55 Fiction Friday: Breathing Lessons

Friday, home in DC.

“Breathe in…and exhale slowly”, she said, elbow poised over the knot in his trapezius. He breathed in noisly, and let it out sharply. “No, exhale SLOWLY, so I can work into the knot and apply pressure.” He drew his second breath in tantalizingly slowly, and exhaled quickly. As usual, he just couldn’t let her in.

The view from here

Every year, my 12th grade English teacher had the seniors write an essay entitled "The View from Here." The students were meant to take stock, reflect on where they are in life, and the path ahead of them.

This is a season of reflection. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's are all about internal audits. Personally, I've come to a natural point of contemplation because the colossal project I began over four years ago just ended. I look back on who I was before law school and even I can tell that my hindsight is rose-colored - I couldn't possibly have been that well-rounded, had so much energy, etc. Law school made me very one-dimensional. I jettisoned so many interests and activities along the way, whispering that I'd be back for them later.

Well, later is (finally) now. I'm looking into all kinds of classes, watching a million movies, starting to channel my inner cruise director by planning social activities, and researching trips I'd like to take. I've started volunteering with the Boys & Girls Club near work, and I'm looking to committ to a pro bono project. I miss being a (hyper)active person, so I'm trying to get back on track there as well. But, things are different now: I really weigh each possible addition. Be it a person, or an activity - I really consider how it fits into my life. I realise I don't have endless resources, and that if I'm not careful, I end up feeling like I've been spread very, very thin. I'm even reading a book on productivity.

I feel so hopeful and expectant right now. I didn't expect that. I'm interested in my work, and excited about the road ahead. This feeling, this is what I'm most thankful for.

.........

I remember what inspired my "View from Here" essay when I was a senior, so I will close with a few lines from it.

… I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life

-- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Procession

I've had a LOT of hits from people looking for info on BarBri, studying for the Bar, etc. etc. I've decided to put it all together for you. Here are all of my posts on the Bar study process (in chronological order.) I warn you now, they aren't really substantive, but more of a reflection of where I was mentally/emotionally in the process. Touchy/feely enough for you? ;)

• And So it Begins
• Stragedy
• In re: Perspective
• Stragedy, version 2.0
• View from Week 3
• "This is the goddamn [insert veggie you hate] of Bar preparation"
• Build Me Up, Buttercup
• Chartreuseacre
• Puzzle Pieces
• Seriously Kinky
• Heliotrope
• I've got dreams

Shoes of Celebration

Today, I wear the shoes of celebration.

Like so much of my Bar experience, the post-results period has not gone as I planned. I thought that, come what may, I would be out on the town celebrating and/or anesthetizing. Not so. Post-results, I headed into the city to meet up with ma chere brim for a little soiree. What did I drink all night? That's right - water. I'm such a wild one.

The water consumption was probably a good thing, since our little group had to fend off the advances (and I do mean advances of a would-be Casanova.) Both la brim and I spotted him early on, and knew he'd be trouble.

I like FOBs, some of my best friends are FOBs - but there is nothing like a desperado brown on the loose. This guy tried to dance with/on every woman in our group, until out of desperation we all formed pretend pairs. Brimful offered to share a male friend with me, to which I said "F that - you're my girlfriend." As always, my timing was impeccable and I managed to catch a lull in the otherwise raging 80s dance music. So there - now you can be jealous, I had the indomitable brimful as my (fake) girlfriend, if only for an evening. Even after my pronouncement, the desperado grabbed at me ... TWICE. I don't do the grabbing. Ick.

When he headed towards the last woman standing in our group, she started dancing with a male friend. Desperado actually stamped his foot in annoyance - like a kid who's been caught out at "monkey in the middle" again. Dude - not a good look, just letting you know.

I spent most of Saturday lazing around the house, watching movies (new on the list of favorite movies: Girlfight. Troubled teen trains to be a boxer. The best part: her love interest is named Adrian.) I went to Berkeley (or as one sign posted on campus said, Berekeley) for the Beyond Borders event. I met up with the fabulous ads and proceeded to plaster the campus with directional signs as our part of the volunteer effort. (We may have been distracted by some Crepes-a-Go-Go as well.)

The show was interesting, if a little long (over four hours!! Thanggod for the interval.) As usual, I enjoyed the dance performances the most. There were some moments of true, unintended hilarity - but that's because I'm a snarktastic bitch.

