Policies for People Like Me

This morning as I was driving back to Stillwater (following a fabulous vacation to Cancun that I will post about shortly!), I heard this little blurb on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/07/137668664/friends-dont-let-friends-drink-and-buy-puppies

Don't get me wrong, I have great friends. I have friends who patiently watch time and time again as I run away from them mid-sentence to chase random, adorable puppies. And they listen to my entire "woe is me, why can't my lifestyle support a dog" soliloquy that I'm sure they heard 100 times before. But sober me appreciates that this pet shop refuses to sell puppies to drunk people--all of the solid advice from my great friends would most certainly fly out the window if I ran into a little, tail-wagging Tom Collins on the way home from the bars!

Anywayyy, I thought I would dedicate today's post to my best (four-legged) friend, Louis Bojangles.

He is my family's 10 year old golden retriever; I get to see him tomorrow and I'm so excited! Bo loves my mom best, but I like to think I'm a close second. When he was a puppy, my sister and I would put him on the floor in between us and say "come to the one you love most!" Ever the diplomat, he would alternate who he snuggled first before waddling over to the next sibling.

Dogs make me so happy, I really can't wait until I can take care of one on my own. My aforementioned friends remind me that it's a lot of work, "almost like having a child", blah, blah. Very true. But I'd like to think a dog would help me get through law school and pass the bar without having a nervous breakdown.

We'll see. Of late I've really become enamored with Shetland Sheepdogs--so smart and their medium size would maybe be ok for life in a big city? In any case, I hope my future dog loves ice as much as Bo does!

When life hands you lemons...

Add gin, sugar, and club soda. And, if necessary, seek legal advice (but not from me).

Ta da! Life-0; Tom Collins - 1.

And with that piece of delicious, but hopefully non-dependency-forming advice, welcome to my blog! With the huge changes approaching my life in T-minus 6 weeks, I figured that now was the perfect time to take the plunge and start blogging. Hopefully I can keep this up after I start law school...

Please bear with me as I navigate the structure and content of my site--suggestions and tips are always welcome! I am technologically-challenged to say the least. But in any case, I anticipate this being a place for me to keep friends and family updated on my life and vice versa, with random links, poems, book reviews, recipes, and pictures of puppies thrown in from time to time.

Soo, to describe the past 3 years in a paragraph:

I graduated from the University of Kansas in 2008 with my BA in political science and economics. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! After a brief (but wonderful) stint working for the Democratic National Committee in DC, I enrolled in the political science master's program at Oklahoma State University. I just turned in my thesis examining NGO engagement in civil war peace processes, hallelujah! Hopefully, hopefully I will defend it soon and get on with enjoying my summer. Graduate school has been a great intellectual challenge for me and I've grown to love Stillwater very much--Go pokes! It was with great hesitation that I decided to attend law school instead of going on for a PhD, but I'm growing more and more comfortable with this career change every day. This summer I have been reading a ton, going to concerts, tanning by the pool and hanging out at Keystone lake. Not a bad way to spend a summer, right? I'm not sure what the next year has in store for me, but I'm looking forward to the adventures that await.

Until next time, peace!