Houston Countdown

I survived another Monday. Go me! Today was busy, but I was damn productive. Damn productive. I only looked at celebrity websites once. Impressive, I know. I did work for my Tibetan asylum case that I have a hearing on this Friday, sent out discovery in my contested divorce case, and did a ton of Case-From-Hell prep work for two expert meetings set to take place tomorrow. I have to attend with Dragon Lady and another partner. Kill me now. It could be worse, I could be bufferless. At least Dragon Lady tries to pretend that she's human in front of other partners. I also applied for another job - this will be number 4 - at a non-profit doing human rights legal work. I still haven't heard back from #3, but I think the chances are looking slim as days continue to go by. Ah, well.

I have only four more days and then I'm off to Houston to visit my Dad, Stepmom, Mom, and brothers for 4th of July weekend. My mom just moved from Savannah, GA to Houston so this will be my first opportunity to see her new house. She painted the living room "Martha Stewart Purple" (deep eggplant) and another room "Martha Stewart Terracotta." I'm sure it looks amazing, especially the purple (my favorite). I once had a gorgeous dark purple room in Washington, D.C. I covered the windows with wine colored sheets so that hazy pinkish light filtered through and bounced off the purple walls in the day time. It was awesome. Yes, I had just graduated from college and was bartending 'til 4 am and sleeping 'til 1 pm in the afternoon.

I haven't seen my Dad since Christmas and am so excited to see him again. It will also be great to see my brothers. The trip will be significant for another reason as well, it will be the first time that Raj is meeting my Dad. It's about time, I started dating the boy - originally - 2.5 years ago. I'm of course curious to see how they'll get along, although I'm sure everything will go well. I always find that you see people in different lights when they're around they're families. Usually, I feel like I have greater insight into and compassion for who they are and why. I'm sure it will be good for both Raj and I to spend the time with my family.

He, of course, has one major request for the weekend. He wants to see a game. As I may have mentioned, he loves sports and he has a not-so-secret aspiration to visit a stadium in every city that he goes to. Like a good girlfriend, I've put in a call to my brothers, and will see what they come up with.

My major aspiration for the weekend, along with enjoying some QT with the fam, is to Chill Out. My dad has a pool and I plan to plant myself out on the patio for at least three days with a good book and a great big bottle of water. I'm reading "Snow" by Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish author. I can't wait. I'm also looking forward to seeing Prue again! I may not have mentioned this but Prue is pregnant, so I'm going to get to see Prue's expanding belly. It's very exciting. I'm sure she is absolutely radiant.

I wish I could take my girls (two of my asylum clients) with me to Houston. How fun that would be to experience it through their eyes. They have so many questions and they are so warm and sweet. They're also very honest about what they are thinking. For example, on Saturday while I was hanging out with them waiting for the movie "Cars" to start, the topic of divorce came up in a way that made it clear that the girls had never met anyone who had ever been, or much less thought of being, divorced before. I mentioned that my parents were divorced and the older of the two sisters looked at me with a start and said, "But, you don't look like that, you look so happy all the time." So cute.