Sunday, more lazing around. I suddenly decided I just had to see Walk the Line. This is how much of a rockstar my designated movie date is: when I called her, she had just driven back from LA - six hours - but she was still down for a movie! Rock on with your bad self, Roop!

The movie kicked much ass, and is even better if you enjoy Johnny Cash's music. Today, in homage, I am the Woman in Black (with Shoes of Celebration.)

I PASSED!

July 2005 California Bar Examination
Application Number: 123
Registration Number: 123456789

Name: MAISNON

The name above appears on the pass list for the July 2005 California Bar Examination.

..........

And I'll have you know that I was cutting and pasting the above for your benefit while my best friend was urging me to call my parents.

55 Fiction Friday: hiatus

Sorry, kids. I've made numerous attempts to '55 Fiction'-it today, and none have really come to fruition. Some of the ideas I played around with:

• a woman cutting her hand while drinking a glass of wine
• a person making dinner for themselves and drinking a glass of wine
• drinking a glass of wine

Do we sense a theme here? I'm planning to leave work right, soon, quick and go in search of.... a glass of wine.

...............

Maybe I should solicit 55 Fiction ideas from y'all - it would be like '55 Fiction: on request', or '55 Fiction: throwdown!' ;)

Not just a river in Egypt

One of the associates came by to say that she was taking us first years out for lunch tomorrow. She said that it was a tradition to get us drunk. How sweet, if a bit odd, I thought. I guess tomorow is a Friday.

Yeah, tomorrow is the day Bar results come out. The fact that it totally slipped my mind shows you where I am mentally. I am either:

(a) so calm, that I just naturally didn't remember the significance; or
(b) so freaked that I have somehow blocked it out; or
(c) my usual variation on "freakshow"; or
(d) all of the above

..........

Results come out at 6 pm.

PSA: South Asian Quake Relief event on Saturday

"Disaster knows no borders ... neither should humanity"

Oct 8th – A devastating earthquake strikes South Asia leaving at least 90,000 dead, and 3-4 million homeless.TODAY - One month after the earthquake, many survivors in remote areas are still in need of immediate relief and rehabilitation. A brutal Himalayan winter is approaching, a massive second wave of death is expected if help – shelter, supplies, medicine – doesn't reach survivors soon.

YOU can make a difference! Please attend!

BEYOND BORDERS

A Benefit for the Survivors of the South Asian Earthquake

Saturday, November 19th, 7PM
Wheeler Auditorium
University of California Berkeley
Buy Ticketshttp://tickets.manja.org/ekta/beyondborders/
Donatehttp://www.ektaonline.org/events/beyondborders/donate.htm

100% of the proceeds go towards grassroots earthquake relief efforts in Pakistan and India - specifically,Edhi Foundation (Pakistan), Sungi Development Foundation (Pakistan), & Association for India's Development's Jammu and Kashmir Fund (India).

For further information, please email beyondborders@ektaonline.org

Featuring:

• Farah Shaikh - Kathak Dance)
• Chhandam -Chitresh Das Dance Company
• Shalja Patel - Spoken Word
• Arshad Syed - Santoor
• Shabi Farooq - Tabla
• Rita Sahai- Hindustani Vocal
• Vivek Anand & Ferhan Qureshi - Tabla
• Kamal Hyder & Nasir Syed - Sitar Duet
• Ferhan Qureshi -Tabla
• Domestic Crusaders - Pakistani American Theatre

Brevity

maisnon: These are my new shoes. I have toe cleavage in them
fellow first year: Cleavage. We talked about that at my meeting this morning.

Numbers

Some off-handed quips stick with you. A few weeks ago, brimful and I were on our second date. I was loving the lounge, but, being the misanthrope that I often am, complaining that I wanted all the people to leave so that I could chill there with maybe....20 friends. Brimful suggested having my birthday there in Jan., and I suddenly realized I don't have twenty friends in the vicinity.

I found myself counting on my fingers ... and not getting past the ring finger on the first hand. I started adding in work friends, and their SOs/partners, and I realized I was stretching. One of the things I miss most from DC is having a deep and varied pool of friends. Gym friends, coffee buddies, happy hour invitees, former coworkers, designated movie dates, people who used to date my friends, swing kids, etc. etc.

I'm developing my pool slowly here, and that's exactly as it should be. Finding people you vibe with takes a long time. I've started referring to The Star as Number 2 (or as I prefer 0002) in my own version of the dot.com employee number game. I'm not going to make it to twenty in time for my 31st (unless I import some from the east coast), but that's okay - maybe something more like a dinner party. :)