Of things that suck and do not suck

My muse…my creative muse, she is, how to say…mutinous? Or perhaps just on strike? My great American novel is NEVER going to get written at THIS rate – not when I cannot even come up with something to blog about!

So, because of my rusty muse, I present my life in list form:

Things that suck:
1. My city is building a new ice hockey/event arena RIGHT NEXT TO my building. (By which I mean, the building in which I work, and not a building that is actually MY building, because if it were MY building I could probably just chuck this whole, “let’s practice law for a living” gig and just collect rent.) Anyway, this arena they are building is going to be, literally, flush up next to my building. The resulting construction crews have begun to make ARRIVING at my parking garage kind of difficult.
2. One of the houses in my neighborhood caught on fire the other night. We don’t know why. We had our Japanese exchange student and her friend (who is also a Japanese exchange student) swimming in our backyard at the time. After we called 911 to report the flames shooting out of the house’s garage, we stood in the backyard and watched it burn, and then watched the fire department put it out. Which felt a little morbid. Also, I’m not sure it was the most ideal authentic American experience for two sixteen-year-old Japanese girls.
3. It is so so so so very hot and sticky here right now. It’s just too hot to do anything other than hide in a dark air-conditioned room to read Harry Potter, or, hang out at the bottom of the pool. (Yes, the bottom of the pool, because it is so hot that even floating on the top feels, well, hot and sticky. So, we’ve been spending a lot of time holding our breath and seeing who can stay down the longest. Yes, that’s JUST how exciting my life is right now.) It feels a lot more like central Arkansas in August than shores of Lake Erie in August. And yet, the last time I checked, I was pretty sure we weren’t in central Arkansas. But, it is just so hot, sticky and humid and feeling so much like the summer vacations of my childhood (spent, you guessed it, often in central Arkansas on my great-grandparents farm.)
4. Lana was up and down several times last night crying and saying, “ow, ow, owie, ow.” This does not bode well….

Things that don’t suck
1. I am married to a really wonderful man. Seriously, he’s very wonderful. He also makes me laugh, very hard. Sometimes so hard that I spit coffee on him, but, it serves him right if he is going to crack jokes at breakfast. (Big smoochy coffee covered kisses to you, baby.) :-)
2. My kids, they may make me crazy, but, they ARE seriously cute. I will post photographic evidence of this just in case you don’t believe me.
3. It’s possible, even likely, that once the above referenced hockey/event arena is built, I will always have great parking to any major event happening in the city. Which would significantly decrease the suckitude of item number 1 of things that suck, at least in retrospect. I hope hope hope. Also, hey, maybe I could go ice skating on my lunch hour?
4. One of my divorce clients from several months ago, sent me a card in the mail yesterday. It said “Thank you for helping me change my life for the better.” I cried. I cried because so often I feel like my work as an attorney changes people’s lives for the worse (this is kind of the nature of being a lawyer – you often don’t need one until you are already in a bad place), and it was nice to hear that someone felt like I had made things better.

Media things that do not suck, (some of which I am enjoying this week):

1. Bluegrass queen Alison Kraus and Robert Plant (from Led Zeppelin) are doing an album together. It is either going to be awesome or it’s going to suck. I’m batting for not sucking. We’ll find out in October.
2. This album. It is so very far from not sucking that I think I can only describe it as awesomely fabulous. A couple years ago I absolutely loved a song from this artist called Three Days. . Then, about a month ago, I heard a song while listening to Yahoo! Music, and it was so, so good, such a perfect summer song, that I couldn’t stop listening to it. So, I ordered the whole album, and, I am just loving every song. So, if you like rocky-bluesy-country music, I highly suggest you check it. I am particularly haunted by two songs on this album – I’m Trying to Find It and Finder’s Keepers (a duet with Sara Evans).
3. Laurie Notaro. I’ve just discovered this author and she makes me laugh almost as much as Husband does. If she hung around my house I would probably snort coffee all over HER too.

Media things that do suck, but in a good way (i.e. VAMPIRE stuff)

1. HBO is making Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse vampire books into a TV show, called True Blood! And Anna Paquin is playing Sookie!
2. Jason Dohring (yum!), formerly Logan Echolls on Veronica Mars, is playing a VAMPIRE on CBS’s new fall show, Moonlight. . This makes me drool, just a little bit.

That's all for now.

LM