blueblanketblog

my not-so-temporary blog, i guess

thursday, december 27

wow

Where did all this good music come from? Of Montreal. Beulah. Preston School of Industry. And, though people've recommended them much earlier, I've finally listened to The Shins and Stephen Malkmus, and finally really really listened to Built to Spill. Mmmm.

.: 10:00 PM .:

tuesday, december 25

back

A blur. Sunday, out till 1 or 2, playing video games at Dave and Busters. Found a use, finally, for that ropey thing that hangs from my jeans. Confidential Mission with Ed. One of those Star Wars shoot-em-up rides with Ryan. Ended up on a silly dancing game, just because a cute boy (of the fresh-faced Jet-Li sort of cute, with good hair too!) asked me. Spent the rest of the night regretting I didn't leave my number with him, and thinking "Goddamn Ed! He thinks I'm with *him*!" Post-gaming diner food with Ed and Paul and Ryan. Mmm, except for the accusations by the crazy waitress that we were drinking cruelty-full soda.

Monday, work at 6:30am, because I had to leave early but still needed to put in a full day in order to exchange the Christmas Eve holiday for one of the days I'm actually taking off. The place was empty except for the new attorneys. And Ann, who needed to pick something up, and brought her kid along, who said to me "I feel sorry for *you*!" Thanks kid. Read the newly-revised cert opp over for typos and errors (not many, and *man* the people at the SG's office are smart smart smart -- the draft is so much better after their edits). Read my brief for that Indiana case, sent it off to the agency counsel. Sleeepy.

Off on a plane around 4. My last freebie first-class ride. (I had this World Perks upgrade for a year, because I got so many frequent flyer miles going back and forth from Japan last summer.) So of course I felt the need to drink my fill.

I got *carded*. Twice. On a plane. I'm twenty-eight. Feh.

And one of those times, after I was carded, the airline dude shouted, "Oh my god! You're older than *me*!" Thanks, buddy.

Brain-stormy ideas about coming up with a coherent system for determining when we should fear slippery slopes, jurisprudence-wise. Wished I had a cell phone to call Andy. Will email.

Sat next to a cute NJ med student, originally from "the Islands."

Got home. They lost my luggage in the transfer between my DC-to-Detroit flight and my Detroit-to-Memphis flight. Fortunately, I took my pjs carry-on. Spiro was comfy and fat and asleep. Re-explained to my parents that working for the government as a lawyer doesn't mean that I'm about to be a judge. And I showed them my creds, the kind that's like the flip-bookie thing that Scully and Mulder have on the X-Files. My dad spent the next half-hour flipping it open and saying "FBI" like Scully and Mulder from the X-Files, until I pointed out I'm with the DOJ, then he said "DOJ" and kept flipping it open.

Funny, but eventually boring. So sleep.

Today, Vietnamese cheung-fun (banh cuon), courtesy of Mom. Dad is singing along with fifties tunes he's copied off CDs borrowed from the library. It's the nice, mellow pace of Memphis in December. Good. This is what the holidays are about. Food. And cheesy music. And sleep.

.: 12:36 PM .:

monday, december 24

a question

And I'm hoping someone will run across this and answer it for me -- where in the states can I buy Takashi Murakami T-shirts? I already know about MOCA-LA and Giant Robot. It's just that I think there's a much bigger selection of shirts out there, and I have no idea where to find them. I specifically want a light blue (or white) shirt with the flowers (or mushrooms) with the funny eyes and happy smiles. Or the eyeballs, I really like the eyeballs. What I don't want is a DOB shirt.

Argue as you like about the depth (or non-depth) of Murakami's irony (or non-irony) -- I just think his stuff is visually fab.

.: 10:31 AM .:

gah

The Wall Street Journal reports that the the Bush administration (purportedly in response to the recession and the cost of the fight against terrorism) "is considering significant spending cuts in some energy-efficiency, environmental and public-works programs."

It's just a handy excuse, I bet. Though this bodes badly for us getting approval to hire new attorneys here to replace the ones who are leaving.

(no direct link to WSJ, by the way, because they are misers with their online content)

Happy holidays, though.