Hanging in there, Exam-Landers?
December 9, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Earlier this week (in the before-midterm-exam times), Polly was a study zombie:
zombiepolly (yes we have been watching thewalkingdead)
If you are heading into an exam week, good luck to you my friends. You can do it! You can only do what you can do, right.
I was done for this batch of midterms as of Thursday night at 9:10pm. To best capture how I felt the morning after that exam before, here is what I emailed to my Dad on Friday. See, I talk to my loved ones in the third person too.
Daddy!!!
Hi!
Yup indeed. It’s all over for another chunk (until the end of April) and it feels good. The last exam was, dare I say, (too?) straightforward and I finished early. I also finished early on Tuesday which means that either: 1) I am super awesome; or 2) I missed something SIGNIFICANT. Obviously, Positive Polly is sticking with the former.
Thus. Me feeling pretty super this am. I was awake at…. wait for it…. THREE AM. But that’s OK. I woke up and reveled in being done and on a holiday (albeit with another three days of work). I also got excited because I have nothing to do this weekend. Not true. Planning Polly has plans. A massage (how extravagant), watching the rest of the “Silk” DVD you guys got me (I LOVE that show, the main lady is super-awesome) and eating some corn-free, bean-rice tortilla chips hot from the oven (I will bring you some to try – they will be cold by then, though).
It’s now 5:06am. I have kick-boxed. As you do. And the kettle just boiled. I have already got back into drinking multiple cups of Tetley every day (the ‘soya’ variety) in anticipation of my homeland culture. Oh the sacrifice.
Bring on the British chunky grilled bacon from the butcher, some egg white scrambles with spinach and maybe a butcher-sourced-sausage or five.
I am so impressed with my own ability to write at 5:06 (now 5:10am), I think I will go post this email on my blog too since it sums up the last week and my present state of being in not-that-brief fashion.
Love you Dad.
See you later? Try mum’s Skype.
Pol
Straighthairsgoofface (a segue)
November 23, 2012 § Leave a Comment
straighthairsgooffacescoop
having straightened her hair for turkey-day,
polly marveled at the accomplishment
While being mindful of the recent U.S. national holiday, Polly wanted to segue back from election-ness to health, law school, and stuff.
Enter the conduit of The Hubby with his spontaneous rendition of a Polly-goof-face.
Thanks for sticking with me and being a shescoops reader, shescoops reader(s). Who knows, I might do something crazy and post again tomorrow soon…
SheCloses & She….
July 15, 2012 § Leave a Comment
…Drives!!!
Polly passed her (what they like to call)* “Behind the Wheel” driving test. So she now drives (legally in a permanent-license-owning sense).
(SheCloses? We – my boss and I – recently finished the fiscal close/year-end process at my work. Polly is tired but we did good! Everything looks balanced and stuff. I like that)
Anyway, back to the bigger news – I passed it, I passed it! (I drove myself to work; aren’t I brilliant).
Hang on, P, couldn’t you drive before? Erm. Yes. And how long have you lived in CA? Since 2002. And you passed your British Driving Test, when? Oh. 1996-ish.
I know, I know. The reason for the delay? The aforementioned British Driving Test. It was terrifying. Passing it was brilliant because I knew I wouldn’t have to repeat the experience. Then I moved to CA and in order to pootle around in cars, I would have to take ANOTHER TEST.
Cut ten years later and I am sitting with a driving test person on my right and doing my best to remember to look EVERYWHERE in EVERY MIRROR and ALL THE TIME.
Turns out, it was a (what my Dad likes to call)* “doddle.” NOTHING like the Brit version. No 3-point turn. No parallel park. No hill start. No reverse-around-a-corner. No Emergency stop. I did have to reverse in a straight line (which I coped with).
Personally, I think he passed me as soon as he realized I could drive (what they like to call)* a “stick shift.” I felt it necessary to tell him that most British cars are manual transmission (unlike the U.S. where it is automatic, automatic, automatic). I don’t like automatics so much (yes I have many reasons but I will spare you).
Happily, we have a “stick shift” (though it took some getting used to since Polly learned to “drive stick” ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CAR and preferred changing gears with her LEFT HAND).
If I had a penny for every time I hit the window while trying to “shift”…..
lefthanddriverighthandgearchange
(Yes. I’d have a handful of pennies).
*brilliant (imo) British humour nugget taken from the lovely Miranda
A Results-Oriented Side-Bar
June 23, 2012 § 2 Comments
I am going for a record brief post today.
Just the facts, ma’am (ish).
