of the owners of all five came to visit! (That's right, I'm talking to you, Emily and Elise!)

As to friends, it's really simple. I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH! My nickname at work is "Outta Town Katie" or OTK because I'm gone so much, but it's because when I'm here I'm bored out of my mind. As shown by the fact that this is my second blog post in less than 24 hours. Anyways, I am again encouraging everyone to come visit me so that I don't become like Bridget Jones (also watched both of those earlier today before starting Alias...I rest my case) and end up dying alone and eaten by a pack of wild dogs. Perhaps I'm being a bit melodramatic, but I LOVE hosting visitors if anyone feels like making the trek to Lamesa! I can offer a drive-in movie theater, a comprehensive if somewhat random tour of town that includes my official ADA office complete with diplomas on the wall, baked goods and home cooking, and Scout the delightful puppy.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY Zee end.

A Baby Changes Everything, or Let's Do a Rock Remix of Traditional Christmas Hymns

The tree all lit up at the end of the show.

The choir climbing up onto the Christmas tree.

As to the title of my post: today Sue gave me a ticket to a free show at Lamesa First Baptist. The show is called "A Baby Changes Everything" and is basically a musical theater synopsis of the Christmas story. The following is my review of the performance. It was okay. Mostly the singing was good, but it was distracting to have the residents and visitors to Bethlehem speaking in a west Texas drawl. In terms of acoustics, the sound was good and the choir sang well, singing along to a cd of the instrumental accompaniment. At one point there was a brief cello solo in the recording, and I waxed nostalgic for the days of Christmas concerts in orchestra. In my opinion, however, the best part of the show was actually part of the set. Odessa Baptist loaned the church a 32' 5" Christmas tree set piece on whose tiers stood 66 members of the choir (I counted...twice). There were several additional members on the floor, in addition to characters singing, making a total of (by my count) 77 vocal performances, but I digress. The super tall Christmas tree was not only tall and tiered, it was LIT UP in an outline of a tree on the sides, and the front of each tier had blinking red, orange, green, blue, and white lights that turned on and off and blinked in time to the music. Whoever was doing that (probably preset to the music and run by computer) was much more impressive than the person running the spotlights. I saw better following by tech theater at my high school. However, it was an enjoyable show and better than just staying home all evening, which was my alternative. (Although it didn't save the whole evening...I'm posting this at 9 pm on a Friday night. Lamesa is lame.) Overall, I give the show a B, and that might be higher if I weren't a big city girl with high expectations for theatrical performances. :)

As to work: This was kind of a big week for me. We had docket Monday through Thursday, once in each county, and two of them were just me in the courtroom. Wednesday Greg was running grand jury and Thursday I was totally on my own, running a Gaines County felony docket. This may or may not sound impressive, but it was six pages of cases, four pleas, one crazy judge, and a partridge in a pear tree. In any case, I'm proud of myself. Next week I may be running grand jury in Gaines County, depending on what Brian has going on that day. TBD.

In other news, Scout had her last round of shots at the vet yesterday, so she's good for the year. She's up to roughly 18.6 pounds, but she wouldn't sit still on the scale so that's merely an estimate. As time passes, I'm increasingly expecting her to look like a Shiba Inu, rather than a husky. We shall see.

Peace out, readers.

Out of the closet (as an Obama voter)

So pretty much my whole office (possibly excepting my boss, who wasn't in the room) now knows I voted for Obama. If I lived in any normal city in Texas, this would probably still make me in the minority at the DA's office, but it wouldn't be a big deal. Because I work in the 106th District, though, I'm probably the only liberal for something like 50 miles. (I'm guessing there's a few in Lubbock and Midland, since they both have universities...) Although, to be fair, I know there were at least SOME Obama voters in all four counties in our district, since I looked it up when Danielle was here a couple months ago. I sent a text to about a dozen people this evening saying something along the lines of "So today I was outed as an Obama voter" and I'm basically writing this entry to chronicle some of the responses:

"Oh dear" - DT

"Uh oh, no trial for you!" - MW

"Oh no. You still have a job?" - LN

"Uh oh... Will there be trouble now?" - AW

"Oh dear how did that go?" - KB

"Have you been tarred and feathered yet??" - KC

and my personal favorite:

"Is the lynch mob forming?" - DK

Funny side note: I told my mom "Today I was outed as an Obama voter" and either she didn't hear or didn't understand what I said, because she asked me what that meant. Sigh/<3

The Upsides and Downsides of BFE

I have Veterans Day off. Next year, no election day off thanks to the efforts of our judge who thinks Dawson County gives too many holidays, even though next year is when she's up for election. Short sighted? I think so.

With fewer stores to shop in, I don't spend as much money. (But then when I do go to civilization, I tend to overspend.)

I get visited by Jehovah's Witnesses. (Not sure if this is a positive or negative.)

I have a big yard for my puppy. However, Scout likes to dig, so my backyard now resembles a field used for testing small artillery.

Lubbock has a netflix distribution center, so I get new movies two days after the last one was returned.

Small town politics is similar to academia: the politics is so dirty because the stakes are so low. Example: our district judge tries to control what the DA's office and all the county and JP judges do. It's annoying, to put it kindly.

I'm much quieter here than I think I have ever been before, because I spend so much time biting my tongue. It's an interesting experience, being surrounded by religious conservative Republicans.

However, being surrounded by Bible-quoting Baptists is making me want to better understand and define my own faith. I'm planning to read The World's Religions by Huston Smith, an excerpt of which I read in my Asian Religions class freshman year of college. That should give me a good start.

There are fewer cars, which would seem to make cycling safer, but there are also fewer cyclists and mostly trucks rather than cars and lots of glass and other trash in the street, which makes me feel, oddly, less safe cycling than I did in Houston. Part of that could be the new pedals, though.

I have amazing people in my life. Thank you to everyone who has made the drive to visit me. Elise and Treva get the man-miles (woman-miles?) award, but Tony, Michelle, and Kyle (twice!) your visits are just as appreciated. :)

I miss San Antonio, and Houston, and even Arlington.

I did not want to be a homeowner, and possible problems with my plumbing in the wall between kitchen and bathroom reinforces that. Whether it ends up being a big or small problem remains to be seen, but I was really wanting that kind of thing to stay in the responsibilities of a landlord for awhile.

That's all I can think of for now...have a good week!

Happy Veterans Day!