Hyphen, En Dash, Em Dash

Did you know there are three types of “dash” and each one represents a different way to punctuate? So hyphens (-) are only for hyphenating words and multi-part numbers. En Dashes (–) are for pages and year ranges. The Em Dash (—) is for strong breaks in the structure of a sentence. 

I just spent the last hour going through every sentence of an academic paper making sure the proper hyphen/dash was used. I’m mentally shot. I meant to write out a nice post about my visit with Hope…but instead enjoy the actual thought that popped into my head and made me laugh while sitting here. Alone. With my dashes.

Me: “My! I use the em and en dashes a lot in my writing. I guess you could say I’m quite —dashing.”

Andrew Santino at Comedy on State

Yesterday Hope and I went and saw the comedian Andrew Santino: (WARNING. SOME MATURE CONTENT)

He was pretty funny, especially his part about being a redhead. Somewhat vulgar. But worth going to go see! 

He was preceded by Sandro Iocolano. I’m afraid he wasn’t that funny. 

The host was David Freeburg and he was funny. I wish he had spoken a little longer. 

Overall it was a fun experience and I like the ambiance of the place. I do wish the comedians realized they could be funny without throwing the f-word in every other sentence, though. 

Hope is here!

My friend Hope is visiting me from Iowa! We are going to a comedy club. Details tomorrowwww

Apartments & Thailand!

Because I do not have enough on my plate right now*, my professor pointed out that if I’m going to Thailand next semester I should get on housing. 

And because I’m me, that means housing in Thailand just became my newest life obsession. I’ve been really enthusiastic and talked myself into multiple options at this point. And talked myself out. Or called my Dad to talk me out. Because what I really want to do is decide Right Now and have this Off My To Do List. Heck, if someone put a lease in front me I’d probably sign it without thinking twice. Let’s do this!

Thankfully, there do appear to be a lot of really great, safe options. I think I’ll win with whatever I decide on.

This study abroad trip has sort of been a mythical beast in my mind but looking at apartments makes it seem more real. 

Like, I might actually be going to Thailand. Ahhhhh!

 

* I realize sarcasm is the lowest form of humor, but it is that or insane, uncontrolled, despair-driven laughter so I feel this is the better choice. 

Good, Clean Weather

Today is my favorite kind of weather day. Some call it Fall; I call it canvassing weather.

The air is a crisp 52 degrees. The sky is clear. There are doors to be knocked, pavement to be pounded. People to talk to. Elections to be won. 

And here I am, stuck inside a building that reminds me of a factory studying the attorney-client relationship and why putting Japanese in internment camps in WW2 was bad.

Sometimes I question my life decisions. 

De-stressing My Life

My Mom, my best friends, and my doctor have all strongly hinted that I need to take stuff off my overburdened plate and de-stress my life. I agree; I just haven’t known how. I’ve talked myself in circles justifying every thing I do. 

Today, however, was a bit of a wake up call. My boss told me he was giving me fewer tasks to complete since he felt I was too busy with other things. I had forwarded him a paper I wrote for school and he told me it read like I was running out the door. Which I was. Accordingly, he concluded I needed less work.

It wasn’t meant meanly. If anything, he did what no one else has been able to do…he saw how burdened I was and took it upon himself to lessen my load. 

But you see, that’s work and work is fun. Work is not where I want to give stuff up. It has forced me to reevaluate – again – what I’m all doing. I came home and basically surrendered most of my authority in the club where I am president. And I have decided if people don’t pick up the slack I’m just going to flat out quit. 

I can’t do it all.

I want to do it all.

This is a very difficult balance to find.

Missing Planner, Missing Life

My family and friends tease me for my habit of buying a new planner whenever I decide I need to “manage my time better.” But since my senior year of college at least, I’ve lived out of a planner. That has been especially true in law school. 

Except I lost my planner! I’ve been minus a planner for about 3 days now and I’m slowly going insane. Or not so slowly. I constantly feel like I’m forgetting something…and heck, I probably am! I sure hope I show up for work tomorrow and find I left it there because otherwise I’m doomed. 

Sibling Dynamics

I’m sitting in a coffee shop pretending to do homework and watching the post-church crowd. A family with three daughters enters. The three girls are maybe 6, 4, and 2. They have matching French braids and a determined air. The reason for the air becomes apparent once their parents allow them to pick a spot to sit. They choose a table with a bench sitting three on one side facing two chairs. 

“I’m going to sit here, and Mommy and Daddy will sit on either side of me,” announces the eldest, choosing the bench while her less perceptive sisters pick chairs. 

Instantly, the youngest switches spots to sit beside her. 

“No!” exclaims the oldest, moving to the other side of the table to sit by the middle child. She eyes her sister with disapproval. “You’re so lucky,” she says. “You get to sit between Mommy and Daddy.” 

The middle child switches spots. Now two of them are on the bench side and one is sitting on a chair. Then the eldest gets up to sit on the bench. She announces that the three of them will face their parents, making it all fair. 

The youngest shouts that she wants to sit by Mommy. This brings Mommy over. She is settled on a chair. The youngest is desolate. She moves from the bench. This, however, upsets the careful balance. One parent’s side has been chosen. Now the debate becomes who will sit by Daddy. 

The eldest looks with calculation at her sisters, clearly still trying to figure out how to sit between her parents. She tries the good old shoving technique. Her Mother reprimands her. She settles to pout. Daddy comes over. All three voices raise demanding he sit by them. 

In the end it is the middle child who sacrifices her wish. She offers to move to a chair so that the eldest and youngest can sit by Daddy. Mommy moves a chair to the side of the table so she can be flanked by two. Peace momentarily settles. 

The entire time I sit the corner trying not to laugh too loudly because I’m 98% certain this exact scenario played out many times with my siblings and me. Kudos to the middle children who keep the peace! 

Bookworm Problems

Last night I resisted the voice in my head that said I should do homework and curled up with a book instead. Unfortunately, it was very lousy read. I felt super cranky that my evening off was devoted to something so unworthy. A 1 star read. So, I finished another book. A better book. A 5 star book. And I couldn’t sleep. 

I tried for a little bit before restlessly picking up a third book. An average book. I haven’t finished, but I suspect a 2 star read. 

All of this meant that when I finally did fall asleep, it was much later than I planned. And when I woke up, it was much later than I expected. So much for early to bed and early to rise. It all would have worked out so well if that first book hadn’t been so bad!

 

Fox River Valley Networking Trip

The Office of Career Development at my law school likes putting on road trips to get students networking. I saw free food and signed up. This networking trip involved a two hour drive into the Fox River Valley area to meet with two medium size firms and two in-house counsels for large organizations. I found the entire trip very helpful. 

For starters, I like the area. I like cornfields that suddenly turn into industrial parks.  I like how happy everyone was. I like the food they fed me. 

Most of all, though, the trip confirmed my thoughts about working in a law firm v. in-house counsel and gave me some ideas for what I want to do after graduating. Of course, what I want to do still changes on a daily basis, but this time it was grounded in seeing real lawyers in action. 

A very worthwhile trip.