Polly, her recent side-kick, Lower-Carb, and the whole ‘why don’t I go to Law School’ thing have some updates.
The blood test results are in; as are my Law School Year One results.
It’s good news.
I am feeling MUCH better; my blood tests have improved rather dramatically; and she scooped it: I passed my first year of law school.
Protein Polly is relieved (so am I).
proteinpolatopherworld
(the not-so-brief-post-ish part: I owe some big posts on a plethora of topics. I continue to dream of a regular and comprehensive blog that provides entertaining nuggets of interesting info interspersed with my husband’s pics. Then reality kicks in. Can’t do everything all the time. Just some things some of the time. All of this is to say, I will be Sporadic Polly Posting until at least August. Right now I am taking a break from my Fourth Draft of my Legal Research Memo on Entrapment; tomorrow, I will be up early for a jog (maybe if I feel like it), then be doing my Professional Responsibility/Legal Ethics reading before heading over to someplace with a big TV to watch England lose on penalties to Italy in the Euro Cup Quarter-Finals (I’m rooting for you England, I love my nation, but experience tells me not to have high expectations..)). Phew. We are all OK, though. Notwithstanding. Finally, I do want to add a big….
….Thanks for sticking with me Peeps of SheScoops Land. I’m talking to you, you readers, you.
A Scoop of TinyTower (app)
June 3, 2012 § Leave a Comment
On a scoop scale of ten; TT gets, well, 9.99 (recurring).
Tiny Tower. The one and only game I play on my iPad. It’s so simple. It’s so strangely satisfying. I have been restocking, personnel managing, constructing and marveling at the cute “bitizens” for MONTHS. Even with lawschool-work-study-exams-work-lawschool-proteinhealthyfatsbutlesscarbseating… (butless carb seating?)
Typical Polly, though, I have recently begun to question it. Why am I so enthralled with you, TinyTower, that I willingly devote 5-10 precious Polly minutes to you on a daily basis?
In essence, I believe it has my game-nerd heart. Those tiny bitizens. They are very endearing in the 8-bit glory AND they wear marvelous outfits to work. I want to be one.
Tiny Polly
There is some nostalgia in my addiction. It brings up memories of my other all-time favourite computer games from yester-year: come back Theme Park (original 1994 edition/PC); Trap Door (ZX Spectrum); Formula 1 (ZX Spectrum); and Nodes of Yesod (ZX Spectrum); those were good times….
There are some who have questioned TinyTower’s underlying philosophy (I read reviews before I “bought it” for FREE). Could that be so? Well. You get to build things. With money. And with the proceeds. You build more things. Get more money. Build more apartments. Rent to more bitizens because you need them to work in your shops and stuff. Evict anyone who is less-than-stellar in their duties.
Are they right? Maybe. I refused to evict anyone initially. Spent a few months with serious under-performers. That has changed significantly in the last month….
Erm. Pol. Power down. You are over thinking this…. It’s OK to just enjoy stuff without delving into an abyss of analysis…
I see. What you are saying is that though it might be a totalitarian regime where the overlord (moi) gets to control everything, is motivated by financial greed and acquiring stuff and which therefore goes against everything I hold dear, I should just shrug and say, “oh well”?
Sure why not. Seems reasonable.
Well. It IS fun for Polly and she knows that over-thinking isn’t always the best plan so onwards, I guess. Helps that I got a Planetarium recently and that you can rename your businesses: my ice cream parlour was inventively retitled: SheScoops.
They have a wiki, it seems: tinytowerwiki.com
Break Taking 101
March 12, 2012 § Leave a Comment
i'mback...polly?
My new weekend sked-oo-lick-ey (a.k.a. ‘schedule’):
Polly + standing at her desk-thing + prepping for classes + non-stop ALL DAY SATURDAY + slight encroachment into Sunday for the 5am to (hopefully-done-by) 10am shift.
Last semester (when I was stressed out), I wasn’t so rigid about powering through all day Saturday but getting the bulk over-and-done-with ASAP is very nice and stress-relieving.
My enclosure-filled-weekend-endurance-race actually starts out with a spell in the great outdoors. Once the sun is up, Polly heads out for her weekly run: a roughly 40 minute endeavour that sees one little British woman jog past beaches with their lapping (sometimes crashing) waves, surfers, cyclists, other runners, little people (a.k.a. ‘kids’) with their families, and the odd doggie. Once that endorphin-exploding ‘jog’ has ended, however (at about 7:40am) – I am inside. For the long-haul. A long INDOOR marathon of sorts…
The recent weekend in question got a bit ugly about 3:30pm on Sunday because I was still head deep in case reviews…. What happened to my lovely changed-up schedule allowing for the critical elements of relaxation and fun? Not sure. Polly got carried away. Polly also went a bit loopy.
