North Maple Rag

So, I turned 26 on Wednesday (that's right, 26 on the 26th!). As far as birthdays go, it was pretty mundane. It was certainly better than my 22nd (attended my aunt's funeral) but not as exciting as my 23rd (first trip to NYC). I spent most of the day studying for today's constitutional law exam and to be honest, that wasn't so bad. Con law was one of the best classes I've ever taken and sorting out the details in my head this past week was a worthwhile endeavor. The test today was fine . . . I'm not sure I was brilliant, but I'm quite certain I was competent.

Tonight, I'm going out and tomorrow, I begin the deathmarch toward finals #2 and #3.

First, a quick note about me and books. I love 'em. Always have, hopefully always will. And, for a long time, my favorite books were mysteries. I loved Nancy Drew, dabbled with the Hardy Boys, held Encyclopedia Brown books up to mirrors to find out if I'd correctly solved the puzzles, and was thrilled when Ann M. Martin started writing a mystery series to accompany the Babysitter's Club books. I think everyone who reads a lot as a kid has books that stay with them and that pop into their heads at odd moments. The Westing Game, a quirky and dark mystery that I loved circa 5th grade, is one of those books for me. During high school and college, I managed to work my way through many mystery series. Even today, despite the fact that my reading tastes have become nothing short of eclectic, I still get excited about new books from my favorite mystery authors (Julia Spencer-Fleming, K.J. Erickson, Marcia Muller & Earlene Fowler) and find the time to reread the best of Dorothy Sayers every summer.

Now, keep that background in mind when I tell you that last night I foolishly popped the first disc from Season 1 of Veronica Mars into my DVD player. It was close to 3am and I had planned to watch the pilot episode as I fell asleep. Four episodes later, I turned off the tv and fell asleep as the sun rose over New York. I'm addicted.

I've written before about my fear of big fish, specifically big catfish. Then today, while catching up on South Dakota Magazine's blog, I learned that my own Lake Kampeska (just a couple miles from my house) was once home to a lake monster. They think it was a lake sturgeon -- a species of fish that can grow to 1600 pounds. I grew up swimming in that lake! Ew. Never again.

My weekend: Sick, sick, sick. Study, study, study. I had some ice cream Friday night and I bought a new suit on Sunday. Those were the highlights of the weekend. Oh, and Grey's Anatomy was a rerun.

I stayed up late last night, partly because I was trying to finally finish a draft of my note and partly because I drank more Diet Dr. Pepper than anyone ever should in one sitting. Staying up late wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't volunteered to play in a softball tournament today. By 9am, I was headed to the first game.

The games were actually a lot of fun. I haven't played any softball in two years or so and since I'm generally pretty clumsy and un-athletic, it was nice to remember that there's at least one sport where I don't usually embarass myself. The games ended around 3:30 (we won!) and after a getting some food I headed back to my apartment. I then putzed and watched tv for at least four hours.

What all that means is that it's now almost 1am and I'm still working on this damn note. I've got a couple more pages to write before I can go to sleep and once again I'm running almost solely on Diet Dr. Pepper. The good news is that I can sleep in tomorrow morning. The bad news is that I'm not sure how reliable any legal analysis is that's written by someone who's awake only because of diet pop and iTunes (Bedouin Soundclash saw me through the last hour and I'm currently relying on Arcade Fire).