Day 3-5: Miami

Life got away from me there, and now I’m seriously behind in posting my entries for the photo-a-day challenge. So now I’m playing catch up.

On February 3rd, I went to Miami for a conference related to my job. I met with a number of human rights lawyers doing amazing work throughout the country and world, but I left there with mixed feelings. While I was excited to be working in such a dynamic field, I was a bit frustrated by my limited authority over what I do. The conference definitely pushed me to evaluate where I am right now with my career and made me realize that I may be veering a bit off track from where I wanted to go after law school. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this information… I’ll keep you updated, webernets.

And here are the photos from Miami:

Day 3: Hands (In the window of a clothing store in Coconut Grove. I have been informed that this photo is a bit "unnerving.")

Day 4: Stranger (From the balcony of my hotel in Miami, looking into the glass elevator. Again, this photo was characterized as "creepy" and perhaps "stalkerish."

Day 5: 10 a.m. (At the Miami International Airport. The clock chimed 10, and I stopped where I was to take a photo. The fact that I was standing in front of a bar where people were drinking by themselves at 10 a.m. was purely coincidental and perhaps a tad "creepy.")

In other news, remember when I used to be less introspective and more funny? Sigh…

Day 2: Words

Day 2 of Photo-a-Day Challenge: The words I read every day

This photo represents a large part of my current job — reading and editing the very long blog posts for a website we run at work, written  by a lawyer observing the the Khmer Rouge trials currently taking place in Cambodia. Having been on the other side of these posts, I know what a long day it is for the writer. But I also remember how interesting it is to sit in the public gallery, watch the action happening in the courtroom, and observe the people watching the trial. These words bring this experience back to me every day.

Photo Day 1: My View From Here

Day 1 of fat mum slim’s photo challenge: The view of Chicago from my cubicle.

I will admit I spent a good part of the morning trying to figure out the most artsy way to express that my view today is rather wretched. Emotionally speaking, that is. Coming back to this blog, I was reminded how adventurous my life was just four years ago. Difficult, but amazingly adventurous. And now I find myself at the beginning of 2012, at the age of 35, with a second expensive graduate degree under my belt, working at another unpaid job with a fairly definite end date and no other prospects on the horizon.

Then, while I was doing all this internal whinging and whining, I spun around in my ergonomically appropriate office chair and stared out the window behind me, as I often do. At this moment, I reminded myself that, although I might not be halfway around the world right at this second, I am at home with my loving husband and adorable dog. And I do have a job (of sorts) where I can continue to engage in my chosen profession. And I have been incredibly blessed in many ways, beyond what I ever dreamed. And I do live in a beautiful city that is unseasonably warm for February 1st.

And I do have the cubicle with the best view in the office.

Heck yeah.

Photo-a-Day via fat mum slim

I have wanted to get back into blogging if only for the creative me time for a while. Sadly, life seems constantly to get in the way. From work to travel to illness to whiny dog, there is always something else demanding my time.

So, when I heard about fat mum slim’s photo-a-day challenge, I figured I would dive back in, starting tomorrow. I mean, how hard can it be to post one photo a day, right?! Right? … right?

In case there is anyone in my life who still looks at this blog who wants to play along, here is the task list for February – all credit to fat mum slim, of course:

Chili the Wonder Dog

Sure, I haven’t posted in nearly three years. But then I decided that my dog deserves her own internet meme…

Want to make your own? Email me or check out my facebook page for the original pic!

The Reason for My Hiatus

So, if you were paying attention, you may have noticed I disappeared for about a month there. At first my absence from the webernets was intentional. A person should check twitter in the hopes that Rainn Wilson will say something funny only so many times per day. Once that limit is exceeded, the word “obsession” starts being bandied about. However, the further I moved away from my virtual relationships, the more time I seemed to have. More time to do things like sit around and envy those badly-dressed women with well-dressed fairy godmothers on the three episodes per day of What Not to Wear.

But, seriously, there is a good reason for my hiatus. And it’s name is Proof. As in the 2001 winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play. As in the 2005 movie with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhaal. (The clip on IMDb is totally my favorite line of the play, though Gwyneth doesn’t make it nearly funny enough in my opinion.)

Yeah, so, in a moment of sheer madness, I auditioned for this play, and I got a part. (This may be a good time to mention that I haven’t been in a play since I was 18 years old, when I took on the role of a crazy old king in a children’s play in Tuakau, New Zealand. I got the part, despite being very noticeably a girl, because I was the only person who auditioned who had ever memorized lines before. They made me wear a very itchy beard made of polyfill and dyed with gray magic markers. I made my own crown based on the Burger King crown – everyone thought it was brilliant because they didn’t have a Burger King in their area at that time.)

