A rose by any other name...

When I want to use the best possible phrase to describe a particularly grotesque phenomena, I think German is most appropriate. Something about all of the harsh consonant sounds. When I want to use the best possible phrase to describe polite and sincere well wishes, I think Spanish sounds best. Maybe it's because my former Argentinian roommate always sounded much sweeter and more polite while speaking Spanish. In any case, for those of you who are under the yoke of finals like me, I'm sending you the best well wishes I can come up (straight from the mouth of said Argentinian):

"Suerte, te mando un gran abrazo"

(roughly translated: Good luck, big hugs!)

It made my night, and so I'm sending it out to everyone else who might be as stressed as I.

Buenas noches.

Finals Distraction/Pick Me Up

This finals period, I'm swearing off facebook in an effort to be more productive. In its place, I've found the cutest distraction ever! It's a freeware version of spider solitaire for macs that I'm considering purchasing. The best part is when you win a game, the following image bounces around...



It's a good distraction and a good pick-me-up. (For those of you who don't know, my mom's name is also Kitty, thus adding to the feel-good factor.)

If they could see me now

Today's fiesta (see post below) takes me back to my college days, when I was recruited by Elizabet, Victor, and Angeles to be in charge of decorating their Cinco de Mayo event for the Mexican student society. I can't help but giggle when I remember how shocked they were when I suggested a giant cactus made out of green balloons. If I remember correctly, Victor asked my why I didn't just decorate the whole place with giant cardboard cut outs of Coronas or if I thought all Mexicans are a bunch of sombrero-clad peasants sleeping under cacti. Suffice it to say: I had a lot to learn, as the only white Midwestern girl in the group. And now that I'm back to being a white Midwestern girl and not their honorary Latina, I'm pretty sure Elizabet would give me no end of trouble for being such a gringo, but oh well. When in Rome...

Fiesta Friday

Today I'm throwing a fiesta in the Journal office to try and recruit 1Ls for next year's staff. After picking my editorial staff, this is the first public official thing I've done as Editor in Chief, so I thought I'd take the chance to blog about my experiences so far. I'm learning more and more that the EIC's job, especially on our journal, is made up of about 25% of what I saw the current EIC doing all this year from my perspective as a staff member, and 75% "other crap." So even though I probably don't appear to my staff like I'm doing all that much right now, I'm officially overwhelmed by the job almost all of the time.

I've learned that being an EIC is not something that will come easily or effortlessly any time in the near future for me. Rather, I feel as though the best I can do is periodically catch up on everything that I feel is getting away from me. When I do manage to catch up, I can remind myself that I am doing an okay job and that things are going well for me and for the Journal. It doesn't hurt that the secretary and the current EIC are great at giving me positive reinforcement regularly. However, the rest of the time, it would appear as though my performance anxiety and stress levels are back to where they were 1L year, which is not okay with me.

This obviously has an effect on the rest of my life (sorry I'm such a b*tch to those of you who have to deal with me regularly!), and it has especially started to affect my sleeping habits. I regularly wake up with a feeling that there is something huge I'm forgetting to do and it takes a while for me to remind myself (and my racing heart) that everything is fine. Hence, why I was up at 5 this morning, despite the fact that I have no classes and told myself I could sleep in. And not sleeping well never helps with the b*tch factor.

Looking back on this post, it's less of an update on what I do as EIC and more of an update on how crazed I feel. My narcissistic ramblings are probably more interesting than the technical details anyway. ;) Instead of updating you on the goings-on of my Journal, I suppose I'll use this opportunity to apologize to those of you who have to deal with me and to say that I hope once summer comes and finals are over, I can take a while to reflect on how I could be an effective EIC without being a panicky, heinous friend/sister/daughter/leader/etc. Bear with me, I really think things will get better!

We have to grow up sometime.

(Warning: offensively liberal post!)

One of my hobbies is reading a blog called Above the Law. I like it because it's like trashy celebrity gossip on lawyers and law firms. One of their favorite things to do is to post pictures and to have contests on who can come up with the best caption for the picture. Recently, they posted this picture:



The winning caption? (At least if you go off the write-in votes)

"Things I don't believe in."

Nothing makes me want to go home more...

...than a new addition to the family. Especially one this darned cute:



Meet Lily Margaret Wanser, who is already 2 months old and I still haven't met her. :(