I love Tennyson

Ah, sleep. Wonderful sleep.

Sometimes I really wish that I could sleep the way my pups do.  Seriously, how awesome would it be to have the option to sleep wherever and whenever, like this:

Alas, I have no such skill.  I'm a terrible sleeper.  I sleep so light that usually when I need to roll over or move at all, I wake up to do so.  It's a great night when I only wake up two or three times!  Sometimes I'll wake up at 2:30 or so and be awake for a couple hours before I can get back to sleep.  Or, it might be that each time I wake up, I'll only be awake for a minute or two.  I'd say on average, I wake up 5-10 times every night.  But, there have been nights where it's every half hour or more often, and I hate those nights!!

I also have a lot of trouble falling asleep.  Usually I need something that I can listen to that helps me shut off my brain.  It used to be disney movies, lately it's an audio book that I know almost word for word.  There's something about shifting my mental focus onto whatever it is that I'm listening to that helps me drop off.  Otherwise, it might take me up to an hour to fall asleep, sometimes longer on a bad night.

Anyone else have trouble sleeping like I do?  Up until a few years ago I thought it was normal to wake up so often during the night.  The one good thing that I see about it is that whenever we have kids, I'll be a lot more used to the nighttime feedings and whatnot, since my body is already long used to sleeping in short intervals.  :)

I'm no Suzy Homemaker

So, here's my confession for the week.  I am not a neat person.  By that I mean that I am not a fan of cleaning.  I do like a clean house, but I'm too all-or-nothing most of the time.  Either my house is pristine and I notice every teensy little thing that is dirty, or more often, my house is significantly less than pristine.

Which is why you should never show up at my house unexpected, because it will be messy.

I want to keep a clean house.  I really do, honest!  I just hate cleaning.  Grr.  But, I am going to do my very best this week to make amends.  Because the hubster just took off for a week to visit with his family...

And instead of being sad and lonely I'm going to try to be productive while he's gone.  Hence, the post here to out myself as the lazy slob that I am (only partially kidding) so that I will have more incentive to follow through and actually clean this place up a bit.

Wish me luck - I'm going to need it!!!

10 Things You Might Not Know About Me

I'd be exceptionally surprised if anyone knew all 10 of these, but I suppose it's possible.  In no  particular order:

1.  I was born in Texas.

2.  I collect My Little Pony items from the 80s.  Lots and lots of My Little Ponies.  It's embarrassing.  And fabulous.

3.  I ran a marathon in 2008.  I ran slowly, but I finished.  26.2 miles, done.

4.  I read tarot.

5.  I am a former Universal Cheerleader Association All Star.

6.  I'm a reformed band geek - was in the drumline in marching band, played tenor and soprano sax in jazz band, and played flute and piccolo in symphonic band.

7.  I bake one hell of an apple pie.

8.  I once drove a truck 30 or so miles down an interstate, not knowing that it had 33 pounds of cocaine packed in the doors.  (33 pounds is about half again as much as is in this picture.  For reals.)

9.  I haven't had caffeine since October 2005.

10.  I drive a motorcycle (and incidentally, used to have seriously short hair).

So what are your 10 things?

Allie the Meerkat

Contrary to what I have said in the past, Allie is not really a cheagle.  Sure, she looks like a cheagle (chihuahua/beagle mix, for those unfamiliar with the term), but she's not.

Allie is a meerkat.

See?  I kid you not.

What an amazing week

The stars really aligned for me this past week, and for that I am truly thankful.  I'm a bit amazed at how perfectly it's all worked out so far!  I hope that I can keep this streak of good luck going for the rest of the summer.

At work I wrote a Motion for Summary Judgment for a federal case, along with the full 15 page memorandum in support.  I was also asked to draft a petition for a new case.  For a summer law clerk, I think this is a pretty awesome amount of responsibility!  Never mind the fact that one day this week I flew to and from Michigan to meet with a client to go over their records for a case that will likely end up in litigation some day.  The work I'm doing is fun, fascinating, challenging, and it's wonderful to be given this kind of responsibility.  I LOVE it!!  

One of my summer classes wrapped up this week, too.  On Friday I completed my fake trial for Trial Advocacy, and my fake client was found 0% at fault!!  This was really huge, and very unexpected.  Seriously, there is no way that we could have had a better outcome.  What a great way to end a class.

An on a more personal note, our IVF cycle has progressed quite beautifully.  Saturday was the day of our egg retrieval.  Very unexpectedly, they retrieved 20 eggs!  14 of those were mature, and 13 fertilized properly.  Now we wait to see how well those 13 do in the lab over the next few days.  If they continue to divide and grow properly, and progress to the blastocyst phase, we'll transfer the two best on Thursday.  I'm so excited that I responded so well to the meds, and that we are in a great place right now. 

Sincerely hoping that this good streak continues!!