On the bright side, a key lesson learned…. get outside at least once a day (otherwise, Polly becomes a metaphor of wall-climbing).
Lost in the Woods?
February 25, 2012 § Leave a Comment
gretelooscoop
Actually, nope. Not a deeply metaphorical blog title. At times in my life, I have certainly felt a bit lost in a ‘seeing no woods due to all the trees type’ situations. I do have a lot going on right now but I am maintaining a degree of perspective. I can sort of see the metaphorical wood. It’s that turning point I mentioned; I’m sustaining it, apparently. The last couple ‘o’ months with old Polly’s new-found calmer attitude. I’m still making sure to enjoy the things I enjoy (husband, family, friends, Law School, striving for some semblance of a healthy life) and aim to say ‘oh well’ when those pesky ‘out of one’s control’ type things show up.
Thus in this instance – we (almost) literally got lost in the woods during our lunch break at work this week….
The Facts: this week, Thursday I think, Polly had the bright idea to head north for our walk into the ‘upper’ part of the work site where there is a wood with lovely paths to explore. Polly thought she knew everything. Knew the way. Had a plan in her head (if we keep going eventually we will circle back to the start just in time to start our afternoon worky-times).
Turns out she was wrong….. got lost…. got nervous…. had visions of trying to explain to our respective bosses where we had been for three days while the paramedics wrapped us in blankets and administered first-aid.
In the meantime, she could hear her husband, only a few feet behind, doing his best to maintain a sense of calm and confidence that we would make it out (wow, I thought, he is so brave). Eventually, she saw road, shouted ‘road, I see road’ and they made it out in one piece (well two pieces: him = one; Polly = one). 12:57pm we got back to the building. Phew. Polly was relieved.
Turned out that husband’s bravery was genuine confidence that he knew where we were and his calm, almost buoyant, attitude had more to do with HOW she made her way through said woods. As in ‘gingerly picking her way through the undergrowth’ (he later did a physical impression).
In my defense, I was in my work clothes, there were actual logs to duck under, and I was multi-tasking (leading the way, planning a bivouac and formulating the aforementioned excuse to our bosses..).
Husband has been calling me versions of ‘Gretel’ ever since.
It’s been Two Months and Twelve Days…
January 22, 2012 § Leave a Comment
….since I have gotten my *&%$ss in gear to scribe taken the time to carefully draft and publish a shescoops post. I shall apologize but only because I am sorry if you have been concerned (or worn your carpet down pacing up and down waiting). We are hanging in there. I do have a new perspective on things. Feel calmer. Enjoying things. Not getting bogged down in poopy things.
Quick housekeeping before I get going again: I am back to including shescoops in my life, not everyday, maybe not every week, but as often as is Polly-ingly-possible. Expect (future) posts to be briefer (law school rubbing off on you, eh?). Not quite. It’s more of wanting to focus on new nugget-sized observations, not just ‘what has Polly self-absorbingly been up to’ stuff. I also have a time problem. Work. Play. School. Food. Exercise. Sleep. Keeps us busy, no? But I enjoy this. I like doing things that are fun. I like musing on things. I usually have something to say (even if it is only to one of my cuddly toys) and I love my husband’s pictures.
Oh, and let me reiterate before you roll your eyes at having to SCROLL DOWN; this will likely be as long a blog post as you are gonna get for the foreseeable future and is entirely for catch-the-shescoopers-up purposes (there are FOUR husband pictures in it for you).
So. These last two months and twelve days….
2011 in a nutshell….
dudee2011
I’m kinda, sorta grateful it’s behind us and we can stick that mark in the sand. It’s been quite a time on a myriad fronts. For so many people I know, love and think about. I turned to my husband recently and said, “I think 2012 might be rather exciting” to which he replied “is that because 2011 was so s&*^%$#t?”
Partly. Can’t lie. But I am an optimist. Call my (a) PollyAnna (but why wouldn’t we call you that? it is your name, hon).