For reference, if you watched the IMDb clip, I’m the stony-faced older sister in the pink coat. Sadly, I don’t get to wear a fun pink coat, especially since the play takes place in Chicago in SEPTEMBER, which Hollywood apparently thinks is cold enough for a wool overcoat. I mean, c’mon Hollywood, it’s not April!

For the last month, I have spent significant amounts of time reading and re-reading and reading once again this play. My script is covered with notes and highlights and coffee stains and tears from the panic attacks. However, I count it a major victory that I have not passed out or run away in hysterics from a rehearsal yet. And, as we open in three weeks, I figured it was about time to let the webernets know what’s going on.

So here it is — Proof by Red Ink Productions. Be there.

I’ll see you back here in May.

Suspended Disbelief

SPOILER ALERT: This post may contain very small spoilers about Lost. Nothing big, but you should know that if you did not watch the end of last season or any of this season, you may wish to skip this. But, seriously, if you’re that far behind in Lost, do you really think you’re going to catch up? It’s not like it’s Battlestar Galactica and Comcast made the Scifi Channel a “premium,” so you can’t watch it unless you pay more. B***ards. (Why, yes, I am trying to keep this blog family-friendly. Thank you for asking.)

Moving on…

In this blog post, I respond to my dear friend Tracy’s recent post about her television viewing habits. It’s most likely not necessary, but you might as well read her entry first. Plus it might up her readership numbers and make her feel good. Which, since she is directing a play I’m in, would not be a bad thing and maybe keep her from going ballistic when I totally screw up my lines.

So, in Tracy’s post, she notes that she doesn’t get the whole Lost phenomenon. Knowing Tracy, I get that, and I won’t give her crap about it. Because I know we’re different. And I’m not going to hold it against her.

In her post, she recommended a show she does like – Lie to Me. Now, at first, my interest was piqued when she mentioned Tim Roth. I have enjoyed that man’s acting since sophomore year of high school and Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead. But then she said they bring the real world in. Erm, no thank you.

Here’s the thing: I’m not a huge fan of reality. No, I don’t mean reality TV shows.* I mean, reality. Period. When I watch TV, I don’t want it to remind me of real life. In fact, the less connected to the real world, the better, I say. And I want the show to be upfront about it – make it clear that this show has no connection to reality and they’re not going to pretend either, like some shows (ahem … Grey’s Anatomy).  I like to see vampires slayed, FBI agents hunting aliens, a man who can bring the dead back to life for one minute, fighter pilots searching for earth, international super-spies, and islands that disappear.

Please do not base my show in a hospital or police station or, the worse of the worse, a courtroom. Because, eventually, all of those shows screw it up. When you pretend your show is based in the real world (or that your stories are “ripped from the headlines”), you are telling me that I should expect it to be like real life. But, c’mon, as a lawyer, I am fully aware that people do not actually confess on the stand, Law & Order. And technology has not come as far as any version of CSI would lead you to believe.  (I have made exceptions for incredibly superior television, such as Homicide: Life on the Street, but it is rare.) So I just steer clear of these shows – it helps me keep my blood pressure in check.

However, I must say that the worst situation for me on television is when my TV shows try to bring in reality. That just drives me crazy. For instance, (possible spoiler warning), a couple weeks ago, the following scene occurred in my home:

Me (watching Lost): Oh c’mon!
Mike (watching World of Warcraft): What’s wrong?
Me: There is no way that both Jack and Kate could find any parking in the middle of the day in downtown L.A., let alone right across the street from each other.
Mike: So an island disappearing and the dead coming back to life, you’re okay with. But you can’t suspend disbelief to allow for parking in L.A.?
Me: Well… yeah. Is that so wrong?
Mike (to fellow Warcrafters): Sorry, guys. I was distracted for a moment there by my wife’s insanity.

So, when it comes to television, I prefer to suspend disbelief. But it only goes so far. I have to draw a line somewhere, and apparently it’s about the same place as the lines on the streets of L.A.

*I must admit, before someone calls me out in the comments, that I have been known to enjoy my fair share of reality TV. But I need these shows to contain a competition or a makeover. Because that is not, in fact, reality. After all, fairy godmothers do not exist, and no real restaurant would ask a chef to create a gourmet meal from scratch with no forethought and a strange theme in 60 minutes.