I'm alive. Promise.

This is the first time in MONTHS that I've looked at my blog. And now that I've seen it, I'm realizing how much I've missed it!

[PS: DO I REALLY STILL HAVE HALLOWEEN WALLPAPER? You don't even know how excited I was to change my blog background for all the holidays, and then I totally just missed them. At least there's Valentine's coming up.]

[PSS: I'm typing this from work because I seriously need at least a 30 minute break or I'm going to lose it. It's been nonstop lately.]

So my last post was in November, the day after bar results were released (remember how fun THAT ordeal was?). Work may be crazy/tiresome/stressful, but a bad/terrible/awful day at work beats the best/delightful/easiest days of Barbri. Kind of.

I guess the best way to pretend this blog hiatus of mine never happened is to just pretend it didn't. So here's a quick recap of what's been happening the past three months, then consider us all caught up:

1. I pretty much work Monday through Friday from 9AM to 7PM and the occasional weekend. November and December were manageable; stressful at times but never out of control. January, however, different story. The firm wasn't kidding when they said we'll get busy when the new year starts. All I want to do is get in bed before 9PM without some sort of work product in my hand. I can't even tell you the last time that happened. A long time ago. Long long ago.

2. My dog is recovering well from her back surgery. She can walk!!!! Sort of. You can definitely tell there's something wrong; she stumbles a lot. Her legs often drag. But she gets around. It's better than what we thought was going to happen (first, she was going to die; and then second, if she lived, she'd never be able to use her back legs again).

3. My husband is fantastic. Like SERIOUSLY. You don't even know what he has to deal with.  He even took down all the Christmas decorations by himself JUST THIS PAST WEEKEND (while I was billing 10 hours at the office on a Saturday, ahem). But, yea, I am a terrible wife. I left the Christmas tree up for a month. And if it weren't for my fabulous husband, we'd still have our Christmas tree up for Superbowl.

4. We went to Vegas for NYE. It was the most fun NYE and the most fun trip to Vegas I've ever had. We'll probably end up going back sometime in February. One thing I've learned with work: The only way to get away is to literally LEAVE TOWN. And I think billing 200+ hours a month calls for frequent vacations. So there's that.

5. Our one-year wedding anniversay is in April. Don't even ask how it's already been a year. I can't tell you. We're also planning some magical getaway, preferably for a whole week, but I'm thinking it may just be a long four or five day weekend.

And that wraps up the past three minutes. Well, also, Christmas was awesome. But DUH. It's Christmas.

WORK - Week One Recap.

Oh hey guys.

Just thought I'd give a week one recap of work just in case someone out there has been WAITING IN SUSPENSE FOR IT and CANNOTWAITANYLONGER. Heh.

I'm going to use bullet points because I'm sort of brain-tired.

• I like pretty much everyone. It's really a great group of people. There are about 150 attorneys in the office plus a lot of staff members, so there's always something abuzz.

• I love having an office! When I was little, I wanted to be a real estate agent because my dad was one and he had an office with pens and paper and chairs and I wanted all that too. Then I started growing up and learned that lots of occupations had offices. Lawyers, for example.

• The firm is treating us like queens and kings this week. Example: a champagne toast in the hallway after bar results came out on Thursday. Also awesome: all of the new lawyers passed! 

• I get a few months before choosing a specific practice group. For now, I get to experiment with different groups. My first project is with general litigation. I'm looking forward to trying out some work in the products liability, employment, and criminal investigation groups.

I know it's only been one week, but I am so happy and thankful about my job. I'm excited to get my practice rolling!

I PASSED.

Licensed to practice law in the great state of Texas!!

I think I'll go practice right now.

Bar results come out TOMORROW.

Rumor has it that the Texas Board of Law Examiners is releasing results one day earlier than expected - and that would be TOMORROW.

I'll be at work (more on that later), but just know that I'll be refreshing my browser every minute (seriously) until results are posted.

NERVOUS.

Checking In.

I suck at blogging lately. My guess is that my blogging productivity will go back up starting Monday, since that's the day I also start work . . . Remember how much I blogged while "studying" for the bar? Exactly.

I'm getting all sentimental/weird about this whole work thing. My husband is too. I woke up this morning all "This is my last weekday of freedom EVER." And then later he walked into the kitchen all "FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY!" I guess that's the countdown of freedom. Work is approaching. And this is monumental for a few reasons. One, I've never had a full time job in my life.

To be more enthused about my nearing 60+ hour work weeks, I bought some cute outfits this week. New suits and shoes and a new work handbag and wallet. It's helping me deal.

And besides all that . . . we've got some other exciting things going on this weekend. Tonight is our first Halloween party of the year! And probably our last Halloween party unless we feel really adventurous tomorrow night. I'm trying to keep it on the DL what we're dressing up as. But I'm pretty excited about it. I don't think my husband has dressed up in a long long long long time, so this will be good for him. WELCOME TO MARRIED LIFE, HUBS!

Other things on my list this weekend:

1. Manicure
2. Eyebrow waxing
3. Iron my snazzy outfits
4. Put away the remaining boxes of crap that have been sitting in the dining room since I moved them here in April . . .
5. Make a "power of attorney" for my grandparents. I've been putting it off for four weeks and now that work is about to start I'm trying to get all my ducks in a row.
6. CARVE PUMPKINS while eating CARAMEL APPLES and drinking APPLE CIDER.

Happy Halloween, blogging goblins!

PS: Are you following me on THE TWITTER yet?? If you're on it too, leave me a comment with your Tweep name so I can stalk you on there.

Bar results in 13 days.

I've gotten postcards from the Texas Board of Law Examiners, I've read it on their website . . . bar results are to be released at November 4th "at a time unknown." And yet I'm still finding myself going to their website every other day thinking that they might've released results early. Like NY did last year. And like UT did this year.

They haven't.

But in 13 days they will!

And I'm GETTING REALLY NERVOUS. And I'm starting to relive all those things on the bar that I didn't know (i.e.: CAPIAS).

Puke.

On a better note - we're going to the Texas State Fair today and I'm planning on eating myself into a fried food coma. AND I'M GOOD WITH IT. No lectures, please.

Ciao.

HOLIDAY BACKGROUND!

Check it out. CHA CHA CHA.

Hocus Pocus & BOO!