There are some things that I just can NOT live with during periods of high stress. The first being dishes piled up in the kitchen. It makes my skin crawl to see a mountain of dishes sitting in or near the sink for no good reason other than my husband and I being too lazy to put them in the dishwasher. My stress level is getting up there, so I knew I had to take care of our disaster of a kitchen before I could make any progress in study department.
Once the kitchen was clean, however, two large mounds of laundry began to taunt me. One pile was clean, but had yet to be folded and put away. The second was dirty and was beginning to take up the majority of carpet space in our room. I just couldn't handle the mess, so I took care of the laundry too.
At that point, I noticed that the sun was shinning. It had been weeks since my last comfortable outdoor run, so I decided to put in a quick three miles. I've heard that exercising reduces stress and that exercising outdoors is even better. That was SOOOOO not the case today.
Feeling the sun on my face was amazing. Running in the road with traffic while dodging distracted drivers was awful. My stress levels did not dip at all during this run. If anything, I developed two new serious grievances. The first is against Spokanistan. Although the streets are mostly clear of snow at the moment, the sidewalks cease to exist. The snowplows have successfully buried the sidewalks under a good foot of snow/ice, meaning that pedestrians must walk on the shoulder of the road with traffic. Pardon me for being persnickety, but did you not pass an ordinance, City-O-Spokanistan, requiring that "Owners and occupants of premises shall keep the sidewalk areas adjacent to any portion of the real property (including corners) free and clear of snow and/or accumulations of snow or ice?" (Spokane Municipal Code 12.02.010). I do believe this would require you, dear city of mine, to ensure that the sidewalks in front of the city owned soccer fields are clear.
I can imagine that shoveling sidewalks is a pain, but it is required by law and it is just the right thing to do. During my run, I passed a number of individuals trying to get to a bus stop who decided that they'd rather walk in traffic than risk a broken neck from walking on the ice path formerly known as the sidewalk. I can't say I blame them. After a few near wipe-outs, I gave up on the side walks and ran on the road as well.
This leads me to my second grievance: distracted mother drivers. I had to jump up on the ice covered curb not once, but TWICE due to female drivers turning to pay attention to something happening in the backseat of their cars instead of paying attention to where they were going. If they are going to outlaw cellphone use while driving even though the driver is perfectly capable of keeping both eyes on the road while making a call, then I firmly believe that small children should also be banned from vehicles unless there is a second adult present who can attend to their needs. If your child isn't choking, I think they will survive with out your attention until you get to your Mommy-and-Me Play Date.
I studied for a few hours when I got back. There are a TON of rules to memorize for my next exam and I'm not certain I'll be prepared to know them all by Friday morning. It doesn't help when the professor lets you know in advance that her tests are so hard that the highest scoring person will likely only answer 50% of the questions correctly. Great.
The organization I've been volunteering with this semester held its annual fundraiser tonight. They hosted a benefit performance of White Christmas and a beautiful reception. I arrived a few hours before the performance to help set up and I watched the first act, but I decided to head home at intermission. The show was spectacular, but I could hardly enjoy it while the exceptions to the hearsay rule kept popping into my head. Darn you law school!!!
Tomorrow will be a total marathon memorization session to see how much info I can cram into my brain. Thankfully, I've already erased most of what I learned in Con Law so there should be some spare room. Have a great night!
No comments:
Post a Comment