MountFatigue
She scooped it through Semester #1 of Law School (there were a few tears-before-bedtime and she does question her sanity and reasons for attending constantly but she made it. Me and almost all my class-chums). Woo.
capn polly
Spent a lovely couple ‘o’ weeks in England with the family. The time was marked almost in its entirety (when we weren’t eating and giggling at each others silliness) by the stunning, amusing, philosophical, conversation-inspiring, well-acted and thoroughly entertaining Battlestar Gallactica. Box set o-rama (or should it be A-dama…). Didn’t think I would like it. But I did. It ain’t anything like the original series and I have a new swear word.
dudabix
Finally, health-wise, the end of 2011 was a bit of a doozy for both husband and I (and some other lovely people I know, alas). Suffice to say we are sticking on the healthy track and we both have a new (in his case) re- (in my case) found love of those athletic-track shaped cereal biscuits they brandingly call ‘Weetabix.’ It’s one of the most popular breakfast (or anytime, frankly) cereals in England. Pretty much every grocery chain has their own version (I have a penchant for the Co-Op variety and like to destroy their unique shape by using a hot water-soy milk blend that turns it into a claggy mess – just like my Dad does). You can buy them in the US from Trader Joes. We have one down the road. Handy.
Say, if you are a current ‘Wheat Biscuit’ eater, my question of the blog post is for you: because I like a decent sized bowl-full, I genuinely get excited about the last biscuit in the packet because it comes resplendent with extra wheety-dust and fragments of the biscuits that went before it; am I crazy or is this the Wheat-Biscuit-Eater norm?
Self-talk. Helpful or not so much?
November 10, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Well I don’t know about you but it’s been a ‘bit of a time.’
Lots’ going on all round.
In husband and Polly land, that would be IN ADDITION TO Polly’s self-induced Law Schooling.
However, today I am feeling optimistic. Feel free to call me PollyAnna. There is a plethora of contrary evidence to weigh us down but not enough to do us in. We can do it! We are Mighty. And the ‘We’ is for anyone who wants some genuine encouragement. At this point, Polly is relying on her wits to get her through and hoping to encourage her fellow class-mates (and general readership) to do likewise.
DAY AT A TIME PEOPLE.
And when in doubt, Polly does this:
wetscoop
That’s likely why I feel calm for the first time in a while (well, since Tuesday when I last went swimming). I am enjoying the zone of post-swim calm. See. Healthy/Fun things are neat. I don’t often believe my own hype. So I will publish this to remind myself: swim, Polly, and encourage others to find their calm-promoting endeavor. To my faithful SheScoops readership: as I front-crawled my way through the water – I decided to write. We need to encourage ourselves.
Polly, take this as a self-serving post (when don’t I?). Even if you are talking to yourself – that is the frickin’ point. I know you don’t really want to; I know your brain comes a little wired to knock yourself down but stop it. Stop it. Stop it. We can do it. Yes we can.
Polly v. Unpreparedness
October 22, 2011 § Leave a Comment
I know. You don’t need to say anything. I am sorry. I am back. I am fine. We are fine (the ‘Royal We’).
Polly v. Unpreparedness (Cal, Law School Week 10, October 2011)
FACTS: Wednesday night, P (for Polly not Plaintiff) showed up to her thri-weekly Legal Writing class relatively unprepared (reading done but writing out the homework assignment just ‘didn’t happen’ for myriad reasons but since we always discussed them in class, I was only marginally concerned about the lack of prep). Thus hoping to ‘wing it’ on the homework; I showed up to learn that we had been asked last time to write up, print out and turn in, the assignment. What the?! Where was I when that was decreed? Oh. In the room, apparently. Just spaced it. What a horrible feeling enveloped me. I was tired. I was overwhelmed and the camel’s proverbial back had a piece of straw dangerously near. I apologized to our lovely instructor who didn’t seem overly concerned, but still, I felt like a silly head. It stressed Polly out.
ISSUE: in moments of stress relating to breaches of one’s personal responsibilities; how should one react? Choice between: 1) giggling, genuinely apologetic, humour-filled ‘oh well’s or; 2) abject panic?
RULE: it’s much healthier to be effected by the jester of reality-based humour than it is to succumb to the tears-before-bedtime approach.
HOLDING: On Wednesday, I nearly cried. Overwhelm encroached and I was seemingly defenseless. By the end of class, I had had an epiphany. Do what you can do, Polly; be honest when you stumble, but maintain the humour.
REASONS/POLICIES: suffice to say that I was tested on my new theory on Thursday night when I arrived at my Criminal Law class to discover we were to do an ‘essay test’ question on homicide. Having spent that weeks’ Crim Law reading times preparing to be one of the ‘student’s of the night’ on the topics of Battery and Assault; I had not given time to getting the special nuggets of 1st Degree, 2nd Degree, and Manslaughter concepts cemented in the noggin. Taking my lead from the previous night’s debacle; I saw the humour. What can you do, eh?
laughclownlaugh
